Hooded Towel Giveaway

How about a giveaway?!  If you win, you can go to my etsy.com store (The Pumpkin Patch) and pick out any of the hooded towels offered there.  These are the rules.

1.  The contest ends on October 16, 2009.
2.  Leave a comment on this post telling me your name and a valid email address.

3.  The winner will be notified by email on Saturday, October 17, 2009.

4.  The winner will have 3 days to claim the prize by sending me their address.  If the winner does not claim their prize, I will choose another winner.

5.  The towel will be shipped within 2 business days of the winner claiming their prize and will be shipped using priority mail (2-3 days).

6.  The winner will be chosen using Random.Org’s True Random Number Generator.

If you want to be entered more times, you can do any or all of the following.

1.  Advertise this giveaway on your blog (make sure to leave me a new comment telling me you posted it on your blog and what your blog address is).

2.  Become a follower of The Pumpkin Patch (make sure and leave me a new comment telling me you are a follower).

3.  Add my button to your blog (make sure you leave me a new comment telling me you grabbed my button and what your blog address is).

4.  Leave me a comment (or send me an email) with suggestions of what else you would like to see on The Pumpkin Patch.

Grab a button!

Here are all of my buttons.  Help yourself to whichever ones you want.

All you have to do is copy the html code, log in to your blog account and go to the layout tab.  Click on "add a gadget" and then on "html/java code".  You don't need to use a title, just paste the html code in the box and click save.

Main Button: 

Whatcha Got Wednesday

 

</P> <P></P> <P><BR></P> <P><center><table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://pumpkinpatchdesigns.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9n72MKnKHiNCXzs3_dud692NJogyjAamFWqFusT7jeNt498fTDNmrNuAFX_H6ZjoFlQXoB5LKwyPy99_vHSSCMt4xneFKoXA9LVZku_vVVB9Wv48cmKPtG22S5JhBKsUnkDgqCtW0PEZG/s1600/pumpkin+patch+watcha.bmp" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right"> </td></tr></table></center></P> <P><BR></P> <P>  

Featured:

  </P> <P></P> <P><BR></P> <P><center><table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://pumpkinpatchdesigns.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4PiTzOGK6SBHfbpOa70nbsM9CodYCWksun79Vb7ijyFUgD3c3-r2llaXGf8jiqsdy9HBRJoe1ly-VNvbHdPYGtDkU96cyBff5Qr-mBP_gvDzBSALZ9En3b-aYjtM4wW7MSTpqqlangj2I/s1600/pumpkin+patch+featured+button.bmp" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right"> </td></tr></table></center></P> <P><BR></P> <P> Advertising:    

 

Magic

"The entire sum of existence is the magic of being needed by just one other person." --fortune cookie

My husband went to lunch at a chinese buffet today and this is what his fortune cookie said.  I can't stop thinking about it!  If being needed by just one other person is magical, then there is more magic in my life than the "most magical place on earth".  I am truly a blessed woman and I LOVE my life.

How to make hair flowers -- tutorial

Ever seen a little girl with a really cute flower in her hair and wondered how to do it? Well, today is your lucky day! Here are step by step directions with lots of pictures. Email me if you have any questions. pumpkinpatchdesigns@hotmail.com

First you need to gather your supplies. You will need the following:

• fake flowers (you can buy these at craft stores, Wal-Mart, the Dollar Store)
• glue gun with extra glue sticks
• hair clips (I bought a box of 100 from Sally's Beauty Supply)
• ribbon
• matches or lighter
• scissors
• any accessories you may want to go with the flowers

Let's get started!

1. take the flower off of the stem and take it apart.

2.  Cut the stem part of the center piece off.  If it is 2 separate pieces, glue them together.

3.  Glue each of the pieces of the flower together.

4.  Cut your ribbon.  It should be just wide enough to cover your clips.  I use 3/8 in. grosgrain ribbon.  I like to cover the entire clip with ribbon.  For the clips I use, the ribbons need to be 6 and 3/8 in. long.  After you have your ribbon cut, you need to burn the ends.  I just use a match, but you can use a candle, or lighter or whatever you want.  Just be careful and make sure your children are not in any danger.

5.  Now you need to cover your clips with ribbon...even the inside of it.  I like to cover the entire clip with ribbon because it seems to stay better in my girls' hair and their hair doesn't get stuck under the edge of the ribbon if it is completely covered.

6.  Next you need to glue the flower to the clip.  Then you are all done!

7.  If you don't want to use the center that came in the flower, you can add other embellishments.  You can sew a button to it, or glue on some jewels.  I don't like jewels or buttons on the bigger flowers, but I do like jewels on smaller flowers.  It is all a matter of preference.  Here are some that I added some bling to because my daughter was begging me to.  I don't love the big ones, but she does.  I guess that is what matters right?  You can also mix and match the petals from the different flowers to make some multi-colored flowers. I did 6 multi-colored, 6 single colored, and 4 with a little bit of bling.

These are the flowers that I made yesterday. Pretty cute huh?

How to remove wallpaper -- tutorial

We bought our house a little over 2 years ago and while it was/is a great house, it needed a LOT of cosmetic work done. One of the cheapest ways to give a room (or an entire home) a facelift is to paint. This is a pretty easy way to spruce anything up. If wallpaper is part of the mix, then the job becomes much bigger. Here is a tutorial on how to successfully remove wallpaper and wallpaper glue from your walls in preparation to paint them.

For normal wallpaper removal, you would get the wallpaper good and wet and let it sit for a few minutes. I like to use a spray bottle full of hot water. After letting it sit for a few minutes, you can usually peel the wallpaper off in sheets. Make sure to remove any outlet or switch plates first. If there is any wallpaper pieces left on the wall, just spray them again and they should come right off. You can buy a wallpaper perforator that punctures the wallpaper and allows the water to get under the wallpaper better. There are several different kinds. I have used these before and I don't really feel like they help that much. You have to REALLY perforate the wallpaper and push fairly hard. There is also a type of liquid chemical that is supposed to help remove wallpaper easily. It is called DIF and I have used it. Again, I didn't feel like it made that much of a difference and with 4 small children in the home, I would rather just use water.

I broke this up into smaller videos so you can easily go to the part you are interested in instead of having to watch all of it.


This is what my dining area looked like when we moved in. The curtains matched perfectly to the wallpaper which I thought was really weird, but maybe that's what was popular 30ish years ago. It wasn't until I started to take it down that I realized that the wallpaper was actually fabric!

Once the wallpaper is down, there is usually glue left on the wall. It has to be removed before you paint. Here is a description of 2 different ways of removing the glue from the walls in preparation for painting.

This is how to remove the glue using a sponge and some soapy water. It is definitely work, but it is VERY effective.


This is how to remove the glue using an electric sander. There are 2 videos--one to show how to use the sander and one to explain what to do when you are done sanding.

That's it! Once I get this room done, I will post pictures. Let me know if you have any questions. pumpkinpatchdesigns@hotmail.com.