Maime Jane's

Anyone recognize this place?

 I had a few minutes to spare on the day of the book signing,

so I popped in real quick.

It's Maime Jane's!

I was happy to see one of these pincushions still available,

and it came home with me. 

I remember when she made them and shared pictures on her blog.

Jane, your booth looks great!  And I need to come back 

when I have more time to poke around and look at all the cool stuff!

A Voice For Kanzas

My friend, Debra, signs my copy of her first novel.

I stopped by her book launch party, held in a historic brick building with

exposed rafters and wagon wheel lights.

"A Voice For Kanzas"

by Debra McArthur

  A 13 year old girl moves to Kansas territory during the border war years,

when pro-slavers and abolitionists were fighting

to see if Kansas would enter the Union as a free or slave state. 

Looks like a good book, and I can't wait to read it!

PS-  It was a great story!  It's perfect for young readers!

Winner Of The Giveaways.

Thank you to everyone who entered the drawing!

I wish I had enough prizes for each one of you!

Two names have been drawn, one for each giveaway.

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The winner of the main giveaway is Lady Linda.

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The winner of the mini giveaway is Sherri B of Little House in Paradise.

Congratulations!

Please e-mail your mailing address to me.

Tropical Brazilian Birdies

These vibrant, tropical  parrots, macaws and toucans

can cheer up even the darkest corner of a room.

The large, green, carved parrot is actually a drink muddler 

and the smaller birds are stir sticks and food picks.

But I just use them for display. 

I smile when I pass by more bright birdies attached to my refrigerator,

 and I am flooded with memories of a far away place, so dear to my heart.

(A few of you already knew that I spent nearly half of my girlhood and teen 

years living in South America.  Brazil.  Where these birds are from.)

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Thursday is the last day to sign up for my giveaways!

Click here to enter. 

Thank you to everyone who shared the pictures and 

helped to spread the word!

Green Handles

Vintage kitchen utensils with green handles.

(Bakelite and painted wood)

A couple of these belonged to my Grandma.

The others were picked up here and there.

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Don't forget to enter my giveaway.

Click here to find to enter.

116 !!

Someone asked if I was still decluttering here at my house.  

And the answer to that is a big YES! 

I get a smile on my face every time another pile leaves the premises.

For those of you who are new to my blog,

I'm taking the 366 challenge,

and I invite you to join me.

I am trying to donate or toss 366 things from my house this year.
(Things I no longer have a use for.)

One item for every day of the year.

Here are the latest things to go
(Not everything shows up very well in these pictures.
But this gives you a pretty good idea.)

My last count reached 62, so I'm starting from there.

63-64   old jeans (2)

65-67   outgrown shorts (3)

68   shirt

69   silver hoop earrings

70   scarf

71   phone

72   plastic bin

73-74   glasses (plastic and glass)

75-76   twin sheets (2 sets)

77- 80  several towels and washrags

81   fleece blanket

82- 84   candles

85   stuffed animal cow

86-87   decorative pillows (2)

88   cable

89   glass canister

90-91   cracked bowl and mug

92   broken kitchen utensils

93-105   books 

106   pile of kids valentines and stickers

107   bike  water bottle attachment

108   Christmas decorations and collectibles (3)

109   candleholder

110   pile of magazines

111   calendar

112- 115    four years worth of taxes and financial papers- shredded

116   another phone 

116 items gone!!!  YAY!!

I'm almost a third of the way towards my reaching my goal!!  And it's only February. Only 250 items to go.  

Old towels will be taken to our local animal shelter.  One of the phones will be mailed to the cell phone recycling center.   Broken things will be tossed, as they are no good to anyone.   And the rest will be donated.   How are you coming along with your decluttering?

Update:  Oops, I just realized that I didn't count all three of the Christmas collectibles so the total number really should be 118!  I'll just sneak the proper number in here.  (Aren't you glad I'm not your accountant? Ha ha!  Don't worry, they won't EVER give me a job that has anything to do with numbers.)  Only 248 left to go! 

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Don't forget that I'm having a giveaway!

Click here to see how to enter.

Time For A Giveaway!

Ok,

I'm finally ready to reveal the project I have been working on!

I'm having a little giveaway here at Garden Of Daisies!

