Norwex GIVEAWAY and the joy of cleaning windows

I was doing my housework this morning...good gawd...doesn't THAT sound like fun?....and it dawned on me as I was cleaning my kitchen window that I should really spread this joy around and have a giveaway!

 Hmmmm...I know, I know, not much joy in cleaning, let alone in cleaning windows....unless...


You happen to know the joy of Norwex of Canada and their absolutely fabulous window cloth !

Honestly, one of my favorite cleaning products....REALLY?
Can there be such a thing as a FAVORITE cleaning product? Pffffff....I did not think so until I found this!


              Look ----------------------------->

How clean is this?  I just wiped my window with a damp Norwex, Envirocloth and dried it with the amazing window cloth.....NO WINDOW CLEANER!!!

I am still amazed at how clean and streak free they are when I finish with them.....and did I say with NO CLEANER?

So, I wanted to share my joy with all of you! I bet you just can't wait to clean YOUR windows...right?

Well, thanks to my sister, Julie, the NORWEX distributor, you could win an Envirocloth AND the fabulous Window Cloth a $33.98 value!!!! 

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this blog and answer these two VERY IMPORTANT questions:

1. Go here and tell me what color you will choose for your ENVIROCLOTH if you win ( I won't ask about the WINDOW CLOTH, because it only comes in my favorite color...purple)

AND

2. What is the funniest, craziest, cutest, most special or just plain silliest thing you have ever seen out your window  (CLEAN answers only please)

THAT'S IT!!! A random number generator (I know, not as fun as the hat ) will choose the winner.

I guess I should add that the contest will end at midnight (west coast time) June 7th, 2012.

Good luck and I am so excited to read your stories!

Blogger's Quilt Festival...how could I resist?

One of the blogs I follow is Quiltincats. She recently posted about a Blogger's Quilt Festival and so of course, I had to check it out. Amazing! Simply amazing! Over 500 entries have been made already...that's crazy!

Well, naturally, being slightly competitive and a lover of all things quilts....I figured I better throw my hat in! What do I have to enter though? This is the last day to enter and so it's not like I can finish any of my UFO's AND take pictures AND write a story.

Let me see....I must have something around here.....

Aha! Peace, Love and Happiness! I made this one last year and it makes me smile when I see it, isn't it so bright and cheery?

 It's kind of scrappy (I love scrappy) and I also love rag quilts. They are super easy, you get to quilt as you go and they just have a homey, snuggly feel about them.





This quilt was really out of my element. I have a tendency to stay in a not so lively color pallet but I wanted bright and hippy colors contrasting with one of my favorite combinations, black and white. 

 I also love to use my embroidery machine AND I love applique....did I mention that I love all things quilt?  So I got to play with finding just the right font for my "peace, love and happy" 

and of course there is peace, love and happiness in applique too!

I had discovered in a previous rag quilt, the use of Osnaburg fabric for the inner layer. I absolutely love it! It gives my quilt a light but cozy feel and the Osnaburg just ravels so nicely!

AND, this is one of my favorite things about making a rag quilt....the back is done when the front is done and the only thing left is the binding!

So, I am going over to Amy's Creative Side now and link up to my first ever Blogger's Quilt Festival!

Come and see and the wonderful entries, you will be amazed, I promise!

Chuck it all...go serendipity shopping with me!

                           Holy smokes! Will you look at this calendar?



Where has the time gone? Those flowers should not be so happy that May is almost over!

 I feel like....it's too hot already, I want it to be spring for another couple of months....I'm drowning in procrastination, I can't seem to find the bottom of the pile...the older I get the faster the calendar pages turn and the slower my mojo moves!

BREATHE....you know what they say...."it's better than the alternative?" ....Nope... "it'll get done, just keep moving forward"....... Nope......"go shopping?" .......YES!!! GO SHOPPING.......ok, so maybe that's not really what they say but, hey, everything will still be there when you get back! Yep, the piles will remain, it will still be almost the end of May and it will still be too hot....




