Butterfly Release, Big ($75 Fabric Gift Cert!!!) Giveaway, Blogversary!

Jumpy kid loves bugs. Not just finding and watching them but he loves to learn about them. We have books and watch the discovery channel and he is enthralled and will then tell everyone what he knows. The last couple of years we have raised silk worms in a shoe box in his bedroom. It's amazing and so simple!

This year we decided to do butterflies and ladybugs. We ordered everything we needed from Here . The catterpillars come in a jar and once they form their chrysalis then you move them to the butterfly treehouse (the thing that jumpy kid has on the lawn). Then once the butterflies emerge from their cocoons you feed them fresh flowers and sugar water for a few days and then it's time to release!

Ready...

Set...

Giggle....Set....

Go!

Goodbye butterflies, take care of our flowers...we love you! Good lord this child can pull my heart strings.

We also raised lady bugs which I have to say was a way more interesting. Only because we all know the cycle of the caterpillar to the butterfly but do you know the cycle of the lady bug? Who knew these beloved little creatures have an amazing life-cycle too. Please go google it or better yet order your larva and habitat from the link above. As soon as Steve and I saw the larva we both said "Oh my god, I didn't know those turn in to lady bugs. We have seen the little alligator like bugs through out the years and never knew that those little suckers were baby lady bugs. Huh! I'm still shocked and feel the urge to contact every kindergarten teacher on the planet and beg them to teach the little ones about their favorite little beetles.

Lady Bug Larvae (or as we like to say baby lady bug)

OK, so on to some seriously fun business! It's my one year blogversary! And I want to say how much I appreciate every single one of you who leave comments or just stop by to read, or ask about my bags. And thank you so much for your patience in my shop opening.

So to show my appreciation I am giving away a $50 $75 gift certificate from one of my favorite on-line fabric stores Over The Rainbow. I have been ordering fabric there for the last few years. You must sign up for her newsletter. It's like a blog post. She links to all the fabric lines as they come in her store. She does lots of pre-orders so if there is a line that you know you want just pre-order from her and then forget about it. When it comes in she'll charge your card and send it to you. You also get lots of fun updates about her farm life and family. I think (correct me if I'm wrong Laura) she used to be a fashion designer and now runs her fabric store from her beautiful farm. Oh and...her prices are always the lowest per yard!

Edit: Ok, I just checked my email and Laura the owner of Over the Rainbow emailed me to say that she has kicked in an extra $25.00. How awesome is that?? That's why this is one of my very fave shops. Thanks Laura!! So now one of you lucky ducks will win a $75.00 gift cert

Ok, so here is what you have to do to enter:

Just leave a comment telling me what you would like to see more of on this site. Or ask me anything you want to know. Do you want to see more bags and sewing stuff, craft projects, recipes (ok they will be Tara's recipes because I get them all from her...but they are good... really good) Do you want to see more photography or know more about photography equipment (I get asked often about that). Do you wanna know how I met Big Daddy? Anything, there are no wrong requests. Feel free to ask goofy stuff, I'm all about goofy.

Let's spread this awesome give-away around (thanks again Laura, I can't stop thanking her, that was just such a random act of coolness to kick in $25!!!). If you mention this giveaway on your blog with a link to me blog (email me to let me know you have done so or mention it in your comment) and I will enter your name in the drawing twice!

The drawing will end at 8 p.m. pacific time this Thursday July 3rd. I will randomly pick a winner and announce the winner on Friday.

Only one entry per person please.

Oh and the cool thing is that Laura has already given me the code. So all I have to do is email the winner and you are ready to shop baby! You know its a good thing I discovered the whole blog thing a year ago...because before I was the only one I knew that got so excited about fabric, I started to think I was like those weird hoarder people only instead of odd junk it was pretty piles of neatly folded fabric that I collected. Now thanks to blog land I know I'm not alone. You're all crazy just like me. Thanks Man!

Dena out....
sorry, I just can't stop with the bad Ryan Seacreast impersonations lately

I know, I know what your thinking...she needs help! ... Please don't remove me from your blogroll, please.

Edit: TIME'S UP!!! Wow this has been so amazingly fun!! Thank you everyone for the wonderful comments and suggestions and requests. The winner will be announced tomorrow! Woohoo.