Pear Tree Greetings Giveaway...

Sara has started the tradition of giving out personalized Valentine's cards to her friends.  She loves choosing the photo(s) and the layout, along with the wording and deciding who will recieve them.  One of Sara's personality traits that I adore is her blatant honesty.  She will always offer a hug or an I love you, and you never have to wonder where you stand with her.  Sara will tell you her favourite holiday is Christmas, but Valentine's Day is a serious contender for first place.   It's the one day of the year that speaks Sara's complete love language- words of affirmation, touch and gifts of appreciation.

This year we were contacted by Pear Tree Greetings to choose some cards for Sara and then host a giveaway for our readers.  We looked through all of the card options and decided to use their Valentine's Day Photo Cards.

Sara knew that this year she wanted to include a picture of her and William aka 'hot tamale' as well as a photo of herself.  So we went with these...

Then we looked through the various designs and settled on the Kid's Valentine's Photo Cards Photo Paper Happy Heart Day.  Sara loved that she could add her name along with some x's and o's...

Sara's favourite Valentine memory is the first Valentine's Day that her and William celebrated as boyfriend and girlfriend.  She walked in and he was standing there holding balloons and flowers along with a very large box of chocolates.  I know his parents well, and I can honestly say they raised that boy right!  Sara was so over the moon about it and had so much fun telling everyone that approached the table that he was hers.  They have been dating now for two years,  and they are hands down one of the cutest couples I've ever known.  Not that I am biased or anything, but when your daughter is born and you are given the laundry list of things they will never do and then by golly they DO  those things- well, you celebrate it.  Big.

Leave a comment and tell me your favourite Valentine memory and Sara and I will choose a winner to receive a $25 credit to Pear Tree Greetings to pick out your own Valentine's cards!   We will choose a winner by February 1st.  Good Luck...

xoxo,

Shaggy Dog Eats- a giveaway...

A very good friend of mine has written a fabulous cookbook for dog treats.  We have had so much fun over the holidays baking treats for Jack & Violet, and they have given every recipe so far a resounding two paws up!

Our last homeschool book club book was A Dog's Purpose, so the kids got together and along with book club discussion we made treats for our furry friends...

Today I am giving away a copy of Christy's book, Shaggy Dog Eats  Just leave me a comment telling me about your dog and what he/she means to you.  Sara will be choosing a winner on Friday- and I will ship your book out to you pronto!

Good Luck!

Reclaimed wood...a Giveaway!

My friend Melaine from My Sweet Savannah is doing an e-course, as part of

Jeanne Oliver's summer series, on using reclaimed wood to make frames and signs

and other wonderful things.  Melaine is one of the sweetest people I know in the blog-world and has built most of the lovely frames/signs in our cottage.  I am excited to be taking this course and finally channeling my inner construction diva ;)

Do you want to join me on a journey of erasing

our fear of power tools forever?  And maybe make

some cool things for ourselves too?

Melaine has generously agreed to giveaway FIVE spots
in her e-course to readers of Little Cottage on the Pond!

To enter the giveaway simply:
 Leave me a comment telling me the last power
tool you used {keep it clean ladies!}.

And if you are too impatient and would like to enroll in
Melaine's class for a reasonable $10 you can!

To register go to jeanneoliver.ning and register (this part is free).

You will find the mini course along the left hand side of the site under COURSES.

Click on the course you want to register for and pay.

If you don't see the course you are looking for click "view all" under the courses for a complete list of courses.

Sara & I will announce the FIVE winners on Wednesday!

Snapstagram Giveaway...

Anyone who follows me on Instagram knows that I am pretty much addicted.

Just a smidge.

Okay, I'm very addicted.  Looking for a support group, but instead I found Snapstagram.

I love using Snapstagram to capture all of the fun things I see when out and about and for capturing quick impromptu moments with my kids.  I really find myself pulling out my DSLR less and less, and just reaching for my iPhone, using Instagram then printing my photos via Snapstagram.  They have everything from 4x4 prints, 8x8 canvas, and even accessories such as frames and photo books. Great gift ideas and I even use some of the prints as gift tags for presents.

Snapstagram contacted me a few weeks ago to offer a giveaway to my readers.  Not only did they offer y'all a giveaway, but after reading my blog the sweet woman who contacted me wrote:

Also, below is a promo code specifically for your son David (hope he has Instagram!). The story of him dropping out of High School was amazing, what an inspirational story & so innovative. We can call it a 
graduation gift!


Gotta love a company that is still small enough to care about people and be moved by their stories.  As if I wasn't a fan of Snapstagram before- they made me fall in love a little bit more with them after that.

So here is what they are offering:  Two promo codes (two winners!) to use for the 4x4 Snapstagram prints.  I have displayed these several ways around our cottage.  My favourite right now is sitting out in a bowl on the coffee table for guests to thumb through.  I've even had Hunter arrange them on the table like picture cards to tell a story.

