Drum Roll Please

Well it is finally time to announce the winner for the Stella Dot giveaway!  We had 42 entries. Not too shabby for a little blog like mine. :-) How did I pick the winner? I literally wrote all the names on a slip of a paper…

…I folded them up and put them in a hat tupperware…

…my Handy Dandy Assistant Vanessa covered her eyes and drew out a name…

…and the winner is…

Congratulations Camille!!! You won these amazingly awesome earrings. *Jealousy* I will contact you via facebook and make arrangements that way.

If you are sad like me that you didn’t win those earrings, you can still order them from my online store (link below). It will be open for another week.

Stella and Dot/Tannie

Well Merry Christmas Everyone! I am going to enjoy this Holiday Break with Mi Familia. So it will be quiet around here for a bit. And don’t worry, I will still post the tree skirt tutorial. It will just have to be something for you to keep in mind for next year.

See you in the New Year!

P.S. Looking for a New Years Resolution? Make it a goal to follow The Smithocracy! Stay up to date on all the goin’ ons around here.

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Christmas Tour 2012

Hello Friends!

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Years and Happy Holidays to you all. In order to live Good Days it is time to continue on with things that make me happy. And something that makes me happy is Christmas! I love decorating for Christmas. I always feel like it makes my house feel more homey. It seems to bring Warmth and Coziness each December. Of course my inner Monica (friends reference!) requires that I take everything down the SECOND Christmas is over. But up to that point, I enjoy it. ;-)

This is the second Christmas in our home, but the first I was able to decorate for. We moved in December 15th last year and so it was rather minimal and stark First Christmas. Which is saying a lot since I am already a Minimalist! This year is a different story and I was excited to decorate the new space. The first thing I discovered was what worked in my old house, did not necessarily work in this house. So a lot of Purging, Rearranging and Sewing occurred. Which, lucky for you, resulted in a tutorial, but that will come in another post. Lets begin the tour, shall we?

Here is the front door.

and a close up.

The red cranberry wreath came from my old house, and was purchased on clearance at H.E.B. (a local grocery store) of all places. However on my much larger front door it got lost, so I added some garland that was having trouble staying on the fireplace. This really helped beef the little cranberry guy up and a much better solution for the gravity prone garland.

Next up the dining room.

I had some left over burlap from a project yet to be seen…

I love how red burlap and pine cones look together. It seems so cozy to me.

Now for the living room.

I saved my grey chevron pillows from Halloween and added that fun tree pillow from Target on the couch. I loved how they went together, so it immediately inspired the rest of the room. I made a red slipcover for the bench by the fireplace, just like before. I made the tree skirt from left over material and then made the stockings by the fireplace. Here are some close ups.

So basically one thing led to another and I was soon consumed in a Sewing Frenzy.

I have survived the frenzy and declare myself the winner!

I really like the grey chevron and red together. Something about it just feels so right to me. I will soon share a tutorial for the tree skirt. Sorry no stocking tutorial. It was super last minute and I really winged it. I got so caught up in said frenzy, I forgot to take pictures! **hangs head in shame** I will tell you that I used our old stockings for a stencil then just cut and sew. It was super simple. Just tedious.

Thanks for taking a Christmas Tour with me! Do you have any favorite holiday things that make you feel Warm and Cozy?

P.S. Don’t forget to enter the Stella and Dot giveaway. Today is the last day! Winner will be announced tomorrow. Maybe it will be you!! :-)

Good Days.

My original intention was to sit down and write a fun post on some Christmas crafts I recently did. I find that I am not able. My heart is just not in it. I can’t seem to think of something frivolous and silly like that when we are still rocking from the tragic events on Friday.

Today I had to fight tears taking my kids to school. Walking home was the same thing. Nevertheless I sent them. Dan reminded me that we cannot avoid all the Good Things in life, just because of the possibility of Bad Things.

An important thing to remember.

My gut reaction is Home School. My gut reaction is Lock My Family Up Safely. However, if we hide and protect all the people who can influence the world for the positive, where does that leave the rest of us?

So today I prayed with my kids. I asked that they be protected. Asked that we could each see the good in each other. Asked that we can influence our community for good and kindness. I walked them to class. Gave them hugs and kisses and hoped for a Good Day. Because the truth is, there are more good days than bad. So I will live each good day to the fullest rather than fearing for the possible bad. And if a bad day comes, I will have memories full of Good Days.

