Another Fabulous CSN Stores Giveaway!

Just in time for the holidays, the wonderful folks at CSN Stores are offering one of my readers the chance to win a Gift Certificate to be used at any of their over 200 stores!

Stumped on what to buy for a special guy in your life? I think these leather messenger bags are pretty fabulous! I'd love to get one for Ed, who uses a backpack to carry all his work gear, lol!




I think they're so stylish secretly, I LOVE the smell of leather, is that weird?!

Wouldn't it be great to win a $45 gift certificate to do a little shopping with?

Want to enter? Okay here's the deal, visit any of the more than 200 CSN Stores and then come back here and tell me what you'd use your winnings for and why.

For extra chances to enter you can: become a public follower of my blog, tweet, create your own blog post or add a button to your blog sidebar for this giveaway and leave a seperate comment for each thing you've done.

Here's a sidebar button to use if that's the option you choose.



Dont forget to leave seperate comments for each entry!

Giveaway is open until December 7th, 2010 at midnight. Good luck!

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Three of my favorite little words

"Out for delivery"

I get all giggly and giddy when I track a package online and discover that it's going to be at my house in mere hours! I have been busy shopping Etsy and eBay for the past two weeks buying pretty things for my living and dining rooms. If you saw my post about my old, ugly chair, you spied one of my new aquisitions sitting upon my fabulous turquoise throne!


Here's a reminder peek --------->

Once today's parcels arrive, I'll gather all my goodies up for a photo shoot and I'll provide links to the shops where I bought them in case my excitement oozes through the computer monitor and inspires you to add some pretty to a room in your own home!

And don't forget to visit my giveaway post!

Only 5 more comments needed before I add the next item!

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Celebrating my 200th Post A Giveaway!

Hey bloggy friends, it's GIVEAWAY TIME!

Okay, so I thought long and hard about what you all might want as a giveaway prize and I just couldn't decide on any one thing. So this is what I'm going to do. This is going to be a giveaway that builds and builds!

I'm going to start off by offering one of my cute little sea urchin snowman ornaments.
He's the first thing to be included in the goodie package that one reader will receive!

Then how I'll work this is as follows:

1. For every 15 unique comments this post receives, I'll add another item to the giveaway.

2. What I mean by "unique" is each different person who comments. Anonomous comments will not be considered, nor will posts from people who appear to be trying to bump up the numbers by repeatedly coming back and saying one or two things to try to reach the next 15. Clear as mud?

3. The one exception to the "unique" rule will be those comments specifically left to receive extra entries.

4. Extra entries can be received by TWEETING about this giveaway (@scarboroshells) or grabbing my giveaway button and adding it to your sidebar, linking back to this post.

PLEASE come back here and leave a seperate comment telling me what you've done.

5. All items included in the giveaway will be handmade by me and there will be a variety as I know not everyone celebrates Christmas.

6. This giveaway starts now and will run through Midnight EST December 1st, 2010.

7. Any questions, feel free to send me an email: tara (at) scarboroughseashellsdotcom

Have fun and thanks for reading!


EDIT:
THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED, THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING!

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By George, I think she's got it! Giveaway time!

I've been banging around what to do to celebrate my 200th blog post earlier this week and I decided it's giveaway time!


I haven't decide yet what I'll give, but it will be something handmade by me and it will be announced tomorrow. So please come back and check what I've decided on!

Thanks for reading my little blog and keeping me motivated to keep on blogging towards 300!

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One Old, Ugly Chair

I spied her last Thursday at the consignment shop. The tag pinned to her cushion actually said that. "One Old, Ugly Chair". Poor thing.
And how could anyone call such a yummy shade of turquoise "ugly"?! At $44, she was a bit out of my price range, but the notation on the side of the tag indicated that the price would drop to $36 on Sunday. I crossed my fingers, said a little prayer and left her in the care of the shop keepers for the weekend.
Apparently the applied stigma worked because when I arrived shortly after the store opened on Sunday, she was still sitting there, waiting for me.
I think she's beautiful.

Head over and visit The Colorado Lady for more vintage goodies this Thursday!

Linking up to Brambleberry Cottage for Time Travel Thursday. Pop on over to check out all the beautiful treasures!

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200th Post, Wish it was more exciting!

I just realized this is my 200th blog post- and really, I only wanted to share with you the fabulous gifts I won from a blog giveaway over at Confessions of a Psychotic Housewife.

When Storm emailed me to tell me I won, I was so side tracked with my craft show stuff that I thought I had won a coupon for a free box of Betty Crocker Potato Buds. I was psyched, we eat instant potatoes a lot around here and every little bit that I can save on the grocery bill is SO appreciated.

So imagine my surprise, when on Saturday morning, the Fed Ex truck delivered a giant box with no company name or logo on it. I couldn't think for the life of me what I'd ordered. I tore it open and started whooping and jumping up an down when I realized it was from her great giveaway sponsored by the folks at MyBlogSpark and Betty Crocker. I won all of this cool stuff:


A giant bamboo bowl, a silicone pot holder/trivet (which works great, btw) a giant box of Potato Buds and a big red spoon to use when making them- so awesome!

