Sonia - All the Way from Moscow!

This past July I entered a giveaway that the amazingly talented Olga from Wassupbrothers had put up on her super adorable blog and I just have to say, there are some giveaways I want to win... and then other giveaways I really want to win.  Olga had a hard time choosing between all the awesome entries, so she drew names... and so now Sonia has finally made it safely into my home.  I thought I would share her homecoming Wassupbrothers blog style, minus the mucho fantastic photography that her husband provides for her lovely creatures.

I opened my front door ... and there was Sonia! Yay!  

She then sat down in front of her suitcase to say hello...

She hopped into my hand... Sonia is super soft and definitely hug-able! 

I took her to her room and she already found a new friend... but then realized the little lady is only made of plastic...

She was a tad bit leery of this furry creature... but Sonia sat down next to him anyhow. 

The big fuzzy cat introduced himself, "Hello there, my name is Milo.  I am Jocelyn's cat.  Nice to meet you!"

They both felt the morning breeze, looked out the window, and watched all the cars go by on the street.

Milo obviously trusts this new owl friend he has made... otherwise he wouldn't feel safe enough to take a nap.

So there you have it.... a new home with new friends, and a window to sit by and see all that's going on in the outside world.  Is there anything better?




Thank you, Olga, I love Sonia so much!

Everyone definitely needs to go check out Olga's shop and purchase one of her owls... they are so lovable and cuddly.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/wassupbrothers

A Thank You Giveaway!

I am not giving away thank yous... well, in a sense, I am giving out a huge thank you to all the customers and amazing fans I have had on Etsy and outside of Etsy, so I guess I am giving away thank yous!

So here we go... I am currently at 700 + sales in my shop and all this was reached a couple weeks past my 3rd year selling on Etsy.  This is just too awesome for words, so I want to celebrate by giving away two prizes.

The first winner, picked at random, will receive a $20 Gift Certificate to go toward your purchase in my shop.

The second winner (also chosen at random) will receive their choice of one of my filigree Scrabble tile rings in my shop.

The Grand Hall Scrabble Tile Ring

Rules for the giveaway:

1) Say hello to me right here on my blog and let me know your favorite item from my shop:  

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Flowerleaf

2) Follow my blog since I will be posting the winners here.  Let me know you followed my blog in a separate post. 

So that makes two possible entries for this giveaway and don't forget to leave me your e-mail in each post so I can contact you if you happen to be one of the winners.    

That's all you have to do, but if you would like to go the extra mile, you can share this giveaway on your FB, twitter, and blog about it as well.  It won't count as an extra entry, but it sure would make my day! 

So thanks to all my customers and fans... you are all so awesome and I appreciate everyone for supporting my shop since 2009! 

The giveaway will end on Thursday, May 31st... and the winners will be drawn on Monday, June 4th! 

Spring time means...

For me, spring time means bright and sunny... and something cold and fizzy... more specifically, something Izze.

I have acquired quite a collection of Izze bottles and the Sparkling Clementine is such a vibrant sunny color and it just so happens to be my favorite flavor. I was inspired by this bright yellow orange color, so here's some lovely and lively finds for your viewing/tasting pleasure...

This sorbet looks almost too delicious and the recipe actually calls for the Izze Sparkling Clementine as an ingredient.

Royal Grapefruit & Clementine Sorbet @ Mama Me Gluten Free's Blog

A fun vintage dress by aiseirigh that makes me smile and also makes me want to be more daring and try bold colors.

1950's Vintage Paisley Cotton Summer Dress by aiseirigh on Etsy.

A little bit of disco for the gingers... or those who want to be a ginger...

Source: Getty

Now I want to dye my hair more orange (not really), get myself a sunny summer dress and sit on the porch with a citrus sorbet. How about you? ;-)

Art for your fingers! New Ring listed in my shop!

Kiwi Lemon Adjustable Ring

I simply love the bright and beautiful colors that different fruits give and this ring was inspired by my love of such things. I am drawn to nature and color and created this ring during the spring season so both of those things came about naturally in this piece. Its bright color makes for a fun and perfect to piece for summer wear!

