Giveaway Winner

It's time to announce the winner of the wooden test tube vase giveaway! I'm sure many of you have been losing sleep over this, so I'll try not to stall too much.

Since Doc left me for Pittsburg tonight, I had to enlist the help of my sweet momma. First, we cut up slips of paper numbered 1 to 11.

Then we folded the slips of paper up and put them in a small bowl.

She mixed them around before drawing one out.

And the winner is...

...comment number 5, written by Mary Elizabeth!

Congrats, Mary Elizabeth! I'll be delivering the vase to you soon.

And thank you, everyone, for participating! I enjoyed reading everyone's comments and feedback. I hope to have another giveaway soon so keep checking back!

Cause for Celebration

Excuse me, may I have your attention please? I have a very important announcement to make. This is my 100th post!

Can you believe it? I feel like I just started Give Everybody Nice Sweaters yesterday, and now here we are, 100 posts in. When I made this blog one of my New Year's Resolutions, I told myself I needed to write at least 100 posts over the year. And I've reached that goal already and it's only August. Yay!

I've had several folks ask about the title of the blog, so I figured this is just as good a time as any to address that.

The title is a lyric from a song by Ingrid Michaelson.  I've been an Ingrid fan for almost two years now and it's one of her songs that Doc and I danced our first dance to at our wedding. It's not everyday that you find a love song that mentions rogaine and sewing on patches.  It was perfect for us.

So after finding her perfect love song, I started downloading more of her music and really fell in love.  The lyric on my blog header is from "You and I," now one of my all-time favorite songs. It's not uncommon for it to pop up on our iPod and for Doc and I to dance to it in the bathroom while brushing our teeth.  I love the tempo and upbeatness of it. And I really love the lyrics.

"Let's get rich and give everybody nice sweaters and teach them how to dance" is probably my favorite line.  I love sweaters. I love to dance. I would like to be rich. But most of all, I love the idea of the line.  Yes, let's do get rich (in that non-monetary way) and then let's share it with our friends by giving a hug or a smile or a warm meal or even a nice sweater. And then let's all be happy and enjoy life and dance together.  If everyone lived by the concept of this line, wouldn't life just be so much funner?

And yes, I know funner is not a real word.

So, that's the thought process behind GENS. And since I'm assuming that several of you have never heard the song (ahem, mom), I'm adding the music video here so you can give it a listen. Don't be surprised if it becomes one of your favorite songs too.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLudBmn1uK4]

Fun song, right?

Now, where were we? Oh, right...100  posts!!

This calls for something fun! How should we celebrate?

Hey, how about a giveaway?

Yea? Are you in?

This is what I'm giving away. A wooden test tube vase, made by moi.

It's distressed white and has five test vases, each with a green stem painted on.

But if green stems aren't your thing, you can always turn it around and just have it solid white.

Unfortunately, the flowers aren't included.  You'll have to do that part on your own.

My favorite thing about this particular vase is that the piece of wood has a natural perfectly round circle in it.

I painted the inside of the circle green.

This vase can be yours if you're the lucky winner! To enter to win, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. But don't just leave any ol' comment. This is your chance to give me feedback.  Tell me what you like about GENS. Tell me what your sick of reading about. Is there a cool tutorial you want me to try? Have you been wanting to ask me something? What do you want more or less of?

Some of you may be thinking this is just a ploy for me to get lots of comments. And to that I say, so what if it is? Reading your comments is the best part of having this blog. It makes me feel like I'm not just wasting my time. So tell me how you feel. Give it to me straight. I can handle it. (I think.)

One comment per person please. Although I don't blame you if you have your spouse leave a comment too to better your chances. I'll pick a random winner (by having Doc pull a number out of  a cup) on Sunday evening.

Ready, set, comment!

Science Fair Revisited

Little known fact about me: in the fifth grade, I won the science fair. I'm sure my mom gets full credit for coming up with my experiment, because there's no way I thought of it. We took a tray of plants and put them in different growing environments - some in natural sunlight, some in artificial light, and some in the dark. Then, we gave a few of them miracle grow while the others only got water, and we noted the growth of each plant.  My tri-fold display board had a black background and then we made a huge plant out of green paper to glue on top.  We placed the data and observations of each plant in one of the big green paper leaves, and then I placed all the real plants on the table in front of the board.

The win came as a total shock to me. I mean, I hadn't used a lemon or potato to make electricity or anything cool like that.  Sure, some of the plants had turned yellow and others had spots and holes on their leaves, but who cares about plants? Certainly not fifth-grade Lucy. (Which is odd since now, at the ripe old age of 27, I've practically turned my blog into one about flowers and plants.)

