100th Post: Giveaways Are Fun!

*** Giveaway is closed***

My 100th post came sooner than expected. And has also prevented me from blogging, because I wanted this to be a special one. A giveaway!!!

My May bracelets are done. I'm much happier with the snaps. Much, much, much happier.

And while I know it is no longer April or May, that's what I'm giving away.
One April Rain bracelet and one May Flowers bracelet, as a set.

(This photo features three of the May Flower bracelets with one of the April Rain bracelets.)

Or...I guess the May Flowers one doesn't have to be a bracelet...

Leave a comment with your e-mail for your chance to win a set of the April Rain and May Flowers. You can write your e-mail like this if you're worried about spammers. ---> dawdler101(at)gmail(dot)com


Deadline: Sunday, July 25, 2010, 11:59 CT -- National Threading the Needle Day

If there are problems with posting comments, you can e-mail me directly (at the address example above) to enter to win.

Speaking of giveaways...Kim, over at Kim-Anh Nguyen, is hosting a giveaway, too. Hers is definitely more awesome than mine. It's her first one! Be sure to check it out. She's an amazing illustrator and is giving away two packs of her drawings to two different winners. TWO packs! Go check it out...after entering to win mine!

Finder's Keepers, I Guess!

Made a visit to the library today. The little pirate insisted on watching Astro Boy (it's playing at our local theater for free June 29, but he couldn't wait...and is smart enough to know that he would find it at the library...what a stinker).

Soo...anyway...I started parking way out in the parking lots with the hope that it will help me become more fit, because I have to walk further. You know what...the other advantage to this (other than extra exercise), is that it makes for the easiest and quickest getaway from just about any parking lot!

But, today, the main advantage was this find. 

Perhaps I am wrong in keeping it...but after all, there were no cars around where I was parked, because nobody parks in the boonies, so I figured whoever it belongs to is surely not in the library at that given time. Perhaps somebody will notice me wearing it when I'm at the library and be brave enough to speak up so they can claim it back. And I might be able to post this picture around for somebody to claim it that way, too. I will however, study it carefully and use it as inspiration for a bracelet I make in my future. It's too cool!

Potholder Pass - Received

I got a special surprise in the mail. Aren't those mushrooms cute?! They're so happy!

I participated in Potholder Pass 3, over at During Quiet Time, and focused so much on making and sending mine, that I forgot I was getting some in the mail, too.

I was so fortunate to get a couple of potholders and a tea towel adorned in the same fabrics/colors from Miesmama.

These have been so great to have in the kitchen. Miesmama's color choices were perfect!

(By the way, those are some homemade buns on the stove - made with olive oil instead of butter. Our slamon burgers were delicious on them for dinner last night, and the leftover buns taste great dipped in my favorite hummus recipe for lunch today!)

I also have been having fun checking out Miesmama's blog! Swapping sure does have plenty of advantages! :) Thanks, Becky!

May Flowers Bracelet

Slow and steady wins the race. I know I have the slow part down...not entirely sure I understand the "steady" part. It is not May...but nevertheless, I'm working on the May bracelet. Determined. And not quite there yet.

I wanted snaps...I thought I had snaps. And I finally found snaps...after I put these clasps on...which I knew I needed to immediately remove. Yuck. This is not a clasp situation...

Chocolate Chip Scones

How I started my day...and ended my day. I thought they were pretty delicious. They use applesauce in place of the butter (our applesauce happened to be homemade with cinnamon...extra yummy). It is sort of weird how I had all the ingredients necessary to make this...we really have no food in the house (pickles, pretzels, and peanuts for lunch). I am always amazed how we can end up making some yummy treat like this, even when grocery shopping needed to be done days ago. Simply amazing! God gave us this day our daily bread...yet again!

Chocolate Chip Scones

My Little Pirate

...still doing piratey things.

April Rain Bracelet - Finished

I was able to make four of them. They sure were great fun to make.

I fished out all of my clear, white, and blue beads in my glass gem bead stash. Then, strung them on this blue-gray yarn (I bought it in Germany almost 10 years ago). Did a couple rows in a rib pattern, then did garter stitch for 14 rows and while listening to the end of a book on "tape," placed a bead every time I heard "the," and finished it off with a couple of rows in rib pattern. Each one is unique (I made four)! The crazy thing is, that I placed the final bead on the final bracelet when my book ended. And the even crazier thing is that every day I worked on these, it rained. So weird!

You might find one in my shop...if they haven't been purchased yet! :)

I still had some yarn left over. So, I made another wooden beaded bracelet set. (I still have leftover yarn...so maybe I'll make more sets in these colors.)

April Rain Bracelet - Attempt #1

It's June...but I'm determined to get my April and May bracelet(s) completed. Here is my first attempt at April Rain. I ended up not liking the binding of edges for this, and have ripped it out and am in the process of reworking it...in the round.

