giveaway winner!

Cheryl Leong said...

wow!! tfs!!! im thankful for my family and friends, they are wonderful.

congratulations, cheryl! you are the winner of my etsy shop giveaway!  please go to my shop and choose a journal and paper pack of your choice!  thanks everyone for playing along.

happy fall! :)

Holiday Shop Update & Giveaway!

I've updated my Etsy shop with vintage paper goods, vintage Christmas ephemera and embellishment packs and vintage mixed-paper recycled journals and scrapbook mini albums.  Yay!  Blog Readers, enter code BLOG2011 at checkout for a 20% discount on your order!

I absolutely love vintage Christmas cards.  The one above is a sweet angel, embossed and made to look like a patchwork quilt.  I could see this in one of my holiday journals or used as an embellishment on a scrapbook page.

I've restocked the Christmas journals/mini albums.  Each journal/album comes with a little stash of goodies tucked into the back pocket so you are ready from day 1 to start recording those holiday/everyday memories!

The journals are filled with my favorite vintage paper: pages from holiday books and kids workbooks, ledger and graph paper, as well as current favorites such as brightly colored scrapbook and handmade paper.

 The journals also come in shades of wintry blue for those who prefer a more subtle winter pallet.  Pages are also embellished with labels and stickers from the Cavalini sticker tins.

And these are my favorite!  Precious packs of my favorite embellishments, perfect for holiday crafting!  Each pack has a glittered gift tag, and an assortment of vintage and new paper and ephemera.

here's a more detailed photo of what is in the ephemera packs: patterned scrapbook paper, handmade paper, vintage dennison seal, scalloped cardstock, glittered Christmas tag, vintage green-and-red playing card, vintage book illustration images.  Each pack comes tucked inside a glassine envelope.

Well I am excited for the holiday season to begin!  

Have a Happy Thanksgiving (if you're in the U.S) and have a wonderful weekend!  I'll be drawing a name from the comments on Tuesday, November 29th.  One lucky commenter will win a mini journal and ephemera pack of their choice!   All you have to do is leave a comment and tell me, what are you most thankful for?  

summer fun & giveaway winner!

here i go happily journaling my summer days away. just a few pages-in-progress.  i really like to see the pages before i write on them. sometimes i like them better that way.  full of potential. :)

i just love mixing the craziest colors together. i don't think ahead, just play with whatever catches my eye.

journaling about some of our current summer happenings and catching up with photos from summer days past.  played with my pogo printer and used some photos in my journal.

thinking i'd love to get my hands on an old polaroid, but i heard they stopped making them and the film, too!  anyone know more about that?

and here we are, strawberry picking round 2!  we loved it so much that we had to go back with some friends and show them the fun and wonder of picking your own fruit, straight from the ground!  yum. so fresh and the smell is just divine!

we've been playing at the fountain a lot these days.  it's like going to the beach but without the sand and the fear of little ones wandering into the ocean!

how could i resist this photo of cute little feet?  our friends love to visit and join us on our picnic trips to the fountain where we sit in the shade and enjoy our little oasis in the middle of our lovely downtown.

oh, and congrats to LELAINIA for winning the packet of summer fun from my giveaway.  please email me your details and i'll get that out to you asap! :) (kinueko aT gMail (dot) Com) thanks for all who entered.  i do love to read your comments!  you are always welcome to stop by and chat.  my door is always open. ;)

HAPPY SUMMER!!!

little green dress (and giveaway)!

my littlest one models her new green dress that i made for her the other day.  it was my first attempt at sewing an article of clothing and i think it came out pretty good! :)  (just don't turn it inside out to reveal all the funky stitches!)

i've always wanted to learn to sew clothes.  especially make them for my little girls.  one of my very first memories (may be my actual first memory!) is of my mom making a nightgown for me when i was 2.  i remember laying down on the floor on crinkly pattern paper so she could trace around my body to get the right size for the gown.

next i'll sew up something for my 9-year-old and then maybe even try to make a skirt for me!  it's funny how all of my latent math skills came in use while constructing the dress.  looking at the pieces, i couldn't believe a dress would be possible.  but i followed the directions and it just all started to make sense.  it also helped that i bought the kit pre-cut to size from this awesome etsy shop.  next up, i tackle a vintage pattern from the 50s!  i'll keep you all updated.

ALSO, don't miss out on a little giveaway in the previous post.  still open until the end of the week.  i'll send a lucky commenter a little packet of artsy fun just as a little way of saying "thanks!" and "enjoy the last remaining bits of summer!"