 I actually sat down to write about something entirely different but in a moment of serendipity, I've decided to do just that.....chuck everything and LET"S GO SHOPPING!



I love serendipity shopping trips! I have been wanting to check out some of my blogging buddies shops, so, that's where I'm going....to my blog list!

I thought I would wonder into ChristieCottage . I have never been into her ArtFire shop before and look what I found for Dad...

Isn't this a great coaster? I know a couple car enthusiasts who would appreciate this as a Father's Day gift!

This wasn't suppose to be a Father's Day shopping trip, but at BeazersGarden I found some great men's products .....and a couple things a wifey might want.


Who doesn't want their man to have great smelling feet?
I know MY nose would appreciate it if my hubby would sprinkle some of this in his shoes!

OK, so maybe it's not the BEST thing to give Dad for Father's Day but, it could just save a marriage....

I love Tigers Eye, it's got such earthy colors that go with almost anything. I found this bracelet at ElunaJewelry and she has some beautiful wire wrapped pieces Dad could get for Mom....I know, I know, that's not the way it's suppose to work for Father's Day but I think it should be Mother's Day EVERY day...don't you?






Tom is a guy who makes some very cool wood things for his ArtFire shop TRocheWoodDesigns .

I love his cutting boards!

Isn't this little pig so cute?

Pfffff....I was almost done and then I saw fAverittecreations
on my reading list and I wondered what she had going on in her shop....and look what I found!

Super Hero P.J. pillows! Gosh, I would go back in time and be a kid again just to put one of those on my Christmas wish list if I could...I love purpley pink things!

What a fun gift for a grandchild and you know you don't have to wait for a special day to get something for the grandkids!






....sigh....allright...it's time to get back to reality....BOO....but I always feel better after some retail therapy....so lookout procrastination pile, here I come!

I hope you feel energized and ready to tackle whatever pile you are facing....thanks for shopping with me!

P.S. My next giveaway is coming.....sooooo exciting!

Invigorate the creative soul....organize!

 Don't you just love organizing things in things?...bins, baskets, cupboards, shelves and now there's this! ----------------------->

 Storage things are almost...almost...as addicting as fabric to me.

In my wanderings through What's on Your Work desk Wednesday...also fondly referred to as WOYWW......one of the gals was talking about this marvelous piece of organization that she had discovered through another friend. 

Well, of course I saw the usefulness and hurried down to my local Harbor Freight Tools center and bought one....$18.99...and believe me...it holds a LOT of brick-a-brack. Isn't it marvelous? It's like a 4 layered Lazy Susan....it's metal and spins like a dream! Ok....maybe that's a little dramatic but I DO love it! 

While I was shopping...I don't think that's what the guys say when they go to Harbor Freight...but that's what I was doing, shopping, I also found ON SALE these magnetic holder strips....bingo!...I have been wanting to get one of these to hold my scissors for a long time and there they were....$4.99 regular price $9.99!! So of course, I bought two.

 When I opened them up, wouldn't you know it?...That name right there in the middle was just printed on one very long sticker. Well, naturally, I thought...I bet I could make that cute before I hang it up. 

And so I did!

 I peeled off the sticker (sorry US General, ya gotta go).

I got out my trusty E-600. Can I just say....I LOVE E-600! 

And some simply cute black and white swiss dot 1" grosgrain ribbon.....I also love swiss dot anything!

I just covered the magnets with my wonderful E-600 and laid the ribbon perfectly over the top of the magnets...doesn't that look sooooo much better than that sticker?

Of course, you could also use something like Washi tape instead of ribbon, I just happen to have a LOT of ribbon and NO Washi Tape.

 

And there you have it....a place for all my scissors.....

....uh, oh...my scissor addiction is showing pfffffff! Secretly, I have more in the drawer, I might have to buy a third strip :)

And look, even my rotary cutters can hang there and look pretty!

So, now with this new organization, I feel ready to dive into some of my procrastination pile. 

