More giveaways

Hello everyone,

I have discovered a new blog called Homebody. Holly who writes this blog is celebrating her one year anniversary. To do this she is giving away a whole lot of great things she has found while thrift shopping. A girl after my own heart. She has a beautiful blog and I encourage all of you to check it out. You can find her and her fabulous giveaway here http://www.homebodyholly.com/

have fun,

Kibbygirl

50 posts and still working away

Good evening, how is everyone tonight? I just realized that this will be my 50th post and I am pretty proud of myself. Its not the biggest milestone but it is fun to see how far I've come and give myself a tiny pat on the back. I have been having a great time blogging and I am so impressed with the all the cool people I've met and the great blogs I've discovered. There are so many beautiful people and beautiful things out there.

I have been stitching away here and there in the evenings, usually when watching tv or a movie. For some reason I can't do just one of those things at a time. It is good that way because I feel as though I am accomplishing something while I am chilling out. The pictures are of some of the things I have either finished or am working on. The finished rugs need to be steamed and reshaped but I think they turned out fairly well. The bed spread I don't love. I've had some trouble with the backing. I do like to stitching and the matching pillows though.

It will soon be time to pick up my son from basketball and then hopefully an hour or two of relaxing and stitching. Fortunately it is not hard to make me happy since that sounds great. Hope you all can kick back and do something you love tonight as well.

Kibbygirl

Janet Granger's site

Hello everyone,

I am sitting at my computer now seriously debating putting the air conditioning on. It is soooo muggy here that it is kind of gross unless you are sitting directly in front of a fan. I am going to try to hold out though because I really don't like having the air on and I am really hoping this weather will break soon. My son is using it as a perfect excuse to sit still and play his new video game. To be fair I can't imagine running around outside right now either. He would come in soaked in sweat in ten minutes I am sure.

I just received an email from Janet Granger with the news of her newest designs. If you are like me and like to stitch things you should check her site out. She mainly did dollhouse rug kits but she has branched out and has the cutest tea cosy and tray kits now too. I am thinking the tea cosy idea is a must. I am not sure how hard it will be but you know I will try! This is the link so check it out. http://www.janetgranger.co.uk/acatalog/WhatNew.html

Have a great night,

Kibbygirl

thrift shop finds of the week

Hello everyone, I hope the week is going well for all of you. My week started of great. Value Village had a 50% of day on Monday and I spent probably 2 hours in the store hunting down various goodies. My time paid off, I found lots! These pictures are just a sample of the many things I ended up buying. By the end of my extreme value shopping experience I was lugging three, that's right three of the huge bags they give you back to the van. Even though I came away with so much the grand total was only 50 dollars. It was just like that Ikea commercial only I had no one to shout "start the car" to. Among my finds were the vase and cup that I am going to use as a vase in the top picture. The second picture is two sweaters I picked out and some craft stuff I found for a buck. The last two are coats, one for me and one for my son. I am not a big pink person but I just couldn't resist the coat for less than 5 dollars. It is so soft and cushy I almost can't wait for the cooler weather. My son's coat is an almost new winter jacket originally from the Gap. Now not only is finding a jacket for him out of the way, but it was sooo cheap too. You gotta love that.

Now that you have seen my goodies... ok that didn't sound right, make that treasures, check out this blog by the Dalomba's. They are hosting a Goodwill finds day so be sure to check out some of the other cool things others have found lately. You can find them here http://jobandbrittany.blogspot.com/ .

Other than my shopping I have been painting some dollhouse furniture and doing some stitching. I am planning on posting some of those pictures tomorrow. Until then, have a great night,

Kibbygirl

quick link update

I am just popping in to give everyone the link for the black and white initials that I featured in my last post. They came from a site called Briar Press which offers free decorations you can download. Check it out here: http://www.briarpress.org/ . Have a great night everyone,

Kibbygirl

Frugal Friday

Hello, Hello...