No milestones. No particular reason.

Just wanted to say THANK YOU for reading my blog! 

This giveaway includes:

Lilac & Lavender soap and lotion made with goats milk by Sisters Five Soap and Lotion Works.  Some of you may already know Michaele of Sprout 'n' Wings Farm, who blogs about raising a family and goats and chickens on her Nebraska farm.  I love reading her goat posts and was excited to try some of her products.  I ordered extra so I could share with you. Be sure to visit her blog and online shop.

A sunflower spoon bracelet made by Iowa Artist, Dan Kemp. (Actually this bracelet may have been made from forks.)  Dan makes unique and beautiful jewelry.  He also has a great sense of humor!  His etsy shop, Dank Artistry, is filled with truly lovely bracelets, rings and pendants.  I hope you will stop by his etsy shop and look around.

And two small pouches made by me.  One is crocheted in lilac yarn, lined in a fun floral fabric and tied with a satin ribbon. The other is a drawstring petal pouch, using the fun floral and complimentary dot fabrics.  They are the perfect size for carrying small items in your purse or luggage.  Or for keeping things organized in your glove box or school locker.

And.... 

There is a second giveaway.  This one is a mini version.  

It includes Lemon Verbena soap and lotion made by Sisters Five Soap And Lotion Works.  Another petal pouch (made by me) features a soft green fabric to compliment the bright floral.  

HOW TO ENTER

For a chance in the giveaways:

Follow my blog and leave a comment on this post.  

(Long time or new followers are welcome.)

If you want a 2nd chance in the giveaways:

Share my giveaway in a blog post or on your sidebar.

(leave me a second comment to let me know you did that.)

If you want a 3rd, 4th or 5th (etc) chance at the giveaways:

You can receive more chances to win with each new follower that 

leaves a comment on this post and tells me you sent them. 

Giveaways end at midnight on Thursday, February 23.

Two winners names will be drawn on Friday, February 24, 

one for the main giveaway and one for the mini giveaway.


Yes, you may borrow these pictures to share the giveaway.

Please make sure that there is a direct link from your comment to your blog, 

so that I can reach you if you are the winner.

It does not matter where you live.  I will ship to you.

Once again, thank you for reading my blog

and for leaving such lovely, heartfelt comments. 

Having a blog has been so much fun, because of you!

GOOD LUCK!!

(Both pouches were inspired by pictures I saw online. I did not use a pattern, 
or have any measurements available, but just did my best to create something similar.)

I'll Take The Window Seat

I'll Take The Window Seat by gardenofdaisies featuring a white shirt

PS-   Oh dear...  Another one...  I don't know what I've done to make all of these post on my blog.  I put one valentine on here and now everything is showing up!   That was not supposed to happen.  I'll have to go back into my settings and figure out what to do.

Well....it's here now.  So let me introduce you to Polyvore.     If you'd like to try this yourself, just click the above where it says Garden of Daisies and there should be a place in the menu where you can sign up yourself.

Now, I'm off to figure out how to keep these polyvore sets from showing up as blog posts!  (but you can always follow my sets over on my sidebar.)

Valentine Heart

Valentine Heart by gardenofdaisies on polyvore.com

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day by gardenofdaisies on polyvore.com

Lincoln Logs

Since yesterday was President Lincoln's birthday,

I thought I'd pull these out and build a log cabin.

I love construction toys!

Did you play with Lincoln Logs when you were a kid?

(These were my son's.)

We finally got a wee bit of snow!!  

Not enough to make snow angels,

but it's white and it's cold and it's sticking to the ground.

Yay!!

P.S.-  Sorry about the wait to reveal the project I was working on.

I need a couple more days.  I promise to show all later this week.

Root Beer Floats

The weather hasn't cooperated with us this year.

We haven't had a winter to speak of... not much cold or snow.

So I headed to the kitchen to create some frosty-freezy-ness of my own.   

Root beer floats.
Ice cold root beer poured over a scoop or two of vanilla ice-cream.

And if you're old like me, you'll remember these Papa, Mama and Baby sized mugs.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I must apologize for not getting around to comment

on your blogs very much this past month.

Tax preparation is eating into my free time.

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Have you checked out Pinterest and Polyvore yet?
Click on the links on my side panel.