Celebrating Three Years with YOU !

Welcome in everyone !

I am so glad you stopped by today because it's a pretty fab day

for me as I am celebrating my 3rd anniversary here at

The Open Window.

If you've not been a part of our Facebook PRE-party, you may not be

aware that we will be celebrating for the next 

FOUR DAYS

and during that time, there will be

$500 + in giveaways

provided by generous companies & designers who have

become my friends along the blogging way.

There were over 300 FB friends & acquaintances who RSVP'd

to attend and I welcome you all !

What I really want to do during this celebration is

pay tribute to YOU . . .

 and share stories, photos & projects that I have enjoyed

during the past three years.

Each day, I will post at least once . . .

maybe twice . . .

yep. maybe three times . . .

There are lots of giveaways and lots to share.

You won't have to hop from blog to blog to have a

chance to win.  All you need to do is :

Stop by and check out each post . . .

Play in the occasional game . . .

Leave a little love to let me know you came by . . .

And cross your fingers that your name might be drawn !

Yes, the posts might be lengthy, but I am going to have a difficult

time narrowing down the stories I share.  In some cases, I will

share the links to the original story so you can check them out

when you have a moment.  Make sure you do though, because they

may be a part of the 'game' for that post.

As in the speeches at the Oscars or the Emmy's or the Grammy's,

I am scared that I may forget to mention someone who is

very special to me . . . I'll do my best.  What I know is if you've

visited and followed my blog since the beginning or if today

is your very first visit . . . YOU are the reason I am still blogging today.

This was the very first photo I posted.  I had absolutely 

NO IDEA 

what I was doing with my first post, but thanks to this book

and one of my best friends in the world {literally},

I was on my way.

That friend . . . none other than Sarah Anderson

who just months earlier, started her blogging journey as well.

She is a great tutor, considering she lives over 3600 miles away

in the UK.  By the way, have you been to her blog

'The Art of Moodling' ?  Do you know what 'moodling' is ?

She is a brilliant paper crafter and by the way, she will be

featured in an upcoming issue of 'Art Journaling' and

'Cloth, Paper, Scissors'.  I told ya ... she's terrific !

Yep . . . there is a reason behind the name of my blog.

I don't know about you, but I took quite awhile deciding

what it would be before starting my blog.  Once I knew I wanted

to be a part of this community, I think it took me 5 days or so to

find the name.  When I did, it wasn't but 10 minutes later that I

asked Blogger to please let me have the name.

They said yes.

Btw . . . you probably noticed I use a lot of

. . .

when I communicate.  Don't know why.  Just do.

I clearly loved blogging from the moment I wrote my first post.

As I began during the middle of the month, I posted 30 times

by the end of the month.  LOL

I still enjoy blogging just as much as I did when I started.

Before I go any further, I want to thank Emily,

the lovely owner of EAD Designs. 

She has offered a

to a lucky winner today !

 I am blessed to be a designer for this terrific company.

I LoVe their vinyl 'Stickerz' and use them on just about

every project I share during the Monday Team Blog Hops.

The sweet owls in the first project above are from EAD.

So is this fun little guy . . .

Hmmm . . .

I'm still on the first day of blogging, so I am thinking it

would be best if I skipped around rather than telling stories in order.  LOL

How about another prize giveaway instead ? !

 The talented & generous Kim Hughes of

Paper Smooches 

is also celebrating with us !

Here is a litte something I created for Earth Day
{you can see the original post HERE}
this past Spring using Paper Smooches . . .

I was VERY inspired by one of my besties THIS side of the Atlantic,
Savannah O' Gwynn
She happens to be the DT Coordinator for Paper Smooches too!

I know I haven't gotten too far down memory lane

with this post, but there is still a lot of the day left to share.

So before I bring this post to an end, I'd like to share my

family with you.  These are the people that give my

life purpose every. single. day.

This is my husband Paul and I celebrating our 20th anniversary.

He is the love of my life.  It is only by God's grace that we met

23 years ago, as he too, is from Manchester, England.

I could tell you THAT story, but that would take more than the four days

we are celebrating.  Trust me.  He is a gift.

This photo is a few years old, but it's one of my favorites.

My daughter Mallory, who turns 28 in just a few weeks,

and my son Alex, who turned 24 just a few days ago.

Mallory is mom to these fabulous boys . . .

CJ (9)

Caleb (6)

Finn (11 months)

and Alex is dad to this precious one . . .

Alex jr, who just turned 4

Now that you know just a bit more about my family

and the wheels that spin within my mind, it's time for you

to have a chance to win.

Here is how you have a chance to 

win during the celebration:

Each day, I will be posting several giveaways.  You will have

a chance to win any one of them by leaving comments on each

post that goes with that giveaway.

For example, this post has two giveaways and two winners will

be chosen from this post. Some posts will ask you to answer

a question or participate in a game, others will just ask you

to leave a note to let me know you stopped by.

So make sure you check each post carefully.

Additional posts will pop up during all four days (with at least one

post per day) with various giveaways & ways you can win.

So make sure you pop by often, check Google Reader,

subscribe to my blog or watch for me on Facebook.

{I'd love to be your FB friend}

Although each post will have it's own winners, I will not

be drawing the winners until Monday, the 18th.

I will plan to announce all winners on Tuesday, the 19th.

So you have all four days to check in on all the posts.

Thanks so much for hanging in with me on this very first post.

I am excited to share more stories and links with you as the

party continues.  Today was just a 'taste' of what's to come

and I'm looking forward to sharing more.

To have a chance to win one 

of these fabulous prizes today,

leave a note and tell me 

how you came to find my blog.

I would love to read  

that part of my story 

directly from you !

I'll see you soon !

A BIG thank you to:

EAD Designs

Paper Smooches