The Hazelnuts February Giveaway

Entries for this are now closed, thanks everyone who entered!


Giveaway Badge, originally uploaded by Hazelnutgirl.

I asked you for ideas on what I should do for a giveaway to celebrate my 300th post/first bloggoversary/100 followers/still breathing achievement and there were such a diverse set of answers it actually gave me an idea. So...

In order to celebrate and thank you, oh readers, for your kind comments, encouragement and the fact that you exist, I would like to give you your heart's desire. That's right. If you win then you will tell me what you'd most like from the projects in this blog (try choosing 'projects' under the tag list), or even suggest a new one, and I'll say "yes!" and make it and send it to you.

Now I suppose I should put some boring qualifiers on that "yes!" Firstly, there may be a project or two that I won't want to replicate exactly (such as gifts for others), and other projects I can't replicate exactly but could be done in a different fabric (like the Oliver + S shirt). Secondly, I'll try to be as timely with completing it as I can, but given I'm about to start teaching I may have to beg your indulgence on the completion date.

How to enter? Just leave a comment below saying "hi!". Tell me about yourself, tell me a joke, about your cat, whatever. All you really need is your name and a way to contact you if you don't have your email in your profile (check because I thought I did and didn't!). Otherwise a blog link or an email will be fine. No extra entries for reposting or twittering or anything like that - I want a regular reader to win so improve your chances by keeping this a secret ;) All the entries will go into a bowl and I'll let Hazel choose the lucky winner.

Entries will close at noon on Wednesday 17th February NZ time. That's 6pm Tuesday 16th EST or 3pm PST for the Americans and Canadians and I'm afraid the rest of you will have to figure it out for yourselves :)

And the winner is...

And that number belongs to Elizabeth from Empty Elizabeth who said

I live in Wisconsin, USA... near Milwaukee. That is such a great little zip pouch! And thanks for the tutorial link, my zippers never turn out quite right!

Wheee! This was such fun! Look out for another proper bloggoversary giveaway in January and we can do it all over again :) I'm still in awe that I got 285 lovely comments O_O You are all so nice! Thank goodness I figured out how to number them because I think I'd have been cross-eyed counting up to 176! If anyone else wants to try I used the tutorial at The Computery. It worked for my template (Minima) when several others I tried didn't.

Sew Mama Sew December Giveaway

Thanks to everyone who participated in my giveaway, it's been such fun reading all the comments! I'm off to generate the winning number and will be posting it above shortly.

Welcome to my giveaway for the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day! Up for grabs is this cute little bag made from dark grey wool and lots of felt spots.



It measures approx. 19 x 10.5cm (about 7.5 x 4") and is lined with pink cotton. The spots are wool-blend felt and and the buttons are from my button box.



I had an awful time trying to photograph it so that the colours were true, the camera couldn't handle the intense orange and pink of some of the spots! I've desaturated the photos a little so you can see the details, in real life it's a bit more fun and vibrant.

What do you need to do to win this wee bag? Well I'm going to make you really work for it - in your comment I want you to tell me where you're from in the big wide world. That's it. :) I'm happy to ship worldwide too (because let's face it, pretty much everywhere is overseas from New Zealand!)

The giveaway will be open until 2pm, December 7th NZ time which works out to 8pm December 6th EST. The winner will be chosen by random number generator. Please make sure that you've either left your blog URL or an email - if you have your Blogger profile set up to be private I have no way of contacting you other than to post your name here, and I'll redraw in 24 hours if I haven't heard from you. The bag will be mailed immediately but I'm not sure it will make North America or Europe by Christmas, so might end up being a nice little post-Christmas pressie.



I should add that I got the bag pattern from this great tutorial and I love the way the zipper is put in, it makes it look really professional.

ETA: I just have to add that it's already killing me not to reply to some of the comments but I know if I do it'll screw up figuring out what post belongs to the winning number. I'm being strong, but it's going to be a long few days (and the official part hasn't even started yet!).

Give away winner!

And the winner is, out of 219 entries (!!)...drumroll please... comment number

I know, all those lovely lovely entries and it's lucky #7 :) Not that I'm really complaining because I only had to count up to seven and I didn't even run out of fingers. So the winner is:

Leanna who said "The little bunny is too cute! I'm from around Dallas, TX -- where it's hot almost all of the time! =)" Well Leanna, this bunny is going to be really glad to be sunning his toes near Dallas and away from this miserably cold Auckland weather :) I've sent you an email.

Thank you everyone!

The actual give-away post is now 3 down from this one, but I just wanted to say thank-you to everyone who has come by and left such lovely comments about my bunny. I said over at the SMS giveaway that you couldn't pay a therapist for this kind of warm fuzzy feeling and it's so true! I've read every single one and they've all made me smile. It's been such a fun experience I'm totally hooked on being both a participant and an entrant in so many other fabulous give-aways! I've actually made it through both the handmade categories and just have a few left in the supplies one to go - how's that for dedication? I haven't kept track of how many I've entered but I've seen so many wonderful things my head is spinning and I fear I've lost track of some blogs that I should have noted down in the initial frenzy of clicking through such a long list. Why I was in such a hurry I don't know because there is still heaps of time left - I guess I was going at the pace I did last time when it was just 24 hours! Hopefully I can go back through and pick up those ones who got left behind. That sounds vaguely military doesn't it... I haven't even entered in for everything that I liked as I kept asking myself "would I actually use this?" and if the answer was a hopeful "yes. I think..." then I admired and passed on. Same for all those cute baby clothes. I suppose there must be various strategies employed by people in a situation like this - enter everything, enter for everything you like, enter for only stuff you might use and so on. The great thing is that there is something to appeal to everyone - some things I haven't liked but by the number of comments for them lots of others do and I think that's so great! You get in a bit of a rut sometimes, only looking at blogs where they make things you know you'll like, it's a bit like preaching to the choir :) This just serves to remind that my taste in things isn't the be-all and end-all of craft. Though it's pretty close ;)

Sew Mama Sew May Giveaway

The giveaway is now CLOSED. Thanks to everyone who entered! I'll post the winner in a new post above.




Welcome to my giveaway! I'm currently in the throes of a felt bunny obsession, so it seems only right to share some of the bunny love around. So for one lucky commenter I've got this little guy (gal?).



Standing 19cm (7 1/2") tall, not including ears, he's made of a wool blend felt and has red felt flowers appliqued all over his back. He sports a magnificent wool tail, truly the envy of all other felt bunnies! He's not really designed for the younger crowd, I doubt the flowers or tail would stand up to much pulling or sucking; but he's up for lots of bouncing and other more gentle forms of loving. Let's say older kids and the young at heart generally, just to be on the safe side.



I'm happy to ship internationally too! All you need to do is leave a comment on this post and tell me where you're from in the world - I'm always fascinated by the far-flung places people visit from! Please make sure that I can contact you either via your own blog or by email. The draw will be open until the evening of June 1st here in New Zealand, which will take it up to about midnight, May 31st in North America. I'll use a random number generator to pick the winner and will post the result immediately.

ETA: I'm planning on posting a tutorial for the bunny with pattern and instructions in the near future - so if you're not the winner this time please check back for the tutorial and make your own!

I can't wait to start working my way through other participating blogs, I'm wishing everyone (including me) good luck!