GIVEAWAY : 2 CUSTOMIZED PLUSH ELE'S (CLOSED)

Well happy weekend friends! Ready to kick off the last of my custom giveaways for the month of June here on the blog? It's been a very busy month and I'm so sad to see it go but happy for all that's happened. At the beginning of the month I had my local craft fair which I shared pictures via Instagram and I had a huge number of you ask about my plush pieces and this Ele's specifically raised some attention. Today I'm offering not one but TWO lucky readers the chance to win your very own custom Ele. Similar to the one's below, but then customized by each of you, as we'll work together to make you something oh so special. To enter this giveaway please see the info below. Best of luck!

HOW TO ENTER CLOSED

Main Entry (Open to all readers worldwide)

Leave me a comment below telling me "What your favorite thing (maybe you went to an event, had a special day, ate a new meal you loved, etc.) you did this past month of June?"

Additional Entries (please leave one additional comment per entry)
Share this giveaway elsewhere, Twitter, your Blog, Pinterest, Facebook, etc. Up to 2 shared sites and then leave me a comment with each of the links below.

CUSTOM ELE DETAILS

This giveaway is for 2 separate readers to each win one customized Ele's created by Sandi Devenny. We'll each work together to make this piece special and customize to you liking. Because this is a custom creation it will be on a 2 -3 week turn around time due to time, emails and communication, creating on my part (sewing), etc. 

CONTEST RULES +  EXTRA INFO
Contest Ends Saturday July, 7th 1130PM CST. Contestants must include a way to contact you (email, site link, etc.) because if winner does not claim prize in 30 days from announcement on blog then prize is void and another winner will be selected. All winners selected via Random.org and announced shortly after the giveaway ends. 

* If you have questions about this giveaway or would like a custom plush piece beyond this contest please feel free to email me at adalou1(at)hotmail.com  and let's chat. Good Luck and Thank You again for reading the blog!

Thank you again for reading the blog.

 Would you like to follow along? I'd love to have you. 

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WATERMELON MOJITOS

Last weekend we enjoyed some Watermelon Mojitos, thanks to the misters mixology skills. The only thing I would advise for this recipe is make sure you have enough people on hand to finish it. The 2 of us only drink so much and we had to scrap a little bit of it, which I think we would have halved the ingredients and been better off. It was really good though and super simple to make. Enjoy!


WATERMELON MOJITOS
Approx. Time 15 Minutes // Serves 6

Ingredients
1/2 small seedless watermelon, cut into chunks
1 bunch mint, tough stems removed, 6 sprigs reserved for serving
1 tablespoon superfine sugar
1 lime, cut into wedges
1 1/4 cups white rum

Directions
1.) In a blender, in batches, puree watermelon. Pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a liquid-measuring cup, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible (about 3 cups); discard solids.

2.) In a large container, combine mint, sugar, and lime. With the back of a wooden spoon, crush mint and lime until sugar is dissolved. Add watermelon juice and rum, fill container with ice, and stir to combine. Serve over more ice with mint sprigs.

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RECIPE SOURCE

Everyday Food  - Issue 94  //  July/August 2012  //  Page 94

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME?

I'm not to sure how it's already here but it is. And I assure you, I don't feel a day over 21... though I'm double this minus a dozen plus one. Did I loose ya yet, did you figure it out? I stopped keeping track of my age years ago due to... I don't know why... but I did. Now I don't mind getting older, and I surely don't feel that old, but I never cared to announce my birthday to people. I'm not the party type, and being a Summer baby, well I was always out of school then and skipped right over it seems. So fast forward to today with me not keeping track and it doesn't seem like anything new. No number tracking can be confusing though, especially when a friend mentions " do you have birthday plans" "and how old are you again?" I won't lie, the first thing I did (while on the phone with her) was googled "if you were born in "blank" how old would you be". True story. Needless to say I quickly figured out my age again for today... but today, today's just another day. A day to eat cupcakes my kiddos made me and spend time with my family doing something we all love. I'm sure it will be happy non the less. Happy Friday sweet sweet friends, I'll be sure to eat some extra cupcakes for you :)


p.s. I'm glad I'm not a piece of cheese or else I'd be a wee bit smeeeelllly. ;)

p.s.s. If ya missed this morning's "Weekly Wrap" you can check it out here.

