A Wonderful Weekend in Pictures and a Winner!

Are you all rejuvenated after a long weekend? 

And ready for a winner?

The winner of the And Nothing Else Matters Fabric Flower Brooch is....

Via Random.org: 

Comment #6

Lisa from Organized Chaos!

Congrats Girl!

Shoot me an email within 48 hours :)

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I've been a busy busy bee the past week with work so I haven't been around much. Sorry for that, but sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. And this was the first weekend in A LONG TIME that I was able to spend both days with family, relaxing and having fun. I cannot tell you how much I {we} needed this. I feel so refreshed. 

So in other words....I'm back! :)

And, did I tell you? PHDL is getting makeover! My wonderful hubs is helping me figure out a little HTML language (totally foreign to me!) and Im trying my best. I'm going for down to earth, bright, clean and crisp. By no means is it near complete, I'm just testing the waters for now. But, at some point this week when you come to check out my blog it'll be all new!

Thats it for news, now here's our weekend in pictures:

We kicked off Saturday with a little shopping and then a MARVELOUS wedding. Seriously, the BEST wedding I have been to. Stunningly beautiful from the Bride and Groom all the way to the favors and function hall. What could be more perfect than a beautiful farm, apple orchard, blueberry fields, fall foliage and an old renovated barn for a back drop? And did I mention you could literally smell the apples from the orchard?? Perfection. And the food, ohhhh the food! I have NEVER had wedding food this good. But above all it was the people that were there that made the night. Lots of fun family and friends, what more could you want? Ok, the wine and champagne were pretty darn good too :)

The Hubs and I waiting for the wedding to start

The apples were a great addition to the decor! 

I have a thing for old barns, silos and buildings

Figs wrapped in Gorgonzola and prosciutto. SO GOOD.

Homemade Preserves that the bride and her new Mother in Law made for favors.
LOVE this idea!

The Bride and Groom took pics with this in the background.

Most delicious buffet. All organic EVERYTHING. Salmon, chicken, veggies. So tasty!

Sunset on the apple barn.

The Apple Centerpieces made for great snacks later in the night!

And as a microphone once the night got going :)

Then, Sunday was a "down" day for us. Rest, relaxation and a rejuvenating hike in the State Park. I love days like this. A little picnic, hunting for rocks with the Punkin, and taking in nature. Nothing better than spending the day with the hubs and our little Monkey.  LOVE IT!

Trying to see Daddy from the bridge

I loved the angle of this picture

Watching bubbles and leaves float down the river

Mads figured out how good tea-berry leaves smell and couldn't stop picking them!

I love my family!!

Thanks, Welcome, And Nothing Else Matters is Here with a Giveaway!

Good Morning all my amazingly awesome lovelies! 

I want to thank {and WELCOME!} everyone that joined in on our Tag-Along Thursday Blog Hop.

Miss Mommy, And Nothing Else Matters and I are THRILLED with the turnout!

I browsed around for hours last night totally engrossed in all these new reads.
You ladies are a talented bunch!

Today I wanted to give you a chance to get to know Em {And Nothing Else Matters} a little better.

She was a co-host of the hop yesterday, so it seemed fitting that I properly introduce her to you.

She's here with a little about herself, a tutorial AND a giveaway!
Triple whammy!

Hope you enjoy.

Have a lovely Friday.

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Hi all! I am so thrilled to be here with you all today! I love Katie and I absolutely adore her fantastic blog. Its one of the blogs I read with my morning coffee. Every. Single. Day. So you can imagine how happy I was when she gave me the opportunity to guest post on her awesome blog! 

I have a super fun bow headband tutorial to share with you today, but first let me properly introduce myself.

My name is Em and I blog over at And Nothing Else Matters. 

I am a happily married mum of two from Australia. Yep that's right I'm an Aussie. 

The hubby joined the Air Force last year so I am navigating the new world of being a defence wife. I blog about the highs and lows and all the fun in between of juggling marriage and motherhood with distance and demands. The loneliness and hardtimes that came with this whole new lifestyle was one of my main reasons for starting my blog. And I am so glad I did.

I love discovering new blogs and getting to know the awesome people behind them, so please come on over to And Nothing Else Matters and say hi! I also have a fun Etsy Shop where I sell gorgeous delights like

 this

and this

and this.

Come take a look!

Now onto the fun stuff. See that awesome cute headband I'm wearing in my photo? Yeah, I love it too. So I guess it's a good thing I'm going to show you how to make one of your own. 

Here's what you'll need

3 1/2 inch x 16 inch piece of fabric

3 1/2 inch x 1 inch piece of fabric

1 x 20 inch piece of headband elastic

Hot glue gun

Sewing machine, or you could hand sew the edges. Or you could even hot glue the edges!

Here we go. Firstly fold the large piece of fabric in half and sew along the three open edges, leaving an opening about an inch and a half wide for turning.

Turn out the fabric. It will look like this below.

You will see the opening. You can either stitch closed or simply hot glue closed. Nice and quick!

Next take your length of elastic and hot glue the ends, overlapping by about an inch.

Now take the small piece of fabric. Fold the long edges towards each other and hot glue down. It should look kinda like a tube.

Now fold the large piece of fabric in half again and pinch together from the centre.

Add a glob of glue to the centre of the back of the bow and wrap the small piece of fabric around it (making sure the overlap side is facing inwards).

Glue the partially wrapped bow onto the overlapping section of the elastic headband.

Continue to wrap the strip around the centre, finishing at the back of the headband. It will look like the picture below.

And ta da you are done!

Isn't it gorgeous! Have fun making it, make sure you show me some pictures of your creations!

Because I love you all I have a giveaway and a special discount code for y'all to use LONG1 which is for a huge 30% off. Get it quick its only valid until this giveaway ends. You don't want to miss out! 

Now onto the giveaway. You have the chance to pick any fabric flower brooch from my shop. Some more super cute color combos are coming to the shop soon.

Rules for Giveaway:

Be a public follower of And Nothing Else Matters & Punkin' Heads and Dooda Loo's

EXTRA ENTRIES:

Head to Simply Nothing Else and tell us your fave item

"Like" Punkin' Heads and Dooda Loo's & And Nothing Else Matters on Facebook

Tweet and/or Facebook about this giveaway

The Lucky Winner will be drawn on Monday at 8pm est!

Thanks so much again Katie for having me! 

Don't forget to stop by my blog and say hi!

TAG-ALONG THURSDAY Blog Hop!

Ok, everyone ARE YOU ready to HOP? 

I'm so excited to be joining forces with two awesome ladies to bring you the 

Tag-Along Thursday Blog Hop!

Nicole of Miss Mommy, Em of And Nothing Else Matters and I 

have teamed up to be your amazing Hostesses with the Mostesses 

{Did that make sense?!}

We will do it on the first Thursday of every month.

This is for all of us to get to know each other better and gain more followers :)

The rules of the hop are:

MUST publicly follow each Host via GFC. 

Each host will follow you back - so you're sure to gain at least 3 new followers!
Please follow a few others in the hop and leave them a comment saying you came from the Tag-Along Thursday Blog Hop :)
You can grab a button if you wish as well :)


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Let's get hopping!
See you all there :)