When my mom picked me up from school that day I tried to do the American Idol fakeout when I told her about the results. You know what I'm talking about - the Idol contestants drag themselves out to their anxiously awaiting family with a long, sad look on their face before reaching behind their back to pull their golden ticket out of the back of their pants. And then everyone goes nuts. So as I opened the door to climb in, I said in my saddest, most you-won't-believe-it voice ever, "Ugh, guess who won the science fair?"

"YOU DID!" shouted my mom.

Of course she already knew. That's the way things go when you're mom works in the school district and 95% of her friends are teachers. She knew about the time I got in trouble in 6th grade for some English paper before the school day was even over. She knew in high school that I had made the cheerleading squad even before the results had been announced. She always knew everything. The science fair fakeout announcement was totally pointless.

Why am I bringing this up now? Glad you asked.

These are the plants we chose for our triple planter way back in the spring.

We chose them because we planted them late in the summer the previous year and they were awesome. They quadrupled in size and were always blooming.  This year, we bought two huge trays of them - both the same color - and split the two trays up between our two triple-planters.

Fast-forward about a month and this is how they were looking.

Obviously they've been growing, but we had yet to see any good flowers. And look at the colors of the leaves - they're all a different shade of green.  These pictures have not been altered - the top pot is really two shades lighter than the bottom pot.

What the heck?

I was perplexed because the plants were clearly alive and growing, but they definitely weren't blooming like they had the year before.

And that's when I put my ol' science fair observations to use. The different shades of green are because the small top tier holds much less water than the bigger bottom tiers. And they weren't blooming because they hadn't been fertilized. Duh! Who knew my fifth grade experiment would come in handy?

So I quickly broke out my bottle of Miracle Gro and went to town feeding my little flowers. Then as I watered each day, I made a point to give the smaller tier extra water.

And now look at them!

They're finally all green and blooming! Even in the extreme heat we've been having, they are still looking good everyday. I may just have to go dig around and find my old science fair trophy to display next to my pretty pots.

Triple Baby Shower

Last Sunday was finally the day of the Triple Baby Shower that I've been planning for months. In fact, I started planning it in my head back in February when three of my college friends announced their pregnancies. Let's think about that last part for just a second - three of my college friends are pregnant! As in, come September, they'll be moms to the cutest, littlest peanuts on Earth and another human being will actually depend on them for survival. Holy cow! When did we grow up??

Ok, back to the shower. So - 3 pregnant girls, 3 baby bumps, and a whole lotta guests. I had a lot to do to get ready!

First step: flowers.  I love having fresh flowers in my house when we have company. It just makes the world of difference.

I made these cute new vases out of wood scraps.

And I made some red ones, too, to go on both sides of the mantle.

The rest of the flowers just went in regular ol' vases.

Next step: fabric decorations.  My mom and I found the cutest kids' fabrics and definitely wanted to use them somehow. She made a table cloth for my kitchen table and a table runner for the dining room table.

I used some of the fabric scraps to make a banner to hang.

And then: diaper cakes. Two of the mommies-to-be are having a little boys, and the third is having a surprise. So my color scheme became blue and green (for the boys) and yellow (for the surprise). I made a mini diaper cake for each baby.

And finally: food!  I'm not very good at cooking, but I do love to bake. While preparing for this shower, I went through five cake mixes and eight cans of frosting! First, I made three giant cupcakes to match the color scheme and I let the preggo girls take these home.

But, it wouldn't be fair if all the guests didn't get to eat cupcakes too, would it? So I made a big batch of mini cupcakes and of course, made the icing match the theme.

There was lots of non-sweet food there too, made by my mom. Things like a fruit tray,

pita chips and dip, ham and cheese biscuits,

and chicken salad sandwiches.

It was fun planning and preparing for the shower, but you know what really made the party so great? The people!

Here are the three mommies:

And they brought their babies with them too.

Here's Roxy. She's having a baby boy, to be named Rowan Avery.

Dana's having a little boy, too. He will be named Joshua Turner.

And Emily's the one having a surprise. Surely the odds are in her favor to have a little girl, right?

Won't be long before they hear...

It was so good to see so many of my college friends! Look at how many of my sorority sisters were able to make it.

And I think that picture is even missing a couple.

I wouldn't have been able to pull this shower off without the help of my mom. She's the best co-hostess ever!

There were lots of other moms too so it was kind of a reunion for them too.

I may be biased, but I think the shower was a great success. We had a great turnout and the girls seemed to make out with lots of good loot.

So now, we just wait.  During the shower, we had a baby pool set up so everyone could buy the day they thought the babies would arrive.

I'd really like some extra cash, so here's hoping they arrive on the days I purchased!

Playing Catch-Up

It's 3:45 on Thursday and I've been working and working and working all week. I haven't had a lunch break and I've stayed late every night. But....I think I just hit a wall.  My brain has decided it cannot take anymore thinking about numbers! So, I'm going to take a quick blogging break.

