Review and GIVEAWAY- Popsicle Kisses Co. Flower Hair Clips!!

Yes! You heard me! There is a giveaway here, people! Not just one, but TWO people will win. Oh yes. You are not going to want to miss out on this. :)

It's not often that you meet somebody with both your same first name and middle name. :D Julia Lauren of Popsicle Kisses Co. has been a blog reader of mine for a long time, but just recently introduced herself to me  and told me how much she likes my blog... (kinda makes me wonder how many others of you out there I'm missing out on knowing because you haven't said hi... Lurkers, reveal yourselves!) ;) AND... Julia also asked me if I would be interested in hosting a giveaway on my blog of some of her handcrafted hair accessories.

"Well." I thought to myself, "Giveaways are always fun..." 

Then I clicked on the link she gave me to her Etsy shop, and my jaw dropped. Her headbands, hairclips, and especially the silk flower hair clips are ADORABLE.

I'm quite a quick typist but I think I broke my record of words per minute when writing back to Julia, as fast as I could, that YES, I would LOVE to host a giveaway!! :D 

And oh, heavens, I also got to keep one of the flowers for myself! *Happy sigh*

I chose the sea-green flower hair clip to review, and I have to say it's one of the prettiest hair accessories I've ever seen, much less got to keep. :D It is beautifully made with exquisite ruffled fabric and three pearls stitched to the center. An alligator-style clip is securely fastened to the back for easy clipping to the hair. (this would even make a CUTE brooch for a jacket lapel, or be the perfect addition to a lovely scarf. The possibilities are endless.) 

 NOW for the PRIZES...

Julia and Julia are giving away two hair flowers! Two lucky winners will each receive one of these pink hair blossoms. We have a bright pink "Valentine's Flower" and a soft pink "Neutrals and Pink" flower up for grabs.

Um yes. They are gorgeous.

The lighter pink flower is 3 and a half inches across, and the bright pink one is slightly smaller at 3 and a quarter inches. The. Perfect. Size. Not too big and not too small, they would grace any head of hair and can be added to a myriad of hairstyles. (So pretty!!!) :D

Details! How do you win these pretties for yourself??

Enter via the rafflecopter form below. Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy. You're welcome! Have a perfectly lovely day!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Toodles!

Of Giveaways, and Gray Slippers, and Great Ideas...

Top o' the mornin' to ye! :)

Well, don't know about you, but it's gotten pretty chilly in my neck of the woods! Whew! Time to unpack my winter clothes... and put away some of my beloved t-shirts and capris and bermuda shorts! There's just something nostalgic about finding soft, cozy sweaters and becoming acquainted with the other half of your wardrobe all over again... :D

And I'm trying not to dread those mid-winter months when I just get so tired of wearing knee socks and long johns... sigh! ;) But spring always comes again. A cheery thought. :)

For now, though, it's still Autumn, and the many oak trees around my log home are dropping a bountiful harvest for squirrel and interior decorator alike! :D I picked up some acorns just for the fun of it, and was wondering what to actually 'do' with them, when I found this stellar idea:

See? See the jar at the bottom of the picture? It's filled with acorns and tiny pinecones! How CUTE! We have some old mason jars just like that! *bingo*. :D I just LOVE the amazing interior decor photos on this blog, it's so creative and artsy it  almost makes me want to do handsprings...

And then for something I've been working on:

(this is not my main crochet project, just something I tried in between working on that) :) I found this slipper pattern and thought "Oh! I want to make those!" So I tried it... I made myself a little slipper in shades of gray, and even crocheted a little flower to go on top... I haven't taken any pictures of it yet, but I thought I'd tell you about it anyway. It looks just like these... (only cuter.) ;)

The pattern for these sweet slippers can be purchased on Etsy here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/62872279/crochet-slipper-pattern-oma-house?ref=em

That's where I bought it! :D

And it was only $5. I mean, come on, that's a pretty great deal! :D 

And how cute is this branch decorated with little crocheted leaves! An adorable way to use up your leftover yarn bits! :D The free pattern for this project and several other charming ideas can be found here: http://easymakesmehappy.blogspot.com/2010/03/page-under-construction-crochet.html
I want to try making one of these in burnt oranges, crisp reds, and golden yellows... :D


And lastly, a giveaway for a cute Sense and Sensibility e-Pattern for a "Tea Gown" can be found HERE.

Very pretty, don't you think?

Have a lovely week!

WINNERS of my jewelry giveaway!

Congratulations are in order, for we have five lovely ladies who have each won a pair of earrings! Hurray! :)

I used Random.org to generate the winners fair and square and completely at random. :)

So, without further ado-

Pair #1, Brown Tigereye, has been won by..... Kristen, with comment #6!
Pair #2, Amethyst, crystals, and silver, has been won by..... Miss Lizzy, with comment #60!
Pair #3, Clear Lampwork and crystal, has been won by..... Stephanie, with comment #20!

Pair #4, Aqua 3-dangles, has been won by..... Madison, with comment #43!
Pair #5, Red glass beads and crystal, has been won by..... Katelyn S, with comment # 27!

*applause* Congratulations, girls!

You have until next month (October 1st, 2011) to comment on this post with your mailing address so I can ship you your pretty earrings! Comment moderation is enabled and I will not publish the comments with your addresses.
If you don't get back to me with your address by then I'll have to draw another winner, and we don't want that to happen, do we?? :D

I'm very thankful for all the interest stirred up by the giveaway for my new FREE blog backgrounds website! :) Thanks to all the people who entered! :)

Last Day to Enter my Earring Giveaway!

I'll be randomly drawing FIVE winners tomorrow morning, September 8th, for these five lovely pairs of earrings. You could be one of them (a winner, not a pair of earrings... lol) if you enter today! :D

(need your memory refreshed? They look like this:)

Also of note is the little fact that...

I'm giving away a freebie this week!

Yup! It's free! A sweet little ebook on how to create a GORGEOUS pearl and ribbon necklace with two styles shown. It's actually a little piece of the full book "How To Create Noticeably Noteworthy Necklaces" that I wrote.

CLICK HERE to find it! It's on the front page of my website, JewelsbyJuliashop.com. Be sure to save it to your computer because it will only be there through Saturday the 10th.

Annnnnd.....
"SALE! Julia is offering 20% off all her ebooks until 9/10/11. Use the coupon code HSFREE11 to get the discount!"

So... if you've been hankering to purchase one of my books, now is definitely the time to do it! :)

Just thought I'd give ya'll a little heads-up! Oh... and I just posted a fresh batch of FREE blog backgrounds on my design blog. Chocolatey ones. ;) 

So, I think that's enough free goodies for now to keep you busy! :D Come back tomorrow to find out who won the five pairs of earrings!

New FREE blog backgrounds + Just Me and My Little Life

Hey everyone! Listen up! I just posted a new batch of FREE blog backgrounds to "I Love it!" Blog Designs! This week's theme is ..... pink!

Here are my three personal faves out of the series:

Cappucinno

Chandelier Chic

 And...

She's Stunning

You'll make my day if you drop by and leave a comment letting me know if you like them. :D


As for me and my little life...

I've been sick! Yuck. I detest being ill. I had a head cold and sniffles and the beginnings of a sore throat... which I quickly doctored by gargling Listerine (uggggh, I hate the stuff!) ... so thankfully my throat escaped without much trouble. I'm afraid I used up almost a whole box of tissues blowing my nose, though!

The worst part about it was that it hit me just a couple of days before we were supposed to attend the graduation party of a very good friend of ours, and I was so worried that I would miss the Ultimate Frisbee game! Blessedly, I was able to play anyway... I just made myself walk instead of run! :) We had a wonderful time at the get-together and it was so inspiring to hear the speech given by the graduate's dad, about how proud he was of his son.

The best part about being sick was that I could still design blog backgrounds. My mind and creativity were unshackled, despite my body being under the weather! I made tons of blog backgrounds and have as many ready to go as are currently on the blog! :D

And today we started the week by going down the hill and picking the ripe muscadine grapes growing on our property. Unfortunately, there are a lot less than last year, we think due to the extreme drought. There are some, though, and I am determined to harvest as many as possible so we can make our delicious grape jelly! :)

Well, I hope you all have a lovely week... and don't forget, there's still time to enter my giveaway! (see the post below!)

Giveaway to Announce "I Love it!" Blog Designs

It's been too long since I had a giveaway! :D And I have an especially exciting reason to have one now... because I've started a new website for FREE blog backgrounds, and I want to get the word out!
Announcing... "I Love it!" Blog Designs!

 http://iloveitblogdesigns.blogspot.com

I'm so happy about this new endeavor. I've wanted to design my own blog backgrounds for a very long time now, and could never quite figure it out. Well, I determined the other day that I was finally going to conquer the obstacles in my path and DO it.

So I did! :D

 Oh, yes, the giveaway. Right. Here's the information! :D

I am giving away not one, not two, but FIVE pairs of beautiful earrings, handmade by yours truly. :)

 (Sorry, no, the photography props - i.e. the cute teacups - are not included) ;)

There will be FIVE winners in this giveaway, who win one pair of earrings each.

The earrings include:

• Pair #1 - Brown Tigereye (a semi-precious stone) with silver
• Pair #2 - Amethyst (a semi-precious stone) with Swarovski Crystals and silver
• Pair #3 - Clear lampwork glass beads with frosty centers and Swarovski Crystals

•  Pair #4 - Aqua glass beads, 3-dangle style
•  Pair #5 - Red Czech Crystal-cut glass beads with Swarovski Crystals and silver

All the earrings are made with sterling-silver-plated surgical steel French hooks, great for sensitive ears and nickel-free. (Each pair could be changed to clip-ons upon request, but you have to specify it in your entries.)

