Thankful. Oh.So.Thankful. (GIVEAWAY!)

(the Thanksgiving spread at my friend Robin's house - so yummy!)

I have been doing some real soulful thinking lately --- about what this past year has brought me and my family --- and about all the amazing blessings in our lives. And this kind of thinking is very good therapy for the seasonal-affect crud that I go through at the start of these all too short days. Life is good --- even when its not. The old adages about counting your blessings have become more than just overused quotes for me now. I am beginning to "get it". Life is so good when you take deep look at all the beauty that surrounds you.

So, if you will join me, I would like to share some of the blessings of this past year with you and I invite you to do the same.

In no particular order ...

...but this one being the most important of all ...

* Meg has moved in with us for good. Amen x infinity. This is the greatest blessing to ever happen to our family --- and I hope it is true for her as well. She is safe, loved, supported, and she is family now. Truly. We could not even begin to tell you how thankful we are for her. And how very proud.

* Isaac's biological relations were found safe after the horrible quake in Haiti. What an incredible blessing. After all the devastation and loss of life in that country - we were able to locate the Metellus family and help them in whatever ways we could.

* Because of this dog, this dog and this fundraiser --- I have made the most incredible lifelong friends. I could have never imagined being so greatly blessed with the bounty of friends that I have now --- and I am so incredibly grateful! All my peeps at the Bangor Humane Society are such amazing blessings --- as well as all my "downtown" peeps --- my clients --- my mommy friends, my crafting friends, etc. Such a blessing to be surrounded by wonderful people.

* My dream of becoming a professional photographer has been realized. Studio 36 is a dream come true ... and within one year has become so successful that we needed a bigger, better location! It is still a long way from paying all the bills. But I am blessed by the clients who have come into my life, by doing what I love and by the growth potential of the biz.

* This past year has been a healthy one for all. How awesome is that!?

* Uncle Jamie got married. And Isaac was over the moon that he was the "ring master". It was a lovely day ... a beautiful, enchanting ceremony ... and a fresh start to my brother's life.

* We got a kitty! And I love her. Big. Much.

* Disney World! We were blessed with a hard earned trip to DisneyWorld! Ahhh --- the memories are simply awesome. I love that place. So magical. So family oriented. When I think of it, I have this intense urge to go back --- but also this calming, joyful sensation that I have experienced some wonderful things there. (Of which I have yet to post on this blog --- I am so behind in my posts!). And Isaac got to meet Spiderman. For real. So totally cool.

* Love. I --- we --- are blessed by the love in our family on a daily basis. Our little foursome has its ups and downs --- but we are so in love with one another. That is so worth waking up for :)

How about you??? Please leave a comment on the blog about what you are thankful for from this past year.

Heck - let's make this into a giveaway! Post your thankful thought and I will draw a random winner from your messages to receive a gift from my shop.

Thank you for reading!

Love,

Jodi

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Freebie/ giveaway alert no 2!

As I promised in the weekend, as we don't have a crafty giveaway this month, I've decided to share with you the giveaways happening at our favourite blogs, online magazines and online stores, so you can see what we're reading, entering and buying...

In my first post it was a free downloadable alphabet poster promoted by online magazine Baby Bites, and a competition at Holly Chic Baby online store. This time I want to alert you to CoolCrib's groovy little baby shoes discount, and the competitions over on Kiwi Mummy blogs.

CoolCrib does the most amazing little soft shoes made from designer fabrics just like our creations. We recently entered an 'Amy Butler' project competition with other designer fabric lovers around the world together and lots of people commented on how much they loved CoolCrib's shoes. She has recently launched a new range in 100% organic cotton and has a groovy discount going where if you follow her on facebook you get 20% off. Yay! (I need to get a special 12-18 month size as my bubba is still bum-shuffling, not walking yet).

