Sprightly Fabrics Giveaway Winner

 I love how much you all love fabric. It's like we are kindred spirits or something. Anyway, with 902 entries into the Sprightly Fabrics giveaway, our winner (selected at random) is:

Congratulations Jennifer Oliva! I'm so excited for you......I know you will get some fantastic goodies with your $50.00 gift certificate to Sprightly Fabrics. Please email me at thecottagemama[at]gmail[dot]com with your contact info. and we will get you your prize as soon as possible.

Don't fret if you weren't our winner, we have a fabulous giveaway from Riley Blake Designs coming up tomorrow, so make sure to check back!

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Sprightly Fabrics Giveaway

It's Fabric Friday here at The Cottage Mama and I am really excited to introduce our sponsor today, Sprightly Fabrics. They aren't exactly a new around here since they've been a sponsor for about three months, but they have been in the process of launching a new website, so we held off doing their giveaway until today. Sprightly Fabrics website is up and running and ready for business!

I am pretty selective when it comes to choosing fabric sponsors for this blog. I want to make sure they are in keeping with the style around here and are shops that I know you all will love and adore. And I LOVE Sprightly Fabrics. They carry some of my absolute favorite designers plus they carry more than just fabrics.

Here's a little bit about how they got started from the owner herself, Monique:

Let's see, about us... I guess I probably got started like many others, by selling handmade goodies! I learned to crochet at 8 years old and when my hands told me they'd had enough a few years ago, I had to find other creative outlets. Our first craft supply offered was die cut felt, which then evolved into fabric and other supplies. Along the way I roped my husband into helping out too.  We're constantly inspired by what our customers, other crafters and designers create and love offering supplies that allow them to grow and encourage others!

I always thinks it's so fun to hear how other people got started in their businesses, don't you?

Before we move onto the giveaway, I wanted to share some of the things I have my eye on over at Sprightly Fabrics:

Carnaby Street Bundle from Art Gallery Fabrics

Be still my heart. These colors are absolutely gorgeous and if you've never sewn with Art Gallery Fabrics before, their fabric is absolutely perfect for garments.

Notting Hill Collection from Joel Dewberry for Free Spirit Fabrics

I have been thinking about getting some prints from Joel Dewberry's 'Notting Hill' collection for quite sometime and this red colorway is calling for me.

 Cocoon by Valori Wells for Free Spirit Fabrics

I love this print! AND it's in the clearance section over at Sprightly Fabrics for $5.99 per yard, with your 10% off coupon code that's only $5.40 per yard. What a steal. I might have to go pick this one up if you don't.

Die Cut Felt Circles (136 included)

Not only do they sell fabric, but they sell felt as well. I think these circles would be fun for so many different craft projects. I am seeing some adorable hair clips for my girls out of these circles.

Divine Twine

They also carry Divine Twine. I have so many spools of this twine. It's great for all kinds of things!

Another things about Sprightly Fabrics is they offer tiered pricing which is really nice if you tend to purchase larger amounts of fabrics. The price per yard goes down with the more you buy. They also have a 10% off code over on their website for your first purchase. Additionally they offer many other products such as colored elastics, embroidery hoops, patterns, books and more!

Today Sprightly Fabrics is giving away one $50.00 gift certificate to one very lucky blog reader! You can use this gift certificate to buy anything from their online store.

You can enter to win in the rafflecopter below......you can enter up to three times. 

Giveaway is open until Monday, April 29, 2013 at midnight (CST).

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Facebook Fan Giveaway Winner and Newsletter Info!

Thank you so much to those of you who entered the 10,000 Facebook Fans Giveaway........I really appreciated all your kind words! I wish I could give this prize to all of you, but for this giveaway there is only one winner, one person who takes the whole cake and that winner is........

Congratulations, Joyce! I am so excited for you. Please email me at thecottagemama[at]gmail[dot]com and I will get this prize in the mail to you as soon as possible.

Also, many of you mentioned during the giveaway that you were already signed up for the Newsletter. I just wanted to clarify that this new newsletter will not be the same thing as having each blog post delivered to your email box. It's kind of complicated 'blog talk', but right now those emails are delivered by Feedburner, which is apparently going to be going away soon just like Google Reader, so if you want to continue to stay up to date with The Cottage Mama, you will need to sign up for the NEW newsletter! I hope you will........I don't want you to miss out.

You can sign up below if you still haven't done so.