The ring has a mahogany Scrabble Tile placed on an Antiqued Brass band. I hand painted abstract art onto the Scrabble tile, which makes for a lovely little canvas to put my art on.

****

I have had this section in my shop for a while, and added a new piece to my Scrabble Tile Adjustable Rings collection today.

White Lilies ~ Adjustable Ring

For this ring, I decided to see if how pastels would work out and I was pretty happy with the results. The flowers are somewhat abstract, but you can definitely tell they are flowers and I love the muted colors in the background.

I will be adding many more of these to my shop this week and they are just so much fun to make! Do stop by my shop to keep up with the new additions!

It's Giveaway Time!!

So I actually went 3 sales over my 50 sales goal for my giveaway when one customer bought four items in one day! That made me super-excited, so I am going to celebrate with a giveaway that is going to have not just one winner, but two winners - yay!  I have decided to giveaway one of my pieces that has sold a number of times in my Etsy shop and locally so here it is:  

Ta da! 

Item valued at $32.00 (USD)

This layered necklace is very reminiscent of the style of the Roaring Twenties, but has a slight modern twist to it. The large flower, which is made up of large Antiqued Brass Leaves, is definitely dramatic and accented with a few Dark Aqua Fire Polished Czech Glass Beads and a single Dark Brown Wood Bead. A simply elegant piece to wear for the times you want to show your more artsy side!

Necklace is made with Antiqued Brass Chain and all other components are also made with Antiqued Brass. Measures at 27 1/2" in length.

So you will have the chance to win the item that I have chosen and then the Second Winner's prize will be...dun dun dun...your favorite piece in my shop! So, even if you are not too fond of the Star Flower necklace, you will want to enter this giveaway, you see! 

Here's how you enter:  (Oh, and this giveaway is an International Giveaway!)

There are a few ways you can get entries into this giveaway, I'll list them all below along with how many entries doing each thing is going to earn you.  Please Note that You DO NOT need to do all of these things to enter. One entry will be just fine, but just know that more entries increase your chances of winning! 

 

1. Follow my blog, comment that you have done this (1 Entry).

2. Go to my shop ( http://www.etsy.com/shop/Flowerleaf ) and find your favorite item, then come back here, and post the link to the item in another comment (1 Entry).   Choose wisely, for your decision will determine which item you will receive should you be chosen as the second winner.  :-D If your first favorite just so happens to sell and it's a one-of-a-kind item, then you can pick your next favorite.  

3. Heart my shop on Etsy, post in a separate comment that you have done this. If you have already hearted my shop, just state that you have done so in your comment. (1 Entry).

4. Blog about this giveaway, "Tweet" about it on Twitter, talk about it on your Facebook or Myspace, whichever suits you best. Come back here and tell me about how you helped promote my giveaway by posting a link to it in another separate comment (1 Entry for each promotion done, please post each one in a separate comment)

5. Fan me on my Facebook fanpage  ( http://www.facebook.com/Flowerleaf ) and come back over here to let me know that you have done so.  If you are already a fan, leave me a comment on here to let me know. (1 Entry)

Bonus Entry:

6. Buy something from my Etsy shop, come back to this blog post and post the link to the transaction in yet another comment (3 entries).

Please be sure to include your contact information in each comment you post (email, link to your Etsy shop, just somewhere that I can contact you to inform you that you've won). Also please PLEASE be sure to post separate comments for each thing you have done to enter yourself into this giveaway.

Each comment will be numbered, and this is how the winner will be chosen through a random number generator. :) If you have any questions, feel free to contact me through my Etsy shop. Thanks for entering my first giveaway and good luck!  :-D  

Entries will be accepted until 11:59 pm (Pacific Standard Time) on May 6th, 2010 and I will announce the winner on May 7th, 2010.  

****Just wanted to let you know I will be deleting any repeats, so if you notice that one of your posts is deleted, that's why. Trying to make this a nice and fair giveaway! *****

All Things Wintry...