CoolCrib's shoes were also the prize up for grabs last week on Kiwi Mummy Blogs - the FANTASTIC blog site where all the mums in New Zealand contribute their posts and we all get to keep in touch with what happens in every day Kiwi families around the country. Maybe that's how we discovered you, and you discovered us. Either way, we love this site. This week the giveaway is for a gorgeous lap quilt from Vintage Mum/Modern Child, another blog we follow. Join up and maybe you'll win!

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Freebie alert...

When packing up the awesome Christmas giveaway prize for our winner Rochelle last week (see the picture here- so yummy scrummy!) it dawned on me that we don't have a giveaway set up for this month and December.

So I thought a cool way to end the year and thank you for your support reading our blog was to compile as many 'freebie' or giveaway alerts as I can - so you can find out more about the blogs we read, the websites we follow, the online magazines we love, and the crafters we deal with....let us know if you have good reading sites too!

The first 'freebie' alert is this awesome alphabet print picked out by my editor on Babybites this week: as you know we LOVE letters and typography around here and this is a very stylish free print you can download in a range of colours. The teal is making its way onto my baby's bedroom wall this weekend!

The first 'giveaway' alert I have to tell you about is over at Holly Chic Baby - my first retailer of the lily pads, and also the online store of my lovely sister-in-law, Keri. To enter you simply tell her on her facebook page which two products in her whole store that you'd like to win. You have until the end of the month! (PS, she still has some of my lily pads on there...last few!).

Another installment of freebies soon!!!

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Christmas giveaway winners announced!

I was very excited tonight to be able to sit down and draw the winners for our Christmas Santa Sack giveaway this month just now, using the random draw function on http://www.random.org/ .

Compiling the 109 entries was a mammoth task - thank you, thank you, to everyone who shared our giveaway with others on their blogs or facebook, and received their 'five' entries. Turns out, somehow it must help as our two winners both had five entries each.

The winner of the OTLP Secret Santa Pack is: Lady Chelini!

The runner-up winner of the Songbird Designs 6x card pack is: Kriss!

Please email me ladies when you see this message to talk and claim your prizes!

It was truely heart-warming to read all your cool messages about what you liked best about Christmas. I thought it only fair for us to share our own stories about what we like best about Christmas.

I LOVE Christmas for two reasons. One is because my Mum has always made Christmas so special and so caring for my sisters and myself: the thought that goes into her presents, many of which are handmade, always delights me. She stores things away for months. She also lovingly made us three girls gorgeous heirloom stockings when we were born, that she still fills today (and I'm 33!), and she now has made more for all six of her grandchildren. I love you Mum! xoxo

Secondly, I love Christmas because it's also my husband's birthday, and his Dad's too. They are wonderful people with hearts of gold and I love that we get to celebrate with my husband all day, focusing on Christmas for the kids in the morning, and birthday dinner and cake for my hubbie at night. I love you Mr! xoxo

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Choose your own prize! October secret santa giveaway

***GIVEAWAY CLOSED NOV 2010***

We love Secret Santa packages around here – good things come in small packages, and even more delightful things come in ones that package together lots of handmade goodies!

This month we’re offering a massive giveaway of ‘On Top of a Lily Pad’ (OTLP) products. It’s our biggest giveaway yet! More than $NZ70.00 worth of Christmas handmade goodies of your choice of colour, size, and appliqué, choosing from:

• Any of our Christmas Card Keeper pinboards;
• Any appliquéd design on a lovely cherry red Topography t-shirt (any size);
• Any Christmas Stocking Decoration, with your choice of appliqué and colour;
• Two gorgeous handmade OTLP Christmas Cards.

Imagine your children’s delight this Christmas when you go all out to bring back traditional Christmas cheer – in a stylish, modern way, using 100% cotton designer fabrics in the latest home decor trends. Will you go with all red polka dots, in an Amy Butler tribute? Or will you use a vintage style pattern....or a vibrant green as your theme?

