Do You Like Free Stuff? (Ramsign Giveaway)

****This giveaway is now over****

How about a little pick-me-up as we head into the dark days of fall and (shhhhhh) winter?

Ramsign Classic Enamel Signs has generously offered one lucky Turtles and Tails reader a house number sign (1-5 digits) absolutely free! That's worth up to $99! And they ship anywhere in the world! Those are a lot of exclamation points!

Have you seen their signs before? 

Ramsign is a small Danish company that revived the long European tradition of enameled signs. These signs are made of porcelain enamel and are so elegant. Each one is produced by hand, so no two signs are the same.

You could do this:

Or this:

Or even this:

Imagine how beautiful your house will look. 

Imagine how jealous your neighbours will be. 

You could even give it as a gift to someone you REALLY like. 

So what do you have to do? Well, I want to give you as many opportunities to win as possible, so I'm going to offer multiple ways to qualify:


1. Head over to the Ramsign website, visit their gallery, then come back here and let me know in the comments what sign you would choose if you could.

2. "Like" Ramsign on Facebook. 

3. Follow Ramsign on Twitter.

4. Become a follower of Turtles and Tails via Google Friend Connect (up there on the right). If you already are a follower then that counts too!

5. "Like" Turtles and Tails on Facebook.

6. Follow me on Pinterest.

Just leave a comment below for each entry. 


The giveaway is now open and runs until next Friday (Nov 2nd) at 8pm EST. I'll determine a winner using random.org and announce the name the following Monday.

Good Luck!

Catching Up with the Interwebs

I've been extremely lax in keeping up with the many, many blogs I follow. Between working on one big and one medium project (while planning another one that Tom won't let me start until the first ones are done),  and working at my real job an hour away, there just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day. Plus I find it hard to find the ambition when it's dark outside so early, how about you?

But I wanted to share with you some projects I have come across in the few minutes each day I get to take a peek around (usually during my lunch break).

I'm obsessed with pumpkins this year. Last year I made dryer vent pumpkins, but this year I've made spray painted pumpkins, tiny fabric pumpkins, burlap pumpkins - and I still have ideas for more. Unfortunately I never get around to taking pictures of any of them so you'll just have to trust me - they're really cute.

Someone who has had the time to make a pumpkin AND take a picture of it is Shannon at Sewing Barefoot. These sweater pumpkins are absolutely adorable. I love the twine curlicues and twig stem that give it that organic, could-easily-have-grown-there look.

Sweater Pumpkins (from Sewing Barefoot)

~~~~~

I've been thinking about Christmas decorating as well. I love making ornaments. Especially pinecone ornaments. This awesome little pinecone is from Melanie at Bliss Bloom Blog. No one would ever accuse me of being girly, but I can definitely imagine several of these sweet lace ornaments on a Victorian Christmas tree strung with cranberries and tiny lights. I am definitely stealing this idea, Melanie!

Scalloped Lace Pinecone (from Bliss Bloom Blog)

~~~~~

Check out this dresser makeover from Tami at Curb Alert. It looks just like the Pottery Barn dresser she used for inspiration - maybe even better. I love the distressing - just around the edges. And the wicker baskets contrast so well with the black. And I love the unpainted top. I guess you could say I love the whole thing!

Distressed Dresser (from Curb Alert)

~~~~~

This just makes me laugh so much. Bethany at The Sepia Puppy and her husband do fun little experiments in their backyard with jell-o, guns, and a camera. Sounds scary, right? They call it High Speed Ballistic Art. You'll have to go to her site to get the details, but the images she's captured so far are amazing. When I told Tom about it he wanted to jump in the car, drive south, and help them out (with shooting the gun of course). If we still lived in the country I know he'd spend every weekend trying to do this.

High Speed Ballistic Art (from The Sepia Puppy)

~~~~~

How about we switch to food? I'm always up for a cookie break. These Reese's peanut butter chocolate chip cookies with pudding are from Kara at Creations by Kara. (Whew! That was a mouthful! Ha! Punny!) I've never heard of pudding cookies before, but I'm willing to give them a try if it makes them soft and chewy. And I love peanut butter cookies. Love.

Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pudding (from Creations by Kara)

Do you find there is never enough time to visit all the blogs you want to? There are so many fantastic ideas floating around out there - imagine if you could try them all?

Surf's Up!

We have the beginnings of a gallery wall in the living room. But it's probably the saddest gallery wall in existence because half of the frames are empty. And it's been like that for over a year. Maybe two. Minus 50 points for my decorating skills.

The biggest problem is that we can never decide what we want in the frames because let's face it, every photo I take is a winner. And especially pictures of the dogs. There's nothing weird about a gallery wall devoted to your dogs, is there? Is there? Hello? Did the two people who read this blog leave?

The wall still has a long way to go. Besides filling the frames I mean. I want to paint them all white I think, to give it a cohesiveness. However, this weekend I took a huge step forward in filling up those empty spaces. And if you can't tell that most of the time I write with sarcasm, then you haven't been paying attention.

The last time we vacationed in Hawaii we rented a 2 bedroom cottage on the North Shore, right on the beach. Hanging in the living room of the cottage was a satellite photo of the North Shore showing every surf spot between Turtle Bay and Waialua. Believe it or not, there are 69 different spots.

And what made it even cooler was that the owner had added a "you are here" sticker to the picture. We were staying between Paty's Shorebreak and Kamisugis if you were wondering. Also, if you're interested in renting a place that is literally no more than 10 steps from a deserted beach and doesn't cost an arm and a leg to rent, let me know. We're thinking of renting it again next year, we loved it so much.

Anyway, I took several photos of the picture because I never thought I'd see it again. (It turns out it's a poster that you can buy and they'll even ship it for free.) One of the frames on our sad gallery wall is 9.5 x 16.5. Kind of crazy dimensions, but perfect for this picture. I had to print it out in two parts as the largest photo paper I had is 8.5 x 11, but I don't think the seam detracts from it that much. And I can't for the life of me figure out why the blue tones changed right in the middle.

The deep blues are just gorgeous though and add some much needed colour to the mostly neutral room. And it's so much fun to walk into the room and be reminded of our favourite place on Earth. It just makes me smile every time I see it.