Begin Again and Again and Again...

I love this picture. It is of me. And I love it! I typically hate pictures of myself. My Bondi Band displays perfectly my love hate relationship with running; my shoulders look good; my eyes aren't showing which is super, cause they get all wonky in pictures sometimes! Love it :) Below are further attempts at pre and post run picture taking... note the lovely shade of red of my face post run... See what I mean about the wonky eyes. Weird. And yes, thank you for noticing, I do need to wear two sports bras when I run. I'd like to introduce my new love... a Garmin Forerunner 405cx. Love it! Of course I haven't used it yet. So, I love the idea of it :) Mike knew just what my heart desired for Christmas ( I may have dropped a hint or two ). My present to myself: I have an older generation 30 GB, which rocks, but it is cumbersome to run with. I've been wanting a shuffle for a while cause they are cute the perfect size to run with ;) Which brings me to the GIVEAWAY! I am in n...

If you go here , you could win the above quilt or the one below, from the lovely Chelsea! I love my fluffy comforters, but there is just something about a quilt... Quilts remind me of my childhood. My Grams was a seamstress and she sewed the most wonderful quilts! She loved to sew crazy quilts and I loved to snuggle under them! Stay warm people! :) Trish

Go here ( actually don't, it will increase my odds ) Check out this giveaway ! Jen rocks!

I hope everyone had a great holiday! The pic above is of our local fireworks, which we are lucky enough to be able to see from our house :) We had my family over today for a cookout. Steak and chicken on the grill. Yum!!! I chose the chicken. Weird right. I LOVE steak! However, I had two cupcakes yesterday that my daughter made and decorated red, white and blue for a party, so I felt like I'd indulged enough! I love cooking for people. I think I should have more parties :) I ran yesterday for the first time in a long time. I decided to try out the high school track made out of recycled tires. My hip (long story) was sore, but bearable. I started over with Week 5 of the Couch to 5K training program. Figured it was best not to rush it and injure myself again. I had enough left at the end to run the bleacher stairs for 3 minutes!! (My quads were screaming, but it felt oh so good ;) You can't really tell in the pic, but my face was sooo red! I hate that I get this red. My middle d...

If I knew how to integrate a drum roll into this post, you'd be hearing it now... I have a few things to say, but I'll save them for another post. This is purely giveaway people. Thanks for your patience. To reward you, I will now have TWO prizes instead of the one I had originally planned :) Prize package #1 : The winner of this package will receive a ONE year subscription to Runner's World and a lovely Sweaty Band! (Thick, Serenity style, pink, blueish, and taupe. ) Prize Package #2: The winner of prize #2 will receive a ONE year subscription to Country Living magazine and their choice of 4 notecards from my Etsy shop! Das rules... each thing you do will earn you one entry! Please leave a separate comment for each. 1. Leave a comment on this post. Please let me know if you'd like prize #1 or prize #2. Or either. 2. Link back to my giveaway. I don't tweet or facebook or whatever, but if you say you tweeted (twittered?? huh?) or did a little sky writing, I have...

I was supposed to post my birthday giveaway Sunday. However, I was under the weather Sunday and Monday, thus no post. I'm better today, but overwhelmed with catching up on the last couple of days. I will post my giveaway in the next day or so. Thanks for your patience and I'll try to make it worth your while. This post is title 99.5, cause my birthday giveaway was supposed to correspond with my 100th post ;) Soon peeps! Trish

Yikes! I'm a little ashamed. Has it really been over a month since I've posted?? Indeed... I'd love to say I've been in Europe or somewhere exotic, but nope. Still here in good old Wisconsin. I've been busy with back to school and work, but who hasn't. So really, I have no excuse. Just an apology. If you're still out there, I'm sorry. Thanks for hanging!! Here's a quick look at some of what's been happening: Btw , Mavis at We Chirp , is having a fabulous giveaway. We all love Heidi Devlin of Foxgloves, Fabric and Folly. Well, head over to We Chirp to visit Mavis and enter her giveaway for one of Heidi's fantastic pillows! Peace Trish

Wow!! That is about all I can say about this giveaway!! Go here to win this yummy quilt!! Spend any amount of time at Marie-Madeline Studio and you will be in awe. It is awesome!! Sorry to make this post so short! I have daughters to snuggle with. We have a rare night in tonight and I'm taking full advantage!! Peace... Trish

*Edited to add, Comments are now closed. I will post the winner soon and send them an email!! Thanks to everyone who entered and for all of your great comments. In the next week or so, I hope to visit each of your blogs!! I know you've all been waiting with baited breath and trust me, I appreciate it. I'm running a little late with this, due to softball running late, lemon bars that HAD to be made and well, life ;) So, here it is... To celebrate my first ( and only so far ) sale from my new Etsy shop, Sewin , I am having a giveaway!! "What do I win?" you say. Well, in a sense, that is up to you! I have these two lovely fabrics. Tile Mosaic in turqoise, by Laura Gunn, her Lantern Bloom collection for Michael Miller Charima Paisley Tomato, by Chez Moi for Moda You, well, the winner, will get to choose from one of these fabrics and then choose either a skirt for a little girl (up to a size 10/12), a head scarf, or a skirt and a headscarf sized for an 18" doll. Co...