I discovered a blog called The Shabby Nest http://shabbynest.blogspot.com/ and she usually does a frugal Friday post. This week she is hosting a frugal Friday Link party so I decided to add my two cents to the pot of frugal inspiration. I am constantly on the lookout for thrifty ideas to decorate with or for fun gifts. I have a wonderful garden with lots of flowers and I love making up bouquets to give to friends and family. By doing this I have been forced to get creative in terms of vase options. One day I literally had nothing left to put the flowers in, at least nothing that was meant for that purpose. I went to the recycling bin hoping for an idea and I found it. I ended up using a washed out tin can from spaghetti sauce that I covered in some leftover wallpaper. I tied some ribbon around it and attached a small note card and voila.. pretty flowers to give to a friend. As those of you who have read my blog before probably know I love to wander the thrifts shops in my area. The last few times I was out I had the brilliant idea of picking up vases and other things that would work well as a vase from the thrift shops. Now I have a box of vases ready to go when I need them.

Another thing that I have done in the house I have mentioned in an earlier post but I have so much fun with this idea it is worth mentioning again. I will use just about anything as artwork. Two of the pictures above are from my guest room. The sailboats are postcards. The two larger scenes are from magazines. The bird above the bookshelf is from a calendar and the floral picture is actually wallpaper boarder. The letters are something I found on the web and thought they would be great to frame in black frames using the initials of our last name putting them up with black and white photos of our family. I haven't tried it yet but I want to.

My last idea of the day uses my beautiful china tea cups. I have been given several gorgeous tea cups over the years and since I never use them for tea and I have no great place to display them I have come up with other ways to use them and have them out where I everyone can see them. I have one in my bathroom of all places. This is on the counter top and it is currently holding q-tips. On my dressing table I have two pretty cups. One holds lipsticks and the other holds bobby pins and hair elastics. It may seem frivolous to use these delicate cups for these things but I like it and this way I can enjoy them whenever I see them.

I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with. Have a great day everyone,

Kibbygirl

Janet Hill Print givaway

The Country Hotel Print
By Janet Hill

I have some exciting news today. Whimsy by Victoria is having a contest and she is giving away along with Janet Hill, two of Janet Hill's oh-so-beautiful prints! That's right, not just one but two. I highly encourage everyone to check out her work. The contest is at Whimsy by Victoria at http://whimsybyvictoria.blogspot.com/2009/09/janet-hill-studioswhimsy-spotlight.html?showComment=1252529510589#c286599044294535231 . Be sure to check out Janet Hill's blog as well. http://janethillstudio.blogspot.com/2009/09/whimsy-by-victoria-print-giveaway.html The contest is easy and well worth the effort anyway. This won't decorate your dollhouse but it is a great way to decorate your home! Other than discovering this great contest I have been spending my afternoon painting, gardening and stitching. I feel as though I have accomplished a good bit today which is a good feeling. Have a wonderful night everyone,

Kibbygirl

DYI dollhouse

Good afternoon everyone... miss me? I missed you. We had computer issues around here so I have been a bit out of touch with all of you. So sorry about that but I am glad to be back. I have been wandering around blog land to see what is new and what the world has been up to without me. It has been so much fun discovering all the new things and ideas out there. One of the ideas that I came across came from a site call One Pretty Thing at http://www.oneprettything.com/ . It is a craft site with all sorts of projects. There are a lot of stitchery type things but some non sewing ones as well. One of her links actually sent me to the Cookie Magazine site to check out a do it yourself tutorial on a dollhouse. The picture above is the finished house but I was thinking if someone had a cardboard box or cabinet or something the foam board could go inside for a more complete or finished house. I may have to play around with that idea myself sometime. Just in case any of my readers would like to give it a try here is the link to the Cookie site. http://www.cookiemag.com/magazine/blogs/nesting/2008/02/diy-dollhouse.html . I'm thinking this could be a fun thing to make with a kid before they get on to a full scale wooden dollhouse, or for someone like me who just has a bit of an obsession with mini things and has lots of extras! I could also use this as a test room area. That way I could try some things out before I do the same in my wood dollhouse. Hmmmm... the possibilities are endless. Yep, I am definitely going to have to add this to my never ending list of things to do.

Have a great day all,

Kibbygirl