We also want to encourage you to teach your children about the gift of giving at Christmas – by getting them involved in writing Christmas Cards. As well as drawing a winner of our $70.00 prize pack, we will draw a ‘runners-up’ prize – this lucky person will win a set of six Christmas cards designed by the lovely Sarah at Songbird Designs. Ultra modern and stylish, these quality cards are among some of the range pictured on my Christmas Card Keepers and are eye-catching and stylish! The timing to win these gives you plenty of time to make the international postage cut-off date for this year of November 29^th (Australia) and November 22 (rest of world).

(As an additional offer, I’ll send out a handmade Christmas Card to the children of every person who buys a Christmas Card Keeper between now and Christmas – ‘from Secret Santa’ – to get your board started looking full and busy.)

Our giveaway competition is open from now until the end of October, 2010, and closes at 5pm Monday Nov 1, 2010. The winners (both the main prize and Songbird Designs’ card pack winner ) will be drawn by random.org .

Please note: due to the weight of the pinboard, and size, this competition is only open to NZ and Australian readers. Sorry!

HOW TO ENTER:

There’s two ways to enter our giveaway:

• For 1x entry, join our blog’s mailing list (see left hand column), or our facebook pages (see left hand column), AND leave a comment on this post with your favourite thing about Christmas (current followers just need to leave a comment below)
  
• For 5x entries, re-post about our giveaway on your blog or facebook page, AND tell us you have done this via a post below.

All entries must be recorded before 5pm Nov 1.

Good luck!!!

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Pamper Pack Giveaway Winners!

Thank you so much for the lovely comments on our giveaway, they really bring back memories of the great kiwi summer!


Adding our blog followers, email subscribers and commenters together, there were 63 entries, and the winner (thanks to www.random.org) is #45...   k.thomas!


We thought the comments were so sweet that we have added a bonus draw just for them, congratulations to Annelies (who was actually an International entry, welcome!) "A favorite memory...when the bitty grocery store on our corner lost their electricity and they invited all the neighborhood kids to come eat ALL the ice cream. Now that was one fun day!!!!"


Annelies has won a Topography Mini Stocking of her choice, more info on our Christmas products and our next (huge!) giveaway very soon...

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Giveaway - Say Hi and you could win a Pamper Pack!

Spring is really here (finally!) and we are celebrating the change of season with a quick giveaway - some treats for the bathroom including some very flash tweezers, manicure accessories, a cleansing mitt, a pumice brush... and even some 'Botty Balm' for baby!

To enter, just leave a comment below about your favourite childhood memory of summer, or what you like about our blog, or something you would like us to blog about over summer... or just say hello!

Our lovely blog followers automatically have an entry but get an extra entry for leaving a comment too  :)

Entries close 10pm Thursday night (NZ time) and a winner will be chosen by random.org

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Happy Monday (Evening).

Hi all. Thank you so much for the lovely Birthday wishes and comments this week. You guys rock. It was a great week, but ended with a creepy-crud type virus spreading through our house. We are all on the mend now though :)

As for the winner of my Birthday giveaway ... it is "Sarah" ... hooray! Her comment read: "Hi Jodi - A friend passed along your "blog" to me. Have been enjoying your observations and photos. Especially enjoyed your scenes and text of Belfast Harbor this past summer. Belfast was very different when I grew up there. Am happy for it's transformation. Thanks for sharing your eye for beauty with the rest of us!" Well, thank-you to Sarah's friend for sharing this blog ... and thanks to Sarah for stopping by now and again to share in it. Please send me your address asap so I can send you some Very Merry Un-Birthday Goodies!

As for the rest of you ... how about treating yourself to an some handmade organic cotton shirts over at EatMoreKale.com. Bo is offering an incredible sale to his Facebook friends ... and I am going to pass it on to you as well. On his fan page, he wrote: order a shirt from my site get another free just for asking. order two shirts and request two free shirts of your choice. order three shirts and get three more for free. etc. 2 for 1...4 for 2....6 for 3. offer good for a little while. Hop on it if you want a "facebook" special. Seriously, check it out. I am thinking of ordering a few for Christmas presents!