I feel like I'm behind on so many things and need to play catch up.  First, my sweet mom had a birthday this week and I didn't even give her a shout-out post! Luckily, I've been working on some surprises for her that will hopefully make up for it.  (Or maybe I've been working on the surprises since the gift I ordered for her isn't in yet...you decide.) Mom's birthday was on the 12th (Monday of this week) and she got to celebrate in Virginia with my dad and one of their best couple friends.   Their vacation is coming to an end as they're due back home late this evening. I've already picked up Taylor (the german shepherd) from the vet and taken her back to their house and I will have Oh Henry at their house soon after I get off work. Happy late birthday, Mom!

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Doc's parents celebrated their anniversary this week and I didn't give them a shout-out either. Please forgive me! I know they spent some time with their friends and hopefully got to hang out around the house and enjoy each other's company.  Doc and I are actually in disagreement over what day the anniversary actually was - I could've sworn it was the 12th because I thought it was the same as my mom's birthday. Doc thinks it was the 14th.  So, Lala and Poppa, we need you guys to settle this once and for all. Which day was it?!  Oh, and happy late anniversary to you both!

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Remember the headboard bench that Doc built?  I showed you pictures of me spray-painting it green and briefly mentioned that it had been delivered to its new home. But I didn't show you how it ended up!  So let's back up.  It started as a stained headboard with new wood creating the bench.  My mom painted the new wood chocolate brown to match the stained part and then I sprayed the whole thing green.

I decided before I painted it green that I was going to give this bench to my cousin who is currently building her house by hand (well, she's got help from her parents and husband and the Amish, but they're doing a lot of it themselves). But this house they're building isn't just any old house. It's under their horse arena (where they ride horses and rope cattle and all that fun stuff) (my city-self couldn't come up with any other examples of things to do in a horse arena) and was originally supposed to be a concession stand/tack room/horse-washing-room/storage building. But then their house sold and they were left without anywhere to live. The long-term plan will be for them to eventually buy the plot of land that sits next to theirs and move into the house that already lives on that land. They can't do that until the land goes for sale. So, in the meantime, they're living with both of their parents and building their "house" that will eventually be become a concession stand/tack room/horse-washing-room/storage building by hand. Did I mention that they have 3 kids that are 4 and under?

Since I knew where the bench was going, I decided I needed to personalize it for them.  My aunt sent my mom a picture of their horse brand and my mom got to work making me a stencil.  I colored the back of the stencil with pencil and then taped it to the freshly painted green bench.

Then I traced the outline and pulled the stencil off.  The pencil rubbings on the back gave me a nice line when I traced it.

And then I painted the design brown.

Not too bad, right? Now, I definitely could've stopped there, but you guys know how much I love a distressed piece of furniture! I couldn't wait to get my sandpaper on this. Here's how it turned out (staged with my mom's patio pillows).

A close up of the brand:

I'm pleased with how it turned out.  My mom put a coat of polyurethane on it for me so it'd be ready for our trip to their neck of the woods.  I think my cousin was excited to get it.  I didn't even know she was using bright green in her decor so it was a perfect match! She mentioned maybe using it as a bench at her kitchen table. I think it'll look great wherever she puts it - inside or outside.

Oh, and while I was at the arena I managed to get a shot of the real brand on a horse's rump. What do you think - does my painting match it?

The brand is cattle horns (I think??) centered between two C's (for their last name).  I think it's all pretty cool.  They have lots of horses and cattle and I was lucky enough to see their border collie, Nelly, round-up the cattle while I was there. So fun to watch! My cousin and her husband  have competed in a lot of rodeos and won lots of saddles and other prizes.  These days they ride (break?) horses for other people and they also have some male horses whose, ahem, services are available. (Just in case anyone out there is looking for a horse-baby-daddy.)

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On Monday, June 28, I sent my dad these plans and told him I thought this shelf would look great on their empty patio wall next to the patio set we made.  I told him if he got the supplies I'd help him build it that weekend.  My dad told me he'd hit up our local orange or blue store on Tuesday, June 29 to get the wood.  On Wednesday, June 30, I went to my parents' house for dinner and whaddaya know, he'd already built the darn thing!

My mom said he was determined to finish it that night.  He stayed up til 11:30 working on it. Of course, once it was done it just sat there because he was relying on me to finish it.  And, since I'm pretty sure my mom isn't checking my blog from the flight that she's on right now, I'll go ahead and tell you that getting it painted is one of the surprises I have waiting for them to see.  Here's a sneak peek:

Hopefully I'll have some finished patio pictures to share with you soon!

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After some frustration with my camera at the wedding shower I attended last weekend, I decided to go ahead a splurge on a new lens for myself.  I deserve a present, don't I? It has shipped and should arrive any day now. I am supah excited to play with it and hope I get it all figured out before the triple baby shower I'm hosting on the 25th!

Ok, we should be caught up now. It's time to close all my work spreadsheets and hit the road!