Some Favorites from the Linky Party :)

I just cannot tell you HOW much I absolutely LOVED all of your projects that you linked up for fall (yes, I know I'm a bit late on sharing all these -- oops!)  Even though it's winter and all the Christmas projects are in full force, I still want to take one last peak at the fall season.

So in no particular order -- here are my absolute favorite fall projects from you guys:

Heather at Straight Stitches made this "Nutty Wreath"  

LOVE IT!  This would be awesome for Christmas, too!

Lisa at The Pursuit of Happiness made this adorable pumpkins with burlap.  

To DIE for, Lisa!  They are just perfect!

Sunny at Life in Rehab whipped up this gorgeous aqua and cream colored spread of fall decorations. 

I just love the use of "non-typical" fall colors -- it's just stunning!

Sarah at Bird's Papaya made this adorable topiary herself -- and of course shows you how to!

Beautiful use of moss!!

Kathleen at Between Blue &  Yellow made these absolutely gorgeous knockoff burlap vases from dollar store materials!

This is waaaay better than the pricey version -- I love it!

 

I absolutely loved ALL your projects -- they were just wonderful to look at and I loved visiting your blogs!  Thank you so much for making it a wonderful party!!


And since this was SO much fun -- I'm going to be doing a Christmas party too!

 

WINNER of the CSN Giveaway!

It's time to announce the lucky, lucky winner of our CSN Giveaway!! :) YAAAAAAAAAY!


Don't forget to check back at CSN throughout the Holidays for awesome deals on gifts and traveling goodies.


So with that said....it's time to find out who won this awesome prize!!

And that is......

Mrs. K 11/23/2010 08:53 AM

I get to go back to my hometown for Thanksgiving. I am thankful for that!
steps52(at)gmail(dot)com 

 

 

YAY! MRS. K!  Send me an email and we'll get you your fabulous CSN prize!

I absolutely loved reading all the things you guys were thankful for and what your Thanksgiving plans were!  I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!  And thanks for sharing all your awesome projects -- I'm going to be spotlighting a few of them tomorrow! :)

 

My House is Ready for Thanksgiving!

I wanted to share with you how Thanksgiving-esque our house is! :)  Because come this weekend or next we will be in full-blown Christmas mode and the Autumn decorations will be put away for the year.  It sure went by fast, didn't it!?!

I found this candle, plastic acorns and leaf dish at Kohl's a few weeks back for 60% off and now they sit in the center of our dining room table.

 So, because I don't have a mantle; we decorate our sideboard/hutch/buffet (whatever you want to call it) for the seasons.  You can see my pumpkin and vase projects on the side there.

There are the famous Decor Chick Dollar Store Hurricanes -- I made them last weekend and I even used her "book" technique to hold them in place while they dried.  Thanks, Emily for an AWESOME, inexpensive project!!

I have my topiary on a little table in our entry way next to a store-bought pumpkin and a little lantern I snatched from an antique store.

 I found these Fall Ornaments at Joanne's this year and last year and thought they were a perfect addition to our entry way.

And of course you HAVE to have an Autumn welcome sign!  I absolutely love this one I got for my birthday a few years ago -- I wish I could leave it up all year around!!



Don't forget to link up YOUR Fall and Thanksgiving projects in our linky party!

 

Share your Fall Projects Linky Party .... and CSN Store Giveaway!

Alrighty; like I promised -- it's time for you to share your Fall and Thanksgiving Projects with us! YAY!  I'm SO excited to see what you guys have made and shared!

And that's not all -- you can also enter to be the winner of the CSN Store Giveaway!! I LOVE CSN and their over 200 stores -- they have practically everything you could EVER want; such as luggage, (in case you have any travel plans for the Holiday Weekend) kitchen goodies (in case you are hosting Thanksgiving), furniture (well who doesn't want to get a new piece of furniture now and then) and apparel (to look fabulous at your Thanksgiving Dinner) -- like I said; practically everything!!!

So, first off; the exciting giveaway!!  CSN is giving away a $45.00 gift certificate to one lucky winner!  EEK!  Lucky you! 

HOW TO WIN:

1.  Leave a comment telling me what you're thankful for (imagine Thanksgiving Day when everyone has to say one thing their Thankful for before dinner); or tell me what kind of fun plans you have; or a Thanksgiving Tradition you and your family has


2.  Become a follower and tell me that you are with a comment


3.  ONE of the following:  Twitter, Facebook or blog about the giveaway

The giveaway will be open until Saturday, November 27th

NOW -- on to our PAR-TAY!

If you want to post my button on your blog I would love it -- but it's absolutely not mandatory -- just link up and have fun!  (I'll be showing off some of your projects on Saturday)

 

Fall & Thanksgiving Projects

Today I wanted to share with you all the fun Fall and Thanksgiving projects I shared with you this season.......and to tell you that TOMORROW I want to see all of your Fall Projects too!  And the best part is, there will be an awesome giveaway for tomorrow too; to celebrate your awesome projects!


So with that said, let me recap on what I whipped up this season:

 Fall Raffia Wreath

Floral Wire Pumpkins and Nautical Rope Pumpkin

 Fall Leaf Topiary

Raffia Vase with Fall Flowers

Thanksgiving Mod Podge Boxes

Thanksgiving Napkins with Silhouette's Heat Transfer Sheets

Be sure to stop by tomorrow to share your Fall and Thanksgiving projects and a chance to win our fantastic giveaway!! :)

 

Meet Ashley at A Forty Year-Old Ranch

It's time to "meet" another one of the followers here at The Hand Me Down House!  YAY!  I have just loved visiting all your blogs and sharing your projects and stories with everyone!  I'm slowly but surely getting through all your submissions -- so don't worry -- you'll all be introduced soon! :)

Today I'd like you to meet to Ashley at A Forty Year-Old Ranch.

