Quick Takes: October Celebrations

So, I meant to do this last week, but life intervened and it simply didn't happen.  This week's Quick Takes are going to be a little bit different.  I'm going to tell you all about some fun stuff that's happening around here this month!

1.  October is a special month for me, it's my birth month!  I've always loved October.  The weather can be warm or cold (I've seen both blizzards and Indian Summers on my special day).  And all of the beautiful fall colors!  It's just lovely.  (And there are pine cones everywhere!)

2.  I love crafting.  I think that's probably pretty obvious to everyone.  Yarn, beads, fabric, and all of the trimmings bring me much happiness.  

3.  I will be hosting some awesome "crafty" giveaways throughout the month here at The Philosopher's Wife.  You will have the chance to win some fun craft supplies that I hope will bring you some happiness.  

4.  I will also be linking to some of my favorite giveaways being hosted by other bloggers over at The Philosopher's Wife: Giveaways Galore, so be sure to check those out too!  (I'm hoping to link to one craft supply type giveaway a day for the rest of the month, so if crafting is your thing you really should check it out.)

5.  The giveaway goodness has already started!  This giveaway for a set of Clover Amour Crochet Hooks will end October 15, 2014 -- go enter! 

6.  Some of my sponsors for this month include Zipper Island, Happy Mango Beads, Create for Less, and Red Heart!  

7.  If you're a blogger and have a crafty type giveaway you'd like me to feature just drop me a line!  If you'd like to sponsor a giveaway to be hosting on my blog, again just drop me a line.  I'd love to work with you!    

Quick Takes are hosted by Jen.

Great Mail Day!

Last week was a little crazy, insofar as we were having a blast at the beach and my sister was visiting!  Of course, a week at the beach throws all semblance of a "normal" schedule off-kilter, so today has been primarily focused on unpacking, cleaning (how does the house get dirty when there is no one home?), exercising (yippee for morning lap swim!), toddler swim, prepping for the week, etc.  Being gone for a week also meant that the poor mailman had quite a bit to deliver to our humble abode today.  (BTW, I love how easy it is to set up a vacation mail stop online.  I use this handy feature whenever we're out of town!)

Among the usual bills, circulars, (free) magazines and such there were quite a few small packages for me!  A while back I spent some time on Ebay bidding on ridiculously cheap crafting supplies and  a bunch of stuff came today!  I promised/reminded/scolded myself that I need to finish putting the house in order (or at least get it back to where it was pre-beach) before jumping into any crafty projects, but I did allow myself to enjoy opening the packages (and to share my excitement here on my blog!).

Here's an overview of all of the goodies that came today!

Ring and earring settings

Large and small resin flowers

I really love these flowers!  They are so cute!

This beautiful red yarn is 70% Bamboo and 30% Cotton.
And the color is just stunning.

Silver ball seed beads--2,000 of them!
Gorgeous 15 inch strand of turquoise nuggets

These aren't the greatest pictures, but you can probably tell by how excited I am that I am very happy with the quality of these super-duper-inexpensive purchases!  At most craft stores I would have easily paid over fifty bucks for all of this, but I got everything pictured for less than a quarter of that!  It really does pay to shop around and check all of your options.  (And if you have any secrets for cheaply fueling your craft addiction, err, hobby, PLEASE SHARE!)

I will share my excitement of this awesome mail day at 

some of these awesome link parties!