How did the weekend fly by sooo fast?  That’s life for ya, huh?  Marvin and I pretty much stayed in this weekend, did a lot of chores, bought and installed a new garbage disposal, cooked a lot of food, sewed quite a few things, and worked on some more basement trim.  I love being domestic.

OK enough reminiscing about the weekend, for this Miscellany Monday I wanted to share a blog hop, gift swap, and a few giveaways all hosted by some of my closest blog friends!  And of course I am entering myself in all of them, so you shall too!

Miscellany Monday @ lowercase letters

(1) Piper from One Sydney Road, who I happened to meet over lunch a few weeks ago, is hosting a super fun Alphabet Walk Blog Hop – perfect for getting your creative juices flowing and your cameras snapping!

Here are the details from Piper herself –

    so here’s the idea in a nutshell:

    people who want to participate will pick a letter to take a picture of, then post it on their blog and we’ll all hop around that week to see everyone’s interpretation of the alphabet!!

    the alphabet walk blog hop will run the week of july 12th.  (so that should give everyone plenty of time to take their cameras out and find their letters!)

To see some examples of what an alphabet walk is, check out her post here.  The blog hop will run the week of July 12.  She has posted a sign up sheet on her blog (today)with info on how to join the hop, so hop on over there, SIGN UP, and start SNAPPING!

(2) Nicole from Adventures in Love and Happiness has so graciously organized a

    About the Exchange:
    The Color Me Happy exchange is all about favorite colors.
    We all have a favorite color and chances are you have lots of things in your favorite color, but here’s your chance to get some more! Your exchange partner will be told your favorite color and then pick 3 items in that color to send to you.

Now how fun is that??  You can never have enough items in your favorite color, am I right??   To join, you’ll need to send Nicole an email by June 23 saying you want to participate.  She will email swap partners by June 28 and packages should be sent by July 25.  Make sure to visit her blog for more details about the swap!

(3) My husband and I have been diagnosed with “pine mouth”.  Symptom: Every time we eat, we get a bitter taste in the back of our mouths.  Lasts 2 weeks.  Cause: I made a super delicious Pesto and Veggie Pasta the other day where the Pesto was made from pine nuts.  Certain batches of pine nuts (not all) can cause the bitter taste.

(4) Ashley from Honeysuckle Chic is hosting her first GIVEAWAY of a Custom-Made Rosette Necklace by Kim from Oh Sweet Joy! Go enter yourself!

(5) A Daily Obsession just reached it’s 100th post and is having a GIVEAWAY for a nautical bag.  I am obsessed with all things nautical.  You need to go enter yourself for this one too!

(6) My best friend Sophie first introduced me to cross-stitch a few weeks ago and I just love the look of it.  And guess what??  Emily from Sassy Smolak has paired together with Erin from Slip Cover Your Life (again, two more of my best bloggy friends) to bring you a CROSS-STITCH GIVEAWAY!  Enter to win this adorable fawn kit or a finished product of your choice!

(7) A few weeks ago I received this email from my childhood friend, Elisa…

    So I completely forgot to tell you.  But when I was out in San Francisco with the Speaker, we went to a reception at Mills College in Oakland where she gave the commencement address.  As part of my job description, I was on photo duty, taking pictures of ppl with the Speaker using their cameras.  One woman handed me an SLR with….

    ….

    wait for it….

    … a sewn camera strap cover!!!!

    I know there are probably several templates out there for it but I asked her in passing where she got the idea and referenced YOUR blog!

    congrats, lady.  🙂

Wow, talk about a SMALL WORLD!  My friend didn’t catch the person with the sewn camera strap cover’s name and I’m sooo curious to know who this person was!  So if this person was you, please let me know!

(8) 79 Switch Kicks, 50 Squat Jacks, 68 Power Knees, 23 Power Jumps, 7 Globe Jumps, 9 Suicide Jumps, 3 Push Up Jacks (sad!) and 15 Low Plank Obliques later… the Insanity Fit Test proves that I am NOT fit!  59 more days to go…  Dig Deeper!  For those of you who don’t know what Insanity is, it’s similar to P90X, but more cardio focused.  And as a disclaimer, if I start slacking a bit on my blog posts, it’s because I am insane.

How was your weekend??