Ashley and her hubby bought a ...... can you guess!?  A forty year-old ranch three years ago and have been fixing it up ever since.  And right from Ashley's blog -- here's her story:

"My husband and I set out to look for a home with "character" that we could fix up three years ago. We were living in a newer house that was hard to infuse ourselves into. And truth be told, it just never felt like home to us.

We saw the forty year-old ranch the day it came on the market. We had always loved the subdivision and when it came available our realtor called us immediately. I walked out of the house and swore to my husband that we would never own it. It was cluttered and dirty. It needed more updating than I thought we could ever possibly do. But it had everything we wanted in a home. As hard as I tried to fight it, I was always pulled back to this house. We prayed about it long and hard and both knew that was where we were supposed to be. We decided this on a Friday evening. The next Saturday morning, our house sold and that evening we put an offer in.

Less than two weeks later, we pulled the moving truck into the driveway of our new home. We cleaned our butts off, and started the renovations the day after we moved in by ripping out some old carpet. We haven't stopped since. It's our home, the only home our children have ever known. Its the place where, hopefully, all of their memories will be. And the safe place we can all come to, when life gets a little too scary. Home. This is OUR home."

I LOVE stories like this!  Wonderful homeowners that come in and save a house and make it beautiful again.  And here is their forty year-old ranch:

Adorable, right!?!  Wait 'til you see some of the things they've done to it!

This is one of my favorites on Ashley's blog -- I thought it was an amazing transformation the second I saw it!  Here's their playroom before:

And ohmygosh the AFTER (absolutely gorgeous!)  It doesn't even look like the same room, right!?!

The best part of it is, they have a very discretely sectioned off play area behind the sofa:

Genius!  You can read more about their living room redo by clicking here.

Another area they recently redid was the laundry room -- this laundry room almost makes me want to actually do laundry :)

Here's their before (which looks like mine currently ...... ):

And look at their awesome redo!

And get this -- they spent $59.00! YES -- that's it for an amazing makeover! 

You can catch up on their laundry redo here.

Ashley also does lots of decorating with vintage finds and crafting with them too -- such as this awesome door they put in for their office -- LOVE this door!  It reminds me of my great-grandma's farm house when I was little:

And check out these cute pears she made with vintage sheet music -- adorable!

Thank you SO much, Ashley for sharing your blog and your Forty Year-Old Ranch with us!  I'm just in love with your house -- don't be surprised if you find me at your door with my suitcases soon! :)

Be sure to stop by A Forty Year Old Ranch and say "hi" to Ashley! :)

Do you want to introduce YOUR blog to us?  Get the details, here.

Winner of the Holiday Bracelet!

It's time to announce the winner of Shamble Ramble's Holiday Bracelet!!

The winner is:

Cara@TwiceLovely 11/17/2010 04:00 PM

My favorite part of the season is dancing with my kids to Oakridge Boys Christmas CD and unpacking decorations.

CONGRATULATIONS, CARA!! Send me an email and Stacey & Nicole will get your Holiday Bracelet out for you to enjoy this season! :)


BTW -- have you guys checked out Cara's awesome blog, Twice Lovely?  It's seriously one of my absolute favorite reads!


Thanks again to my awesome sponsors, Stacey &Nicole at Shamble Ramble!

 

Giveaway of a Holiday Candy Button Bracelet!

Well they've done it again -- Nicole & Stacey, the creators (and sisters!) of Shamble Ramble and it's GORGEOUS jewelry have been incredibly wonderful and wanted to give another lucky reader a chance to win one of their lovely pieces of jewelry!   

And this time around it's a Holiday-inspired bracelet for Christmas:

It's their Holiday Candy Button Bracelet -- just for YOU!


So how do you win this beauty?

I've made it SO easy -- and you have four different ways:

1.  Go to Shamble Ramble's store and tell me what's your favorite piece of jewelry
2.  Leave a comment telling everyone what your favorite part of the Christmas Season is
3.  Blog, Twitter, or Facebook about this fantastic giveaway (and leave one comment that you did)
4.  And for a BONUS - become a follower of Shamble Ramble's blog (and leave a comment again)

Let the Holiday Commenting begin!!! :)  This giveaway is open until 11/19/2010 at Noon Central Time.

 

I'm Thankful For...

That's right, Minnesota's first snow of the season!  And it was a beautiful snow storm.  We went to bed on Friday night to a brown, dead yard and woke up Saturday morning to this:

Although it was complete with a most-of-the-day-power-outage, broken tree limbs and lots of shoveling; it was a beautiful start out to winter.  I just love the grey-silvery colors of winter.  So sophisticated.

And with the power out on my typical-get-a-million-projects-done-Saturday; I didn't get anything done that I wanted.  It made me really appreciate electricity....I mean really appreciate it.  It also felt kind of good to have one day that I didn't feel like I had to get everything checked off my list.  Sometimes inconveniences can be a blessing in disguise -- a reminder to slow down and enjoy things like snowstorms:

Or deer walking through your yard.

And with Thanksgiving around the corner it's good to be reminded of all the things I have to be grateful for.

What are you thankful for??