Sponsor Spotlight: LolaDee!

I'm excited to be closing October with one of my favorite sponsors from this month, LolaDee! LolaDee has actually been a sponsor of LCH for a few months now and I love having her! Her darling handmades are almost as sweet as she is! I've asked Lorna to put together a little something about herself to share with y'all so I hope you find her as charming as I do! She also sent me a cute zipper rosette headband that I just love so I'll share those photos at the end! 

Hello there! First of all, thanks to Kaelah for allowing me to pop in here and tell you a little bit about what I do!..

I’m Lorna or LolaDee from Things I Fell in Love With Today! I'm a 21 year old vintage obsessed, crafty blogger and broadcasting student from Cork City in the south of Ireland and I basically blog about all the things that I see or experience that have made me smile in the hope that they might make you smile also. I also run a little etsy store alongside my blog, where I sell my handmade accessories.

My life is busy busy busy and you can usually find me stressing out over media projects in college or in my craft room drowning in a sea of buttons, thread, yarn and fabric. I also sell my handmade lufflies at a local craft market called The Fair Alternative here in Cork every saturday. When I do have a minute to myself, I tend to spend the time dancing around my living room to terrible music with my nephews or watching episode after episode of True Blood with my boy. The simple things, eh?

I loved art in school and craft was my main focus, often drifting into my own little world while carving some lino prints or moulding a clay model, but when I finished school I never quite knew where to go from there with my crafty side. When I started following some of the blogs that have become part of my daily life now, I suddenly felt all kinds of inspiration. So, I guess you could say that it was the Blogosphere and all the wonderfully inspiring people in it that gave me the push to start making my accessories and selling them online and at markets. 

I have a fascination with buttons so you'll find that a lot of my work features them. I love sifting through jars of buttons, old and new, wondering where each one has been, if its been attached to a piece of clothing, who owned it and how it ended up in my craft room! I make a variety of things from headbands to rings and I'm happy to do any custom orders that people would like. Just drop me a line, don't be shy :) P.S. here's a little heads up... I'm in the process of adding loads of new stock to my etsy so keep an eye on it in the coming weeks!

Thanks for taking the time to learn a little about what I do. I hope you check out my blog and say hello :) Have a great day!

LolaDee x

Here is a look-see at what Lorna sent me to sport! (Truth be told, I was wearing it yesterday out and about and left it in Mike's car on accident. He didn't get home until the sun went down today so I couldn't get proper photos. Hopefully I can snag some well-lit ones this week! I'll definitely be wearing it, that's for sure!)

I hope you take the chance to check out Lorna's blog and her etsy shop as both are treasure troves of goodness! You can find her hopping around the internet at these fine places: Blog -- Etsy -- Twitter. Thanks so much Lorna for writing up this little piece, being a rad sponsor, and sending me such a fabulous item! xo

PS; Happy Halloween! 

HomeGoods Mom Cave Linky Party...Welcome!

Please Read: Today's Metamorphosis Monday is for HomeGoods Mom Cave Links Only. This is only for today's Met Monday. We'll return to our normal Met Monday postings next week. Please only link up Mom Cave entries for this Met Monday. If you need more info about today's linky party, click HERE. (If you notice your link was deleted, please don't take it personally. I will have to delete all links that are not Mom Cave Entries.)

IT'S HERE!
Today is the day of our Mom Cave Linky Party. Link up your Mom Cave Posts below. There will be 4 winners! The grand prize will be $250 Gift Certificate to HomeGoods! Wow! There will be 3 runner-ups who will each win a $50 Gift Certificate! Have fun and best of luck to everyone!




Please Read: Today's Linky Party is for HomeGoods Mom Cave Links Only. This is only for today's Met Monday. We'll return to our normal Met Monday postings next week. Please only link up Mom Cave entries for this Met Monday. If you need more info about today's linky party, click HERE.

Sunday Spotlight - Photographer: Tec Petaja

Last week's spotlight featured the work of the always-inspiring Joy Thigpen... well, this week we're focusing on someone she has worked with a bit in her past. While she has definitely had the luxury of meeting and collaborating with some of the world's finest photographers and vendors, I can't help but fall in love with everything she and Tec Petaja do together. And quite frankly -- everything he does solo, too! 

I don't remember how I first found Tec... I think it was around the time Southern Weddings magazine was launched and he and his adorable wife, Chelsea, graced the cover. I had no idea that was them at the time, but their photos simply inspired me and I dare say prompted my love of all things wedding. Chelsea runs a blog and online shop over at Oh My Deer Handmade (so cute!). I also started regularly seeing Tec's work featured on Once Wed. Well, fast forward a little while and I realize that they live in my neighborhood (for the lack of a better term.) They live in East Nashville and Tec has shot many weddings in the Franklin area. Well, of course I'm going to give him bonus points for being a hometown player! Anyway- I've watched both Tec and Chelsea via the interweb (in a non-creepy way) and shared his work with Mike. I can safely say that Tec is Mike's #1 photography inspiration as he dives head-first into a new career path. We're just enamored with what he is able to produce. So now I'll share some photos and let them speak for themselves! They truly need no introduction!

