HaHa!!

Who was I kidding to think I was going to get another giveaway done before I went on vacation?! I'm too busy packing for 6 people. (At least hubby is packing for himself.) I will post at least once when I'm gone with some pictures. Later!

Why leave all this?!

Well, before I just up and tell everyone where I'm going on vacation in 13 DAYS! I'm going to finally relay my tropical storm saga. Living in FL (Tine you can come visit when you go to Disney World!) we have our share of hurricanes and the like. So, the first week back to school we were supposed to get some (I said "some") rain from Tropical Storm Fay. That basically means no sun, rain, gusty winds - stay home, don't drive (a gust of wind could blow you off the road). Most times these tropical "systems" as they're called move through or past your area in a 12 to 24 hour period.

My tree fell over because the ground was so saturated and the wind blew the basketball hoop over.

This storm was horrible. The meteorologists can sort of predict where the storms are going to go. The farther away from land the storm is, the less accurate the prediction. You watch the news and they say, "oh it's not going to hit the central FL area at all - it's going to north FL." So by the time Monday night rolls around, we're getting a call from the school saying the schools will all be closed, stay home. Still, it was only a mild storm, so everyone just thought it would be gusty rain. No one knew that it was going to go straight over the area where we live and sit and sit and sit.

Radar picture showing the tropical storm with swirls of rainstorms relentlessly pounding us.

It took at least 2 days to blow over and then it turned around and zigzagged back across the state. So we had rain for 2 days straight. Our city had a record rainfall of 30" and that was just what was measured. It was probably much more. That amount is what we get in 2/3 of the year! The ground was soaked. Streets were flooded. There was no school for the rest of the week because people couldn't get out of their neighborhoods safely or had evacuated due to their homes flooding.

When you can't go outside and play because the yard is flooded and there are 40 mph winds, you build a fort.

We had "wind-driven rain" damage. The rain blows through cracks along windows, trickles down the wall and then soaks up into the flooring. All the flooring in our bedrooms has to be replaced. It was so bad in the girls' room that we had to rip it up to prevent mold from growing.

This is the girls' room after we hauled all the furniture out and ripped up the flooring.

This is the boys' room. Big brother's bed is stored in the garage and the mattress has been flipped around to avoid water damage. Not as bad in here as in the girls' room, but still an inconvenience.

So now I have three little, giggly girls sleeping on an air mattress on the floor of my living room with their two dresses and all their other accessories. It is the exact same room where I do my sewing (usually after kiddie bedtime or during nap time). I had all these sewing projects to do before my trip, and they are not getting done. I don't even know if we'll get the new flooring installed before we leave. Here's the state of my living room:

You can click on the picture to see a larger view and read the descriptions. I was going for a panoramic view. At least we can fit three little girls sideways on an inflatable queen size mattress.

Now why would I want to leave all that?! There's only one thing (well maybe three or four or five) that could induce me to leave such domestic tranquility and bliss.

The most romantic place on earth!


The City of Lights!!

PARIS!!!

There were quite a few of you who guessed my destination. The lucky lady whose name I pulled out of the hat was Beeb. You'll be getting a little fabric (or sewing) token direct from Paris! Of course you'll have to wait until I get back for me to mail it, and hope that I'm willing to part with it. J/K!!

I think I'll be able to fit in another giveaway, if my schedule permits, before my trip. So don't go away! Check back next week.....Until then - Au Revoir!

I'd much rather be here.....Closed

Well, I have gotten nothing done today. I am part of an apron swap and the deadline is Sept. 15. I really don't want to wait until the last minute to get this apron sewn and mailed off. However, besides the flooding two weeks ago, the restart of school last week, I now have a house full of sick kids to contend with. My sewing space has been taken over as a new "room" for the girls while we wait for the carpet for their room. I usually sew when they're down for naps or asleep at night. I cannot do that when they're laying 5 feet from the sewing machine. Little Monkey doesn't even want to take naps because he's sick.

I took pictures of my mess of a house, but I don't have time to edit them yet. So instead of posting pictures of the sad state of affairs at my house, I'm going to post photos from flickr of where hubby and I are going on vacation in 18 days!

I have so much to do before then - which is equally stressful since all the flooding and now the sickness has wrecked my planned sewing and packing time leading up to the trip. We are sending 3 kids to Nana and Papa's and 2 kids to Aunt and Uncle's for the WEEK we're away. We haven't had a vacation with just the two of us since I was pregnant with my oldest - nine years ago!

I've purposely picked photos that don't immediately give away the location. Since I don't have my next crafty giveaway ready, we're going to make this a giveaway.

If you think you know the location of our getaway, send me an email (so your guess remains secret and doesn't influence others) to craftygiveaways(at)gmail(dot)com. From the correct guesses I will randomly pick the winner who receive some fabric direct from the getaway location. I need an excuse to shop for fabric while on vacation! :)

If you could pack up right now and spend a week away, where would it be? You can post your ideal getaway in the comment section. Don't forget to email your guess to keep it secret. Good luck!

Crafty Giveaway #4 Winners!

Alright....this time we have a list of winners.

