GIVEAWAY - Afra Gorgeous Arm Warmers!

CLOSED- WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED TODAY!

Afra is an art and craft atelier in İstanbul made up of two close friends- Aslı and Azra.

They love the handmade life and eclectic things. Afra designs are mostly inspired by different color and texture combinations. Their work is beautiful, warm and wonderful!

We are so lucky to have a wonderful piece of Asli and Azra's amazing work for our giveaway!


WHAT YOU GET:

One lucky winner will receive Afra's amazing brown chic arm warmers!







HOW TO WIN:

Visit Afra and leave a comment below letting Asli and Azra know which item is your favorite.

For additional entries:

(5) Twitter this post
(5) Blog about this contest; linking to this post
(5) Follow my blog

Let me know if you have done these things so I can give you additional entries. This contest is open to everyone.

DRAWING:

MIDNIGHT on Sunday, December 6th! CLOSED

Recycled Christmas Countdown or saving your digits the old fashioned way


This is the 4th part of my weekly series on some recycled and repurposed Christmas gift ideas- things that are easy enough to make fairly quickly, but still look like you put the proper time and thought into them.

I don't know anyone's phone number anymore because they are all stored in my cellphone and when I forget to charge it

(all the time)

I am left wishing I had my memory back

(from before I lost it being a mom)

or that I had a wonderful old rolodex!

You will need: a can (cut out both ends- you can't do this with all cans these days, but there are still some out there), a magazine, index cards or cardboard and dividers (you can make these pretty easily, but I just happen to have some purple ones)


Step 1- Gather your supplies, cut both ends from your can and peel the label

Step 2- Find an interesting picture page in your magazine (the magazine can be new and part of the gift or you can recycle one of your old ones)

Step 3- Tightly roll it up and slide it into the can

Step 4- Trim your index cards to about 4" square (square just seems better somehow and it also stands up perfectly for some reason that I can't figure out)

Step 5- Slide your dividers and cards into the pages - instant modern, recycled rolodex!




Some simple wrap (Target giant lunch bag run through an inkjet) completes the gift!

Thankful Thursday or I will not whine, I will not whine, I will not whine

I thought instead of whining my way through the holidays, I would try something a little more positive and focus on things I am thankful for.

So do you guys want to hear something awesome?

Then you should probably go read another blog.

You are not going to believe what happened to me.

(just kidding... sort of)

Gratitude 1: A 2 Day local craft show last weekend that I have no idea why I signed up for (yes, I know I am dangling my participles and I also do know why I signed up, but I will take full responsibility for my own stupidity)

I was surrounded (on 2 of 3 sides) with buy/sell jewelry and yes, even though I befriended the very kind sellers of this junk, I totally knew it was buy/sell.

NOTE to buy/sell people at juried shows- EVERYONE knows you did not make your stuff when 1. You have 1000's of pieces with 1000's of different clasps, beads, settings, styles, etc and 2. You are selling necklaces for $10.00 that could not possibly be made for $10.00 (other than by six year old children in India)

(and oh yeah, also when you say that you "sell jewelry" because people who are not buy/sell do not say we "sell jewelry" - even though we try to - we say we "make jewelry")

And you make those of us who actually labor over our product look expensive and shows should be more careful - and they often aren't.

But, wait I am getting whiney, so let me say that I am actually very thankful that I did this show because now I am 100% certain I will never do another non-Indie show (and I've never done an Indie show, but they seem like more fun and no one is ripping Made In China stickers - unless they were the one in China actually making them - off the bottom of their stuff minutes before the show starts) again.

I am incredibly thankful that I did so poorly that I will never be tempted to do this again.

and that I got to meet this woman ---> (untouched photo I snapped as she was leaving and YES that is all her own hair)

who squealed when she saw my cork

(the kind of sound you would expect to hear if you punched a build-a-bear)

and of, course, I got her stylist's digits, because you know I just had to ask.

Gratitude 2: I was sick on Monday, but on Tuesday I was better. So I knew it was just a stomach thing and not the swine flu which I was convinced I had for a few hours there. Which, of course, is totally ridiculous because everyone who knows me knows I am like the last person to grab on to the latest fad. If I got swine flu now that would make me terribly in vogue, it's more likely that I'd have SARS.

Gratitude 3: I spent like 3 hours at Barnes and Noble trying to decide whether or not to purchase the new Stephen King.

