5th Anniversary Giveaway Winner

We have a winner!!!! The Mrs!!!!!  

(thanks to my own personal number generator, Zachary)

Thanks so much for reading my blog over the last 5 years. My goal is to try to post once a week (sometimes more if things are interesting around here). I have updates to share on the girls, of course. 

The kids....yes, we  had some worrisome days, but all is well now.

My diet.....

....and some results.

Some home updates, and of course....

...some quilting updates. See you next week!!!!!

5 Year Anniversary Giveaway!

It was almost 5 years ago that I posted for the first time on Pieces From Me. Lots of things have changed over the years and I have met some incredible friends. I left Life With A Little Sass last February....though it seems longer...and even tried to have a "just quilting" blog. I have missed blogging greatly, and am thinking of returning. I will continue to pray about it, but in the meantime, I did not want my 5 year anniversary to go uncelebrated. SO......a giveaway it is! 

 You know I don't like hoop jumping, so I will keep it simple. You have to be a follower (that is so easy) and you have to leave a comment on THIS post telling me, approximately, when you started reading my blog...whether it was 5 years ago, or just today. Feel free to tell me how you found me, or if I found you first!

What am I giving away?? I will keep it simple....the winner (drawn on June 9th, the actual anniversary date) will get a $25 gift card from their choice of Starbucks, Joann's, or Amazon. Also, I will send some goodies picked just for them! :)

Between now and then, I will come back with some updates and pictures of what has been going on here over the last several months.

Winner

I was suppose to pull a winner for the Spiced Cakes giveaway yesterday and I was so busy, I totally forgot!! No excuse...here we are today. The winner is DONNA!! Thank you all so much for showing your support! I am going to send a single bar of homemade soap to each entry, so you are all a winner. If you entered, send me your address and which "flavor" of soap you want to try. Donna, you will be sent all 3 soaps plus the candle.

Again...than you for supporting Spiced Cakes!

Spiced Cakes Button Giveaway

My sweet friend Dani helped me get this button up and running for Spiced Cakes. Feel free to grab it and put it on your sidebar. In fact, I am having a special giveaway, so when you put the button on your sidebar, your name will go in the drawing. If you do a blog post about Spiced Cakes you will get another chance to win. Any orders referred by you (or made by you) will get you 10 chances to win!!! Just leave comments on this post...one for putting the button on your sidebar, and 1 letting me know you did a blog post. To qualify for the 10 chances, just have your referral (or yourself) mention you in the message box on the order form on spicedcakes.com

So grab your butt.....oh wait....you want to know what I am giving away????? Alright.....the winner will receive a Spiced Cakes, Lavender Spice, soy candle, and 3 cakes of homemade, hand cut, Spiced Cakes soap....one of each flavor on the website right now. Actually what you see in the button is what you have a chance to win.

Now, grab your button!!!!!

<a href="http://www.spicedcakes.com/" _mce_href="http://www.spicedcakes.com/"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvgEe_tytClTnKdX0mDScQUS36NmiufD8GIQz6VRCOm2ocEJ7kUFuDVN8tY0yztrtr1RG03gjADeZYhZWlN1N1oNw3A9ahrR62v-fM7P6abXC2cfoxfLSiR8h82dqaFzj939C8x04_XMk/s220/button.jpg" _mce_src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvgEe_tytClTnKdX0mDScQUS36NmiufD8GIQz6VRCOm2ocEJ7kUFuDVN8tY0yztrtr1RG03gjADeZYhZWlN1N1oNw3A9ahrR62v-fM7P6abXC2cfoxfLSiR8h82dqaFzj939C8x04_XMk/s220/button.jpg" border="0"></a>

Drawing on February 21st!

The Art Of Crafting

Head over to Homestead Blessings for a chance to win their newest DVD, "The Art Of Crafting". I LOVE the 10 DVD set my dear friend Amy sent me.

Fall Into Fall Giveaway Winner

The winner of my Fall Into Fall Giveaway is Vickie!!!! Congratulations Vickie. I will be getting your prizes off to you as soon as I receive your address. Actually, Vickie was not my winner.....the "real" winner was a no reply, no email address, no profile, no blog, so I had NO way to get hold of her. So sorry....though it worked out well for Vickie. ;)
What a fun giveaway. I have enjoyed all your comments and, though I could not respond to them all, please know you are appreciated!

Fall Into Fall Quilter's Giveaway

The winner of my giveaway is Vickie!!! Congratulations Vickie....LOVE the owls on your blog!

HAPPY OCTOBER!!!!!

It is Giveaway time!!! There are 143 personal giveaways and 8 business giveaways. You can find them all by clicking on the scarecrow! Good Luck and have fun!

My giveaway is a Harvest Town panel by Jacqueline Paton for Red Rooster Fabrics.
There are 4 total panels (Acorns, Pumpkins, Apples, and Corn) all with different scenes and all measuring 17 1/2 X 10 inches, not including the sashing. This would make a beautiful wall hanging or some cute bags.
Included is 1 yard of this coordinating pumpkin fabric! Gotta LOVE Pumpkins!!!I plan to add some extra goodies in the package for the winner too!!
To be entered in my giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment. Please leave an email address if you are a no-reply or do not have a blog. I am allowing anonymous commenting from today until the end of the giveaway (on the 15th) so you do not even need a google account. Just leave your name and email in the comment. Though I do not require you to follow my blog in order to be entered, I would love if you clicked the "follow" tab on my sidebar so you could visit again.
Be Blessed.....now go enter more giveaways!!!

Wool?

