GYB Party Give Away Results

I'm so sorry to be late in reporting the results from the give-away!!! We ended up having a fun but busy weekend!!

But I'm back to blogging again and will now reveal the WINNER of the crocheted wash clothes I made!!!

I can't figure out how to get the randomizer to post to my blog, so I don't have a picture of the actual results, but after putting in that there were 41 comments on my GYB Party post, it came up with....

#11 - Kathy of http://kathyinozarks.blogspot.com/ !!!! Congrats!!!

Kathy I have sent you an e-mail and hope to hear from you soon as to where I should mail the washcloths off to!!!

GROW YOUR BLOG PARTY!!!

 

Well here we are again, one year later with another 'Grow Your Blog Party'. And I've got to say that I am super excited about it!! Last year I went from 14 followers to my current 108 followers, and a good deal of those came from this party!!

 

I want to say a huge thanks to Vicki over at My 2 Bags Full for hosting this blog hop and all the time and detail that she puts into this event. She says that there are over 600 bloggers participating in this hop, can you imagine? WOW!!

 

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Okay, so we are to talk a bit about ourselves and why we blog or what we blog about so here is a little about me...

 

My name is Shannon and I am a town girl (not city girl though:), living out in the country. My husband and I bought our small house and 10 acres 7 years ago and love the peace and quiet of country living. We have a 14yo daughter whom we homeschool. She loves animals and currently volunteers at our local small zoo two mornings a week. Right now we only have cats, a dog, a couple rabbits, and a guinea pig, but we've also raised a few cows, a couple goats, loads of chickens and even a couple ducks in the past. I'm hoping to be able to get chickens again this year as I love having them follow me around the place and I also love having the fresh eggs.

 

My blog is mostly about the different crafts that I do. I love cross stitching and crocheting and would like to get more into quilting and to learn how to knit. All are in the plans for this year. I participate in many SALS (stitch-a-longs) and well as challenges and blog hops, most of which you can find out about in the tab on top of my blog. Feel free to join in if you wish, most are still available to participate in:)

 

I also occasionally blog about homeschooling or do an 'Around the Homestead' blog about what is going on here. This summer we will be growing a garden again too, so I'll probably have some posts about that as well, hopefully showing LIVE plants, but you never know!! :)

 

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Lastly, I have a give-away available to anyone who leaves a comment (and no, you do not need to have a blog, and yes, this is open to everyone, no matter where you live:).

 



 

I made several of these wash cloths as Christmas presents and made a couple of extra just for you!!! There are 2 in this set and they are 100% cotton and so very soft:) I love using homemade crocheted wash cloths because they are soft and pretty and just fun to have something homemade to use while washing up. I will announce the winner of the wash cloths on February 15th, so come back to see who won!!!

 

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Well, that is all from me and my little corner of the web. Maybe I will make it over to your blog as well. Hope you all enjoy your blog hopping!!!

Gearing up for another GROW YOUR BLOG party!!!

Isn't this a beautiful badge?

Vicky at 2 Bags Full is doing it again!!! She is hosting the 'Grow Your Blog Party' for the 2nd year in a row. I can tell you first hand that this works great and it's a lot of fun too:) I went from 14 followers on my blog to 107 current followers.

This is how it works. First you need to sign up at Vicky's blog by January 15th, so HURRY!! :0) Then on the 25th of January you blog a bit about yourself and visit other bloggers as well. It's that easy!!! (Full rules and suggestions can be found on Vicky's blog).

Last year I did a giveaway for the party and I will be doing that again this year. I'm not positive, but I think I will be giving away a set of crochet wash cloths. I love using crochet wash cloths because they are so soft:)

If you think this is something you would also like to participate in, get to 2 Bags Full real soon to get signed up!!

WINNER!!! WINNER!!!

Wow, what a busy couple of days, running to and fro!! But I'm settled in for a few hours - before the next running for the day. Thinking of breaking my ankle again, LOL!!! As painful as that was, it was soooooooo nice being home:)

Okay, enough whining!!!

We have a WINNER from the Grow Your Blog Party!!! I found a random number generator on-line and punched in how many comments I had - 86!!!!- and it spit out #85!!! So that makes Carolyn Phillips from Mess Muddle and Fun the winner of my giveaway!!! Carolyn - I left a message on your Grow Your Blog Party since I can't find your e-mail. If you see this here first though, send me a message and I will get your contact info.

For the rest of you- THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I know I've already posted this, but you have no idea how big this was for me:) I grew from 17 followers the morning of the party to a total of 76 as of today. That just blows my mind, really!! I hope you keep following my blog and leaving comments here and there and I'll try to do my part by putting random thoughts and projects here, hopefully that you'll enjoy:)

And as an end-note: I will post a pic of the full giveaway prize as soon as I know it is safely in it's new owners hands.

