penny carnival

And the winner is ...

Congratulations Angie! You won the giveaway from Kids Craft Weekly for the Christmas Card idea PDF.

This was Angie's comment about Christmas crafts (Don't we all love to torture our spouses like this? Arr harr harr  (that's an evil laugh)):

Each year when we decorate our christmas tree I make my husband look at EVERY SINGLE ONE of the bazillion ornaments that I made growing up, while telling him the story about it. Its his worst nightmare, but one of my favorite traditions! Now that we have kids, they have to suffer through it as well. I would love to make more, and have my kids do the same things to their future spouses!

Thanks so much for everyone's entries and a huge thanks to Amber for seeing my original post and offering up her extremely clever PDF. 

Coming soon ... so much! Thanksgiving costumes (yes, Thanksgiving costumes), Thanksgiving aprons, 12 Days of Christmas Crafting (via my Dwell Well blog), more kids' party stuff. Fasten your seat belts. Or fasten mine, at least. 

Kids Craft Weekly giveaway!

Good news, guys! Amber from Kids Craft Weekly saw my blog post yesterday about her Christmas card swap and Christmas craft PDFs and wants to give away one of her PDFs to a Penny Carnival reader. 

Leave a comment below that's somehow related to Christmas crafts. You could briefly describe one of your favorite Christmas crafts, tell me about an ornament you made as a kid, link to a project you've done as an adult or link to a project you'd like to make one day (or have someone else make for you). Whatever.

Leave your comment by this Friday at noon, Pacific time, and a randomly selected commentator (commenter? person? bumble bee?) will win the 20-page Kids Craft Weekly Christmas Cards PDF.

Thanks, Amber!

Update: I didn't mean to exclude folks who celebrate other holidays. By all means, leave comments about Hanukkah crafts, winter solstice ... everything. Even though Amber's e-booklet is about making Christmas cards, there are ideas in there that you could apply to any holiday. 

And the winner is ...

Jenna Z!!

Thanks so much for entering the giveaway for the hanging book display (a.k.a. Book Sling) everyone. I was blown away by all the entries. Take a look:

As you can see, I printed out all the responses, cut them up, and then put them in my Dutch oven. I scrambled them around and pulled out Jenna's response to the question "What was your favorite book as a child or your favorite book to read to your children now?"

What's funny is that Jenna's entry inspired me to check out "Little House in the Big Woods" at the library the other day. I know my kids are too young to sit through me reading it aloud, so I checked it out on audio and have been playing it for them while we craft and cook for the last couple of days. Bo kind of half listens and chimes in every once in a while with a question about what's being said, and tonight she asked me to play "the book about the girl."

I loved reading all the responses and I plan to write a post that lists all the favorite books with links to Amazon one day soon. So many of the books were my favorites too, and then there were several that I'd never heard of before that I can't wait to track down.

So, Jenna, let's talk fabric. I'll be sure to post a photo of the book sling I make her once I get it done.

Remember, if you want to make your own book sling, follow the directions here. And if you want to buy one from me, go here.

Thanks again, everyone. It warmed my heart to read all the excitement for the giveaway and to learn a bit more about who all is out there, dropping by the carnival. 

JUST HAD TO ADD: Apparently today was Jenna's birthday. A Friday the 13th and everything. Ooooooh. Freaky Friday.

A giveaway! Win a hanging book display

One day last week, I was in line for a coffee at the drive thru. When it was my turn to pay, the worker told me not to worry about it. The driver in front of me did it already.

I was totally flabbergasted. Did I know the driver? Who was it? Let me at least leave a tip.

I called J later to tell him about my good fortune and the first thing he asked me was, "So did you pay for the driver behind you?"

Um, no. Apparently I'm all about accepting random acts of kindness but not doling them out. 

I'd like to think that that kind gesture would have occurred to me on my own later on and I continue to blame my state of shock for not paying forward the first driver's generosity.

But here's further proof of my greedy ways:

Yesterday when it was announced on Ohdeedoh that I won the February Jump Start Project, I posted a comment thanking Ohdeedoh and Etsy for the opportunity and the $250 gift certificate. And, of course, I thanked the voters too.

Then I asked for everyone's suggestions on how to spend the money. On fabric? Craft books? Art? Darling clothes for my daughters?

One of the other contestants replied that if she had won she was going to buy something to give away to readers of her blog as a thank you.

Why. didn't. I. think. of. that?

I swear I was raised well. My parents are very gracious people. OK, my mom is a bit of a hooligan. But still. I really should have put all of you in the forefront of my mind, especially since so many of you headed over there and voted for me, for Pete's sake.

So ... a day late ... As a way to say THANK YOU to all of you, I'm going to make and give away a hanging book display like the one in the contest.

The package will include the dowels and curtain rod brackets (which come with screws), as well as the fabric part that holds the books, of course. The winner will just need some basic tools--drill, level, stud finder--to hang it up.

To enter, please leave a comment below telling me your favorite book to read to your child or what your favorite book was as a child if you don't have kids. I'll take entries until Wednesday, March 11 at 11:59 p.m., then will print off the entries, cut out each one and have the girls draw a winner. 

I'll announce the winner here on Thursday, March 12, and then that person and I can talk about how far apart your studs are and what fabric you want me to use (we have some great fabric stores in Spokane that carry all the good stuff). 

So, spread the word and let me know if you have any questions. This'll be fun.

P.S. I have since paid the tab of a driver behind me at the coffee drive thru. There is hope for me yet.