Oh, and if you are in the market for even more handmade Holiday gifts ... I am custom making some personalized tote bags right now. Maybe you want to check those out too :)

I hope you are all well. My illness has kept me home crafting some ... so I hope to share some crafty goodness with you all soon. Just need to take some pics...

Chat with you soon.

xo

Jodi

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Reading to Tame the "Grumpies" : A Giveaway!

What do you do to satisfy a grumpy little fireman?

I'll tell you ... You read him so many fun books at your local bookstore, that it gets him reading them too --- even to the point where he ignores all the toys around him and goes for the books!


And what sort of reading changed his mood? The Grouchy Ladybug, SkippyJon Jones, and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat. From whining to laughing in no time.

And here is what we picked up for YOU!


A classic. Want it? Just leave a message on this post and I may be sending it to you and your favorite little ones. That's it. Just say "hi".

Thanks. Happy Reading.

Love,
Jodi

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Just When I Thought Life Couldn't Get Any Better ... (A Giveaway)...

Have I told you already that there is a Toy Story 3 coming out next year? I seem to be telling everyone. We are huge fans of Pixar ... and especially of the Toy Story films ... and every one of us is looking forward to seeing Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the gang again. So, if you haven't heard the "buzz" (pun intended) surrounding this upcoming movie ... check this out:

And to celebrate this momentous occasion (okay - so the movie is still a year away ...) I am going to host a Toy Story giveaway. The prize will be kept secret (for now) and here is how you enter : Tell us one of your favorite lines from Toy Story 1 or 2. Leave it in the comment section of this post via the blog (not Facebook or Twitter). And be sure to include your current e-mail address so I can contact you if you are the lucky winner!

Share the Toy Story love my friends.

Love,

Jodi

P.S. Entries will be accepted till midnight Sept. 6th. Winner announced Sept. 7th.

P.P.S. If you cannot remember a particular line, please share something you love about the Toy Story movies, or some other related tidbit :) All comments will be welcome and entered into the drawing!

UPDATE: Here is the picture of what is being given away ... a handmade Toy Story journal made from an upcycled Golden Book. For details see here.

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A Little Incentive.

Thank you to those who have pledged their donation to my (our) current Haitian Roots campaign. I am hoping that together - we can sponsor 9 (or more!) Haitian children to attend school this year.

As an incentive for your participation, I am offering one of my handmade journals to the first, tenth and twentieth donors (maybe more as we go along). I have already contacted the first generous donor. She will be receiving The Tortoise and The Hare upcyled Golden Book journal.

How about you? Please consider sending a check for as little as $1. A little bit goes a long way in Haiti. And you may win a prize for doing so :)

Interested? Please read this post to find out more.

Thank you.

xo,
Jodi

P.S. I have posted some of my Belfast, Maine photos here. More to come.

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And the Winner Is:

Congratulations "Mommacole" ... who said: "The he-man buttons rock but I am going with the Shy Little Kitten upcycled journal. Very sweet!"

Please contact me for info on how to redeem your $30 Gift Certificate. And THANK YOU to all who participated!

Also, I have been adding some fun pins to my shop offerings. These Calvin & Hobbes are my new faves:

Oh, and FYI: I used Random.org to pick the winner of this giveaway.

Have a great day.

Love,
Jodi

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A Boy, His Dog & His Fish.

Doesn't my boy look so content? I love that look.

Please don't forget to sign up for my $30 Etsy Shop Anniversary Giveaway! And be sure to check out the shop for a $10 Anniversary Sale. As always, thank you for your support.

Lots of Love,

Jodi

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My Etsy Shop: 2nd Anniversary Giveaway!

(Pirate Pillows - my first etsy sale)

Two years ago this week, I began selling some of my handmade goodies on some new online "thingy" called Etsy. Now, Etsy itself is well-known and booming ... my sales have been steady both online and off ... my customers have been so friendly & generous ... I have made numerous treasured purchases from fellow sellers ... and I am ready to celebrate the success of it all with a giveaway!

