gratitude and a giveaway!!

this past summer i was given the opportunity to participate in an ornament exchange for my most favorite magazine, living crafts (if you haven't checked this magazine out, you should!). to be a part of this amazing group of talented and experienced women was terribly daunting to me initially! something i struggled with at first. after all, i had never created a pattern for anyone other than myself and i only started hand sewing a couple of years ago! now here i was creating (virtually) alongside some talent that i knew to be quite skilled in their crafts. alas, i was so excited about my project that i was able to get past the intimidation and so thoroughly enjoyed working with all of these gals!!

i chose the bird as my symbol as it represents joy. my creative and endearing coteacher is named joy so that jumped out at me right away. the color and texture of the sweater that i used is pure joy....amazingly rich, warm, and fuzzy! this experience brought me such great joy! it was such a pleasure to connect with all of these women and to bring that joy to each and every stitch.

there were many of us and i never thought for an instant that my project would be chosen for the magazine. seriously. my partner had his mind made up that he was going to see me in print though. ;) we knew that just five of the projects would be featured in the article (the rest are soon to be featured on the forthcoming living crafts blog!). there were so many amazing ornaments these gals came up with, i just never imagined that mine would be selected for print.

my days were filled with anticipation waiting for the postlady to deliver my issue of the mag! it was just so thrilling that i was a part of this project, i couldn't wait to read the article. when i opened the pages to find my ornament staring back at me, i was over the top giddy with pure delight!! it was such fun to reveal the news to matt when he returned home!

i must say that the crowning moment came about a week later. being the incredibly supportive partner that he is, matt had changed our desktop background to a picture of one of my bird ornaments. when my son saw the screen he got all excited. in his broken and over enunciated two year old dialogue he exclaimed *my mom-ma made dat!*. heart. melt.

i am so thankful to have made these connections with these women and to have had the experience of creating with them.....and for all the ornaments i got in return! we have been inspired to have our tree decorated with all handmade ornaments this year.

anywho, to celebrate and to give back to the incredible community of creative and inspiring folks out there who have given so much to me, i would like to give one of my birds to one of you (that one up there on the blue silk)!! all you have to do is leave a comment. i'm not up on any of those random number generator gizmos, so we will be doing the old fashioned pull the name out of the hat!

also, the very talented chris of mamaroots made her second appearance in the magazine and is holding a giveaway for one of her gorgeous rabbit moon ornaments!! go enter quick! contest closes tomorrow night. then head over to her etsy shop and score some goodness for your kiddos stockings!

as for me, i will leave this one open until monday night, nov 30. so go on, leave me a comment! ;)
you do not need to have a blog to enter, just make sure i have a way to contact you!