Valentine Card Giveaway!

Giveaway is closed!

That's right folks! I'm so excited about my new craft room, that I'm hosting my very first giveaway! I've been having so much fun with my Cricut and Cuttlebug, that I decided it was time to share some of the love!

Up for Grabs:

A set of four cards handmade by yours truly! Each one is 5x7, and will come with a matching white envelope. On each card, the background has been embossed with a pretty pattern to add texture, and the hearts are attached with pop dots for some added dimension. All cards are blank inside and ready for your own personalization!

Ways to Enter:

1. Leave a new and relevant comment on any of my blog posts 1 entry
2. Follow me with Google Friend Connect (GFC) 1 entry
3. Share my Etsy shop on Facebook 3 entries
4. Share my Etsy shop on Twitter 3 entries
5. Blog about my Etsy shop (and give me the link of course!) 3 entries
6. Blog about this giveaway (and give me the link!) 3 entries
7. Share this giveaway on Facebook by clicking the "share" link at the top left of this page 1 entry
8. Share this giveaway on Twitter by clicking the "share" link at the top left of this page 1 entry

For each of these things that you do, please be sure to leave me a comment to let me know which method you used. NOTE: Please leave me an individual comment for each entry method you have done. This allows me to keep track of your entries SO much easier! This may mean that you are leaving several comments in a row to alert me of each one, and that's ok! Also, Some of you may already be following me, so be sure to leave me a comment to ensure it is counted as an entry.

The giveaway will close on Monday February 7th @ 2pm PST.

Please leave me your email address if you believe I do not already have it, as I will need it to contact the winner at the end of the giveaway. Since I want to ensure that the winner has plenty of time to get their cards before valentines day, they will be given 48 hours to respond before another winner will be selected.

Good Luck!

Bunnies at Sea

While cleaning out my closet, I found this wall art by Wary Meyers I bought from urban outfitters a few years ago and COMPLETELY forgot I had. Then I had the pleasure of falling in love with it all over again. I don't know why these little sailing bunnies make me so happy, but they do, so I thought I'd share them with you.

Too cute! This is definitely going to be on display in my sweet new craft room :)

Coyote Hills

This past Sunday, the hubby and I, along with several of our friends/family took a hike @ Coyote Hills in Fremont. It really is a beautiful park and has many different trails at varying lengths and intensities to choose from. Since this was primarily a social occasion, we chose a pretty mild hike just over 3 miles that had a SPECTACULAR view of the bay.

Sean & Lucy

All in all, we had a great time catching up with one another, and I'm looking forward to going back sometime and trying some of the other trails in the future.

Wordless Wednesday #9: Me!

Tackle it Tuesday #6: Walk in Closet Upgrade

My husband and I live in a small one bedroom apartment, and the trickiest part about living here is finding enough space to function without wanting to kill one another. With all of our stuff in a small place, it is a constant battle keeping this place clean enough to keep from feeling frustrated and claustrophobic.

Fortunately, as seen here, this apartment has 2 smaller closets and one quite large walk in closet. With some clever organization, we've been able to dedicate the walk in solely to storage/office space.

This picture was taken almost 2 years ago when I was living here alone. Since then, the closet has become MUCH more packed with stuff. On most days, the desk was completely unusable and we relied mostly on our laptops for computer use.

Originally, my husband and I only planned on living here for a little while before purchasing our first home. Unfortunately, we have recently realized that this dream is much further away than we originally thought, and we are going to need to be here longer than anticipated. I knew that to stay here without going crazy was going to take a few alterations. I LOVE to craft, and have hated that my only hard surface was our coffee table. Not only is it a back breaker to work on, but it leaves my living room cluttered with crap every time I get into a project, and renders the coffee table unusable. Given that we have no space for a kitchen table and have to eat at the coffee table, this simply was not working, and kept me from starting many projects I'd considered doing. 

A few weeks ago, I started brainstorming some closet options with my good friend Jessica. She gave some great suggestions, and between the two of us it was decided an L-shaped desk would be best. I wasn't finding anything online that seemed to fit my needs, or budget, so Jessica decided we try to build it ourselves. I wasn't quite sure how it was going to come out, but I'm so glad we gave it a try.

We started at Ikea, where we bought table legs for $3.50 each. They are quite sturdy, and have 5 places to be screwed in to any table top. We then went to Home Depot and bought a 96"x48" piece of finished lumber. It has a nice smooth veneer on it, which makes it perfect for a desk. They cut it up to our dimensions for free, and even helped us load it back on to the cart. Not only that, but the giant piece of wood was supposed to cost $20, but since it didn't have a UPC, and the lady didn't want to leave her register, she only charged us $7.57. Score!

$50 and a few hours later, I now have an AWESOME work space!. Now, just 2 days later, this is how I've managed to arrange all my things:

The two 3 drawer bins will eventually get moved out of here completely. I just didn't have a place to put them in the meantime.

Brian's old bookshelf to store my things:

AWESOME Ikea organizers to save desk space:

 More bins above the computer to save desk space:

The top of the closet could still use a little work, lol. I'll get to it eventually :)

While at Ikea, Jessica and I also both bought tall bookshelves - hers in white, mine in black/brown. My husband had outgrown his small one, and needed an upgrade. We found them pre-assembled in the "as is" section of Ikea for a pretty decent discount. Don't ask how we managed to get both of these in her pathfinder....it was quite dangerous and quite illegal, lol.

Don't mind the grainy cell phone shot....he obviously needed the upgrade, as you can see he filled it up pretty immediately. Plus, it allowed me to use his old one in my craft space.

On a final note, I'm happy to say I drafted up this entire blog on my now usable desktop computer. :)

What are you tackling this week?

$20 Gift Card Anyone?

My friend Marni is hosting a giveaway for a $20 gift card to Victoria Secret. Check it out!

http://marnisorganizedmess.blogspot.com/search/label/giveaway

Wordless Wednesday #8: Boys Getting Ready

Tackle It Tuesday #5: My Day

So, I don't have any fancy pictures for you today....or even a specific tackle really. Not that I haven't had tackles this week....in fact, I've had quite a few.

My Tuesday:
Put in 8 hours at work (helped break up a fight and then had the kids decide I'm a snitch for it)
Go to Old Navy for some new sweat pants
Drive to Best Buy to return a game for my husband
Go to the grocery store and buy our groceries for the week
Come home and chop up some mushrooms to put on the pre-made pizza I bought for dinner tonight
While that is baking, prep some yummy crock pot turkey chilli and get it cooking for lunch/dinner tomorrow
Clean up the mess I made prepping and load the dishwasher
Sit down for the first time to eat my pizza/salad and prepare this blog

Hey, I may not have a specific project today, but I'd say that's definitely tackle worthy!

Wordless Wednesday #7: Girls Getting Ready