Tuesday, June 17, 2008

A sidebar chock full 'o goodies ... and a giveaway


Since I'm a gal who loves to read my favorite blogs in my Reader, I realize that I often miss out on all the goodies some folks have going on in their sidebars. If they are organized nicely, a sidebar can be a treasure trove of fun stuff in addition to the main course of the blog. I've added some fun tidbits in my sidebar and wanted to point them out for folks who either read me in their Reader or just don't pay attention.

And since I mentioned more than a week ago that I'd do a giveaway in honor of my 100th post that passed during the crazy week of the CRAFT Release Party, I figured I better finally make good on that. I'll warn you, though, that I am horrible at getting things out in the mail. My last two giveaway winners can attest to that. But I will do my best to get the stuff out ASAP, just bear with me.

So! Sidebar goodness! And then the giveaway.

Subscribe to my blog via email - If you aren't a fan of a feed reader like I am, just pop over to the top of my sidebar, enter your email address and - whammo - my posts will be delivered to your email inbox. (Leslie, now you have no excuse not to read ... take that!)


Twitter - oh lordy. I've been sucked in. I don't know what I was thinking, but I took the jump. I'm Twittering ... or is it Tweeting? I don't know ... I'm just typing in random bits about my day and sending them out into the world. But I have found some fun friends to follow, and I can follow the Mars Phoenix rover (which fascinates and amuses me), so I'm sticking with it. Follow along!

The Craft Business Resource Page - with a fancy graphic and everything! So if you are starting a craft business, running a craft business, marketing a craft business, or just like to read about craft businesses ... check it out. I've been updating it constantly, so you can just pop in to that page from the sidebar anytime you like.


My Shared Items - let my sweet blog finds be your sweet blog finds. Sharing is one of my favorite things to do, and now that I can add notes to my shared items through Google Reader, I'm all kinds of giddy. I have a shared items widget in my sidebar, and you can even subscribe to my shared items here. Some of my favorite shared items from the past few weeks have been this most fabulous embroidered shirt, these hilarious uncensored bunnies (warning, might be offensive), these awesome Vicky-T Earrings (from craftlog, whose blog was also featured on the Crafzine blog this week), and a great tutorial for putting together a screenprinting screen cover for unexposed photo emulsion screens. You can pull up my shared items page and see weeks and weeks and weeks of shared items. Enjoy!

Austin Art/Design/Craft Bloggers - I've set up a blog roll specifically highlighting Austin Art and Design and Craft bloggers. If I've missed you, shoot me an email at averagejanecrafter at gmail dot com and let me know. It may take me a while to get you added (just 'cause I like to actually read your blog for a bit before I add them and because .... I'm slow!) but let me know.

Free Embroidery Pattern web sites - I've also got a little blog roll with some web sites that feature free embroidery patterns (some vintage, some new, some exclusively and some just on occasion) If I'm missing one you know of and that has an rss feed, let me know.

And now, on to the giveaway!
I was cleaning up my office the other day, and realized that I had a few prints left over from my screen print class that I could pass along. Up for grabs are four items. They are some of the extra prints I made during my silk screen class.

I'll be giving away one of my deer/bird/tree prints, an E.T. print, a deer vintage embroidery design print and an Obama print. The deer/bird/tree print and the Obama print are on a linen blend fabric (the photos don't show the colors correctly *at all* - they are a nice deep aqua and a fun lime color, respectively) The vintage embroidery design and E.T. are on scraps of a heart print fabric from an IKEA duvet. The Obama print isn't *perfect* - there are some blank spots on his collar - but it's still a cool print. You can make the prints in to anything you like - a pillow, bag, wall hanging - and I'd love to see them in action in your home once you receive them.

So how can you win them!? We're going on a bit of a Flickr scavenger hunt. I have Kari to thank for this one, who was inspired by something she saw at woot.
1. Pick ONE WORD from the list below and search it on Flickr. Pick a picture from the results (try changing the variables of "most interesting/most relevant" etc.) and put a link to it in your comment. Let us know what word you chose, and why you picked the picture you did. And, if you're so inclined, let me know which of my sidebar features you like the best.
2. Post about this contest on your blog with a link back to it, and I'll enter you twice.
3. Post this blog entry to Facebook/Myspace, etc. and send me the link (averagejanecrafter at gmail dot com) and I'll enter you again!
4. Subscribe! Since I've set up the handy dandy email subscription thingie up there, sign up or let your friends know they can sign up and I'll enter you .... again!

Here's the list: (pick one)
80s hair
any celebrity you want - there are some interesting candid celeb shots out there.
carpet
Velcro
soup
shake
rattle
roll
cinch
smell


So there. You have several options, some fun eye candy, and a week to enter. Enjoy! Comments will close at 8AM Central time on Wednesday, June 25th, and I'll post the winner sometime that day (chosen randomly).

15 comments :

  1. Man. I am totally overwhelmed by this post! So many cool things are happening! Wow wow whee! I guess I should have gotten my contest picture ready before I posted this, but I just wanted to say what an impressive job you're doing! And, tiny note...my is now named "All Things Austin Design". Semantics! Meh! Wow I can't wait to start flickring!

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  2. Woooooooo-Hoo! I'm all over this. I picked the Celebrity category, and I picked Aaron Eckhart. I loves me some Aaron Eckhart. So, this photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/14250822@N03/1450895599/, for obvious reasons.