Happy Chocolate Ice Cream Day!

It's Chocolate Ice Cream Day! I had to run some errands and the little pirate was with me. I told him if he behaved and followed directions we would get some chocolate ice cream.

Originally, I wanted to take him to Braum's. But, I also wanted to eat ice cream outside, and still had one more stop...and thought it would be more cost effective to buy a tub of ice cream than to buy ice cream cones...turns out the stop I went to didn't have chocolate ice cream...and I didn't want to settle for anything other than that...and the little pirate was way past his ends wits with running errands. So, we got some chocolate milk, came home, put it in the ice cream maker with a cup of white milk, 1/2 cup of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla...

...watched a Big Bird movie while we waited. Then, added mini chocolate chips the last 5 minutes, scooped it out, and sprinkled it with chocolate sprinkles.

Finger-licking good!

Golden Package! -- Nooch In The Mail

Becca, over at Adorable Optimism wrote about how she did a little vegan experimentation...to the point of buying nutritional yeast. (Macaroni & "Cheese" made using nutritional yeast featured below from chooseveg.com.)

Which she in turn found that she just hated, no matter what she tried using it in. She challenged her readers to give her some recipes to change her mind, and I suggested sprinkling it on popcorn (because a friend told me about that, and my son and I seemed to enjoy that well enough). Well, one thing led to another and she no longer has her nutritional yeast (aka "nooch), and I do! We are REAL bloggers now! :) Thanks, Becca! This was a fun package to receive. I love the special touch of a flower drawn on the front! Cute, cute!

If you look at my floor in just the right light and angle, it sparkles...and that's not because I mopped it...it's because she made my opening-the-package experience more special by including glitter and confetti!

The cutest little card (notice the glitter...everywhere)! Fun times! (The card is made by Hallmark, by the way. It's super cute...one of those tri-folds that doesn't need an envelope...I love those.)

It looks as if Becca spent some quality time punching out the confetti. Frogs and lizards! Too cute.

I had to keep it!

And embellish the lid of the container it's stored in!

Dawdling is great fun, I tell ya! :)

So...now I'm going to try my best to keep you updated with what I make using the nutritional yeast and provide a bit of feedback. Keep posted! :)

Potholder Pass

I signed up to be a part of the Potholder Pass: Round 3 over at During Quiet Time (isn't that an awesome blog name). I was suppose to have my two potholders sent off to my secret partner by the end of May. But, that didn't happen, and I feel badly about it. But, I finished them now, and am pretty happy with my end results. I never made potholders before (the potholder in the top photo even has a pocket to slide the hand into for convenience grabbing and more protection when using the oven).

(There is a reason I am not showing the backside to the one pictured in the bottom photo...it would definitely show that I need a little more help in putting the binding on...if that strip of fabric around the outer edge is even called binding?)

While I was working on them, my husband asked, is that how you make a quilt...and I answered, "Well...I think it's the same concept as making a quilt...if I were making a quilt, I would use these same techniques...and this is how I make a quilt...just not sure if it's the way a quilt is suppose to be made." Then, I probably chuckled with glee from all the fun I was having making these!

Thank you, Amy, for letting me have this opportunity. I had a blast!

And thank you to my potholder pass partner receiving my potholders...for being open minded to me never having made potholders before and not following a pattern to do so. Also, for being patient with me mailing these out four days after the date I was suppose to send them. (You don't know who you are at this moment...but you will soon know who you are.)

New Yarn, Flower Fun!

Here's another little project using my new fun yarn I posted about last week. I'm not sure yet...but I think knitting flowers is my new favorite thing to knit!

Shhh! Don't tell the Library.

About a month ago, I bought a cassette player (new from the store). I did this for a number of reasons.

1. So that I could listen to books while dawdling. 

2. Because our car doesn't have a tape player. 

3. Because our library has LOADS of books on cassette for adults and also children...thus meaning my little pirate could listen to more books being read to him while looking at the book during our 30 minute round trip drives for every time we go into town...which lately has been almost daily (the library has only a few CDs for children). 

4. The cassette player came with a microphone, and I could then record family and friends reading the little pirate's favorite stories so that he could listen to them any time he wanted. 

5. It came with an adapter to plug into an outlet...so I didn't have to spend money on batteries (and our car has an adapter for the cigarette lighter so we can plug things in).

Well...the silly thing broke 30 pages before the end of the first book I was listening to on it. Grr!

Oh well...I found the book at a book store and finished the end of the book in about 10 minutes while sipping on an iced chai. And I returned the cassette player and got a new bra and underwear in it's place...and still have money left over. Crazy! (My husband laughed at me...and I don't blame him...I find it kind of funny myself.)

My dad saved the tape and it's been returned to the library.
Never again...