Worldwide Annual Holiday Giveaway 2011: Books & Ballet

I offer my second giveaway, gifts only one of you will receive but my heartfelt intent is to give them to every one of you.   Material things are meaningless compared to the daily cup of joy topped with foamy sunshine you serve me by sharing your visits, blogs, and comments.   But, giveaways are what’s done in the blogosphere to commemorate milestones, so without further ado this year I’m doing “Books & Ballet”.

My December post will be tips & tricks on 'A Shabby Pink Nutcracker Ballet Holiday' in celebration of my first paid magazine article! 

So, the winner (international entries welcome) will receive: 

The vintage ballet slippers I used in the magazine.

A signed copy of Rachel Ashwell’s latest book “Inspirations” 

The Jeanne d’Arc Living December 2011 Issue 

(already sold out at many U.S. vendors).

“Amazing Retreats: Under Nordic Skies”
 by the editors of Jeanne d’Arc Living 

courtesy of Little Cottage Shoppe.

...and 2 $20 gift cards for Shutterfly 

to make photo cards and the like.

To enter:

Leave a comment.

To double your chances, become a follower, too.   (Current followers, please leave a second comment you’re already following.)

To triple your chances, put the 200 pixel wide giveaway button below as a picture in your blog or sidebar as well.

Permalink: http://myshabbystreamsidestudio.blogspot.com/

To quadruple your chances, write a blog post.  Additional posts on Facebook, Twitter, or other social networking sites count as individual entries as well. 

International entries are welcome.

The winner will be selected by an online random number generator 13 December 2011 and contacted by email.

Important!   Be sure to leave a separate comment for everything you do for the sake of the random number generator.   For example, if you comment, already follow, and mention it in a blog post you’d leave three comments.  

Don’t have a blog?  Write a comment and leave an email address so I can contact you.   Questions?   Email me.

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

What's It Wednesday at Ivy & Elephants

Favorite Things Thursday at Katherine's Corner

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Farmhouse Friday at LaurieAnna's Vintage Home

Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage

Beverly's Pink Saturday at How Sweet The Sound

Your Vintage Video: A Nutcracker Ballet Christmas

I'm so grateful to all the bloggers and artists that shared

their ideas and art in this year's holiday edition of Vintage Video!

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Farmhouse Friday at LaurieAnna's Vintage Home

Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage

Showcase Your Holiday Décor On Vintage Video!

My gentle readers, it’s time for the holiday edition of my seasonal blog party “Vintage Video”.   I hope you’ll link up and join me and your favorite bloggers in a YouTube video feature!

No video is necessary -- just a picture of your latest holiday themed work or blog post.  The software I use incorporates still photos beautifully.

(If you have a video, please email me here.) 

Don’t be shy!  Link up!  And, kindly leave a courtesy link to the post if you have a blog.


Vintage Video: Holiday 2011

Until next time, stay shabby!

I’m sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Farmhouse Friday at LaurieAnna's Vintage Home

Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage

Fall Flight

Suet birdseed cake and coated apples styled by Todd Foster

Jeanne d'Arc Living Autumn 2010

You move me

You move me

With your buildings and your eyes

Autumn woods and winter skies

Neil Peart (Rush), from The Analog Kid

Late fall is the best stage, when no green remains.  From bare branches vibrant leaves fall up, down, sideways, tinkling, snowing, flying in glittering droves, like birds. 

How I love wild birdies, especially chickadees.  Fall is the time to welcome your winter birds back, and why not pamper them in clever style?

This feature in Jeanne d’Arc Living’s 2010 Autumn issue (I bought on Etsy in May) by Dorte Palsgaard and Anette Christensen with photos by Lonnie Wurtz Jensen moved me so much I couldn’t wait until next fall to try their ideas.

A bar of lard cost about $2.00 and a 40 lb. bag of birdseed is $20 on sale, so a handful of seed is pennies. You melt the lard in a pan on low heat, pour and sprinkle seeds alternately, put it in the fridge overnight and it's done.   It made not only this lovely ‘suet cake’ but a pair of brioche tin shapes, too.  The seeded apples hung on hemp rope work better if you tie them against a branch to allow the birdies good footing.  Domestic birds aren’t exempt from this treat: hens eat wild apples if they’re cut up, and birdseed makes them bonkers.

Standing in my orchard with a warm sweater on, smelling the perfume of grounded leaves and woodsmoke, listening to the chatter of chickadees is one of the best things in life.  

Until next time, stay shabby!

For everyone wishing sympathy for the loss of my Belle, 

and congratulations on meeting Rachel,

I humbly thank you!

Lavender Laundry Sachet from Dreamy Whites

“Between the garage and the beech hedge was her drying-green.  She had done a wash this morning, and a line of laundry stirred in the rising breeze.  Wooden tubs, planted with pink hydrangeas the colour of blotting paper, flanked the entrance to the house, and a hedge of lavender grew close to its walls.”

from September by Rosamunde Pilcher

   

Now that it’s autumn, the days of drying laundry outdoors are going as quickly as the light in evening. 

Using one of Dreamy Whites' organic lavender sachets in the dryer does a great job making up for summer winds.  The fabric is a soft cotton tied with a bit of butcher’s twine.  So simple, so natural, so touchable I find myself holding them to my face before I toss them in the dryer.

  

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm