Computer Goblins, Tropical Storms and Giveaways - Whew!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. 

We didn't do a whole lot of celebrating.  I also didn't get to spend a whole lot of time on the computer either.

My computer got attacked by a virus or high jacked.  Either way is wasn't pretty.  It took days to fix.  I think I need to name my computer.  It's like having a kid.  Worrying what's going to happen next?  Is is going to get sick or attacked today?

On top of that, we were having some really strange weather here in good old Florida.  Here it is 2 weeks before the start of hurricane season and we had a Tropical Storm bearing down on us.  I usually don't put too much stock in these things because of where Jax is.  We're kinda dipped in and the storms tend to turn with the currents and pass us by.  This one, however was heading dead on into Jax. and it was only 2 points from being an official hurricane.

You can see Jacksonville is in the upper right hand side of the map. Jacksonville is really large.  Land based it's the largest city in the U.S.  - land based is the key word.  I was raised 15 miles North of Jax and 20 miles West of Amelia Island, where we spent absolutely wonderful summers as kids.

Fortunately, we didn't have a hurricane this time--just a tropical storm. This is very unusual weather for this early in the year but then again it was a very warm winter with the waters staying very warm.  Jax had to cancel the last celebrations of the Jazz Festival as well as all the Memorial Day celebrations but prayers of gratitude went up for being spared a tragedy.  As you can see from some of these pictures the weather was scarey and some people did get some damage but there were no deaths I'm happy to report.

We were especially lucky at our house.  Not so much as a big limb down.  Oh you see we'd had so major winds with all the moss and branch tips scattered all over the yard but that was it.  Other parts of our area had whole trees down and plenty of flooding too.  Even though we're on the water our property sits high.  In all the years we've been in this house I've never even had a standing puddle.  I call it Blessed.  And even odder, we never lost electricity or digital.  We usually have the lights go out in an afternoon shower.

You might know, the one time the lights don't go out while be forced to stay inside, the computer gets hacked.  Such inside and can't use the computer.  AAAKKKK!

I finally got it up and I have 2 new giveaways listed. 

• Land O' Lakes All Natural Eggs Prize Package Giveaway
• Lady Anti Monkey Butt (I laugh every time) Powder Giveaway

Be sure to click the links above and enter.  And don't forget there's another giveaway ending soon.

• Fiber One Chewy Bars Prize Pack Giveaway

Have a great week ya'll.  Hey it's already starting out a short one.

♥...Tracy :)

ENTER MY GIVEAWAYS BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE - HINT - THEY'RE AWESOME

Guaranteed to make you smile :) ~ I have 3 great giveaways for you to enter now.  And there are more to come.

Just click on the photo below to enter the giveaway.

Great Clip Gift Basket includes a $100 Visa Gift Card, Free Hair Cute and 6 Hair Products - ends 5/11. 

The Voice New Testament ends 5/23.

Burger King $25.00 Gift Card ends 5/21.

I'm linking up to the following Giveaway Linky Parties.

Born 2 Impress
Cuckoo For Coupon Deals

Eighty MPH Mom

Fab Finds by November Girl XOXO

Blessed Beyond Words

Coupon Geek 

For the Love of Baby

 Give Me Neither 

Look What Mom Found & Dad too!
The King's Court IV
Koupon Karen
Pink Coupon Cafe
Thrifty Jinxy
Giveaways4Prizes

  

Good Luck Ya'll........Tracy♥

P.S.  Thank you all for the kind and caring comments about Mattie.  Your prayers mean so much and they're what's helping me keep faith that she may come back to us.  I love you all.....♥

A Fashion Jewelry Giveaway Plus 2 More and a Winner

Want jewelry?  Well, here's a chance for you to win some, not from me but from OneMommaSavingMoney.  She's giving her readers a chance to win their choice of jewelry from Bombay Fashion.com's  Bella Couture Collection or Bella Collection.  Best news is there will be 2 winners.   That's right, there will be 2 winners!!  And I'm hoping I'm one of them.  You could win too, all you have to do is go visit OneMommaSavingMoney to enter her giveaway.  Just click here.

Now it's time for a Cotton Pickin Cute giveaway announcement.  Congratulations to Geri @ Heart N Soul Cooking!!!

Geri won 5 boxes of cereal from the General Mills Whole Grain First Giveaway. 

Don't forget to enter my other giveways listed below.  Just click the button to enter.

A Valentine Pillsbury Prize Pack Giveaway

Publix Running Out? Run In Event - $25 Gift Card Giveaway

Savannah Granny's Having a Shabby Apple Giveaway

My sweet friend Ginger @ Savannah Granny is having a giveaway to make you even more glamorous during all your holiday partying.  One of her lucky followers is going to win this dress from Shabby Apple.  Just click here or the photo above to visit Ginger and enter her giveaway.  You'll not only have a chance to win a gorgeous dress, you'll get to know the sweetest person too.

Good Luck!

P.S.  My Cheerios giveaway ends tonight 11/28 at midnight.  Please enter if you haven't already.  The Eat Smart giveaway ends on Dec. 5th.  You don't want to miss these.  Just click the pictures below to visit each and enter.  And remember I'm listing giveaways that I find throughout the day.  This is just the latest.  Click that previous post button at the bottom of this one to keep going back and see what you might have missed.  I also have a few more of my own to list starting Friday.  I promise you don't want to miss them.