 Close-ups for your convenience...

(*happy sigh* I am SO glad to have my camera back) ;)

 Allrighty! Now that I've got you drooling over the gorgeous jewelry, here are the rules on how to enter this giveaway:

(Note: You MUST leave a SEPARATE comment for EACH entry. Thank you!)

Mandatory:

• You must be a follower of Julia's Journal to enter
• You must start following "I Love it" Blog Designs to enter  

(each of the above counts for an entry)

Optional:
(for one additional entry each...)

• Add an "I Love it!" Blog Designs background to your blog
• Visit "I Love it!" Blog Designs, come back to THIS POST, and comment about your favorite blog background
• Add the "I Love it!" blog button to your blog's sidebar (see below)

<center><a href="http://iloveitblogdesigns.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i454.photobucket.com/albums/qq268/Juliathesparklygirl/Iloveitbutton.jpg"/></a></center>

And for

FIVE ADDITIONAL ENTRIES,

• Post about the new "I Love it!" Blog Designs site on your blog.

(Remember to comment five times, once for each additional entry, if you do this, with a link to the blog post so I can come check it out.)

So if you did everything you could to enter, it adds up to a total of TEN entries. Pretty good chances! :D

This giveaway will run for two weeks and end on Wednesday, September 7th, 2011. Five winners will be randomly drawn and announced shortly afterwards. :)


Happy entering!

Crochet Book Giveaway

Calling all Crocheters! I just found out about a cool giveaway at AllFreeCrochet.Com and thought I'd share it with you.

They're giving away this book ^ on crocheting, and it looks really cute! The giveaway ends on November 17, 2010.

So....

Go HERE to enter. :)

Happy Crocheting!

Oh Sew Stylish giveaway!

My sweet friend Lindsay is giving away a bag of your choice from her etsy shop!

Lindsay is a very talented seamstress and her purses and bags are simply *Adorable*!! I'd love to have one of these! The winner will be drawn at random on August 20th, (2010) so hurry on over to enter! :D


There, now that I've shared that wonderful event with you, I thought you might like to see some of the pictures I've been taking with my new camera, which is an Olympus PEN E-PL1.


I've really been enjoying the "Art Modes", especially:

Grainy Black-&-White

 Me... a self portrait. (That is my bookcase behind me and you can just see the corner of my jewelry worktable on the left.)

Pop Art:

Wild blueberries. (one of my earliest shots... the focus here is not perfect)

And...

Soft Focus:

Look at the background... see how soft and dreamy it looks?

I also liked...

Gentle Sepia:

Daddy on the porch.

Pinhole: (darkened edges)

And the Macro is impressive! Look at this picture:

I call it "The Unfortunate Tomato". Lol!

More next time!

~Julia~

Warfare By Duct Tape FREEBIE!

Hi Blog Readers!

I have some REALLY exciting news. My two younger brothers Mark and Steven have launched their own business with a brand new website! Warfare by Duct Tape now has an online home at WWW.WARFAREBYDUCTTAPE.COM!

Now, I know most of my blog readers are girls like myself, but how many of you have brothers? They would LOVE this, I promise! My brothers make their own medieval-style weapons (including swords, spears, battle-axes, and throwing axes) from simple materials easily found at your local hardware store like PVC pipe, foam padding, and of course - Duct Tape! :D

I designed and built the website *modest little cough* ;) and my mom and I worked really hard on getting all the files for the e-books uploaded.

Oh yes, the exciting part...

For one week, August 9-14 2010, We are giving away A FREEBIE! It's an excerpt from THE BATTLE BOOK, a tutorial booklet on how to make Shields and Bucklers! You can find this awesome freebie at: http://warfarebyducttape.com/freebiepage.html

And for a limited time, our BATTLE BOOK and ARMORED GLOVE BOOK are both on sale at a big discount! So if I were you I'd head on over there and take a look.

Do tell me what you all think of the website too... I put a lot of work into that thing and would love to hear your comments & suggestions.

*Oh, and I know I haven't posted anything in forever, I am so sorry. I miss you all! And yes, I am OK. Just extremely busy. I do plan on posting sometime soon about everything I've been working on. (hint: Jewelry, Crochet, New Camera, Upcoming Craft Show, The roller-coaster emotions involved in Building Websites... etc.)

*Also, what do you think of the new blog look? :D

Funny Bunny Caption Contest!

I just realized the other day that I've never had a caption contest!

So here's one for you!

