Today we are featuring the

Holiday Traditions 

 and

great GIVEAWAYS

of

Debbie Murray and Shea Fragoso 

of 

A Gilded Life

~

 

Lisa Crone

~

Tracy Buxton

______________________________

 

 Debbie and Shea share …

 

"One of our favorite Christmas traditions is making Holiday S'mores.  I am not exactly an "outdoors girl", and we don't ever go "camping", but…I love S'mores and one year I had a huge craving for them, but I decided to add a holiday twist to them. 

I just learned to make homemade marshmallows (which I highly recommend…they are easy and delicious), and had a plate of fresh out of the oven cookies, so I thought I would make a kicked up version that was a twist on the classic "S'mores" dessert that I love.  I made a pan of homemade marshmallows and the kids and I 'roasted' them over our gas burner (you can just eat them off the fork at this point if you just can't wait to gobble them up…I do!). After they were roasted, we slid them between two homemade ginger wafer cookies I made and voila! A holiday treat that has become a definite tradition round these here parts."   

 

Debbie and Shea are giving away this GORGEOUS crown,

handmade by A Gilded Life.

 

Please visit:

www.AGildedLife.com
www.whathappensnext.typepad.com

 

~

 

 Lisa shares …

"I have been so fortunate to have shared every Christmas morning with parents, which for the last 23 or so years also included my husband. Santa always knows where to find me, thanks to my Mom. She goes to great lengths every year to make arrangements for Santa to visit and find all of us. It is always like walking into a storybook. The tree is trimmed with LOTS of meaningful ornaments and new ones are being added each year. It's sort of like a scrapbook of memories, especially when you see your fifth grade handwriting on things. There is always something yummy baking and food being prepared. It's very special and the more time that passes, the more I realize it and feel so grateful! The stockings truly are hung by the chimney with care with every expectation that St. Nick will be there. Thanks Mom!"

 

 

 

Lisa is giving away a copy of her beading inspiration book, A Bead in Time, which provides examples/how-to's of jewelry created based on photos she's taken as well as guidance for readers to do the same based on meaningful photos or objects from their own life.

 

Please visit:

www.abeadaday.blogspot.com

~

 

Tracey shares …

"I am the (obnoxiously at times) proud mother of two grown daughters and a son. When my oldest daughter was in first grade, and her little sister was in preschool, I came up with the (brilliant, I thought) idea for the three of us girls to host an annual Mother-daughter Christmas tea. 

I asked my girls to each pick two little friends, and their mommies, and I would pick two of my friends and their daughters. I handmade invitations and we had friendship tea, apple cider, cookies and tea cakes, and all sorts of wonderful girlie treats.
Oh! Such fun! Everyone in their Sunday best, enjoying such a wonderful treat of an afternoon. (Truth be told, I am pretty sure the Mommies loved it most of all) The Christmas time merriment continued for many years, and I was sure we would continue this tradition forever.
Several years later, when my girls were in the 7th and 5th grades, my younger daughter came to me right after Thanksgiving. (She has always and forever been a straight-forward-no-holds-barred-shoot-from-the-hip girl…and still is. I love this about her.) She announced to me that we needed to stop this tradition, because it simply wasn't cool enough for middle school aged girls. (What the..?!) Furthermore, she informed me that my older daughter felt exactly the same, but was far too intimidated to tell me, for fear I would have hurt feelings.

Well.

My feelings were hurt. (or, was it my ego?) Devastated, (All of the women all seem to carry an over-active drama gene in our family, it seems) I stopped the tradition that year, and lived to tell about it. (many times….it's that drama gene thing, you know) 
Now that my girls are grown and grand babies are beginning to sprout, I am reminded of the wonderful memories we made in those six or seven years we enjoyed wearing our finest Christmas party dresses (Oh, so Little Women-esque!) and am now thinking we just may need to revisit this wonderful tradition within the next few years with our newest generation of little ladies….and I am betting that my daughters will both agree."

 

Tracy is giving away a kit to make each of these wonderful banners which she will email directly to one lucky winner!

Click HERE for more information.

 

Please visit:

www.acottageindustry.typepad.com

 

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___________________________________________________________

 

Thank you so much to our

FABULOUS

Day 11 artists …

 

Now simply comment to win one of these GREAT prizes!

~GOOD LUCK~

 

*Remember that you may have additional entries per post by:

*Following @wherewomencreat on twitter and tweeting this contest (1 extra entry per post)

*Having the "Twelve Days of Christmas" WWC image on your blog or website

(1 extra entry per post)

*Blogging about this contest (1 extra entry per post)

 Each day if you follow the additional entries you may have a total of four comments per post. 

 

See you tomorrow for THREE more artists and THREE more giveaways! 

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