blog hoppin' with the twinery | and a giveaway

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED! The winner of the Ultimate Sampler Pack is Holly.  Everyone else...be sure to head over to The Twinery to find out if you're the winner of the the Grand Prize...14 full spools of luscious eco-luxe baker's twine.

A warm welcome to all The Twinery blog hoppers today, hope you're having fun and being inspired this morning! You should have arrived here from the blog of the fabulous Deena. Don't forget to stop by The Twinery each day through Friday...there's a new hop each day with new chances to win, too! PLEASE begin at The Twinery...have you seen what the grand prize is? Wowser! 

My {younger} husband turned 40 last week and I knew that I wanted to make the big Four-Oh memorable for him. But, what do you get a man that says he doesn't need anything? And on top of that make it cute in a masculine way...you feel my pain, right?

Before I show you the "real" gift though, my husband was to first open the box labeled "$39.95" {it's on the left up there} where rolled up inside was this t-shirt:

He chuckled, rolled his eyes and told me that I was goofy. Totally okay. It's the goofiness in our relationship that keeps our life fun and unexpected. And I think he actually liked the t-shirt, believe it or not. You'll notice on the front of the gift box that I reenforced the over-the-hill, gloom and doom theme of a 40th birthday with a die cut shape cut from black cardstock tied with Charcoal baker's twine. For "FORTY" gift, I used an old map page, which to me meant we have places to go and things to see together in his next FORTY years, embellished with even more Charcoal baker's twine.

Inside that gift, which was a bit more impressive than a t-shirt, I wrapped FORTY $10 bills around a pencil and tied those rolled bills with a length of even more Charcoal Baker's Twine. Into the box they went, after removing the pencil, to be surrounded by their buddies. That little bit of extra work was so worth it to see the rolled eyes from my Sweetie, again, when he opened up the box, pushed aside the tissue paper...and uttered the "you're so goofy" comment. Again. That's okay, I know he loves me.

a special thank you to all my Etsy customers for your patronage, YOU helped me to gift Gordon with this wad of cash!

So, with a little ingenuity and some time, I was able to make these two gift boxes for my husband just a little more special, and manly, with the addition of the Charcoal Baker's Twine, die cuts and letter stickers. Oh, yeah, and my goofiness!

My regular readers might remember this post about 40 Things that I started back at the last part of 2010...actually 40 weeks before his 40th birthday. When I decorated the cover of my small spiral notebook with patterned paper and baker's twine, I had intended to transfer everything over to another mini book. 

But, as I thought about it and realized that I had handwritten 40 "something I love about you" notes, I really didn't see a need to recreate. I gave it to Gordon as is, packaged inside a glassine envelope. I might just have seen his eyes get a bit dewy as he went about reading just how loved he is.

Your next stop on this hop is at the blog of Jenni Suchin, where you'll find more inspiration and creativity using the luscious 14 colors of eco-luxe baker's twine from The Twinery.

Before you do, though, be sure to enter the giveaway for this, The Ultimate Sampler Pack, valued at $25.oo! Be sure to leave a comment for each separate entry. If your e-mail address is not linked to your profile, leave your e-mail address in your comment so that I can contact you if you're the winner. No way to contact you, no way you can be the winner, right? So, please, please, include your e-mail address somewhere!

+ be a follower of The Twinery blog, if you already are, leave a comment, that counts!
+ be a follower of I Love It All --------> it's over there in the sidebar! leave a comment even if you
   already are, that counts, too!
+ bonus! tell me the name of your favorite color of The Twinery baker's twine

Entries will close Friday evening at 8pm and will be announced on this same blog post. So glad you stopped by today and I hope that you'll come back again soon for a longer visit to scroll through my posts for other projects and ideas you might love.

Here's the hop line-up for Wednesday, in case you think you might have missed someone!

The Twinery

  Stephanie Johnson

                Deena

                            Monika Wright  - you are here

       Jenny Suchin

       Grace Hester

      Jen Carter  

   Hera Frei

     Emily Leiphart

Now go forth and comment!
THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED