One World One Heart Giveaway

It's time for the One World One Heart blogger event!! Started by Lisa Swifka in 2007, this worldwide event brings the international blogging community together creating a fabulous opportunity to discover new and wonderful friends.
If this is your first time to my blog .. Welcome! You can take a look at the rest of my blog here. I love visitors and new bloggy friends!

This is my FOURTH year (wow!) participating in OWOH and I am so proud to participate again. This past year I have worked really, *really* hard despite numerous obstacles to finally get my line of crochet jewelry and crochet patterns off the ground and was thrilled to finally list the first one in November 2009! In celebration of that, I am offering your choice of any one of my new patterns as my giveaway item:

romantic lacey choker, garden flower choker, fingerless gloves, scarflette, zakka breakfast mat, or snowflake earrings

To enter and be eligible to win you must:
1) be a blogger
2) leave a comment - make sure I have a way to contact you if you win. If your blogging profile doesn't link back to your blog, then please leave an email address; oh, and you don't need to choose which pattern you would like now .. you can decide that after winning :)
3) make your entry on or before Feb. 14th

This fabulous blogland event ends on Feb 15th and I will be contacting the lucky winner on that day!

Be sure to check out all the other blogs participating by clicking on the One World One Heart logo on the left and make some wonderful new bloggy friends! :)

OWOH Winner Announced!

Looking into my treasure box here and pulling out a name .......the winner of my handbeaded vintage-style cross pendant is .... Valerie! Congrats!!! Valerie, I will be contacting you shortly for your mailing address so I can get your prize out to you!

Thank you everyone who visiting me during the One World One Heart 2009 blogger event! And what an event it was... over 900 participants this year...whoa!! I had such fun visiting, discovering new blogs and making new friends. I did really try to visit everyone on that mammoth list, but I'm not the dash and run comment kind of girl. I like to stay a while, look around and really enjoy the blogs I visit. Plus which .. I do have to sleep occasionally :) Until next year everyone!!

Valentine's Day Sale!!!

In celebration of the upcoming Valentine's Day I'm having a sale!!

EVERYTHING at both my Etsy store and my Jeweled Elegance Web Boutique will be 10% off!

Usually I do a little free gift with every order or something else special, but this is the first all-store, across-the-board discount I have ever done in five years of business, so if there is a special piece you've had your eye on, this is the time!

~~~For Etsy: check out the item(s), but DO NOT PAY. Please wait for me to email you a revised invoice with the sale price. Or .. you are welcome to pay in full and I will happily refund you the difference.

~~~For the Web Boutique, email me at enquiry@jeweledonline.com with the item(s) you would like and I will email you a revised invoice with the sale price. Or .. you are welcome to pay in full and I will happily refund you the difference.

This is also somewhat of a triple celebration for me. Not only is it going to be Valentine's Day, the most romantic day of the year, but it's also my wedding anniversary!! ... and .. a celebration that all my hospital visits and specialist tests are finally done and it looks like I am going to be A-OK!!

Now ... I have to go grab a hot cup of Earl Grey tea and spend a few hours visiting all the wonderful blogs participating in the One Heart One World Giveaway! Soooo heart-warming to see so many people in blogland joining together for this wonderful event!

The Valentine's Day Sale is ongoing until February 14th, and as always, all purchases come either gift boxed or wrapped prettily in tissue paper, so happy shopping! :)

One World One Heart 2009 is here!

It's time for the One World One Heart blogger event!! Started by Lisa Swifka, this worldwide giveaway event is a way for the blogging community around the world to meet and has grown and grown each and every year into a wonderful expression of togetherness and community.

If this is your first time to my blog .. Welcome! You can take a look at the rest of my blog here. I love visitors and new bloggy friends! Please click on "follow this blog" up at the top left under "lovely followers" to be a new bloggy friend.