Christmas cards & holiday crafts

my lovely friend Kisa volunteered to take our family portrait this year for our christmas cards. besides taking absolutely gorgeous photos, she saved me the trouble of having to hop back and forth like a crazy person between the camera and the family huddle like i do every year! (thank you mama!)

there were many lovely ones to choose from, but i chose the above photo for our card this year. i like the way we are all gathered and the colors were really warm and cozy. and because our cat cesar decided to join us! AND it is also the only photo where we are all looking up at the camera and smiling and not blinking or making a weird face. (that's just inevitable, there's always those photos where everyone is smiling except ONE person (ahem, zach!) or looking away (sureya!), or biting their nails (maya!) or trying to hide her beautiful smile (brielle!) or talking during the photo so you end up with an akward open mouth (uh, babe!), or you're making a quizzical face at the camera because you're trying to ask the photographer a question (he he, me!) although, i have to admit, i had to photoshop the above photo to get everyone to kind of be looking at the camera and smiling. (i hope no one notices!) ;)

today the girls and i started on some holiday crafts. i saw this lovely idea over at gennine's blog for making your own printed wrapping paper, so we decided to try it today. maya had a wonderful time printing with apples and celery stalks and then free form painting her own designs. even sureya got in on the messy fun and painted a little bit. (mostly she painted her hands and her belly, but she did get some paint on the paper!)

i'm trying to take photos each day this month and actually journal a little every day (i'm inspired by ali edwards' december daily and one of my favorite blogger/artists hope of paper relics). i would love to do some journaling each day, too! and something arrived in the mail for me this morning that would be perfect for this daily project!

i entered a giveaway over at saturday morning vintage (one of my favorite blogs and shops!) a while back and i received my lovely lovely prize in the mail today (thank you xenia!)! it combines the three words from my winning entry: dennision, sewing and ledger. i think this will make a perfect journal for my daily december journaling, don't you?

i hope you are all having a lovely december so far! i can't believe the holidays are fast approaching. i almost wish december were twice as long! it really is my favorite time of year.

Blog Follower Appreciation WINNERS!

sorry, i was supposed to pick the winners and announce on friday but, well, my daughter had a little halloween party with her friends on saturday, so we were running around at the last minute getting all the little details ready!

so without further ado, here are the winners of my follower appreciation giveaway!

(drumroll)...

Jenny

Mandy

Amanda

Bonnie

Christina

CONGRATULATIONS!! and thank you for taking the time to stop by and add your thoughts and comments. i do truly appreciate everyone who comes by (even if it's someone who's never commented, but comes by just to peek into my little world!). thank you for your ongoing support and friendship!

so, winners, please send me your address and i'll send you a little packet of rainbow goodies! contact me at: kinueko@gmail.com

Follower Appreciation Month! Weekly Giveaways!

I started blogging as a way to keep track of little moments in my life as a mom and artist and I never thought I'd ever actually attract any readers! but the more i blogged (and blog-hopped!) the more i realized what a supportive community there is out there. so much encouragement and inspiration. so as a thank you, i'd like to do a weekly giveaway for the month of october as appreciation for anyone out there who is following this blog. i was inspired to do this from a fellow blogger, susie lafonde, who posted about her follower appreciation giveaway here. if you're already a follower, you're in the drawing. if you'd like to join in on the fun, just become a follower of this blog by clicking on "follow" in the right hand column. each friday, i'll choose a winner and send them a sweet bundle of paper, fabric and misc. goodies. (this week i'll pick FOUR winners, since i started the post a little late in the game!) thanks again for your support! :)

we went on a little stroll the other day, when it was NINETY degrees outside (in OCTOBER!!??). stopped at the 7-11 to get some cool treats. i'm remembering to bring my camera with me on these little walks. here's sureya pointing up to the sky. her new saying: "what's that?" she pretty much points at everything and says that! and here's what she was pointing at:

not sure if it was the electric lines, the lights, the sky, or the tree that got her attention. but i thought i'd capture a photo of it. just so i'd remember that moment. isn't that what we do? just capture little moments. savor them. turn them into memories to bring out and share for another time?

and here she is at a little friend's birthday party. looks like she's dancing here. another one of her favorite pastimes. besides climbing on things and freaking me out! her most favorite spot is behind the couch, on the window sill. (not kidding!) that little girl must be part cat. but i love her so! :)

and now, in a flash, it's autumn. finally. good bye 90 degree heatwave. it was washed away with a much-needed rainstorm yesterday. now we're wearing cozy socks around the house. we turned on the heater for the first time since winter. i'm ready for fall!

giveaway winners!

thank you to all who entered! your comments were all so sweet and encouraging. it was so much fun to "meet" all of you and to visit your blogs and get to know a little more about each of you. i loved reading each and every comment.

to recap, everyone got an entry just for commenting and additional entries for blogging about the giveaway, following and/or voting for trace merritt elementary in the kohl's cares contest (4 entries maximum). i gave each entry a number. then i went to random.org and entered the numbers 1-68 into the number generator thingie and pressed enter three different times to get three winners. (the total number of entries is more than the total number of comments because some comments had more than one entry, i.e. "i'm following" and "i'm voting" in one comment, etc.) i decided to add an extra winner as a "thank you" for so many comments! ;)

so, without further ado, i present to you the winners of my 100th post giveaway! (drumroll...)

first place goes to Sal-Gal! she is the winner of the custom made journal!! yay! (you get to decide on the color scheme for the cover and the inside pages!)

