Friday, November 25, 2011

Avoiding Black Friday with a Giveaway

This Giveaway is Now Closed. Thanks so much for your comments!

 So, how many of y'all are out fighting the crowds?! Better you than me. Ugh. I may be missing out on all the deals, but I have a hard enough time going to town on a normal day. The day after Thanksgiving? I'm digging a deeper hole and taking my Thanksgiving leftovers with me. No thank you. I'm not a shopper and no amount of 'don't miss this hot buy' can convince me otherwise. (Insert shiver here.) However, I hope that y'all find everything you are looking for and that everyone arrives back home unscathed.

I'm hoping that y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving that included all the things, and people, that bring you joy. Ours was almost perfect. Our daughter is home and it is such a joy to hear her infectious laughter and see her  sweet smile. The only thing missing is our son who is in Camp Pendleton. We did get to visit with him on the phone and he drove north to a friend's house where they cooked a turkey. So at least he's not eating in the mess hall on base. He'll be home for Christmas though and we're counting the days! This is the first holiday we haven't all be together so it was odd, but we're so proud of our Marine and we are abundantly blessed.

So, in honor of my avoidance of Black Friday, I am having a giveaway. I have been hearing and reading about these new seam rippers from Mighty Bright.
 I have had my one and only seam ripper for 20 years that came with my $75 Kenmore sewing machine. I am so proud of the fact that I haven't lost it. These days it seems I spend much of my time hunting down my glasses, but by golly I know where my seam ripper is.

 I ordered a couple of these seam rippers and one of them is for one of you! At first it felt a bit awkward in my hand because I'm just so used to my old standby and I'm a creature of habit, but it's really very comfortable and I am amazed at how much the magnification helps. Apparently I've been using the 'stab and hope I catch the thread' method. This seam ripper has a very handy LED light that also makes me think I've been ripping with less than adequate light.



The years are beginning to catch up with me.

So, who wants a fun, helpful, new notion to help you get all of those sewing projects completed?
 I hope you'll be doing more sewing than ripping, but we all know that it's inevitable and somewhere down the line, unsewing will be required. I would love to send it to you so just leave me a comment and tell me  your favorite Christmas Tradition.

I know, it's hard to pick just one. One of the things we did when the kids were young was wrap 12 Christmas books and 12 days before Christmas, we would unwrap one each night and cuddle up to read. I kept them in a wooden chest in the living room and being the bookworms that we are, it wasn't long before we had 24 and we were reading 2 each night, always saving the story of Christ's birth for Christmas Eve.

I know y'all are all busy with family and friends so I'm going to keep this open until midnight Tuesday night. Mr. random number generator will choose a winner on Wednesday morning. It should be safe to come out of my burrow by then. Please make sure you leave me an email address if you are a non-reply blogger or I will be unable to contact you. Thanks so much and while y'all are out braving the crowds, I will be spinning Christmas music and dragging out the decorations.

36 comments:

Cow Pies & Mud Pies said...

We had a great day here too! So Thankful for many things.

That seam ripper is great! I don't sew alot...but when I do, that is an important tool! lol

I'm looking for Christmas cd's and breaking out the tree and decor today!

Susan said...

Ah ha! Just what I need. My seam ripper is getting old and dull. My eyes aren't getting any younger either.

I'm with you on the shopping. There is nothing I want bad enough to joing the Black Friday crowd.

Love your Christmas tradition of reading a Christmas book every night. Must tell my daughters.

Anita in Florida said...

What a great little tool! Getting together with friends and baking tons of Christmas cookies is our tradition!!

juliehallfeldhaus said...

I'm with you on the shopping. It's hard for me to go to town unless I have a very good reason, and we only live 12 miles from town.
The sew ripper looks great I've been know to use one!!
We love to spend time with our family at Christmas.

Dora, the Quilter said...

Favorite Christmas tradition....Christmas music, whether we make it ourselves or listen to it!
Very interesting seam ripper.

Sallie said...

What a wonderful giveaway! We enjoy driving around looking at Christmas lights.

Michele said...

Happy Holidays. I love getting out the Christmas decorations right after Thanksgiving.

Janet said...

No way am I shopping today. In fact we don't really Christmas shop at all. Our Christmas is about time with others and not about gifts. It was hard for some people in my life to understand that we don't buy gifts. One SIL still gives us a gift every year, but I stopped feeling guilty long ago. It's more about time spent together than time spent shopping and wrapping for "some thing".

This happens to be a "gadget" I don't have and with my eye sight I think it would be great to have.

One of our Christmas traditions is to make and frost Christmas cookies together. Our Christmas tree doesn't get put up until after 12/15, which is DD 2's birthday.