This is my third year participating in OWOH and I am so proud to participate again. Please leave a comment on this post by Feb. 12 to be entered to win my giveaway prize this year .... a handbeaded vintage-style cross pendant!Hand woven out of Swarovski crystals, old-fashioned silver-lined beads, and seed beads, this delicate pendant is sure to garner many compliments.The drawing ends promptly at midnight (Pacific time) on February 11 and I will draw the name of the lucky winner on Feb. 12. Please make sure I have a way of contacting you when you leave your comment, either through your blog or email.

Okay... let me hear from you! And once you're finished leaving a comment here, go back up to the top of this post and click on the One World One Heart link and you will be taken to the blog with a list of all participants. Go find some cool new blogs and meet new friends!!

The Glory of Felt

Little Tweets are now online!! These little felt birdies are so cute and adorable and just perfect for hanging ... well... just about anywhere! I like to use them in giftwrapping and tie them into the bow on top of the package or to the handle of the gift bag. The perfect artful touch to finish off a handmade gift. They also make fabulous Christmas ornaments!

Little Tweet --bubblegum pink sparrow
At my Etsy store.

Each Little Tweet is hand embroidered, sewn and stuffed. I use many recycled bits of felt, ribbon and buttons on them, so they are eco-tweets too :) I've had several people ask me how I can sell them for so little, considering the amount of work put into them. The simple answer is that at shows and markets, the Little Tweets are my loss leaders. What is a loss leader? A product sold at a low price (at cost or below cost) to introduce customers to your product. Basically you take a loss to lead someone to your store. So they are an awesome deal! :)

Little Tweet -- chocolate sparrow
At my Etsy store.

These are two cuties available now at my Etsy store and I have some Little Red Sparrows and some Little Red Robins ready to join them. Again, I might need to wait until school starts to get everything uploaded online that I planned to - this summer is just SO busy!! I am getting a TON done during my bloggie break, but my To Do List is still a serious foe to be reckoned with.

And look at what I won in a blog contest over at Felted Treasures!! This awesome felted grape bowl!! It is just huge and it is sooo beautiful!
Valerie was so sweet and even included a darling miniature felted bowl too. If you remember this post, at the bottom is a stitched mouse my children fell in love with -- well, it now lives in this bowl :) The awesome white bowl I've moved around the house several times already - it looks good everywhere, but especially good with my collection of buttons in it so that is probably where it will end up :) You can see more of Valerie's work at her Etsy store.

One World One Heart: Valentine's Giveaway!

I am proud to announce Jeweled Elegance's participation in the 2nd Annual One World One Heart Giveaway! An event that brings together bloggers from all over the world in giving and sharing. I'm a little late getting this posted, but I really wanted to do this again, so please make me feel like I'm not too late by entering my giveaway :)This year I am giving away one of my new Towering Nest Rings, with a single pearl nestled at the top of the nest! The lucky giveaway winner will be announced on Feb. 14th.

Now go visit all the other blogs spreading the love by clicking the One World One Heart link above! It's a wonderful way to meet new people and discover new blogs!

Blogger Craft Challenge #2

The blog challenge issued by Beachys Cape Cod was to create something using this vintage wedding photo and share with everyone today on your blog.Having essentially no printer, just a 10 year old cranky b&w bottom-of-the-line doorstop, I opted to do a digital submission (it's my first digital piece!). And it being almost Valentine's day, decided to do something full of romance.The photo I used to transform the bride is fairly well known ... anybody recognize it? See more great entries for this blogger art challenge here.

The Start of a Beautiful New Year!

It was so hard staying away from blogland for my break!! I kept straying over to the computer and then having to tell myself ...no... go back to the studio or..... go start getting out the cookie ingredients for when the kids wake up. LOL!! I missed you all terribly, but I had fantastic Christmas and New Years with my family and got spend some real quality time with my little ones.