May we each live for Good Days.

Stella and Dot Party -psssst this is the giveaway…

Welcome! I have been excited to share this post with all of you, and now the day has finally come! Yesterday I did something really fun, and something I love to do. I had a Stella and Dot party at my house! Made possible by my beautiful friend Natalie Haggerty.

Isn’t she so pretty! And she is pretty on the inside too, so that is what makes me love her. :-) Anyway, about a year ago, maybe a little less, she began to sell Stella and Dot. I personally love the jewelry and have been happy to host a few parties at my house.

Why do I love them?

Well not only is it fantastic Jewelry, it is a great opportunity to have friends over. I find myself frequently lacking in the social area. And I have since moved beyond the days I can just call someone to see if they can play. So this is a perfect chance for me to “play” with my friends, try on sparkly things and just feel pretty.

Let me show you!

First I make sure to provide lots of yummy treats. A good friend knows that Bribery By Food is key to all gatherings.

Then Natalie shows up with her Giant Bags and starts pulling stuff out Mary Poppins style.

Soon we are set up and ready to go!

Oh Natalie, look how cute and official you are! ;-)

Here is a close up of the goods.

Soon friends start arriving, which means my promise of Sparkle and Food has worked. Now I can have a Playdate!

One thing that Natalie is great at is styling. She really knows how to help you pick the best look for what you want. For example, Beautiful Jaisey wanted a look for just a casual day.

Natalie helped her pick out a few necklaces that would match her wants and..

…Voila! Perfecto! Anyone else suddenly wanting a plaid shirt with those necklaces? Great job Natalie!

Soon we are all trying on Sparkly Things and Pretty Scarfs.

Hold on, I need to take a minute and say….awwww…Look how cute!

That is my baby from this post. I helped in the delivery of that little guy and isn’t he adorable? Yes he is!

Moving on.

My favorite thing about these is that we just laugh.

Another fun thing is that the Jewelry comes in the most fabulous packaging.

So cute! I can hardly stand throwing the boxes away, so I just save them for gifts.

Thank you so much Natalie for a great time. Don’t I have prettiest friends?

If you ever considered doing something like this, then do it! I promise you won’t regret it and it really is just a great excuse to play with your friends! :-)

One more thing…

Natalie was kind enough to sponsor a giveaway for The Smithocracy!

That’s right, you can win these little beauties for yourself.

Le sigh. I am so jealous I can’t win them for myself! Oh well.

There will be a drawing in one week (December 20th) to see who the winner is. The winner will then be announced on Friday, December 21st. There are lots of ways to enter, so here is what you can do.

• If you came to my party you get 1 entry.
• Making a comment on this post about jewelry, or Stella and Dot gets you 1 entry.
• Liking Natalie on her Facebook Page gets you 1 entry.
• Liking The Smithocracy on Facebook gets you 1 entry.
• Becoming a follower on The Smithocracy gets you 2 entries.
• Making an order on my online store gets you 2 entries.
• Refer a friend to either The Smithocracy or Natalie, just have them post on one of our Facebook pages or this post, “so and so sent me!” gets you 2 entries.  For example: “Hey, Natalie sent me to check out your blog!”
• Booking a party with Natalie (Austin area only) gets you 3 entries. (mention that The Smithocracy sent you.)
• Making an order of 50$ or more gets you 5 entries!

You can do one of these or all of these. So potentially, if you did all of those you could get 18 entries into the drawing! Or more if you refer more than one person. Or just do one and get that amount of entries. How ever you roll.

Here are the links you will need for some of the enteries.

1. My online store
2. Natalie Haggerty Facebook Page
3. The Smithocracy Facebook Page
4. This Post for comments.

Remember this contest will be open for a week! Good luck!

FYI, The Smithocracy did not receive any compensation for this post. The benefits to The Smithocracy are self-promotion, good friends and fun. The opinion stated concerning Stella and Dot are the true and untainted opinion of The Smithcoracy. Viva La Smithocracy!

Color me “SUPER” Rad!

Last week it got a little quiet here on The Smithocracy. No worries, things have been loud at the Real Life Smithocracy. I’ve got projects coming out my ears and I can’t wait to share them! Also I have a fun giveaway coming at the end of the week so stay tuned for that. You will not want to miss it! ;-)  But before we get into all that, I want to share a fun little thing I did this weekend called Color Me Rad.

