Sunday, February 24, 2013

Pinterest--Tips and Tricks

Just some things I've discovered over the past year or so being very involved in Pinterest. There are so many now who are talking about how to use Pinterest to advance your business, I only wanted to let people know how to enjoy the site for themselves...

When your cherished items start making you look like a hoarder...

I have so many sentimental things I have kept because of who had given them to me. The only problem with that is now that I am the bit FIVE O I am having to learn how to let go of things that are sentimental.

I have discovered something that really helps, and moms...if you deal with letting go of things your kids make everyday at school and your fridge starts to look like a community bulletin board and the kids look everyday to see if their "star pieces all 100 of them are still there...I have a few suggestions...
First suggestion which I am doing myself this week...since we remodeled my home 2 years ago and my tastes have changed from Victorian/Queen Anne to Cottage/shabby chic and my remodel is almost in that exact vein (though I know others could use this easily in their home and it doesn't have to be cottage if we sell) The last piece sentimental piece I have had to get rid of was my beautiful Ethan Allen China Hutch my husband bought me for Christmas just a few years after we were married. It does not match but letting it go has been so tough...Here is the picture.... and I guess I"ll tell you after the picture what I did....


Friday, February 22, 2013

Ok now time to post the winner

 
 
 
 
The winner is.......

 
 
Email me at cottageatheart@gmail.com and let me know
which Gift Certificate you wish to receive
Walmart, Home Depot, or Joann's
 
Congrats, and thanks to all who participated!

And the winner is......see tonight...



Tonight at 6 pm Pacific Time I will announce the winner of the $25 Gift Certificate...gives the locals time to get home...and the faraways time to eat dinner and wait...hahaha

Just like to have most see it at the same time! Not trying to be a pain..but it will only be posted ON THE BLOG until Saturday night at 6 pm....I will notify the winner by email after I post it tonight....

Am I bad? I loved having almost 300 entries, many of them had multiple entries but I think I still had about 50 sign up and was very excited to pick the winner. I then verified they had done what the entry said they did to win. Lots to learn--and like i said Rafflecopter picked the winner!

So...see ya back tonight....if you want to...

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Enter to Win $25 Gift Certificate!

I now have 6000 followers on pinterest and to Celebrate I'm giving away a $25 gift certificate! I wasn't sure if I was going to get to 6000 followers first or 30,000 pins...and the 6000 followers are the final thing.

So I am going to do a drawing for everyone who First, posts a comment on this Blog post....then also if you "like" my cottage at heart page on facebook, follow me on twitter, follow me on Pinterest (at least one board). I will open it up for people to not have to have a Gmail account to post..


First thing you need to do is leave a comment on this post...the rest is added through the rafflecopter widget to help you get additional entries for the prize and some let you come back and enter every day to win the prize!



I'm going to try to play with the rafflecopter thing. My first try with rafflecopter wanted to see how it goes! You can share this with others too. What can you win? Your choice of a $25 gift certificate to Joann's, Walmart or Home Depot!

At the end of this post there are places to 

Remember....First thing you need to do is leave a comment on this post...the rest is added through the rafflecopter widget to help you get additional entries for the prize and some let you come back and enter every day to win the prize!



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Its finally done! My favorite thing I've ever redone! (so far)

I purchased this item last summer for $100 from GG's Antiques (the old Goodwill Store in Grants Pass, OR) and I just loved the possibilities of it! I didn't take a complete before picture but I took the doors off anyway so you can see that it wasn't really fancy good looking wood, and plywood in middle with veneer, here is a picture of the front doors that covered the drawers but not the bottom roll out drawers.....see enough damage I felt ok with painting it. And if you know me, you know I'm all about vintage white! Soooo
Here is the Edge showing the veneer..and how it is breaking off

Here is the picture of the doors, brand new probably nice but
veneer was even coming off the top of piece

Monday, February 11, 2013

A happy spot even in Winter!

I decided to paint my cottage shed a color that even in the dreariness of winter would still give me a happy feeling when I see it..took this yesterday do you agree?
 


Ever feel guilty getting things for less than half their usual price?

Nobody but me probably does! But boy did I get a haul from a friend who used to own Mulberry Tree, she is going to open up another shop but only offering large furniture not little stuff. And though she hated parting with these things she let me have first pick! Then she threw in several smaller items....and I cannot even tell you how little I paid I feel so guilty!

What was truly funny is Kelly said I took everything she was having 2nd thoughts on selling! Just waaaay too much alike!

See my treasures

 




I won!

I won a $35 gift certificate to this website fabrics...http://www.fashionablefabrics.com/



Take a look through and tell me what you THINK I chose for fabrics. Letting you know I spent $35.50 and then paid for the shipping separate....but wanted to give them a thank you on my blog for having the giveaway and hoping to get them some more notice on the internet!

And here is the Facebook page had the contest where I entered....
http://www.facebook.com/DukesandDuchesses

Thanks to both !

Mod Podge Rocks!

I wanted to share a very very special thank you to Amy Anderson who has written one of the coolest books on using mod podge. She sent me a free copy probably cuz she felt so sorry for me (haha) but here is a picture of the book....and you can also see some of the pages of the inside of the book on the amazon site....so you can see what I mean!
Awesome Mod Podge Rocks Book


Her awesome site which I follow and love everything she posts is
Mod Podge Rocks Blog
and her Facebook account...
http://www.facebook.com//ModPodgeRocks


Got one project done...100 to go

I hope its not prideful to post that I am so proud of myself getting a project done and being so happy with it! I will show you the finished product first. The chair is what I redid to match this awsome table I bought for a very cheap price! Will post some pics of the chair before but the only really before one is pretty hard to see..just so you get an idea!

Monday, February 4, 2013

Textures in Photography a lot to see and learn!

There are so many uses these days for textures in photography, some are free, some are charged for (along with some information on how to use them) and some I even made myself and share freely...I wanted to post some links so you can just look for yourselves...First off I will share my textured images....then the list of my textures...so you will see that mine is so minute compared to so many others, But I haven't really done any in a year or two been doing so much other stuff so I do have an excuse (sort of) I tend to do things then want to do something else then move on...sometimes I move back but haven't had the time since remodelling and fixing up and cleaning out and and and and ...
This image is a recent set that I have been doing with a cafe theme. This is a combination of my photography, my textures with words and using another person's texture over the top and a digital painting of the cup and saucer in a watercolor look. I made the wording texture...and used another grungy texture from bitbox to make it what I wanted. You can see it here...and see what other say about it...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scrapbuddy2/8149522489/in/photostream

My textured images...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scrapbuddy2/sets/72157622743842725/
I did use textures on some of my other pieces to see it all just go to
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scrapbuddy2/

The textures I created...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scrapbuddy2/sets/72157623028420117/

What is cool is when someone uses one of my textures they share with me that they used it and show me the outcome I created a group where they can post when they use one of my textures..