(ie reading the first chapter while sipping spilled hot chocolate from my napkin - hey, it's a recession - and avoiding everything I was supposed to be doing ... like food shopping)

and I got to hear the best little quarrel I'd heard in a long time

(that I wasn't participating in)

Let me set the scene- they were an adorable twenty something couple- she had wide-set Bratz doll eyes and you just knew she would still look cute when she washed off all that eye make-up but you just couldn't hate her for it because she was just so damn adorable

and he kind of reminded me of that cute wannabe detective guy on the HBO series.

She was smacking the side of their table trying to get his attention.

"ANSWER ME"

She hit the table harder sending the Dean Koontz books he had been building into an elaborate pyramid crashing to the floor. "You spilled my Koontz," he whispered, calmly gathering the books and re-Jenga-ing them on top of each other. He looked sad. "Now, I've got dirty Koontz."

This sent my hot chocolate spewing and caused everyone to look at me.

"Sorry, asthma attack", I muttered, pounding my own chest.

"We are so broken up right now!" - she stomped off.

So, anyhoo, we have to be thankful for the little things (as Oprah says) and for some reason this little exchange (I did see them making out in the parking lot an hour later) somehow made me happy and had me thinking about young love and all the passion of it and then that made me a little bit sad and needing to see my own hubby.

So, I headed over to hubby's shop and he was wearing his 'crazy pilot from Mad Max' goggles and stopped dead in his tracks to say to me "damn, you look good"

(those goggles are a bit distorting)

and I thought, well, maybe old-love isn't so bad either ...

(of course, he burst my love-bubble by asking about the lines in the grocery store and about all the food I bought, which made me realize that I actually did have to hit the food store and not just the bookstore)

so I blew him a kiss and left him standing there with his saucer eyes and fraggle rock hair and went off to do my Thanksgiving duty.

Hoping everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and lots of amazing things to be thankful for!

Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend Special - Wednesday thru Monday!

To thank all my wonderful customers and kick off the holiday season I am having a special in both my Etsy shops!

Holiday Weekend Special -

Order any Polarity locket from Wednesday, November 25th thru Monday, November 30th and receive a free lid set for the holiday season!

Leave a message in the comments to seller section of your order letting me know if you would like the Christmas or Hanukkah lid set!

Order any Uncorked necklace and receive a free wood holder for your test tube!




(but if you are one of those Black Friday die hards who needs to head to your local mall to get in the spirit- here's a little tip to make the day go faster.

When you drive to the mall, instead of wasting your time looking for a parking spot -drive right up to the mall entrance and when you see people coming out with an armload of gifts yell, "Hey! Would you like a ride to your car?" - this could prevent the endless circling looking for an empty spot.

Or if you are really pressed for time when they put their gifts in your car, you can just drive off without them. Shopping done.)

GIVEAWAY - Be Happy Now Calendar Cards! CLOSED

Winner chosen by random.org

Min: 1
Max: 287
Result: 4

is JennTRC- check out her beautiful blog!

Be Happy Now is the amazing shop of a wonderful artist in Jeruselum.

Jenny lives with her boyfriend and cat, Blueskii. Jenny says she has no routine in her creation process. She works spontaneously. Sometimes she thinks about content, but often just pick up one of her pencils and starts drawing.

Jenny is a happy artist and wants everyone else to Be Happy Now, too!


WHAT YOU GET:

One lucky winner will receive BeHappyNow's amazing little calendar cards for 2010 featuring 12 of Jenny's amazing illustrations!






HOW TO WIN:

Visit BeHappyNow and leave a comment below letting Jenny know which item is your favorite.

For additional entries:

(5) Twitter this post
(5) Blog about this contest; linking to this post
(5) Follow my blog

Let me know if you have done these things so I can give you additional entries. This contest is open to everyone.

DRAWING:

MIDNIGHT on Sunday, NOVEMBER 29th! CLOSED

Recycled Christmas Countdown Part III or what to do with those empty bottles

This is the third part of my weekly series on some recycled and repurposed Christmas gift ideas- things that are easy enough to make fairly quickly, but still look like you put the proper time and thought into them.

This is a modern take on the romantic cut flowers in a recycled glass bottle that we have all been doing forever.

You will need a bottle of something as a gift or an empty bottle you have on hand (wine, classic soda, some special something), a 3/4" galvanized split ring hanger (plumbing department), a 3/8" galvanized ceiling flange (plumbing or electrical department), 3/8 threaded pipe cut to size (store will cut), #12X1" screws.

