Hap-appy Holidays from Verizon and Queen of Free

It's been awhile since I've gotten to go out on the town with the gals for something even close to professional. Last night, the Queen of Free and Verizon Wireless hosted a women's blogger event at the Creation Cafe in Indianapolis. What an AWESOME evening.

Over the next month or so, I'll be reviewing a DROID X from Verizon (for FREE!). I'm already impressed by the way we were treated and pampered last evening! I love the touch screen of this phone and the infinate number of apps available. Very Cool.

Thanks, Queen of Free for your invitation and for always keeping us up-to-date on AWESOME ways we can get things for free. Thanks to the Queen and Verizon's sponsorship, I'll be attending Blissdom 2011 in Nashville, TN! WOOT!

In the meantime, here's a goof-shot of me with my new toy...ahem, phone.

and...this is my friend, Mandy...aka "Awesome Designer of my Blog" :)

IF you live in the Indy area and have never visited the Creation Cafe, it's DIVINE. We met the pastry chef and his creations are incredible...would make a perfect date night or evening with the girls... GO GO GO for a visit soon!

Christmas Cards from Shutterfly

Shutterfly.com is pulling out all the stops this year for Christmas! As an "already pleased Shutterfly customer", I'm super stoked to share with you that they are giving me my Christmas cards for FREE this year!



Everyone LOVES a photo card, right? I agree that "hallmark" cards with sweet sayings and lovely illustrations are great, but I find myself holding on to the photo cards we receive each year from our loved ones. They're also great tools for reminding my toddler the names of our HUGE extended family.



One of the reasons I love to use Shutterfly is that I can keep my photos uploaded to my account and they are there just-in-case something happens to our home computer. I also love that my Christmas card isn't necessarily going to look just like our neighbor's because they have an ENORMOUS selection of holiday card designs...seriously, folks...I've not even viewed the whole selection yet because there are so many. BUT, here are a few of the designs I love so far...



The 3rd design seems like a great way for our family to introduce our newest little guy, Clayton, and also share that Titus turned 3 years old this fall. I love the layouts that give you options of using mulitple pictures. Some of the folded cards even have options to add more photos inside, with lots of space to write a summary of the year or captions for photos of family vacations, etc.

You've probably seen Shutterfly's photobooks too....I ordered my first photobook to summarize Titus' first year. It's gorgeous. And, I love that my Titus loves looking at it to see what he looked like as a baby. And the calendars! We have an Eldridge tradition of having a photo calendar every year with pictures on the dates of birthdays and anniversaries. What a perfect gift.
Well, you'd probably like having Shutterfly give you your Christmas cards for FREE too, right? Go HERE to participate...and ENJOY the upcoming holidays!

xo,
Ariel

A New Fabric Collection

Hello, blogger friends! Isn't autumn beautiful?? I'm loving the Indiana weather right now!...Aside from the five-minute hail storm this week that chipped my windshield while I sat helplessly at a stop light...ahem....

But the trees are gorgeous this time of year! I love doing leaf-rubbings with my 3 year old and talking about the colors.

Can I share something new that I've been working on? This little collection has taken over a year to put together and ended up not being used for another project. I'd love to make it available at Pocketful of Pinwheels, but I'm curious what you think? I could see lots of adorable holiday gifts made with these fabrics...

I'm a little slow these days at accomplishing tasks outside of changing a diaper or the TV channel... :) So, my thought is that I would sell these as fat quarter bundles. Any thoughts from my quilter friends?

Have a fabulous weekend!

A Calendar Winner!

Congratulations to Teresa "Weatherbee ;)" of A Needle Pulling Thread! She is the lucky winner of the new 2011 Sewing Calendar from Accord Publishing.

Enjoy all your new projects, Teresa!

2011 Sewing Calendar GIVEAWAY

I'm so excited to be featured in the 2011 Sewing Calendar by Accord Publishing. I have one just waiting to be snatched up by a lucky winner. Want it to come to your house? Here's how to enter:

* Leave a comment here with a link to your favorite craft tutorial (sewing, scrapbooking, photography, you-name-it)

WANT A SECOND ENTRY???

* Blog about the giveaway and leave a comment here with your link.

And if you're just interested in the calendar, you can purchase it HERE. I'll leave comments open until Sunday 10/10/10.

I'm Baaaaack...!

Did you miss me? I'm loving mommyhood and kissing baby chubba cheeks all day everyday :)

I've been meaning to show you some of the handmade goodies we received as gifts for Clayton's nursery...

My sweet friend, Tricia, is also an Art Teacher-turned Stay-at-home-Mommy. A gal after my own heart, she also gets a little giddy when they start putting out school supplies at Target... Isn't this a cute idea to use crayons? I love shadow boxes. Tricia is so full of cute ideas.

These little guys are just a few of the sweeties my brother's girlfriend, Crysta, crocheted for my boys. The lion is actually a rattle and he has the cutest little tail on his back end. (And, yes, I did have to dust the rocker before I could snap a picture...it's the life of having a newborn)

And here's a little something else I've been meaning to share. I was published for my very first time :) This is the 2011 Sewing Calendar by Accord Publishing. It folds out and is F-U-L-L of cute sewing projects that take a few hours or less to complete. My feature is the summer roadtrip pillow tutorial in my sidebar -->

The cool news, is that I'm going to give one of these calendars away on Monday, so come back and enter, okay? Have a great weekend! I'm off to squish some more kissable cheeks.

Brothers

Keeping pretty busy around here, as my husband has gone back to work and I'm ALONE to fend for myself as the mom of two boys for the first time ;) The first day was hairy, but I'm getting better at wrangling two! Besides, they're just so sweet....