candy giveaway

and the winner is.....

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result: 4

Erin from Pugh's News has won the Valentine's candy! I hope you enjoy these sweet treats.

Erin- please email me at birdsonawire (at) hotmail (dot) com with your mailing address.

xox

sweets for my sweet a giveaway

So yes...a little unknown fact about me...I love Valentine's Day.

It wasn't always the case though. I used to hate it when I was single...but ever since my hubby came along I changed my tune about the holiday.

For some reason I like all the romantic cheesiness of it all. Paper hearts, Valentine cards, romantic dinners, roses... I'm a nerd for Valentine's Day.

Last year I discovered these delicious little Valentine candies at our grocery chain store here in Ottawa. I bought myself a pack and enjoyed the all the varieties... chocolate mints, chocolate covered raisins, jelly hearts and mallow candies. Oh so sweet. And I thought they were pretty enough to take some photos of them.

I enjoyed them so much that I decided that this year, I would buy an extra pack and do a give away....and so....here is a quick little giveaway. From me to one of you.

All you have to do is tell me one thing that you do to celebrate Valentine's Day and I will pick a random winner by the weekend. Simple as that.

So happy lead up to Valentine's Day dear friends.

xox

thanks and giving: a Thanksgiving giveaway

Happy Thanksgiving weekend dear friends! Whether you are Canadian or not, there's nothing wrong with saying thanks and showing gratitude for all that we have right?

This weekend is all about hanging out with new friends (because we are far from family), having good food, spending quality time together as a little family and being thankful for all that we have been blessed with.

So in honour of Thanksgiving I thought I would do a little giveaway because it's been a while since I've given anything away and also because I am thankful for everyone who reads my little ol' blog.

So what I am offering is a set (3) of my brand new hot off the press postcards, they haven't even been added to my etsy shop yet and also 1 photo art card.

All you have to do is simply leave a comment saying what you are thankful for and I will choose one winner on Thursday of next week (when I get back from the cabin).

Hope you all have a great weekend! Happy Thanksgiving dear friends (even if you aren't Canadian).

a bbq, good friends and thoughts on leaving

It's a beautiful day here and it's been a beautiful weekend. We've been spending lots of time with our friends and family (who came to visit), and I am feeling thankful for the time we've been spending with them.
It's been a bit of an emotional couple of days for me. Yesterday our dear friends Allison and Danny held a goodbye bbq for us, and boy did it hit me. I just can't bear to say goodbye to all of our friends here. As much as I am happy and excited for the changes that are about to happen, I'm also sad that we are leaving. I'm feeling very "in between" about this all. Excited for the adventures, but sad to be leaving. It's just how it is.
But that is the beauty of life right? Living in the moment and embracing all the emotions that come with it. Enjoying every day and looking for the beauty in even the most challenging of circumstances.
I hope that wherever you are today, that you are enjoying today for today. I hope that the warmth of the summer (or winter for the "down under" readers) sun is shinning down on you. Happy weekend dear friends!
xox

p.s. Oh and we have a winner for the giveaway! Congrats to Kerry who will be wining the animal cookie cutters. Since discovering Kerry's blog a while back, I have enjoyed checking in on her daily and seeing what her and her family are up to. Yay for blog friends!

a cast of animal cookies, a long winded story and a giveaway!

A while back I came across a post done by one of my favourite bloggers about animal cookies. It took me only a second to recognize the cookie cutters that she used, as I had just bought a set for my mother for part of her mother's day gift.
I got so excited to see those cute animal cookie cutters come to life that I decided that I would go back to IKEA and buy a set for myself. But sadly they were all sold out.
So I waited and waited, hoping that they would be restocked and to my excitement they were....so I bought a set. Actually I bought four sets because I am weird like that and often buy multiples to keep on hand as quick and easy gifts to give to people.
And then, just the other night as I sat looking out the sliding door window into my garden and feeling somewhat sorry for myself that I didn't get to plant anything this summer, an idea came to me. Why not use the lavender that I planted last year for something?

I had never cooked with lavender but I had heard of people using it in ice cream and cookies, so I began to look up a recipes for lavender cookies. And then with the wheels turning in my head, I remembered Joni's post on animal cookies and I think you can guess where the rest of the story goes.
So without further adieu, I give you...

Lavender Lemon Shortbread Cookies

1 cup butter softened
1/3 cup of maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups of flour
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon fresh lavender flowers
1 teaspoon lemon zest

Cream the butter, maple syrup and vanilla together. Add in the lavender and lemon zest. Slowly add in the flour a cup at a time until the dough is formed. Separate into 2 balls. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 mins.
Preheat oven to 350. Roll out dough onto a floured surface. Use your favourite cookie cutters and lay the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake cookies for 5 mins. Check on them regularly.

And here's the exciting news for you! It's been a while since I've done a giveaway and because I bought a few extra sets, I'd like to give a set away to one reader. To enter the giveaway, tell me what your favourite type of cookie is. Leave a comment by Friday and I will choose one person to win the cookie cutters.
xox

UPDATE

The winner is Kerry from Young Ones.....congrats Kerry!

giveaway results

Hey friends...

Today I drew the name for the winner of my 1 year blog anniversary giveaway and I am excited to share the winner with you. And the lucky winner is ....

Yay! Congrats Alena, I'm so happy that you won the loot bag! I'll be mailing to you very soon!

xox

why I blog. happy blog anniversary to me!

This post marks my one year blog anniversary, a pretty big landmark I would say for the simple fact that one year ago when I started out with birds on a wire I really had no idea why or what I wanted to blog about.

