Blog Birthday

Happy Friday friends! 

Today is my blog birthday and I'm turning 1! I'm technically still learning how to walk and talk. 

I had wanted a blog for so long but taking care of my kids had pretty much scared me away. 

Our daughter had some problems since she was born 

and I felt like I couldn't have dealt with her and a blog at the same time. 

So when she finally got better and reached Kindergarden age, I decided it was time.  

On March 22nd 2012 my first post went up.

So I wanted to have another giveaway today 

and I decided to share 20 sheets of golden vinyl dots with you. 

Every sheet has 9 dots... so 20 sheets equal 180 dots 
that you can use on a focal wall or a piece of furniture.

That's four times as many dots as I used for my ceiling!!!

You can buy similar dots at places like Land of Nod where 48 x 3-inch dots cost $24.95.

{image via Land of Nod}

If you missed my last post on Wednesday, here they are on my powder room ceiling.

(Click here to see the post)

I love them so much that I thought it would be a wonderful idea to share them with you guys.

I hope you like them.

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I get a birthday present too and I'm so excited about it.

Kirsten from 6TH STREET DESIGN SCHOOL 

is featuring our house today. For me this is huge because I'm such a big fan of her blog and design style.

She is amazing and her house is beyond dreamy.

Head on over to check out our house by clicking HERE!

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Back to the giveaway, you can enter here:

Entry-Form

(Let's hope giveaway tools works.
Let me know if it doesn't)

I'll let you know who the winner is next Wednesday.
Good luck!
I really appreciate all of you!!

I'm thinking about doing a highlight of all my first year projects on Monday!
Have a wonderful weekend!

Valentine's Day, My Birthday and a Giveaway!

Stay with me through the entire post...it gets better on the bottom!

I'm not a fan of Valentine's Day at all. Never have been and I think I never will be either. It is deeply rooted within, because my mom never liked it. When we were little she'd always tell us that she wants to feel the love all year around not just on an assigned day. And to me there is truth in that. If you need a designated day to show me some loving then that's pretty terrible.

My husband always tells me that this is one of the qualities he loves about me, haha. And some guys have asked me to convince their ladies as well. No luck yet though.

Let me tell you a story about how we spent our first VDay after we just met.
Well it was an awkward date to say the least. I bought him the book "Valentine" by Tom Savage, the story of a best-selling novelist who has it all, including the attentions of a stalker who calls himself Valentine (in 2001 they filmed a slasher movie loosely based on this novel). Romantic huh??

And he bought me a box of chocolates (that he didn't have with him on our date because his dog ate it) and a card that read "don't worry about eating too much chocolate on Valentine's Day because Cupid likes shooting at big butts". Wow, right? He had game didn't he? That's 16 years ago and I'll never forget that card.

Just call him smooth operator ;)

But had I met him during his awkward stage (and yes, here comes the picture again),
things would have turned out different.

He actually drove a beetle that he hand-painted light blue with yellow stripes! LOL
Just picture this 80s dude at the stop light next to you in a hand-painted beetle!

If you are wondering what those "Hey Girl" photos are about, I'm participating in the "Hey Girl" link party at VIEW ALONG THE WAY tomorrow. Come check it out!

Since I don't really like Valentine's day, but I love sweets, I'll share some of my sister-in-laws incredible Valentine's Day desserts with you, especially since Cupid likes shooting at big butts, HA!

Here are her homemade Vegan Treats Valentine's Day candies and believe me, 

even if you aren't vegan, they taste amazing.

Yummy!

And guess what? 

One lucky reader gets to eat them. 

I have a giveaway for my birthday this week. 

Yeah you heard right, it's my birthday today.

And since I have gotten several emails and requests for another silhouette giveaway,
I'll throw in another couples silhouette (which I also sell in my etsy store).
I think that would make a sweet Valentine's Day present, right?

A box of Vegan Treat's Valentine's Day candy
(Thank you so much Danielle)

and a custom couple's silhouette!

What do you have to do?

Just follow my blog, 

click the like button on my Facebook page

 and then leave a comment to be entered for a chance to win.

The giveaway closes on Saturday (8 p.m.) and I will announce the

 randomly drawn winner on Monday morning.

So spread the word about the giveaway, ok?

And talk to you on Friday.

And the winner is...

One of the reasons (besides doing Christmas shopping) why I haven't gotten around to finishing any home projects is that I have been working on some ancestry stuff again. I started on ancestry.com and ancestry.de a couple of years ago and I have been hooked ever since. It is so addicting!

My grandmother was a remarkable woman and I so regret that I never got her to write down her life story. I was too young and ignorant. I didn't even think about it. But now I have asked my father to write down anything he can remember about growing up during the second World War. He was 6 years old, the age of my daughter when the war started. I don't want my children to ask one day and not have the answers. My son is already so very interested in history in general, especially when it comes to our family history.

I want to make a book with photos of my father's childhood and possibly give it to them for Christmas.
So the past couple of days I have been sitting in front of my computer and translating my father's stories into English and scanning more photographs. I'm still not done translating, I will put it all into a Shutterfly book, which takes long as well. But I know it will be well worth it.

I'm really unhappy about not being able to find out more about my grandmother's father, my great-grandfather who was the director of transportation in Berlin. He has a bus named after him which is standing in a museum in Berlin. It is the Robert Kaufmann bus which was the first bus not drawn by horses anymore. My grandmother passed on lots of information about her mother but I don't have much when it comes to my interesting great-grandfather. I want to find out more about him so badly. I have come to a dead end.

Anyway enough talking on my part. Bla, bla, bla....I'm sure you don't want to hear about my family history. You want to know who won my giveaway, right?

So this morning when my daughter got up we had an old school winner drawing. She had so much fun. There weren't too many names.

So here it goes:

Thew winner is Andrea Duncan Surrey from Oak Ridge Revival. Congratulations 12/12/12 is your lucky day ;)
I can't wait to make the silhouettes.

Talk to you on Friday and I hope I can share the finished silhouettes with all of you.

My first giveaway!

I was kind of scared to have a giveaway. What if nobody participates? What if nobody likes it? ...There were so many stupid thoughts going through my head, but "oh well". 

If nobody does then it saves me some work right?

But it is kind of exciting!!! YAY!

SO HERE IT IS

I'm giving away a custom couple's silhouette like you can see in my new Etsy store (click here).

The winner will receive a custom couple's (or of your 2 kids) silhouette in JPG format per email. You can then use that image to print as many times as you want. Wouldn't this be great for Christmas?

What do you have to do?

If you aren't following me already click the "follow this cuckoo" button on my blog and follow me, like my facebook page and leave a comment that you did both! Pretty easy, isn't it?

The giveaway will run from today until next Wednesday, December 12th.

The winner will get chosen randomly.

And as a bonus you get 10% off all custom silhouettes in my Etsy store by using coupon code CUCKOO4SILHOUETTES10 (I know it's long, sorry! Just copy and paste) until the end of this giveaway!

Spread the word and good luck ;)