Yippeee, Yahoooo and Thanks!!

Hi friends! I am absolutely thrilled to announce I won 3rd place in the Layla Grayce/Olioboard/ Jonathan Adler Design Your Dream Room contest!! Remember, I shared my boards with you here and begged asked kindly for your vote. So I am here to THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH if you voted for me!! I can't tell you how exciting it was to hear I had even made it into the top 25 boards out of 380 entries, not to mention the fact that JONATHAN ADLER himself judged this contest which means he was looking at my work!! AND HE LIKED IT!! Allow me my Sally Field moment here....."He liked me....He really liked me!" Haha...ok, so that's a little dramatic and I don't usually get star struck but I do think he is a really groovy, cool dude and I really admire his work (I have his books!)and I AM soooo tickled to think he was looking at and liking my board! Color me HappyChic! They announced it this morning on the Olioboard  facebook page and at the Layla Grayce contest page....here are a few links to the fun.....

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.549080015118198.146602.118648364828034&type=1
http://expressyourstyle.laylagrayce.com/contests/2-design-your-dream-living-room-contest

I would post pics but I'm getting that pesky "you have used your storage space for images" notice on google....looks like I now either have to pay or move to a wordpress format....:-\

Anyway, thanks again if you voted and don't forget the Nursery Dream Room contest is currently running. You can see and vote for my board here. THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT!

New Round of Voting at Layla Grayce

The Layla Grayce "Design Your Dream Room" contest is now in the third phase of voting and for the next two weeks, it's all about Dream Nurseries. I am done having kids, but this would have been a fun thing to have back when I had mine, although I never really did a true nursery as neither of my kids ever slept in a crib....seems like they went from babies to toddlers very quickly, so a nursery never materialized. Anyway, I had fun creating what 'might' have been my dream nursery and hey, there's always grandkids....but not for a while yet!!

As always, I would really appreciate your vote!! Thanks to all of you, I made it into the top 25 out of 380 entries (13th and 15th) with my last submissions for the Dream Living Room phase, and they choose from the top 25 to select a first, second and third place winner! They haven't announced winners for that phase yet, keeping fingers crossed! So please consider voting for me in this round too! I thank you immensely!

World Music

This is new and interesting.........

Read about it here

Target Missed: No Nate on the Shelves

All across blogland, for the past six months, we have all been hearing and celebrating the hype surrounding the launch of the Nate Berkus for Target collection, set to launch YESTERDAY Oct. 21st. At 10:00 AM, I drove to my nearest Target (a Super Target, mind you) soooo excited to see the new collection, take pics and blog my heart out about it.....only to find.....NOTHING!! There was no sign of Nate anywhere in the store. I just knew that couldn't be right, they probably had some big fancy display set somewhere prominently in the store to herald the arrival of NATE! After a while of searching in vain, I asked a 'team member' about the situation and she said, very casually, "oh, yea....it might be in tomorrow." Really?! So, I'm set to head back in about 10 minutes here and see if indeed, anything came in. I guess this is happening all across the country, as I have see a few other posts about it. Just finished reading Lynda's post over at FOCAL POINT where she made some excellent points about how Target 'should' have handled this. Regardless, I know the collection will hit the shelves sooner or later, so I'm still excited to see it in person.

LOVE this

All right, I'm off to go check it out.....if it's there!

Another Olioboard for Layla Grayce's "Design your Dream Room" challenge

I talked about this contest in my last post and just wanted to let you know I made another moodboard that I entered.

Modharaja

If you saw my last post and then went and voted for my entry, I want to sincerely thank you VERY MUCH! Your support means the world to me! And if you want to go vote for my latest entry here, I would be most grateful! If you make your own board to enter the contest, let me know so I can vote for you too!

