Sweet Goodies

Oh my, I feel I'm in the mood for tea party. Eating those scrumptious cake, drinking earl grey tea in good companion of a few good friends.

I don't object virtual tea party either. If you're up to it, do let me know and we'll be sure to have tons of fun! :-)

Btw, you can find these tags at my little shop. Happy Friday everyone!

Giveaway Winner of February Jones

Hope everyone is having fabulous week so far. I cannot believe that it's Thursday already. It seems Monday was here. But no complaint, because this means the weekend is just around the corner. Whoo Hoo!

Congratulations, Ingrid (#133), you're the lucky winner of February Jones' giveaway.

Thank you so much Maria for sponsorship and to everyone who entered.

We have another fantastic giveaway going on now, so please be sure to enter here to win your choice of 3 handmade soaps.

See you soon :-)

Giveaway: Soaps from LostRiverRags

How about a chance of winning 3 Sheep Soaps

or 3 Slippery When Wet Soaps?


This week's giveaways is sponsored by LostRiverRags.

Get to know the artists behind LostRiverRags. They are our Saturday Artisan this week.

There are many ways to enter. Please make sure you leave a separate comment for every entry.

How to enter to win:

Mandatory entry:

• Go to LostRiverRags shop. Return to my Adore By Nat blog and simply leave a comment here about your favorite item from the store.

Extra entries (only qualify once mandatory entry is fulfilled):

• Earn 2 entries - Go to yesterday's post to know them more. Leave a comment there (yesterday's post) on at least one the following: what you learn from the interview, what you want to see more on their shop and why, or any constructive feedbacks are always appreciated.
  
  Come back here and leave 2 comments that you did, to ensure your entries are counted.

• Heart LostRiverRags (1 entry). Simply let us know your Etsy username.
• Follow my adorebynat blog (1 entry). If you're already a follower, you still get an entry, just says you're following already.
• Follow LostRiverRags blog (1 entry).
• Like LostRiverRags Facebook Page. Tell them that adorebynat sent you there.
  
• Like my Adorebynat Facebook Page. Don't forget to say hi to me there and come back here to leave comment (1 entry). If you liked my FB page already, you still can say hi and earn 1 entry. I'd love to hear from you!
• Follow adorebynat on twitter (1 entry).
• Tweet about this giveaway, add "@adorebynat" in your tweet. (1 entry).
• Blog about this giveaway to earn 2 entries. Leave two separate comments here please providing me with the link to your post.
• Be creative and share the love! Refer your friends and family to enter this giveaway. Use your social media (other than twitter and blog) to shout out this giveaway. As long as you provide me a link or a way to confirm it, you'll earn 2 entries (two separate comments).
  
• Purchase an item from LostRiverRags and earn 10 entries for each purchase. Don't forget letting us know by leaving comments :-)

Contest starts now and ends on May 7, 2011. Contest opens worldwide.

Don't forget to leave me a way to contact you. Entries without contact information will be disqualified. Entries that do not follow the rules will be disqualified. Contest winner will be drawn on Sunday, May 8 by a random number generator, by the artist herself. Winner must respond within 48 hours after being contacted otherwise another winner will be randomly selected.

Saturday Artisan: LostRiverRags

Meet of LostRiverRags, a beautiful Etsy shop offering Handcrafted Soaps, Lotions, Colorant Free Splashes/Room Fragrances, Hand Knit Face Scrubbies, Hand Knit Cloths, & Soy Candles.

Follow our interview below and learn more on how important having goal is.

Tell us a bit about yourself and what arts/ crafts that you make?
We are a husband & wife team who enjoy making beautiful yet functional bath, body, & home products. We specialize in goat's milk because we both have very sensitive skin, however we also make shea butter & glycerin soaps. As well as, soy candles, creams, lotions, colorant free splashes & room fragrances.
Which part of creation process that you like to do the most?
The end result. It's amazing to lay awake in bed at night because you have so many ideas running through your head...then you get up in the morning and make it happen. It's amazing to see a finished product that you created yourself.

For us who love to travel, could you share a bit about your beautiful town/ city?
We live in a small town in Virginia called Broadway. It's a quiet small town atmosphere with beautiful mountain views. We love it.

What is your best seller?
Our Pink Sugar products are our current best sellers...especially the Goat's Milk Shea Butter Soap & Thick Soy Cream.


Do you have a favourite Etsy seller?
There are so many amazing Etsy shops its so hard to pic a favorite.

