Lucky Me! {continued}

Last week, I was talking about how lucky I am. I AM! Really! If you read last week, you know it for sure. If you haven't read last week, I'll wait until you catch up. Go ahead...I'll wait.

OK.

For this week, I will talk about the boxes I received from two women whose work I admire. The first one is Kathy of Petticoat Junktion. She is somewhat of a junk collector and a furniture remodeler/painter. She and her husband sometimes do projects together. For the contest I entered, Kathy put a bunch of goodies into a Priority box for one lucky person. That would be me!!!

What I saw when I opened the box.

I'm surprised the Starfish made it intact!

 Look at these goodies! There's paint, a jar of decoupage medium, a candle, a picture frame, a couple of blocks, a stencil (which I've never done) and the rubber stamp with a letter F for Fonda. That's me!

Yay! Handles! and shells!

I'm not sure what those doo-dads are in the upper left corner, so I don't know what to do with them. What is below it is a kit to make a small sign. I'll use it to hang on the stem of my pumpkin next year! Cute! Of course I can use the paint brushes, and the shells in the green Ball jar are lovely. I've added them to my extensive shell collection. And, the handles: one for a spigot and the other for a dresser drawer. I love them both, and they are worthy of display if not used on some future project. Much thanks to Kathy!

The next box came from Donna of Distressed Donna Downhome. She wrapped and presented each piece as a little gift. It was amazing. Let's get started.

Reading the accompanying letter

 

Packaged

Opened

These were tiny boxes that held stickers and glue-on paper designs.

Packaged

Opened (The red book matches my set, but my set doesn't have this particular book. Added to it.)

Wrapped

Keys, envelopes and sewing supplies

Book

Jar of buttons and doo-dads plus a tea steeper

Just precious!

Photo copies of old photos

Original photos

Wrapped

Opened (Folding yard stick)

Wrapped

Opened

Opened

Opened

Opened (So precious)

Something wrapped, but lost track what was inside. Beautiful wrapping.

I have to do something special with this.

This last package needs some special consideration. Apparently, Donna received this little bit of craft supplies from someone. She probably took a thing or two from it, replenished it with something new, then she sent it to me. I will take something from it, add a little something to it, and send it on to someone else. I've decided who, but I can't tell.

Inside the jar with the buttons and doo-dads was a shoe string holder with a bell for the baby shoes. Just one. But, it brought back memories of seeing the ones my parents used on my shoes when I was a baby.

Now, have you seen anything nicer than this giveaway. The packages. The contents. I'm not worthy! But, I am!!! Thank you so much to Donna and Horror Monster from whence the goodies came. You see Donna was cleaning out her crafty supplies. I guess she was beyond saturation. I don't know how she did it, but she sent all kinds of items that I would have chosen myself. Now, it's time to make something! I was so lucky to win this.

If I win anything else, I will be sure to blog about it. If you have an opportunity to win anything, sign up. Someone has to win, and it might as well be you.

I'm lucky that I have a few people following me, too. I hope you consider yourselves lucky enough to be here.

Showing off at: Share Your Cup #284, Vintage Charm Party #121

From lucky me to lucky you ... and everything in between...

Lucky Me!

I consider myself to be a very lucky woman, not only because I have a wonderful family, four kitties and a nice home, but because I win stuff frequently. 

I have won craft supplies, books, and boxes of seemingly unrelated goodies to make stuff with. I enter frequently, so I guess the odds of me winning something is pretty high. And, maybe I'm just pretty darn lucky!

Just over a month ago, I won a collection of eleven fat quarters from QT Fabrics/Ink and Arrow called Say Cheese. That's a street value of over $30!

Eleven Fat Quarters of Fabric!!!

This is a collection of cameras and cheese wedges. Say cheese! is what we say when we want people to smile.

Some time ago, I won a collection of Milk Paint brand paint. 

Paint and brushes

 

16 jars!!!

 

Plus finishing oil and bonding primer and sealer

Look at all of that paint! I am indeed lucky! I think the value of this package was well over $100 retail.

I also win books frequently ever since I joined goodreads. Here's an example of the one I just finished and enjoyed:

Do you see that seal near the title? This is what it says:

It's an Advance Reading Copy. Through goodreads, authors and companies distribute books in return for honest reviews. I was one of  the lucky ones who received a copy. I would recommend this one when it's finally introduced to the world on 3/20/18! It makes me feel so special to be able to read it before you do. {snicker, snicker} To date, I have won about 30 books in the nearly two years I've belonged to goodreads. (See my 1/22/18 entry regarding goodreads.)                                                        

I've won a $75 gift card to Lowe's Home Improvement, too. That photo wouldn't have been too exciting, so I left it out. We need a heavy-duty shelf for the garage, so that's where that's going.

Long ago, when I was heavy into blog hops on stamping and scrapping sites, I would win craft supplies, like ribbon, stamps and adhesives. I'm getting back into my stamping, so I ought to belong to those kinds of groups again.

In April of 2017, I won two contests, and since they are photo intensive, I'll save them until next time. See you then!

From crafty supplies to books ... and everything in between ...

Jumping in to say...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Katie and I have made some Valentine's cards, so I thought I'd share a sampling with you.

We were playing with our die cuts and having a ball! I'm happy to share them with you. You are loved, y'know.

Showing off at: Handmade Monday #62

From heart to heart... and everything in between...

Fonda's Fabulous Funday Finds #4

On the way to Southport, there was a place called Swayne's. It was part antique store and part crafty needs. The husband ran the former, and the wife, the latter. We had never been in the store before. Once we entered, the elderly man said everything was half off. As we were perusing, someone came in who the man knew. It was during their conversation that we learned that the wife had recently died and he was closing the store. Here are the goodies we found on the crafty side:

Velcro, animal and cat eyes, and crimps

We look out for crafty items we can use. The Velcro will sit for a little while until we find a project for it. Katie makes bears and other animals, some out of mohair and others out of fabric, so the eyes will be useful. We both like to make jewelry-like items, and the crimps will come in handy. 

And, here are the vintage/antiques: 

Medium white and green enamel pan

The camera is gorgeous. There appears to be no tears in the accordion thing-y. I have no idea what that part is called, but it seems to be intact. When I go to the big city, I'll have to go to an actual camera store to understand how it works. If it does seem to work, maybe I'll get some actual film to try. 

I've seen so many blogs where cameras are displayed that I thought I'd add to what I already have - a Kodak Brownie with flash holder. (I'll have to find that and have another look at it.) I've since decided that I don't want to dust it, so it's in the case. I'll decide again later if I find that it doesn't work. 

The camera cost me $17.50. I was still hesitant to purchase it since I don't know much about cameras. I know it looks pretty, but does it work. And, do I want to pay that much for a camera that sits around and looks pretty? I guess at this point I do, but I still hope it works, and I can try it out with film.

The white and green enamel pan is different from others I've seen. I think white and blue might be the most common with white and red following. I think this is the first one I've seen that is white and green. It's in nice shape, too.

Then, there's always a stack of books:

Books

These books belong to Katie.

Showing off at: Vintage Charm Party #119, Share Your Cup #283, Create, Bake, Grow & Gather Party #301, Snickerdoodle Create, Bake, Make Link Party No. 218

From cameras to craft items ... and everything in between...

When Words Get On My Last Nerve

I have a few blogs I like to read on a regular basis, as I'm sure all we do. And, every once in awhile, I'll see a word that grates along my last nerve. You know that particular nerve. It's the one left after all of the other ones have been used up. 

The first one is curate. This is how the dictionary defines it:

verb (used with object), curated, curating.

3.to take charge of (a museum) or organize (an art exhibit):

to curate a photography show.

4.to pull together, sift through, and select for presentation, as music or website content:

“We curate our merchandise with a sharp eye for trending fashion,” the store manager explained.

Curate is pretentious when words like organize, select or collect would do. Leave curate to the museums. They're allowed to be pretentious. 

The kind of blogs I read tend to curate Pyrex bowls and vintage colorful pressed-glass vases. These objects are not ostentatious enough for curate, so let's just use little words to present your collections. My last nerve would feel better for it.

The second word is gifted, as in My friend gifted me a tea cup. The dictionary I used here (Merriam-Webster.com) defines gifted as:

1 : having great natural ability : talented

• gifted children

2 : revealing a special gift

• gifted voices

See? It doesn't even come close to describing how it is used in my example. Gifted means gave, so why not just use gave? Gifted may just sound pretentious, but it's just plain wrong. Perhaps a dictionary will give it the status of New Word for 2017 and will include it in a future update. Doubt it, and please don't. Last nerve and all that.

The third and final word is actually the phrase Without further ado. I have seen it written as Without further adieu, which is wrong. The first phrase means without further fuss, and the second means without further goodbye, in French, of course, because everything sounds a little pretentious in French. It's obviously wrong, but I see it used frequently enough for it to get on that particular last nerve.

Sooo...What word or phrase do you hear frequently enough to get on your last nerve? Do tell, but please don't name names, otherwise I will end up on someone's last nerve, and that's not where I would want to be.

From plain to pretentious ... and everything in between...