BEFORE WE BEGIN...A NOTE TO ALL WHO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY PLEASE PLEASE READ!
- You cannot email me your reply. That is not considered an entry.
- If you read my posts through email you MUST click on title of the post which will take you live to my actual website. This is an important step!
- When you are on the blog, scroll to bottom, where it says "leave a comment here"
- THAT is where you leave your comment. You can sign in with google or you can just use your first name or even anonymously
- If signing in anonymously be sure to put your first name in the comment so I know who you are!
- Again only those who leave comments on my blog are entered into the giveaway
Our weekend has been busy but a good one ( super productive) and on top of a few things we had going on I have also been sprucing things up for the holidays here and there. Two very important things to do here today. First off, I want to announce the lucky winner of either the gorgeous trivet or olive tray for the European kitchen giveaway. A hearty congratulations goes to......
Result:
50
Michelle BakerDecember 1, 2013 at 10:36 AM
I would have to choose #11, but they are all absolutely gorgeous! Thanks for hosting such a great giveaway :)
Contact me here to provide your shipping details and selection so this can be right on it's way!
Second, bring on the drum roll....the response to the "Hooray for the holidays" contest was amazing! I thank each and every one of you who took the time to send in your wonderful pictures and to all who voted. I had such fun putting it all together and will look back often on ALL of the amazing entrants. As per Polldaddy, here is the first and second place winners!! A big congratulations to you both, the victory is well deserved and indeed both images really do capture the theme "Hooray for the holidays"!
1st place goes to Lynda with 86 votes
2nd place goes to Susan with 71 votes
A few honorable mentions that had a healthy number of votes.......
A few honorable mentions that had a healthy number of votes.......
Please contact me here to provide your shipping details so your gifts can be on their way! Thank you again to all who participated. I will announce details of my next contest later this week.....
Since I was chosen earlier this year as the "Classic" blogger of choice for the super famous HomeGoods (thank you HomeGoods).....I was contacted about a fun holiday challenge. If you haven't taken the Stylescope quiz, you must! Its fun to see what you style you most gravitate towards. The challenge was to go in and purchase some goodies with a generous gift card courtesy of HomeGoods. It was my pleasure! What a place to stock up....the prices simply cannot be beat, period. They were chock full with some really amazing holiday finds.
I had fun taking a few pictures during my excursion (despite some weary looks from shoppers wondering why a roll of gift wrap warrants a picture:) and am sharing with you some "after" shots though this is still a work in progress. I tend to decorate most of the month of December, it's a month long activity, tweaking/adding as I go but you can see things as they are coming along...it was such fun!! No one fell swoop for me......it's a loooong drawn out affair though this year my goal is to have the bulk done by Dec. 10th and I am well on my way:)
I promised a giveaway a week until Christmas and I have all kinds of amazing things lined up! Best part....HomeGoods has so generously offered an extra two $50 gift cards to two lucky enchanted home readers for my giveaway this week. This way you can go on your own little shopping trip and stock up on some holiday favorites, there really are all kinds of amazing treasures there! Details to enter at bottom.....
A recap on what I found during my excursion to my local HomeGoods.......
Gift wrap galore..and it was so pretty!
Decorations were at every turn....
Beautiful pinecone topiaries....can't have too many and stocking up on giftwrap (3.99 a roll)!!!!
I love nutcrackers and have a growing collection.....added two to my family.
Candles everywhere....
Always like to keep wine bags on hand during the holidays....
The shopping cart getting fuller and fuller....
Ribbon galore! Always have to have lots of ribbon on hand
There was all kinds of beautiful ribbons!
So many cute gift tags, can never have too many of these and very well priced too.
Holiday bags of every shape, size and color.
Ribbon anyone?
Mission accomplished!!
Now meanwhile back at home...I started to unpack all the goodies. It was fun sorting through it to see how it would work with my existing decor and indeed it was a very very good shopping trip! Here is how some things are starting to come together. Some people do all their decorating in one fell swoop....in my case I do it a little bit at a time, and tweak constantly (its my OCD). So I do it bit by bit, but am off to a good start and this is early for me, so even better:)
And fell in LOVE with these beautiful pine cone and moss ball cone topiaries, which I promptly placed in two and white containers....
Here are the wicker stag deer planters, I stuffed the white pointsettas in them, charming!
And in the bathroom and kitchen....
Added the beautiful pair of gold and white nutcrackers to the powder room and the pretty holiday themed guest towels in the bath to keep the Christmas magic going.....
Added these battery operated very large pillar candles to my hurricanes on my dining table. Normally these are around $60 for this size...these were $19.99.
And yes of course I will be removing the price tag:)
And even in my kitchen, love the festive feel that the pretty dishtowels give..its those little touches that do it.....
Added some pretty cocktail napkins to my little holder in the living room....
And I have plenty more napkins and wine bags galore....
Was stopping off at Christmas party, so put a bottle of wine in one of the pretty new wine bags added a sprig of greens and off we went!
Added these pretty green and gold candlesticks to a small vignette in my pantry....
Can you imagine my delight when I spotted these beauties!!! Chinoiserie heaven:) My first thought was to spray paint them white or navy for outside, and I may do that but they are quite pretty in the black with a glaze rub...so for now going to keep them as is. I think with acorns, some greenery and a big pillar candle...they could make quite the holiday statement.
And though I have only wrapped ONE lonely gift, I must say it felt like the season is now official having wrapped my very first Christmas gift!! I love adding little embellishments to it.....(much more to come). The gift wrap selection was as good or better than anywhere I have seen and there wasn't a roll over $3.99! Love the ribbon and giftwrap, their selection was amazing.....
Dont' worry I smoothed out the wrinkles :)
So even though this is just the start....I am feeling good about my progress and have HomeGoods to thank! I cannot tell you how much the stores have, and the prices simply cannot be beat! Now lets talk about this giveaway....
Want a second chance? Leave a comment on HomeGood's Facebook page () telling them you are from Ana laila and your style as per the Stylescope quiz. That's it........you are in the running!
I will announce two winners on Friday and announce my next giveaway at that time too. Thanks for stopping in, and wishing you a wonderful day and end to your weekend. Over here we are due to get some SNOW!!!! Good day to stay in and decorate:)