Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

So another HUGE thank you to The Meanest Mom for hosting this giveaway for ETC Jewelry.  It's been a wonderful help to us and I'm grateful.  If you haven't started following her already, please do.  You won't regret it.  Her blog is hysterical and her posts are often short enough to be able to squeeze them in quickly during your day with kids.

Now, onto the winner!

Jsdoskocil is our winner!  Please contact me within 3 days to claim your new "Carine" necklace and give me personalization information.  Thank you to everyone who participated and be watching for our next giveaway.  I said months ago that I would try to do one every month but admittedly, with my schedule, it has been tough.  I'm gonna try harder so keep following : )

I decided a couple of weeks before the arrival of my two new nephews that I would make them each a quilt.  Here is the first one.  It turned out much nicer in person.  It's really hard to capture all of the details with a camera (especially when I'm the one taking the photos).  I think he liked it.  He for sure loved the pictures. 

Have a great week, everyone!

*bev*

Hand Stamped Jewelry Giveaway!!!!!

well, all you etc jewelry lovers, we are having another giveaway starting today and ending on saturday, june 25th at midnight pst.  i will choose a winner at random and announce the winner on sunday sometime in the afternoon.

for this giveaway i'm giving away our carine necklace with two discs and swarovski crystal birthstones. and this giveaway is actually a little bit different from our last one.  a very nice mom who writes a very funny blog is announcing the giveaway on her blog but has allowed me to handle the entries and how i'd like to go about it.  SOOOOOOO!!!!!! you MUST enter here on my blog down below.  and if you are just now arriving here after being directed from the meanest mom, thank you so much for coming and good luck to everyone!

so here are all of the ways that you can enter (please don't forget to leave a separate comment down below for each entry):

~ become a follower my blog

~ "like" etc jewelry on facebook here and be sure to post on our facebook wall that the meanest mom sent you.

~ become a follower on twitter here

~ go to etc jewelry and tell us which jewelry piece is your favorite.

~ blog about the giveaway (there are shortcut icons down below this post to do that)

~ tweet about the giveaway

~ share the the giveaway on your facebook (there are shortcut icons down below to do that)

~ become a follower of the meanest mom blog here

~ help us move up by rating us with 5 stars by clicking on the link in the upper right hand corner of this blog that says "rate us".  that will direct you to the posh little boutique where you can click on the number of stars you'd like to rate us with.

don't forget to enter a separate comment for each entry down below.  and a HUGE thank you to jana at the meanest mom for announcing this giveaway for us on her blog.  thank you!  thank you!  thank you!  good luck!

*bev*

Pitter Patter Art 7 Months Waiting Giveaway

Check out Laura Kelley's latest giveaway here.  It's beautiful, as usual!

*bev*

Meeting My Other *New* Nephew

ok.  this is the sweetest thing.  it's so sweet that i just couldn't wait to blog about it.  i wrote last week about meeting one of our new nephews from rwanda.  he's five and he's a total kick.  we love him to death.  it's like he's always been a part of the family except without ever speaking a word of english : )  he's adjusting really well, it seems.  well!  i got to meet our other *new* nephew a few days ago very briefly.  he's 19 mos old and just a tiny little thing and a complete doll.  seriously, if i every was forced to babysit i'd be thrilled.  he's very attached to his momma and really only wants to be with her but yesterday when i first got to my mother-in-law's house and got out of the car to start walking toward the house, this tiny little guy wobbled over to me with his super-cute toddler wobble, reached his little arms up and signaled for me to pick him up.  don't you know i am just in love with this child.  so i picked him up and walked around with him and we continued to have a very bonding conversation where i told him that i was pretty sure that he's my new favorite nephew and, of course, i know that i'm his favorite aunt : )  if i could post a photo of this child i would.  he's a doll.  sadly, our bonding only lasted for about three minutes before he wanted to get back into his momma's arms, but that's all i needed.  and even more sadly, today he showed almost no interest in me whatsoever : (  we'll have to work on that over the next week while he's here and when we all go on vacation together soon.

one interesting and great thing that has come out of meeting both of my new nephews is that i've realized, not only do i love them, i now know that i can love a child who didn't come from me, just as much as i love my natural children.  it's honestly been a question that's been on my mind for a long time.  i'm glad to have it answered.

