Third Blogoversary Giveaway!!! And It Must Have Been Fate!!

Actually tomorrow is my true 3rd Blogoversary, but why not start the celebration early, right?  I can't believe that I have been blogging three years, have 600 followers, been enabled by all of you so much (my husband definitely doesn't thank you!), and met so many wonderful people (some of them in person).  It truly has been a great three years!   So I think that it's time for a giveaway, don't you?   But first a little bit of other things and if you don't want to read about that, then scroll down to the frog!  Otherwise, here's what's been happening this week.

Actually a ton of things have been going on, but if I wrote about them, we'd be here all day.  Some of them happened during the summer when I was such a slacker in posting and commenting, so I'll slowly get to those over time.  Will give me something to talk about when my life if I don't get as much done now as I hope.

After stitching more on Ann Hall, I switched gears for a little bit and worked on Mary Allen as I'm suppose to be working on this with Loraine.  As much as I love, love this piece, she hasn't been fun to work on probably due to my fabric choice, so I've picked it up here and there and this is where I am to date:

Before:

As of today:

Certainly not stellar progress, but at least it's a little bit.  I should have been much further than this by the end of August, but that month was pretty much a bust as far as me getting a lot of stitching done, so I'm hoping to have my August installment done by the end of September.  The good part is coming with some of the center portion.  I can't wait to get to that.

Now, do you believe in fate?  Well, I do and I'm becoming more of a believer the older I get.  Remember this sewing machine that I bought?

It's a vintage Singer 301A sewing machine!  And thanks to Cyndi this baby became mine.  Seems that Cyndi just loves vintage sewing machines and she had more than she needed (and is probably adding more as we speak, right Cyndi?  LOL).  Anyway, I bought this from Cyndi and it sews like an absolute dream - the most beautiful stitches I've ever seen and it's in what appears to be in a case original to the machine.  Only problem is that I didn't have a table for this baby and I hate just sitting a machine on a table and trying to sew - it doesn't work.  This is where the fate comes in.  My baby, affectionately named Samatha (actually Cyndi named the machine and to prevent the poor machine from being confused I kept the name) has a new home!!

Isn't it a beautiful table?  It's gorgeous - in just the most beautiful shape!!  But wait - that machine isn't Samatha!  What's going on here?  Samatha is two toned!!!

Gosh, are you seeing double?  No, you're not.  Samantha is now residing in her new home and Rebecca is sitting next to her.  Seems that I've acquired ANOTHER machine.  And this is where fate comes in.

One day I was contemplating how I would find a table for Samantha.  I really wanted to start using her, but it didn't feel right sewing on her if she was sitting on a table and not in one.  Craig's List didn't have any for sale and who knew how many garage sales, estate sales, etc., I would have to go to in order to find one.  Then the light bulb went off (it doesn't happen much, believe me), and it dawned on me that Terri, lover of all things antiquey and estate saley might come across one in her travels.  So I sent her a text asking her if she came across to let me know.  Now I hit my fair share of these sales myself, but Terri gets out to a lot more of them than I do, so her chances were better.

Not a half hour later, Terri is on the phone telling me that she saw one at a sale she just left and has to go back later, it was a beautiful table and did I want it?  Well, yes I do, but there is a slight caveat - the table was $120 and included a machine.  I didn't need another machine.  And I didn't want to pay that price.  Well, she went back to the sale later and called me again and told me that the table was in really good shape and the sewing machine looked to be as well, AND, the price had come down to $70.00.  Well, much better, but I was still hemming and hawing about the machine.  While I'm trying to make up my indecisive mind, the person lowered the price another $10, so now it's $60 for both.  After the briefest of hesitation, I told her SOLD!  I figure $30 for the table (bargain as it's so beautiful) and $30 for the machine (that I didn't have a clue as to what I'd do with it).  And I'm so glad that I told her yes!!!  The table is beautiful, and so is the other machine, now known as Rebecca, although she's in need of a little TLC from my friendly sewing machine repairman.  But what to do with her?  Sell her, put her in a corner??  What??

Well, that problem has worked itself out.  DD has wanted to learn how to sew so problem solved.  She will have her own vintage sewing machine - one made very well and hopefully will last her for a long time.  Now.......I need another table!  Oh Terri, can you find me another one?  Please???  Preferably without another machine this time!  LOL  I can't believe that it happened the way it did!  Thank you Terri!!!

Now the frog!  Cute little guy, isn't he?  But this isn't the frog that I'm giving away in celebration of my third blogoversary.  This is the frog:

And along with the frog, I'll include a pair of Gingher Alicia scissors:

I heard mention that these are limited edition.  I thought they all were limited edition as they seem to come out and are gone before you know it.  I know that Gingher planned to have another pair come out next month, so these were a totally unexpected find at Joanne's.  And they can be yours, along with the frog and I may have a few other goodies to throw into the mix (undetermined at this point).  So to win, just be a follower and tell me what project you're working on right now!  That's it.  Very simple.  I'll draw for the winner on Wednesday, September 14th!!

So that's it for me except that, as much as I love having the kids home during the summer, Tuesday marks the beginning of Happy Dance time for me!  DD will be back in school and I'll be able to get back to sewing and doing all the things I love.  And a lot of catching up.  Seems that during the wild summer that we've had around here, my craft room looks like a hurricane went through it.  In spending one day down there I realized that I have way too much stuff and it's time to get rid of some of it, so in a week or two I'm going to set up a sale blog and off some of this stuff.  Some you will laugh at some of the things (they're pretty old charts) and probably not want to touch any of them with a ten foot pole, but someone may want it.  You know, one man's trash is another man's treasure.  If no one wants some of what I post - at least the charts - my local library will be happy to have them for their book sales.  Might as well help out the community right?  So in a couple weeks I hope to have a sale blog up and running.

It's really hard to to describe how much I value all the comments and friendships that I've made over the three years of blogging.  Your comments have lifted me up when I've been down, encouraged me when I needed encouraging on a project (like Ann Medd), and made me smile over your posts and I've Ooooh and Aaaah over all your beautiful projects and you've enabled me to no end. I really feel blessed to have "met" so many wonderful people and I hope to hear from you for years to come.

Hope that everyone has a wonderful Labor Day!!