Creative Genuis Award ....

Thank you Gabrielle for the award; I feel very honored.

Gabarielll has a series of blogs with many ideas, creative projects, suggestions with the focus on reconsumer, reuseable items. She has great blogs to check out: www.shopwisebags.com (good place to start with her many, many resources).

Happy New Year - 2009 -

I only have one New Years Resolution ....

To get organized ... any suggestions or ideas? I welcome
your input on how you go about getting things organized,
completing those "to do lists" , staying on top of things.

Looking forward to your thoughts for 2009!

The award, Your Blog Is Over The Top, is being presented to:

. www.shopwisebags.com
. http://www.primandpropermoms.blogspot.com/
. http://www.chicgalleria.com
. www.thoughtsonjoy.blogspot.com
. http://www.normalchallengedartist.blogspot.com

To receive this award your blog must be exceptional in design and content; presenting us with new knowledge, a sense of style, or at times just giving us a smile!

Each recipient of the award will acknowledge the person who honored them with the award and then go to http://overthetopaprons.blogspot.com to copy/paste the award to their side bar. The award, Your Blog is Over The Top, is located on the right sidebar, scroll down.

Just for fun; I would like to invite you to hit on the Blog Award to see a neat, new website!

The recipient may then pass the award on to 5 others that they feel meet the above criteria.

Please enjoy this honor and consider yourself just a little bit "Over The Top"

Personality Feature: Nathalie Brault

I would like to introduce Nathalie --- where does she live? St-Calixte, Quebec. She lives in a small northern village, which she adores, and where there is a lot of snow in winter.

Nathalie has a great interest in upcycled, meaning, she takes used but in good conditions items and make something new with it. For example, her aprons are made with shirts and/or sheets. Her teawallets are made with fabric leftovers. Her tuques are made from sweater sleeves. She even has some necklaces made of vintage bobines. Her motto is reuse, recycle, recuperate.

I asked Nathalie if there were any influences in her young growing up years that she felt might have contributed to this upcycled interest that she has today.

Her mother was a hairdresser and her dad was a musician, so creativity runs in her family. While growing up she was with her mom at the hairdressing salon where she played for hours with wigs and curlers pretending they were ladies that she was taking care of. She use to dress her Barbies with Kleenexes and tape, so she did not need much to be happy. Even at that age she was recuperating fabric to dress her dolls and was aware of the ecology and kept everything for a later usage.

Her first success in selling her creative items was on consignment and this followed with selling on the net in her Etsy shop and on Artfire. She is just at the point of developing her work to be better know and her future goal is to make a living from her creations.

Natalie works very hard to try and get her shops known. For new artists starting out she would encourage you to never give up no matter what people may tell you; work really hard because it's a very competitive world and it is very important to believe in yourself.

To view Nahtalie's work here are the links to her shops:
www.recupefashion.etsy.com
http://women-prenuergalore.blogspot.com
http://nathaliebrault.blogspot.com
www.lagrande2tall4u.artfire.com


You can see that Natalie has a passion about her work, her creative spirit, and a desire to grow in her business. Take a moment and hop on over to her etsy shop (www.recupefashion.etsy.com) and www.lagrande2tall4u.artfire.com and see just what Nathalie is up to.

Why did I interview Nathalie? Because she is unique, she is special, she is one of a kind.

The award "Your Blog Is Over The Top"  is being presented to:

• House Home Garden
  
• Just Me...The Crazy Rancher's Wife
  
• Paperbackdesigns
  
• Zeebabeedesigns
  
• Silverlights
  

To receive this award your blog must be exceptional in design and content; presenting us with new knowledge, a sense of style, or at times just giving us a smile!

Each recipient of the award will acknowledge the person who honored them with the award and then go to http://overthetopaprons.blogspot.com to copy/paste the award : Your Blog is Over The Top. (located on the right sidebar, scroll down)

Just for fun; I would like to invite you to hit on the Blog Award to see a neat, new website!

The recipient may then pass the award on to 5 others that they feel meet the above criteria.

Please enjoy this honor and consider yourself just a little bit "Over The Top".

Merry Christmas to you and your family

as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord and our Savior...

Personality Feature: Another On Line Mom

Personality Feature: Another On Line Mom

Another On Line Mom …

May I introduce to you, Jennifer, a lovely SAHM, married to her hubby four years and they have two children, Mimi and Tommy.