I did it. I took the plunge. I needed something small to take to my once a month quilting bee. We are growing and my big quilt and hoop just take up too much room. I decided to try the wool. Wool....omgosh is it expensive. Little bitty 2x3" rectangles are 60 cents! The "chunks" are between 5 and 9 dollars. Thank goodness I only needed a little bit. I have always wanted to try wool applique. I love the wool penny rugs and Acorn Quilts (the shop near my house) has a whole section of wool. Lots of hand dyed and just so soft it begs to be handled! I am going to make the Pineapple wall hanging.
I love Pineapples and have them in my family room. I have never been able to master the stitch required for wool applique, but I have seen a "whip stitch" version I think I could maybe handle.
My mother's birthday is tomorrow. She has been begging complaining ragging pleading asking very sweetly for a table topper for her kitchen table. I just do not have the time to make one for her just now. If I took time away from the Hidden Star I would lose all momentum. Anyway, it does not matter to her that I personally make it....she just wants one. I called my good friend Sue....my mother has known her for 28 years, and LOVES her quilts.....and begged complained ragged pleaded asked her very sweetly if she would make a topper for me. She did! It is beautiful. Her own design....she is talented like that....and she got it finished in a week.Hand appliqued and hand quilted....Her prices are SO reasonable. If you need a baby quilt, a table topper, or even a queen sized quilt made from beginning to end, or even your own top hand quilted, let her know. She is amazingly fast!!! You can contact her through her blog.

I am going to participate in the Fall Into Fall Quilter's Giveaway. The giveaways will be posted on October 1st and drawn on October 15th. You should see how many people are participating.....I am bound to win something, right? Even quilting businesses are jumping in this time! Thank you Debi, for hosting the giveaway.....lots of work involved there! It is appreciated by us all!!!!



That's all for now. I will let you know how the wool applique goes. I am taking it to my Saturday bee and will have lots of help ;)

Homestead Blessings

You all know I do NOT blog giveaways. I take my chance on just entering and feel it is too much time to blog them....PLUS I really want my own readers to win my giveaways! BUT....I just HAD to blog this one cause I reeeeeally want it and this gives me an extra chance. It is a 10 DVD series called Homestead Blessings. It is being given at Raising Homemakers.

Wish me luck !!!!

Folk Art Flowers

Rose Marie finally received her giveaway prize from me. It took about 6 weeks! Longer than I anticipated, but I put more into it than I expected also. It is hand appliqued and hand quilted with double crosshatching. I LOVE double crosshatching. Someday, I want to do an entire quilt with it....maybe my Masterpiece quilt will be double crosshatched!Anyway, it is done and received and I am happy.

Today we visited a private school for Zachary. We loved it and it is a pretty big certainty that he will attend in the fall. It is also connected with a home school co-op so one day a week Charlotte and I will go for a few hours and she will take some classes. They have a summer camp on Wednesdays throughout the summer and Zach will be attending that also. You should have seen him today when he walked into the full sized gym...."I never saw a real basketball court before." He was so excited. Both kids participated in the gym class....dodge ball, and also the little devotion they had before the class. I got to meet a couple of home school moms. That was thrilling since the only ones I know are online. I look forward to that one day a week there myself.

Charlotte is just about done with her 6th grade curriculum. Zach is just a tad behind in a couple of subjects, but I told him he could work til it was done and then his summer break would start. The private school is a year round program so he will go part time from 8-11 even in the summer starting next year.

My garden is looking good. I have watered it everyday except yesterday when it rained in the afternoon. I was not too clear (figure that!) about my soil. It is a rich, nice soil, but when I said it was like sand, I meant it was "like" sand.....so dry it was a powder. Once it was watered, it was like potting soil. We have great soil in Northern Illinois for growing gardens.....lots of great farms around here. Let's see if I can become one of those farmers!

Today I am getting caught up on housework. Washing rugs and hanging them out. I have the hardwood floor to wash. Tomorrow is Sweetheart's birthday. He will be 50!!! I told him I would officially be married to an old man! Of course I reminded him that I am still in my 40's for several months and he would have to wait to know what that feels like to be married to someone "old". I figured I would get all the housework done today, so tomorrow we could enjoy his birthday. Actually I am going grocery shopping tomorrow and have bunco tomorrow night. He would not let me change anything, but we are celebrating his day on Saturday with our kids, oldest son and the grandkids. I hope it is a nice day for him.

Well, I am off to get the floor done!! Have a blessed day!

A Winner

I had a wonderful weekend with the kids and a beautiful family Easter celebration. I will come back tomorrow and post on that, but for now we have a winner to announce! Drum roll please..................................................

And the winner is....................

Rose Marie!

I need a couple of weeks to make something special for Rose Marie. I have a gorgeous wallhanging from Rose Marie hanging in my sewing area. It is the pride of the room. Her hand and machine quilting is compared to none....that's because is it is so incredibly good that it is in a category all it's own! Talk about intimidating!!! My hands are shaking!

I will do my best. Thank you all for entering and mostly for supporting me in my new venture!

See you tomorrow!

Blessings, Bren

Life With A Little Sass Giveaway

To celebrate my new place, I thought I would have a giveaway. Your odds are good since only a handful of you even know I am here. It will be simple....leave a comment on this post and you get your name put in. No other hoops. Just leave a comment.

What is the prize? Gosh I just don't know. I will put together a package specially made for the winner. I will tell you this much....there will be a hand quilted item in the package. How's that?

I will draw the winner on Monday morning, April 5th.

Thank you again for all your support!

Blessings, Bren