15 February 2012

{friendship} february: giveaway goodies!

Hello there!
I hope you all had a LOVEly Valentines Day yesterday. Thanks so much for your kind wishes to Hannah who, as I write, is singing her wee heart out in Canterbury...good luck my lovely girl!

OK, back to business. To-days post is jam-packed with goodies, so without further ado, I'll announce the winner of the {friendship} february giveaway. Catherine picked no. 7, so Helen (or you may know her as archiethewonderdog) you are the winner of a pair of these lovelies in whichever colour you fancy!
Congratulations Helen!
For the rest of you, don't despair... I have ANOTHER giveaway for you, generously donated from my next {friendship} february guest, the super talented Kat. Over to you Kat...

Hi Everyone! And Happy Valentine's Day!!

I'm Kat from Diary of a Flutter.Kat {Mummastimetocreate} blog. Firstly thanks so much to Karen for having me over for a visit here today as part of her friendship series. I'm honoured to be part of it. Karen and I are relatively new friends and I have really enjoyed getting to know her more recently. And I think it's wonderful that she is celebrating friendship this month! Isn't blogland wonderful for that?! I just think we have such a powerful tool here at our fingertips for meeting people and being involved in such a fantastic, uplifting and inspiration online community.
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I have been blogging for just over a year now and over that time I have also been very involved in many Flickr swaps. Blogging & Flickr and fabulous ways to meet new online friends. I have made some truly wonderful friends through these avenues. Friends who I have not met in person, but who are very real to me and give me very real support none the less. I am also looking forward to meeting many of them in person when I come over to the Fat Quarterly Retreat in London in June! 

My story is that I'm a New Zealand girl, married to an English man, living in Perth, Australia a long way from either of our "homes". I have an online business, but my main occupation is a stay-at-home-mum. It is a great life, but it can be pretty lonely sometimes often with only 2 small girls to keep me company when my husband is working away, so I craft and blog to keep me sane. And when Neil is away or my kids are sick and I'm stuck at home, my friends in blogland are always there for me. Regardless of the time of day (or night) there is always either a friend to talk to via email, skype, or a friends blog to read. Not to mention the spectacular eye-candy that I get to oogle at constantly. Someone is always showing off a fantastic project to inspire! So I find that the blog & online community are a great way for me to feel involved in a world that is bigger than just my household.
Another way that I really feel inspired by our crafting community, is by people's willingness to give to others, help people in need, and give back to our "real life" communities. A few examples of this are all the auctions for those who lost their homes in the Queensland floods, hearts & softies for Christchurch NZ after the earthquakes there, lots of different drives for Japan after the earthquake there and so on. It inspires me to see the difference that we can each make when we pool together our resources.

I have been involved in several of these on a short term scale, but on a more long term scale I am involved in 2 charity sewing groups. The first is called Blankets of Love and is one that I run through my blog.

blankets of love copy 150 dpi I make small quilts to donate to my local woman & children's hospital as some comfort for the families of sick babies. At the end of their hospital stay they get to keep their new quilt. You can read about it more here. Anybody is welcome to contribute to this in any way they feel they would like to. Whether that be donating a fully made quilt, or if international then a quilt top. Or even just some orphan quilt blocks they may have lying around.
I also love giving back through my blog. Through reading blogs & the internet I have learned pretty much everything I know about sewing and a lot about other crafts too. So as part of my contribution back to blogland I have a number of tutorials available free on my blog to help others learn too. I try and release at least 1 tutorial if not more a month...


The other charity that I'm thrilled to be part of, this time with Karen as our ring master if you will ;), is the CARE branch of Do. good stitches bee. Each month we all make 2 quilt blocks and they will get donated to a cause of that quilter's choice each month. In February we are blessing a family with a quilt to remind them of their mother/wife who passed away last year at the age of 37. You can read about her story here in the blog her husband kept of her illness. I love the fact that her family will soon have a special quilt in memory of her.