I am giving away a $30 Gift Certificate to my shop!

And here is how it will work:

1. Please go to my Etsy shop. Take a peak around. Find something you like.

2. Come back to this post and make a comment (see below) about the item that you most like and why.

3. You will then be entered in the giveaway. Winner will be randomly selected on Wed. March 4th at noon EST.

BUT ... you can also earn extra entries if you do any of the following:

1. Follow this blog (see lower right) and earn an extra 5 entries into the drawing.

2. E-mail this post to at least 3 of your friends (cc me at jrenshaw@hotmail.com) and earn an extra 3 entries.

3. Make a purchase from the shop during the giveaway week and earn an extra 10 entries.

4. Blog about this giveaway (put link in comments section of this post) and earn an extra 5 entries.

Sound like fun?

ALSO ... please note that I will be giving away a handmade quilt soon as well ... in honor of a charity. Stay tuned to this blog for details.

Good Luck and Have a Wonderful Day.

Love,

Jodi

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The 100 Sales Giveaway!

Thank you all for your support of my shop over these past few months!

I am now happy to say that I have reached over 100 sales ... which seems like a nice "landmark" to celebrate. So, I am offering up one of my Upcycled Golden Book Journals AND one of my Magnet Sets for giveaway grabs to one lucky winner. Your choice from my shop. A value of $22. Shipping included.

Here are the ways in which you can enter the drawing:

1. Leave a comment on this post and receive 1 entry into the drawing.

2. Mention my giveaway on your blog and receive 2 additional entries. Include the URL to your blog in a seperate comment on this post.

3. Join "Follow This Blog" (right sidebar of blog) and receive 5 additional entires. Just leave a seperate comment that says you have joined.

4. If you are already a Follower of this blog, please mention so in a seperate comment and receive 2 additional entries.

5. Make a purchase from my shop within the giveaway period and receive 10 additional entries! Let me know what you purchased in a seperate comment on this post.

I will draw the winner on November 27th (Thanksgiving Day). Good Luck and thank you for all your support. You guys rock!

Love,

Jodi

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Halloween 2008. (Oh, and another giveaway!)

The Jack-O-Lantern:

The Costume:


The Trick-or-Treating:


The "After-Party":

Wondering about the "After-Party"? Well, my Dad won us a couple of tickets to Stephen King's annual Halloween Screening at the local cinema. Every year at Halloween, Stephen and his radio station put on a bit of a party at the Bangor Mall Cinemas. They give out bags of Stephen King treats ... some signed copies of his books (if you are lucky) ... and some signed memorabilia (if you are very lucky). We were not so lucky ... but we did get a couple of fun goody bags ... and we'd like to share them with some other Stephen King fans. So, if you would like to win the above pictured goodies, please leave a comment on this post.

Winner will receive the hardcover copy of Four Past Midnight, our ticket to the event, and 3 WKIT pins from Stephen King's local radio station.

The lucky winner will be randomly chosen at midnight on Sunday, Nov. 9th.

We hope you all had a happy and slightly spooky Halloween!

Love,

Jodi

P.S. The movie that was shown at the Stephen King party was The Mist. Let me just say, I do not recommend this movie to Mommies. I cried at the end and left with a terrible feeling in my gut. Before I was a Mommy, I might have thought the movie was gripping and interesting. But as Isaac's Mommy, I found it heartbreaking. Just an FYI to my Mommy friends.

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#08 and a Giveaway!

The above shot (my new fave) serves as my second entry in the Digital Photography School Scavenger Hunt . This fits category #8: Candid Portrait. It was taken at the Bangor Raceway this past Saturday (just as my first entry was).

Are any of you giving this scavenger hunt some thought? Please share your entry links here. So much fun.