IMAGE SOURCE

WEEKLY WRAP 3

Things I've spotted thru this week. Enjoy!

WEEKLY WRAP 3

• The woven cuff (seen above right) is so beautiful
• And this Penelope (pictured above left) doll is oh so lovely. Isn't it?
• These stone rings are pretty and a little DIY to make your own
• It's beyond HOT here & this pretzel float for the pool would be perfect
• It's to bad this is no longer in stock, because I'm all about this necklace 
• The Raindrop Pillow Family by Zu are so cute
• Maybe, just maybe, I could get my kiddos to each more sandwiches if they looked like these
• This Apple print makes me smile.
• A Beautiful Mess got a makeover (love it!) but I'm more impressed this Honeycomb DIY Shelves
• I'm not a huge shorts person but I want these ones badly, via Modcloth
• And these shoes via Modcloth too.
• This watermelon, feta & mint salad c/o of joy the baker looks yuuummmy!
• These cookie dough ice pops look delish
• I really want to go and see Brave, I'm curious if it's good?
• Love this blue multi-colored hair

WINNER : CUSTOM DOODLED PORTRAIT

Good afternoon lovely friends! Thank you all for all the entries on the Custom Portrait Giveaway I appreciate all of your support and sweet  notes about my artwork so much. I wanted to send out a BIG Congrats to Maryam (Pamplemousse) who the winning comment for the contest. When you have a free moment please email me (adalou1@hotmail.com) so your can claim your prize. Thank you all so much again.


* Winners selected randomly via random.org

BLOG NEWS : A LITTLE REFRESH

It was time for a little change. Something cleaner. Something with larger photos. Something new. I think most artist have a tendency to start changing things about in their head and trying to make things better. I started slowly working on this a month ago and wanted to share it sooner but it kept changing from what I had envisioned to be a cluttered mess. It took some time and thinking but I'm happy with how it ended up. I hope you'll be able to find things easier. I had a few of you ask "well how can I see what you wrote about this month" well, short and sweet I changed the archives and now it's all listed out for you to read thru. If you don't care for the list you can shrink it, but it's all still there if you need it. The older work here on the blog will stay the sizes it was first created at but as I move forth the new stuff you see will be formated a bit large which I hope you enjoy. I still have a few more tweaks behind the scenes but all in all it's done. So do you like the new space? Do some peeking around and let em know what you think. If something's you're hunting for is missing let me know to so I can figure out where to add it for quick access for you. Enjoy and Happy Thursday! :)

p.s. I'll be back after lunch with your custom doodle giveaway winner. ;)

JEWELRY I'M LOVING : BIRTHSTONE RING BY TINAHDEE

What a lovely ring. This rustic ring with personalized birthstones has been on my favorite list for quite some time. It's from over at etsy, from the handmade artist Tinahdee. I love the simple detail and how clean it looks and this is surely something I would wear. I also love this one by Tinahdee (via etsy) too.

Image Source  //  Birthstone Ring

BLOG UPDATES : NEW TEMPLATE

Excuse the dust while I load in a new template (130am). Thanks for your patients, I'll be done soon! :)

WHAT I WORE : SHE WEARS SHORT SHORTS

I'm kinda a pants person. Even when the hot Summer sun is out, I usually wear pants. I know, I'm a wee bit silly at times. I do own shorts. Only a few, but I just don't find myself wearing them to often. When the weather forecast last week said 99 (with a high of 101) though, well then I thought about breaking out some shorts. I found these one's at Target a week or so ago and love them. I won't lie though I kinda feel like I should be a toddler wearing them as they have a draw string waist, which I guess is in style this season as 80% of the shorts had them. Is it shorts weather where you're at lately?

 Because someone asked to see what color my hair color looked like lately. 

No filter on photo and yup those are my nice pale legs ;)

buttondown //  vintage thrifted

shorts // Target

shoes // vintage c/o Pussycat Vintage

 And because one of you lovely readers mentioned you liked my quirky personality...