    Your sidebar is freakin' awesome! XOXOXO

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  3. allthingsaustindesign: I've got you updated in the sidebar. :)

    Sister DG - HOT DANG! How did I not know who that guy was. Wowza!

    OK, this makes me want to Flickr a celeb crush of mine .....
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/courtneyhood/2341647351/

    Oh, Mike Rowe ... how I adore you. Mmmmmm ....... ;)

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  4. I think Velco is one of the most awesome things ever... I think it's because it was invented by NASA and I had a space/astronaut/NASA obsession for a long time. (So, I'm of course so jealous you went to Space Camp, Rachel.) When I can across this image of Velco letters on Flickr, http://flickr.com/photos/xaotica/218923/ , I almost passed out. WARNING: slightly naughty. (Sorry. It was too funny to pass up.)

    But, I also couldn't resist the celebrity one, because I never miss the opportunity to send Mark Ruffalo some love. http://flickr.com/photos/suelikes_that/124346425/

    (I promise, I'm not angling for a two entries on this one, even though the Barack print MUST BE MINE.)

    ~Sarah

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  5. Were do I begin? There's so much info I'm forgetting what to write.

    I picked the word roll...http://flickr.com/photos/rreid/420388478/. I picked this pictures because it's the cutest sushi rolls I've ever seen.
    Your sidebar is great. I like the fun things you've found box.
    What is twitter? I checked out the link. Is it a chat site?
    Is Google Reader like Bloglines? I use Bloglines. You look like your having so much fun with Google Reader that I might check it out.

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  6. I had so much to say I forgot to add...

    Thanks for the links.

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  7. kewl post, yay!

    I picked "cinch" and came up with this photo:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/dania_h/453455494/

    Loving it because : it's an old faded painted sign and they're one of my favourite things, it's not a picture of a corset, I have no idea what "diet cinch" tasted like, I like the seedy Uncle Sam sign down in the corner too, and the first comment made me laugh!

    Fave think in your sidebar - the links to the free embroidery pattern, because it plugs my page! yay! And I love free embroidery patterns :P

    You're already on my Bloglines.
    And do you mean Mike Rowe - the guy from Dirty Jobs???

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  8. Heee! I'm having a lot of fun seeing these pictures!

    Tina - You can read a nice summary of what Twitter is over on Wikipedia. I like it because even when I can't do a full-on blog post, I can shoot something out on Twitter. And it's fun to keep up with friends. Sort of like a mix of blogging and instant messaging. I found this post on Awake at the Wheel to be fascinating. He discusses how JetBlue uses Twitter to communicate with its customers. Interesting!

    And yep ... Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs. I have a huge crush on him. And look at this picture I found on Flickr! It's got Mike Rowe *and* Clinton Kelly (another crush) and they are all cleaned up and looking dapper! Sigh .... ;)

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  9. Hello...love the idea behind the contest. It's great to see what a photo means to each person. I chose the word 'smell' as I just spent 12 hours in the car with 2 kids and this photo
    http://flickr.com/photos/jimheid/50333907/ shows what I wish I was smelling and not what I did smell several times over the day! That poodle sure knows how to work her look...she makes me take a deep breath when I look at the photo.

    On the other side I love the whole average crafter thing...no pressure here just enjoying the things you want to try. My favorite side bar is the crafty business school info and links...what a great help to us wannabees.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hello...love the idea behind the contest. It's great to see what a photo means to each person. I chose the word 'smell' as I just spent 12 hours in the car with 2 kids and this photo
    http://flickr.com/photos/jimheid/50333907/ shows what I wish I was smelling and not what I did smell several times over the day! That poodle sure knows how to work her look...she makes me take a deep breath when I look at the photo.

    On the other side I love the whole average crafter thing...no pressure here just enjoying the things you want to try. My favorite side bar is the crafty business school info and links...what a great help to us wannabees.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I honestly don't know how you do it all...kids, crafts, and this smokin' blog! I picked 80's hair b/c sometimes my strands try to revert to those days. And I picked one of Madonna b/c no one does it quite like her!http://www.flickr.com/photos/7838042@N08/456129373/
    I appreciate your side bar fun b/c it gives me lots to check out in one fancy little place!
    Keep it up ;)

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  12. I love the sidebars!

    I picked carpet because - really, there are pictures of carpets on flickr? LOL After doing some random browsing I pick this one:

    http://flickr.com/photos/saraspoon/2595674800/

    because the cat is cute! I found several others of carpets in process of being made so am going back to check those out now. :)

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  13. Hey there Rach! Okay, so I'm supposed to be working, but instead, I'm searching for 80's hair in flickr, and spending WAY to much time doing it... but it's a lot more fun!

    I picked this...
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevemason/8922773/
    because they must've thought they were so very cool... and that poor child! Lordy! I had major 80's hair issues... I couldn't ever get that bang thing down...

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  14. http://www.flickr.com/photos/biccc/397922373/

    I picked soup as my word and this picture came up. It just makes me laugh, for the kid's expression if not anything else.

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  15. I love the idea of a photo hunt!

    Well...I chose shake. Not sure why...maybe a craving or something crazy subconscious reaction, haha.

    When I looked it up...I found something totally different than the drink "Shake" and look at this cute guy with his short stubby legs. I love dogs and he is a cutie!!

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