Give away results.....

Cannot believe the response I had to this competition. Thank you all so so much for taking part.

 

All things considered, including all the tweets etc.. there were 232 entries on my list. I was going to pick a name out of my woolly hat, but that would have killed a tree, so I listed all the entries out on a spreadsheet, and used random.org to select a random entry from that list. Took AGES, but it had to be ultra fair.

Drum roll please...................

And the winner is The Eco Cheap Mom, who chose the second necklace (which she named "Bird on a Wire"). Congratulations to you - I really hope you like it.

I'll be doing another giveaway to celebrate another milestone. Maybe 50 etsy sales, or 100 blog followers - whichever comes first ( I think we all know which will be first!!) so stay tuned.  

Also in case anyone is interested, I'll be loading the silver and amethyst necklace up on etsy shortly!! You'll have to go look to see what name I chose. 

Give away closed

Wow! What a lot of entries.... the give away is now closed, but bear with me while I get the draw sorted. I'll blog about the winner this evening.

Thanks so much for your interest!

Giveaway alert!!!

Well I did promise that when I got to 50 facebook fans I would do a giveaway....oops I'm now on 57 so it's time I got myself organised and got on with it.

I have been meaning to get this started for a couple of days but just could NOT decide what I should giveaway. Some people suggested a gift certificate, but I decided (finally) to offer a choice between 2 necklaces.  They are quite different, so hopefully you will like 1 of them!

First up is the amethyst and silver necklace..

Sterling silver wire wrapped around amethyst nuggets, linked on a sterling silver chain, with a toggle clasp.

I do like these nuggets - they're quite irregular in shape, size, and shade. Amethyst is the birthstone for February.

Choice number 2...  a double brass chain holds a brass swallow and bloodstone beads.

Bloodstone is my birthstone (as well as aquamarine - March seeing as though you asked) and I was never that keen on it when I was younger, but I really like the variety of colours and the splashes of red that appear in the stones. Maybe it was just the name that put me off, jasper sounds better. It does seem to go very well with brass too. 

 
I went for an asymetrical design as it just seems fun, and nice and easy to wear.

Sooooooooo how to enter......

1) First of all choose which necklace you would prefer, and leave me a comment here, with a name for that necklace. (I have such trouble thinking of good names for the etsy shop!)


2) For a second entry into the draw, blog about this giveaway with a link, and let me know!

3) For a third entry into the draw follow me on Twitter (redbirdjewels) and Tweet about this giveaway - I'll add your name in again for every tweet (but please no more than 1 tweet per hour!! - I won't count it!)



I'll put all of the entries into a hat (I have my woolly one ready) and will pick the winner on Sunday 17th January at noon.

Ooooooh my first giveaway - I'm really excited!!!

Do you remember those gorgeous lampwork beads I bought from Josephine Wadman? I blogged about them a couple of months ago and promised I'd let you know what I did with them....but forgot...until now.

The first thing I made was this necklace with sterling silver swirls:

I loaded this into my shop, and it went within half an hour! Crikey didn't even get a chance to load up the matching earrings before it was sold...

 

So inevitably I've only just loaded them up into my etsy shop... (oops).

Then I made a little pendant with hammered sterling silver drops.

I'm really happy with them and just can't get over the blue! I think I'm going to have to learn lampworking next.

Yay 2010

Happy New Year to you all. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year. Ours was great, even though my 5 year old had tonsillitis on The Big Day and didn't care if Father Christmas had been or not. Poor little thing!

So lots new for me; my computer well and truly died, so I've got a new one in the sale and it's brilliant; a complete a revelation. So maybe it won't take me half an hour to load stuff onto my folksy shop anymore!!

But the big, big thing in my life is that I have now stopped working. I had been doing 3 days a week, but now I'm home full time and loving it - mind you this is the first week, and today was a snow day. The plan is to spend more time with the kids, to get on with more of the stuff I like to do, to have fun. Hurrah. I'm sure 2010 is going to be a good one. Hope yours is going well so far!

Interview with Careford Creations!

I've just done an interview swap with Vic aka Careford Creations  who takes stunning photos. Go and check out the landscape gallery on her website - just gorgeous!!

Anyway, you can see the interview I did for Vic on her blog.

And so....on with the interview..

1) First of all a bit about Vic,

My name’s Victoria White, but Vic is just fine. I’m married with a two-year-old son and another baby due in April. From north London originally, I live in Hertfordshire now. I had loads of jobs before becoming a primary school teacher. I was teaching part-time until the summer, when I gave up work completely. Well, I still work at home... I do some private tutoring and of course, working on my little photography and craft business.

2) How long have you been into photography? How did it all begin?

I got my first camera for my 9th birthday and used up a whole roll of film on the short journey taking my friend home from my party! I haven’t really stopped taking photos since. I’m on my 4th camera now but only went digital at the beginning of this year.

3) What's your greatest (crafting) achievement?

I love the water droplet shots. These were some of the very first photos I took with my macro lens. I also like what I call my ‘glass painted’ photos, like this one of Stanley Sheep. I don’t know anyone else who takes photos like these, so it’s kind of like my little invention and they turn out pretty well too. Basically, they’re macro photographs of a tiny image that I’ve drawn and glass painted. I always get lots of positive comments about these photos. Lastly, they’re not for sale in my Folksy shop, but I must mention two postcards of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament I had printed a few years ago. They’re for sale in central London in any decent tourist shop!

4) Do your photos tend to be spur of the moment, or planned?

That’s an interesting question. Nowadays, they tend to be more planned. I think pre-children I just had more time to go out and about with my camera and see what inspiration struck me, whereas now I need to make the most of the little free time I have, so tend to plan more.

5) Where does your inspiration come from?

Probably travel more than anything. I travelled a fair bit in my twenties and always seemed to make big life decisions while I was away! Travelling does something for my creative side as well; I love to capture new colours, styles, the whole atmosphere. Even when I’m back home I use those memories to create other things.


6) What do you get up to when you're not doing arty and crafty things?

My first passion in life was writing and I still do that. I’ve been writing a children’s book for the past couple of years and I’d love to get it finished. I also wrote a few articles for young people’s magazines and newspapers when I was a teenager and freelance writing’s something I’m just getting back into. I also like the fact I’m still able to keep in touch with my ‘proper’ job as a teacher by doing a little tuition. The rest of my time is spent being a mum and housewife. I hate saying ‘housewife’ but I love making our house all homely. Oh, I like cooking as well. Not that I’m particularly good at it!

7) What are you hoping to get in your christmas stocking this year?

A new camera bag and an infrared filter.

8) Finally, what's next for 2010 for you and Careford Creations?

I want to get creating all those other things that are in my head. I’ve got so many ideas planned for my photos and I’m hoping to get more Fimo things made too. Other than that, it’s just a matter of promoting myself, my work and my website.

And I know you're all dying to know....Vic sits with me on the fence and neither loves nor hates marmite!

Thanks Vic, love your work! Here's my fave on the Folksy shop!

Two weeks to go....

Well I'm just about managing to wade through the usual tide of Christmas to-dos, but on top of all the seasonal nonsense, work is getting particularly crazy. It always gets manic around Christmas as projects need to be finished, and presentations squeezed in before everyone dissappears for the last half of December. The difference this year is that I won't be going back after Christmas. (yay)

My 3 months notice is finally nearing the end, and I'll be officially self employed as of December 19th!

The idea is to spend lots more time with the girls while they're still little, as well as hopefully getting a chance to step up the jewellery a bit. I'm so incredibly, ridiculously excited. I'm feeling like a real home bird at the moment.

It's going to be a big adjustment, (am naively thinking I'll be doing less rushing around...hmmm) but it's not necessarily forever; I'm on a "career break" which means I might go back in a few years - we'll see how it goes, (and how much I miss people actually listening to what I say!) Can't imagine I'll miss the stress and long days away from the kids too much though!

Wish me luck! and hopefully I'll be getting around to blogging a bit more in the not too distant future.