The mister took all photos for this outfit post. And he usually prompts me with silly cues like

"ok look like a deer popping it's head out from behind a tree and realizing it's being hunted" Hahaha!

Go ahead, get a good laugh cause you know you want to. I'm still laughing over here :)

THANKS FOR READING!  FOLLOW ALONG -  RSS   //   BLOGLOVIN'   //    GFC
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COLOR PALETTE (24)

Isn't this color palette so wonderful. I love this triangle patterned tray I spotted over via Pinterest, from the Leif Shop.  Happy Wednesday :)


Image Source : Spear Print Tray, LEIF Shop

TAKE TEN TUESDAYS : SAILOR

As Summer is obviously here it makes me dream of being a kid, living back home on the beaches. I miss the water dearly and wish my kiddos could be closer to water but now when we visit it it's such a treat indeed. I'm always had a thing for pinstripes, knotted bracelets and anchors. All very nautical and sailor esque if you will. Are you a fan of nautical inspiration, what about the beach? ;) Happy Take Ten Tuesdays

IMAGE SOURCES
J.Crew ($25)  //    Print by Bene Rohlmann ($19)  //  ModCloth.com  //  Kiel James Patrick ($38)  //  Shoes ($36.00)  //  Nails  // Bow LULUGOESROCKABILLY ($10)  //  Pin Up Swimsuit, TheRedDolly ($79)  //  Dress  //  Knot Headband, TeaAccessories ($15)

WEEKENDS VIA INSTAGRAM

So I've noticed a handful of people, like my sweet friend Nicole or Jenny, sharing photos from Instagrammed weekends over on their blogs. It's a great way to catch up on how the weekend went and I've been taking a blog break on the weekends to spend time with family and catch up on custom work and other projects around the home, but I love LOVE capturing and sharing photos on Instagram. So I am going to start sharing photos and a little update along side it, to give you a peek into how we spent some of our weekend. Hope this is enjoy this :)


p.s. I love that dress I wore the week before last. For those of you curious it's by YA Los Angeles :)

There was a trip to get my hair trimmed and let me tell you this Bumble and bumble,

Curl Conscious stuff is Amazing!!!! Seriously if you have curly hair it rocks!

There were pancake breakfast followed by a hike n picnic at a new playground in the park.

There was house cleaning.Sorting of Penelope's dress collection to make room for bigger sizes. Wyeth helped organize books by size which he was pretty proud of doing this all by himself.

A trip out to eat. This girls given up on the high chair and we've resorted to laying on mom while snacking now. It's either this or have a screaming toddler fighting me against the foolish chair...which in my opinion, so not worth the fight.

There was wrapping up a few custom illustration and starting on some new blog design work. Plus the mister graciously made us some tasty Watermelon Mojito's, Yum! Recipe coming soon to the blog.

There was a family trip to the thrift. And we're all pretty excited about that HUGE instant collection of cookie cutters. I guess now I need to start baking more cookies and treats... if not I'm sure some toddlers would love to stamp them all over their Play-Doh. :)

And there was relaxing in the yard and enjoying being outdoors. Oh and her conversation here with the mister was asking "why are there no clouds (it was so blue out) out here" "maybe they are hiding like the moon" was her response to herself. :) 

Thanks for peeking thru out photos. :)

MINI COLLECTIONS : LOTUS PLATES

I have a thing for vintage enamelware. I just love it! And these pieces are just one part of a much large collection of Cathrineholms ware which we oh so adore and have on display in our home. Three had been scores from Ebay, one was a trade (the blue one) with another collector and the small green one I was lucky enough to find locally for a decent price. Though they are on display (in the curio or on the wall) most of the times, we do however pull them out for parties or special occasions. I'm still on the hunt for a few other rare colors, I would love to find the black or yellow one. Fingers crossed for them someday. The red looking one is actually a dark orange but it seems to photograph darker and redish. Do you collect random plates too? Cathrineholms ware? I hope your weekend was wonderful! If you didn't see from yesterday I am taking a few more lovely sponsors for the month of July, and the custom illustration giveaway ends tomorrow (Tuesday) so hurry to get yourself signed up if that's something you'd care for. Happy Monday! :)

