It's Blogiversary giveaway time again!

Well really, it's PAST time for a blogiversary giveaway but I don't think you'll mind that I'm late.  My goodness how fast these blogiversaries roll around, seems like it was just 5 years and here I am at 6 years!   I'm so happy that so many of you have chosen to read and follow my blog and I thank you for all your visits and comments.  I wish I had more time to read and comment on all of yours.  Right now I follow about 240 blogs in Google Reader.  I wish there was a magic button that would automatically add all the blogs from followers to my list but there's not.  I thought I would try to go through my list of followers and add any blogs I don't already follow but oh my it's tedious work.  You have to click on each follower, then go look at their Blogger Profile to see if they have a blog, etc.  I know there are probably many of you not yet on my reading list but I do try to add in more as I can.   There just aren't enough hours in the day to keep up with all the interesting posts.  And the more I read, the more I want to stash & stitch!

SO.....on to the important stuff!  

I didn't really have time to stitch gifts for my giveaway this year so I decided to do something a little different.  I've kitted up 2 prize packages.  You don' t have to be a follower or post a link on your blog or anything special...just leave a comment on this post and I will choose a first prize and second prize name from those who comment.  Deadline for entering is Sunday evening Aug 19th.  You must either leave your email address or have your email address in your Google or Blogger Profile.  If I choose your name and don't find an email address to contact you, I'll pick an alternate name.  

First prize:  I've kitted up a sampler I just love called "Beauty & Grace" from Tree of Life Samplings.  Jan designed this for a retreat last year and after a year she released it for the rest of us.   You can see a nice photo of this on the header of the Tree of Life Samplings blog.   You will receive everything you need except a needle!  I've included the chart, a lovely piece of 32-ct "Mello" linen by Picture This Plus (plenty of margin space for framing), all the overdyed flosses, and one of my  sampler project bags.  Also included is a pincushion I made - it's red, white, and blue, backed with wool and filled with crushed walnut shells.

Second prize:  The newest Little House Needleworks ornament has been kitted up for you.  It's called "Hot Chocolate" and you can see it at the bottom of their ornament page here.  I've included a piece of 28-ct natural linen with the chart, plus all the DMC threads called for, and a Christmas project bag I made.   You'll also get a pincushion made by me.  (I love making pincushions!)

I've been stitching away on a few different projects in recent weeks.  I managed to get a tree stitched by Lizzy & Darcy on my Pride & Prejudice sampler.   I did the tree 'free hand' - just started stitching and looked at some trees on charts I had for inspiration.  I think they like it.  :)   Then I started stitching the house I'm calling "Rosings Park" - my facsimile of it that is. It's almost done except for the door.     The house I charted myself on graph paper - houses are pretty easy to chart so by looking at the photo of the house from the A&E mini-series I came up with my own smaller version.  It still needs a bit of landscaping of course  and I want to add Mr Collins & Charlotte who lived nearby in the parson's house.  Feel like I made some good progress on this BAP this month!

Belton House, used as filming site for Rosings Park in mini-series

Rosings Park - my abbreviated version

I finished up another little patriotic small while watching some of the Olympics....it's the "Glory" fob by Shepherd's Bush but I wanted a pillow not a fob so finished it with a few patriotic fabrics. I found a perfect little blue heart button in my button box - love when that happens! I've also made it to the halfway point on the "Strawberry Summer Sampler" for my clock insert. It goes fast as it's only a 3" wide band sampler...hope to finish it up soon I've just been bopping back and forth between projects.

I've got an ornament kitted up from Brooke's Books to stitch for August but not started it yet.   It's called "Eternity" and has a lovely pinecone on it but I think when I finish it I will rotate it so the pinecone is pointing down.   I was picking up a few of the overdyed threads listed for the design at the LNS this week and couldn't find 2 of the Crescent Colours flosses on display.   I finally had to ask someone at the store and found that they were actually Belle Soie silks.  I'll be using the DMC substitutions for those as I can't see spending ~$15 for 2 skeins of silk used in just an ornie!
 

Next weekend my DH is out of town so I plan to have a serious non-stop weekend of stitching and movie watching - I'll probably have stiff hands by Monday morning!

Good luck everyone on the drawing!