Featured Follower: Denise from Whimsy Couture

Way back in June, I met a great crafty and creative mom named Denise. I learned she was also incredibly generous when she offered to sponsor a giveaway through her Etsy Store, Whimsy Couture.

After earning a degree in business management, Denise realized her true passion was designing. She began creating Barbie dresses and then began making things for pets of all kinds! In September of 2004 her first child was born so she turned her love of designing doll and pet cloths to baby clothes.

Want to know how she came up with the fun name for her store? Denise's favorite things to make are anything whimsical! She loves appliques, ruffles, and mixing fabrics. But, you will also find very classic, timeless garments in solid colors in Whimsy Couture.

Denise mainly sells her clothing patterns but she also sells some of her custom creations. I was super happy to win one off of her blog earlier this month--an adorable Halloween Romper for Cutie Face to wear on all her Fall/Halloween outings.

We wore that romper out but Cutie Face still asks for it--seriously, she loves that dress so much that if she isn't begging to wear it she is dragging it around the house like a security blanket and loving on it.

You can see millions of pictures of Cutie Face in this outfit on our family blog (esp. this post!)

Make sure you check out Denise's fun blog (full of giveaways and crafty how-tos!).

And, as always, feel free to sign up to be a Featured Follower (just submit your information in the spreadsheet found at the bottom of this post)

Featured Follower: Michaela from Life with the Crazies

(special note: the adverb of the day is "ridiculously")

So I know all of my followers have ridiculously cute families but I'm also learning that you are ridiculously hilarious, too.

Case in point--this week's featured follower: Michaela from Life with the Crazies

Michaela has two cutie pies: Goofball and SweetPea. She is a fifth-grade teacher part-time and at home with the Crazies part-time. Michaela has great priorities (in my opinion!): God FIRST then family. How easy it is as a mom (read how easy it is for ME) to jump up out of bed and go straight to mom-mode instead of daughter-of-God mode.

Anyway.

Back to the Crazies.

Goofball sounds like he lives up to his name--his exploits and quotes are hilarious but I was incredibly touched by this dialogue he had between he had with his mommy. You MUST read it. Right now. Go here.

Sweetpea sounds like she, too, lives up to her moniker. She is all girl and, according to her mama, will throw a temper tantrum if she does not have a bow in her hair! That made me smile.

You can read more about their background in Michaela's little 411 post here.

Besides being a wife, mom, and teacher, Michaela is also ridiculously crafty. She even has an Etsy store, L'alfabeto (you can also find her store on Facebook!).

She made matching coordinating robot shirts for Goofball and his friend:

She recently hosted a giveaway for these cool wire letters that she makes:

and she made a cool autumnal wreath for the Fall:

Yup. Crafty.

One thing that I found really cool about Michaela is that she donated her wedding dress to Goodwill. YES. DONATED. Her wedding dress. (Check out her story about that here).

Anyway, I could go on and on about how funny, crafty, and cute Michaela and the Crazies are but why don't you go on over and meet them yourself? Don't forget to tell her "Hello!"

PS As always, if you would like to be a featured follower, just fill out the form found in the bottom of this post.

Featured Follower: Chelsi from the McFadden Family Adventures!

How come the most AWWWW-dorable families follow me? I cannot get over everyone's cuteness each time I do a Featured Follower post. LOVE it and LOVE getting to know you all. (and, if you want to be a featured follower one day, make sure you fill out the form found on this post)


This week's featured follower is Chelsi from the McFadden Family Adventures. She participates in I ❤ Faces and other fun blogging networks so she is a great go-to gal for neat links! Chelsi started blogging around the same time I did--February 2009--and has a great recap post of her life to get y'all acquainted with her.

Chelsi is married to a Communications Operator for Cal-Fire. He is also a Volunteer Firefighter (can we all say, "Thank you!"?) for Ukiah City Fire Department and an excellent craftsman. He owns and operates their family Business, McFadden Family Woodworking. Partially because her husband is a firefighter, Chelsi wrote a beautiful post about the September 11th anniversary.

They have two sons: Little Firefighter (almost 5!) and Mr. Moo (18-months). Both are so super cute!

Chelsi seems like such a wonderful and wise mother. If you get a chance, you should check out her post on taming her Little Firefighter's temper tantrums from a Christian perspective (something I'm definitely going to need to bookmark!).

Chelsi is super creative and crafty (she made that cake for Mr. Moo's 1st birthday!)...and she is also a great photographer. You are bound to find some great pictures in every post...eye candy for sure!

Check out The McFadden's Family Adventures today!

Featured Follower: Lea Liz from "The Roland Family"

It seems I'm not just behind on my Thankful Thursday posts but also slacking in my Featured Follower posts!

Since I just got done thanking you, my followers and readers, for voting for my twin in a Baby Bjorn contest I couldn't resist featuring one of you as well!

This week, the Random Integer Generator picked...

Lea Liz from the Roland Family

Lea Liz is another gorgeous young mommy. She and her husband live in Kentucky and have been married for almost two years (in January!). Aren't they a gorgeous couple? Here they are at their first dance:

Just two-weeks shy of their First Anniversary, their bundle of joy, Brody Luke arrived on the scene:

(i like this pic because Tim is wearing a Boston Red Sox hat!)




Brody seems like such a little ham! He loves to eat and smiles about everything!

Recently, Lea Liz took him to a Pumpkin Patch and came back with the cutest pictures:

Isn't Brody cute? If you think so, you can go vote for him--Lea Liz entered him into the Gap Casting Call for babes and toddlers! You can find his entry by clicking here.