So, to join today with Karen in celebrating online friendship and blogging, I thought I would offer up a giveaway for one lucky person to win a copy of 2 of my patterns {usually only available in my shop}...My Scrappy Pouch pattern...
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And my Zipper Pouch Pattern...
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To enter all you need to do is comment telling us one thing you love about online friendships.
You may also win bonus entries for leaving comments with the following...
**  "like" my page Flutter from.Kat over on Facebook
**  Be a follower of Karen's blog
**  Be a follower of my blog
And that should be plenty of entries for you.
Thanks again for having me Karen!


Thanks so much Kat! Its great to be part of such a caring, creative & generous community!
The giveaway will be open until Sunday 19th February 12MN (gmt) & we will announce the winner on Monday 20th. Good luck!
Karen


46 comments :

  1. Oh no...Number one! I love on line friendships as most of my other friends think I am crazy for cutting up material and sewing it back together again!

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  2. I've liked Kat over on FB - Though I don't like FB - as T Hopper

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  3. Blogs give us the chance to 'meet' and get to know, people we would otherwise never have met!

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  4. I was Karen's newest follower last week - love the chicken recipe!

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  5. Kat - I've been following your blog for a while - love it :o)

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  6. I enjoy meeting people who share a common interest of everything sewing.

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  7. I follow Kat's blog through Google Reader.

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  8. I follow Listen to the Birds Sing through Google Reader

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  9. I love online friendships because you get to know people from all different walks of life, and they get to know you based on what you say, rather than how you look.

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  10. I LIKE flutter from.Kat on Facebook

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  11. I like online friendships because you "meet" and learn about people from all over the world. People you would otherwise never meet or places you would never see. Plus, like you said, the convenience of talking anytime of day or night.

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  12. I love the fact that I can meet people from all around the world and share a love of crafting and sewing. The support an helpfulness is awesome.

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  13. Much like Kat, I love that I get to meet new people online. I have some of the best conversations with my online friends and like that I actually get to chat with people with similar interests.

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  14. Congratulations Helen!! She's been lucky this week! :)
    I can't really say how much these friendships mean to me without genuinely getting teary eyed. I love the laughs, the support, the inspiration and the joy :)

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  15. I like Flutter from Kat on facebook!

    Do I get a prize for proving I'm not a robot 4 times in a row??! ;)

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  16. Having online friendships expands your world in a way that isn't otherwise possible. Inspiration, support, sharing and learning are all at your fingertips (or keyboard!).

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  17. I have met some wonderful friends online that I would have never met in person.
    One of my "bestest sewing buddies" died last week. She & I would have never met
    in person. We found out that we lived 80 miles from each other (which is very close in internet terms). We did meet in peron, and formed a great friendship.
    Our dear husbands even got to be good friends. We got together as often as we
    could. So, dear Wanda, RIP. I know that you are working on all those projects
    that you planned on and never had time to start.

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  18. I am now following Karen's blog.

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  19. I'm a follower of your blog. I receive updates by email.

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  20. One of the things I love about making friends on the internet is that even if someone lives in another time zone, they can catch up with a comment or question when the time is right for them. I also like that even though people may never meet in the flesh they can get together to accomplish charity projects or swaps.

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  21. I love getting to know people all over the world.

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  22. Thank you!!! Please don't enter me in the giveaway, I was lucky enough to win two of Kat's patterns earlier in the week (as Lucy said, I'm having a lucky week!).

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  23. Well!! I follow Karen's blog and to be honest I am very new to all this. I am so amazed at the creativity out there. I was much more creative in my younger days but somehow the busyness of life has extinguished that flame! Hopefully a little flicker of creativity is about to be relit!!

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  24. I have just started to follow Kat.

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  25. I don't realy understand blogging I only discovered it by my friend Karen feeling me about her blog but I've loved watching them and clicking al the links on her blog it'd been great seeing all the creativity out there it encourages me to keep trying

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  26. gee I seem to be saying congratulations to Helen a bit lately - that Archie sure is a good luck charm ! and that's what I love about being online - there are so many bloggers but its amazing how many people you get to know and can call friends :) I follow Kat's blog and I subscribe to Karen's blog :)

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