Shabby Apple Giveaway!!

In honor of my 900th blog post, I'm hosting a giveaway!

Earlier this week, Shabby Apple contacted me and asked if I'd like to team up with them for a giveaway for my blog. Now if you know me, I don't normally just team up with anyone for a giveaway. I'm very particular when I pick and choose who I let on my blog. Once I saw the adorable clothes and jewelry on their website, I knew I had to share this website with the rest of you! Not only do they have super cute vintage-inspired dresses, but they also have swimwear, maternity clothes, aprons and beautiful jewelry. Basically there is a little bit of everything on the Shabby Apple website.

Now, the giveaway is that I will be giving away one of two items. I'm giving the winner of this giveaway their choice of either a dress or a piece of jewelry that I have previously picked out.

There are a couple of rules to this giveaway.
1. This giveaway is open to US residents only.
2. You MUST like the Shabby Apple Facebook page as a mandatory entry. Please let me know in a comment that you have liked the page for one entry.
3. If you blog OR tweet about the giveaway and link to the Shabby Apple FB page I'll give you three entries. Please make sure that after you do this, you come back and leave a separate entry telling me you've done so.

Sound good? Great! Then let me show you the two items I've picked out for the winner to choose from.

Option 1: The Boogie Woogie Dress. Click here for more views of the dress.

 

Option 2: The Key to My Heart Necklace. Click here for a description of this piece.

This contest will end on Friday, December 30th at 9:00p.m. CST.

Thanks to the fabulous people at Shabby Apple for sponsoring this giveaway!

Giveaway! and MilSpouse Friday Fill-In

First things first, I wanted to let you all know that JG over at Me and My Solider Man is having a giveaway palooza over at her blog to celebrate two years of blogging. Today is the first day and the giveaway prize just happens to be 2 8x12 prints from my Etsy shop. Go check out JG's blog to find out more!

Now for the Friday Fill-In!



1.What romance movie scene reminds you of your s/o or spouse and the LOVE you share?
Anyone remember the scene in Walk the Line when June starts throwing bottles at Johnny and his friends who happen to be a bit drunk? Yeah...that's totally something I would do. There's a lot about that movie that reminds Sean and I of ourselves.

2.If you were allowed to deploy with your husband to a war zone would you and why?
No and the reason why is if I was there, I'm not sure he'd be able to concentrate on the job he has at hand. I wouldn't want him to feel like he had to protect me and thus not be able to do his job 100%.

3.Have you ever done anything (intentionally, or unintentionally) to embarrass your spouse/significant other in front of his military cohorts?
Are we talking away from work too? Because if so, then yes. There was one Halloween party where I was drunk tipsy and ended up laying on top of a table. I have no idea why or how that happened.

4.What is your most irrational fear?
I'm terrified of tripping on stairs and breaking my teeth on a step. Really weird and irrational I know.

5.If you could only live in one kind of climate for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
I'm sure a lot of people will say someplace like Hawaii, but honestly I have to have four seasons. It makes me appreciate each season when it finally rolls around.

Giveaway Time!

I've teamed up with The Mrs. over at Trying Our Best for today's giveaway. The Mrs. has a very talented mother with her own Etsy shop, Bluebird Crafting and she makes some awesome items.

The item I'm giving away is an 8x10 Blue Star flag (unframed), which signifies that you have someone deployed or serving in the military during wartime.



Here's a brief explanation of the flag here.

I have one of the flags and I love it! Anyone who's affiliated with the military or has someone in their family who is would love to own this flag, trust me.

To enter the giveaway:

One entry for commenting on this post
Two entries for Tweeting about it. If you want to refer back to me, my Twitter name is NewGirlonPost (of course!).
Three entries for blogging about it, but make sure you tell me you have done so.

The contest ends Sunday evening at midnight. Winner will be announced Monday!

My Etsy Shop and a Giveaway!

For the past year I've been saying I was going to open an Etsy shop and I'm pleased to announce that I finally have.

In celebration of the grand opening I'm doing a giveaway for my readers on here.



My shop is called Around the World in 80 Frames (although I had to shorten it to aroundin80frames). You can find my shop on Etsy here.

You can buy the prints I have listed as is, or I'll customize them to the size and apperance you would like. Also, if you don't see a print you want, but have seen something on my blog, Flick or Facebook that you would like, then let me know and I'll order it for you. I can also do notecards if you'd prefer those. Keep checking my store in the upcoming weeks, as I'll be adding new prints to the shop.

