Sponsor Spotlight: TatterBeans

I am so lucky to have some amazing sponsors and Rachel Burbee from Tatter Beans is no exception. Rachel is a blogger and a fantastic photographer. She has her own Tatter Beans Etsy Shop where she sells some of her beautiful prints like these...

Aren't those amazing?

Rachel is here today to tell us a little bit more about the talent behind Tatter Beans- The Etsy and Tatter Beans- The Blog.

Take it away Rachel...

"After marring the man of my dreams I found myself living in a new country  unable to work, While I waited for my work visa/green card to come through I picked up a camera to show my family and friends back home the beauty around me and that's where it all started.
My love for capturing things became an obsession and a passion
I have always had a desire to learn new things , and with so many photography in hand I knew I had to do something with them. The long process of mastering photo shop was sometime a hair pulling experience, but certainly something I'm glad I stuck out.

Finally my green card came through and I began working as an Art Director at our local Boys and Girls club. Part of the job was to teach a photography course. I have a degree in the Arts but photography was never my main subject.. so with very little knowledge and 10 teenagers in tow we set out to enter the Boys and girls club of America's nation photography competition
.
We won our regional.

It was then that someone said you really need to do something with your work.

This still took another year to happen, but after being forced into a situation where I needed to be at home with my step children, i decided it was time to step out and do what it was everyone was telling me to do.

My days now are mixture of house wife mother and arts... if I'm not doing the washing up or ironing the clothes making bed or washing floors I'm editing photography and making up image boards for my next collection... along with blogging for three blogs... A personal blog, business blog and a team blog
I  am also the Captain of The Undiscovered Artist of Etsy Team ... I have an amazing team with some amazing Leaders....

I have far to many ideas running through my head at any giving moment, that I often meet myself somewhere around a corner and have to stop to breath.
The creative side of me really would like to out run the house wife in me.
And sooner or later I'm pretty sure this will happen

My shop is very much a labor of love.
My aim when opening was to create something I would be happy to hang/display in my own home.
My love for vintage will always shine through I honestly cant help myself.
I am at present adding cards to my shop and very soon photography blocks, and some other ideas .... all of which display my work  ........ like I said far to many ideas"

Thank you Rachel! I encourage you all to take a moment and admire the beautiful work Rachel does...

Tatter Beans on Etsy

Tatter Beans The Blog

Tatter Beans on Facebook

Tatter Beans on Twitter

Sponsor Spotlight: Katherine's Corner



Katherine's Corner

Katherine has a handful of beautiful sites where she provides her readers with advice, recipes, laughs, joy, crafts, product reviews and more. Katherine is such a talented woman and you can see that if you take a second to visit a few of Katherine's web pages....

1.You can check out crafts, recipes and a few more @ Katherine's Corner

2. Katie gives fantastic advice to anyone @ Go Ask Katie

3. If you or anyone you know is looking for sophisticated blog designs, Katherine does that as well @ Made It For You

If you thought that was a lot of talent you should also take a visit to Katherine's Art Fire Store, Blue Iris Gifts.

Here are some of the items from her store that I love...

Charka Necklace Swarovski Crystal

Silver and Black Dot Earrings

Key to my Heart Black and Silver Necklace

I encourage you to check out the talent that is Katherine and please let her know you're visiting from The Elephant's Trunk.

Katherine's Facebook

Katherine's Twitter

Katherine's Etsy

Kuzak's Closet

It's...

Sister Sister Sunday

over at Kuzak's Closest, one of my favorite blogs. Go check it out. My sister and I are the guest sister posters today :)

Guest Post- Rosy Red Buttons

I am so excited to introduce you all to Camilla from Rosy Red Buttons. She is a beautiful lady inside and out. She has a fantastic blog that I am addicted to reading! Camilla just welcome a brand new addition to her family, but I was lucky enough to have her guest post for me even with her hands full with a small infant. Take it away Camilla...

Hey Elephant's Trunk Friends! My name is Camilla and I am so excited to be here! Lauren is one of my new favorite people and I just LOVE this blog, so I'm pretty stoked she trusts me to take over it...;) Here goes!  I am married to the greatest man EVER (I know you'll probably throw in the vote for your husband, but its just not true) ;) and we are expecting our first child ANY day now. Literally. I may go postal. I take pictures as a profession, can it get any cooler? Yes it can, my husband digs in the dirt for his. That makes for awesome conversations. I have a little blog called Rosy Red Buttons that I started in Septemberish and it has been all kinds of fun to do. I started it just because I was going to be doing so many remodels and projects in preperation for our first child, a little girl. She'll make her grand entrance in about a week. *Please.*
I also enjoy decorating and then re-decorating my house, so some of my projects involve that. I recently finished the master bedroom with all the furnishing and decor I wanted and said to my hubby, "Look it's finally finished!" He looked back at me and said, "We'll see." It has sat for 3 months relatively untouched, so I'm pretty happy about that. He is too. Here are some of my favorite projects from this year: Ruffled Mobile. I'm super particular about all the colors and patterns in the nursery, so I had to make my own. :) Personal Picture Clocks. These were so fun to make and they are excellent anniversary, wedding, christmas, birthday, you name it gifts!   

Nursery Makeover! Ok, I realize that most of my projects involve baby-ness, but I can't help myself. I can't wait till she's here to fill up this sweet space! Nursery Furniture Makeover. Oh boy were these ugly before.   Ruffled Table Runner. Yea, I'm kindof obsessed with ruffles. These can be made as short or long as you need!
 Custom Canvas Frames. I smile everytime I see it on my staircase.  I think that is enough to be sufficient for you. Um, did that sentence even make sense? Probably not. I'd love to meet you and see your fun ideas and blogs and have you follow along in my attempts to be a first time parent while crafting. Uh Yikes. Come by and see me at Rosy Red Buttons!  Thanks again Lauren for inviting me over. You rock! Have a great day!!

