Happy 1st Birthday Re-Lilly, Year in Review and Lilly Giveaways!

Happy 1^st Birthday Re-Lilly!

Thank you to each every one of Re-Lilly's 2,740 fans!

Cheers to all of you for making Re-Lilly a wonderful community! I wish I could share cupcakes & champagne with all of you!

      I am amazed by how fast this group has grown over the past year. I love seeing how well this community shares and helps each other out! I am amazed by the growth and have enjoyed seeing hundreds (probably thousands by now) of successful swaps! I remember working on the Re-Lilly page over Christmas 2009 and wondering if Lilly Lovers would be as excited as I was and wondered if it would be a success. 

I am touched by the many messages and emails I have received over the last year Thanking me for creating Re-Lilly and I'll never tire of hearing from fans how much you love the page. I have made many great friends and connections through Re-Lilly and can't imagine life without this community. I thank present and past administrators for your help. I raise a glass and toast to all of you and to another year of swapping, sharing sale & promotions, making friends, having giveaways, sizing and fit help, and sharing our Love for the best brand in the world! 
Cheers to you! Cheers to Lilly!

I had hoped to blog over the holiday to share our pink & green Christmas and got too busy with school, crafting, baking, shopping , dance recitals & decorating. Below are some photos from our family holiday that I hope you will enjoy!

 

Our pink & green gingerbread palace! Building a gingerbread house is a holiday tradition at our house. Olivia & I had a ton of fun making this!
 

The other side....

Olivia received these jumbo pink & green gumballs from her Secret Elf, Lily Gray in the Re-Lilly Gift Exchange! Thanks again to all the Re-Lilly Elves who participated in the 1st Re-Lilly Gift Exchange, it was a big hit and huge success. I appreciate all of the nice comments and notes for organizing a fun event but can't take all the credit, Elfster made my job easy.

Everything is edible, even the fabulous Wilton Cookie markers we used to draw the faces on our snowman & snowwoman. 

 

Side view

Another family tradition is to drive through "The Farm" to see the Christmas lights. "The Farm" is actually a mansion that belongs to a neighbor in town who decorates his property and allows the public to drive through his property for the cost of a canned good or cash donation with all proceeds benefiting the local food pantry. My photos do not do this justice! Please click the photos to maximize them for better viewing. It is hard to photograph because the vehicle is moving, we are instructed to turn off headlights, display parking lights, stay in the vehicle and no stopping. 
The "festival of lights" at this mansion is open for a few hours each night for about a week and it is amazing! We turn on Christmas music and drive through every night. Photos are difficult because the flash ruins the true view and experience and when I tried photos without flash or at different shutter speeds they came out blurry or too dark, Maybe someone can help me out with some pointers to improve my photography skills!

Approaching the entrance...

Driving through.....takes a good 10-15 minutes to drive through! I had to photograph elephants because I adore them!

We love the gingerbread people & houses. As you can see before Christmas we didn't have much snow, just a dusting in most areas.....unusual for NH.

The amount of lights and displays are amazing! I think my husband & I loved it as much (if not more) than Olivia!

This photo does not do the scene justice, if you look to the right you will see a ship in the pond. Stunning in person. I'll have to play back the video and see if that came out better.....

 The main entrance of the mansion, every night the front door was closed.....

Except the last night, the front door was open! You can't tell from the photo but there is a beautiful shiny marble floor and behind and around the tree was an amazing display of villages. Picture perfect but the picture did not capture it!

Exiting the "farm".....the end.

Other holiday family traditions include an advent calendar with chocolates, baking Christmas cookies & apple pie! I'll spare those photos because this blog is long...

We had 3 Christmas trees this year! A real tree that we got at a local farm. We were escorted out into the tree farm in horse drawn carriages and selected a tree that they cut down, package and put on your vehicle for you. A great experience! What are your holiday traditions?

It was strange to not have snow, so unusual! It was freezing and very windy.

Olivia loved the Clydesdales!

Our tiny dancer in front of tree #1 the night of her first dance recital! She did great for being 3 and on stage for the first time. Moments I'll never forget.

 When we weren't baking cookies we were making and baking Lilly Christmas ornaments. After success using the Lilly cookie cutters for Olivia's Birthday cake I decided to use them for making clay ornaments. We rolled out Sculpy clay and used the cookie cutters. We had some challenges and if you plan to try this contact me and I'll share our failures and successes! After we baked them we hand painted them, "shellacked" and tied ribbon hangers to put them on our other trees.

Tree #2, this tree we put in Olivia's room 

Olivia's pink tree and Secret Santa gifts she selected for Lily Gray.

Tree #3

Our pink gingerbread girl

Green monkey

Preppy Green Gingerbread Man

Lilly palm tree

We made pink & green flamingos

Pink Lilly Monkey

One of our Lilly elephants...my favorite!

I had to share this photo sent to me from our Lilly loving friend Mary Lane. Aren't Mary's monkeys & tree adorable?!

Mary's photo of her beautiful pink tree displaying one of the pink elephants we made. It is so fun to share our love for Lilly with Lilly loving friends!

Christmas Day ~ Our pink & green Princess wearing her new Lilly dress from Splash of Pink. Dear Lilly, why didn't you make this dress for Mommy too? This velour fabric is scrumptious!

After Christmas we were hit with a Nor'easter that made up for all the snow we had not yet gotten. In NH there were winds gusting up to 50 mph, snow drifts several feet tall (in front of our door and driveway) and widespread power outages. Not fun! Part of the delay in getting this blog up. After we dug out we went on a trip to Boston to our favorite Mall. Our gift cards were burning holes in our pockets!

We went to the American Girl Doll store at the mall and Olivia couldn't wait to model her new matching PJ's with her Bitty Baby. Little girls are so much fun!

