A Few of My Favorite Things....

Today I'm sharing a few of my personal favorite things, some of which I hope are your favorite things too or that you might be introduced to something new!  But first the winner from yesterday's giveaway is "Janet" who said "Wow--what a gorgeous line! Thanks for the chance to win." Janet's comment was the first comment for yesterday's post and I picked the first comment since yesterday was December 1st! (Janet email me your address and I'll get this out to you tomorrow.)

Now a few of my favorite things...

1. Elf on the Shelf! If you haven't stopped by this website then please take the time to do so! It's beautiful and if I had a little one this would be on my list!  

2. The Sound of Music (Two-Disc 40th Anniversary Special Edition, 1965)  *Dan if you are reading this I sure would like Santa to bring me this for Christmas!  You can get it here!

3. StorePhotos.com This is a fun site to stop in and see all their great Pioneer Photo Albums. I'm trying to create a scrapbook for my dad about his experience in the Vietnam war and I got my themed album from this store. They also carry other Scrapbook supplies - oh! and all their products are archival safe too! Their customer service rocks! So if you need a new scrapbook album or photo box (I love photo boxes) then this is where you need to go!
I love this album:

    
4. Croptopia Getaways!! Okay, so I've been asked to teach on this 7 NIGHT WESTERN CARIBBEAN CRUISE... and of course I said YES!!  I'd love to have all of you join me on this awesome cruise... so ask your sweet hubbies for this fun cruise for Christmas! (Or save all your dollars and take yourself!). They are offering "Early Bird Rates" and the ship is just over a year old!  I'm going to be teaching classes and doing make-n-takes; I'm also going to be giving a ton of PRODUCT away on this once in a lifetime trip! Woo Hoo....

5. Helmar Adhesive Scrap Dots!! If you haven't tried these great 3-dimensional liquid dots then hold on to your pants because they are a crafter's dream come true!! I love them! Tracy, the owner, and I have become friends from meeting at CHA and this is the only adhesive I use at all my CHA make-n-takes. It's my preferred adhesive! Thank you, Tracy, for your support and awesome adhesive!!
HELMAR ROCKS!!

6. The Nutcracker Ballet! If you haven't had a chance to go see this performance, then it's a must! Even if you don't like ballets, it's still a must see -- the music is fabulous! I live in a pretty small town, but it still seems to make it here every year. And it usually plays on public TV at least once during the month of December too!

7. Anyone that knows me well knows I'm Jenni Bowlin's biggest fan!! I get her monthly kits and love them! I think she is so talented and a great business woman who I continually look up too! I follow her blog and, well, I just adore her! I first met her over a year ago when she came into my booth at CHA and made a purchase for her monthly kits. It's actually kind of a funny story... Dan (my hubby) knew how much I loved Jenni (as I've been talking about her for years). So on our way to CHA I must have asked and talked about meeting her a thousand times, literally driving Dan crazy! Well, I was standing a little ways outside my booth at my first CHA talking to some friends when my hubby tapped me on the shoulder and said "Jenni's in your booth looking around." Well, I turned around to see if this was true and burst into tears when I saw her! JENNI BOWLIN WAS IN MY BOOTH... ARE YOU KIDDING ME!! You can ask everyone that was around me... I had a hard time pulling my self together; seriously... I couldn't stop the tears! And there was no way I could write up an order for her, I was just too beside myself. I did ask her for a picture and she said "Why of course" in that sweet southern accent of hers.  And, by the way, she may be the nicest person I've ever met. Here is our first picture together:

If you haven't checked out her products, then you must! Our styles are very different but my products also seem to fit in well with some of her products too!

8. My Burlap Buttons - also called "Cute as a Button Burlap Buttons"! So...I know it's my own design and product, but I've been creating these little buttons for years prior to having them manufactured for my company! I'd find the perfect button, then cut some burlap out, hot glue it to the button then, once dry, I'd stitch the center,  I know, I know, a lot of work for a little button - but it gave so much texture and dimension, which are two of my favorite things when scrapbooking!  (Jenni Bowlin even bought a bunch for her kits last spring!)  I have 4 different colors of the buttons, blue, red, black and brown:

Soooo having said that...how about for today's giveaway I'll pick 2 lucky ladies to win all 4 sets of these Burlap Buttons! Leave a comment about your best "homemade" embellishment and I'll pick 2 winners tomorrow morning (Friday's) blog post!

I want to leave you with a picture of my sweet Alfred (a 12 yr old puppy-mill rescue) all dressed for Christmas!

Have a great day everyone! -Nikki