Grow Your Blog Party ~~~ And a GIVEAWAY!!!

 

So excited about this blog party!! First and foremost I will explain a bit about how this works. Vicky at 2 Bags Full is hosting this party and it is kind of like an 'open house', but on the web. She has (will have as of midnight 1/19/13) a list on her blog of all the bloggers involved. And I am sure she is as surprised as I am that over 400 bloggers replied to this party!!! Then you can go to as many blogs as you like and get to know some really great people. Some of them will even have giveaways to enter in for as well (and so do I, so keep reading!!). Follow the ones you like, if you want, and have lots of fun in the process, what's better than that?

 

So for this post we are to tell a bit about our self and our blog. Since I haven't done that for a while, and I know I have readers who haven't been reading here for long, I think this is a great idea.

 

Here is some random info on me and my blog...

 

~ I married my high school sweety. I was 14 when we met and we dated for 5 years before we got married (gave me time to finish high school and for him to finished college). We've been married now for almost 16 years. That is 21 years with the same guy!!! :0)

 

~We have one daughter who is homeschooled. We always wanted more children, but it didn't work out that way. We love her to pieces, even when her teenager-ways drive us nuts!!

 

~We live in the country and our 'homestead' consists of 10 acres, a barn/shop, lots of cats, 2 dogs, a rabbit, a guinea pig and some fish. We've had cows, chickens and goats in the past and our daughter begs for a horse almost every single day!! Thankfully her friend has horses and she gets her horse fix over there!!

 

~I love to cross stitch. Mostly this is what my blog consists of. I also love to crochet and am hoping to learn more so I can do more than just square blocks!!! I would also like to learn to knit this year. I do dabble a bit in other sewing and crafts like quilting, card making and sewing clothes (though not much) and will share those things on my blog as well.

 

~For the last year or so, my heart has really been pulled towards stitching and crafting for charity causes. The one I'm most involved with at this time is Love Quilts. I do post quite often about this since that is what takes up most of my stitching time.

 

~I am motivated by challenges, SALs (stitch-a-longs), and deadlines. I love making lists and checking things off. I really only get things done if others know that I should be working on something:) So I have a couple pages at the top of my blog for goals, links to SALs, and challenges that I'm involved in. If you decide to read my blog in the future, please feel free to ask how things are going and give me a little kick in the pants to make sure I'm staying on track!!! :0) And if you know of any other groups I should be involved in, let me know!!

 

Okay, so this is a little about me. I do blog about family things and just random things at times too, but this gives you an idea of how things roll here in my little corner.

 

 

GIVEAWAY!!!

 

This is the fun part!!! I have given lots of thought to what I wanted to do as a giveaway and I've decided that it will have a Valentine's theme. I'm not going to show you all of what it is, but I will say that there is lots of pink and red and hearts involved!!! And, of course, a bit of it will be stitched, because what is a stitchy blog without some stitched up goodies?!?!? So, do you want to see a preview?
 

Preview of giveaway

 

 

Some pretty fun Valentine things always makes me smile!! :)

 

Some rules for this giveaway...

 

~You need to leave a comment on this post. You need to make sure I have some way of contacting you if you should win. You can be an anonymous user so long as I can get back with you.

 

~Anyone, anywhere can enter. You don't need to become a follower of my blog (though I would love it if you did, of course:), and you don't have to be a blogger.

 

~I will announce the winner on Feb 1st and send out a couple of reminders between now and then.

 

I think that does it. This is my first giveaway as well, so I'm super excited to be able to do it!!!

 

Good luck to everyone who enters. Maybe I'll be seeing you on your blog tomorrow too:) 

Making new friends - Blog Party

 

Vicki over at 2 Bags Full is having a Grow Your Blog party (isn't the button above the cutest ever!?!?). It will be a time to learn about new blogs that you might like to start following and to have others learn about and start reading your blog. Kind of like an open house right here on the web. Several bloggers plan to have giveaways as well, so even if you like how your blog is and you don't want to follow anyone else, you can still have fun and enter to win prizes!!! Lots of fun to be had by all:)

 

If you are interested, go to 2 Bags Full, this will send you to the sign up page (you need to sign up by tomorrow - sorry I got in on this late), and tell you all the details of what to do. I can't wait, this is exactly what I wanted to do with my blog this year, so it's just perfect for me!!!

 

I will be posting a bit about myself and my blog as an introduction on Jan 18/19 (as will all the other bloggers joining in on this) and will announce at that time the giveaway I will be having. Anyone will be able to win, whether or not you have a blog, you don't have to follow my blog to be entered, so come back on Saturday and at least enter to win. I'm still thinking on what it'll be. Something for Valentine's Day, maybe? :)