I have to share one special surprise my wonderful husband gave me for Christmas.....a trip to Florida to meet LILLY! I have wanted to meet the lady behind this amazing brand for so long and this dream is coming true on January 8th! The Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History where the Lilly Exhibit is will be hosting The Authentically Preppy Lilly Party and "Preppy Honoree Lilly will be there! So what does a gal wear?!? 

So many Lilly's in the closet to choose from and I can't seem to find the right one. I have been searching eBay hoping to find a rare and fantastic vintage Lilly in my size, no luck yet! Many of my Lilly's are for summer and it will probably be too cold. My winter Lillys don't seem to be dressy enough and I think the one area I am lacking in Lilly is cocktail dresses. I am debating wearing my Kaya or Harper and also thinking Seamus may be a good choice. My dear Lilly friend Mary will be wearing the fabulous Dripping in Jewels Seamus so that is out. Help me out Lilly friends, what should I wear to meet Lilly? Old or new? What would you wear to meet Lilly?

The New Year is almost here, have you made a New Years Resolution? Mine is to go vegetarian. I have recently been going weeks at a time without meat and it really isn't as tough as I expected. If there are any vegetarians reading this please share your tips and recipes! How will you be ringing in the New Year? My husband & I will be celebrating at our favorite local restaurant and I'll be wearing Lilly of course!

This is the longest blog I have written and before I wrap it up with the giveaway I have to share one last thing that has kept me busy recently. One of my girlfriends recently started a new job and wanting to make a good impression she was determined to win the company's Ugly Sweater Contest. After much searching in thrift shops and online she was about to give up so I offered to make her a sweater. We came up with a theme, The Grinch, and decided to make it as obnoxious as possible so she would get noticed. 

We met at the craft store and picked out all the supplies. I took everything home and stayed up all night. My wonderful husband drove the sweater to her in the morning so I could get some sleep. I made a sweater that jingles and lights up and must be the most obnoxious sweater because she won 1st Place! I am so happy for her! She left her holiday party winning some great prizes like an Apple iPad and several gift certificates to her favorite local stores. 

A light bulb went off and I thought since I put so much effort into the sweater I should see if there are contests online that I could enter. After a few hours searching I found a contest and entered! I am embarrassing myself in the photo below hoping to win an iPad for my Dear Husband! I think he deserves one after giving me a trip to meet Lilly, putting up with our pink Christmas trees, my Lilly addiction and he went out the day after Christmas and bought four sets of pink Christmas lights for me so next year I can decorate our big tree in pink & green! Isn't he wonderful! If you think so please take a few quick seconds to use the links below the photo to vote for my Ugly Sweater Contest Entry!

Here is how to Vote: 2 easy steps~ Click this link to "Like" become a fan of the Sponsors Page: http://www.facebook.com/EverydaySource And then Click this Link to "Like" My Photo: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=185187998164884&set=a.184488564901494.57153.141301072553577 

I AM CURRENTLY TIED FOR 1ST PLACE & CAN USE ALL THE HELP I CAN GET! If you don't want to navigate away from this page you can right click the links and open the links in a new tab or new window!

Now for the GIVEAWAYS! 
I am giving away my pink Christmas Tree! The Giveaway is for Tree #3 with all the trimmings! Winner will receive the tree, 2 toppers (1 pink -shown- and a mini green star topper), decorative beads, assorted decorations shown  and some of our handmade Lilly ornaments. Winner will also receive assorted Lilly items. I received some duplicate Lilly gifts and I am Re-Lillying them to the winner!  Winner will receive a tree with wrapped gifts under it.....a belated Christmas in a box!
KEEP READING FURTHER DOWN BELOW THERE IS MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ANOTHER LILLY PULITZER GIFT THAT IS BEING GIVEN AWAY HERE!

Winner will receive this tree as shown and wrapped Lilly presents to go under it!

HOW TO ENTER:

PLEASE LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT FOR EACH ENTRY! I WILL BE USING RANDOM.ORG TO SELECT A WINNER.

1. MANDATORY: You must be a Re-Lilly Facebook FAN/"LIKE" Re-Lilly & a FOLLOWER of this Blog! Leave a comment with your suggestion for what I should wear to meet Lilly or share what you would wear (have worn) to meet Lilly for 1 ENTRY.

ADDITIONAL ENTRIES:

2. VOTE for my "Ugly Sweater" Contest and receive 5 ENTRIES! Just comment with Vote 1, Vote 2, etc.

3. Suggest a new name for this BLOG. The Re-Lilly Name is already being used for our Facebook Page.... This blog covers Re-Lilly topics  and beyond so I think it is time for a new name! Receive 1 ENTRY  for EACH name you suggest. HERE is the other GIVEAWAY: If the name you suggest is chosen as the New Blog Name you will receive a special Lilly Gift from me TBD, it will be good and will have a Retail Value of $50 or more!

4. Receive 1 ENTRY for sharing this Giveaway on your blog (please post link in your comment) 

5. Receive 1 ENTRY for Tweeting this Giveaway(please post your Twitter name & link for your Tweet in your comment)

6. Receive 1 Entry for posting this Giveaway on Facebook.

7. Receive 5 EXTRA ENTRIES for anyone you recruit to vote for me in the Ugly Swaeter Contest!(Please list each entry as stated above and include the name of the person you got to vote).

Winner will be drawn on Wednesday, January 12th at 11:59 PM EST (after I return from FL) and will be selected using a random number generator (Random.org). Odds will depend on number of entries. Open to US Residents Only. PLEASE follow the rules to maximize your chances of winning. If you have any questions let me know.

Good Luck!

Happy New Year!

XOX Sue