I have so much to share! But today, lets start with some mail goodies. The sweet and lovely Gracie at Gracie Bella Buttefly held a giveaway and I won some of her fantastic cards! Look at how prettily they were wrapped! So pretty I felt bad about opening them :)And here are the beautiful notecards inside that pretty wrapping - complete with little envelopes and matching stickers! Sooo cute! She is such a talented paper artist and I can't wait to use these!! Thank you Gracie!!
I also had the incredible good fortune to win the holiday blog giveaway at ARTful Paper Dreams! I was a new reader of Jen's lovely blog and was just overjoyed to win some of her lovely creations. The level of detail and meticulous construction on her tags is amazing! So hard to use them on someone else's packages! :)
This one is long overdue being posted. I received these pretty pink earrings from Roxi a few months ago. I just started wearing them right away and forgot to take a photo ... but I saved her stunning earring card (handmade from start to finish and perfectly complimenting the earrings) and have reunited the earrings and card for this shot. They are beautiful Roxi!!


And now .. to start the new year, two gifts for you! I have eclectic tastes so these are a bit non-traditional, but maybe that will be good since they will be a little different! First, a gift of beauty. This new retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" with watercolors by Angela Barrett is worth a look for the beautiful, ethereal pictures alone. The occasional two page spreads are breathtakingly gorgeous!
And second, a gift of mystery. If you've ever seen the movie "Lost in Translation" and wondered what Bill Murray whispers to Scarlett in that final scene ... here it is revealed! Personally, I had a hard time making it out even after the tinkering, but what he says does make perfect sense. If you haven't seen the movie, it's very good and I highly recommend it.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with your loved ones and that 2008 is off to a great start for you!!!

G I V E A W A Y ! ! !

I hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving with your loved ones and tons of yummy autumnal foods! Those of us who danced in Natasha's vintage prom certainly burned off enough calories to have a huge piece of pie with whipped cream. Or at least that's what I was telling myself as I ate a manly piece of pumpkin pie decorated with Vermont maple sugar candies :)

Now ... to the giveaway! My 100th post is just a few posts away, but I just can't wait to celebrate! I struggle so with my crippled camera, my non-photoshop paint program and my verbiage that getting to 100 posts is definitely something to celebrate! With two small rambunctious boys most of my posts (and blogging) are done way before the sun rises and I have so enjoyed making my cup of tea, parking my chair over the heating vent and visiting all of you, immersing myself in your thoughts, creations and worlds, and then adding my own voice to that community. Truly I feel blessed to know such wonderful women! I never dreamed that the blogiverse would be as rich, as rewarding and as wonderful as I have discovered it to be! Thank you all for your friendship, your visits and for sharing of yourselves at my blog for the past 100 posts!!! For the "first 100 posts", I thought a giveaway of "firsts", in this case first editions of great magazines, would be fun.

I also have the results of the etsy banner poll. The winning banner is: The second fancy one! I liked both of these so thanks for helping me decide which way to go. With banner in place .... I took the plunge and opened an etsy shop! You can see my new mini-etsy thing on the left. I've always wanted one of those -- they are so cute!! For opening my etsy store, a zen giveaway package to help promote calm and serenity though the crazy holiday shopping season

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post letting me know which prize you would like to win, "A" or "B".

New etsy shop ... sad little notice saying zero items sold. Zero is not the most confidence inspiring thing for a potential shopper to see. Anyone who would like to help that number transform itself out of 0 into a 1 will get my eternal thanks and a free little handmade thank you goody in their order in addition to the free holiday treat. Yeah for free stuff!

***Edited*** A very nice person has just helped me transform that zero! Thank you, thank you, thank you!! Now .. I'm off to make a thank you goody!

And finally ... something sweet for the week. Look what I found when I was making an emergency milk run on Black Friday! Now I can make Starbuck's pumpkin spice lattes at home! Fraction of the cost, no lines, and same great pumpkin flavor! BTW I've never amused myself so much buying milk. Place was packed and everyone, and I mean everyone, was running around the store like rabid chickens heaping their arms up with sale goodies, many lugging two shopping carts around, ringing up bills that averaged 400 dollars,... and there was me.. two liters of milk and my new treat. The staff was very concerned that I simply hadn't been able to find what I needed. Hahaha..haahah! Are you not supposed to buy normal groceries on Black Friday?