ALSO ... I am so happy to share with you all that On The Dot Creations is hosting a giveaway from my etsy shop. We are giving away a sweet $25 Gift Certificate to my shop. This is my first "cross promotional" giveaway and I am very excited to see what traffic this may draw to my shop. So, head on over there to enter. And Good Luck!

As for today's Holiday Gifting Tip, you may want to check out this awesome tutorial: Quick Monogrammed Tutorial Gift by Nina Makes. So many uses!

Enjoy your day.

Love,

Jodi

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More Fall Giveaways.

I'd love to begin posting other bloggy giveaways as a weekly feature of this blog. I'll do the research on "who" is giving away "what" ... and you just need to follow the links to the goodies. Sound good? Please let me know what you think in the comments section.

And here are this weeks giveaways:

Little Secrets Locket Bracelet by Out of the Blue

"MomSpit" by Momma in Flip Flops 2

Palin / Biden Debate Mugs by Our Name is Blog

Vintage Halloween Goodies by Vintage Trifles

TTV Art Photo Sets by Crafty Ninja

Good Luck!

Love,

Jodi

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Giveaways!

The blogging world is full of free giveaways these days - in efforts to gain more readership - or to promote products. They are everywhere. Some are truly tacky, while others are lovely. I thought I would gather a few here for you all to take part in. Most of the time, all you need to do to enter is to leave a comment on their blog. You don't even need to add an address as they will simply contact you via e-mail (don't forget to leave your e-mail address) to ask for your home address once you win.

I once won a giveaway here and I absolutely loved it! She sent me a handmade teddy bear and lots of other goodies. (Thanks again Paula).

So, have at it ... here are a few ...

Screenhead : Flash of Genuis Posters

Centsible Mommy: Toilet Tatoos

Apron Memories : Patriotic Apron

The Giveaway : Nursing Mom's Starter Kit

Pet Haven : San Disk 4GB

The Opinionated Parent : Rock Daddy Rock CD

Mama's Losing It : Hoover Vacuum Cleaner

Red Sox Mommy : Hip-T

Good Luck All!

Love,

Jodi

P.S. Leave a comment here about which of the above giveaways you really hope to win .... and I will be offering a little giveaway of my own. Please leave your comment by October 1st. I will draw a random winner to receive one of my handmade goodies! Don't forget to leave me your e-mail address.

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A Beautiful Slip of the Camera.

Sometimes I work so hard to take the "best possible" photos ... that I neglect to see the beauty in my photographic "mistakes". This became clear to me when I was searching out a photo for today's blog post. I simply wanted to announce the winner of the "Name This Photo Giveaway" ... and to find a photo that would somehow connect to the giveaway photo:

I must have deleted a hundred "ho-hum" photos from my hard drive in the process of searching out a photo that would fit today's intended agenda. Then I saw this one:

And it spoke to me in a new way. I was just about to delete it when I noticed that it held some unexpected and unintended beauty. This photo was a total accident ... it was a slip of the camera ... and with a few Photoshop fixes ... I have come to love it. So, I will try to remember that beautiful, captivating images cannot always be captured by strict adherence to method and process ... sometimes they just happen ... and they are all the more beautiful because of it. (That goes for SO much else in our lives, doesn't it?).

Anyhow, I am not certain how that thought ties into the announcement of the winning title for the giveaway contest ... but without further ado ... here is the moment that some of you have been waiting for ... the winning title of the toy boat photo is ... "Ti Bato Yo" submitted by Chapter Two Manmi . The title is in Creole and translates to "Little Boats" (it is pronounced "Tsee BAH-toe Yoh."). I just love it.

So, Thank You K! And I look forward to sending you a reward for your submission.

All the title offerings were great ... and I hope to do this again. You guys are so much fun :) Thank you for participating.

Enjoy your weekend ... with all its beautiful "mistakes" ... Talk to ya on Monday.

Love,
Jodi

P.S. My husband just told me that he finds the bubble photo "creepy" and "a little spooky". Hmm. Everyone's a critic!

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