Sal-Gal said...Hi, I saw a link on Bonnie's blog - so here I am! I am very impressed with your lovely journals, and would love to own one! I've never done anything like that myself as I'm quite new to making cards.I will make mention in my blog about you and of course I'd love to become a follower - what a lovely idea to get more followers too! lol my blog is: http://wwwsalgal53.blogspot.com/I will also vote for your school - so that's all three sorted!!
Sal xx9/02/2010 2:14 AM

second place goes to ejmom! she is the winner of the collage paper pack! :) (ejmom, please leave a comment and let me know your email address!)

ejmom said...Your journals are so beautiful!9/01/2010 2:33 PM

and third place goes to huntla1! she is the winner of a mini stitched journal! woo hoo! (huntla1, also please leave your email address in a comment so i can contact you!)

huntla1 said...I added you to my reader so I can follow your blog. 8/27/2010 5:45 PM

and as a thank you to everyone, i'd like to offer a special 20% discount to my blog readers for my etsy shop--good anytime! just mention the promo code in the comment section during checkout: BLOG20

i've added some mini stitched journals to the shop. the covers are made with enclosure cards from paper source. they have little pockets in the back cover that are perfect for stashing goodies for journaling (paper scraps, stickers, photos!) in fact, all my journals come with little goodies hidden in the pockets and flaps!

the insides are a mix of lovely vintage paper from my favorite sources (old atlases, yearbooks, ledgers, music sheets, children's books) and new paper (recycled cavalini & co calendars, scrapbook paper, catalog pages... YUM!

and happy labor day! i hope you are all enjoying a day off today. one last "vacation" before summer officially ends. sigh. but that just means that autumn is on it's way. i always forget how much i love the changing seasons. i'm always so stubborn when it comes to saying goodbye to summer. but i do love fall and halloween! i'll have another giveaway in october to celebrate my 3rd anniversary of blogging (or, blogiversary, as some say!) i'd also like to start organizing swaps and doing tutorials, etc. i'd love to know what else you'd like to see on the blog in the future? just leave your ideas in the comments! :) i'm always happy to hear your thoughts.

100th Post and GIVEAWAY!

well, here it is. my 100th post! i am pretty darn excited to have reached this milestone.

i've been really into making these crazy quilted journals ever since i started the "remains of the day" class with mary ann moss.

at first i was going to make one just for the purposes of the giveaway but one led to two and then three...and a few days later, i had made FIVE! you can find them in my etsy shop here!

the covers are constructed with all kinds of wonderful fabric scraps--some vintage, some new. they are wrapped with recycled sari silk ribbon (my favorite embellishment these days!)

the pages are a mix of my favorite vintage paper (maps, ledgers, music sheets, atlas, childrens' books), scrapbook paper, and recycled paper (catalog pages, security envelopes).

SO...one lucky commenter will win a custom made journal all of their very own! (you get to pick the color scheme for the cover and customize the insides with your favorite kinds of paper!) and another will win a collage pack filled with wonderful paper and journaling goodies. just leave a comment to let me know you were here! i will announce the winner on Monday, September 6!

**bonus entries**

1 extra entry for blogging about the giveaway (just leave a separate comment with a link to your blog entry)

1 extra entry for becoming a follower of my blog (if you are already a follower, just let me know in a separate comment!)

AND

1 extra entry for voting for Merritt Trace Elementary school in the Kohl's Cares contest on facebook (if you've already voted, just let me know in a separate comment). their library and 26 classrooms were destroyed in an arson fire. please give them 5 stars; they could really use our support! :) voting ends september 3.

so, to recap: to enter, just leave a comment. for each additional entry, leave a separate comment. additional entries are not necessary to win, but they do boost your chances! ;)

and THANK YOU for stopping by. your comments and support over the years mean a lot to me and encourage me to keep on blogging and creating art!

finished journal pages and give-away WINNERS

baby is sleeping...shhh! so i've got a quick little moment to post some new journal pages and the give-away winners. Congratulations, Carol! You won the Stampin' Up catalog plus SU goodies. And Libby won the collage paper/goodie pack! And Julie wins a goodie, too! (Ladies, contact me with your addresses to claim your prize)


I'll get those goodies out this week. I sent out both traveling journals this week. Journal #3535 is making it's way with a fellow art sister to Sun Valley, Idaho. And journal #3526 is on it's way to Gilbert, AZ! Can't wait to see what happens to them along the way.


Finally got my baby announcements made! Hooray! It's the littlest accomplishments that make a new mom feel good about her day.


I took a bazillion photos of Sureya one morning and put together some photo collage announcements on Shutterfly. Love how easy it was. These are some of the outtakes. :)

and a smile! ;) after about 79 photos!