I haven't blogged in a while and that's just not cool. It's cold in the room where I am sitting right now and I was looking through some old pics in my Photobucket and came across this:



It's a leaf that had landed on my sister's Volkswagon Beetle that had then froze in the middle of the night. I felt it just wasn't wintry enough so I changed it up a little bit with some editing...


So that brought me to my blog that I was already thinking about how there's just something about the winter time, granted that it can get miserably cold, I still love this time of the year. Even the sunsets have a sparkle to them that doesn't happen any other time of year. I was just listening to a band named Future of Forestry the other day while I was lying down on my bed and the sun was going down, and the music had bells and chimes in it. The wind was blowing outside and the sun was shining through my bamboo window coverings and there was this golden flickering light shining into my room. Moments like that never get old for me.

So I am going to be adding some wintry things in this blog all December long. Some things will be my own, but mostly it will be things that inspire me and just bring me to that place that awesome music does at times.

I really love this photo from this awesome photographer that I just found on Etsy. The colors in this photo are one of the reasons why I love winter time.

"Frost" by Nicolas Hermann:


So my blog isn't going to be so empty and sad anymore...I decided it was time to be disciplined and to also just have an online source to jot down things that will help me stay creative. Also, be paying attention to my shop this week. Not only will I be adding some new pieces, but I will be starting a special, so don't forget to visit me!

Discovered, Undiscovered...

I have ventured onto the Pounce section of Etsy so many times and I wanted to start recognizing Etsians who I happen to pounce on and love to death. So many new favorites have entered onto my list because of normal browsing, but recently, I have been loving just stumbling onto an Etsy shop and falling in love with the items, so I decided to start blogging once a week and feature one "Undiscovered" Etsy shop and one shop that "Just Sold" and I am pretty excited about those that I happened upon for my first entry!

Undiscovered:

The first shop I totally fell in love with was from New Zealand artist, Rosemary Mortimer. Her shop kiwibird1 ,is full of beautiful contrasts and rich colors in nature. I checked out the rest of what she had for sale and loved the wide range of work that she has. The item that was displayed as the main photo in Pounce that caught my eye was a card titled "Letters from the Past." It immediately caught my eye and I really loved how the vivid colors popped in front of the dark background.



Another piece I really love is titled "Coromandel Carving" and It reminded me a lot of the foothills in California. The realism is just awesome and I love how she added the sketches and Rosemary Mortimer goes into detail about that in her description.


So, if you have not checked out this awesome shop, please do!

http://www.kiwibird1.etsy.com

Just Sold

The next Etsian I stumbled upon was artist from NYC, stepanka, and her pottery is so very soft and delicate, and very unique with all the drawings and variety of objects she chooses for her ceramic pieces. I loved how the light passed through the numbers in her item titled "123 - Translucent porcelain cup." It's just fun and I thought of how awesome it would be as a gift for someone who loves numbers.


Then as I looked on inside of her shop, I found myself wanting to purchase many, if not all of the items she had in stock. From the items she calls "wall pillows" to her beautifully crafted mugs that could stand on their own as art pieces, I just really loved her juxtapositions in general. One of the wall pillows that I was most drawn to is titled "stepi - small porcelain wall pillow"

So if you love fun ceramic pieces, or just love art, definitely check out stepanka's shop!

http://www.stapanka.etsy.com

I am so very glad I pounced on these sellers and stay tuned for my next two shops that I will feature next week, it just might be you! :-D

Autumn's Treasures...

I fell in love with all these items so I figured I would share it in a blog entry. The cookies look almost too pretty to eat and I get lost in the photographs because they are so captivating and beautiful. It's so strange how there are so many things in the world, yet I can always be amazed at the beauty that is all around, and the fact that there is so much talent out there to portray that beauty. I am never bored and that's just awesome.

Click here to comment and click on the items, thanks!

It feels so nice to retake photos of some of the items I added to my shop about two months ago. It really makes a difference and now I can actually show the true length of the necklace with the mannequin torso that I have had for a little while. :-)

I need to go to bed so very badly and sometimes I wonder if I am a little bit mentally unstable when it comes to disciplining myself to get to bed at a reasonable time. I will conquer it! I must!