{I'm 2 Years Old!}

Oh my goodness, on July 5th this little corner of the blogging universe that I call my own will have been here for two whole years.  It's time to P.A.R.T.Y!!!!  To say an extra special awesome thank you for chillin' with me, I've got some very cool crafty giveaways lined up!  Starting tomorrow, I'll put one up each day for 4 days and they will run for one week so the last one will end on July 5th! Does that make sense?  Super awesome, right?  If not, just check back in and enter giveaways and I'll let ya know when you win. hehe

To kick us off the right way I want to introduce you to Brenda from A Remark You Made. She creates works of art for our homes and our craft projects from natural wood and stone.

Diamond Shaped Olivewood Buttons - $11.50

About her Etsy Store she says: "We specialize in earth-friendly jewelry, knitting and fiber arts supplies, eco-friendly tree branch buttons, and sustainable products for green weddings and the home. At A Remark You Made, our commitment is to the environment and our customer. Sustainability is very important, so we always use organic and natural materials and fabrics if possible. These are honest products. Each piece is unique."
 
This is exactly the kind of store I want to support! AND it doesn't hurt that her product is just GORGEOUS.

  4 Spalted Maple Wood Tree Brand Buttons - $9.25

All of her buttons are made from downed trees, so this product is completely earth friendly and just so genuine.

Assortment of 1" Shank Buttons - $12.25

Each set is just so incredibly unique and beautiful, I sincerely believe there are buttons in her store for absolutely any project, whether it's a lazy-around the house cardigan, or sophisticated pleated pillow.

4 Perfect Pine Tree Brand Buttons - $8.25

In celebration of my second birthday, she has agreed to 

run a 20% coupon on ANY in-stock BUTTONS on her 

Etsy site!!  Just use the coupon code "Blog Buttons" 

and receive a 20% discount until JULY 15 at 6:00pm EST.

Of course, while you're there, you should take a look at some of the jaw-dropping Jewelry Brenda creates as well.

I just drool over all of it!!  Thank you so so much to A Remark You Made for helping me celebrate this occasion by offering my friends such an amazing discounted product! I hope everyone will go out and find something they love and support this great store by purchasing that thing!

And check back in tomorrow for the first of our giveaways. July 5th, Baby!!  Spread the word for us, pretty please? :D

{Icarus Shawl is DONE!}

I can not begin to tell you guys how puffed out my chest is with pride right now.  The Icarus shawl is blocking and well... it's stunning.  I can't believe I'm going to give it away!

I'm pretty sure that this is my very favorite thing I've ever knit.  Ever.  I love the yarn (malabrigo sock) and the colour is a warm, autumny, rusty, red colour.  Oh, and did I mention it's HUGE!?  I haven't measured it yet, but that's my queen size bed you see it on in the first photo!  Blocking wire would have been helpful on this one. lol

Edited to add: 70 INCHES ACROSS!

Oh, and I made an awesome carrot soup for dinner too, so watch out world! I'm on a roll!!

{Birthday Goings-on}

Wow you guys, what a GREAT birthday I had!  Other than a break from studying for my Calculus final (which I forbade myself to do any of)  it was great! It started when I came home after school and I had PRESENTS waiting!!

After walking by the massive birthday-paper wrapped box once, I got to open this up!

 Brother Sewing machine LX-3125e

YAY!! My very first sewing machine!!  I'm so excited and so rearing to go! I watch a bunch of the ladies online do cute tutorials that need a sewing machine and I'm so excited to get to do some sewing myself! I think I might start out with some cute fabric drawstring bags, just to practice?  I'm making myself not do anything until after my final and after my last project is handed in. But after that I'm going to dive right in! Does anyone know any good beginner sewing resources?

This (crappy) photo here shows a couple more birthday presents:

A new book that my brother bought me off my Amazon list: Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden (a Canadian author, since I've been striving to read more of those lately), AND my new monitor!  A 23 inch Acer wide screen monitor to match my Mister's. This will come in extra handy when I'm geeking out on the mmorpg's. hehehe Oh! And my sister sent me a great silicon muffin tin off my amazon list too! Super excited about that.

On a side note... guess what ELSE this photo shows?  It's my Haruni shawl!  The colour is terrible, of course, since that's sort of a grey/purple yarn you're looking at. lol I have two lines of lace left to do, with purls in between, and then casting off. And that little tiny yarn pile beside it? That's the end of my skein. lol  Doh!!  I have a couple others, so I'm not freaking out and frogging or anything, it just means that I'm going to have to recake another skein. Last time that was a huga P.I.T.A.  It must have taken me almost two hours to cake that damn yarn because it was getting all tangled around itself.  Is there a secret to winding?  Am I missing the bus anywhere?

So for my birthday dinner, after I found my two lovely birthday gifts, my Mister made me Chicken Cordon Bleu with a white cheese sauce, some amazing risotto, and some broccoli that also had a touch of the cheese sauce.  Oh. My. Goodness you guys.  It was SO YUMMY and we're having left overs tonight!  For dessert he made me a tiny individual ice cream cake!  I absolutely love the ice cream cakes from Dairy Queen, but you can only buy them in 13" diameters and that's a little too much even for me. hehe This one was perfect and was even made with REAL oreos and Haagen Daz ice cream!

Overall, it was a perfect day!  Thank you, My Love for making me feel so special on my Birthday!!