Sign Up for the NEW The Cottage Mama Newsletter

Check back on Friday as we will have a great fabric giveaway posted from our lovely blog sponsor, Sprightly Fabrics!

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Little of This and a Little of That: Flea Market, Painting, Ect.

I just wanted to share a few pictures from the last couple of weeks.....you know, a little of this and a little of that.......

A couple weeks ago my girlfriends and I spent the day at our favorite flea market, called the Kane County Flea market. If you live in the Chicagoland area, it's a definite place to go if you love antiques, treasure hunting and one-of-a-kind pieces. They always have the BEST stuff and at amazing prices. You know those 'found objects' that you see in the Pottery Barn catalog? Well, this is where you can actually find those objects on your own and not pay an arm and a leg.

The flea market takes place the first weekend of each month, although I don't think they hold it during the super-chilly and snowy months of the year. My friends and I try to go in the spring since the weather tends to be pretty nice. We lucked out a couple weeks ago because it was absolutely gorgeous!

So I didn't get a ton of things this time, but I was really happy with my finds........

I got the Cracker Jack lunchbox to store the kids crayons and I was also excited to find this old little school chalkboard, so expect to see that make an appearance on the blog soon.

I love this mason jar filled with old spools. I am using it as a decorative item sitting on top of a stack of books in our built in bookcases.

 

I can never have too many old hankies. I found some really great juvenile ones with adorable little prints.

Here is some woven vintage trim that I can't wait to use on a pretty little dress. I got over 9 yards!

 This was a table runner that I got for $3.00, but I am definitely seeing this being used as an apron on a dress or as part of a bodice. Plus I think it goes great with the trim picture above (even though I didn't buy them from the same vendor).

See that metal frame in the two pictures above? That's the frame I used for the Repurposed Picture Frame Tray. Another great flea market find!

I was really excited to find this chair! I wasn't really on the hunt for a new studio chair, but I have been wanting one for several years. I have just never come across the right one. When I saw this, I knew it was it! I have to have a chair with wheels in my sewing studio so I can go from my table over to my sewing machine and over to my serger. And I also wanted something that was a little antique looking. I might make a cute little seat cushion eventually, but for right now it's just right!

Also, we had some painting done recently. Before we had children we did most of the renovation work on our house ourselves, but with having the three little ones now, it was just much easier to hire someone to paint part of our sun room.

It's not the best before picture since I probably should have taken it with all our furniture in there and looking nice. Oh well......you get the idea. There was a wall of knotty pine and the ceiling was off white and dark brown. This sun room is opens up with french doors off our main family room. I call it a sun room, but it's part of the house......I think we call it that because it gets lots of light and it sounds nice, don't you think?

We used 'Simply White' by Benjamin Moore. I love this white! If you are looking for a good one, I will give this a big thumbs up. The painters started with a water-based primer, but it just wasn't covering the wood paneling so they ended up needing to use oil-based primer (Kilz). That really did the trick and we didn't have any of the stain bleeding through.

I am really into white right now. Many of our belongings have a lot of color, so I just love the way they pop off the white. Plus it brings a sense of freshness to our cottage. I'm not painting everything white, but it was a great choice for our sun room. I'll have to share a picture of the room with everything put back in it's place.

We also had our loft painted which is a much bigger space and where all The Cottage Mama pattern inventory, clothing samples and fabric bolts are stored, but I'll save that for another post.

Also, I just wanted to share a little sneak peek of an upcoming quilt tutorial. These quilts were made by my mom (Grandma Jane) for the girls and she will be sharing how to make one of your very own plus how to create a custom quilt label on your sewing / embroidery machine.

So that's it.....just a little of this and a little of that, that I wanted to share with you. I am trying to get my next set of sewing patterns drafted and sent off over the next few weeks, so it might be a little quiet around here........just so you know.

Have a great week!

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Facebook 10,000 Fan Giveaway, Newsletter and a Little Housekeeping

Remember last week when I said we had reached 10,000 fans on Facebook and I would be doing a giveaway to celebrate? Well, today is the day!! We are now at about 10,200 fans and counting and I can't thank you enough for all your love and support. I absolutely love getting to know you all!

Before I get into the details of the giveaway there are a few little housekeeping things I wanted to talk about first. I'm sure you've heard that Google Reader will be no more come this summer. I find this to be such a bummer because Google Reader is how I keep up to date with the blogs I follow and I know many of you follow The Cottage Home the same way.