Express Your Style: Layla Grayce and Olioboard "Design Your Dream Room" Contest

In case you haven't heard, Layla Grayce has teamed with Olioboard to bring us the "Design Your Dream  Room" contest. Last week it was bedrooms, this week it's the living room, then it will be a nursery and finally, a dining room. Each week has a new sponsor and judge, and this time around it's none other than the incomparable Jonathan Adler!! There are over $4,000 in prizes and you can enter each week as many rooms as you can create! I entered two last week for the "Dream Bedroom" portion of the contest, here are my boards:

Gypsy Chic

and

Luxe Modern Lounge

If you've never used Olioboard, it's a really fun way to create rooms and explore looks you might never get to create in 'real life.' I blogged about my first ever Olioboard here.

I didn't win, but it was still fun to put these rooms together and see what other people have come up with.... I love seeing how other people design a room.....it's kinda like driving around at night, hoping people have their curtains open and the lights on so you can see in......please tell me I'm not alone and that didn't sound too weird!

Anyway, I entered again this week for the Dream Living Room and this is the moodboard I came up with:

 Bohoco

You can head over to Layla Grayce right now and create a board of your own and hey, while you're there you might as well vote for my entry too! I would love you forever if you did! Thanks a million....:-)

And the winner is....we'll try this again!

So last week I announced the winner of my first ever giveaway of a Novica giftcard and I had announced the winner....twice....and the prize was never claimed. So, I chose another winner today and the lucky person is......SJ at Homemaker on a Dime!! Hey SJ, congratulations! Shoot me an email and I'll give you the details on your giftcard......again, thanks to all who entered!

Winner announced....going, going, gone!

Hey all, a few days ago I announced the winner of my Novica giveaway here. I still haven't heard back from the winner yet and if I don't by tomorrow at midnight, an alternative winner will be chosen, so you might still get lucky if you entered! The last winner drawn at random was MelMorgan4. Again, if this is you please contact me to claim your prize. And please leave your contact info so I can get ahold of you! Thanks again all for entering!

Novica Review Part 2 and a Winner!!

Thanks everybody for participating in my first ever giveaway!! It was a really great experience and I learned a bit more about a company doing great things. If you aren't familiar with Novica, they are in association with National Geographic to work with artisans around the globe for fair trade. Partnering with them on this giveaway gave me the chance to browse their website more extensively and I was surprised at the variety of product they had, as I mentioned in my earlier review, here. Browse their line of Peruvian necklaces and you are sure to find something you like. Looking for the perfect gift for your boss or co-worker? Novica has a great selection of gifts and you can choose a price point, like say $30 or less and it will pull up all the items in that price range. Really unique items, too.

So for my review, I ordered these pillow covers, which come in a pair:

I waited about two weeks to receive my order, which wasn't bad considering it shipped directly from India. It arrived in a cardboard envelope, and inside was wrapped in a nice heavy paper, pretty ribbon and a small envelope.

 

 Inside the small envelope were a small booklet, a postcard and my shipping slip.

 The booklet contained some information about the pillow covers I ordered........

This is the postcard, which I love! I have long heard about the Bikaner Camel Festival, where they shave the camels fur into intricate shapes and designs. Don't know if that's what is being depicted here, but check this out:

Cool, huh? As I understand, it doesn't harm the camel in any way...just a really fancy haircut!! I digress.....

The back of the postcard had a hand written message...love the native script!

Even the ribbon tying the package was beautiful.

And here are my pillow covers.

I LOVE them! Much more saturated than I thought they would be, but that's a good thing. The color is beautiful, the embroidery meticulous. I couldn't be happier with the overall presentation of the product, from browsing, to ordering, to receiving, the whole experience was one I thoroughly enjoyed!

As part of my review, one reader was selected at random to receive a gift card to shop Novica's website and without further ado, the winner is....
                        
                                                 drumroll please.......................................

MelMorgan4!!!!

Congratulations!

If this is you, please e-mail me to claim your prize.

Thanks to Novica for partnering with me to bring ya'll this giveaway and thanks to all who entered!

