I Won Another GiveAway

It must be my lucky year! I'm still enjoying my recent "blog giveaway" wins, here comes another one. This morning, a "Congratulations" email is waiting in my inbox - I won a custom photo coaster set from Blueblossom Designs. Needless to say, I was busy earlier choosing photos for my fun personalized coasters. After too much contemplation, I settled on a photo of me & DH together (1 coaster), and a family farm photo (3 coasters) where MIL now lives. The farm photo was taken on 1955, and this is where MIL and her 2 siblings grew up. Majority of the structures had been demolished since MIL built a new house a decade ago, new building 3 years ago for her tractors (barn), and a new chicken house (2 years ago) even. LOL I'm sure the coasters will become a great conversation pieces - can't wait to show it to them!

Blueblossom Designs is an etsy store managed by Beccah & Sarah - they make custom handmade coasters and decorative switch plates which are great for gift giving or better yet "keep me gift"! Don't forget to check out their store to see what they have to offer!

Thanks again Beccah & Sarah! Enjoy your Sunday all!

EtsyNEAT Is Having Its First Challenge

As I already mentioned in one of my previous posts, I found a team at etsy that I felt I needed to join - Etsy NeedleArts Team aka EtsyNEAT (Please visit the team blog for further details about the team. Plus it has helpful tips to enjoy!)... hand embroidery and bead embroidery, what not to love? The team is getting active and is now having it's first ever creative challenge wherein the challenge word is "BLUE" - thanks to Spincushions for organizing!

To sweeten the challenge, I immediately whipped up this pair of beaded bead earrings as prize option to the winner. Yes, they're blue, but they're not my entry for the challenge. LOL I know that not everybody wears earrings nor like jewelries, so I'm offering a second option - a gold-tone 3.5" stork scissors. I don't know any embroiderer who doesn't like cute scissors. They're one of my addiction!

Third option is my first ever published pincushion pattern - Flower Garden Biscornu - which was published at an Australian based magazine. The pincushion design is mostly cross stitch with two sided design.

If you're an EtsyNEAT member, don't forget to join the challenge for a chance to win one of the above. The next upcoming event is a pincushion swap, due date sign-up is March 15th.

And lastly, I wanna congratulate the captain and all the leaders for updating the requirements on how to become a member.

Keep threading and needling all! Have a great day!

Surprises! Surprises!

It looks like 2011 is my lucky year for give-away winnings! Last month, I won beading stash from Sweden (don't forget to check out her blog as she's having another give-away)... and this month, a yummy coffee from a fellow EtsyNEAT member who had a "The Land Of A Thousand Hills" coffee give-away on her blog. I got the coffee in the mail today and couldn't wait 'til morning to try it - now enjoying a cuppa as I write this post. Thanks so much to Gwyn & Ava for your generosity.

And this goodies came as a total surprise from my dear friend Jodi of WI. She's one of those people who loves sending surprises and I'm such a lucky recipient of her generosity! These are soe of the goodies she sent me recently - she also gave me a GC from her fave etsy shop, which I used right away and now waiting for the stash! Thank you so much for your sweet gestures and making my day Jodi!

A sterling silver & freshwater pearls necklace

that became a fave instantly!

Have a great night all!

A Package From Helena Of Sweden

A fabulous package arrived in the mail today... all the way from Sweden! Helena had a blog giveaway last month and I was the lucky winner - my first win for such ever! She sent more than what I expected, and I'm so excited to try everything. Thank so much for the yummy goodies, but most of all to your generosity Helena.

The goodies were packed well!

Ta daaaaa... the yummy goodies!

All mark - so organized!

While on the topic of new stash, I thought I'll share some of the goodies I grabbed from my craft escapade with MIL & a family friend on January 28th. Would you believe that I never purchased swarovski pearls before? LOL I wanna purchase some sterling silver findings first befor I'll use them - they're still intact 'til now. I had to indulged myself with seedies (24? tubes) as I'm running low with them - I'm so bummed though that they're not on sale at HL. I got an assortment of goodies from all the 4 stores we visited:

@ Hancocks - hand dyed embroidery threads, suede fabric, beading threads, a bunch of sequins (for my bead embroidery, particularly BJP pieces), and assorted beads.

