I won a giveaway recently from Donna at Brynwood Needleworks. I received my package on Saturday and I wanted to share it with you. Donna, by the way, is an amazingly talented, creative woman with a needle – I can only bow at her feet!

When I opened the package I saw this lovely box.

You know how much I love birds – Something special will have to be kept in this box!

Inside was this sweet owl pincushion! You remember that we have owls in our trees here at MHC? So this is perfect!

And this beautiful jar of buttons was also inside.

See how beautifully the jar is decorated? Love it. Perfect for a nester who lives in Mockingbird Hill Cottage, don’t you think? Thank you so very much, Donna! What a lovely present!

I’m off to get my overly long hair trimmed and to find some carpet treads for the 3 steps going down into our den. Riley has a very bad hip and getting up and down is hard for him. He sometimes has trouble navigating the steps and we have to do something about that. Unfortunately, the carpet treads available are not to my taste. But Riley’s well-being is more important!

Tomorrow, Heidi and I drive to New Jersey to help her eldest daughter decorate her new dorm room – she has her very own room this year as she is a Resident Advisor. I’ll be sure to take lots of photos!

You might have noticed there has been some decorating happening on the blog this week. It all started a few months back when I won Mandy’s giveaway of custom-designed sidebar labels. That experience was so fabulous that I knew I would be back for more. Last week I asked Mandy to design a button for MHC as well as a signature for my blog posts. I sent her some of my favorite photos and she came up with a beautiful design. She also sent me a whole bunch of font styles to choose from and I picked one for the button and another for my signature.

I loved the results.

So…another idea which had been bubbling under the surface of my mind rose up and I bit the bullet. I decided to have Mandy design a new banner for me. Change is always a bit hard for me and I know a lot of you love the old banner with the McCoy Pottery. Nevertheless, I decided to be daring and I am over-the-moon about the results. And…if you miss the other banner just go to the awards button on my sidebar and click. You will be taken to anotherpage with another MHC banner that has my beloved McCoy in it! So we have the best of both worlds here at MHC.

Mandy has a wonderful blog and an Etsy shop. The link for the shop is on my sidebar. She has graciously offered to give one lucky blogger a free signature. I love mine – I think it finishes each post so nicely. Now, there are a couple of things to know: your blog has to be hosted by Blogger/Blogspot. And you have to leave a comment on this post. When you leave your comment, please indicate your blogging platform. I will put all your names in a hat – or a random number generator – and pick a winner. You have until Friday night at midnight EST. The comment has to be on this post. (I was going to add if you become a follower you get two entries, but that always makes me uncomfortable – so I decided not to. If you want to become a follower just because – lovely.)

I’ve written before about my happy experience working with Mandy. She is talented, creative, understanding, patient (I think I might have driven her a little nuts with my tweaking) and a lovely person. You will love working with her.

Oh, one more thing – my pal Elyse is having a giveaway! Stop by her blog. You’ll be glad you did.