This weeks Featured Artisan is Kalyene Sue Bacon - Jardin de Lillian. Truly unique
jewelry designs! You can find Jardin de Lillian on:
Musings from Old Cedar Knoll Alpacas; nestled in the foothills of Central Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Two for Tuesday Part One!
Today I have two great things I want to share. The first is a great giveaway From Kim at Everything Etsy and Red River Paper and the second is our weekly On Fire For Handmade Featured Artisan!
Drum roll....................
Re-posted by way of Everythingetsy.com
I love to print pretty stuff! Don’t you? It’s just so rewarding to be able to create beautiful cards, labels, wall art, and photography without ever leaving home or paying anyone a dime to do it for you.
Since I’ve started blogging, it’s become even more fun because I’ve learned how to create pretty graphics, I’ve found ton’s of free printables, and I’ve discovered Red River Paper!
Red River Paper has been advertising here on Everything Etsy for almost two years now and during that time, I’ve had the chance to use a wide variety of their products. I can’t really over-state how great everything I’ve tried has turned out.
The Red River website says that their papers “meet or exceed” the quality of big name brands. My experience has been 100% “exceed”.
Red River produces all sorts of inkjet printer papers from photo paper, to notecards, to everyday use paper. The selection is vast and you really should check it out.
As they’ve done a number of times before, Red River Paper is generously sponsoring a giveaway that will provide for a very nice holiday bonus for two lucky Everything Etsy readers.
Two Winners Will Receive the Following:
Canon iP4920 Photo Inkjet Printer
Plus the following supply of notecards and envelopes:
Here’s how to enter…
Good Luck!
~Kim
Drum roll....................
Re-posted by way of Everythingetsy.com
Win a Canon Photo Printer and Paper from Red River Paper {Two Winners!}
Since I’ve started blogging, it’s become even more fun because I’ve learned how to create pretty graphics, I’ve found ton’s of free printables, and I’ve discovered Red River Paper!
Red River Paper has been advertising here on Everything Etsy for almost two years now and during that time, I’ve had the chance to use a wide variety of their products. I can’t really over-state how great everything I’ve tried has turned out.
The Red River website says that their papers “meet or exceed” the quality of big name brands. My experience has been 100% “exceed”.
Red River produces all sorts of inkjet printer papers from photo paper, to notecards, to everyday use paper. The selection is vast and you really should check it out.
As they’ve done a number of times before, Red River Paper is generously sponsoring a giveaway that will provide for a very nice holiday bonus for two lucky Everything Etsy readers.
Two Winners Will Receive the Following:
Canon iP4920 Photo Inkjet Printer
Glossy note cards 50 sheets- Matte note cards 50 sheets
- Linen note cards 50 sheets
- Supply of envelopes
- Leave a comment here about what you would use these printer to create. {1 entry}
- Visit Red River Paper here and subscribe to the helpful newsletter. {1 entry}
- Spread the word of this fun giveaway by Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or blog post. {1 entry each}
- Keep up with the latest specials by following Red River Paper on Facebook. {1 entry}
- If you subscribe to Everything Etsy, follow me on Twitter, or Like us on Facebook…you rock! {1 entry each}
Good Luck!
~Kim
Friday, November 11, 2011
Life on the Lawn
As a follow-up to my Halloween post I thought I would share a video they released today of the Trick or Treaters and one of the Lawn occupants.
Happy Friday everyone!
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Giving thanks on Thursday
Speaking of the farm, I haven't done any farm features for a while, so I think it is time for a share. Today I want to introduce you to the Chica girls, my lovely hens that were no bigger than a tennis ball just 5 months ago. They are now full grown and we hope we will have our first eggs any day now! I was really hoping to have fresh eggs by Thanksgiving to use in my egg noodle recipe. Homemade egg noodles are one of my families most special holiday traditions. It is a very simple recipe - one egg and one teaspoon salt to one cup of flour and a few tablespoons of cold water just to moisten. Our family has grown to the point that I am now up to 6 cups of noodles for Thanksgiving dinner and those noodles are always everyone's favorite. The fun part about the noodles is rolling out the dough and hanging that piece of dough until it is almost dry, then cutting them into strips that make the noodles. Add some wonderful turkey gravy and a side of cranberry relish and you have the makings of the beginning of a very special meal!
So back to the hens, here are some photos from the past few months since they came on June22.
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| 1st week of July after moving in to their new digs! |
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| 2 weeks later |
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| Growing like weeds! |
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| 2 weeks later in August and my little sweeties came to see them again! |
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| Just starting to come out at the end of Aug. |
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| They sure are getting pretty! |
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| They sure do love to scratch in the grass. |
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| Papa's painting the hen house. |
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| One of our beautiful Dominicks |
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| 1st week of October |
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| Are you going or should I? |
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| I'll go! |
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| First time out to free range on Oct. 15 |
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| My early Trick-or-Treaters - the butterfly is already out of her wings. They always want to go out to see the Chica girls! |
These are some of the things I am thankful for today. I hope you enjoyed the share.
What are you thankful for?
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Tuesday's On Fire for Handmade Artisan Treasure
Yes, I know it isn't Tuesday, but it has been that kind of week and I am really trying to get my Blog posting act together! This week's On Fire Artisan is Sarah from Finding Charm. Sarah hails from Kansas City, MO and she makes lovely, affordable, handmade jewelry! Please take a look at Sarah's pages and show her some love!