So what can you do to make sure you stay up to date?

One, you can head over and become a fan of The Cottage Mama Page on Facebook. I am always linking to the blog posts from over on Facebook.  If you are already a current fan and don't think I post much over there, you just might not be seeing The Cottage Mama in your personal news feed. In order to make sure you are seeing the posts, you need to visit The Cottage Mama Page, and click on the 'LIKED' button and it will allow you to 'get notifications in newsfeed'. If there is not a check mark by this box, then you are not receiving notifications. See the pink arrow in the above picture? That's where you need to click.

Sign Up for The Cottage Mama Newsletter

Two, you can sign up for the new The Cottage Mama newsletter in the box above. In this newsletter you will keep up to date with blog posts as well as new pattern releases, sales and more!

Three, you can sign up for another Google Reader like platform such as Feedly or one of the many others that are out there online.

Anyway, I don't want to miss interacting with you, so if you get a chance make sure you transfer over The Cottage Home feed to a new reader, sign up for the newsletter or join us over on Facebook.

So, onto the good stuff. As a big thank you to everyone who supports The Cottage Mama and has joined us over on Facebook, I think I've put together a pretty nice giveaway for you all. This is a personal giveaway from me to you (no sponsor involved). Here it is.......

A Set of Four Sewing / Embroidery Books

I tried to put together a variety of books in this prize package that I thought you all would really enjoy. There is a little embroidery, sewing for kids, quilting and sewing for you / home.

I'm also including a big fat quarter bundle of 'Massai Mara' from Dear Stella Fabrics. This is a great bundle for a quilt or many of your home decor projects that you might have in the works.

Finally, I will be including 2 yards of each of the above prints for a total of 4 yards. I love this new fabric line called 2wenty Thr3e from Moda Fabrics and I hope you do too.

So one lucky winner is going to take home all the books and all the fabric in one big bundle!

What do you have to do to enter? Well, since this is a Facebook celebration giveaway, there are two ways to enter:

1) Become a fan of The Cottage Mama on Facebook (click HERE)

Sign Up for The Cottage Mama Newsletter

2) Sign up for The Cottage Mama Newsletter (you can do so above).

You can leave a comment for each entry. So that's two chances to win!!

Giveaway is open until Sunday, April 21, 2013 at Midnight (CST).

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Repurposed Picture Frame Tray Tutorial

About a week ago, several of my girlfriends and I headed to the flea market for a Mom's day out. When I attend the flea market, I am always on the hunt for sewing related antiques, furniture for the house, or unique antique decorative items. We happened upon this one booth that was filled with more garage sale like stuff rather than antiques, but this gold frame caught my eye. It was only $1.00 and the second I saw it I thought that it would make a cute little tray. So I scooped it up and told my friends what I had planned for this little beauty.

I think I saw a tray with this frame because the frame itself is a little angled, but you can give this project a try with any style or size frame you would like. This picture frame tray will take you minutes to complete and there is no-sewing involved (I know, kind of rare around here lately). Let's get started......

Repurposed Picture Frame Tray

by Lindsay Wilkes from The Cottage Mama

Supplies:

1 picture frame

1 scrap piece of fabric

Instructions:

Grab a picture frame. Use one you already have on hand or hunt for some inexpensive frames at your local flea market, garage sales or thrift shops. Like I said above, I liked that this frame was angled, so it seem to make a nice tray, but choose any frame you would like.

Flip the frame over and remove any hardware on the back. This frame was really easy to take apart, I simply popped the stand and hardware off with my hands. If you have a more stubborn frame, you may need to pull out your pliers.

Above is what the back of the frame looked like after the hardware was removed. If the holes bother you or you plan to give this as a gift, cover the holes with a piece of decorative paper or fabric. You could even write a nice note to the gift recipient. Adhere the paper to the back of the frame with heavy duty glue or mod podge.
 

I simply flipped the back of the frame over and used the other side because the holes didn't show nearly as much. This little tray is for me, so the bottom didn't need to be perfect.

Measure the inside of the frame to figure out how large to cut your fabric. My frame had a paper insert inside the frame, so this was the perfect template for cutting the fabric. You could also use decorative paper instead of fabric, if you prefer. Cut the fabric or paper to size.

Insert the fabric into the frame and slide the back of the frame back into place.

And then step back and admire your sweet little tray.

I'm planning on using this as a jewelry tray, but the options are endless!

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