This 'n That

Have you ever read the “Love Everyday Life” blog?  If not, you really should go over there now!  They are having a great contest in celebration of the 100th blog post.  Great prize package!  You can win a handmade bag filled with goodies.  Multiple ways to enter!

I’ve entered it… in fact, this blog post is actually one of my entries!  If you go over there and enter, please mention that I referred you (if you do this, I’ll send you a little gift if I win).

I just love contests, don’t you?  And I really like the “Love Everyday Life” blog – such a fun blog!

Aubrey Baby Blue Hand Painted Wall Letters $18.00 These beautiful letters will add that special touch to your little ones room. Hand painted to order with your child's name.You canalsochoose a coordinating [Read more] Dwell Baby 4 Piece Dots Chocolate Crib Set $384.00 The Dots Chocolate Crib Set is part of dwellbaby's renowned collection of stylish bedding and accessories. Crib set includes play blanket, bumper, fitted sheet, and crib sk... [Read more] Sweet Baby Pink Frame $32.00 This adorable 7x 7 wood frame is hand painted and accented with a bow. Holds a 4x4 pic. [Read more]

I’m having another contest!  This time, it’s on my Facebook page – Julia Hutchins Designs.  I’m trying to get to 200 fans by the end of October.  If I do, I’ll give away a $40 gift certificate to a random fan!!  Great chance to win again – just like my blog contest was.   I also offer discounts to my Facebook fans, so it’s a win/win situation!  Join now and please tell your friends and family about the contest.  How easy can it be to enter?  Super easy!  Just become a fan!
Julia Hutchins Designs

Aubrey Baby Blue Hand Painted Wall Letters $18.00 These beautiful letters will add that special touch to your little ones room. Hand painted to order with your child's name.You canalsochoose a coordinating [Read more] Dwell Baby 4 Piece Dots Chocolate Crib Set $384.00 The Dots Chocolate Crib Set is part of dwellbaby's renowned collection of stylish bedding and accessories. Crib set includes play blanket, bumper, fitted sheet, and crib sk... [Read more] Sweet Baby Pink Frame $32.00 This adorable 7x 7 wood frame is hand painted and accented with a bow. Holds a 4x4 pic. [Read more]

It has been a very busy week for me, but also an exciting one!  I’m getting ready for the Whimmydiddle arts & crafts fair in Scott City, Kansas this Saturday.  I’ve made so many new pieces of jewelry this week, but haven’t had time to photograph any of them.   It’s a good thing I’ve been stocking up on gemstones, beads and findings over the summer, because I’m using many new components in my pieces!  I’m really looking forward to the weekend, as this is an event that draws a large crowd every year.  It’s also the first time I’ve ever had my jewelry at an arts & crafts fair.  I set up at the Whimmydiddle 30 years ago, when I was oil painting, but I’ve only sold my jewelry online.  It will be interesting to see how this goes!

More exciting news this week… a pair of my earrings are in a contest over on “Made for me by Oaklie’s” blog on her “Great Finds” contest.   Please visit her site and cast your vote for your favorite “Beeutiful Great Finds” contest.  Contest entries had to be either black, yellow or white, or a combination of any or all.  I didn’t have anything black and yellow, and all of my black jewelry has sold out, so I used a pair of white freshwater pearl earrings.

Another exciting piece of news was the news that I would be featured on a couple of blogs this week, and I’m also the featured artist on another Ning network.  I’ve been asked to  the Foxy Findings “Designer Spotlight interview” on Saturday.  Foxy Findings is a supplier of beads and findings that I’ve just recently started using as one of my suppliers.  They have a great selection and prices, and they offer all kinds of fun contests on Facebook and Twitter.  I won a spool of their Foxy Flex blue sapphire copper beading wire from them last month, and am just getting ready to use this beautiful wire in one of my newest pieces (this piece is going to be fore me!).  I’m very excited to have been asked to be interviewed for their blog, and I’m looking forward to it!

I’m also going to be featured tomorrow (Thursday) on VA Beach Quilters blog.  She does such a great job at promoting fellow handmade arts & crafts people!  Please be sure to check out her blog.

If that wasn’t enough excitement for the week, I’m also the featured artisan of the week on the On Fire for Handmade network on Ning.  Anne also does a wonderful job of promoting shops that sell handmade goods.  If you are an artist or crafts person, I highly recommend joining this Ning network!  Lots of great support and friendship over there.

Well, I’ve gotta go now.  Still need to make several more pieces of jewelry before this weekend!  Have a great Thursday!

Aubrey Baby Blue Hand Painted Wall Letters $18.00 These beautiful letters will add that special touch to your little ones room. Hand painted to order with your child's name.You canalsochoose a coordinating [Read more] Dwell Baby 4 Piece Dots Chocolate Crib Set $384.00 The Dots Chocolate Crib Set is part of dwellbaby's renowned collection of stylish bedding and accessories. Crib set includes play blanket, bumper, fitted sheet, and crib sk... [Read more] Sweet Baby Pink Frame $32.00 This adorable 7x 7 wood frame is hand painted and accented with a bow. Holds a 4x4 pic. [Read more]

I love to cook and bake!  And I really enjoy the times I spend cooking or baking with my great nieces, Taia and Rhiley.  Taia and I baked sugar cookies this week, and had a great time rolling out the dough, cutting out the shapes, baking and then frosting the cookies.  Yummy…. were they ever good!

Since I have loved to cook and bake since I was a child, when I came across the Kids Apron Giveaway in the daily Handmade Giveaways newsletter that I receive, I just had to enter this contest!  And I wanted to share the details with my readers so that you can get in on the fun!

