It's a Getting it Together Giveaway!

I've been so busy that I haven't had time to stay on top of my blog reading. I hope all my friends out there are doing well. I'll catch up soon!

I seem to have bitten off a little more than I can chew this year.

I signed myself up for four holiday swaps. Yes, four. Yikes!  I'm having a cookie party on Saturday. I am still cleaning and decorating. I can't have a Christmas cookie party with no Christmas decorations up! Lol. And I'm constantly distracted by Words with Friends! Yes, I love that game.  

So, I am doing some serious decluttering since my mother-in-law and sister-in-laws are coming over to my house for the first time for the cookie party. I can't have them thinking crazy thoughts about my house keeping skills. Actually I lack the house keeping gene but can't have them knowing that, lol.

I'm so messy and just love stuff! I always see a reason to keep stuff. I think to myself "I can really use this when I get a bigger house or when I do blah, blah, blah I'll need this." That way of thinking is really holding me back. I've heard that a cluttered house leads to a cluttered mind or something like that. Well, it's true!! My mind is always occupied with "I've gotta clean this or I can't do this because stuff is in the way." My house is in a constant state of disarray, so much so that I have to embark on a major cleaning frenzy before I can even invite people over.

No more, nope, I'm getting it together.

I think that this will help me not only in my personal life (my husband can't stand all my clutter!) but also professionally. Right now, there are things I want to make but don't feel like getting out the sewing machine because it's a huge undertaking to drag it out of the closet. I feel like there is so much clutter in my craft room that it is blocking my creativity. In my defense, it is a guest bedroom/office/craft room, lol.

So, I've said all this to tell you that I'm have a giveaway, several of them actually. I have so much scrapbooking/crafty items that I'm giving much of my stash away. This is new stuff. Unopened, still in package, new, shiny things. Stickers, paper, embellishments, all kinds of goodies. All you have to do is visit my shop (LeeLu Creations on etsy) and  leave me a comment about which is your fave item. Or just tell me how fabulous of a person I am. Whatever. Just leave me a comment on this post. I will randomly pick at least five winners so hopefully that many people will enter, lol. I will pick the winners Thursday evening so you can enter any time up to Thursday, 11/30/12 before 6 PM Eastern. I hope to ship on Friday if I can get the winners addresses.

Please share!

Project Pearl

Recently I wrote about The 13 Project where I told you about an amazing group called Project Pearl.

Today I want to share more information about that with you.

Why reinvent the wheel? This is from their website:

"Established in October 2011 by co-founders Fowler Ruffin and Melissa Ball, Project Pearl is a non-profit organization in Winston-Salem, NC that works with local photographers to increase awareness of and lower the euthanasia rate of healthy, adoptable animals in Forsyth County.

Working in partnership with Forsyth County Animal Control to help educate our community about responsible pet ownership (which includes licensing and rabies vaccinations) through outreach, social media and other sources, Project Pearl believes community-wide education results in better population control, lower stray intakes and reduced owner surrenders."

How did Project Pearl get started?

"The idea had its beginnings when Ruffin and Ball met an animal shelter dog named Pearl. The adult dog was housetrained and had wonderful manners but also had some minor skin allergies and was missing patches of hair, Ruffin said. 'She patiently waited almost two months for a home.' Realizing Pearl had an unflattering photo posted online, Ball went to the shelter, gave Pearl a bath and got her ready for Ruffin to reshoot her photo. "

"Less than a day after the photos were sent in a mass email to friends, Pearl was adopted to a wonderful home," Ruffin said

-Source

Basically, Project Pearl works with the Forsyth County Animal Shelter by taking professional pictures of the animals that are available for adoption. They give them baths, haircuts, trim nails, and then make them super cute. They work with local photographers to take professional pics. They have a Facebook page where they post and promote. This project has increased the animal shelter's adoption rate by 30%.  That is amazing!

I've never met these two ladies but I can't tell you the admiration I have for them. This is such a wonderful project that they have started. I'd love to see it branch out to other animal shelters.

Here are some of the gorgeous animals that are currently available for adoption at Forsyth County Animal Control.  These pics will make you smile. Such sweet faces!! :)

Happy Halloween: Always Have a Plan!

Got this pic from here.

After reading Jill's post, it got me thinking back to the days when I would go trick or treating, many, many, many moons ago. :)

October 31st is just magical for kids. There is an air of excitement the whole day. And I went to school before all this PC crap when kids could have actually have a Halloween party in their classroom. Nowadays, there is so much worry about offending those that don't celebrate Halloween, or kids can't have sugary treats at school because they will get fat. Not that I'm about offending anyone...but I'm not gonna get started down that road. It's Halloween and we are having fun!

