Give Away!

I've decided to have a little celebration give away because La Bella Vie has made it to 100 followers...OK so 110 but who's counting? Therefore I thought it was time to do something nice to thank everyone!

 Typically I think there are rules to these things but let's make it simple...

 you must already be a follower or become a new follower and leave a comment then tell me which give away you would be interested in.

Its that simple!

There's "Give away #1" and "Give away #2" for you to choose from.

Drawing will be on Sunday September 12Th 2010

and will be chosen with "Random Generator" so its fair (we don't need Follower fighting on my first give away, what a mess that could be:)

The two winners will be posted on September 12th.

I'll contact the winners through their blogspot/email then the goods will be sent to their new homes:)

So here we go...

Give away #1
First up; a cute little pair of blue and green candles in ceramic pots with lids (about 3-4"). They are the perfect size for a mantle, or a table scape or maybe on a bedside nightstand. They have delightful Lilly scent but not overpowering at all.

Give away #2

Second up, an adorable "American Vintage Calico" cat. This little cutie is made from a vintage 1930's quilt block. The fabrics used are from old feed sacks which was a very common way of making quilts, shirts, dresses and just about anything else necessary to live comfortably.

The motto of the day was "make do with what you have or do without".

This darling collectible kitty is a limited edition piece (15/45) made by renowned textile artist, Maggie Sue.

Good luck to all of you and remember,

"DFJE" don't fret, just enjoy", its only Blog land!

Now you see it now you don't...

Today I'm joining Metamorphosis Monday with our lovely hostess, Susan from Between Naps on the Porch Thank you again Susan for inspiring such creativity and hosting this fun event! 

This is one of my favorite rooms in the house, its my sewing studio. This was formerly the original master suite when my husband and I built our home twenty years ago. Its at the back of the house, which is south facing. The room overlooks our property of beautiful Pacific Northwest Douglas Fir. It was always a lovely light filled space but believe it or not, almost too bright for a cozy bedroom. So one evening while sitting in my sewing room that was originally on the north side of the house, I had a thought and sketched out an idea...how about switching the two rooms, do a flip-flop. Make that bright, light filled room into my quilting studio and make the north facing room into the master suite! Great idea but Mr, La Bella Via wasn't going for a major remodel at this point in time.
It would mean changing the master bath around to accommodate the new suite...blah, blah, blah! After all, we had only been in the house a few short years, however he did agree to make the switch "someday".
Well..."someday" wasn't soon enough for me, so what was girl to do? I got out the sledge hammer and started the demo on my own! I thought I could just rip out the closet and make a new doorway into the bathroom...NOT!
I soon found out once you start ripping out walls and carpet you better just keep going! So...after my husband got over the initial shock of his wife ripping walls down, he buried the sledge hammer somewhere on the property and helped me finish what I started!
It took a few years but three new rooms later; my studio, our master suite and the new master bath (I'll do a post on that later) turned out perfect!

I knew in my mind what I wanted my sewing room to look like plus it had to be multifunctional. It was not only my studio but would have to double as an occasional guest room so this is what I came up with it...enjoy!

Most of the time my studio looks like this only messier!

For some reason today it was fairly tidy!

But that's not typical. I usually have fabric every where and bits of thread all over the floor...

you can certainly see why I HAD TO have this room for my studio! The sun just beams in here which makes it a really happy room to be in. 

Mr. La Bella Vie built the Cornice board valance and we upholstered it together with my main theme fabric called "Chatelaine" pictured here on my lamp shade.

 

This is looking at the opposite side of the room looking toward my little reading nook. Mr. La Bella Vie built everything in this room for me according to my very stringent specifications:) The shelving area at right displays part of my antique toy sewing machine collection.

The "Wall Words" caption was a Christmas gift from my husband although the phrase is mine:)

(click to enlarge)

below a close up of my Koala cutting table

 

below is just a few of my toy sewing machines. Someday I'll do another post on all of them as well as my pin cushion collection. Again, these are on display in the shelving unit Mr. La Bella Vie built.

 

 

One last peek at what this room normally looks like. 

This is my quilt rack with 1930 Double Wedding Ring quilt hanging on it. I found this vintage quilt on my first trip to the Houston International Quilt Festival ten minutes after walking in the door!

The quilt hanger my sweet Mr. La Bella Vie made for me our first Christmas together to hold one of my antique quilts. He used old door knobs out of an old house on the end of the pole.

The door knobs come off to remove the pole from the holder...

The quilt comes off, the little feet pop out

(see them under the rack?)

it glides down on whisper quiet hydraulics...

 to reveal...

 this...

 oh so clever...

 Murphy bed!

once again, the before...

where there was once a large sewing cabinet is now...

a beautiful guest room!

(Dresden Plate quilt c. 1925 on the bed)

Thank you again Susan for being a gracious hostess on another

Metamorphosis Monday!

Oaks Park and the boys...

OK so its been a while since I posted but we've had our two grandson's (Cole 6 and Blake 4) here for the last three days. All I can say is I am in such awe of all the mom's out there! I have come to realize it is virtually impossible to blog and have kids at the same time! I had absolutely no time to do anything other than be a grandma and take care of the needs of two very busy little boys! We had bikes to ride, kitties to chase, boo-boo's to fix and bruises to kiss and lots of hugging to do in between! Then we had The Wizard of Oz to watch and popcorn to pop. Picnic's and Pancake's and lots of peanut butter and jelly Sammie's in between!

Then in between everything else, we went to Oaks Park one of the oldest amusement parks in Oregon.

Here is just a teeny bit of a very busy weekend with six and four year old boys! And all I can say is, Grandma's pooped!

but not four year old Blake!

or six year old Cole

or fifty seven year old Papa...he went on every single ride those little boys wanted to go on!

 Grandma said no thanks to this one or she would have been the Screaming Eagle!

and she also said no to this one...

she needed to man this bench instead (someone had to do it!)

 

 and no to this one too...

Unfortunately I said yes to this one below.

This smile was before the ride started and that was only because I thought it was like the "Teacups" in Disneyland...NOT! I was sure the thing was going to shoot me to the moon!

 

I skipped this torturous contraption too...but not Iron man Papa and those two little boys!

but alas, they had this darling little choo-choo train that grandma really liked:)

but Papa and the boys thought it was b-o-r-i-n-g!

grandma liked the shady roof and slow, rocking motion of about 3 miles per hour:)

but as soon as that train stopped, those boys (all three of them!) were off like lightning...

to the Scrambler...

Again I sat here and took pictures from the sidelines...

And when the day was done, grandma collapsed and Papa and the boys asked when we get to go again!

As busy as the weekend was and as crazy and hectic as it seemed, we loved every second of having those two darling grandsons here for the weekend and I wouldn't trade it for the world...well maybe the overwhelming sense of nausea I had from the rides...that I could trade:)