1,000 Follower Giveaway! Pretty Handy Girl in a Box + Paint Preview + $25 Amazon Gift Card

Whoa, that title is a mouthful! But this giveaway is a BIG deal!

I'm celebrating reaching 1,000 followers!

One lucky reader will receive Pretty Handy Girl in a box, containing all of these fabulous items:

• $25 Amazon Gift Card
• Gray Sweater Vase
• Mouse trap Notepad
• Aged Bucket with Your Monogram
• Larry's Beans Gourmet St. Valentine's Blend Coffee (Durham, NC specialty)
• Escazú Sea Salt Chocolate Bar (Raleigh, NC delicacy)
• Pottery Barn Inspired Lantern

Plus, 1 Free Paint Preview for your Home or Room!

How to Win:

You have up to 5 chances to win. Simply follow the directions below and leave a comment on this post for each one you complete. ***Be sure to leave your email address if it isn't in your google profile.***

1. Comment telling me you want to be entered into the giveaway. (That was easy wasn't it?)

Here are your additional chances:

2. Comment to let me know you are following my blog (Google Friend or Feedburner).
3. Comment to tell me that you "Like" Pretty Handy Girl on Facebook
4. Comment to tell me that you "Follow me" on Twitter: @PrettyHandyGirl
5. Comment to tell me that you either "Tweeted or Mentioned" my giveaway on Facebook. (Here is the short link to this post: http://goo.gl/fb/wH7NO )

Drawing:

At the end of February 2011, I will pick the one lucky winner. If you don't win, stick around. If I reach 2,000 followers I'll have another giveaway (guaranteed!)

1,000 Followers! No way!

Some of you may have noticed that I reached the 1,000th Google Friend follower (not that I'm counting. Okay, I'm trying not to.) I really wasn't expecting this many readers to jump on board so quickly. So, y'all caught me off guard.

Some of my most recent readers have come over from Today's Creative Blog or The Stories of A to Z. (Thank you Kim & Beth!) Well, I'm so glad you are here and I hope you enjoy my blog.

In the tradition of celebrating certain follower milestones, I will be putting together a giveaway for one lucky follower. In the past I gave away a Hollowed Out Book  with a gift card to Border's inside.

and a CD/DVD Visor Wallet with a gift card to Amazon.com inside.

But, this time I'm going to be offering something REALLY special! You'll have to wait to see what it is. I need to work out a few more details, but I should be sharing what the giveaway is and how you can win soon. Please bear with me until then. (Can you tell I was really surprised by this milestone?!)

In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying the "Falling in Love with Your Home" series.

Up tomorrow: learning some de-cluttering secrets!

And the Winning Follower is....

I had my oldest Pretty Handsome Boy choose a reader tonight. Call me old fashioned, but I decided it was more fun to have a traditional pull a name from a hat drawing instead of using Random.org. I planned on cutting up all the followers' names and putting them in a hat. Well, then I discovered that there are almost 800 followers now! So, in the interest of choosing a name tonight (instead of some time next week), I asked my son to pick a number between 1 and 788. He chose 530. Then I matched that number to my compiled follower list in Excel (okay, maybe not old fashioned after all.)

And, the lucky #530 follower is...

NANCY!

Come on down girl and collect your prize.

You are the winner of a fabulous CD/DVD Car Visor Wallet – but wait, there is more – it comes fully loaded with $25 to spend on Amazon.com.

Okay, okay, calm down, I know you are excited. Let me tell my readers a little bit about you.

Nancy lives in Northern New York and has a blog called Flatrock Cabin. Recently she and her husband renovated her craft room. You can see the details of this multi-tasking crafter's dream here.

And she has a sweet little companion that keeps her company when she's crafting.

Congratulations Nancy, I hope you put that gift certificate to good use.

Everyone else, I hope you had a fantastically Happy Halloween. I know our boys had a fun time. Pretty Handsome Guy and I slaved on some very lavish costumes.

