Where Have I Been?

It seems like I have fallen off the blogging bandwagon lately.  Honestly, my heart just hasn’t been in it.  I’ve been dealing with some pretty tough personal “real-life” situations, plus I started a new job back in July that has been keeping me busier.  I really haven’t been doing much crafting lately besides making things for my Etsy shop.  So, needless to say blogging has fallen to the bottom of my “to-do” list.

That being said…..I am not planning on abandoning this blog completely, but my posts will probably be less frequent. 

I do have some fun things planned for my Etsy shop for the holidays, so I’ll be sharing those soon.  Just this weekend I made a bunch of LSU turkey shirts while I was anxiously awaiting the big showdown between LSU and Alabama:

So speaking of that BIG game, it definitely lived up to all the hype!  I am so proud of the way the Tigers played, they fought tooth and nail to get that win and really showed some spirit.  I always enjoy seeing Saban get beat!

Images Source

Image Source

Image Source

I’m excited about the rest of the season, it looks like the Tigers are on the road to another National Championship game!

Blogging Slump

Sorry, I’ve had a bit of writer’s block since Halloween.  I’ve got plenty of new items for my Etsy shop to share, but I’m waiting on some better weather to take photos.  Stay tuned, I’ll be posting a November special soon!

In the meantime, the weather has turned a little cooler here lately, and it’s got me in the mood for some yummy soup, so I’ll re-post my favorite recipes I shared this past winter. Click the links to be taken to the original posts:

Hot Soups for a Cold Day, Part One

~Fire Roasted Tomato Soup (I’ll be making this this week!)

~Outback Potato Soup

Hot Soups for a Cold Day, Part Two

~Chicken Tortilla Soup

~Crawfish Corn Chowder

~Buffalo Chicken Wing Soup

Enjoy!

Redi Shade Giveaway Winner

The winner of the Redi Shade Simple Fit Custom Shade is….

….comment #15, which was from Mr. + Mrs. B!

 

Thanks to all who entered and congratulations, Mrs. B!  I’ll be contacting you soon for your contact info.

It’s hard to believe I’m almost at 500 followers, another milestone for this little ol’ blog! Stick around and maybe there will be another fabulous giveaway to celebrate!

Lucky Me

I’ve been a lucky girl lately! I have won several blog giveaways and been bestowed with a couple blog awards as well.  It’s about time I officially thanked everyone for their generosity!

Janimal from Delilah’s Momma recently honored me with the Beautiful Blogger Award.

Delilah’s Momma has some great tutorials for crafts done on the cheap, check her out when you get a chance.

Heidi at The Craft Monkey passed on the Trendy Blog Award.

Heidi is a fellow Louisiana crafty lady, so be sure and check out her cute blog, too.

Instead of passing on these awards, I’ll just point you to my long list of blog favorites over there on the left.  It’s impossible to pick favorites!

Now onto my loot…..

I won some fabulous jewelry from Lil’ Miss Momma! I got to pick three pieces from this collection:

Ashley at Lil’ Miss Momma has probably the cutest little boy I’ve ever seen, and she makes some really awesome crafts in her spare time. Plus, she has THREE more fabulous giveaways going on right now!

Of course you remember the table runner my friend made with the fabric I won from Project Pretty.  And I won a gorgeous frame as well.

     

Courtney from Project Pretty has an impeccable sense of style, which is coming in handy since she and her husband are busy designing a new home. Check out her blog to follow their progress!

I also recently won a cute set of jewelry from Jo at That’s My Story.  Can you believe these are paperclips?  You can see more of her designs here.

Jo just celebrated her one year anniversary and reached 100 followers at the same time!  Her blog is full of wonderful treasures like recipes, crafts, and thrifty finds.

Last but not least, my Ribbon Dance Wands and Bracelets were featured on One Pretty Thing Daily DIY yesterday.  I love One Pretty Thing because she re-caps all the great DIY projects all in one spot every day!

Well, with all this luck coming my way, it seems I may just have to pass some of it along soon…..hmmm….maybe there will be a summer giveaway in the near future?! Stay tuned, and have a great holiday weekend!

Guest Post on Deep South Magazine

I’m so excited to have a guest post up on Deep South Magazine today!

Deep South is a magazine with a regional focus on capturing life, Southern style. From the faces, places and food to the art and music of the region, Deep South aims to bring readers stories that portray life in the South as it exists today, while also harking back to the history and traditions of an area known for its culture, color and style.

Erin contacted me after she read about my trip to Canton Trade Days and asked if I would share a little about our trip.  Head on over to read the re-cap!

 

Bear With Me

…..I’m making a few changes over to a custom domain, so you’ll now be able to find my blog at

www.embellishedbayou.com

and at

www.blog.embellishedbayou.com

It may take a couple hours to transfer over, so until then you may have gotten some error messages.  Don’t worry, if you follow via Google you will automatically be redirected.  Please let me know if you encounter any problems accessing my blog!

