Gorgeous jewelry giveaway!

**This giveaway is now closed.

One of my favorite bloggy people is Beki at Pampering Beki. She is such a sweet person and blogger. She makes some beauuutiful jewelry to boot. :)

Beki has some gorgeous new pieces I can’t wait to show you! The first is an ornament I just absolutely love. I know it’s because I’m in the Christmas clouds right now, but it just makes me smile:

What a sweet way to remember the holiday – maybe this year was the year your first baby was born – or your last. ;) We got married near Christmas, so if I had seen this years ago, I would have snatched it up! And you won’t believe the price – only $20!! What a great gift idea!

I love that no one else on Earth will have a necklace just like yours, because Beki will customize it for your family:

I think I will do this one with our four initials – maybe hubby and I on the outside, the kids in the middle. I’m checking with Beki on that one. ;)

OK you Twilight freakedy freaks – get ready to squeal. (Plugging ears.):

I guess this is a good saying for Twilight, yes? Shhhh….I still haven’t read them! Wait, what is that sound? Oh yes, it’s my Stink Eye sister harassing me from across town to read them already!! I will, I swear! Soon. In a few months. Or a year. I will.

I love the mix of the stones on this one, and I adore the words she used:

Beki also creates other beautiful pieces like these:

And that’s not it – there’s also gorgeous hair clips, kid’s jewelry and brooches:

I have one of Beki’s necklaces and wear it all. the. time. I adore it:

I wore it today, yes I did. Here's me at 11:30 p.m. wearing the beautiful necklace, taking a picture in our laundry room because it's the only room with good "picture taking" light. Ha!

Beki has graciously offered one of you her “Believe” necklace:

Perfectly fitting for this time of year.

You know the deal! To be entered to win this sweet necklace, leave a comment here this weekend. To get a second entry, visit Pampering Beki and browse her items to find your favorite. Come back here to let me know which one you love!

The giveaway will close at noon Eastern time on Monday the 23rd! (Can you even BELIEVE Monday is the 23rd?!)

Comment love, a winner and announcements.

WOWZA peeps -- that was a HUGE response to the Scribble It giveaway. That was FUN! :) The winner (I feel like I need a drumroll for this one!) is...

Kat at Measuring my life in love

Yippee Kat! Please email me and I'll connect you with Cammi.

I have a humongo favor to ask of you all! My son's nursery was featured on Design Dazzle awhile back and has been chosen as a Design Dazzler and one of the top ten posts on Toni's blog. If you haven't seen it before, here is my favorite room in our house: Oh I love it so. :) If you have a few seconds, I would really appreciate your comment here at Design Dazzle. The comments are open through this Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific time and the post with the most comments wins some awesome stuff. (No signing up necessary, you can just comment like you do here.)

If you do comment -- YOU will be entered to win a total of $500 in prizes and gift certificates as well! (Three commenters on all of the nominee posts will share the prize.) You can't beat that! All of this is to celebrate Design Dazzle's first "birthday" -- if you haven't visited this site, you must. It is the place to find fantastic baby and kid room ideas. (Click on the button below to get to Design Dazzle.) There is a huge giveaway going on right now, so check it out!

I'm so pleased to announce my friend Kimba at A Soft Place to Land has created an ebook filled with fantastic Christmas decor ideas!:

You’ll find over 180 photos and 72 pages of detailed, step-by-step instructions for five new Christmas projects for your home and gift giving. Check it out by clicking on the button above to get to Kimba's site. This ebook is good -- I've seen it! :)

And finally, I hope you'll join me for my Second Annual Christmas Tree Party on Monday, December 14th!

The code for this cutie button is on the fritz, we're working on it. I hope to get this going soon, so you'll be able to copy it to your site. If you want to get some inspiration for this year's party, check out the links from last year here. Gorgeous!

Yippee, yippee, I'm so ready to decorate for Christmas now! I was ready weeks ago, then I was OK to hold off a bit, now I'm raring to go! First project I'm tackling -- the dining room table. It's going to be sooooo beauuuutiful! (That's the plan anyway.) Stay tuned!

Fantastic vinyl giveaway!

**This giveaway is now closed!

Well this is a good one folks. (Aren't they all?) I can't wait to share my latest fab giveaway with you!

Although it's supposed to be an unlucky day today, it's going to be a great one for one of you Squeezies! Cammi at Scribble It has graciously offered one of YOU a gift card for her vinyl products!

You know I love the vinyl -- I use it all over the place. The great thing about these items is you can use them anywhere. A mirror, a frame, the possibilities are endless. You can definitely use this product even if you are renting -- put them on a board and hang it with a ribbon, for example. These are a few of my favorites...

