Yay Home's First Giveaway! (Now Closed)

I'm having so much fun with this blog that I wanted to have a little Yay Home Giveaway to let you know that I appreciate it so much when you stop by.

Here's what's up for grabs....Remember these cute chalkboard tumblers from one of my earlier posts?

Well, they come as a set of four, each with a scalloped circle cut from chalkboard vinyl. I'll send a piece of chalk or you can order and use chalk pen to write a name, initial, etc. on them when you or your kiddos have friends over. No more, "Which one's mine?"

Chalkboard paraphernalia is everywhere these days, so these trendy and fun tumblers will stylishly come in handy during cookouts, playdates, or bunko nights.

I have a set of red, a set of yellow, and a set of aqua tumblers to give away, so three folks will win! Here's how:

1. Become a follower of Yay Home, and leave a comment saying you did.
2. Follow Yay Home on Twitter. (Leave a comment here saying you did.)
3. Like Yay Home on Facebook. (Leave a comment here saying you did.)
4. For an additional entry, purchase vinyl for your Cricut or Silhouette from Expressions Vinyl using the button in the sidebar of Yay Home. You can also purchase chalk pens and accessories.(Leave a comment mentioning your purchase.)

So....FOUR ways to win! The giveaway will end on Sunday, July 3, 2011 at midnight, eastern time.Winners will be selected using random.org and announced on Monday morning, July 4, 2011.

YAY GIVEAWAY!!

My First Wordless Wednesday

Say Hi Sunday

Have you joined the Say Hi Sunday Blog Hop? Stop by Three P's in a Pod, and link up your blog! It's super easy, and there are no rules. Easy as can be!


 

You can also link up to the Relax and Surf Sunday blog hop at Shibley Smiles.

These are the first blog hops I've participated in. Fun stuff! Three P's in a Pod has a list of blog hops for each day of the week HERE. I'm going to link up! How about you?

Yay Garden Gets A Visitor

I think Yay Garden really appreciated the little bit of rain we got the other day because when we got home this evening, guess what I saw?

Yay Tomato! The first one!

I look forward to showing my "gardening assistant," my two-year-old son, that his hard work is paying off.

That wasn't all we noticed when we got home this evening. It appears that Yay Garden had a visitor, and we saw him just as he was hopping away.

I don't want Bugs Bunny, here, getting into our veggies, but I must admit I get a kick out of seeing a rabbit in our yard because we live in the city with neighbors close by. I guess he just knows good produce when he sees it! ;-)

Cute Summer Outfit (For the Fellas)

A friend of mine found a remnant of this nautical fabric and thought it would be cute as a pair of shorts for her son to wear at the beach.

I made the shorts from a McCalls pattern, and used leftover fabric to applique his initial onto a shirt she found at a children's clothing store. Here's a picture of the shorts with grey shirt as well.

I think it turned out great, and I had fun making it!

For another cute summer outfit for the little guys, see my DIY John John post {HERE}.

Linking up to:









 

Yay Garden

We returned home safely following our lovely vacation. It was such fun, but we're always really happy to get back to the comforts of our own Yay Home! As we were putting things away we noticed we were being greeted by these little guys who were not there when we left!

These are little red and green pepper seedlings that I planted a while back when they were mere seeds. I know it may seem like no big deal to the experienced gardener, but let me give you some background....


Usually this is what happens...poor muscadine vine :-(

Sooo, I adopted this method of decorating with flowers....yep, fake ones. No green thumb needed. However.....



This spring I found myself wanting to try gardening again, particularly since I now have my trusty and ever-so-cute gardening assistant, Samuel. He's VERY helpful...gets water all over the place and all over himself. He also loves any and all things related to lawnmowers.

With all this great help, I simply HAD to get to planting. Right before Samuel's second birthday we did some work to the house and yard. We planted a butterfly bush, some climbing vines, and some amarylis bulbs. They all did so well that I thought I'd test my new green thumb with vegetables next!

My father-in-law gave me some tomato plants to try...

For Mother's Day the Hubster took Sweetbaby with him to go get a big truckload of dirt. The two of them worked really hard building me my first above-ground garden. They painted the stair rail (because I'd been wanting that done for quite some time) got me some cute gardening gloves, and even picked out seeds for the veggies they liked. It was a super-sweet gift.

I'm thinking of getting some garden decor to pretty up the area a little more...maybe a small statue, sundial, etc....maybe paint the boards surrounding the garden. hmmm....

The one on the right wasn't doing so well, so he's already been moved.

Cucumbers and carrots are on their way....

I also can't get over how much these climbing vines have grown since I planted them!

I hope you'll return to Yay Home to see what kind of "harvest" I end up with. We were talking just yesterday about how we look forward to having a salad made from our own veggies! Can't wait, and I'm keeping my fingers (or green thumbs?) crossed!

Yay Link Parties:

Making a John John

My son has never really worn these, so until a friend asked me to try to make one, I'd not given them much thought.

I looked around and found patterns that could be purchased, but I wanted to keep the cost low, so I sought out tutorials. I was so happy to find a tutorial for making a pattern {HERE} at Growing Home and a very helpful, step-by-step video tutorial {HERE} at Couturier Mommy. I'm so grateful to these nice ladies for spending their own time creating these helpful tutorials to share...for free!!!

Here's the John John (with a lining) I made for my friend's son, who is very into Thomas the Train right now! He looked really cute in it today at his birthday party!

If you're feeling fancy, Growing Home also has a tutorial for a REVERSIBLE John John {HERE}...even with an applique. I need to try that next!

Sermon In The Sky

Source: boingboing.net via Yay on Pinterest

We are having a lovely time on vacation! The past two mornings we've awakened, hopped into the pool, and viewed the above sky writing. I can't even remember the last time I saw sky writing, and I know I've never seen any about Jesus. Our view is actually behind it, but it's still great to see!!! The person who does this writes things like:

Jesus loves you! U + God = :-) Praise Jesus etc. Hmmm, where does one learn how to skywrite?? So neat!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

Yay Vacation!

We have been busy bees around Yay Home for the past couple of days. I hosted a Tastefully Simple party last night, so there was a good Yay Home cleaning involved in preparation for that, and now we are packing, packing, and packing some more to head off on a long awaited vacation!

I'm soooo looking forward to the getaway, particularly for my hard-working husband and to observe Samuel as a curious, active, vacationing toddler. However, in order to get to all this goodness we must first deal with all our "stuff." If you're like me, then you drag your feet at this part. Typically, I get all stressed out, but I'm really trying a different approach this time. Instead of making a packing/vacation-type list, I decided to simply SEARCH for some online. Why reinvent the wheel, ya know? There are many, many types of lists to choose from...blank lists, prettily decorated lists, lists and forms you purchase on Etsy, and destination-specific lists.

Here are a few that I found and liked:

For Purchase:

I Heart Organizing has a stylishly personalized template. {HERE}

Clean Mama has lovely set of lists. {HERE}

Destination-Specific: Disney

Mouse Savers

The Mouse For Less

Virtual Tourist has menu item on its sidebar called, "What To Pack," that is specific to the destination you choose.

Also, if you typically pack like THIS......

{HERE} is a site totally devoted to helping you become a one-bag-only traveler.



I suppose there are as many lists available as there are places to visit out there, so save yourself some time and print a list that will simplify things for you when you're preparing for your next trip!

Bon Voyage!