Patience Young Grasshopper

Did you guys ever watch the Kung Fu T.V. series as a kid? I may be giving away my age here, but it was one of my favorite shows (that, and Taxi!) Anyway, there has been a proliferation of grasshoppers and Praying Mantis (Manti?) in my neighborhood...I have been seeing them EVERYWHERE! And that got me thinking about the Kung Fu series, because the 'Master' is always telling his student "Patience, young grasshopper."

I am a worrier, I tend to fret over things I have no control of, even though I know worrying is like praying for what you DON'T want. It's something I've been consciously working on. The other day I was sitting on my patio and my eye fell right on this guy, perched on one of my garden stools....

I ran to grab my camera, wanting to snap a picture before it hopped away. I was able to get this one shot before it disappeared...I didn't even see it move, it was just there and then it wasn't. You might be asking 'what's the big deal about a grasshopper?'

Well, the 'big' deal is how small it was....the tiniest grasshopper I've ever seen. It was no bigger than (ne, even smaller than) a Tic-Tac mint. It was so tiny, it made me laugh for some reason....so perfectly formed and so miniscule.

Anyway, I started thinking about things and how useless it is to worry. We all go through trials, we all have our ups and downs, but things usually seem to work out. I forget where I saw it, but I read this quote recently, which I took to heart: "It will all be okay in the end....If it's not okay, it's not the end."  And in the waiting, for the trials to end, for the good times to come, for the worry to fade, just remember............

Patience Young Grasshopper. 

BTW, don't forget I have a givewaway going on right now for a Novica giftcard!! Go here to enter!

Novica Review and a Giveaway!

Hey everybody, I have some pretty exciting news!! I am partnering with Novica to host my first ever review and giveaway! Do you guys know about Novica? I had heard of them before, but never seen the wide array of products they offer, all fair trade certified and in association with National Geographic. See their mission statement here. Novica contacted me a few weeks ago, asking if I wanted to do a product review? Heck yes! And what's even better, one lucky reader will win a giftcard to shop across any of Novica's product lines!! Cool, right?! Details on the giveaway at the end of this post.

I went to their website and was really surprised at the variety of product they offer...everything from bells to finger-puppets, tapestries to capri pants, and TONS of beautiful silver jewelry, like all these cool Silver Cocktail Rings. 

 After much deliberation, I ordered these pillow covers.

HERE

I haven't received them yet, but I will let you know when I do...I can't wait! I really love the delicate embroidery and the colors are so pretty.

One thing about ordering from Novica: because they are partnering with artisans for fair trade, quantities are limited! If you see something you love, you should probably get it, since it might not be there later.

Here are some of my favorite picks from their site:

Gorgeous Choker Here. I want this!

 

1. Here        2. Here

1. Here    2. Here

In addition to the pillows covers I ordered, there were sooo many really neat ones to choose from. 1. Here 2. Here.

My favorite thing on the whole site was probably 1. this sweet little enameled brass bowl...so pretty!  2. this pineapple spoon rest would be perfect to stash jewelry in.

Cool Artwork 1. 2. 3. 4.

In the southwest, these tumblers are a staple in tableware. 1. 2.

Super cool, graphic tapestry, here.

See? So many options! 

Now about the giveaway......
One reader will win a Novica gift certificate in the amount of $37.50! This giveaway will be open until Sept. 26th at midnight, and is open to U.S. residents only, in the 48 contiguous states (Novica ships worldwide, from what I can tell, but the shipping amount to anywhere other than the states would eat up the entire gift card!)
To enter, 'follow' me, if you don't do so already, and leave me a comment (scroll to bottom of post and click 'click here to leave a comment!')
For an additional entry, leave me a comment telling me which Novica item is your favorite.
For an extra entry, 'like' my facebook page here.

Winner will be selected using Random.org's true random number generator.

**I was compensated with a giftcard code to purchase product from the Novica website, in exchange for a review. All thoughts and opinions are 100% mine.

