Pretty Pretty Princess

Oooh check out the pretty party dress my mom made for little Rakia!  She used a Simplicity pattern I believe.  Perfect for October, and fall, right?  I can't wait to see her in it.  Dorian saw it and was jealous - I hear a matching vest is in his future.  Ah how cute will that be? 

Drumroll please....

AND the lucky winner is:  Krissie!  Congratulations, you have won a $45 gift certificate to CSN stores!

Thanks to her posting about my giveaway here, she can use that certificate towards this cute french press she has her eye on - or anything else!  Krissie, I've emailed you directly with instructions on how to redeem your prize. 

Congratulations Krissie, and thank you again to my pals at CSN stores for making this magic happen!  And thank you to all of my followers, old and new for entering and reading my blog!

I Heart the Phoebe Bag

I whipped up another little Phoebe bag for a friend this week - it came out pretty cute!  A very simple (and FREE) pattern from artsy crafty babe - check it out, if you haven't already. 

I used a Kelly green exterior with tiny white polka dots, and a navy striped interior with little green pin stripes.

I want to make a billion more of these!  Need to stock up on magnetic snaps and I'll be good to go for Christmas, I think.  For the ladies in my life, anyway. 

Here's a close up of the green fabric.

And of the blue.  There is a little pocket in there too, just too dark to see.  What do you think?  I need to get better at picking color combos, but this came out well. 

PS: Have you entered my GIVEAWAY yet????

Mail Art

I have a new pen pal friend via swap bot that makes the most amazing envelopes!  Works of art, really.  I wanted to share with you Vicki's amazing work!

Beyond cool, right?  And look she even pastes little jokes on the back!  Love love love it. 

If my mailbox could smile I know it would be upon receipt of one of these gems.  Thanks Vicki!

(Psst!  Don't forget to enter my giveaway.) 

CSN Giveaway Fun!

Hello Friendlies!

I've just realized that I've been blogging for over a year now!  I knew my blogiversary was coming up, but it passed me by at the end of August -oops!  Anyway, to thank you, my loyal readers, for coming back to check out my little blog I wanted to do another giveaway.  Luckily, CSN stores hooked me up yet again.

If you're not aware of CSN stores, check them out!   Basically, its an online retailer that has over 200 stores and pretty much anything you could want, from bistro sets to bassinets, dumbbells to drills, and everything in between! One stop shopping all the way!

Furniture, housewares, shoes, home decor - makes me want to have a bigger place! Prices are totally reasonable for high quality items with an insanely huge selection - you should check it out. They have free shipping on gobs of items too - a major bonus.  AND to make that easier, CSN is offering a $45 gift certificate to one of my readers, good towards ANY product on ANY one of their 200+ sites!

YOU could win it, for real! How you ask? Simple!

GIVEAWAY:

To enter:

1) Follow me through Google Friend Connect or Blogger. Leave a comment letting me know! If you already follow, just say so. If you're new, welcome!  (Leave your email address so I know how to get a hold of you!)

This first one is mandatory for entry - if you want some extra chances, I've got those too:

2) Check out Dining Rooms Direct or any of the CSN sites and leave a comment with what you would use the gift certificate for (or towards)!

3) Tweet about this giveaway and leave me a comment with the link and your twitter name!

4) Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment with a link!

Make sure you leave a comment with your email address for EACH entry. This giveaway will run through next Monday, September 20th, and I'll be selecting a winner via random.org on Tuesday, September 21st.

I am so excited and hope you are too! Thank you to my pals at CSN for making this possible. 

GOOD LUCK!

(Just so you know, I was not given any compensation for this post - I wanted to give back to my super duper cool readers and CSN made it happen!  Gift Certificate doesn't cover shipping, where applicable.)

**Giveaway is open to those in the US and Canada only.

Happy Birthday Kristy!

Wheeeeee! 

Have an awesome day today.  And every other one, too!

****PS: Be sure to check back Monday for an awesome giveaway!*****

Time Machine

My mom was on a major cleaning kick for the past few weeks, and while helping to go through a box of old photos, I found this:

A little two part drawing, stapled together, I made of myself (see the brown hair/green/black and white striped skirt that I loved) in 1988.  So poignant!

I have no idea what I was so sad about! I had a pretty good life back then - and still do!  What a mystery. 

Per the handwriting, it looks like Amah (my grandmother) tucked this away.  I think she appreciated my angst.

Cute Overload

I just can't stand the adorableness! 

(That is all.)

Monkey Cake!

Check out this amazing cake! 

Divya had it at her nephew Rohan's first birthday party.  Beyond cute, right?  (Also, how adorable is the little guy in green?)

You can make it yourself without too much difficulty - here is how to do it! 

Happy Labor Day!

Hello all!  Happy Labor Day to you. 

Get out there in the sunshine and enjoy the last weekend of summer! 

image via the graphics fairy

Pretty, Part II

So much sweeter when they are a surprise though.  :)

Wine Country Fun

In the home stretch!  I promise. 

Our next visit was a brief one to Jundas Pastry- yum!  The smell of sugar and deliciousness was enough to knock a girl out. 

Evelyn enjoyed a giant brownie - wow!

And check out the cute little stove planter in front!  Aww. 

Our final vineyard visit was to Palmer Vineyards - it was my favorite! 

Sarah O and I enjoy some sips outside. 

The wine was great, I even bought some bottles to take home!  A rarity for me, as I'm not a big wine person.  I liked the sweet flight I tasted though!

The setting was beyond beautiful - a perfect way to end our tasting tour.  (Although we did make it to The Fifth Season for dinner afterwards!  We sure didn't starve!) 

What a lovely way to celebrate a lovely lady!  Congratulations Becca, and thank you to her amazing sister Emily for organizing such a splendid event.   So much fun!

Happy Birthday Matt!

Happy Birthday to one of my very best friends.  This man has the greatest hair found in nature.  Also, he's a real cool dude with a heart of platinum (so much prettier than gold, right?).  I hope you have an amazing day and can't wait to celebrate with you! 

One of my more insane card making efforts, but since he's such a great guy I'm sure he'll LOVE it.  I hope. 

Wine-ing about Town

Next stop on our tour was Modern Snack Bar for lunch - a very fun old fashioned diner type place.

Of course we made Rebecca pose all over with her stunning veil. 

The aforementioned crabs...

were not up my ally.  You can't go wrong with a grilled cheese and tomato though!  Especially with a side of onion rings :)

Up next was the beautiful Dilberto Winery.  So lovely! 

I stole a grape or two, shh don't tell. 

The Sarahs smile away as we sample some wine. 

Such a pretty place!

Becca made a new friend.

And spent some quality time goofing around with oldies as well.

But wait, there's more eating and drinking to be done!  Check back for my final installment...

Wine Country East

As promised a delightful pictorial tour of my visit to the vineyards of Long Island in celebration of my pal Rebecca's bachelorette festivities! 

Our first stop was Love Lane.  Awww!  We ate breakfast at Love Lane Kitchen - so good!  Sharon and Sarah (my car buddies for the day) liked it too. 

We all did, really! 

After strolling this sweet tree lined street, we made our way to Harbes Farm & Vineyard.

 

This place was great!  In addition to the winery, it is a real working farm with animals and fruits and vegetables and all of that fun stuff. 

But back to the wine...

So fun!  I'm not a huge wine person, or wino if you will, but it was cool to sit outside in the sunshine and try some new ones.  Especially since it included a visit and a song from Cowboy Jamie. 

14 of us ladies and we all got along swimmingly!