How Many Things Can You Adore in One Week?

This has been a week of adoration. For instance, there is my new and deep adoration of the romantic Japanese tale The Butterfly Lovers (Les Amants Papillons) by the French children's book illustrator, Benjamin Lacombe. I love the rich glowing tones and smoky shadows. The romance, intrigue and mystery hinted at by the visual atmosphere. It doesn't even bother me that it's in French (which I don't speak) or that it is only available from French Amazon (which I have no hope of ordering from without speaking French). It is so beautiful to look at that it captures the heart without words.
Is the lighting and mood in these illustrations not sublime? Love that barest touch of color from the blue butterflies as she walks down the shadowed hall.
To see more of his incredible work, click on his name above.
And then is the adoration of a well organized clean studio. I've been cleaning out and reorganizing my studio for several weeks now. I've set up a new packing and shipping counter and a new storage system for finished pieces, like these "Ruby Terbium Briolette" and "Friend" earrings, to keep everything protected and easily accessible. I have also redecorated my newly arranged space with all your little paper dresses, and I adore coming into the studio in the morning with my coffee and seeing such beauty from friends. Makes me smile :)

What else did I adore this week? Well, my awesome husband and beloved children of course. And those sinful pumpkin muffins and lattes at Starbucks :)

And my mailbox. This delightful package came from Felicia, who makes the cutest little creatures. I won some fun Halloween yarn skeins over at her blog, Fluffy Flowers, and look at the wonderful package she sent! Pay close attention to that little mouse in the lower right corner. It took me almost an hour to find him for this photograph. My youngest child pounced on it with glee the moment the package opened, and put it to "bed" last night in a secret place. Now I need to sneak it back there before I go pick him up from pre-K :)


And of course, I adore all my bloggy friends! Like Roxi and Deborah, who both awarded me the You Make Me Smile Award. Thank you!! I couldn't possibly narrow down the list of who to pass this onto to just 10 people, so I nominate all of you, my dear friends and readers, for the joy and happiness you bring me everyday!

I hope you all had a good week too! Was there anything that you adored about your week?

Avalanche of Activities

You ever have weeks where life is routine and uneventful ..well, ok, lets's say boring.....and you find yourself wondering if grocery shopping is a suitable topic for your weekly blog post? Well, this is NOT one of those weeks. Grab a pumpkin latte, indulge in one of those yummy Starbucks pumpkin muffins and hang in there! (and I'm not even going to count getting caught up from "the week of the flu", or the two major household appliances that needed repair, including one that flooded my upper landing)

First, I participated in the Sweet & Sinister Swap over at Artsy Mama. My swap partner was the talented Jeanetta at Splendid Things. She handcrafted everything you see here and even included some little trimmings in that box for the paper dresses I was making. My favorite of course is that Sweet & Sinister commemorative pincushion. Thank you Jeanetta!
And what did I send to her? Well..... if I have a failing in life it is that I can never remember to photograph my swap goodies before I wrap them. Never, ever. I suddenly remembered when I was wrapping the very last package, so here are pics of the sinister bat cookie plate and her dress for the Halloween ball (paper of course). I also sent a cute kit for making homemade ghost candies and a black cat candle holder. Making Jeanetta's dress was very inspirational and inspired a whole line of spiderweb couture dresses so it might look very familiar to some of you :)


This was also the final week of the 2007 Sherwood Saturday market. It's been getting quite chilly and damp in the mornings, so I was ready for it to come to a close. Until next year, market goers! Thank you for another great season!! Here are some farewell booth shots:


Also two fabulous blog events: Karla's Romantic Home Party and the Bloglandia Ball. I made it to everyone's beautiful sharing of their romantic homes. Still dancing to see everyone's beautiful ball gowns. My mouse-clicking finger is getting quite a workout this week! :)

And to conclude the week, I'm very happy to announce the winners of the earring giveaway! Thank you everyone for entering my contest! You are all such fantastic women, I wish I could give each and every one of you a prize! This was my first giveaway and it was such fantastic fun, I will be doing another one soon. The winners for each letter category, as chosen by a random number generator, are .....drumroll............