Neither daughter made it home for Thanksgiving, but we are looking forward to a family time Christmas.

JustPam said...

I am going blind so this would be wonderful for my old eyes!

When I was a kid, my grandparents would spend the holidays with us and that was a wonderful tradition.

Kathy H said...

We had a fun thanksgiving with some of the kids. they get older and have to work or have their own extended families. but we had a fun day and all our favorite foods.
we had a fun tradition of reading stories each night. we had a book of 24 CHristmas stories that we would read each night. then we found another book with different stories. SO we started having 2 stories a night also. There are a lot of wonderful CHristmas traditions that we try to keep on going.

Doniene said...

Karin, Of course I would love to be entered in the giveaway!! I know what you mean about our eyes needing more light!!! I've been doing a lot of hand quilting lately and I can sure tell it!! So glad you had a great Thanksgiving!! I am so NOT a Black Friday person!!! I'm such a home body and relax with my family person!!! 3 of our 4 were here for the day!!! and we will see the other tomorrow!!! Our youngest came home from school on Monday evening, so we have had a wonderful time talking and cooking!!! Our son has been here since Wednesday evening and I know Mike has really enjoyed having a man around the house!! It has blessed me to see them grow in their adult relationship. This is the last holiday season for him as a single man, so rather poignant for me, though I love my future daughter-in-law like one of my daughters. She is such a blessing!! This is a rather wordy comment, but I so enjoy visiting with you!!!

Blessings

Doniene said...

Oh, yeah, favorite Christmas tradition - let's see. Cleaning house to the Grinch song!!! My other favorite is turning out all the lights and looking at the lit Christmas tree!

Blessings

carol fun said...

Hi Karin - I totally agree there is nothing out there for sale on Black Friday that I need enough to brave those crazy crowds. I was happy to stay home and sew today. That seam ripper would be helpful - anymore there isn't enough light for me whenever I sew - getting old is not fun (but then the alternative is worse, isn't it? LOL!) Our favorite Christmas tradition is riding around to see all the lights. Several neighborhoods in our area go all out and they sure are pretty!

Anonymous said...

We didn't have enough money for many decorations, but every year my Mom would bring home used x-ray envelopes from the hospital she worked in. They were foil on the outside and cardboard inside. We would make stars for all of the windows of the house, large and small. I've tried to duplicate them, but it's just not the same without those old envelopes lol. VermontPines@aol.com

Anonymous said...

Well, I spend lots of time ripping seams.. so I need a fancy, smancy seam ripper!

Judy D in WA said...

Hi, first time visitor here...just stumbled in from a link on another blog and I'm happy I did. I could have written the beginning of your post, including the shivers. :) No shopping for me this weekend, I'm sewing!!
I'm going back to read more....

Kathy S. said...

What a great idea for a seam ripper. Thanks for the chance to win! I too avoided the crowds of Black Friday. I'll shop online on Monday... maybe.

Anonymous said...

I also need more than one reason to go to town. Thinking about getting the rest of my Thanksgiving things put away and getting out the Christmas decorations too.

Theona said...

Well, I did go shopping on Black Friday, but not at the crack of dark! Got some amazing sales, especially clothes for the college boy. I also hit up the fabric shops. I was behind 140 others waiting to have fabric cut in one store (Joanns) and even though they had 8 cutting stations I wasn't waiting around. I did go to another fabric store later in the day and found what I needed there and got a better quality fabric too. Anyway, I have my projects waiting for me (wish they were cut out for me, literally!). I'm sure seam ripping will be in there somewhere, so I would love to have an assist for my aging eyes!

rosie said...

Hi Karin, I hate shopping, and I really hate crowds...
I love your Christmas tradition with the books..
Your seam unpicker looks fantastic... you are so generous..

Jocelyn said...

What an amazing new tool! Especially for us gals who need a little more light :-) When my children were little, we used to sit by the tree on Christmas Eve, drink egg nog and eat M&M cookies, while my hubby read the Christmas story out of the Bible. Children are grown now, but it was certainly my most favorite tradition.

yorkie mom said...

Just what I need for my poor eyes! That would almost make making mistakes tolerable! Thanks for the chance!

Vesuviusmama said...

You know, I just turned 40, and all of a sudden, my eyes are terrible!! I hate admitting it, and I hate wearing glasses, but this seam ripper would help ease the pain a bit. My favorite Christmas tradition is stringing popcorn and cranberries to decorate the tree, and then stringing them outside after New Years to feed the birds.

Michele T said...

I watched Black Friday on the news and said to my husband, "You will never see me at something crazy like that!" I may not have made the deal of a lifetime but my nerves are intact! hehehehe

Mini MNM's said...

My favorite Christmas Tradition is getting PJ's on Christmas eve and also getting an orange in my stocking.

