Winner of Shabby Apple Dress is:

So here is what happened with the Random Number Generator.  

#13 is the lucky winner of the wonderful
Shabby Apple dress giveaway.
Congratulations!

Rae has chosen the Da Vinci dress
as her favorite.
Contact me, Rae, and I'll get you the information
to get this dress sent your way.

Rae happens to be a sweet lady
 whom I stumbled upon her blog last week-end.

She was referred to in a blog I was already a follower of,
and so I had checked out her blog while at the cabin.
She in turn checked out mine and entered the contest and won!

She also loves heart shaped rocks, shells and other found elements like I do,

and Jami of Freckled Laundry had done a post about her 

which I totally connected with.

Anyways, I consider 

Rae

(the winner chosen by random.org)

 a new friend, 

through the wonderful world of blogging.
Check out Rae's blog here.

Some interesting tidbits:
8 chose Azure Coast as their fav
4 chose Da Vinci as their fav
1 chose the gorgeous Moon River as her fav.

There were 37 actual comments either left on my blog,
or personally emailed to me when they had trouble with blogger
not letting them post their comments.
Thank you everyone for participating and leaving a comment.


For anyone feeling bad about not winning,
I have a surprise for you too.
No, not another free dress,
but
Shabby Apple
is offering a new fabulous offer.

Beginning July 1st they are having a Summer Sale.
Coupon code for check out is:
  SUMMER20


The SAVINGS is
20% OFF their entire site,
with the exclusion of Amalfi Coast Swim Wear.


The Sale Runs the Entire Month of July!


So now is the time to go nab that favorite item
you've been dying to buy.
Shop Shabby Apple now.
Just click on the links to check them out.

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:13Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Women's Dress Giveaway

UPDATE

This giveaway is now closed!

Winner will be posted soon...

Would you love to win something for free?

Are you into getting something fun just you?

If so, then my blog is the place for you to stop right now...

read on to learn how you can possibly be the

lucky one that wins a free women's dress.

ShabbyApple

online site has generously offered

one of you my friends,

this wonderful opportunity.

First,

you must decide which of the 3 choices,

you'd like to win. 

Leave me a comment

ON MY BLOG ONLY, PLEASE

 letting me know

if it is 1, 2 or 3

 that is your little hearts desire.

Second,

 if your new here,

become a follower of my blog for another chance.

Third,

 "To enter to win this amazing dress 

"like" Shabby Apple on facebook 

and then leave me a comment saying you did so",

and you will get a third chance to win.

There is one catch...you must have a US mailing address in order to partake in this generous offer.   Please choose your sizing carefully, as their is no exchanges on the free dress.  See info. right below for sizing.

Psssssttttt...

before you take a look at the dresses below,

check out the ShabbyApple site

and see what style is best for you,

according to you answering a couple of questions.

This little test is sooooo cool!

Access it here.

#1.

A true gem of a multi-tasker, the Azure Coast dress, with it's playful puff sleeves and no-nonsense shirt collar, is perfect for the office or a weekend getaway at the shore.  This ocean-colored beauty sports faux-wrap styling—the skirt closes all the way—giving you the look of your favorite wrap dress without the anxiety of worrying whether or not you're unintentionally showing too much leg.

Fit notes:

This dress is 100% cotton.  

To care for this dress, hand wash cold. Hang dress to dry.  

This dress Fits True to Size.

#2.

Take the guesswork out of dressing with the soft and simple Da Vinci dress.  One part sweatshirt, one part puff-sleeved perfection, this easy-wearing number has a flare for the informal with its drop waist, A-line skirt and kangaroo pockets. Pack it for your next weekend getaway or make it a part of your everyday routine. 

Fit Notes: 

This dress follows our Fits Generously fit guide.  

Dress made from Poly Rayon Spandex Jersey.

#3.

Carefully constructed from chocolate brown stretch sateen, the Moon River boasts a high, wide boat neck, fitted bodice,and cap sleeves.  The slightly tapered skirt descends from a bouquet off our flouncy ruffles at the low waist, and falls to the knee. Belted,bedecked with a long strand of pearls or left as a stand-alone statement, Moon River has potential to inspire romantic flashbacks wherever you wear it.  

Fit Notes:
This dress follows our Fits Generously size chart. Ruffle measures approximately 10 inches long. Dress hits at the knee.    

**DRESS HAS A FAIR AMOUNT OF STRETCH.  WE RECOMMEND ORDERING A SIZE DOWN IF YOU ARE BORDERLINE ON YOUR MEASUREMENTS**

The giveaway will run until June 30th!


 If you'd like to order something at
www.shabbyapple.com
 before the giveaway ends, 

you can mention this discount code at checkout...

mimitoria10off

to receive 10% off your order 

in the next 30 days.  


Good luck everyone...
I'm happy to report that I just today won
a dress from this great company on another blog.
I am thrilled!


The winner will be chosen with the use of random.org.

Eight Rules to a Better Life & Giveaway News

Wow, where does the time fly?  It's been 4 weeks since I posted here, and I'm sad to say that is a new record.  Not a good one either.