A. Tiny Keys: She'sSewPretty
B. Vintage Style: Old Agate & Turquoise: Sweet Cottage Dreams
C. Classic Everyday Pearl Drops: Lori
D. Peacock Feathers: Natalea
E. Magical Fairy Tale Stars: Reflections from the Stone Nest
F. Happy Ladybugs: Rosie

Winners, please send me your mailing addresses, so I can get your pretty lovelies sent out to you asap!

Romantic Country Party & A Giveaway!!

Karla's Cottage is having a Romantic Country Party! She's asking party goers to post photos of what they love and find most romantic about their homes. Well, those of you who follow my blog know there is really only one good answer to that question this fall. It's my new patio of course!! It's finally done and I LOVE it!!! It is so blissful to sit out there sipping hot cocoa, listening to the crickets and watching the sun set. Let's go on a patio tour!
This is right outside the backdoor. We started with a traditional French gravel border but switched to Japanese style rocks. They look marvelous when wet and glistening with rain. And there is a lot of rain here :)
The main seating area. It has a canopy over it right now so it can stay cool and damp for moss growing. And look closely ... it's working! We built it right up to the lemon thyme and English lavender and oh, how divine it smells when the wind blows through!

And this is looking up the shallow tiered risers to what will be the potted herb and vegetable area. The "culinary patio". It was the last bit to be finished and you can still see paving sand that needs to be swept away and surplus bags of rock. But we already have two potted peppermint plants there growing tall! Eep! Don't look at the grass! It was hard to mow around 50 lb. pavers and rock, so we just let it go.

It has been a long journey getting this patio done, but sitting out there in the autumn evenings ... well worth it!! It's a wonderful place to retreat to and the most romantic spot in my house to me :) In my imagination, it's five years down the road....all the pavers are mossy, white climbing roses blanket the fence, a small fountain is babbling and I'm plucking fresh berries from a potted blueberry bush for the breakfast laid out on the table. I can even smell the fresh squeezed orange juice and chocolate croissants. Ahh! Blissful!!

And now....as promised....in celebration of finally getting the patio finished ... A GIVEAWAY!!!!!

A. Tiny Keys
B. Vintage Style: Old Agate & Turquoise (reworked into my signature hoops)
C. Classic Everyday Pearl Drops
D. Peacock Feathers
E. Magical Fairy Tale Stars
F. Happy Ladybugs (a brighter, cheerier yellow in person than in the photo)

I'm giving the giveaway a bit of a twist because I'm a modern girl who believes in having choices :) I also really want you to love what you win! Take a look at the photo montage above and choose your favorite earrings. Then comment on this post making sure to mention which pair (A,B,C,D,E or F) you want to win. Blogger doesn't always automatically capture your email/blog link, so please put a way to contact you if needed. I'm giving away all six earrings, so we'll have 6 winners!! (Oh! I almost forgot. These all have surgical steel earwires so most metal sensitives can wear them.)

Good luck to everyone entering the giveaway! And if you'd like to see more romantic homes celebrating, you'll find a list of participants at Karla's Cottage!

Mail Goodies!!

Let me just start out by saying I am one of those people that the universe has decided should never win anything. Lady luck, good fortune .. whatever name you give it, it does not usually bless my house. But a mysterious thing has happened. Just out of the blue, I won not one, but two blog contests! The first was hosted by the talented Karin at Creative Chaos to celebrate the opening of her Etsy store. Look at this pretty, pretty box she crafted! And she even made the cutest little gift tag to go with it too :)

And then, shortly after, I won this beautiful cupcake stand with cloche in the 100th post giveaway at Vintage Threads! Charity, the creative force at Vintage Threads, also sent all these awesome goody extras! What a sweet gesture -- I love it all! Already have some creative ideas in mind :)

My mailbox has also gone a bit bonkers in the yummy book department. I think all those hours setting heavy concrete pavers has made me long for a stack of soothing reading material, a soft comfy chair, and a cup of tea. In the art/craft department I now have the new Somerset Home & Artful Blogger, French Inspired Jewelry, and Making Metal Jewelry (cold connection metalsmithing).