Also, I will be doing a giveaway for my Facebook fans tomorrow!! If you haven’t already become a fan of Embellished Bayou on Facebook, CLICK HERE to fan me! I’ll choose one of my fans tomorrow evening and send them a special gift from my shop.

Special Feature!

I am SO excited to be guest posting today over at Tatertots and Jello! Head on over and check out my tutorial for DIY textured art.  Here’s a little preview:

If you haven’t been reading Tatertots and Jello, you don’t know what you’re missing! Jen posts some seriously cute crafts, like these ruffle necklaces (which I plan on making soon):

and this adorable spring wreath:

She also hosts a weekly “Weekend Wrap-Up Party” where you can link up and show off what you’ve been working on.

If you visit her blog, you will quickly see that Jen is a BIG fan of using burlap in her projects, so I made a little something just for her! Click HERE to check it out!

The Bloggy Awards

I received a couple blog awards from fellow bloggers in the past few weeks and I’m just now getting around to recognizing them!

Monica from Monica Wants It! tagged me with the Beautiful Blogger Award.  Monica was probably one of my first “bloggy” friends and I really enjoy her dry humor and damask obsession.  She’s currently going through somewhat of a quarter-life crisis right now, so go on over and give her some love!  You can find her on Twitter, Etsy, Facebook and her blog.

Here are the rules for the Beautiful Blogger Award:

~Thank the person who gave you the award. ( THANKS MONICA!)

~Paste the award on your blog.

~Link back to the person who gave you the award.

~Share seven interesting things about yourself.

~Nominate up to 7 more beautiful bloggers.

~Link the bloggers you nominate.

Denise from Extreme Personal Measures tagged me with the Sunshine Award.  I’ve recently discovered Denise’s blog, I have to admit I was instantly attracted to it because she has fleur de lis in her header!  She’s a lady after my own heart with all her creative crafty and thrifty features. 

The Sunshine Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity & creativity inspires others in the blog world.

The rules for accepting these award:

~Put the logo on your blog or within your post.

~Pass the award onto 12 bloggers.

~Link the nominees within your post.

~Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

~Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Well, I’m not much for following the rules with these sort of things; if you want to know some interesting things about me, click HERE.  And as far as nominating other bloggers, it’s impossible for me to pick from my huge list of favorites! Have you seen that list over there?!? It’s huge!  Go visit some, you’ll see what I spend way too much time every day reading blogs!

Well, thank you ladies for the recognition, and thanks everyone else for letting me toot my own horn!

Goodbye Christmas, Hello 2010!

I had a wonderful Christmas & New Year’s and I hope everyone else did, too! I’ll do a more detailed post on some of my gifts later, but for now I just wanted to say “hello” and let you know I haven’t dropped out of the blogging world! 

Well, Christmas is all over, what will we blog about now?  I finally got all the decorations taken down, now they are boxed up and waiting to be transported back to storage in the attic:

Yeah, that’s just about 1/3 of my boxes!

And my once sparkly tree is bare and ready to be dismantled:

Gidget is clearly not a big help in this department:

Fear not, the glitter and sparkle won’t be gone for long, I’ll be working on getting my Mardi Gras decorations up this week! So I’ll have that to show you, plus a few more projects I’ve been working on and some updates from my Etsy shop.  See you in 2010!

A Big Thank You

Thanks to all who participated in the “Go Nuts” party yesterday! All the recipes look so yummy, and I’m sure my waistline will thank you all again later!

I’ll be taking a little blog break until after the Thanksgiving holiday, I hope you all have a wonderful one.  I’ll be back to share my deals from Black Friday/Cyber Monday and of course feature some holiday crafts and decorating ideas throughout the month.

If you get a chance, please visit my Etsy shop this weekend, I’ll be offering a special “12 Days of Christmas” promotion starting on Friday. My personalized items make great gifts and stocking stuffers!

Until then, I’ll leave you with a fun thought on Thanksgiving:

May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey be plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!

                                      ~Anonymous

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Reminder: Go Nuts Party Next Week!

Don’t forget, next Tuesday is the “Go Nuts” Party on my blog.  Grab the button, tell your friends and come back here and link up your favorite recipes or crafts involving nuts!

We picked 2 buckets of pecans today and the smell of Banana Nut Bread is coming from the oven….yummy!  Tomorrow’s breakfast will be chocolate chip pecan pancakes….double yummy!

I’ve seen some great crafts involving nuts, specifically acorns, so if you’ve made an acorn wreath or some other kind of craft, be sure to come back by to show it off.

Am I Nuts?? You Decide.

While lying in bed the other night, my mind started to wander, as it often does.  I started thinking about none other than pecans.  Specifically, how I need to get over to our friends’ house and pick a bucket of pecans from their yard.  They had a “bumper crop” this year.  You see, down South, pecans are a very popular nut, and they can get quite expensive when you buy them in the grocery store.  So I’d rather pick my own for free and get hubby’s help shelling them (shhhhh, he doesn’t know that yet).