Barbara said...

Hm. My favorite Christmas tradition is seeing all the old ornaments on the tree that have been in the family for years. Each one takes me back to a special memory. Also setting out the ceramic nativity my grandmother made for me. The date on the first piece (baby Jesus) is 1965. I still have all the pieces and none are chipped or broken. I hope this stays in my family long after I'm gone. It's very special to me.

NaomiG said...

There are so many things I can imagine being more fun than shopping on black friday. Like stabbing myself repeatedly in the eye with a dull fork. Or jumping in a frozen raging river with hungry sharks. Or... well, you get the picture. Not a shopper, no-sirree.

That seam ripper looks really cool! No matter how good of a seamstress you are, you will always need a good seam ripper. I love the light feature! So annoying to not be able to tell weather I'm ripping fabric threads or my threads, that would be handy.

My favorite Christmas tradition? Um, all of them? Mostly we don't live near any family, and my husband works crazy hours leading up to christmas, so every moment we're together is treasured. Setting the tree up, eggnog and fancy drinks and the treats the girls ask for every year, decorating and snuggling. Making wishlists and sending them out, and drawing names with family around the country round out the fun, and we treasure that too. Wishlists have become so special, because we get a huge list from everyone and it shows what everyone is interested in at that time. So fun!

End longest comment NOW! Haha. :-)

Janet said...

In my family everyone opens their stocking when they get up or when they want, but the presents don't get opened until after the turkey is in the oven and breakfast is done. Then it is an orderly and leisurely process with everyone oohing and aahing over all the gifts. Very pleasant. Your giveaway item looks stupendous. I think it would work well for my aging eyes....

Chiska said...

I've been thinking about doing the 12 days of christmas with books this year. We love reading and I have one bookshelf that is just Christmas books. My favorite one is The Christ Child that is illustrated by Petershams (I think) I love the illustrations and they use an abridgement of the King James Version of the Bible. My favorite tradition is going to the forest to cut down a tree. We always end up with something memorable/funny experience to treasure. Last year it was sideways blowing snow and me trying to lug two kids up a steep hill on a sled while my husband ran the same trail with the tree. Moments before we'd peeled our coats off because it was too warm. It's just fun to be outside and looking for something to bring inside and keep with us for a while. We also take turns opening presents. I thought everyone did it that way and the first time I saw the rip open the presents all at once I was pretty shocked. I love that there's excitement built up on the both the receiver and giver sides of the present. It takes longer too which makes that part of things very fun too.

Average Quilter said...

I wouldn't be able to sew without my seam ripper. I have a habit of losing mine all the time so I ordered a bunch of extras. Now when I lose one I just get out a new one. Then when I clean the sewing room I find most of them on the floor.
This would be nice to try

Mhairi said...

I could use a new unsewer, especially one with a light.
My Christmas tradition is to spend Christmas Eve with just my little family. My husband and children and I go to the beach (Australia) and have hot chips and salad on the beach. We then have a play on the sand and in the water before heading home to open our presents to each other.
This way we have spent time together as a family during the busy festive season.

free indeed said...

My mom started the tradition of having a certain cookie each Christmas. She would make the dough right after Thanksgiving and store it for a while..it was better after storage and we would decorate them the week of Christmas. I did that too with my children and now my grandchildren...over 45 yrs!

Deb said...

One of our Christmas traditions is taking place next Saturday--attending Lessons & Carols at a church over the mountain from us. There are wonderful (and obscure) Christmas carols and 10 scripture lessons read. Every year the first song sung is Once in Royal David's City, and the choir comes down the darkened aisle singing this carol with lit candles. It is so very special when we all join in, and I love it! And yes, I could definitely use a new seam ripper--mine recently fell on the carpet and caught in a thread, and I completely pulled the tip off when retrieving it. Uh,oh. Thanks for the chance.

Bev C said...

Hello Karin,

First of I have to say just love your picture of you in the Sunflowers.
This seam ripper sound so good,we all need them.
Our Christmas starts with us putting up the tree of December 1.
Happy days.
Bev.xoxo

Sandy said...

I love decorating sugar cookies with my nieces. Thanks for the opportunity to win.=)

Jodi - usairdoll said...

What a neat looking seam ripper. Fancy. I hope your son will be able to come home soon for a visit. My son, 22 yrs is also in the Marine Corp at Camp Pendleton. I wonder if they know each other? hehe. I have been very Blessed being able to see him often. We live in Sacramento so it's under 7 hours to drive. We just found out though he will be deployed to Afghanistan in April. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle that. Day to day I'm sure.

Thanks for the giveaway and a chance to win.

usairdoll(at)gmail(dot)com

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