ADVERTISE ON ADALOU STARTING THIS JULY

Hello sweet friends, hope your day is wonderful. Today I'm excited to announce that starting this July, the AdaLou Blog with happily start offering sponsored advertisements for each month. I had been waiting a while before finally decided how to offer this package, because I truly want this to be a positive experience for everyone involved (both you and I together as a team) and I really want to focus on promoting you and your business. With this said there will be limited ad spaces each month here on the blog, with the hopes that no ad will ever get over looked. I would never want you to feel like your unappreciated here on the blog or known by a number if you will, because you truly are so much more than this and because of you, my blog has become a positive blogging experience for me and a great source of support. It's all about giving back and helping each other grow, right?! Yes, it surely is!

The new advertising options I am happy to offer will be located on the right side of this blog, which there is actually a blog refresh for the next month of July, so there are new ad sizes to follow this. There will be one large ad large space per month at $10, and a limited amount of regular ad spaces for $5. To learn a bit more about what I am offering within each sponsored packages please click to read here.

I also wanted to take a sec and mention that in months prior, I've hosted personal swaps and friends here on my sidebar of my blog. These lovely people will happily move to my "Link Love" page or to the the "Rotating Favorites" column. These people have been such a huge inspiration to me and offered such support that they are all worth saying hello to if you are looking for some new friends yourself. I want to thank all of you for your continued support of the AdaLou blog, its always so appreciated more than you know. I hope you have a fabulous week ahead of you. :)

MUSIC : THE LUMINEERS

Do you know of The Lumineers? Maybe yes? Well, if you don't, let me tell you, this band of 3 amazingly talented members has the best American folk rock art sound to them that I could listen over and over all day... Ok and maybe I lately, literally have. But, I had heard this one song on the radio a few times, it was so catchy and it had a nice little chorus to it. I finally caught the name and ask the mister about it, and go figure he had already been listening to it on his iPod. That guy, he's always so up to date on tunes before me. I hope you like their tunes and much as I do. Hope you're weekends going well, and Happy Sunday!


THE LUMINEERS
OFFICIAL SITE  //  TWITTER  //  FACEBOOK

IMAGE SOURCES

TOP PHOTO  //  PHOTO 2  //  YOUTUBE VIDEO  //   PHOTO 4  //  PHOTO 5

WEEKLY WRAP 2

Well the weeks flown by once again, I just can't believe it, this is nuts, I mean June is almost over! A few links and info from the week for your Friday. I recently realized some people may not be able to view the followgram (instagram app) photos I was linking too so I'm going to try a new technique and see if this works. Happy Weekend sweet, sweet friends. :)

WEEKLY WRAP 2

LINK LOVE AROUND THE WEB

The crocheted dress above, here, by Rebecca is freaking amazing! Made it in just one week! 

These animals playing card illustrations by Juan Estrella, (JuanStar2) on etsy are pretty awesome

Loving this black and white tiki bar cocktail clutch by Kate Spade 

Also swooning over this clutch by Sew Beastly

Wanting to do this "weekender" DIY bag or the mitered pillows

Thinking about camping and if I bought a camper this one would be on the list and this one too

Weathers been terribly hot & the veggies keep burning. Maybe next year we'll build this 

Loving this Nautical Summer Stripes look

Fun little DIY printable summer paper fans for you and the kiddos.

MY WEEKLY NEWS

Did you sign up for the Custom Portrait giveaway? That's right another giveaway :)

Last weekend we camped at Lake Pomona which was fun. Sadly the bug bites are not gone yet, grrr :\

I got a promotion at work! The mister an I celebrated with sundaes + image above

I'm loving these new shoes, plus the lilic color is gorgeous.

Seriously did that happen??? My lovely vintage shoes just came un-soled. Clues how to fix it?

This silver nail polish by Sally Hansen Nails called Celeb City is probably the best metallic color ever.

And I loved finishing up on this custom kitty piece of Kong. I love how it turned out.

* Photos linked from my Instragram @adalouvintage. If you'd care to join me there :)