Just leave a comment telling me & Snapstagram what capturing memories through pictures means to you.  That's it, that simple- and I will let Sara pick two numbers to choose the winners on Monday morning.

Gardening & a winner...

I love this time of year in our garden!  Blooming hydrangeas, gardenias bursting with flowers, and my poor dill in the herb garden.

This is NOT my dill.  My dill is gone to the nub, so nothing to photograph!  However, if I could grow dill without a certain rabbit eating it I am sure it would look like this!

The culprit?  Rabbits.  Wah, wah, wah...

I've read that planting lavender around the other herbs will keep the bunnies away.

Not so much for my garden it seems.  I picture fat rabbits, bellies full, but sleeping beautifully because the entire time they were eating my herbs they were inhaling the sweet scent of lavender.

In other news...

This kid is beyond ready for summer break!

Last night Travis and I stumbled onto a garage sale at the Extreme Home Makeover house in Kemah.

The people whom the home was built for are moving.  We spent quite some time talking with them and their lovely children.  Also, I bought this...

I literally sat down on it and said SOLD!  It was built from doors in Galveston after Hurricane Ike.  Love.  (not the hurricane, the bench!)

And last but not least, congratulations to Andrea of Willow Wisp Cottage  for winning the Sew a Fine Seam bag by Jill!  Sending it off to you this morning :)  If you have not visited Andrea's blog- go now! She has a newly styled living room by the lovely and talented Holly Mathis.  It is just gorgeous!

Have a lovely weekend!

Shabby Apple Give-Away...

dress from Shabby Apple that I wore to the Fireman's Christmas party...

What I would pick...

If we were going to renew our vows...

Shabby Apple is offering one of my readers a $50.00 gift certificate to use on their website! (available to US residents only)

Just browse through their vintage clothing line and let me know what item you would purchase with your gift certificate!

I will let Sara choose a winner from the comments by this coming Friday.  Good Luck!

Winner chosen- Jane from Blondie's Journal!  Thanks for entering :)

Shabby Apple Giveaway...

Shabby Apple has so many adorable vintage-inspired dresses and it makes me so happy to have been asked to host a giveaway for one $50 gift card!  (You need to have a USA shipping address to be eligible for entry) To enter the giveaway, Shabby Apple would like you to do two things:

1.  *Like* Shabby Apple on Facebook- right here.

2.  Leave a comment below with your favourite Shabby Apple item.

I'll update this post next Sunday (September 16th) to announce the winner.  But really you're all winners, because you can use the discount brightoncottage10off' to receive 10% off your Shabby Apple purchase for the next month!

*And the winner is:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:  2

 Calli said...

I like them on fb and I love the Blue Eyes dress

Timestamp: 2012-09-16 12:15:07 UTC

Congratulations Calli!  I will email you with the information to get your gift card!

A Give Away....

  One of the rooms in our home that I am most anxious to "redo" is our library.  It's tiny and was originally meant to be a formal dining room.  Not something that would be used often (if ever!) in our family, so we decided to close it in and created our "library".  This is probably my favourite room in the house (next to the newly done kitchne!) because it is a space where I can blog, read, and lately- teach.  Since I quit teaching this past year I decided to start tutoring.  I never dreamed it would take off the way it has, so it has been an adjustment to my thinking that I was going to have all of this free time to fill up.  This week I am teaching a math camp with five students.  We gather in the library to review concepts, work on problems and explore numbers.  I love that this room holds antiques my dad has given me, the books I love to read, my design dream board, and now my students.
   The room is overflowing with books and learning tools.  So much so that my original half wall bookcases are busting at the seams, and we are in need of larger floor to ceiling shelves to accommodate all of the stuff!

The room when we moved in....

Shelves that Travis built...

Where I blog....

Table & chairs in the middle of the room....

Design dream board and new wall colour....

Rhoda over at Southern Hospitality is one of my favourite blog reads.  Not just because she has amazing design savvy and serious decorating skills, but because she is a positive, strong, and tenacious woman who has overcome some serious life curve balls and come out all the better for it.  I love a good triumph over bad story and this woman has done exactly that.  I also admire the love she has for her family, especially her parents who remind me so much of my own!

Head over to see Rhoda over at Southern Hospitality to see the wonderful give away she has going on!  Just leave a comment on her blog telling her about a room in your home you would like to make over using the Chip It!  tool from Sherwin Williams for another chance to win a $1,000 Visa gift card and a $200 Sherwin-Williams gift card.

  I'd love to hear what room you would redo in your own home  : o )

*Entries from all participating blogs will be pooled for winner selection; only two entries per household. This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 7/23/12-8/10/12.

Be sure to visit Sherwin-Williams’ brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!

Giveaway...

If you go over here to Chipping with Charm you can enter to win one of these...

Don't miss out!

Stay tuned...Giveaway Ahead!

I've never done a giveaway post before. Truth is I never had anything fabulous to give away...until now!

Stay tuned...