Hi all! Just popping in quick to say hi and tell you about this awesome shop! They are having a giveaway for one of their sweet mini watercolors. I'm tellin' ya, total awesomeness!!! So, go here if you want a chance to win!! Where Eagles Dare is just too cool. Seriously! Talk about talent...

Hi all!! So, the drawing has been done. Via a very scientific method, I might add. I tallied up the number of entries each person had, and wrote their name on that many slips of paper. My lovely assistants Mackenzie and Katie then drew the names. With out further ado, the winners are: Mia ~ mini magnet set Salad for Breakfast ~ bracelet Minishoes1 ~ ring Congrats!! The winners will be notified via email or blog shortly. They will have 48 hours to respond with their address, or another winner will be drawn!! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! to everyone who entered. I am hoping to visit each and everyone of your blogs this week sometime if I haven't already. Your recipes are wonderful and have given me some great ideas for yummy eats and drinks ;) And I have been lucky enough to win this gorgeous bracelet from the very sweet Lori at Morning Glories and Moonflowers and her Etsy shop too silly sisters . Lori makes the cutest button bracelets and very cool necklaces. Check her out and...

Be forwarned this is wordy! Sorry . All righty, here is the long promised tutorial. Although, I am sure by now you all have figured out how to do it. What took so long, you say? The pics. I haven't had time to take and download the pictures. The project itself is easy. Here goes. You will need two terra cotta pots, of equal size, two terra cotta saucers, one at least two inches bigger than the pots. The second saucer can be the same size or larger, de pending on the look you are going for. I recommend at least a couple inches bigger than the other saucer . I used four inch "rose" pots, a six inch saucer and an eight inch saucer. You will also need some adhesive. If you will be placing this outside, make sure your adhesive can handle it. I used E6000 . You will also need spray paint or terra cotta paint and than whatever goodies you want to use to embellish your bird bath. First, turn the smallest saucer over, so that the "bowl" part is underneath. Place adhesive...

Ugh. Wednesday. Boooring. I have the middle of the week blues people. Seriously. I've been fighting a headache since I woke up. I tried a nap. Woke up. Headache is still here. I mean, come on. I think I'm just going to go to bed and hope for the best. Tomorrow is Thursday after all! I will be posting my "tutorial" on how to make a cute and inexpensive bird bath tomorrow or Friday. (depends if the vice squeezing my head loosens.) And stay tuned. I'll be posting a giveaway on Friday!! Peace, Trish

Kimba at A Soft Place to Land is hosting a garden party! I thought, hmmm... I have a garden ;) So, here are some pics of my various gardens and one that is in need of some TLC (read professional) help! tomatoes, lettuce and a strawberry soon to ripen (the trick is getting to them before the birds!). Lavender is a favorite of mine, unfortunately it is only an annual here in Wisconsin, dragonflies watching over my garden and a pretty purple Iris. My little garden gnome to welcome you to my garden. In hindsight, he should have been first instead of here in the middle. Oh well... Some herbs, hydrangea planted this spring, cool thrift find, heart shaped rock (I'm always finding these. Ok, at least I think it looks like a heart!) And here is the space that really needs help. Overgrown and out of control. As you can see by the wheelbarrow, I've sorta got a plan. I just feel terrible cutting down the trees ... or whatever they are. So, if you have any thoughts, feel free to shout ...

Ok, I know some of you have seen Jenn's website (or Etsy shop), Noodle and Lou . Well, head on over to Raven's blog, Dirty Pretty Things and you can win some Noodle and Lou goodies!! Not to mention check out Raven's very cool blog. And she (Raven) used to model!! (I'm only a little, teensy weensy bit jealous) ;)

Hi all I've been remiss in posting a couple of wonderful giveaways I've won recently as well as about the awesome swap package I received. So... From the wonderful Anna Sophia over at Our Daily Chocolate , I won this totally cool pendant! My picture does not do this pendant justice. I love it! The neutral colors go with everything. Head on over to Anna Sophia's blog . She's having a 100th post giveaway!! The other giveaway I won is this great purse via Vanessa's blog , It's from Deb at GirlygirlBags. See her Etsy site her e . Let me just tell you, I was not having the best day and I received an email from Vanessa telling me I won!! Woo Hoo!! The bag is as delish as it looks!! Last but not least (gosh I hate saying that, but it's true :), my amazing swap package from the fabulous Terisa at SabiiWabii . She looked into my soul and sent me a swap box that took my breath away. Terisa, thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Please check out her Etsy shop for the cool...