the only downside to meeting my nephews (if there had to be a downside) is it has made me long so much more to meet our daughter and to have her home.  really i'm very good at just not thinking about it emotionally.  i only think of it logically and i pray for her as well as the other children there.  i read other mom's blogs about how they're just so depressed or bummed that they've had to wait this long and truly i just can't relate.  not because i'm heartless, just because it's how i go on.  that will be harder now that i've met and bonded with these two beautiful children....... oh!  and btw, i did get a wave today from my younger nephew.  that's something, right??

well, i promised myself AGAIN that i would get to bed early tonight so off i go.

hope you all had a great weekend and hopefully by tuesday i'll have some photos of a quilt that i'm making for my older nephew, with photos and fabric that i hope reminds him a little bit of rwanda.  i have the front almost completely done.  i just need to stitch it together with the batting and back and it'll be complete!  can't wait to show it off to everyone!  i'm still waiting for the fabric to be released for my younger nephew's quilt.  they've released the charm squares so i have the front of his pretty much done but i need the fabric for the borders in order to complete it.  it, too, has photos of him with his new family and it's just gonna be adorable.

oh!!!!!!  and one more VERY important thing, mom-blog.com will be hosting a giveaway for etc jewelry starting tomorrow, monday june 13th, that lasts for 8 days.  i will do a separate post tomorrow but please check it out if you get a chance.  i'll be giving away etc jewelry's carine hand stamped necklace.

have a great week!


*bev*

Meeting Marcel, Finished Orders and Knees! Knees! Knees!

well, i was able to meet one of my new nephews from rwanda yesterday and it was really, really amazing and special.  he just turned five a couple of days ago and he doesn't really speak a word of english but, nevertheless, he got along with his cousins and the rest of his new family just fine : ) 

it was so awesome to watch him discovering things and getting to do things for the first time that we so often just take for granted.  he played a lot with toy cars and rode a bike that grammie gave to him for his birthday and just ran around and played with his siblings and cousins as if he'd know them his whole life.  as i watched him playing with my boys i just thought about how lucky he is to have a family who loves him so much now, as well as another cousin who is also from rwanda.  it's just really such a great story, isn't it?

seeing him also made me think so much of our little girl still there in rwanda.  i had been wondering for many months if i could truly love a child who didn't come from me; a child who doesn't share my same heritage or skin color, and i realized as i watched my nephew that not only could i love a child who didn't come from me, i already love my new nephew so much, just as i love my other nieces and nephews.  (really i ADORE them.  if you knew them all, you'd feel the same way.  they're just amazing kids, all of them.)  so i guess that's a question answered for me.  he really is a special little boy and i'm so so so happy for my sister-in-law and her family and thankful to a great God for the rescue of this precious little child.  and just fyi, i don't know about your house but here in our house, this is what happens after a full day of playing with cousins......

ok.  so a few weeks back i got it into my crazy head that i was going to start running again.  not like i used to, 5-7 miles a day, just two or three.  i also decided that since i've gotten older and my body has changed so much after having children that i didn't need my running shoes or orthotics anymore and that 10 years of a "running break" would be just fine paired with a pair of cheapo tennis shoes.  i'm here to tell you that i was dead wrong.  dead, dead wrong.  here is my new best friend after overdoing it too quickly with terrible shoes.

the doc has also prescribed lots and lots of aleve every morning and every night for my upper tibia/tendon pain, along with a stern warning to slow it down and take it easy until i'm better or else i could end up like another lady in our church who had to stay in a wheel chair for over a year.  now that just seems a little extreme, doesn't it?

oh, and he also gave me a new prescription for new running shoes.  ok, he didn't give me a prescription but he did tell me that it's important that i get a pair so i've gotta follow doctor's orders, right??

these things are the most comfortable shoes i've ever put on in my life.  they're amazing and i just might start sleeping in them.  for anyone out there who may be in the market for new running shoes, asics nimbus is the way to go, for real.  love these things.  can't wait to start running again.

ok, so i also got a few more orders done and a new design completed.  here is an order that is going out to christa.  she asked for a rwanda charm and a vietnam charm on an antiqued cable chain.  thanks so much, christa.  hope you love your necklace.

this next order was for two more tags for a previous customer, jane, ordered by her son for a mother's day present.  jane just found out she will be the grandmother to twins so she wanted to add a disc and a a square tag to her forever family necklace.  thanks so much, jane, and i wish you all luck with having twins in your family.  they're lots of work but such a huge blessing to be able to experience two children going through the same stages at the same time.

this next necklace was ordered by my friend jenny.  she's very close to her little niece and wanted something to keep her close to her heart, so she ordered the holly necklace.

thanks, jenny!  hope you and rachel both love it.

that's it for now.  hope you all have a great weekend!

*bev*