My first impressions about blogging were that it would be a great way to showcase my art and hopefully reach a few more people out there who might be interested in seeing my work. But I also knew that I wanted to add some personal touches to it, daily reflections, stories, inspiration ect. At first I wasn't sure how personal I wanted to get here. I was nervous about revealing too much of my personal feelings mostly for fear that people would either not be interested at all or worse judge me in some sort of way. But again slowly and within the limits of my comfort I have been sharing bits and pieces of my personal life and really this blog has become somewhat of an open book diary for me. One that I have come to enjoy doing in so many ways as you will find out. If you want to read a few personal posts about me check these two. Oh and this one.

For me blogging gives me so much pleasure and happiness. To begin with, as a medium I love blogging. I enjoy the process from beginning to end of creating a post. I often make lists of topics that I want to write about and I am always and forever in possession of my beloved camera so that I can capture a shot if I see something that I like. Blogging has helped me to slow down and observe the word around me. From listing the simple things in life that make me happy to photographing my nature collections, my blog has become a virtual sketchbook/journal that I enjoy adding to almost everyday. I just love adding posts to my collection.

And so in honour of this special anniversary I have created a little loot bag for one lucky guest that has come to celebrate with me. I picked up these little treasures at one of my favourite stores in Ottawa called The Papery. In this loot bag you will get, 1 lined EcoJot notebook, 1 sheet of amazingly cute animal stickers, 3 retro domestic wifey stickers and a sweet Belle and Boo card that will be ready for you to send off to someone. I really enjoyed picking up these little treasures in honour of my anniversary and am excited to give it away.

And so to enter the giveaway I'm asking you to please tell me what would you like to see more of on my blog. What specific topics do you enjoy reading about, what types of photos would you like to see? Also I'm making this giveaway only open to those who follow my blog, if you don't already follow me just go to my side bar and add yourself, it's very easy. The giveaway closes Tuesday Feb 23rd and I will announce the winner then.

And so this is the end of this little post. I just want to say to each and every friend who reads this (and yes I consider you all my friends) that I really appreciate each and every one of you. Each little comment that is left, each visit means so much to me. I feel so blessed to have connected with so many creative and inspirational individuals out there....and let me tell you I just love visiting other people's blogs. Somedays I am just blown away by the talent and interesting stories that others share through their blogs....my days are instantly brighter when I take a stroll through my blog reader list.

Well my dears, I am signing off on what must be again one of my longest posts ever.

Happy Friday dear friends. Happy Friday!

xox

*side note, these items were picked out and bought by me and have not been sponsored in anyway.

Mailman is here!

Hi hi! I hope that your Wednesday is a happy and sunny one. I'm here to announce the winners (yep, winners) of the giveaway I decided to pick two because the entries were so great. I wish wish wish that I could've picked more but, sigh, I couldn't. So without further adieu.......

The winners are

Tia from Christopher and Tia (a GREAT blog by the way!)

who said "Honestly I probably wouldn't send them, I'd probably put them on display as artwork in my house. "

and

Aimes! (Amy)

who writes "I will send one each month to my sister, aka my bf. she has moved to Taiwan and I miss her terribly. I know her white walls are bare, so this will be a perfect way to send her a note plus little piece of art to brighten up her apartment. "

Ladies, I'll be in touch with you soon so that I can get your addresses and such.

Thank you so much for joining in on the giveaway. I always enjoy hearing from you all.

Happy Wednesday! xox

Giveaway and there's something you should know about me...

A true fact....I never went past grade 10 math. It's a bit embarrassing but after years and years of struggling with a learning disability in math, I was finally excused and was put out of my misery. I am not being dramatic when I say math made me miserable. Numbers, equations, problems...it was just too abstract for me and to this day I sometimes secretly use my fingers to add.

Anyways why am I sharing this bit of info about me? Well I was hoping that this would be my excuse for messing up on my blog's birthday. I was a month too early when I jumped the gun last week and said that today would be my blog's birthday. Oooops! So I thought I would blame it on my math disability. Okay so really I am making excuses....letting my disability be an excuse for my lack of attention. Excuses. Excuses.

But that doesn't mean that I forgot that I would do a giveaway...no! I'm still gonna do it AND I will do a different giveaway next month too (on the actual birthday).

So this giveaway is a set of my photo note cards. I did a little tutorial a while back on how to make these and I ended up doing them as Christmas gifts this year. They are blank inside and signed by me. They come in a set of four and are tied up all pretty with ribbons.

So to enter the giveaway you need to do two things. One- become a "follower" of my blog. Just go over to the side where you see followers and then do what blogger tells you to do. The second thing? Tell me what you will use the cards for. You have until Wednesday to enter.

Here's a few pics of what you will see on this set of note cards....

xox

drum roll please....

For my first ever giveaway I asked people to tell me, what makes your house a home and I really enjoyed reading each one. Many said it was their family that made their house a home. Pets were also mentioned many times. Good food, good smells, laughter and keepsakes were all mentioned. Thank you for sharing such lovely answers.

So to choose the winner of my first ever giveaway I had Winslow draw a name out of a hat

and now for the winner.....

Thanks to everyone for leaving a comment. Stay tuned as I have a few more giveaways coming soon for the holidays!

give give give away!

This is it! My first giveaway and I am just so excited to be able to share some of my art with you!

For my first giveaway I will be giving a colour print of this water colour painting that I made this past summer.

All you have to do is post a comment below this post and answer this question:

What makes your house a home?

Also if you start to follow my blog you can enter twice!

The winner will be chosen Thurs Nov 5th. Please make sure to include your email if you don't have a link to your name. Good luck! And this is just the beginning, there's more to come!