For outgoing mail goodies, this Red Poppies scarf is ready to be sent off to a friend for her upcoming birthday! I think it's really cool and super cute, but I would since I made it :) Now I just hope she does too! Don't worry, she won't see this. She doesn't blog and doesn't even own a computer, so I think it's safe to post. I am just so happy to have finished it on time and that it turned out so well, I had to share. And yes, that's me modeling it :)

I'm making one more of these. Same black felt base with the fringe cut at the ends, but with hot pink flowers and little green leaves. Here's the first few crocheted pieces and I already have the felt base sized and ready. I think with all the leaves, I'll do a few less flowers?

In other news, the patio is ALMOST done! Yeah! Can't wait to celebrate! This week is going to be insanely busy as I try to finish that patio, get my little guys ready for school (pre-K and 1st grade - how quickly they grow!), do Saturday Market, and create product for the upcoming Art & Antiques show I'm doing in mid-September. I'm also horribly behind on my entries for the 2007 Bead Journal Project. So, it might be a while until my next post, but when things settle down, I'm thinking about doing my first tutorial. What do think about one for either crochet wire earrings (I call them spiderweb earrings)? Or one for fairy/princess hair combs?

Happily Handmade Winner!

Congratulations to our Happily Handmade Giveaway winner!! Stacey Hammen won this fantastic gift box stuffed with fabulous indie products, worth an estimated $250, by entering the Happily Handmade Giveaway at Jeweled Elegance. Congrats Stacey!!!! Enjoy all your indie goodness and thank you for participating in the HHG and supporting indie artisans everywhere!

Happy Spring!

Happy Spring To Everyone! Everything is blooming like crazy here. Daphne, tulips, pansies ... you name it. The air smells wonderfully divine, and so very ....Spring! Now if only there would be a few sunny days in a row so the ground can dry up and I can make the garden look as pretty as it smells!

I whipped up the cute little bird graphic just to celebrate the season, but it is really growing on me. I think I'm going to need to find a new role for it after being a Spring greeting! And speaking of birds, I am almost finished with these. Finished enough to photograph for the blog, at least.The one on top is still waiting for it's final Olivine crystal on the extender chain. It is maddening to be working on a project and be out of the exact thing you need, is it not? If I had needed pink or yellow or blue .. no problem, but because I wanted three green crystals, I of course only had two. Murphy's Law in action. I traveled to two bead stores this weekend, but neither one carried that color, which made it even more frustrating. (Have you ever tried taking an active, inquisitive toddler into a bead store??) So, I ended up ordering online and am waiting for it to arrive by post. I'm really, really pleased with how these turned out. I tried a gold ink wash on the moss agate necklace tile and it gave a nice, subtle effect -- like a touch of worn gilding.

Look what was in my mail this morning! Last week in the "ONE World-ONE HeART Spring Giveaway", I won this gorgeous set of vintage Easter tags in the giveaway drawing at The Decorated House. Aren't they just darling? And the perfect finishing touch for the Easter gifts I am working on!

Winners Announced!

The rain has finally stopped, blue sky and sunbeams have appeared again and viola! The cherry and plum trees are blossoming! So pretty!


Now that it is March 21st and officially Spring, it is time to draw the winners of the "ONE World-ONE HeART Spring Giveaway"! This giveaway has been enormous fun and I would like to thank everyone who visited my blog and entered to win my little jewels! It was so wonderful to meet you all!

My little "unicorn" assistant helped me put in all the names, stir them up, and then pick the winners. He was such a happy helper and really enjoyed doing the drawing.

And the winners are ........... Jamie for prize package #1 and Heather - Speckled Egg for prize package #2. Congrats!! I will be contacting both of you lucky winners shortly. Please send me your mailing addresses when you have a chance.