@ Big Lots - spring theme beads, a quilting book, and metal pendants.

@ Hobby Lobby - an assortment of czech seedies, swarovski pearls, cabochons, and jasper focals.

@ JoAnns - czech seedies, acrylic flower beads, display stands for bracelets & necklace/earring, quilting goodies & wooden birdhouses (to paint) for MIL's birthday.

Last Saturday (February 5th) , I got a call from SIL early morning and asked if I wanna go with her & MIL at the Fairgrounds' Flea Market - my answer was YES of course! By 7:30Am, we're on our way to Des Moines already. Despite the cold weather & crowd, the market was full of people of all ages - from babies to oldies with canes! I can attest though that everybody had a good time. I had to grabbed a bunch of vintage stuffs (i.e. old jewelries), bead assortment, embroidery threads, a couple of old embroidery books, some (new) nail polish that I'm planning to use on sealing my beading threads, and cards.

The necklace below is a 2-strand crinkled faux pearls with damaged clasp which I had to tear apart right away when I got home - and for some lucky reason, I found a rivoli in my stash that fits perfectly in the clasp (see lower right in the photo).

I had to have these earrings when I saw them... planning to use them as focals on my next embroidery creations.

We try to do some escapade despite the snowy weather here in IA, otherwise, we'll suffer from cabin fever! So do the same and have a good time! Happy beading all!

Bead Give-Away Winner

Today is different from my usual day in a very very good way! When I checked my email this morning, I got ecstatic with a good news from Helena of Sweden. She recently had a blog give-away and I am the winner... I've been blog-hopping for a few years (both in the embroidery and beading virtual world) and this is the first time I win anything... from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for your generosity Helena!

Beady-wise, this set will be on its way to WI this week - along with the other rings and earrings I made for her. I really enjoyed making this simple necklace as I did able to use my new my new metal punch on the leaf focal. My friend is a very busy Mom of 4 (3 boys and a pretty girl as the youngest) and each angel represent her kids.

My initial thought was to have an assymetrical piece with a front closure. When worn this way, it's around 20" long.

The ring on top of the leaf was a last minute idea - since the chain is long enough, I thought it would be fun to wear it like below... I had been thinking on adding some seedies on the delicate chain on the leaf to add extra dimension but I see a lot of color on the whole piece already. What do you think - should I add seedies or not?

And lastly, please don't forget to drop by at Helena's blog to pamper your eyes with her beautiful creations. She's pretty busy beading herself... her expertise and love for beads shows in her works.

Keep warm and enjoy beading all!

Vote For Your Favorite Jewelries

Don't forget to cast your vote at the Cycle 3 of "Art With Heart... Beading For Charity" which will end on January 5th. Moreso, Marcie's "Margie and Me Final Color Throwdown" will end tonight.

In January 2010, I challenged myself to make at least 31 jewelries - or a jewelry a day. I wanna impose the same challenge on myself to the next level... 365 jewelries and/or accessories for the entire 2011. The piece could be a necklace, bracelet, earrings, broach, pin, pendant, etc. Anybody out there up to the challenge? For my second piece this year, here's a pair of earrings.

Have fun beading all!

My Entry For Margie And Me - The Finals

Thanks to Marcie for this year end color throwdown, I had fun creating this piece. It's my first time to join such and I can see myself joining more in the future. There are a lot of fabulous entries so don't forget to cast your vote - voting starts today and will end on January 2nd! My entry was based on "The Lady And The Unicorn" pallete.

Don't forget to check out the eye candies and vote for your fave at Marcie's blog. Happy beading everybody!