 EatSmart Retro Scale

Cheerios Spread the Cheer

I Love Using Natural Elements In My Home

We have such a short fall season here, it makes me really appreciate the warm brown tones in nature that we get.  We used to get to travel more and I would go crazy in North Georgia and the Great Smokey Mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee in autumn.  All those beautiful colors and the crispness of the autumn air.  Aaahhhh ~ I just love it.  Here are a few of the Thanksgiving things I made the last couple of weeks.

I like to use what I have.  And this whitewashed reed bowl was perfect to hold all the pine cones.  I've had this beautiful candle for years and bring it out every fall through Christmas.  I love the embedded apples and greenery.  

This year I didn't get any cinnamon scented pine cones.  (I hate buying them knowing that they are on the side of the road and in yards everywhere here)  But I love the smell.  I found an easy tutorial here at Suzy's Sitcom to scent them yourself. 

I found the tutorial to make a pine cone garland thanks to Jessica @ Two Shades of Pink  and put my own spin on it and came up with this garland for my kitchen/dining room bar.

I love my Willow House hurricane lantern that I won from Heidi at Decor & More this year.

Another item from a thrift store that I've had for the longest time is this cute little turkey that's just right to hold walnuts and pecans.

And my table wouldn't be complete without a table runner.  So I made some patch work turkeys.  The plaid fabric is such a soft flannel feeling wool blend that I tea died.  I just cut some half circles and scalloped the edges in 3 different fabrics for the turkey feathers.  Then I sewed them on with a zigzag stitch.  Okay zigzag stitching the individual pieces for 7 turkeys was a little time consuming and tedious.  But hey, I'm totally happy with the end results.  Much cuter than my photos show.   I used brown flannel to cut out Mr. Turkeys body and head for a simple silhouette.  I made a wider burlap runner to go underneath.

Another simple and easy to make decoration are these adorable pumpkin candles.  Already having the twine and the glue.  I spent a total of  $2.  $1 for a package of balloons, which I have plenty left and $1 for the pkg of 2 flickering candles from Dollar Tree.  No chance of fire with these.  It's as easy as blowing up a balloon and wrapping it with jute twine.   I'll post the simple tutorial later.  I think I could make some really cute ornaments with this idea.

We had a late dinner this year.  Instead of the usual 2 o'clock meal we ate at 6:30.  I loved having it by candlelight.  I've had these metal twig candle holders for years and still love them.  I didn't have a tall candle for the big holder so a simple trick was to take 2 of my autumn leaf embedded candles and stack them on top of one another for the look of one large candle.

Well that's it for my Thanksgiving decor.  I hope you enjoy looking at it.  It's time to pack it away and think about Christmas now.  I love looking at everyone's Christmas decorations.  Being a crafter, sewer, etc...I love seeing these things months ahead of time.  If only I could start doing them in July and have some for Etsy early.  I think that is going to go on my calendar for next year.  Start Christmas crafts in July.


And for those of you who got your decorating done yesterday or even this weekend ~ Big, major kudos to you!!!  I on the other hand am still in the exhausted after Thanksgiving mode.


It was a really nice Thanksgiving.  I think it was all the projects that I took on before Thanksgiving that whooped me.  I'll be sharing more of those this week.  We had my cousin, Greg over.  I told you about him a week or so ago.  He was having heart problems but seems to be fine now.  It was great having him over.  The sweet guy, brought me a hostess gift and cooked greens (yum) and a green bean casserole himself.  He helped me in the kitchen and we laughed and had fun.  We all ate too much.  It's hard to cook Thanksgiving for 3 and not eat to much.  You just want to have a little of everything available.  We had so much fun that I completely forgot to take pictures.

Another reminder not to forget to enter my two giveaways.  Just click the pictures below to visit each and enter. 

 EatSmart Retro Scale

Cheerios Spread the Cheer

Have a fun weekend Ya'll!

Check out the fun party hops below that I've linked up to this week.

Giveaways Galore - Something For Every One

 I have a new giveaway that I just heard about today to share with you.  I know you're all busy with Thanksgiving preparations, if not on the road traveling (stay safe ya'll) but I hope you'll take a break every now and then and stop in to visit today.  Between all my projects I will be sharing giveaways that I find and know you'll love.  So grab a cup of tea, cocoa, coffee or coke and join me here today.  You know you need a break and I always love hearing from you.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.... An Debbie is in the spread the cheer Christmas giving spirit.  She's giving one of her readers a chance to win this cheery table runner from her Willow House shop.  I love Willow House and this wool table runner with hand stitched scrolling is no exception.  So stop by here and visit Debbie to enter.  Be sure to check out her new Willow House catalog while your there.




Don't forget to enter my two giveaways.  Just click the pictures below to visit each and enter.  

 EatSmart Retro Scale

Cheerios Spread the Cheer

Good Luck and most of all, Happy Thanksgiving Ya'll.

A New Blog and A New Giveaway to Share - 3 Giveaways In All

It looks like I'm not the only one having giveaways.  They seem to be everywhere.  And I've found a new one to share with you.  At least new to me.  Her name is Holly and her blog is Crisscross Apple Sauce In First Grade is having a giveaway.  Holly's a wife, mother of two and a teacher and she's having a giveaway to celebrate reaching passing 100 followers.  Click here to go by and say hi and enter her $20 gift card giveaway,  and if you win you get to chose where you want that gift card to come from.  Wouldn't that be a wonderful Christmas present to you.

Don't forget to enter my two giveaways.  Just click the pictures below to visit each and enter.  

 EatSmart Retro Scale

Cheerios Spread the Cheer

Good Luck and most of all, Happy Thanksgiving Ya'll.