All things vintage!

While blog hopping from my brother's blog tonight, I found the cutest, little, vintage etsy shop. Orange twine has some great items for sale. Pictured above, has to be my favorite. I have been searching for vintage milk bottles as of lately and, what do you know! The shop has all sorts of great items; purses, jewelry, glassware...you name it, they probably have it! You can also get to know them better by visiting their blog. Go take a peek!

Weekend Plans

The weather here in Arizona is finally, finally, finally cooling off. I'm not sure what the temperature is, but I do know that it's not in the triple digits and that I can stand comfortably outside without being covered in sweat. Hooray!

This week has been insanely busy for me. Now that things are winding down, I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend with my family. My kids are still all very young and get really excited for every holiday. I try to decorate and do fun activities with them, mainly because I love their innocence and how the smallest things can make them so very excited. I am thinking about making these little pizza mummies or these banana ghosts (I love the Family Fun website).

My children also adore books, so I am thinking of starting this cute tradition that I saw on Design Mom's website, which involves reading spooky stories by candlelight before bedtime. One of our favs is Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson.Finally, I should probably start thinking about tackling this:
Yep, that's what happens when you aren't home pretty much all week. Lots o' laundry. Yikes!

Have a good weekend everyone! What are your fun plans?

Giveaway winner announced!

A huge thanks to everyone who entered our Vintage AdaElle Giveaway. We are excited to welcome all of our new followers and hope you will enjoy what you find here at The Pretty Poppy Blog.

And now, for the winner of the Vintage AdaElle necklace, vintage inspired rosette earrings and $50 gift card to Anthropologie:

Congratulations to Aubri who said "I am so into those vintage inspired earrings right now. I love them all!"

Please email us at theprettypoppy@gmail.com within 24 hours to work out the details of your gifts. A new winner will be selected if no contact is made by 11:30am PST, Thursday October 7th.

For those who didn't win, head on over to Tatertots and Jello, where the lovely Jen is hosting another giveaway to win a $40 gift card to our Pretty Poppy Etsy store.

Thanks again to all of you!!! Stay tuned for more fun giveaways we have planned in the near future.

The Anthro giftcard is on the table!

Hooray! You guys did it! We have surpassed 250 followers, which is so exciting for us (thank you! We are certain our readers are the best out there.) It is also exciting news for you, as it means that now in addition to receiving a Vintage AdaElle necklace and rosette earrings, the winner of our giveaway will also get a $50 gift card to Anthropologie.

So happy for that lucky person! It could be you! If you haven't already entered, you still have until midnight tonight. Enter right here. Until then, here are some cute items I saw on the Anthro website this morning. Got to love window shopping at that fun little store!

Rainy Days!

Whoever made up that poem "Rain, Rain go away" must have lived in the Northwest region of the United States. All I know is they, most definitely, did not live in Arizona. I believe those living in Arizona are some of the few that truly appreciate rainy days.

Today is one of those days for me. The heat here has been almost unbearable. I purposefully left the entire summer so I could avoid this heat. It looks like it really wanted to say hello to me because it has stayed put. That is, until today! Yay, we have seen the clouds and they actually produced some moisture along with some cooler temps.

When I saw that it was only going to be in the 90's today I immediately scheduled a park day because, quite frankly, I'm tired of my house! I love this weather. The only time I have wished the rain would cease was when my back yard almost flooded into my home. The picture above was of that day and although it was a miserable day for me, this scene surely brightened up my day. Today is a great day and has surely brightened up my week. Is it possible for rain to brighten up a day. Yep! I can't wait for winter!

More Giveaways!

We have a bunch of seriously talented friends who consistently inspire and motivate us. Tricia, one of the first friends I made when moving to this area, is an amazing artist. This girl can draw. Her portraits capture emotion in a way I really can't describe. She has drawn amazing pictures of all three of my children. Seriously incredible. Lucky for all of you, she is hosting a giveaway right now! One of her custom portraits is up for grabs. What a treasure! Head on over to the Baby Night Night blog to enter!(A portrait Tricia drew of my daughter. Amazing, right?)

Secondly, I am sure many of you have heard about Shannon over at Shannon Makes Stuff. Yes, this is the same Shannon who won So You Think You're Crafty. I am convinced she can make pretty much anything you can dream up. Not only that, she is also extremely thoughtful and kind. Currently, Shannon is giving away a box full of fun crafting stuff to the winner of her current contest. Head over to Shannon Makes Stuff to enter. Seriously, a box filled with the stuff a crafters dreams are made of is waiting for you!

Don't forget, you have a few days to enter our current giveaway too! So many fun things to win!

E-Mealz

Tonight I signed up for E-Mealz and I am PUMPED! I've heard a bunch of glowing reviews of this service, and was excited to actually sit down this evening and really research their website. It wasn't hard to sell me. Basically, you choose a plan, sign up (so inexpensive -- only $15 for a dinner menu every day for three months!), and from there receive a set of pre-planned meals complete with preparation instructions and a shopping list. I can't tell you how many problems this solves for me. Making a weekly meal plan and shopping list has been so hard for me. I seem to always get stuck in a rut. I am so excited to try this out.

I selected the Low Fat Any Store Plan (there are plans based on diet, as well as on the stores you like to shop at.) In three months I think I will switch over to the Low Carb Plan, and after that, to the Vegetarian Plan. I am really excited about all the new recipes I will get to try.

If you head on over to the super fun, super darling blog by Becky Higgins, you can receive an awesome discount on your E-Mealz subscription (ends October 15th.) This discount is what finally motivated me to sign up.

I'll let you know how I like it! (I was absolutely not paid to write this review -- I really am this excited about it!) Have any of you tried E-Mealz or a service like them?