The first name I pulled, and the winner of the Disney princesses panel, purple fuzzy fabric and purple binding is Beth of Highland Hen. Our next winner is Mary of Scottish Nanna. She gets the princess panel, cotton fabric and pink binding. Sew Bee It, Helz of Blue Shadow Pony and Tine of Sodeste all will receive the princess panel and the cotton fabric.

How crazy is this - 3 of my winners are from Australia (Hello to my friends down under!), 1 is from Denmark and 1 is from I don't know where yet. :o) I guess I have a very international audience. So ladies, please email me your mailing address and reference your blogger name so I can make sure I have everyone accounted for. The sooner I get everyone's information in, the sooner I can head out to the post office.

craftygiveaways(at)gmail(dot)com

Didn't get to the pictures of our storm damage yet. Hope to do that today and post later. Check back....

Giveaway #4 Winners

Will be announced tomorrow? I'm currently dealing with Tropical Storm Fay damage and trying to get the kids back to school after an unexpected week off. Thanks for being patient - my house is upside down. (More than usual.) Pictures and winners coming soon....

Crafty Giveaway #4 - Closed

This week's giveaway is in honor of my two youngest daughters. One turned 5 last weekend and one will be 3 in a week. They are in love with the Disney Princesses. I got these wonderful panels a little while ago on clearance. I went crazy and got alot, so now I have 5! to give away. You heard right. I have five of these panels that are 1 yard wide and 45" high (I didn't measure the height, but it runs selvedge to selvedge.) I should have ironed it for the picture, but I'm lucky I got a picture of it. Today was the first day of school and we've been BUSY! This is a great panel to practice your machine quilting. You can follow the design, outlining the ribbon and details of the princess. You can do an all-over design. You could also use this as a center panel and add borders to make a larger quilt.


I also have backing fabric for you to quilt this into a nice little throw or baby quilt. I have one yard of the fabric on the right. It is a polyester, fuzzy lavender with a stripe nap to it. There is enough of the fabric on the left for backing for each of the other winners. For two of the winners I have enough quilt binding to bind your throw and a spool of matching thread to sew the binding on. I have two packages (3 yds in each package) of the lavender and two packages of the pink.


This is a closeup of the fabric on the left. The background color is a blush lavender. It's hard to describe - lavender with a blush undertone. The tiny dots/bubbles look floral-y and are lavender. This fabric and the princess panels are 100% cotton.

On to the particulars of the giveaway.....if you have a daughter, a niece, a cousin, a friend, a granddaughter, a god-daughter, or want to make this and donate it to charity, then this is the giveaway for you. (I can't think of anyone that wouldn't fit in one of the above categories.) In the comments section, tell me what backing you are interested in (cotton or fuzzy lavender) and whether you want the binding (pink or lavender). The first name chosen will get their first choice. There will be 5 winners - each winner will at least get a princess panel and 1 yard of the cotton backing fabric. Two winners will also get the binding and thread. The giveaway will be open until Monday, August 25th at 10pm est.

As always, if you link to my giveaway in your blog then you will get 3 entries. I have to be able to verify that you actually linked to the giveaway post. If your blog is private or not linked to your blogger name than you can email me the link for me to verify. craftygiveaways(at)gmail(dot)com If I cannot verify the link, then I cannot award you the 3 entries - you will however still get your 1 entry.

Good luck everyone!

Crafty Giveaway #3 - We have a winner!

Sorry I didn't get to this yesterday. I was busy with preparations and celebrations of my hubby's 34th birthday! He is such a wonderful man and FANTASTIC father. I went out of town last weekend and he had ALL 5 KIDS! Now for him that's nothing, but I know for alot of husbands out there that would be a nightmare. I have really been blessed. You can see a picture of my family here.

But here's what you really want to know.....Who won? Congratulations to nclangs!! She is the winner of the irish chain blocks and assorted fabrics. She mentioned in her post that her hubby works for John Deere. Well, it seems only right that she should now be able to make a yellow and green quilt to match all the other John Deere items that adorn her home. (Nclangs - email me at craftygiveaways(at)gmail(dot)com with your address. If you can get it to me before this afternoon I'm making a run to the post office and I can include your package.)

Hopefully nclangs will include her finished quilt/top in our Crafty Giveaways Creations flickr group. You are welcome to post what you win or what you make that is inspired by a crafty giveaway. Were you inspired to start an irish chain quilt after this last giveaway? Post it in the group. We have two lovely ladies that have posted. Trisha (TLC) from TLC Stitches added a photo of her folded flowers that she made with the squares that I sent her. You can see it here. Tine from Sodeste, a lovely lady who lives in Denmark, posted a photo of her package of squares. That's in the group here. We need more photos in there ladies. Hop on over and start posting!

Three giveaways down, so many more to go.....the next one (which will be up at least by the weekend) is in honor of my daughters' birthdays. No. 3 and no. 4 (they still haven't figured out that hubby and I refer to them by number if we don't want them to know who we're talking about) have birthdays in August. So if you're looking for a great, REALLY EASY project for a little girl you know, stay tuned! PS - I'm giving away more than one - so tell everyone!