So of course, that led to me thinking about how I could turn my pecan picking into a blog post….which led to me thinking about all the yummy treats we make with pecans….which got me thinking about which recipes I wanted to share.  And then I thought, “Why should I be the only one doing the sharing?”  So, yep, you guessed it, I am going to have a linky party specifically for nuts!

Mark your calendars for next

Tuesday, November 24th

and come join in the fun.  You can link up a post featuring your favorite recipe that incorporate nuts….it can be an entree, a snack, a dessert, whatever!  This time of year we’re all looking for yummy things to try for the holidays.  Don’t have a recipe?  Maybe you have a fall craft or decorating project that incorporates nuts, like acorns, that you can share. Maybe you’re just a nutty person and want to show us just how nutty you really are!! At any rate, be back here next Tuesday for some good old-fashioned nutty fun!

Blogging Break

I have been a little MIA from blog-land this week, I guess you could say I’ve got a case of blog-writer’s block!  And it’s not just my own blog I’ve neglected, I haven’t hardly visited any of my favorite peeps this week!  I promise I’ll post more next week, I’ve got some great DIY children’s birthday party projects that coordinate with the DIY invitations I showcased last week.  Here’s a peek:

I’ve also been battling with my new embroidery machine this week.  Yes, I said battling.  I’ve been having major bobbin issues, so most of my computer time this week has been spent on help forums and Google!

On another note, my scrapbook paper art project has been featured on Tip Junkie!  If you haven’t visited Tip Junkie yet, you should check it out.  She features all sort of great project ideas and tutorials.  Her site is one reason why my crafty to-do list is so long!

Hope everyone has a great weekend, it will be beautiful here and of course there’s lots of great football to watch!

 

Geaux Tigers, BEAT BAMA!!

The Tigers Lose, But It’s Time for a Party Anyway!

Well, unfortunately the Tigers couldn’t pull off a win against the #1 team this weekend.  The defense showed up to play but the offense did not!  All was not lost, though, as we had a great weekend of food, friends and fun.

I’ll be working on a few projects this week (if this rain ever stops!) so hopefully I’ll have more to show soon.  In the mean time, everyone needs to get ready for the “Throwback Thursday: Decorating Mistakes” Linky Party right here on Thursday, October 22!!While in Baton Rouge this weekend, I stayed with a friend of mine who is remodeling her house from top to bottom, slowly but surely.  Every room will have to be touched.  Believe me, there were some serious decorating mistakes in that house.  Like the guest bathroom, for example.  The previous owners SPONGE PAINTED over WALLPAPER! Yes, believe it:

Let me tell you, it is horrible! And that is the least of it! I’ll have more photos to show you on party day.

So if you’ve made a few decorating blunders in your past (or maybe it’s the fault of the previous owners of your home), get those photos ready and let’s all have a good laugh! 

Maybe you made an ill-advised color or pattern selection that at the time was all the rage but is now dated and out of style.  Maybe you bought a piece of artwork on a whim that didn’t exactly work once you got it home. Maybe at the time you sponge painted your walls pink and baby blue (ahem, Mom) you thought it looked great, but now wonder “What was I thinking??” Maybe the previous owners of your home painted the bathroom lime green with purple stripes.  We’re all friends here, we can relate!

So mark your calendars, grab the button and plan to be back here on Thursday, October 22.  I can’t wait!  Maybe you can even show us a “before and after” so you’ll be able to join up with other parties as well (Met. Monday/Transformation Thursday).

DIY Scavenger Hunt

 

Even though this isn’t a post about one of my DIY projects, I’m linking up with Kimba’s DIY Day because I know a lot of her readers will be interested in such a great DIY-related giveaway.

One of my favorite blogs is having an AWESOME giveaway to celebrate her 100th post.  Roeshel started the DIY Show Off Blog a short time ago and has gained over 300 followers and countless DIY submissions by her readers. The projects she features are inspirational to say the least.

Check out the DIY Showoff Blog for a fun Scavenger Hunt and you could win this:

Your own set of tools for all those great DIY projects, how great is that??  And if you’re reading this entry, you’re already on your way to winning, just check my sidebar for a clue!

Roeshel was kind enough to include me in her Awards post by nominating me for the Fabulous Blog Award.

This is the second time I’ve been recognized with this award, and it is an honor yet again. As recipient of this award, I'm to name 5 obsessions and tag 5 fabulous blogs.  My current obsessions are:

• LSU Football……Geaux Tigers, enough said!
• My new embroidery machine…..you’ll hear more about that soon!
• The color purple….I like to wear it, decorate with it, paint with it and craft with it!
• Fleur de lis….both in my decorating and my crafting
• Anything sparkly…..especially glitter and rhinestones

It’s impossible for me to single out just five blogs, so for a list of blogs that I think are fabulous, just check out my sidebar.