Color Me Rad is the most inspired and fun 5k I have ever done. Basically you run whilst being bombed with color. Which happens to be…Da Bomb. Sorry, I had to.

Any-who.

We woke up early Saturday morning to head to the race.

It is important to wear white to this race and also amazing 80’s sunglasses, provided with registration. I will admit, those are the best of that type of sunglasses I have ever owned. Even better than my originals from 1988! So thanks Race People for really doing it right!

I was bringing my Cheering Crew (Dan and the boys) and my Official Photographer (Dan) so the plan was to meet the rest of my team at the race. Our team was organized by my lovely friend Lindsey Costello. We got there a little early so had some time to kill.

I photo bombed my kids.

Then we took the kids over to where they were throwing out free prizes to the all the peeps. This is where Dan and I learned that Logan is one tough little dude. He got right in there and held is ground in the midst of some serious competition.

I mean look at that Rainbow Haired Kids face. He was going to sacrifice all for the blow up beach ball. Logan didn’t let that phase him though. He got right back on that horse…

…and snagged a beach ball for himself. Way to go little guy!

Finally my Lady Crew showed up and we took a pic in our Pearly Whites.

Don’t worry, it didn’t take long to get some color going.

There was still some waiting to be had before the official start. So the DJ got us all pumped up, just like a good DJ should. I know this, because as you may have deducted from the last wedding post I secretly moonlight as one.

There was even a little push up contest. The prize was a sweet hoody, so I was all over that.

Are you impressed with my Perfect Push Up Form? Are you impressed that I quit at 15? Are you impressed that I am still sore from my 15 push ups? Are you wondering if I feel like a wimp? Yes, yes I do. I injured my should a while ago so push ups have been on the no-no list this past year. It is all healed up now, but apparently it is time to begin again. 15…wow…*hangs head in shame*. The winner went to 76! I wish I saw who this amazing armed lady was. I would give her an Honor Nod.

It was finally time to start the race. We got into the first wave and were rarin’ to go!

And we are off!

You can see none of us as we were instantly consumed by the Color Cloud of Doom.

Yum, yum, colored corn starch, just like Mom used to make.

We got jammed up in the pack, so I soon said Adios to my Home Girls. No worries for them, they were well aware of the First Rule of Racing With Tannie. She will ditch you at about 1.2 minutes into the race. Nothing personal, I just get hyper and have to go-go-go!

This race was so so fun!

Although if you look at the picture, maybe I was the only one who thought so?  Where are the smiles people? Such serious runners. Oh well. It was a fun run on Asphalt, Trails and Fields. A good varied mix. Along the way you randomly got bombed with color. Sometimes cornstarch, sometimes dyed water. It made for a very fast feeling race.

I practically laughed the whole run.

Once I saw the end, it was time to bring it home. I like to sprint out the end, so here’s a funny story. I went into a sprint and started passing some people. Right when I got to the end, I slowed down, feeling good about myself. Well apparently one racer was not going to have it. She blew past me with fierce revenge. And my friend Rob got it on camera.

You see her on the right, all sprinter looking. I’m the one that looks like I am plodding like a donkey. I promise I was going so fast about a second before this shot. Thanks Rob, for letting her rub it in that much more.

I was done and much more colorful than when I started.

I finished a little ahead of my gals, so with nothing else to do but wait, it was time to color bomb some of my Cheering Crew.

With the last girl, we all jumped back in and crossed the finish line as a team.

Our organizer Lindsey is the gal up front in the blue shades.

We did it!

What a fun race, time to celebrate!

And there is no better way to celebrate then eating your weight in Pizza at CraigOs. 

Sorry Trent, we may have scared off some Patrons. But it was all in the name of Color and Rad.

So good times were had by all, and if this race ever comes to your area…DO IT!!!  I am not sure if you picked up on my hints, but it is fun!

Also I want to give a shout out to WordPress. They updated the photo loader and my life is happier now. Adding multi pics saves time. Thanks WordPress!!

More projects coming soon, and don’t forget that a giveaway is on its way to The Smithocracy. So stick around.

Have you done a fun race lately? Are your teeth also filled with colorful grit? Share share!

Have a colorful week!