Limited Edition Hand Earrings Giveaway... Great Christmas Gift!

I'm SO sorry to be so late in posting the Hand Earring giveaway! 

What is that old saying, "the hurrier I go, the behinder I get?" Yup, that's me!!!

I'm so excited to be hosting this giveaway for a pair of  "Hand Earrings" designed by my daughter, Amanda, and created by RA-HA Jewelry!

(Amanda wearing a pair of the earrings)

Together they came up with the most fabulous limited edition offering of 50 pairs of 'hand' earrings. Amanda was inspired by the hand-shaped earrings that Picasso created for Frida Kahlo. 

(Sterling Silver pictured here)

These gorgeous earrings are available in 14K Gold Fill or Sterling Silver. They're extremely lightweight despite being large (approx. 3-1/4" long x 1-1/8" wide).

(Me wearing my hand earrings. I chose the Sterling Silver.)

They are so lightweight you won't even know you're wearing them! I absolutely love mine!

The earrings also come with this beautiful 5x7 line drawing print by Amanda. It features one of her vintage style women wearing the hand earrings. As you can see, I've already framed mine!

So if you would like to enter to win a pair of Limited Edition Hand Earrings:

- To be entered into the drawing once, please leave a comment here. 

- To be entered into the drawing twice, please share this giveaway on your own blog and let me know!

The drawing will take place on the Tuesday, 12/12/17. If both colors are still available, you will have a choice of Silver or Gold. If not, you will receive the remaining color Amanda has in stock.

If you just can't wait to see if you win, click AmandaAtkins to be taken to the listing where you can purchase your Gold or Silver Hand Earrings right now.

See you on Tuesday!

Donna

All Hallows' Eve...

We are ready for all the little goblins, witches, and ghosts that will be stopping by for treats tomorrow night!

Most of the Halloween decorations in the yard have been around since our own girls were little trick-or-treaters themselves! I love this 1990 photo of them dressed as little Dutch girls!

 But back to the yard decorations. There's old Mr. Jack-O-Lantern, the windsock...

...and his friend, Mr. Ghost, also a windsock.

Witchy-Poo is a more recent addition. She's probably been making an appearance for the past 6-8 years or so. She likes to hang out on the backyard gate.

Mr. Scarecrow has definitely seen better days. He's very faded and his coat is quite tattered.

But I love him just the same so he's not going anywhere.

The old black cat & pumpkin flag is still blowing in the wind.

And although it's not a Halloween decoration, I found this adorable red birdhouse in a local thrift store and couldn't resist it!

The backyard doesn't get decorated too much other than pumpkins in the flower boxes on the shed.

I had to trim back the sweet potato vine to make room for the pumpkins. It grows like crazy!

I'll be back in a day or two to post about the giveaway for this awesome pair of hand-shaped earrings designed by my daughter Amanda, one of only 50 'limited edition' pairs that were created!

Wishing you all a safe and Happy Halloween!
See you in a day or two!

Donna

Getting ready for Halloween!

For the past two years I'd fully intended to participate in the Teal Pumpkin Project and put out a teal pumpkin so trick-or-treaters with food allergies would know that we also have non-food goodies to hand out...

...but I've always forgotten to get the teal pumpkin and non-candy treats - until this year!

I picked up a paper mache pumpkin from A.C. Moore, some "Mermaid Teal" paint and voila!

So from now on it will be our annual Halloween tradition to provide candy as well as some fun little non-food treats for whoever comes knocking on our door!

If you enter your zip code into the following Teal Pumpkin map site, it will let you know of any houses that have registered in your area. And may more homes may also be participating but just don't know that they can register on this site.

Teal Pumpkin Project Participation Map

Also, early next week I'll be back to host a give-away for a pair of these awesome limited edition earrings (only 50 pairs were created!), designed by my daughter and created by RaHa Jewelry. I bought a pair and love them - they're so lightweight that you don't even know you're wearing them! If you'd like to enter to win a pair, either for yourself of for a very unique gift for someone special (the holiday gift-giving season is almost upon us!), then stop back next week! You can also purchase a pair outright if you just can't wait to see if you win! They're available in Amanda's Etsy Shop:

Hand Earrings, Silver or Gold 

See you all next week!
Donna

Of flocked deer, flocked trees, and The Night Before Christmas (a giveaway!)....

Don't you love this darling flocked deer family?

I have just two things out for Christmas this year.  