Here are just a couple of examples of what is in my shop:







I'm giving away one 8x10 print of your choice and you can customize it however you like. For one entry, leave a comment, for two entries, blog about the giveaway on your blog and then let me know that you did. Entries close on Sunday the 3rd at 12:00(CST) and I'll announce the winner on Monday.

Time for a New Girl Giveaway!

As promised yesterday...it's time for a giveaway! And I figured with this horrible Fort Hood situation going on, we could all use a pick-me-up.

I had originally ordered the Pioneer Woman cookbook a couple of months ago and just received it this week as it just became released.



Then I got an amazing early Christmas gift from my good friend Kebi. She got me a signed copy of the cookbook and a Pioneer woman shirt! So..because I now have two cookbooks you get one of them. Sorry..not the signed copy though. I'm keeping that one.




Here's how it works. Leave me a comment and you are entered. Contest ends Friday night at 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time. I'll announce the winner on Saturday.

Free Friday

Yesterday I spent helping with a Sesame Street Live tour that was here on-post. For the most part it was ok. We do have an older lady who volunteers that seriously acts as if she does a line of coke because she's so hyper and rah rah the entire day. Yesterday she informed a guy she "was like a fine wine that only got better with age" and then later sang "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk". Interesting day I tell you.....

Today I'm working and then I should have the rest of the weekend off. Thank goodness! We're going over one of our friend's homes tomorrow for a sort of "couple day". Should be interesting. I'm taking potato casserole and spinach dip, we should be grilling out as well.

As for the "free" part of Friday I'm giving away an extra copy of Sex and the City Season 6 Part I, that I happen to have. It's never been opened and I have no use for it. So...if you want it, then leave me a comment and tell me so. If there's several people that want it then I'll do a drawing for it.

So...what are your weekend plans?

Time for a New Girl Giveaway

In honor of tomorrow being D-Day, I decided to have a giveaway.

Some of you might remember my Memorial Day post and the book that I mentioned in it. Thomas Childers' Soldier from the War Returning. If you missed me talking about it, it's a non-fiction book that chronicles the lives of three WWII veterans and the struggles they faced returning home after the war. It's an AMAZING book and I highly recommend you read it.

Anyway, after reading my last post about the book, a publicist for Mr. Childers contacted me and graciously offered to send me three copies of the book to give out to my readers. She also put me in contact with Mr. Childers so I can do an interview with him, so once I get that done I'll be posting that on here as well.




So...here's the deal. I've got three books to give away. Leave me a comment to be entered!

PBS and Photography Musings...

First things first....a fab giveaway!

Check out Wearing Mascara's awesome make-up giveaway. I promise you won't be disappointed.

I'm still trying to think what to give away for my 200th post. Sorry to the ladies in Europe, but I won't be giving away a plane ticket anytime soon. So keep those suggestions coming!

I'm getting super excited about this upcoming weekend. I'm hopping over to Houston to hang out with Sara and Lindsay and I'm thinking it's going to be a blast!

I got a wonderful award from D.A.R. over at The Student and the Soldier today.



Thanks D.A.R.! I'm glad that people enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy reading theirs.

I'm supposed to pass that along to a few other people, so I'll pass it on to a few of my new favorites.

1. Sarah at Dance Shoes and Combat Boots. I just recently started reading her blog and I'm really enjoying it.
2. Honey and Quilts- I like the way she writes and her quilts are amazing! I told her I'm going to come visit her in Germany once I get to Italy. I have a feeling we'd have a good time!
3. My Home, My Life- she's always got a great post waiting for you and she dislikes blow-up lawn ornaments as much as I do. That right there deserves an award.

Does anyone watch Antiques Roadshow? Sean and I try to watch it every week. (I told you I was old) Anyway, I'm constantly in awe of the things people find in their homes/garage sales/estate sales or has been passed down in their family. Last week, one lady had a scrapbook one of her ancestors had made of various Confederate and Union leaders, with their autographs, pictures, etc. It was amazing! I wish I had something cool like that in my family. As far as I know we are lacking in cool antiques on both sides of my family. Does anyone have any neat antiques/family heirlooms in their family? I'd love to hear about them if you do.

Sean and I watched a very interesting program last night on PBS about the Medal of Honor. Did anyone else catch it? Some of the things these men did were AMAZING! It really was an eye-opener for me and how heroic some of the people who have served our military from the very beginning have been. Several parts almost made me cry. Especially seeing the crosses at Normandy. I plan on visiting there while I'm in Europe and I know just being there I'm going to cry. It's such a historic/meaningful place.