Make sure you check out all their fun going-ons in Kentucky and afar:

PS if you want to be a featured follower, make sure you fill out this form, found at the bottom of this post.

Featured Follower: Lauren from Thread by Thread!

I was SO happy that Lauren from Thread by Thread was chosen by Random.org to be my Featured Follower today!

Lauren is one of my fave bloggers for many reasons:

1) She has a heart of gold
2) She seeks the Lord first, then takes care of her husband, and then her cute little kiddos
3) She is a cloth diapering GURU and even has her own cloth diapering blog!
4) She lives in Georgia! A fellow Georgian is always cool in my book :)
5) She leaves comments on your blog and makes you feel all special!

Here she is with her adorable family--she has a son (Wild Man) and a daughter (Little Lady) who are so cute and say hilarious things!

and she is an incredible wife and helpmate to the man she loves--her love for him is so evident by her posts

She often posts AWESOME cooking tutorials. I've made her Monkey Bread (dough from scratch!) and it was to die for. Here is an example of her Orange Sticky Rolls. Don't they look divine?

Not to mention that she is insanely crafty. She owns her own crafty store blog (and we think she should get on Etsy!). Look at these gorgeous creations...and buy them by going to her blog, Linens at the Gate

If you haven't checked out Lauren or her blog Thread by Thread get yourself over there today! You'll be happy you did! And, if you want to be a featured follower, make sure you fill out this form, found at the bottom of this post.

Featured Follower: Brittany from The Silvy Family!

Yay for Featured Follower! I haven't done it in forever so I'm so happy to be posting about it today!

This week I randomly drew a blog from the list of bloggers who signed up to be featured (want to be featured? Check this post out!) and up came Brittany from the blog "The Silvey Family". Brittany is an adorable young mama to Mialyn Reese, who, by the way, is celebrating her four-month birthday today! She blogs all about her new life with Mialyn.

Once upon a time I thought my daughter was oh-so-cute and knew how to accessorize and dress.

Then I saw these pictures of the cutest little baby ever!

Oh my goodness.

Feast your eyes on precious Mialyn Reese (and, of course, her lovely mama, Brittany!)

Is this outfit not the cutest?

Be sure to stop by the Silvy Family blog to read more about life with Mialyn, Brittany, and Erik!

Featured Follower: Love and Marriage

I'm excited to announce this week's Featured Follower on Monkeys on the Bed!

Drum roll please!

It is Elizabeth from Love and Marriage!

I remember when Elizabeth's gorgeous profile picture first popped up on my list of followers...(yes, I totally judged the "blog" by the "cover"). But, seriously, isn't this a gorgeous photo from her wedding (and, yes, its small but it is a profile pic!)?

Speaking of her wedding, Elizabeth is participating in Kelly's Korner "show us your wedding" linkup:

Elizabeth is a 24 year-old blogger that lives in Kansas (hello! i should have waved when we drove through it two weeks ago!) with her husband, Guy, and her two Doberman Pinscher's, Halle and Mosley, and cat, Luca.

Here is a sweet picture of one of her dogs when he was just a puppy:

Elizabeth is a bit of a dare devil (at least according to me!) because she just got a scooter! Fun! Scary! Cool!

Elizabeth recently wrote her own 100-top-things-to-do Bucket List. How neat! I'd love to write one of these someday...Check hers out here

I hope you'll spend a little time getting to know Elizabeth on her blog! One day soon she hopes to be blogging about pregnancy and mommyhood so stay tuned!


PS Do you want to be a featured follower one day? Please fill out this form--ONLY people who fill out the form will be eligible as I do not want to invade anyone's personal blogs unannounced and without being asked! Thanks for understanding!

Introducing...Featured Follower!

My business-minded husband, J, thinks that I should hold a big party and giveaway for reaching 250 followers. I think that is a fun idea...and hope to do it if i ever get my act together....BUT I think it is important to note that I'm not on the hunt for people to follow me just to be a number!

So, I decided to honor all 244 of you, one at a time (which could take years but you get the picture), by featuring one of you each week as a "Featured Follower". You can grab this button and use it on your site or email me for a direct code that would link back to the post I wrote about you. Fun stuff (i hope)!

Because I'm a rules-oriented person who likes to play fair, I didn't know how to go about picking my first featured follower. I decided to limit the people who could be featured to those of you who 1) follow publicly and 2) have a public blog (because you want people to come visit you, too!). That leaves 209 who follow publicly.

...and, since you know how much I love my Random.com Integer finder, I typed in that number and it spit out lucky number 100 (and I said you weren't a number...!)...Sweet Cuddle Cakes!

Sweet Cuddle Cakes is a vibrant blog full of awesome baby and nursery ideas. With 302 (scratch that--i just joined!) 303 followers she is waaaaay cooler than me (because, of course, coolness is determined by blog followers! and, yes, i jest)

I think I spent an hour on her blog just drooling staring at everything she posts about. Sweet Cuddle Cakes hails from Northern Virginia and has her own very creative Etsy Store named, what else...SweetCuddleCakes!

Look at this adorable "Berry Sweet" onesie bouquet she is selling!

and my sweet tooth is totally craving this ADORABLE cotton-candy "flower" bouquet:



Maybe we'll convince her to sponsor a giveaway on Monkeys on the Bed! :) hint hint...

Speaking of giveaways, her blog is sponsored by Henry Wetson Kids which is currently hosting one of their giveaways (bonus find!). Make sure you head on over to her blog and check that giveaway out!

***I hope you liked this first Featured Follower post. Let me know in the comments with a yay or a nay...I read them all and really take them to heart so don't be shy!***