Monday, November 7, 2011
Who doesn't love a quilt!
Seriously, do you know anyone that isn't comforted by a beautiful quilt? Especially one that is old and worn. So worn, that the cotton is so smooth it feels as soft as a baby's cheeks? That is my favorite kind of quilt, but to get one like that, you either need to buy an antique or spend a few years breaking in a brand spanking new one. And that leads me to my story today. As I mentioned in my previous post, I had the pleasure of seeing some quilts that I would love to spend some years breaking in and in the process do some snuggling with my favorite people; my sweetie and grandchildren come to mind.
The quilting friend from my knitting group is Sandra and she has a very special talent for working with color. She loves color and it really suits her. Her sewing room overlooks a lovely garden patio and is washed with the most wonderful light, so much light, she calls it her beach room because she feels like she is at the beach while she works.
There were lots more to see, but mostly I wanted to give you a sneak peek into my "knitting" friend's world. And now that I have you all thinking about quilts, how would you like to win a quilt from another wonderful quilter? Yesterday, I came across the blog of a lovely lady named Tammy from The Stitching Coop. She has been making rag quilts for 11 years now and she is graciously offering to give one of her quilts to a lucky winner. The quilt she is giving away would be perfect for my granddaughter so I would be kidding if I said I wouldn't love to win it. Please head over to her blog and follow and even though it will water down the pool, enter to win this little lovely!
Later in the week I will be sharing some fabulous Advent Calendars by my crafty little sister, so make sure you check back. You might want to order one so it will arrive in time for December 1st!
The quilting friend from my knitting group is Sandra and she has a very special talent for working with color. She loves color and it really suits her. Her sewing room overlooks a lovely garden patio and is washed with the most wonderful light, so much light, she calls it her beach room because she feels like she is at the beach while she works.
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| One of Sandra's bag patterns. That is her in the red dress! |
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| This would make a beautiful Christmas quilt. |
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| Sandra creates a unique tag for the back of all of her quilts. |
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| I don't know why this wants to be upside down. :^( |
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| What she calls a simple pineapple print! |
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| A lovely beach inspired sand castle. |
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| A fun quilt with Bees! |
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| This was by far my favorite. Such a a wonderful use of batiks to create a coral reef! |
There were lots more to see, but mostly I wanted to give you a sneak peek into my "knitting" friend's world. And now that I have you all thinking about quilts, how would you like to win a quilt from another wonderful quilter? Yesterday, I came across the blog of a lovely lady named Tammy from The Stitching Coop. She has been making rag quilts for 11 years now and she is graciously offering to give one of her quilts to a lucky winner. The quilt she is giving away would be perfect for my granddaughter so I would be kidding if I said I wouldn't love to win it. Please head over to her blog and follow and even though it will water down the pool, enter to win this little lovely!
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| Click here to enter! |
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Sharing my blessings on another beautiful fall weekend!
The weather here in Central Virginia has been outstanding this fall and today was no exception! We have had cold nights and warm days and the leaves have been giving us a show for over a month now!
This past August I was lucky enough to be invited to join a lovely group of ladies for their knitting group that meets in Crozet, Va at a place called Trailside Coffee on the 1st Saturday of every month. Not everyone knits, but most do so they call it a knitting group. One of the ladies does bead work and one of them is a quilter. Yesterday, after our time was done, we were all invited to the home of the quilter to see some of her wonderful quilts - more about that tomorrow. She lives about 2 miles from where we meet and on the drive from the coffee shop to her house I saw one of the most stunning scenes I have witnessed this fall so I had to turn around and go back to take some photos. Crozet is nestled in the foot hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains about 5 miles east of where the Skyline Drive meets the Blue Ridge Parkway and from almost any vantage point you have fabulous mountain views.
Another place I have been enjoying the fall foliage display is at Thomas Jefferson's University - better known as The University of Virginia. I am blessed to be a part of this great community and as I was walking around campus the other day I captured some of the gorgeous "grounds" where I spend my working days. I say grounds because that is what they call the campus here. The central campus area has 1,160 acres and fifteen libraries (the overall size is 3,340 acres, with 529 buildings) and I am lucky enough to be able to walk these hallowed grounds on a daily basis.
And last but not least for today is our girls; the chickens that is. Their lovely home is all finished and they seem very happy. If you remember, they came to live with us on June 21 and they are all thriving in their new home. We let them out to free range about an hour before dark each day so nothing has time to get them and they are all quite beautiful and happy. They are very friendly and quite inquisitive and should start laying very soon. I am hoping they will start laying just before Thanksgiving so I can use our own organic eggs to make the noodles for dinner!
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| On my ride to work the other morning. |
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| A Red Maple ablaze with the Blue Ridge Mountains as its back drop. |
Another place I have been enjoying the fall foliage display is at Thomas Jefferson's University - better known as The University of Virginia. I am blessed to be a part of this great community and as I was walking around campus the other day I captured some of the gorgeous "grounds" where I spend my working days. I say grounds because that is what they call the campus here. The central campus area has 1,160 acres and fifteen libraries (the overall size is 3,340 acres, with 529 buildings) and I am lucky enough to be able to walk these hallowed grounds on a daily basis.
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| Path leading to the West side of the Rotunda. |
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| One of many serpentine walls leading to one of the Pavilions that line the Range on The Lawn. |
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| 8x10 hen house with run. |