These parts are actually pipe hanging gizmos and come in copper and galvanized steel and a mix and match assortment will look great.



This one is actually too easy for step by steps. The pieces all fit together neatly into an adorable little industrial hanger. They also come in different sizes for different size bottles and jars. You can fill an entire wall with these and it would look amazing!







Once again for some easy packaging grab a few of these larger size lunch bags (found at Target) that you can run through your inkjet with some clever wording.

It's Whining Wednesday or a real wine whine this time


The best thing about weekly whining is that when something disappointing happens I can pull out my little notebook and jot it down for my whining post

(not really, but if I actually did do this, I would write about way better stuff, because my memory is pretty much gone these days)

and then go back to being that glass half-full kind of girl that I know I really am down inside

(deep down inside)

Next week I am thinking it is time for Thankful Thursdays thru Christmas- 5 weeks of thankfulness can offset 47 weeks of whining, right?

Whine 1: This is an actual wine whine and even though it is a little lame, I have been on the lookout for one of these since I started whining because an actual wine whine, well you really can't ask for more than that, you know.

So anyhoo, the liquor store in our town has recently expanded into a liquor block (almost) - good to know at least one industry is thriving these days

and is all clean and shiny and new and I hadn't been in there since the grand opening, so I wandered in for some (cheap) white wine to make a chicken dish.

I plunked the bottle down on the counter and the counter girl who had been busy admiring the gigantic housefly tattoos on her very skinny arms in a bottle of white zinfandel muttered, "I'm gonna need to see some ID."

"Rad," I said.

(because when I'm happy, I sometimes talk like that annoying guy you hated in middle school)

The counter girl, sensing just a touch too much happiness in my 3 letter answer said, "Oh, I know you're old enough. It's for the computer". She slowly pecked my birth digits into the keyboard. "Because it can't see you."

(impressing me by knowing the cash register is not actually 'alive' and depressing me -just ever so slightly- that my carding days are way, way behind me, but mostly that this had just been pointed out to me by someone whose tats and tude made me want to roll up one of the newspapers on her counter and give her a swat)

But with the words, "that Cat- she wouldn't hurt a fly", ringing in my ears - I decided to let it go.

(plus I've been watching the Biography channel in my studio while I work these days and had seen Gandhi just that morning and felt inspired)

Now this wasn't a particularly interesting whine, but still a wine whine has to trump a regular whine any day plus I need to preserve this memory in case I ever run into horsefly girl again.

(like in a dark alley carrying a fly swatter)

Whine 2- I am noticing my vocabularly is getting very, very pathetic.

(and when I say pathetic I mean- small and repetitive and boring)

Back when I had a real job and was out in the real world with real people all day I could hold a fairly decent, smart and quick witted, conversation on some pretty involved subjects without sounding like a blabbering idiot.

But now that I work from home I am noticing my vocabularly has taken a step (or two, or maybe a couple football field lengths) backward.

Here are the things I find myself saying most often in no particular order:

1. Dammit!
2. You're fine
3. OK seriously
4. God I hate you
5. I can't believe that (insert name of item here) is on the front page
6. I seriously don't have time for this
7. That will be $50.00 - now get dressed and get out (just kidding)

(it's way more than $50.00)

Other than the word seriously which I am clever enough to use in multiple situations several times I day - I am pretty much a 3-4 letter word kind of girl now, which I am thinking makes me about grade two.

I need one of those word a day calendars and someone to require me to use those words in real life situations daily.

(like a vocabularly coach ... hmmm - this may be a new industry created especially for the work-at-home sector ... and remember to give me credit and cash, if you start doing this ... or, at least, free mentoring)

Using dictionary.com's word a day calendar flashcards, this is how my new and improved 'things I say most often list' might sound:

1. Exegesis = Exegesis!
2. Hoi Polloi = You're hoi polloi
3. Fungible = OK, fungible
4. Truculent = God, I hate truculent
5. Sycophant = I can't believe that sycophant is on the front page
(hey that one might still work once in a while)
6. Galump = I seriously don't have time for this galumping
7. Scuttlebutt = That will be scuttlebutt- now get dressed and get out (just kidding)

(it's way more than scuttlebutt)

Or I could just settle for my declining vocabularly and ability to talk to seven year olds and of course with my memory pretty much gone, I may have to.

Looking at the bright side (that half-full thing again, remember) a seven year old vocabularly sounds pretty youthful to me and I may never get carded (for real) again, but at least I still have my flashcards.