Jenna Lou Loves You

Amy Butler FQ Giveaway - Winners!

Wow... A huge thanks to everyone who entered!! That was a great turn out. I'm so inspired about all the fun things everyone is doing. There is lots of sewing, and quilting going on along with jewelry making, knitting, spinning, embroidery... and the list goes on. You all are what inspired me. You keep me crafty and keep me on my toes. I LOVE to see that everyone is staying busy and trying new things. Many of the comments where about how crafting is really just their way of keeping their sanity and I gotta tell you: I'm with ya sister!

So now onto the fun part... the winners! I used a random generator to choose the numbers and don't worry... I counted all you double pointers who took the time to blog the giveaway too.

#69 Jeannine
AND
#78 Abra

BUT........... I was so overwhelmed with excitement by the number of people to entered that I had to pick two more winners who will each also get a pack of 5 Amy Butler FQ's!! So here are the additional winners.

#59 Me? A Mom?
AND
#30 Ginger

I love you all and I'm sorry I couldn't send you each a pack ( If I could I totally would!)... but I had so much fun that I think I'll be doing these little giveaways much more frequently. Thanks again for entering and telling me what's keeping you crafty!!

I'll be in contact with the winners for shipping details. If you don't get an email from me soon feel free to contact me at jennaloudesigns AT gmail DOT com.

Taking a Trip: Local Park

We had some really amazing weather this weekend. It rained a bit for the farmers market on Saturday, but by afternoon the sky had cleared up and from there on out it was nothing buy beautiful. John had the day off on Monday for Memorial Day so we spent some time around town enjoying the outdoors. We have an amazing park just miles from our house and because the weather was so lovely we decided to walk on over.

It was  nice to see all the other people out enjoying their afternoon with us. Whenever I see so many people outside it really makes me feel pride in this town. Like we have an awesome thing going. Glad I was able to get out and get a piece for myself.

P.S. Did you get a chance to enter the contest yet? It ends on Wednesday so hurry up and join in the fun.

New Camera Accessory - Nikon Wireless Remote

I got my hands on a new toy. A very inexpensive, yet very powerful tool: Nikons wireless remote. So far I've used it to help me take photos of bags for the shop. The remote has sped up the photo process so much for me. Before I was running back and forth to my camera to reset the self timer and it really was more like a time waster. Now it's just click click click and I'm done.

I'm thinking more self portraits will be in my future.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. The weather was amazing here in MN and I'm off now to enjoy my last afternoon of the weekend with a walk around town. See you soon.

Free Fabric Giveaway - Amy Butler's Midwest Modern

It's time for a giveaway!!

As you may recall I have a bit of a fabric addiction, and so I wanted to share a little from one of my favorite designers: Amy Butler. Up for grabs are two fat quarter sets. Each containing 5 fat quarters of coordinating prints from Amy Butlers Midwest Modern collection.

All you have to do to enter is tell me what's keeping you crafty this spring/summer? If you link back to this post on your blog I'll add your name to the hat twice for even better chances of winning. Just leave me your blog link in the comments so I can check out your site! Comments will close on Wednesday the 27th so all you long weekenders can get a chance to enter too.

Google Readers 'Next' Browser Button

Did you know about this? Google Reader has an awesome feature where you can add a bookmark button to your browser so you can easily read blogs from your blogroll just by clicking NEXT! If you are like me and have hundreds of blogs you like to read then you are probably already a friend to Google Reader, but it's not as fun when you don't get to visit the sites to see the post in context.

Thanks to this handy little button now you CAN. Give it a try today... you'll never go back!

PS to all you feed readers. Have you stopped by lately?? I have made lots of fun changes.

First Bike Ride

We spent part of our weekend with John's family. There was a wedding and children needed watching so we were glad to spend the night.

The weather was great so we spent a good deal of time outside biking, scooter, and lounging around. There was even a bit of 2 square (4 square with only two players).

Little T has a bike at home with training wheels on it, but her cousins only had one without. She spent a good half hour afraid to leave the confines of the garage on that bike. Usually she would only make it a few yards before having to put her foot down and try again. Then all of a sudden it just started working. The balance came and off she went. This fearless little girl was cruising around the driveway in no time. It was so fun to see her determination and to watch her find confidence in riding a big kid bike.

I love how she looks so blasé in that second photo.... This is totally T!

Absolutly the highlight of my weekend.

Wanted: 1 Bird Family

Wanted: 1 bird family to occupy recently remodeled home.  Amenities include nearby feeders and birdbath, lush gardens for easy live grub access, non-threatening dog (barks to keep cats away). All utilities paid.

Today as I was out by the compost heap I noticed this little nest on the ground. We've had some very windy days this week so it made me wonder if it just blew right out of the tree. I know we have several families nesting in our yard so maybe it was one of theirs. I hope they didn't leave for a quick snack only to return to find their home was missing!

Don't worry my little feathered friends. I believe we have a few openings in our birdhouses... feel free to move right in.

Photoshop Action Fun! - FREE CoffeeShop actions

Before


After (click to see bigger!)

As I'm trying to advance my skills in photography, learning Photoshop has become a key component. Editing each photo manually can be a lot of work, well worth it, but still a lot of work. To make things run smoother and faster some brilliant people have made Actions which basically do all the hard work for you.

Today I just wanted to share this really fun action I found over at the CoffeeShop blog. It's called Teeny Tiny World. It makes your photos turn into little scale models. This action is a total novelty, but I absolutely LOVE it. Here is a demonstration from a photo I took on a walk last week. How cute!

If you enjoyed this, you have to check out the CoffeeShop Blog and Flickr page. There are SO many great and usefull actions and all for FREE to boot.

He Loves Me

I was greeted yesterday with a bouquet of fresh lilacs. My house is filled with their fragrance. To me nothing says spring more than this smell.

He loves me... yes he does.

Amping Up the Skills

Lately I've been immersing myself in photography. I'm learning as much as I can as fast as I can. There are TONS of awesome sites all over the internet with amazing information.

Here are a couple of my favs.

Go For Pro: A great blog with turn ons to the latest trends and tips for going pro. I'm not planning on going pro anytime soon, but most everything shared can be applied to improving everyday photography.

Heather Ward: Amazing inspiration... I've been following for months and am constantly impressed by the beauty she finds and captures.