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Everything Else

Perfect Chance Giveaway

I like to think I’m not numbers driven. I blog for me. It’s my way to keep up with recipes, books, our TTC & other treats. That said; I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me smile to know people like reading my blog.

To me, 75 followers seemed like a lot. As of Wednesday night, I reached it! So to celebrate y’all, I contacted Marian, after I’d fallen in love with the snowman pillow I purchased from her in January, to see if she’d want to share the love with y’all, my friends & followers.

Meet Marian. She’s a fellow Chi O from college & she’s super creative & crafty to boot. I asked her to give us a little information about herself, her etsy shop, handmade by marian & her blog, Perfect Chance Memories.

About me and handmade by marian: I love exploring different projects and to create new and different things that are pretty and unique. I learned to sew at a very early age from my mother and both my grandmothers. I spent a lot of time with both my grandmothers and they always had a new art project for me to tackle during our time together – from doll clothes to stuffed animals (think build-a-bear style at home) to pillows and blankets.   My mom’s mom had a foot powered sewing machine – now that will really teach you how to sew!  My cousin still uses that same exact machine!  My love for crafting continues to this day.

I decided to open my store after receiving lots of encouragement from friends and family and having success selling locally be people who see my stuff on a regular basis.  I started with lots of custom orders {name signs for children and other baby decorations!}.  I continue to make quite of bit of custom orders, and have added collections of pillows, handbags, and clutches that change with the seasons.  I take the time to make sure my fabrics are quality {I love Premier Prints!}, yet still have a touch of whimsy.  I’m sure by my shop, y’all can tell I love color!  I have to reign my self back in everyday and keep in mind that not everyone’s house looks like a rainbow!

I wanna call dibs on the owl!

At Perfect Chance Memories, we believe in following your dreams, whatever they might be. Mine is simply to live a life I love, doing what I love everyday. Keep a happy heart, support others endeavors in living their dreams, and crafting whenever I get a chance.  My blog explores my creations, my love for cooking (healthy, most of the time!), my love of clothes &shoes, my life on the crystal coast, the continuous decorating of my new house, and most importantly, the creativity of other crafty lovelies around the globe. I hope y’all like what you see and good luck!

Y’all love her yet? What’s even more awesome is that she’s going to send one of y’all (US only please) this precious whale pillow! It has a navy floral background & pink & white stripe whale. I love the eye detail too. How cute would it be in a little girls room, a guest bedroom, on your bed or even your couch?! All her pillows are covers with envelope backing so you can easily change them out for the season.

Since she’s so sweet, Marian offered to give everyone 15% off your next handmade by marian order with the code: SUZSTREATS {it’ll be refunded in paypal immediately after payment}.

To enter, tell me that you already follow or click to become my newest GFC follower.

Extra entries for those as excited as me:
1~Follow @suzstreats on twitter & tweet “I entered to win a handmade by marian pillow #giveaway with @suzstreats & you should too http://tinyurl.com/suzstreats“.
2~ Like Suz’s Treats on facebook.
3~Go check out Perfect Chance Memories & become a GFC follower.
4~Visit handmade by marian & add it to your etsy favorites.
5~ Like Perfect Chance Memories on facebook.

Please do a separate comment for each entry. I’ll close this giveaway next Friday April 8 at 11:59pm. I will choose a winner using random.org & reach them by email the following day. Fingers crossed it’s you!

Disclosure: Marian at Perfect Chance Memories provided the pillow for this giveaway. I did not receive anything but the excitement & joy of giving you something!

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Everything Else Photography

Capture the Everyday: Books

When I saw Adventuroo‘s theme this week, I knew it was one I couldn’t miss. Books litter our house. I attempt to have them in one or four place {den, on the couch, guest room bookshelf & nightstand}. That’s not too many right?!

So I have to share two piles with y’all. The first is my To-Be-Read stack. This one has expanded a lot since I joined paperbackswap & then received a bunch of Alethea’s old books. I need a couple of weekends in a row to get a few of these read.

The below shot is of the three books I’m currently reading. I’ve mentioned before that Never Let Me Go is April’s book club book & I’m struggling through it. Andy Stanley’s Staying in Love in my current small group Bible study. I won What to Expect from Wee Little Changes a couple of months ago. I found it under the end table last week and opened the Before you Conceive & Are You Pregnant chapters. Good to be prepared, you know?!

Capture the Everyday from Adventuroo

What are you reading? Anyone wanna borrow a book from my stack{s}?

Categories
Everything Else Reading

Shanghai Girls & Friday Night Knitting Club

I finished these two books over a month ago. This post has been pending in “edit posts” since 3/9. So I guess that might clue you in to my thoughts on these. While I enjoyed both, I haven’t felt pulled to rush online to tell y’all!