Ok...enough sad talk.

I have my eye on a new telephoto lens for my camera. I'd ask for it for Christmas, but it's ridiculously expensive, so I'm going to leave it off my list. I think it'd really take my photos to a new level honestly and I like the option of having a telephoto lens.



I honestly do want to be a photographer. So in reality I do need to buy things like lenses, flashes, Photoshop to help with that. Sean is great in encouraging me with this dream and my friends are too. My only dilemma is what market I choose to work in. I personally enjoy taking landscape, outdoor, wildlife photos, but unless I sell those to magazines, websites, etc I don't see so much of a market in that. I do really enjoy taking pictures of babies and children, but working with people kind of makes me nervous. Not that I'm not a people-person, but the fact I'm taking pictures of essentially memories is scary to me. That's mainly why I don't want to be a wedding photographer, because I know how important that day is and I'd hate for my pictures to not reflect what the couple wants. Make sense? I guess I just need to take my photography one-step at a time.

Oh and one last thing. Look at these cute dresses! They'd be perfect for a holiday party. (Forever 21 of course!)






Have a superb Thursday eveyone!

Weekend in Review....plus pictures!

Well, well, well....Monday awaits me once again.

I wish it was the weekend already! For one thing I have a feeling this upcoming weekend is going to be super-fun, but more on that later in the week.

I had a good time this past weekend. Sean had to work some of Saturday and I baby-sat for a few hours on Saturday afternoon and of course took tons of baby pictures. The parents asked me what I wanted for watching their child and I told them nothing, but they brought me two bottles of wine! How nice is that? I of course had to open one of them Saturday night and had a few tasty glasses.

Sean and I also watched the Texas Tech/Texas game on Saturday night. Technically he fell asleep in the 3rd quarter, so I watched the rest of the game. Boy was it exciting! I don't know how many of you out there watched, but I was on the edge of my seat in the final 2 minutes!

On Sunday, Sean and I had to do a quick Wal-Mart run and then decided to stop at KFC for lunch. Can I just say how much I love a good KFC buffet? Also thank god I was raised in the South, where you can find any variety of fried food. The chicken breast I had was to die for and the fried zucchini was beyond good too. I know that fried food isn't really that great for you, but I balanced it out with a nice salad last night for dinner, so I feel better about my indulgence at lunchtime.

Last night we watched the newest Indiana Jones movie. I was a bit disappointed by it honestly. Give me the Temple of Doom anyday! I just felt this one was a bit far-fetched. Did anyone else feel that way?

I can't believe it's already November! I reminded Sean of that yesterday and he was quite stoked when he realized he's only with this unit for another month and a half. I know the Army as a whole can be pretty unorganized, but the unit he's in takes the cake. They called him yesterday morning at 10:00 a.m. to tell him he was supposed to be doing staff duty since 9:00 a.m. Not one person had told him about that the entire week. No one bothered to call and inform him of that until after the fact he was supposed to be there. He got one of our friends to do it though, since if he did staff duty for 24 hours it would be hard for him to get to his Transportation Brief this morning and actually retain anything.

I also cleaned out our spare closet this weekend. No easy feat let me assure you. I found a whole bunch of Thanksgiving/Halloween decorations that I had forgotten I even had. How sad is that? Anyway, I got rid of some stuff that I didn't need, put all my Christmas wrapping paper, bows and bags together to take to my parent's house for Christmas. If I plan on spending the next couple of Christmases at my parent's house then there's no need for me to have my wrapping paper packed up and sent to Italy.

Here are a few pics from this weekend:



I really wanted to focus in on his little hand.



Ok..technically I know his face has a shadow on it, but I still thought it was a cute pic.



I love baby hands!



Look at the cool German mug that Sean got for helping with the German infantry badge this past week. He actually got two of them.



This is what I noticed when I was in our bedroom yesterday. Look closely at the shadow.

No funny resumes to report on today. Well, except under qualifications one girl put that she had military security clearance. I'm not sure how that figures into this position, but I have to admit I did chuckle a bit when I read that.

Oh and one more thing. I'm going to have a giveaway in honor of my 200th post that's coming up. Anything in particular you'd like to see me giveaway? Book? gift-card? Something completely random and unexpected? Yankee Candle? Christmas ornament?

Let me know what you think!