I couldn't have been more thrilled! Thanks again, Storm! And if you haven't been over to check out Confessions of a Psychotic Housewife, I suggest you visit her. It's a great blog! :)

I'm going to try to come up with something cool later this week to celebrate my blog milestone!

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An Aqueous Solution

In my never ending attempt at to be frugal, I grabbed a large jug (128 fl. oz.) of laundry soap at my local Price Rite for $1.99. I figured it probably wasn't fabulous, but it would do the job. When I got home, I was talking about it with Ed when I commented that it was probably almost all water. I decided to grab the bottle and look at the ingredients list. Imagine my surprise (and the laughter that followed) when I read:

Tempo™ Heavy Duty Laundry Detergent is an aqueous solution containing nonionic and anionic surfactants, wetting agents, soil removers, soil anti-redepositing agents, brighteners, colorants and fragrance.

Really? Now, I have to admit, it is the first time I actually READ the ingredients on laundry detergent before, but come on. This is what they call an ingredients list? Seriously?

How about: Water based product with detergents that act as cleaners to get $h!t out of your family's clothes.

Sheesh. Go read the back of your laundry soap. Let me know what I'm missing!

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Mmmmm Chicken Pot Pie!

Let me preface by saying that I have never EVER met a chicken pot pie that I actually liked. For some reason, the idea of savory filling and pie crust together just doesn't do it for me.

Then I found this recipe with a twist over at Jenn's blog Feeding My Family of Five and she got it from her friend, Stacey, so I'd say it's definitely a tried and true family pleaser! It calls for a biscuit type topping instead of a pie crust and for me, it made all the difference in the world. Everyone in my family (even my finicky little ones) loved it. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken breasts
1 bag frozen mixed veggies
1 cup shredded monterey jack & colby cheese
2 cans cream of mushroom soup (I had absolutely no "cream of" soup onhand so I made some using store bought chicken broth a touch of butter and some 1/2 and 1/2)
1 small onion finely diced
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 cup flour seasoned to taste with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and ground red pepper)
2 cups baking mix (such as Jiffy or Bisquick)
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 stick butter

Prep:
Cut chicken into 1 -2 inch squares and coat with the seasoned flour. Melt the butter in a deep skillet with the minced garlic and onion until they start to brown, then add the chicken. Cook chicken until all pieces are brown and almost cooked completely through.

In a large bowl, put the mixed veggies, cheese, and cream soups. When chicken is done, add to bowl and mix so that everything is coated with the soup. Pour mixture into well greased 9x13 baking dish.

In another bowl, mix the baking mix, milk, and eggs. Pour over chicken. Bake at 350 degree for 30-40 minutes until crust is firm and brown.

Thank you so much for posting this recipe, girls! It is a new staple on our list for menu planning days!

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Some photos from the weekend craft show...

Just a few quick photos of my set up at the craft fair I did over the weekend. I have one (possibly two) coming up in the next month, so I have to get busy making more stuff!





Love this time of year for selling!

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I have not abandoned this blog, I promise! Here is what I have been up to...

A few photos to show you what I've been up to and why I've been so scarce around here lately...






And this is just the tip of the iceberg with things I've been making! More photos this week!

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October Top Droppers!

Thank you to all my Entrecard visitors and a special shout out to my top droppers for the month of October:


bethere2day: A personal blog about anything and everything, fun, humour, randomness and rants.

Confessions of a Psychotic Housewife: I am the Psychotic Housewife - a gothic Martha Stewart, SAHM, addicted to shopping and saving money while living in a Murphy's Law zone where everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. I love to give my opinion and share the deals I come across.

Moonangelnay on Etsy: A contemporary handmade, fine art, photography, crafts, gifts, jewelry, fashion and Etsy focused blog, sharing weekly features, tutorials, original works and interviews of the new artists of Etsy.

Sparkle: Sparkle is the author of two cat-to-cat advice books (no humans!), has her own Muse Medallion-winning calendar and is one of the original cat bloggers - she has been blogging since January, 2003!

Megan Bayliss: Megan Bayliss: Social worker now freelance web content writer. I lead a team of gorilla marketing on-line angels in secret Santa hats. They do things to websites. If you want YOUR site touched, join us. Thrills guaranteed.


Getting Busy Living: I am a British man living with my American wife in the English countryside. We love to explore and have fun with our differences, although we are much more alike than we are different. Follow our travels and travails and expect the unexpected.


the crazy suburban mom: dont judge me till you've gone a mile in my mini van

Three Fates And J Grow Up: A personal journal of our journey to adulthood; looking for a house, buying a house, fixing up a house, getting married, having kids, etc, etc.


The Beadings and Buttons of Randomcreative: I chose my username because I have always enjoyed making random creative projects using all different colors and materials. I opened my Etsy shop on Halloween of 2008.

Marketing for Artists and Crafters:
IndieCEO brings to artists and crafters easy-to-understand strategic marketing ideas for online shops. Includes strategies for inexpensive and free promotions, advertising; ideas on selling, marketing, planning, communication for online and offline.

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