Shanghai Girls by was our March book club book. It was a little slow for me to get into but once I set down to read it my I’ll-only-read-for-10-minutes-before-bed plea to Jason easily turned into 45 minutes flying by as I got all into their story growing up as Beautiful Girls in China. Once they venture to America {not giving away spoilers, its on the cover}, it slowed down for me as I kept waiting for great things to happen, especially to the main character Pearl. It was still interesting as I don’t know that much about the NW during that time for Chinese Americans. And just as I thought it was getting to a great, exciting, page-turning part, the book ended. Is there a part two on the way? No clue, but Shanghai Girls definitely left me wanting more.

As for Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jones…this book has been in my TBR pile for a while. I’d received it from paperbackswap at some point last year. After seeing some of my favorite bloggers knitting this year, I picked up this book. It was a quick read in a chic lit don’t have to really think a lot kind of way. That is a compliment from me. I read occasionally to make me think or see something differently. But usually I prefer reading as a fun, light escape from the daily routine. This book did just that.
While it did inspire me to take up knitting {well at least to look at the section in Michael’s before getting overwhelmed}, what the book really left me with was the thankful happiness that I have awesome, caring women in my life much like the ladies of the Friday Night Knitting Club. My college sorority sisters, my local Chi O alum ladies, my own book club women & more recently the great friendships that have taken off through blogging & twitter.

I’m currently dragging my way through Never Let Me Go slowly. I’ll do a review of it once I {hopefully} finish and after the book club’s discussion next week.

What I’m excited to read next: Matt Logelin & Ree Drummond’s new books are on their way to me from Amazon!

Categories
Everything Else Food

Beano’s Sauces Review

A couple of weeks ago, I got in contact with Cara from Beano’s Brand on twitter then emails. She kindly let me pick out three of their sauces to try. Y’all I had a tough time choosing. Check out all they offer & see what you’d pick. I ended up getting Buffalo Sandwich Sauce, Southwest Sandwich Sauce & Original Submarine Dressing.

I plan to spice-up frozen chicken tenders, make Buffalo chicken sandwiches with the Buffalo sauce, or even using this Beano’s recipe for Buffalo Chicken Quesadillas. But I haven’t done any of those yet. I promise I’ll update with photos of those when we enjoy them.

The Southwest Sauce grabbed me first. We love spicy in our house {if you couldn’t already tell by other recipes I’ve posted & the Beano’s sauces I chose}. Although their website offers recipe suggestions, it was Sunday night & I was feeling spicy but lazy {anyone recognize that blue box in the background?}. So I chose to marinate our basic boneless skinless chicken breast in the Southwest sauce for around 30 minutes then top with a little more sauce before baking for 40 minutes. It was delicious! If we’d had leftovers {Jason was a member of the clean-plate club}, we both commented that leftover chicken would be great as a sandwich with a little more of the sauce.

The sweet & spicy flavor was great for chicken & I really want to trying the Beano’s recipe for Southwest Buffalo Chicken Salad Wrap.

Mondays are busy for me. I only have 45 minutes between work and my small group Bible study. This Monday I decided to through in Harris Teeter shopping trip {it was the next to last day of super doubles}. I really had no time to make dinner. Instead I purchased subs for us both, but chose to have them made pretty basic {meat, cheese, lettuce & tomato} so I could try out the Original Submarine Sauce. The sauce made the sandwich. Like from blah sub to holy-crap-this-is-awesome sub! The blurb online says in stays on your sub without soaking your bun. This was so true even after I’d loaded it up with the sauce. Don’t you love when a product is as good as they say?!

I ate half the sub Monday night then took the other half {& a small container of the sauce} with me to work for lunch Tuesday. My next grocery trip I plan to buy deli meats & bread so we can make our own yummy Beano’s’d up subs at home.

If these look yummy to you, check out their Facebook page. Or even better, find which stores near you sell Beano’s. I know I’ll keep an eye our next time I’m at Walmart, Food Lion or Lowes Food to pick up additional sauces. I’m hooked.

Beano’s Brand did supply us with the sauce but that did not sway my review. The way to this girl’s heart might be her stomach, but these opinions are honest & all mine.

Categories
Everything Else Travel

Random Monday

After seeing B, SaraMel {my sorority big sis & brand new blogger} all post their maps last week, I was inspired to make my own. Can you tell when my family did our cross country RV trip (in ’06) we went across the top of the country?! Where have you been? Go here to make your own map.

Also I can’t miss this opportunity for a shout out to the VCU Rams!  So proud to be from the Richmond area during this NCAA tourney {& the sister to a VCU alum}! Can’t wait to cheer them on against Butler next Saturday! I love a good upset don’t y’all?!

photo from Wikipedia

Also just one GFC follower away from my first giveaway to thank y’all for being awesome!