Our family didn't really buy Halloween costumes, but would just kinda put together some stuff from the house. For some reason, I'm finding it difficult to remember what I was for Halloween. Perhaps it was so traumatizing that I've blocked it out? Lol. I do remember being a clown, i think because I could pretty much paint my face and wear whatever. In college, I remember being the Chick-fil-A cow and The Great Pumpkin. Man I wish I had pics. My Great Pumpkin outfit was a-w-e-s-o-m-e. That was before everyone was carrying cell phones and all this social media stuff. Man, I am really sounding dated, lol. I'm really not that old...

We would run home from school and couldn't wait for it to get dusk. For dinner Mom would fix whatever she could find in a hurry because she knew we were ready to go.

Finally...dusk. My dad would take me and my sister trick or treating. Mom would stay home and hand out candy to the few trick or treaters that we had.

We always had a plan.

It's kinda amazing to think how many miles we covered in two cities in just a matter of hours, lol. First we would hit the neighbors. Next we would go to the grandparents' houses. Grandma Robertson lived in a neighborhood that gave out good candy so we would most def hit that. Then we would hit my Aunt Pat and Uncle Anthony's house. They lived in a real neighborhood with a cul-de-sac and everything. The cul-de-sac would put on a sort of party. We could hear the spooky music as soon as we turned in the neighborhood. Their neighborhood meant business. When our bags started getting full with candy we would take some of our bounty out. According to my dad, people would feel sorry for us and give us even more candy. It worked! I think my dad enjoyed Halloween just as much as us kids.

Once home, I remember sitting on the living room floor and spreading all my candy out and just staring at it. Then I would sort through it and separate out all the "good candy".

Good candy = chocolate!

Sometimes I really miss being a kid. Sure, now I can buy my own chocolate, but what's the fun in that?

And speaking of The Great Pumpkin, it comes on tonight!

Body Surfing and Fried Butter: Weekend Recap

  It's Tuesday so I figured i'd link up with Shawn and Impulsive Addict for Talk To Us Tuesday!
You know that lovely fall weather that we were having here in NC on Friday? Well, Old Man Winter has roared in here somethin' fierce and pushed that fall weather outta here. It's super windy but I think it's a cold front moving in and not Sandy. Luckily where I'm at in NC we are not feeling the effects of Hurricane Sandy. I pray that everyone that is affected stays safe.

Well, I had big plans for the weekend, if you remember from Friday's confession. Did we stick to plan?

We did go to the Lexington BBQ Festival. It was soooo many people. Ugh! It was hard to get into vendor booths, so I didn't really get to see what people were selling. I felt like I had to body surf through the crowd just to get to the booths, lol. I only took a measly four pics because I didn't even feel like whipping out my cam. I didn't want to be that person stopping randomly and disrupting the crowd flow. Never mind trying to get pics! You know who I'm talking about...usually it's a group of people. Surely you know those people. They are everywhere, shopping malls at Christmastime, Walmart, any crowded event. They randomly stop and stand there oblivious to the chaos they have caused to those behind them that are trying to go around them. So, again, I took no pics worth posting.

NOTE: This is not me but a representation of what I almost had to do just to see people's wares! And i think this pic is Lady Gaga which will explain the outfit-or lack of one.

First thing we did when we got to the festival was eat BBQ. It was ok. And we also had a funnel cake. To die for! Literally, to die for, I think it shaved a year off my life with all that fried dough and powdered sugary goodness, but it sure was yummy! And did you know that's the first time I've ever eaten a funnel cake? Usually I like the elephant ear at the fair. Same concept, fried dough but they use cinnamon sugar instead of powdered or something like that.

And speaking of, the place that we got the funnel cake from also sold fried butter. Um, really? Do people really eat that? I mean, don't get me wrong, butter is yummy on mashed potatoes, garlic bread, and grits, but by itself, no way! If anyone out there has ever had fried butter, I want to know. You can remain anonymous if you so wish.

Ok, so curiosity got the best of me and I could not wait for my readers to email me so I googled fried butter. Paula Dean has a recipe for fried butter balls. Really? I love Paula and she is the Queen of Southern Cuisine but I would not have seen coming a recipe for fried butter balls from Paula.