We were black eyed peas. Ha, ha! It took us all of about 5 minutes to pull these outfits together.

Now that November has arrived, I'm excited because I have a lot of new projects to show you. Stay tuned...

We have a WINNER!

Ahem, may I have the drumroll please?

 Rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tata...

...and the winning number chosen by Random.org is:

#59 (well, that is random isn't it!)

Michelle! Wooohooo! Come on down and pick up your prize:

And for everyone else, don't be blue. I was a busy beaver in September and stood up to Robin's Stashbusting Challenge. So, when I saw this tutorial written by Jorja over at Puking Pastilles (Great name! Don't you think? Any other Harry Potter fans?) I knew this was a great way to bust some of my fabric scraps.

I took some of these:

 And a few of these:

And cut them like this:

 Then did a little of this:

To make this:

And because I already had my stash out, I also made these:

 But, I put the most effort and love into this one:

Because it is for someone very special to me! You!

I will choose one of my followers (via Google Friend Follower or FeedBurner) to receive a Pretty and Handy CD/DVD visor wallet. So, you too can roll around town with one of these:

But, wait! There's more! Inside one of the sleeves will be tucked one of these:

And the best part is that if you are already a follower you will be eligible. You don't have to do ANYTHING! No tweets, no likes, no comments, nada, zilch, nothing.

One of my Pretty Handy Assistants (Boy #1 and Boy #2) will choose a follower for me at the end of October. So, if you aren't a follower, head over to my side bar and either click the "Follow" button or add your email address to the FeedBurner subscriber box.

Thanks again to all my readers. I wish you good luck in October!

Now, I have officially said goodbye to Summer. Sniff, sniff.

Giveaways: Reminders and Announcements

Hey, y'all (did you know I live in the south?) But, I also lived in Philadelphia for 9 years where I worked very hard to get rid of my southern accent. (If you live there, yoos know wood I'm tawkin' about.) Unfortunately my southern accent hasn't come back completely now that we are back "down hee-yar". Every once in a while I'll hear myself say Git, but never Fixin'. And I was shocked when my six year old started calling me Mama the other day.

Anyway, sorry for the diversion, on to a few giveaway announcements:

I wanted to remind you that the "Beach in a Bottle" from the Painted Cottage giveaway ends September 30th at midnight EST. That would be tomorrow night! So, be sure to enter if you want these adorable bottles in your home:

Right now I only have 36 entries, so your chances of winning are VERY good. Plus, you can have up to five chances to win!!!

Now onto some exciting news: 

 

500 FOLLOWERS!!!

You followers snuck up on me! When I added you up the other day, there were over 550 of you (both Google Friend and Feedburner combined!)

When I started this blog a few months ago, my goal was to empower a few people to take on their own DIY project; to be gently nudged out of their comfort zone; and to feel the sense of accomplishment from completing their own DIY project. I have received so many wonderful comments and emails from readers who have tried something new after reading one of my tutorials. If I haven't told you, your comments really made my day! And it made every hour I spend on blogging so worth it! Thank you so much.

Way back when (who am I kidding, only 2 months ago) when I reached my 100th follower, I surprised that lucky lady (Sharon from thisthriftyhouse.blogspot.com,) by sending her a decorative book with a secret hiding spot.

And, inside was an Amazon gift card! I hope she put it to good use.  At that time, I also promised to have another special gift for one of my followers when I reached 500 followers.

I've been working on a special gift for this special giveaway. So, as a thank you for being so sweet and checking back with my posts, I will be giving you this!
 

 Do I hear crickets chirping?

It is a CD/DVD wallet for your car visor! (If you want to make your own, read the tutorial here.) And if that wasn't enough, it will contain an Amazon gift card tucked inside! Cha-ching! I don't know about you, but I don't have much time to go shopping for the little necessities that I desire. And when I do go shopping, there is bound to be a scene (if the boys are with me, because when are they not!) Can you say, "Emmmbarrrasssing"? So, I prefer to do a lot of my online shopping on Amazon.com.