Look! Squeal! This is so similar to my laundry room vinyl! I get so many questions about it, so here. you. go.

I think these hanging utensils would be so stinkin' fun on the backsplash in a kitchen:

(And you can get them in silver, so you are set.)

OK, I couldn't let this post get by without including some adorable little owls. I mean, seriously. Look at the one with the flower in her hair:

I have a thing for the vinyl dandelions. If you got this one, I would spread these out over a whole wall:

Have you seen those vintage prints with the red bicycle? How fun with this bicycle built for two be on a large board, all distressed and hung on a wall?:

I love simple embellishments like this one:

This one may go on our mantel. I have been trying to find the perfect, skinny, simple vinyl to put in a spot there. This would look fab in the spaces above windows and doors too. What a great accent! And it's less than $4 for a 22-inch wide vinyl -- that's fantastic.

This one is for the front door, but instead of just putting it up for one season, try it in red, on a white, distressed board, hung on the front door from a gorgeous, thick ribbon:

That way, you can use it every year. ;)

If you have or want beadboard in your bathroom, then your bathroom is calling out for this one:

Doesn't it look like it would work perfectly?

Lastly, I LOVE this -- put it on a board, then attach the board to the wall with hinges:

I mean, this is just fun, that's all I'm sayin'. :) It's the perfect time to buy for the holidays too -- orders will be shipped within two to five days! That's fast enough for my impatience, and you know that's hard to do. Cammi also has a great photo gallery where you can see many of the items in color, in real homes.

To be entered for a $25 gift card towards any purchase at Scribble It -- custom or otherwise -- you know the drill! Leave a comment here this weekend. For a second entry, check out Cammi's site here, find one of your favorites, then come back to leave another comment with that one. (You may need to wait a sec for each page to load.)

If you post anonymously, please make sure to leave an email and name so I know who you are if you win! This giveaway will close at noon (pacific time) on Monday, the 16th.

A dining room reveal!

Well, its not completely done, but I thought I would stop the torture and just show you already!! :)


I have long said there are three rooms I think you can do totally dramatic and fun. Your laundry room, powder room and your dining room. The first two because they are usually small and can take pretty much whatever color you want. The last, because I think dining rooms should have a little bling and drama, just because they can.


Drama it is:
The bench I will show you more of soon. It's drivin' me batty! Argh!! It's going to be gorgeous when I get it just right. (Dad is to the rescue this week -- I'll explain more later.)
The hutch redo I showed you here, and now I love that I can see what's inside:
The window redo I showed you here. I added molding, bamboo roman shades and made my new drapes:

Joann Etc. is STILL out of my trim to finish off the two head chairs. (Pout.) I was thisclose to driving 45 minutes today to get it from another store, but I held back. Have I mentioned I'm insanely impatient?

BUT I did have a couple lumbar pillows made for them, and those make me feel soooo much better about the unfinished chairs:

Aren't they adorable?!

I used scrap fabrics from the chairs and I adore them.

The table setting I showed here. I pieced together dishes from HomeGoods, Target and Pier 1:

The centerpiece is one of my favorite parts of the room, and it all started with a $4 mirror. You can see the how-to here.

Everything works so great with my cedar chest I redid months ago:

I showed you how incredibly annoying easy it was to reupholster dining chairs here. I used a brown faux silk on the backs, a creamy linen on the seats, and a pattern with all of the colors on the fronts:

Reason #7,839 I love my husband -- when I put the fabric on the chairs to show him what it would look like, I asked, do you think it's too much? His response -- "Maybe for some people, but not for us." LURVE that man.

I love to paint our ceilings, and I showed you how I did this one here.

It makes the molding POP!
The light. THE LIGHT I LOVE!! It was a knock of a Pottery Barn light I showed you here.
My version is from Home Depot and cost about $100 less (plus free shipping!).

I need to lower it just a couple inches, but for now, it's just fine. :)

My favorite time to enjoy this room is at night:

I'm not lyin' when I tell you I've had the chandy turned on every. single. evening, whether or not we're downstairs. I don't turn it off till we go to bed. It's so lovely to look at when we come down the stairs throughout the evening:

And because I'm a sucker for a good before and after, here's how the room looked years ago:

Then, a couple years later:

And last year...

Now:

Last year:

Today:

DRAMA!! I love it!! It is a dining room after all...so it's allowed. ;)

The winner of the ABCD Images giveaway is Erin @ Thimble Ambitions! Congrats Erin, email me and I'll get you in touch with Angie!