Merry Christmas Everybody

I hope everybody's spending quality time with family and friends. As for us, we'll have our family gathering at SIL's house at brunch. Our food theme this year is appetizer buffet and I'm in-charge on bacon-wrapped lil smokies.

Beady-wise, I'll gonna do the draw later where participants are from the BD swaps and challenges I joined this year. To-date, I have 283 entries in the jar! Winner will be announced tomorrow, so stay tuned!

From our humble home to yours... Happy Holidays!

Andrew's Thursday Give-Away...

... is Sculptural Metal Clay Jewelry book by Kate McKinnon. Don't forget to check out Andrew's blog for further details on how to win this fabulous book.

Don't worry, bead happy!

Jeannie's July Give-Away...

... is already posted! She's giving away the prizes below so don't forget to check her blog for further details.

Pewter colored Poly-Anna
Key Pin
Reptile polymer clay beads
2 polymer clay resin pendants
5 really cool art beads
Gold polymer clay sea shore set
2 small polymer clay pendants

May Flowers Give-Away By Sydney

Sydney is having a giveaway so don't forget to visit her blog and shop. Here's what Sydney had to say about the contest:

"Yes, you heard right! I am giving away one of my handmade lilies. Want to win one? Here's the rules:

• You need to follow my blog
• Link back to my blog or etsy shop on your personal page, example your own blog, etsy shop, Twitter, etc.
• Comment me (on my blog) the link to your site, proving you indeed linked back
• Entries will be accepted until Saturday, May 15th, at 3 pm PST.
• Drawing will be held and the winner will be posted at 3:30 PST.
• Winner gets a flower of their choice from my etsy shop.

Please note, I do not have a Facebook account, so I will not be able to check if you linked to me on your Facebook page if you're set to private. Be sure to make it public, so I can check, or you cannot be entered!

Tell your friends and family about my blog and shop, and get them entered too!"

Sydney's Blog: http://paradisefallsjewelry.blogspot.com/
Sydney's Shop: http://sydneyalfano.etsy.com/

The Other Winner Is...

... CHRISTINA MARIE, who happen to be on a road trip when the drawing was made! I decided to draw another name for the avatar fun at Beading Daily and here're some bits and pieces I came out with for the prize:

And here's the fob I made for Lina.

Update: I was notified by Lina and Christina that they both received their goodies already!

And The Winner Is...

... (drum roll) LinaG

Congratulations on winning the "2010 Photo Avatar Contest" at Beading Daily Lina. Many thanks to Sheila for doing the DRAW. And our anonymous sponsor is Michelle Mach. Thanks so much for donating a great prize (to be agreed upon by Michelle and Lina) Michelle.

Since we had so much fun, I will be doing another draw for a second prize winner which will be announced at the forum tomorrow morning. Thank you so much to all who participated and everybody who joined the discussion. I had so much fun and it's a great feeling to finally put faces behind the names/ID's... like a puzzle being completed. I think we can say we are all winners!

I will do the same contest every year (second week of April), but maybe next time the main requirement will be to use a recent photo, at least a year old.:) What do you think?

Hope everybody's having a great beading Monday!

BEADING DAILY: Photo Avatar Contest

The contest for the above will end tonight... and here's some of the findings I came up with as part of the prizes. I'm still digging, and stitching though. A strand of 8"x6" chinese crystals will be included as well... plus a SURPRISE PRIZE from an anonymous sponsor which will be revealed tomorrow.

I'm a recycler junkie... I try not to throw something I can still use. One thing I love to recycle are altoid tins, and they're perfect to use as portable sewing kit container. Moreso, a 3.5" stork scissors fits perfectly inside.

A variety of toggle clasps and findings!

Bead caps in various sizes and colors. These always come handy in my projects. And of course, ear wires and leverbacks! For a wirework challenged like me, I can't live without them in my stash. LOL

I will try to update this post later for more photos ladies and gentlemen. In the meantime, if you haven't join the FUN, check out the details here at Beading Daily.

Have a great beading day everyone!