AND... because I appreciate y'all and value your time, I'm not making you jump through any hoops or making you break out your online bullhorn, or leave me any comments (but, you can if you want to), etc. etc. It is simple, if you already follow Pretty Handy Girl, via Google Friend Follower or Feedburner (both available in the side bar), you are in the running to win. If you aren't – well – I apologize, but I won't be able to track you down to notify you that you won.

One of my two lovely assistants (my 4 and 6 yr. old sons) will choose one of my followers at random to receive this special 500 follower gift.

Thank you for your precious few minutes that you spend on my blog. I have lots more DIY tips, tutorials and fun in store for you.

P.s. I will enter any and all followers who jump on board up to October 31st. Okay, so maybe I am making you jump through just one tiny hoop.

Saying Goodbye to Summer with a Giveaway

Am I the only one who is hanging onto summer with a death grip? Can you tell that I'm not quite ready to embrace Fall? It isn't like my last post was about using sea shells to make a matching game or something beach themed! 

 
Dark sky and light ocean at Topsail Island.

This past weekend we made one more trip to the coast. We stayed with my stepmom (aka the famous author) Diane Chamberlain and her significant other, the very talented photographer, John Pagliuca. They own a great condo at Topsail Island. The view is stunning since the ocean is right off their deck.

Diane and Jet (one of her two shelties)

One of John's many beautiful photos, for sale HERE.

We had a fabulous time, but my favorite part of the weekend was sleeping on the deck at the foot of the ocean with Pretty Handsome Guy. Nothing can compare to being lulled to sleep by the ocean!

That's me asleep on the condo deck.

Some of you noticed that I have a new profile picture. I am forever indebted to John for taking several pictures of me specifically for my blog. (Being the photographer in our house means that I have very few photos of myself.)

So, since I still have summer on the brain, I wanted to go ahead and introduce you to these beauties that hold bottled up beachy goodness in them.

Bottles filled with shells and sand.

Teeny tiny shells circle the nautilus and starfish stoppers.

If you have been one of my readers for a month, you may recognize these from the tour I gave of the Painted Cottage in Ocean Isle Beach, NC. Leigh is the owner, and she was so sweet to offer something to give away to my readers. That's right, these two beautiful glass bottles could be yours. And, because I REALLY want to thank my followers, I'm giving you five chances to enter the giveaway.

It is pretty simple. Here are the ways that you can win these two adorable beach in a bottle accessories:

1. Become a follower of Pretty Handy Girl (Subscribe via email on the sidebar or follow with Google friend connect which can also be found on the sidebar). Then leave me one comment letting me know that you are (or already were) a follower.
2. Become a follower of The Painted Cottage blog HERE. Then leave me a comment on this post letting me know that you are now following The Painted Cottage.
3. Become a fan of The Painted Cottage on Facebook HERE. Then leave me a comment letting me know you are now a fan. (Not sure how you become a fan of a facebook page? It is easy, simply click the thumbs up "Like"icon at the top of the page.)
4. Do you tweet? Did you know that Pretty Handy Girl tweets? Become a Twitter follower of PrettyHandyGirl and comment back here to let me know you are now following on Twitter.
5. Finally, if you like this giveaway, share it with your friends. Tweet (using #PrettyHandyGirl), let your friends know on Facebook or blog about this giveaway and leave me a comment letting me know where you shared the giveaway love.

Be sure that if your comment profile is "anonymous" that you leave me your name and email address in your comment, so I can contact you if you win ;-).

Wow, you have up to five chances to win! On October 1st, I will pick a winner using Random.org. I'm looking forward to sending some summer beach love to one of my readers. Good luck!

Okay, now I need to try to get in synch with the autumn spirit. How about if I just stare at John's beautiful "Fall Colors" photograph!

Fall Colors by John Pagliuca