What is your goal for 2011? And what is your plan to keep it on the right track?
Goals are SO important. We set a goal to set weekly goals (I know, a bit redundant). Every week we set a goal for our Etsy business as well as our off Etsy business. We keep track of the goals in a note pad with notes indicating if the goal was met or not. We also use a calendar to keep track of how many listings have sold each day. This helps us stay motivated and gives us a better understanding of how we are doing.

Stay-tuned for tomorrow's giveaway. You know you will get a chance to win something absolutely so fresh and beautiful. In the meantime, why not enjoying the sale that LostRiverRags currently has.

My Creative Space: My Little Heaven

At last, I finally have my own little office, a space where I call my heaven.

It's not too big but it's surely bigger than what I've had for the past years, which was a little corner in a bedroom.

I got a little bit stressed out when I unpacked my craft goodies three weeks ago. Who knew that I have SO much stuff and these were only accumulated in the past 2 years. More of my goodies are still waiting for me in Indonesia. This is definitely an eye opener that weekly trip to Michaels is unnecessary. Lol.


DH was surprised that the room was easily invaded with boxes and piles of papers.

With some organization over 2 days, my little heaven is finally here.

The laptop soon will retire. DH has to get me a new computer, he promised! I'm still debating whether to get Mac this time or stay with PC.

My adorable buttons are nicely stored in jars. Ribbons and prima flowers, oh how pretty they are.

And of course my cupcake toppers.

So there my friends, a little sneak peek to my creative space. Thanks for the visit!

Giveaway Winner of Lulie Chic

Congratulations, Oksana (#57) ! You've won the giveaway from Lulie Chic.

Thank you so much Julie for sponsoring this fun giveway. One lucky girl is going to look extra pretty :-)

As always, thank you to everyone who took the time to enter and comment.

If you haven't entered winning this gorgeous pair of earrings, you should!

New Nest

As we're settling into our new home, two more families decided to stay with us. I've never seen a nest this big. This is a crow nest.

Another family is Starling. The nest was sitting on the displaced soffit. I can only wish they helped us with the mortgage. Lol. I still have to find pictures of the 1st day we moved in and the update on our renovation project. I'll share them with you once I have them. There is always something to do each day. Just like tonight, DH is still busy with paint touching. It's getting really late now, so I'd to say good night and hit the sack. I hope DH will follow me soon.

Giveaway: Pair or Earrings

Win Silver/ Gold Quantum Squiggle Earrings!

This week's giveaways is sponsored by February Jones.

Get to know Maria, the artist behind February Jones. She is our Saturday Artisan this week.

There are many ways to enter. Please make sure you leave a separate comment for every entry.

How to enter to win:

Mandatory entry:

• Go to February Jones shop. Return to my Adore By Nat blog and simply leave a comment here about your favorite item from her store.

Extra entries (only qualify once mandatory entry is fulfilled):

• Earn 2 entries - Go to yesterday's post to know her more. Leave a comment there (yesterday's post) on at least one the following: what you learn from the interview, what you want to see more on her shop and why, or any constructive feedbacks are always appreciated.
  
  Come back here and leave 2 comments that you did, to ensure your entries are counted.

• Heart February Jones. (1 entry). Simply let us know your Etsy username.
• Follow February Jones' blog (1 entry).
• Follow my adorebynat blog (1 entry). If you're already a follower, you still get an entry, just says you're following already.
• Like February Jones Facebook Page. Tell Maria that adorebynat sent you there.
  
• Like my Adorebynat Facebook Page. Don't forget to say hi to me there and come back here to leave comment (1 entry). If you liked my FB page already, you still can say hi and earn 1 entry. I'd love to hear from you!
• Follow February Jones and or adorebynat on twitter (each earn 1 entry).
• Tweet about this giveaway, add "@FebJonesEtsy and @adorebynat" in your tweet. (1 entry).
• Blog about this giveaway to earn 2 entries. Leave two separate comments here please providing me with the link to your post.
• Be creative and share the love! Refer your friends and family to enter this giveaway. Use your social media (other than twitter and blog) to shout out this giveaway. As long as you provide me a link or a way to confirm it, you'll earn 2 entries (two separate comments).
  
• Purchase an item from February Jones and earn 10 entries for each purchase. Don't forget letting us know by leaving comments :-)

Contest starts now and ends on April 23, 2011. Contest opens worldwide.

Don't forget to leave me a way to contact you. Entries without contact information will be disqualified. Entries that do not follow the rules will be disqualified. Contest winner will be drawn on Sunday, April 24 by a random number generator, by the artist herself. Winner must respond within 48 hours after being contacted otherwise another winner will be randomly selected.

