The Second Winner Has Been Announced! And a Little Something for Everyone...

Happy Friday all!  

Thank you all so much for celebrating with me this week as I turned another year older (and hopefully wiser ;) )!

The winner of my Handmade~Homemade Birthday Celebration Giveaway #2 Winner has been announced and emailed...

Congratulations, Ambre S.!  Check your inbox and reply back within 48 hours. :)

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A few of my lovely (and awesomely generous!) giveaway sponsors have decided to offer all of my readers some discount codes and coupons for their respective sites.  I know you all saw a few things that caught your eye in each of their shops, so go ahead and take advantage of these discounts:

Chrissy from The Pink Woobie is offering my readers a 10% discount in her etsy shop with the coupon code FRUGAL.
Feel free to pick me up any of these... ;)

Pamela from Pamela's Heavenly Treats is giving you all 20% off your orders in her etsy shop with the coupon code ENJOY20.
Pamela makes yummy healthy cup cake and cookie mixes like the ones pictured below...

Amy from Rational Designs is offering my fabulous readers free shipping on their orders through December 31st with the coupon code FRUGAL.  Now is the perfect time to stock up on some gorgeous handmade cards for the holidays! 

Thank you to all of my very lovely giveaway sponsors and to each of you who have joined us this past week!! :)

Pay It Forward Handmade & the Birthday Giveaway #1 Winner!

Inspired by a recent post from Mia at The Chronicles of Chaos, I decided to get on board with an awesome Pay It Forward Handmade project.  (Plus, it goes along so nicely with my birthday week celebration theme! ;) )  To see Mia's original blog post that I responded to, CLICK HERE.  The details are below, friends!  I hope that you will join Mia and I in this handmade kindness project. :)

There’s a pay-it-forward crafty plan underway, and lots of bloggers appear to be joining in!

So, here’s how this pay-it-forward thing works:

I will send a surprise gift to the first three commenters on this post (and if there are more I might send out more). The gift will be a handmade surprise by me and I will send it to you sometime in the next 365 days. (Psssttt... I will be sending out my handmade gifts before the New Year. ;) ) All you need to do is the following:

Leave me a comment and include your email address (if your profile doesn’t link back) so I can get in touch with you about your mailing address and some other information about yourself.

To complete signing up, you MUST play along too by blogging a similar post and pledging to make a surprise for the first 3 people who comment on it.

So, do you want to play along?

Comment below, and I’ll send a thoughtful gift to the first three people who do.

Let's pay it forward to one another! :)

And now.... the winner of my Handmade~Homemade Birthday Celebration Giveaway #1 is...
Ruth M.!!!
Ruth has been emailed, and I am waiting for her reply.  :)
You didn't win this round?  No worries! You still have time to enter my Handmade~Homemade Birthday Celebration Giveaway #2!! 

Also, Amy from Rational Designs (The one who was giving away the gorgeous gold printed Chrysanthemum notecards??) is offering my readers free shipping in her etsy shop until December 31, 2012 with the coupon code FRUGAL.  (Psssstttt... she makes GORGEOUS holiday cards & notecards so this would be a great time to order yours!)

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Handmade~Homemade Birthday Celebration Giveaway #2

I had a fabulous and relaxing birthday weekend with my family.  I got to go shopping (sans the kiddos) with my mom and sister Saturday morning, and I actually bought myself a few nice things for once. (Much love to the husband for staying with the kids while I enjoyed a few hours of girly shopping time!)

I spent the rest of the day relaxing, watching my Mountaineers play, and then the boys surprised me by bringing home dinner (Yay! A night off from cooking!) and a super yummy Reese Cup Blizzard ice cream cake. (Yep. That is it in all it's yummy glory above. )

I hope you all have already entered yourself in my Handmade~Homemade Birthday Celebration Giveaway #1.  Lots of crafty, homemade awesomeness is up for grabs in that one- handmade earrings, vanilla spiced peach jam, an art print, a custom burlap banner, custom friendship bracelet, Starbucks gift card, and gorgeous handmade Chrysanthemum notecards. Plus starting today, an additional entry has been added to the Rafflecopter. Even if you have already entered, go check out the newest way to enter that giveaway!  Only 2 more days left to enter that one! (Winner will be announced Wednesday morning for Giveaway #1!)

Now on with Giveaway #2 which is just as fabulous as #1!

So, what will the ONE big winner of Giveaway #2 get?

(Yes, ONE winner takes all, folks!)

Just look below!  And check out what each of the lovely giveaway sponsors' favorite birthday gifts are. ;)

Chrissy from The Pink Woobie is giving our lucky winner a Hand Crocheted Purple Market Bag, perfect for those weekend mornings at the farmers market! :)

"...I've gotten a lot of great and thoughtful stuff over the years, but in high school one of my best guy friends bought me a tiara, and I wore it a lot until it fell apart.  It was exactly what I needed to feel special, and I always wore it with regular clothes- jeans, t-shirt, and a tiara."

Suzy from That's 2 Darn Cute created a gorgeous one of a kind 7 inch multi quartz bracelet just for this giveaway.

"My birthday is December 23, so it is close to Christmas and I get birthday and Christmas gifts confused!  But at my last job, I worked as a restaurant manager.  Being the Christmas season, it was crazy busy.  But my boss arranged a surprise for me and gave me a massage and a half day off of work.  It was very needed, and I was really touched by the thought she put into it..."

Melissa from Treats With a Twist is going to make healthy, gluten-free granola customized to the winner's preference. :)

"My best birthday gift was when I was 11.  My family let me choose our first dog.  Kaity was a beautiful, sweet golden retriever, and I couldn't have asked for a better dog to have.  We lost her just a week ago, and it has made me reflect on how lucky I was to have such an amazing birthday gift."

Brittany over at Confessions of a PinAholic wants to help our winner fuel their next spree of craftiness with a $5 Michael's Gift Card.

"The best birthday present I ever received my as 2010 Chevy Camaro for my 25th birthday!"

Emily who blogs over at then along came... the boys is going to send our winner 4 sets of handmade notecards (12 total).

"The best birthday present I ever received was a necklace and a bracelet set with my birthstone in it.  It is absolutely beautiful!"

Pamela from Pamela's Heavenly Treats is going to give our lucky winner a $5 credit to her etsy store where she creates and sells her healthy cookie and cup cake mixes.

"The best birthday present that I received was a LOVE bracelet from my kiddies about 8 years ago.  It was something they had picked out themselves for me."

Good luck to all!  The winner will be announced Friday morning. :)

Don't forget that I am also offering 35% off all my remaining A Bushel and A Peck sized ad spots until Saturday, September 8th.  Just visit my Sponsor Page, choose your ad spot, and use promo code YAYBIRTHDAY at check out.  Plus, one of you lucky sponsors who buys an ad this week will be randomly chosen to receive 30 extra days of advertising with Frugal Foodie Mama for free!! :)

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Handmade~Homemade Birthday Celebration Giveaway #1

Good morning all!!  Yes, today is the day.  The one I have been waiting 35 years for.  ;)  It is my birthday! 

I wanted to share in my birthday celebration with all of my incredible followers out there.  Soooooo.... I put the word out there and got some crazy talented and creative (and generous!) fellow bloggers and etsy shop owners to donate their skills and crafty goods (and in some cases, a few gift cards. ;) ) to the party!  Be sure to tell ALL of these lovely ladies thank you!  Without them this awesome giveaway would not be happening.  

In fact, I had so many bloggers & small shop owners respond to my giveaway request that there will be TWO Handmade~Homemade Birthday Celebration Giveaways on my blog this week!  Yep.  This is only the first of two! (Be looking for giveaway #2 on Monday.)  

But before I get to the giveaway goodies, I have decided to give you all a little extra something for my birthday week. ;)  Until Saturday September 8th, you can get 35% off any of my A Bushel or A Peck sized ad spots with the promo code YAYBIRTHDAY.  Plus at least one of you who purchase an ad spot this week will get 30 extra days of advertising for FREE!  (I will pick a winner at random from the bloggers/shop owners who purchase an ad from today until next Saturday.)  Okay, now back to the giveaway and those fabulous handmade~homemade prizes...

So, what will the ONE big winner of Giveaway #1 get?  

(Yes, ONE winner takes all, folks!)

Just look below!  And also check out what each of their favorite birthday gifts are. ;)

I am giving the lucky winner of this giveaway a jar of my homemade Vanilla Spiced Peach Jam!  Yes, this is the same jam that I blogged about earlier this week. ;)

Looks towards the end of this post to see what one of my best birthday presents is. 

Amy from Rational Designs is giving our winner a set of 6 blank notecards featuring a large Chrysanthemum pattern printed in warm gold ink.

I'm sure I got some awesome presents when I was a kid, but by far my favorite present (that I still enjoy on a least a weekly basis) is my KitchenAid stand mixer.  A few years after my grandma died I was trying to re-create her recipe for Easter bread and having a crazy time of it, partially due to a lack of proper equipment.  (The other part is that I was, at that time, a baking novice.) A few months later he bought me a beautiful white 6-quart stand mixer that has seen countless batches of bread, cookies, and other goodies in the eight or so years since."

Ginny from Gems by Ginny is giving our winner a pair of her handmade lampwork bead earrings with pink and white roses.

"My favorite has to be my digital camera."

Karen from Patching Hearts is giving the winner a $5 Starbucks e-card to help fuel those late night crafting (or baking!) sessions.

"The best birthday present I have received would have to be a spa day!  With two toddlers, I needed the R&R."

Julie from This Gal Cooks is sending our winner this pretty 7x9 Squeegee Art print. 

"I can't say that I have a favorite birthday gift because I have enjoyed all of them, but I will say what one of my most memorable birthdays was.  It was my 25th birthday, the year after my dad passed away.  My cousins wanted to do something special for me so they invited me over for a little birthday celebration.  They baked a lemon cake for me and iced it with chocolate icing.  It was great!  I had a very good time with them."

Jessica from My Beautiful Life is going to make a custom friendship bracelet in the winner's choice of colors.

"The best birthday gift I ever received was tickets to a concert for my favorite band called BarlowGirl."

Sandra from Lara's Vintage is giving our very lucky winner a Custom Burlap Banner & a $10 Jo-Ann's gift card.

"My favorite birthday gift was my sewing machine."

So, what is one of my favorite birthday presents?

I have received so many wonderful birthday gifts over the years, but this year I received an ice cream maker as an early birthday gift from my parents!  I have been pining for one of these for a while.  Look for the Leave a Blog Post Comment entry in the Rafflecopter below and leave me a link to your favorite homemade ice cream recipe in the Comments section for 2 extra entries! ;)

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