I asked Jennifer how she got into blogging. “At first it was a way to document my children’s lives. I considered it to be “online scrapbooking”. It was also a way for my out of town family to keep up with the children. Now, I use it to make a few extra dollars each month. I do write about 4 or 5 sponsored post a month. I use the dollars to buy FOR ME (which many mom’s forget to do!). I use it for makeup, pedicures or a new pair of jeans!

Now that sounds like good sound advise! Ladies you may want to consider do this for yourselves!

Jennifer is a “Southern Gal”, brought up wearing pearls, never leaving the house without wearing makeup, and always having a fresh baked goodie on hand to offer guests! Jennifer loves cooking, especially baking cookies!! She loves getting recipes from Southern Living and AllReceipes.com. Also, she loves cooking many of her dinners in the crock pot because with her two young kids in the house she finds that she does not have much time to prepare meals.

Growing up she always wanted to be a mom. She had a good childhoood home life, filled with tradtitions and she couldn’t wait to make a “home” for her husband and children.

Some of her favorite blogs are Angry Julie and Barely Keeping It All Together. These do sounds interesting, maybe we will have to check these out.

Jennifer is definitely representative of a lovely Southern mother for today’s generation. It was a joy for me to learn just a little bit more about Jennifer and for you , you just might want to pop on over to her blog, Another On Line Mom and see the latest that Jennifer is up to.

Thanks Jennifer for the visit; I sincerely enjoyed it!

Over The Top Aprons ... GiveAWay

AND THE WINNERS ARE:

Dawn ... 1,000 EntreCard Credits

Ellen ... Widget on my blog for 1 Month.

Megan ... Widget on my blog for 1 Month.

Beaderjojo - widget on my blog for 1 month.

Nathalie ... Interview write up on my blog.

Jennifer ... Interview write up on my blog.

br8eyes ... Widget on my blog for 1 Month.

Ollie McKay ... Interview write up on my blog.

There were so many wonderful comments with the entries that I decided to extent the prizes to 8 winners. The selection was totally random (picked out by my husband - I did not look, make suggestions, or even peak during the process!)

This was my first Giveaway, such fun, I will definitely be doing it again. A BIG THANK YOU to all of you who participated. I sincerely appreciate your interest.

For the winners I will try to contact you either through the e-mail from the Over The Top Aprons guestbook or from your blogs.

If you are not contacted PLEASE leave a note here on my blog and let me know how to get in touch with you.

Again, THANK YOU all, you are a marvelous groups of young women!

Christmas Give A Way

Christmas Give-A-way ..
Help me celebrate the Grand Opening of My Web Site: www.overthetopaprons.com

Simple and Easy ... Here is what you do to participate:

1. Leave a comment in my guest book on my web site: www.overthetopaprons.com that will count as one entry.(please leave an e-mail, blog site, or website for contact - thank you).
2. Leave a comment on this blog: overthetopaprons.blogspot.com
(Please leave an e-mail, blog site, or website for contact - thank you).

That will count as a second entry.

That is it .... Nice and easy!

Now for the Prizes: A little something for everyone!

1. 1,000 Entrecard credits
2. One Month placement of your widget on my blog.
3. A written review of your blog, or website. (This may be given to a friend if you so desire).
4. A written review of a contest you are having.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Due to a large amount of custom orders I am going to have to limit my Web Site Celebration to just one week.

Starting Date: November 28, 2008
Ending Date: December 7, 2008

The winners (2 will be chosen randomly, as will the prizes) will be announced at the end of the week long event .... ending December 4, 2008. I will post the winners on this blog. Please check back on December 5, 2008.  

Thanks for helping me celebrate! 

www.overthetopaprons.com

Just in time for Christmas ... Aprons so stylish!

Just in time for Christmas ... Stylish aprons that look great and makes you feel great when entertaining your guests. More and more we are moving back to the warmth and welcome of our homes so why not greet your guest with a charming, classy apron and start the event off with a smile. What could say Welcome more than you wearing a cute, cute apron as you open your door to your warm hospility? Make each evening an event! 

The aprons are available at: www.overthetopaprons.com

Lollishops: Grand Opening of New Selling Site!

Lollishops --- Pop on over for the Grand Opening of the great new selling site. It is for the fou fou at heart. Creative, whimsical, romatic, ... a marvelous collections of talented artists. Check it out - if you make handmade crafts you made just want to sign up to sell. It is a jouried site which is actually quite nice.

While you are there I would appreciate it if you would check out my little store: http://www.lollishops.com/overthetopaprons