Saturday Artisan: February Jones

Meet Maria of February Jones, our Saturday Artisan. Another Canadian artist that I'm honored to feature here on my blog. Not only that I love the fact that she makes beautiful jewelries (and many more!), but also because she has a positive attitude towards life.

 

Tell us a bit about yourself and what arts/crafts you make.

My name’s Maria. I’ve been known for doing things in my own kind of way. I simultaneously studied business and philosophy to “balance my brain out” as I said. There are a lot of philosophical undertones to my work. I remember taking a Greek Philosophy course and discussing the term “cosmoi” which loosely translates to “orderly balance” and comes from their term for the universe, or the cosmos, which was thought to be the most orderly system that we should aspire to mimicking. The Greeks considered jewelry to be little wearable bits of “cosmoi” that would bring greater order and balance to their lives and in a sense that is the foundation for most of my work. I want to create wearable works of art that give you a greater sense of self and presence or bring a specific relation to a more immediate awareness in your mind.

Which part of the creation process do you like the most?

My favourite part of the creation process is turning an idea into something tangible that represents the idea that inspired it- transforming a thought into a trinket. You’ll see the phrase “marvel, muse, manifest, materialize” on my shop homepage and on my blog and I think that captures my love of creating items that can become personal symbols and representations for the people who come to own them. I wrote a small blog post about it.

For those of us who love to travel, could you share a bit about your beautiful town/city?

I live in the city of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada, which I have called home for all 28 years of my life. It’s not too big and not too small, and is home to the University of Guelph and the Ontario Veterinary College. The constant ebb and flow of students helps to keep the city young and vibrant, and although the University boasts is science programs the city itself is very artistic at heart. You can find live music any night of the week, and there are lots of little cafes with a lot of heart and soul.

One of my favourite city landmarks is the Begging Bear, an outdoor statue that is part of the MacDonald Stewart Art Gallery’s permanent collection, and for a statue it sure does a lot of interacting!

City residents frequently leave things in its outstretched paw- an orange, an old shoe- and adorn it with sweaters and scarves in the winter, hats and sunglasses in the summer, and any number of themed outfits on various holidays. Guelph hosts a lot of festivals as well- the Guelph Jazz Festival, the Hillside Music Festival, Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, Multicultural Festival, and Faery Fest to name a few.

What is your bestseller?

The Quantum Squiggle Earrings are currently my bestselling item. My customers like them so much because they are unique and no two pairs ever turn out exactly alike. People that purchase them from my Etsy shop are always surprised by how lightweight they are, very easy to wear as often as you like. They are available in many colour combinations and a simple request can get you your own pair in customized colours which is especially fun if you have a favourite sports team or a colour combination that you wear a lot in your daily life. Each person vibrates with their own distinct frequency and the Quantum Squiggles are designed to reflect your own uniqueness, your own particular quantum signature in this crazy experience called Life.

What inspires you?

I’m inspired by the universe- to put it generally. I love the connections that we take for granted, and the search for answers in so many different realms of life. Did you know that the structure of our DNA has the very same pattern as the galaxy that we live in? Connections like that which somehow seem too weird to simply be a coincidence. I love the grey space in physics where classical mechanics become quantum mechanics and any realm of the sciences where everything comes together and the boundaries blur, I often peruse through my old philosophy textbooks and notes, and collect and read tarot cards- symbolism is in my blood. I also love anything that helps to awaken your inner child and remember what it was like to look at the world with fresh and curious eyes. I currently have 3 evolving collections- Quantum (inspired by quantum physics), Deoxy (inspired by DNA), and Whimsy (inspired by childhood).

What is your goal for 2011? What is your plan to keep it on the right track?

In 2011 I aim to make the inspiration and symbolism behind my designs more accessible to my customers. Currently, only glimpses of the wealth of information that I draw on are available in my shop descriptions and blog posts. I’m also working to design greater personalization in my offerings so that people can purchase something that is not only custom made, but also infused with symbolism that will only relate to them and help to create a cherished keepsake. I plan to make this happen by working in typical Maria backwards style; reworking and sorting through my ideas and redesigning my product packaging.

Anything else that you would like to share?

Laugh. Laugh all the time. When you’re alone, dance- or better yet, dance naked. Say no to the extra piece of pie (most of the time), but enjoy that cream in your coffee. Jump in puddles. Hang on to your inner child- it’ll make you a much more interesting grown-up.