Rules for entering:

• Leave a comment on this post and tell me what you think these bunnies are thinking (or saying to each other).
• The caption that I think is the funniest will be chosen as the winner. If I get two that make me roll on the floor with laughter, both entries will win. :D
• Contest ends Monday, January 4th, 2010.

Aren't they cute?

The winner (or winners) will recieve a custom-designed blog header made by me! If you want it, that is. Feel free to enter even if you don't want a new blog header! :)


http://jewelsbyjulia-lauren.blogspot.com/

Jewelry and Blog Header Giveaway!

As those of you who follow my friend Jasmine's blog already know - she is hosting a giveaway of  one of my necklace sets, and a custom-designed blog header that I'll make for the other lucky winner! :)

I just thought I'd let you know the giveaway post is up and open for entries! So go on over to Joyfully Home and enter to win!

To recap on how to enter:
Leave a comment on Jasmine's post telling her you want to enter for either the necklace set, blog header, or both.

For EXTRA entries:

• Grab my new blog button (it's over there on my sidebar) and put it on your blog or website and comment letting Jasmine know you did.
• Head to my Jewelry Shop and then tell Jasmine what your favorite item is.
• Do a post about the giveaway on your blog or facebook and then come back and tell Jasmine that you did.

DON'T COMMENT TO ENTER on THIS post, the entries will be counted over at JASMINE'S post. ;)

Giveaway ends on Friday, December 18th - you have 2 weeks!

Happy Entering!

Three Exhilarating Things

Exhilaration
NOUN: The state of being enlivened, cheerful or exhilarated.

That's me at the moment! I have so much to be excited about that I'm thrilled right down to my fingertips.

Reasons for this feeling of euphoria?

1. Emily Joy helped me fix my background! Yay! My little blog looks so purty now, I could just burst with happiness! :) A great big thank you and hug to Emily for helping me out!

2. This Friday, Jasmine Baucham is hosting a giveaway on her blog of a custom designed blog header AND a fine glass necklace and earring set that I created ! Woohoo! This is such a blessing for me as it will help promote my Etsy shops, and hopefully send some customers my way! :) Thank you Jasmine. You are such a sweetheart!

3. I have no less than FIVE blog awards to post about and pass on to some of my dear bloggy friends. Whew! Ya'll are overwhelming me with your awards here! :D I love it but it's a lot of work. :)

Soooo... I will be kept hopping in the days between now and Friday listing things on my Etsy shops for people to look at and hopefully purchase. :)

Blog awards will be forthcoming soon, just not right now. :P

Love & Hugs,

And the winner of the jewelry giveaway is...

#7, Morgan! I randomly generated that number using Random.org.

Here's her comment:

Morgan said...

Hello Julia!

I just wanted to say that I love your blog! I'm homeschooled right now (I'm a junior). You are a great writer, and I'm now following your blog.
And...while I'm at it, I'll enter your contest.

I like purple.
I have pierced ears.
I much prefer silver.
I like simple - long or small/short. Doesn't matter!
And I'm linking to your blog on my blog!

Congratulations, Morgan! :) Please leave me a comment with your address, and I will send you your custom-designed earrings! :) Bonus points for you if you post about it when you get them - lol! :D

Many blessings,

Post-a-Day #16

Thank you all so much for all the comments with suggestions of what to write! They're all excellent. I am working on some new posts based on your ideas!

For now, I have a very *tasty* recipe that I just posted on my cooking blog for you to enjoy! Check It Out!


Congratulations to my sweet friend Lindsay for reaching 100 posts! :)

In honor of this achievement she is giving away a totally cute bag that she made herself, with a lining and a pocket on the inside.

(I love that fabric - it would go with so many outfits and it's simply adorable!) :)

So anyway.... if you would like to enter for a chance to win that cute bag, or if you just want to stop by and say Hi to Lindsay, visit her blog, Content in Christ.

Post-a-Day #5

I am posting this post to say that I have now reached 200 posts! :0) Hurrah!

In honor of the occasion I will be giving away 1 customized pair of earrings in the lucky winner's favorite color.

See my Etsy shop for some examples of my jewelry designs.

To enter, comment on THIS POST and:

• Tell me your favorite color or the color you wear the most (whatever you want the earrings to be ~)


• Tell me if your ears are pierced or if you would like clip earrings


• Tell me if you prefer gold or silver


• Tell me your favorite style of earring (i.e. small, long, fancy, simple)


• Make sure you have my 'Julia's Journal' blog button on your sidebar.

Entries won't count unless all of the above is filled out.

For a fantastically wonderful extra entry, post about this giveaway on your own blog. :) Make sure to come back and leave ANOTHER comment on this post with a link to your post so I can count you for another entry. :)

The winner will be determined by a random number generator.

Entry for this giveaway will end at 12:00 noon on September 30th and the winner will be announced the following day on October 1st.

Happy Entering!