Where have I been?  Busy... attempting to get some much needed home improvement projects done during some rare sane weather here in Minnesota.  We have talked for about seven years about having our carpets removed and new flooring installed in our main floor of our house, and finally we are proceeding with action and not just talk.  So that's where I've been and what my hands have been into lately.  I promise I will post about it soon, but for today, I just have a little something I'd like to share that I found online.

Eight Rules to a Better Life

1. Never Hate

2. Don't Worry

3. Live Simply

4. Expect a Little

5. Give a Lot

6. Always Smile

7. Live with Love

8. Best of all, Be with God  

*******Exciting giveaway coming to my blog real soon.  Stay tuned for more details to follow.

**********Also, my 300th follower giveway for jewelry will happen after the above giveaway, so please stay tune.

You guys are the awesomest!  Be blessed my friends, and enjoy the warmth outside.

300 Followers...

Wow!

Hello my friends...

Hands down to you all...

I can not believe that I've just hit

300 followers.

So exciting...

thank you for the honor

and privilege you have bestowed

upon me with your time.

Time is such a gift!

I appreciate each moment you spend with me

on this little blog of mine,

so thank you for being so loyal

through out these years as

I've worked hard to build my blog

and jewelry design business.

To celebrate...

I am going to have a

giveaway soon.

Speaking of gifts...

the greatest gift we have ever been given,

is when Jesus died on the cross for our sins.

Tomorrow we celebrate 
His resurrection...

than

stay tuned for more on my
300th follower
giveaway later
in the week ahead.

~Gretchen~

*All photos are of vignette's in my home and taken with a smartphone.  Sorry for the quality. :(

Heavy and Tough...All in a Days Work!

The story of a giveaway...

Necklace for Free

Yes, my blogging friends, you've heard me right.  A giveaway.  This is the first of three I'm offering in connection with Junk Bonanza event that is coming up in September.  I will be vendoring there Sept. 16-18 at Canterbury Downs in Shakopee and I hope to see you there. 

Do participate in give away #1.  Just head over to the Junk Bonanza Blog on Saturday and follow Jills' directions for entering to win this necklace made by me.

Now for the story of the necklace...

Count them, 1, 2, 3. Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear all sizes of cash registers at my fingertips. A special thank you goes out to my dear friend, Carolyn, for snagging the two largest cash registers one day for me while she was out and about. She and her husband did a lot of the dirty work with taking these apart in their shop and allowing me to come and use their tools to finish dismantling them. As I say, they did quite a bit of the toughest work and then in addition to their time, I spent another 17 hours harvesting the cash register tags from these registers, filing them smooth, drilling holes, cleaning them, spraying them with a protective coating, and than they were ready to create with. Ahhh, the joy of working with junk elements...

Notice the gorgeous patina on the drawer of this cash register.

These registers were filthy to work on.  My friends even removed the mice nests before I started in on them.

Nice to have this warm, well equiped and well lit shop to work in.

I knew that these little tags would really become cool jewelry too.

So focused on the task ahead...

At last...the junk treasures removed.  Oh wait, at this point they all need to be cut apart with a bolt cutter, ground down with an industrial grinder, filed, holes drilled, washed, treated with a sealant so they don't make a mess on your customers clothes, and than at last one can design with them.

So why am I telling you all how to do this?  Because, I for one, am a jewelry designer that will not be harvesting cash register tags again in my lifetime to make jewelry with.  If you think its easy, have at it.  17 hours of work to get something to the point of designing with just isn't something I'm going to be doing again.  Been there...done that...  Let someone else have fun with it instead. ;)

Free Necklace

When my cash register tag necklaces are gone...they'll be no more.  Here's a few more that will be offered at the Junk Bonanza sale event.

Paris inspired in gold tones...

Paris inspired in silvertones...

I won the giveaway at Simply Stated

Rebecca at Simply Stated put on a fabulous giveaway a few weeks ago, and guess who won?  It truly is amazing, but it was me. :)  My first time I've ever won, so I was quite surprised to say the least and thrilled to no end.  Thank you Rebecca for such a wonderful surprise.  Be sure to check out her blog at the above link.
When we left a comment for the giveaway, we were asked to go to her favorite coffee shops online store and pick whatever we would like from their online store in case we were the winner, and I chose a detox tea. I didn't give it too much more thought and than she notified me a few days later saying I was the lucky winner.  So here is what her wonderful giveaway consisted of.

  A box loaded with treasures...

  This is the bounty... 

Wow!

The daily detox tea I chose, a Simply Stated coffee cup, coaster, and individual tea strainers that work very slick for the tea.  I've not seen a product like this before, and I'm loving these.

Simply Stated canvas bag.

  Latest issue of Romantic Homes magazine.

Beautiful notecards that Rebecca has taken.

Gorgeous prints that Rebecca has taken as well.  Love the quality of these.

Cute black house frame that ties in perfectly with my kitchen black decor.

Homemade jam, recipe for scones and a coaster for my tea too.

I just loved everything she included and wanted to give a shout out to her and her wonderful blog today.  Take a peak, you'll enjoy.  Thanks again, Rebecca for such a sweet gift.  I just love the detox tea.