(photo credit: tec petaja via tecpetajaphoto.com)

As you can tell, many of these are from weddings that I have also featured in my Wedding Wednesday posts! There is something absolutely undeniable about his work and I only hope that we can afford him once our big day comes! You can find Tec online at his website, wedding website, blog and twitter. 

Meet The Judges for our Mom Cave Challenge!

Reminder: The November 1st, Metamorphosis Monday will be replaced with the HomeGoods Mom Cave Contest. This will only effect our November 1st, Met Monday. After that, we'll return to our normal Met Monday postings. Please only link up Mom Cave entries for Monday, November 1st.


It's almost here! Our Mom Cave Linky Party starts this evening. It will replace our normal Metamorphosis Monday party! You'll find all the details on how to participate posted at the bottom of this post.


Our Three Esteemed Judges:
I'm so excited to announce the names of our fabulous Judges for the Mom Cave Challenge.

Maree, Blogger and author of: Tales from an OC Cottage
Maree, who blogs at Tales from an OC Cottage, is an amazingly creative and talented crafter/artist. Several of her beautiful creations have been featured in the magazine, Somerset Life. She keeps her readers laughing with her delightful humor and fun posts. Check out her blog and you'll be hooked, as I was!



Linda Merrill
Linda Merrill , a wonderfully talented Interior Designer, is a sought after writer and voice in the field of interior design. She blogs at ::Surroundings:: where she offers unique views on wide ranging aspects of the built environment from architecture, photographic tours, product reviews, design inspirations, special events and even movie set decor. Linda is also, the producer and moderator of the popular podcast, The Skirted Roundtable. This week they are interviewing architect and interior designer, David Easton so check it out!


Mark Ballard:
Mark Ballard is an artist, designer, decorator, speaker, author, columnist, chef, television personality and has been described as "a true Renaissance man with a Southern flair!" Mark is the author of several books, including some wonderful, must-have cookbooks. His latest book, Creative Thinking, has just been released in time for the holidays. You'll find it available at MarkBallard.com. Mark is featured weekly in The Macon Telegraph and at Macon.com.


A HUGE thank-you to our three Judges...I don't envy the job they have ahead of them since I know how talented you all are!

Mom Cave Challenge: Win $250 to HomeGoods

Do you have a special place in your home that you go to get away from it all? A place where you can relax and read, watch tv or just chill out and do what you most enjoy? If not, do you wish you did? Would a $250 Gift Certificate to HomeGoods help? You bet it would! :)

Mom Cave HomeGoods Contest: Win $250 to spend however you wish at HomeGoods!
I'm excited to announce a wonderful Give-a-Way Contest sponsored by HomeGoods and hosted right here at Between Naps on the Porch. There will be four winners!

The winner will win the grand prize of $250 worth of Gift Certificates to HomeGoods! There will be 3 runner-ups who will each win a $50 Gift Certificate!



How to Enter: Monday, November 1st:
1. Between now and Monday, November 1st, take pics of the area in your home...be it a little corner or a whole room that is your Mom Cave...the place you go to unwind and recharge at the end of the day. Give us lots of pics...especially close-ups...you know we love the close-ups.

2. If you like you can visit HomeGoods online and copy and paste some pics of the goodies you'd choose to beef up your Mom Cave if you should win. Or just name a few things you'd love to add to your Mom Cave.

3. Create a post about your Mom Cave and what you would love to add to it if you should win the $250 gift certificate from Home Goods. Then stop by for our special Met Monday Mom Cave Contest/Party on November 1st and link up your Mom Cave post to be entered.

What's that...you don't have a Mom cave? No problem! You can still join in the fun and enter the contest. Just take a few pics of the room or area in your home that you'd like to make into a Mom cave. Then visit HomeGoods online and copy and paste pics to your post of some of the items you find that you just might include in a Mom cave if you win. Then tell us why you really should win...why do you need a Mom Cave?

Know someone who really needs a Mom Cave...even more than you do?
If you know someone who needs a Mom Cave even more than you do, visit their home, take some pics of the room where you would help them create their Mom Cave and create a post explaining why they really need to win the Mom Cave contest. Again, please share the treasures you'd buy from HomeGoods online to outfit their Mom Cave.

Don't forget to stop back by late Sunday evening (October 31st) or on Monday, November 1st and link up your fabulous posts for the Mom Cave Challenge! You can watch a video to learn about how to create your own Mom Cave, HERE.

See you this evening by 9:00 PM for our Mom Cave Challenge!

Happy Halloween!

The gas lantern is lit...




Sharing some pics from last year...
















Have a fun Halloween!