The Power of Positive Thinking

My son Will has wisdom beyond his years. He works very had at tennis, he practices 15 hours a week, participates in tournaments and loves watching it on television. He has a passion for it. At his age you see a lot of players who become very emotional on court, they get angry with themselves when their arms and legs don't do exactly what they picture in their minds. Rackets are thrown, they yell at themselves. Often a match is won or lost on whether they can keep their mind right.



Will almost always manages to keep his cool. He attributes it to a quote he read in Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking "a peaceful mind is power". While he hasn't read the whole book (he is 13!) he often picks it up and just reads a little bit for a shot of mental energy.



My Amazon Carrousel to the right has that book in it, it makes a great holiday gift for anyone no matter how old or young. Other sources for positive thoughts I like on the web.



http://www.positivityblog.com/

http://www.revrun.com/ Rev Run delivers great daily words of wisdom, my kids like his esp!

http://www.dailygood.org/ great inspirational quotes and stories that illustrate them.



Enter my book giveaway (more info here) by commenting with your own fave quote, or posting this link in facebook or twitter and coming back here to comment and let me know. No limit to the number of entries. Have a great week, Jamie.

Book Review, Blogging for Bliss

I promised a month of book themed posts to support my giveaway, so here is the first! I have this book and love it, Tara Frey, the author has compiled a list of blogs from other crafter/creative types, that are inspiring as well as a list of tips that will help you get started. Some of the instructions are simple that a beginning blogger would find helpful, but other ideas are more sophisticated and can give you new ideas even if you have been at it for a while. She starts at as simple a point as choosing your blog's name, the platform you want to use to blog, etc. I found it really inspiring and well worth the read. Maybe you can win it!

General Entry Guidelines? Click Here

Earn extra entries by commenting with your own blog's link! Thanks and have a great day, Jamie.

November Book Giveaway

I wanted to do something different and fun with my blog going into the holiday season. I thought about giving away some of my merchandise, but in the end that just is giving away my merchandise, maybe it doesn't appeal to everyone. I read around different blogs and got some ideas and decided on a book giveaway. I'm really going to theme the whole month around it.

I have added an Amazon Carrousel to the sidebar of my blog. In it are books that appeal to lots of different people and they are all books that I have some sort of connection with. Blogging for Bliss, The Power of Positive Thinking, The Road, The Vegetarian Lion, Friday Night Knitting Club, and Crazy Quilting the Complete Guide. One person will win their choice of any of these books. Three other entrants will win my best selling business card cozy from my shop DestinationHandmade.

How to Enter?
There are many ways you can enter and more will be posted throughout the month.
1. Follow my blog (simple!)
2. Tweet the contest, please include @retrochique in your tweet so I can find it.

Let me know by commenting that you followed/and or tweeted.

Stay tuned during the month for more ways to enter, reviews on all the books and book related gift guides!
Have a great day! Jamie.

Entertaining, Wine Gift Tags

I think during the holidays more than any other time we open our homes to entertain others. As the guest my grandmother always told me never to arrive empty handed and while handmade cakes, pies and cookies are wonderful most of us don't have the time for that. A bottle of wine is a lot of people's go to hostess gift. But what about those floppy fabric gift bags though, I mean do you really think you are disguising what it is? I came up with a solution I like better, the wine gift tag.

I took about 9 inches of an elasticized trim I had that was in fall colors. I sewed the ends together and added a handmade gift tag that coordinated with the trim. Add a personal message and you are ready to go! I'm not adding these to my etsy shop but if you would like a custom listing of them for the holidays email me, retrochique@ymail.com .

Sneak Preview I will be having a book giveaway next month to celebrate the holidays, Check back or follow my blog to make sure you don't miss it! Thanks, Jamie.