We did get to see Chairman of the Board, who I love!  They are a regional band that does beach and shag music. I think they were a lot bigger back in the day.

On the way back, we stopped at a pumpkin patch at a local church. Of course, the Hubs was like "Why don't we just go to Walmart?" To which I replied, "It's for a good cause. It's for the church." Plus I need happy pills before even entertaining the idea of setting foot into our local Walmart. It is really that insane. So when we got to the pumpkin patch, pumpkins were higher than we I had anticipated so we only ended up getting one. I wanted a really big one but they were asking $35. I just wasn't prepared to drop $100 on some pumpkins. Hopefully I will not get struck with lightning on the way home, lol.

And no, we have not yet carved our pumpkin yet. Maybe tonight?

Friday Confessions

  Mamarazzi is on break, so Aubrey over at High Heeled Love  is the ever gracious host of this party.   Figured I'd link up today. I've got some things to say.   I confess:  I just made a rhyme! :)   I confess: Today is the perfect fall day. There's almost a chill in the air and the leaves have changed and are falling off the trees.   I confess: I'm not sure who has more of a crush on Ian Somerhalder, me or Jill? Dibs!!  

I confess: Got and actually implemented a great tip that I got from Stacie over at Park Avenue. Put all your manuals in a binder so that they are in one place and when you need something, as long as you know where your binder is, you are good to go. This is one of those things that when I read it, I thought, "Genius!" So simple you'd think it would be common sense, right? Not for some people (raises hand, lol). Anyhoo, I did this. I went all around the house searching in all the nooks and crannies and drawers looking for my manuals.

Picture this, if you will:

Hubs: "Neet, I'm gonna put the TV manual in the drawer beside the TV.

Me: "Ok."

Hubs: "Are you looking? It's right here."

Me: "Ok."

Six months later....

Hubs: "Neet, where did we put the TV manual? The blah blah blah isn't working right."

Me: "Dunno, you didn't tell me."

Ha ha, so no more of that! Thanks Stacie! Now to just remember where my binder is...

I confess: This weekend is kinda like a fall kickoff. There's that chill in the air that I mentioned above, and we are also going to the Lexington Barbecue Festival in Lexington, NC. It's a festival, so there will be lots to eat (my personal fave), and they also have craft vendors. Usually it's so crowded it's hard to see what people have in their booth, but I think I'm gonna really stop and look at stuff.  They also have bands and entertainment. And the Hubs doesn't know this yet but we will be carving pumpkins, me AND him. It's the perfect time to do so since it's just a few days before Halloween. 

I confess:  Speaking of Halloween, we don't usually get hardly any trick or treaters. It's kind of a bummer. I'll probably still go buy some candy anyway, ya know...just in case. *wink, wink

And it will be the good kind, ahem Stacie :), because I don't want it to go to waste just in case I don't have any trick or treaters.

That's it for now, head on over to High Heeled Love (who doesn't?) and see what everyone else is confessing this week.

 

Inspired by Random Acts of Kindness

I have been so inspired!

Jessica of The Swell Life and her friends turned a birthday outing into a day where they performed 30 random acts of kindness for perfect strangers. And this was at the birthday girl's request. How awesome is that?

I absolutely love this idea and have already emailed my girls for us to do this.

They made super cute tags and then randomly passed them out, making a fun day of it.

photo cred: here

Here are some of the things they did:

•  A note of encouragement to a driver's ed instructor (on a student driver car)
• Coffee shop drive-through, paying for the drink of the person behind us
• Tape a bag of popcorn and $ to a Redbox rental machine
• Leave quarters in a soda machine
•  A note of encouragement on a police car or fire truck (thanks for keeping us safe)!
• Tape a coffee gift card and a note saying "You're a great mom!" to a baby changing station
• Tube a surprise note to the drive-through bank teller
•  Hide sweet treats in the pumpkin patch
•  Candy bars under windshield wipers at the grocery store (it was a cool day so they did not melt)!
• Tape an unscratched lottery ticket to the gas station pump
• A note of gratitude along with $ in the tip jar at our dinner spot
•  Bring fresh flowers to a nursing home
•  Bring toys or blankets to a children's hospital

Not sure when my girls and I will get together to do this, but I am going to start working on the tags tonight! :) Will post our day once we have it.

 

 

 

First Friday November Indie Market

If you are local come see me!

My stuff is much more fabu in person and the Indie Market is always a fun time.

And did you notice that I'm a featured vendor on this month's poster?

Awesome!