It's a good thing to change things up.....move things around.....somehow the same old brick-a-brack moved to a new place invigorates the creative soul. 

Food for shopping

When my sister and I set out on our quilt store shopping marathon last weekend, I knew we were not going to have  take time for eating because both of us think fabric shopping is life sustaining........who needs food when you're fabric shopping?  

          Don't these look delicious?--------->

 SO,  I loaded the car with water and this recipe for Chocolate Almond Granola I had been drooling over...I found it at Lauren's Latest ....she has some VERY...no, I mean VERY delicious recipes and she's funny to read! 


Of course, mine didn't look quite as delicious as hers...she shows it all sexy in a pretty bowl with some strawberries.












  
  Mine was just in a ziploc baggy....not quite the same effect, but I can tell you it is just as delicious as she describes...especially when we had it the next morning as a cereal! OMG! And the best part....the milk gets all chocolaty like when you eat Cocoa Krispies or Cocoa Puffs....YUM! 
Slurp! Slurp! 






I was just about to put together another batch because we managed to consume that first one shamefully fast.  Thought I would share it with you....not the granola, silly, that's mine....I mean the recipe...here's the link again in case you missed it up at the top there... Chocolate Almond Granola  and Lauren calls it "healthy" which I suppose it is as long as you don't eat it ALL in one day!!

Sisters...addictions...and WOYWW

My sister, Marcy, came to visit me....it's her fault I am addicted to quilting. I have always had an addiction to fabric and then she introduced me to quilt stores. THAT was the first mistake. Then, she introduced me to quilt store "runs"...THAT was the second mistake. It's not that we need an excuse to go visit ALL of the quilt stores in a given area BUT when there are prizes and free patterns involved...well, how can you NOT participate? Besides, it's fun to spend the day with a sister...and okay, so we shopped for TWO days...it was lots of fun and we also were able to convince another sister to tag along with us.

I secretly told Marcy that I was going to convert Marie to fabric...she's a paper addict, I think some of you at WOYWW know what I am talking about. I'm pretty sure the seed was planted ......as we stood in front of a new line of fabulous fabric she uttered this with a sigh..."All this cute fabric reminds me of paper, I love it!" I don't think Marie will ever stop card crafting but I say there is always room at the work desk for another addiction...isn't there? ....Ok...maybe not..........

I don't really think I could fit another thing in this space...I know it looks VERY busy, like I have been just creating like crazy! But honestly...I haven't been. I had to shuffle things around to set up the bed for my sis. I figured she might appreciate a bed instead of the floor and I guess giving up the sewing room for a sister is a fair trade for a couple of days. So.....lots of little piles in a small corner creates the illusion that I have been just ripping up the crafting world. I seriously need to get this mess straightened up..TODAY...Mother's Day is in a couple of days and I brilliantly picked up a project on our shopping spree and it needs to be completed by Sunday for my mother in law......brilliant.

So the question is...What's on YOUR workdesk? Over at Julia's blog, we share our crafting places whether they be shameful or glorious or somewhere in between. Mine always tends to be closer to the shameful side. I'm on the way over there now because it's an addiction that doesn't take up any space :)

                                 Happy WOYWW #153 everybody....thanks for visiting!

Keep it simple...WOYWW

Yep, that's what Aidan says. Nothing fancy, just a regular "A" and of course I want a dot on the "i"!

I tried to make it "cool" (in a Grandma's way of thinking)

 I even embroidered a sample letter for him to review....







Nope...nothin' doin'



On Wednesday's, a whole lot of crafty people get together and share their messes  ...er....projects with each other over at Julia's blog . So, on my work desk this week is a catcher's bag, screaming out to me to make it special! Do something "fancy" for Aidan. Make his name REALLY cool!

 But alas, all I have to share for WOYWW is the simple lettering requested by Aidan....nothing fancy....

I decided I better keep it simple as requested......

Cause this ain't nobody this 
Grandma wants to tangle with!





















Happy WOYWW #152 !