Fruit Dip

I needed to make an appetizer for a party and wanted to do something cold because I wasn’t going to have time to use my oven so I decided to try a fruit dip. I wanted to make fruit kabobs and whip up a dip for a nice compliment.

The first and obvious step is to wash your fruit.

Blackberries…

Strawberries…

Raspberries…

Cherries…

Red Grapes…

&& Green Grapes…

I wanted to try something a bit unique to present the dip in so I cut out the center of a large pineapple to create a bowl.

I then made sure to cut off the tops of the strawberries, take the grapes off the vine and remove all the tops of the cherries.

I then placed the following ingredients into my mixer…

-1 (8 ounce) package of cream cheese softened

-1 cup of cool whip

-1/4 cup of brown sugar

-1/4 cup of white sugar

-2 tablespoons of maple syrup

-1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

 

Mix all the ingredients until smoothly blended and then let chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. While the dip was chilling I was assembling the fruit kabobs.

Then I scooped the dip in my pineapple and it was ready to serve.

Sponsor Feature: Keepin' It Thrifty

I'm so excited to introduce to you all The Elephant's Trunk first sponsor and my personal friend Andrea at Keepin' It Thrifty!

 She is such a great friend and has quite the amazing blog.

 Some of my favorite projects of hers are...  

A Scrabble Photo Frame

A Soup Can Makeover

Chalkboard Valentine

A Pom Pom Necklace

You can check out Andrea here:

1. Her Blog: Keepin' It Thrifty

2. Her Facebook: Keepin' It Thirfty Facebook Fan Page

3. Twitter: @KeepinItThrifty
P.S. Andrea is nominated for Blog of the month over at For The Love of Blogs, so if you have a moment stop on over there and vote for Keepin' It Thrifty on the right side of the screen :)

"Knock it Off Party"

I am so excited to be a sponsor of  the "Knock it Off Party" at 733- A Creative Blog!
 Have you created a project lately that is a knock off? If you have I highly encourage you to mark your calenders for January 31st and enter yourself in the "Knock it Off" Party.

 What are you waiting for? Go check it out!

Looking for Sponsors

Hello! For those who don't know me, my name is Lauren. I first want to thank you, yes you...for stopping by the Elephant's Trunk. I've been addicted to blogging since I began this blog. I just want to thank you all for following, reading, visiting, commenting, tweeting , facebooking, visiting my etsy store or any other things you do for the Elephant's Trunk. The Elephant's Trunk has been gaining more and more followers lately and I would love to offer sponsorship here at the Elephant's Trunk. Since I'm new to this and my blog is fairly young I want to offer very inexpensive sponsorships.

For just $5 you can be an Elephant's Trunk Sponsor for 2 months...

1. You will get a side button on the main page of the Elephant's Trunk

2. I will do a feature post about your blog/product/shop

3. If you would like to, you may offer a giveaway for the Elephant's Trunk readers

If you are interested please e-mail me at: ElephantsTrunk42@gmail.com

Again- Thank you all!





Slumber Party

My favorite part about blogging has been meeting so many new friends. I started this blog after moving from Colorado to Texas and I've loved every minute of it. I love seeing all the creative posts, the home decorating posts, funny posts, beautiful photography posts, recipe posts, ok I like them all!

 

Vintage Wanna Bee is hosting a slumber par-tay, a link party to link up a post, your blog, or anything else you want. I thought it would be a great way to discover some more blogs and meet even more new people! You should hop over to her blog and link up as well! Let me know if you do :)

Great Deals

 

My boyfriend is getting tired of hearing about my “great deals”, my Mom is tired of my picture message of my “great deals” and since I just moved to a new state I don’t have that many girlfriends to share my “great deals” with. What does that mean for you? I’m going to share my recent great deal finds with YOU! Get excited, I know I am!

My Hobby Lobby pressed tin towel hook

Original Price- $7.99

Deal- Half Off

Merona suede wedges (Target)

Original Price- $29.00

Deal- $14.00

Soda Shoes

E-Bay Price- $12.00 plus free shipping (brand new)

& there you have it! If you’re still reading, thank you! What are some of your recent great deal finds?

 

LuLu in Los Angeles

 Have you heard of LuLu in Los Angeles? If you haven't I highly suggest you click on her button and check out her beautiful blog. She posts some delicious recipes that I am dying to try! As if that isn't reason enough to check out LuLu in Los Angeles, here is another... Lu Lu is offering a V8 Ambtion (my Etsy store) giveaway!  

You could win this rhinestone cork!So if you have a few minutes while blog hopping, check out both LuLu's blog and the V8 Ambition giveaway.   

Be Mine Jars

I’m not a pack-rat but I have a hard time throwing away glass jars. I feel like there is always something I could use them for. Looking around for some things to create a Valentine’s Day display I discovered my box of glass jars and I thought of this idea.

This project is super easy and that’s what I like about it. This project would have been done with vinyl if I was lucky enough to have a Silhouette machine, but I don’t so I’m making due with alphabet letters. I simply placed the stickers on cardstock, cut them out with my paper cutter and Mod Podged each letter onto a glass, added a ribbon and I was finished! That’s it! I might leave the jars empty because I really like simplicity or I might fill them with conversation hearts.

 

XOXO

UPDATE: I brought the jars to the golf course I work at to do a Valentine's Day display and added some golf balls to each jar.