The vintage deer family on the table next to the wing chair...

...and the flocked 'Craigslist' Christmas tree that we picked up this afternoon.

There's a section of the tree that won't light. We're not sure if the lights are defective (it was supposed to be in excellent condition) or if we haven't found the plug for the last section of lights (it took us forever to find the others among all the flocked branches). In any case, I've been pricing my dream (flocked) trees and 7.5' tall prelit flocked trees are so far out of our price range, it's not funny. So for the very reasonable Craigslist price of $50, I'm definitely not going to fret about a small section of lights not working!

Last year we purchased a slim tree because our living room is so small... 

... but I couldn't even fit half of our ornaments on it. So when I came across this full-sized flocked tree, I couldn't resist.

The previous owner left all these beautiful prisms on the tree.
Snow and ice.
Beautiful on the tree.

Not so beautiful on the vehicles.

And tomorrow they're predicting freezing ice/sleet on the roadways during the morning commute. Yes indeed, winter has arrived. 

But on the plus side, along with winter comes Christmas!

Just look at this beautiful version of The Night Before Christmas that I picked up while out thrifting! And I want one of you to have it!

As some of you know, I have an extensive collection of Night Before Christmas books. Our family has been reading this story every Christmas Eve since our girls were born (back in the 80's!). And the tradition still carries on, with each of us picking a book from the stack and doing a 'round robin' reading around the table on Christmas Eve.

I already own this edition with stunning illustrations by Christian Birmingham... 

...so when I spotted this one, I knew that one of you would love it!

It's an over-sized copyright 1995 edition, full of eye candy artwork!!

To be entered into the drawing, just leave a comment before midnight, Friday December 13th. And if you don't have a blog, be sure to leave an email address so I can contact you if your name is chosen!

Until then, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!"

This week I'm joining Brenda at Cozy Little House for Tweak It Tuesday
Debra at Common Ground for Be Inspired,
and Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show & Tell Friday.

Donna

Celebrations and a giveaway winner...

 I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

Ours was lovely as we combined Thanksgiving with celebrating our Amanda's birthday 

since she was home from the city for a few days.

Amanda always enjoys coming home, and one of the highlights is that she gets to spend time with her sweet Tiger, who is now over 20 years old!

This is a photo of them sleeping together back in September of 1993. 

Aren't they adorable?

And to this day, Tiger sleeps on Amanda's bed.

We've built her something of a "Tiger cave" that she can snuggle into to stay warm....

... or lay in front of if she wants a bit of fresh air. She's such a sweet little girl.

And speaking keeping warm, I snapped this photo last week of our first 'mini snow' - Brrrrrr! I feel cold just looking at this photo. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get through the next four months, but c'est la vie! That's New England!

And now it's time to announce the winner of the giveaway for any 16" x 20" or smaller 

art print from my Etsy shop....

Hubby did the picking and he pulled Carla from Here in Texas!

I'll be in touch with you, Carla, to work out the details for your print choice & address.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and be sure to stop back because I'm going to be having another giveaway for a fabulous 1995 edition of The Night Before Christmas with amazing illustrations by Christian Birmingham. As many of you know, I have an extensive collection of "Night Before Christmas" books. When I spotted this book while out thrifting, I knew one of you would enjoy it as I already have it in my collection and it is gorgeous!

Till then, stay safe & warm!

This week I'm joining Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show & Tell Friday.

Donna

The bed hog...

This scene is not uncommon at our house.

Baby decides to sprawl out...

... on the comfy dog bed...

... while poor Mr. J is left with nothing but the hard floor.

Does this look like the face of a cat who has even a shred of guilt? 

No, I didn't think so either.

Sometimes Mr. J does try to make himself comfortable on the old chenille scatter rug...

... but it's hardly as comfy as his thick, padded dog bed.

Mr. J is confiding to Lamb Chop that he saw mommy (me) watching a video on the computer that shows this same scene playing out, on a daily basis, in houses all over America!

(This video is sooooooo sweet!)

Mr. J has never confronted Baby over his bed, but be sure to watch these sweet pups who are very politely trying to reclaim what is rightfully theirs from the family cat!
(I highly recommend enlarging the video so you can really see these guys!)

And don't forget, Monday at midnight is the deadline to leave a comment here if you'd like to win (your choice of) a print from my Etsy art shop!

This week I'm joining Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show & Tell Friday.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Donna