I am sharing this post at:

Birthday Block

So, yesterday was my birthday, but I guess I should preface that statement with some context. I have been sad lately, due to a longstanding personal situation that finally had some resolution. The resolution was not the one I had hoped for, prayed for, wanted, wished or dreamed. I think my sadness is noticeable, even though most days I try to put on my "I'm strong" face and just manage to get through the day. Most people who have known me 'before' and 'after' can see a real difference, and I certainly see a difference in myself. I try to focus on the positives, and that does help, but the sadness is still there, always there....I think it's okay to be sad, to grieve, to mourn and to feel profoundly lost, even though you know you aren't. So, because of my emotional compromise, I wasn't really into celebrating my birthday, didn't want to make any decisions (as a single mother, all I do all day, every day, is make decisions for everyone else) and didn't want a lot of attention focused on me to force me into 'being happy.' My mom was in town to show support, but also to help celebrate my son's birthday, which is Wednesday. He'll be 14...Yikes! So we went to Starbucks for birthday 'breakfast' because, sad or not, there is nothing wrong with a Venti Americano, extra breve, six splendas....yes, I drink coffee as if it's dessert.

So that was fine, not too much decision making involved. Then, because we were there and so was it, we popped into Homegoods. I didn't really need anything, but  when does one ever go into Homegoods based solely on need? Poked around for a while, nothing spoke to me. They recently had the 'Indian Bazaar' and the items left from that collection were all on clearance. It was a cool collection......some bone-inlaid little side tables, suzani embroidered footstools, carved wood mirrors.....none of which I could justify or afford when it was full price, but now it was on clearance. I spotted an interesting object that I picked up and quickly realized it was a wood carved printing block. I love printing blocks themselves as much as fabric printed with them. I have pinned several examples seen here, here and here. Once upon a time, World Market used to sell printing blocks as wall art, many of which I bought, but then had to sell in a tortuous moving process last year. Anyway, this block had only been $12.99 full price, but was now $9.00....totally affordable. So I got it. It was mounted on a piece of wood and included a bonus border print block.

This was made to hang on the wall, as a display piece, but I had intentions of dismantling the block and actually using the thing. So out came the tools......

                                                                                                 ...yes I consider a butter knife a tool.

It popped off pretty easy. The mounting plate was ruined in the process, but it was superfluous anyway.

I can't wait to print up some fabric with this! I usually use stencils to print my own fabric, but I have used stamps before and I'm sure this will be very similar. I did a test print on paper, and I think you could print on stationary and all kinds of other things besides fabric......Oooo...Hand printed wall paper!!

So during my birthday block (being sad, etc) I found a birthday (printing) block that gave me a glimmer of possibility, a slice of inspiration and a moment of happiness....

                                     
                                                                                                      ..........It's the little things.

Ikea Catalog Favorites

The new Ikea catalog is here!! While flipping through, a few things caught my eye........

Raskog Kitchen Cart 

I love the look of this, not just in the kitchen. I can see this in the laundry room, as a bedside table/cart, on the patio for plants, carting around art supplies......possibilities are almost endless. Plus, look at that color!

 

Ikea PS Side Table.....this comes in two styles, one with a flat top (seen here) and one with little 'bowls' moulded into the top. Perfect for art supplies, crayons, scissors in a kids room or remotes, plants or even snacks in the T.V. room!

This coffee table...in Turquoise or White

 Metal, industrial, on casters......I LOVE IT!!!

This sweet little night stand has a hidden shelf inside for an outlet strip and a hidden cord cable on the back leg to seamlessly and invisibly power up all your chargers. So smart!

Love this fabric. So fun and graphic. Sometimes Ikea fabrics get a little too 'out there' for me, but this one is.....spot on!

This super fun rug also comes in red.....

.....and a blue runner. So funky!

And while not new, I've always loved these inexpensive shelves. I have eight of these and I use them everywhere....in the garage, the pantry, the kids rooms and the hallway. They are so lightweight, easy to move and smaller in scale, plus the metal is easy to clean and I love the industrial look!


Ikea has many more cool new products and these have been just a few of my favorites.....what are your favorite new Ikea finds?