Gretchen

100th Post Giveaway Winners Are . . .

I do not have a random generator set up on my site, as I don't know how to do that, so the next best thing was to do the drawing randomly.  I took all of the most recent followers and added them to the contest, as well as all blog comments on the giveaway blog, and finally any of you that were kind enough to take the time to blog about my giveaway on your blog also got your name added in.  There were a total of 64 entries in this contest.  A little birdie helped me out with it.

Thanks to the little birdie that helped me out... lol  Sorry about some of the blurry photos.  Have you ever tried to take a picture before of yourself drawing a winner, with your head turned to not look?  Doesn't always create the clearest photographs.  lol

What is cool about this giveaway is that out of the 3 jewelry prizes, one ended up going to a customer that left a comment from Texas, one is going to a woman that was kind enough to become a follower and the last is going to one that took the extra time to blog about my contest.

Thank you to all of my loyal customers for playing along, all of my blogging buddies and to all of my newest followers, a big welcome and thank you for becoming a part of my life.  I hope to get to know you all better as time goes on.

So the winners are as followers:
Marilyn Beesley is a customer and the winner of the $49 white pocket watch necklace
Fee of orangeinsanity@hotmail.com became a follower on my blog and won the Eiffel tower square tile ball chain necklace
Sandi of impatientcajun.blogspot.com posted a blog about my giveaway.

Two of the three winners, the last two each had 3 entries in the contest for commenting, becoming followers and for taking the time to post a blog about the giveaway. I guess that shows that the odds helped them out in this case, but Marilyn's name was the first one drawn and she just had one entry in the giveaway.  I guess it was just her lucky day.  I hope you all enjoy your gifts.  I will be contacting you and then mailing them out the first part of next week, after I get the addresses from you. 

Thanks everyone!

French Flea Shop Open This Friday and Saturday

French Flea Shop in Anoka, MN

November 27 & 28

10-5 p.m.

Come and spend some time with us this week-end.  I will be working at the shop on Friday from 1-5 p.m.  Stop in and say "hi".  I am the jewelry designer at the shop, but also create smalls and sell other small accessories as well.  Hope to see you there.

This is the front view of our shop on a late Friday evening.  It has such a lovely glow at night.

The gorgeous urns came with the building, and the contents were gifted to our shop by one of our loyal customers, Carolyn.  She just happens to be my best friend, and is such a support to us all.  Thank you for your generosity in sharing these greens with us.  They really add to the stores ambience.

Jewelry I've designed for the shops upcoming sale dates:

There is a large assortment of Eiffel tower French themed jewelry available, as well as my trademark vintage pocket watch faces with birds flying on them.  I also have a number of new pieces that are assembled with a variety of cool vintage elements, like some of the below pieces.  They make great Christmas gifts and each is a one-of-a-kind design.

Smalls that I've created or have for sale at the shop:

The bottle brush trees in the silver pieces flew out of the door at an earlier sale. 

I have created more for this sale.

Love this mini bottle brush tree under the wire cloche and butter pat.  My design.

Another couple of bottle brush trees I created.  One is under a cloche and saucer, and the other is in a pinecone base.  I also am offering the vintage shaving mirror for sale at the shop.  Fun stuff!

Lori, our burlap purse designer, created this lovely silver clock piece and the bottle brush tree are mine for sale.  Love the cloche, with the etching and the silver tray too.

The silver tray, plate and cloche are all elements I've brought to the shop to sell.

The emerald green dishes here are almost all mine for sale as well. 

They show up so nicely in this wonderful white painted desk piece.

These green dishes are sandwich style dishes.  They used to come in boxes of oatmeal years, and years ago.  I've collected them for years, but am doing some down sizing of some misc. items, and these are available to go to a good home.  The small saucers and juice cups are an awesome set up for young girls birthday parties.

What a lovely vignette Julie created here.  I provided the polka dot clear vase with greens, vintage key, etc. on the left.

Again, Julie has some wonderful painted flower pots for sale in the shop.  Right corner, "Peace" pot.  I have the black register grate, two books with holes cut into them (for a vase to fit into) and the greens offered here.

A lovely urn I found and painted.  It is so cute with the bird on top.

To see many more photos of the French Flea shop, please visit our official blog for the French Flea here , as we've just posted 40 photos on this blog post link this morning.  I just have added some of my personal items on my blog post, so to see more of the general vendors collecitons of great items check this blog out.  You also will find additional photos at another of our vendors blogs, Lanette, of Cottage Elements, and may view her blog here.  Lanette also has news about the Home Tour offered through the French Flea on December 12th.  There will be 5 homes to view for a ticket of $10.00.  Shopping at the store, and treats.  Just one of these lovely homes are worth that small ticket price.  They are truly filled with inspiring ideas!!!  Won't you join us?

I will be photographing the jewelry hopefully today for the give away to celebrate my 100th post.  Its pretty dark and dreary in the house, so I may have to turn on the lights to photograph vs. using natural light.  There just isn't much available naturally today.  Stay tuned, I haven't forgotten about the giveaway.

Gretchen