One of the aprons that I liked was the one with colorful apples and pears.  Such a cute style and great colors, don’t you think?  And when you order one, you also get a bonus doll apron!

You can find very cute tote bags and purses here also.  My great nephew, Logan, would love this

one!  He just LOVES Thomas the Train!  His parents took him to see Thomas this summer, and he was

so thrilled!

If you would like to enter this contest, go to the Adventures of a Wanna-Be SupahMommy blog to enter.  You can enter several different ways to increase your chances of winning.

Or…if you just want to purchase one of these great handmade items, go to Aprons for kids shop on Etsy and place your order.

Aubrey Baby Blue Hand Painted Wall Letters $18.00 These beautiful letters will add that special touch to your little ones room. Hand painted to order with your child's name.You canalsochoose a coordinating [Read more] Dwell Baby 4 Piece Dots Chocolate Crib Set $384.00 The Dots Chocolate Crib Set is part of dwellbaby's renowned collection of stylish bedding and accessories. Crib set includes play blanket, bumper, fitted sheet, and crib sk... [Read more] Sweet Baby Pink Frame $32.00 This adorable 7x 7 wood frame is hand painted and accented with a bow. Holds a 4x4 pic. [Read more]

UPDATE 10/03/2009: Thank you to all who entered!  Lizzie was the randomly chosen winner for my $40 gift certificate!  Congratulations!  If you would like to participate in my future contests, please sign up for my newsletter!  I offer special coupons and announce my contests to my subscribers.

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To celebrate my first week of blogging, I decided to have a contest!  I’ll be giving away a $40.00 gift certificate to Julia Hutchins Designs – Handcrafted Jewelry.  This certificate can be used to buy pieces that are already made, or for custom orders.

There are several ways to enter my contest.  Each thing that you do from the list below will earn you one entry in the contest.  You may perform each item as many times as you want throughout the contest period.  Contest runs from August 27th through September 30th, 2009.

IMPORTANT: To be entered in the contest, you MUST copy your post or tweet and paste in the comments section of this blog post – be sure to include your Facebook or Twitter name, or the address to your blog or website (a bonus link for you – we can all use more links to our sites!) if you posted a link as your entry.  If you are “fanning” or “following” me, just post your Facebook or Twitter name in the comments section and tell me that you “fanned” or “followed” me.

The ONLY entries that will be counted are ones in the comment section below this post.

To enter, do one or all of the following.  Each counts as one entry.

• Follow me on Twitter, and post a comment about it here in the comments section of this post (be sure to include your twitter user name in the comment section, so that I can identify you as a follower.
• Go to my website – Julia Hutchins Designs or my ArtFire Studio and choose one of my items to “tweet” about.  Tweet about that item on Twitter, with a link to the item in your tweet (you can use a shortened link or the full link), and then come back to my blog and copy your tweet in the comment section of this post.
• Send a tweet promoting my website - http://www.juliahutchins.com – or my ArtFire Studio – http://www.artfire.com/users/juhutchins – in general – no particular item.  Post a copy of your tweet in the comments section of this post.
• Send a tweet promoting this contest, with my blog address included – http://juliahutchins.com/blog1/ (can be shortened), and post a copy of your tweet in the comments section of this post.
• Fan me on Facebook and post a comment about it in the comments section of this post (be sure to include your Facebook name so that I can identify you as a fan).
• After you become a fan on my Facebook page, post a link to any item from my website or my ArtFire Studio on my Facebook page, add a comment to your post about the item and copy your Facebook post in the comment  section of this post.
• After you become a fan of my Facebook page, post a blurb about my blog, with a link to my blog attached to your comment.  Copy your post in the comment section of this post.
• Send a tweet promoting this blog, with the blog address included – http://juliahutchins.com/blog1/ and post a comment about it in the comments section of this post.
• Promote any my website, my Facebook page, my blog or my ArtFire Studio on your blog or your Facebook page, and copy your post about it in the comments section of this post (be sure to include a link to your blog, facebook page or website in the comment section so that I can verify and view your promotion – plus it gives you an extra link back to your site!)
• Subscribe or follow my blog and post a comment about it in the comments section of this post.

It’s very important to copy your post into the comments section of my blog post so that I can make sure to count each and every entry.  I’ll be verifying the tweets and posts as we go through the contest, but I’ll be using the comments section of this post to to randomly choose the winner at the end of the contest.  You must copy your post or tweet here in order to be counted!   Comments that are found to be false will be removed so that only legitimate posts will be included in the contest.

Contest will end on September 30th, and the winner will be posted on my blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts.   Enter as many times as you want, but please avoid spamming.

This is my first contest, and I’m looking forward to seeing who wins!  Good luck!

Baby Freshwater Pearl & Crystal Christening Name Bracelet

Aubrey Baby Blue Hand Painted Wall Letters $18.00 These beautiful letters will add that special touch to your little ones room. Hand painted to order with your child's name.You canalsochoose a coordinating [Read more] Dwell Baby 4 Piece Dots Chocolate Crib Set $384.00 The Dots Chocolate Crib Set is part of dwellbaby's renowned collection of stylish bedding and accessories. Crib set includes play blanket, bumper, fitted sheet, and crib sk... [Read more] Sweet Baby Pink Frame $32.00 This adorable 7x 7 wood frame is hand painted and accented with a bow. Holds a 4x4 pic. [Read more]

I recently won a spool of colored beading wire during a quick Twitter contest that Foxy Findings ran.  I just happened to be ‘tweeting’ when I noticed their post about the contest!  I submitted my answer to their question about what their lowest price of beading wire was, and mine was one of the winners.  I chose this Foxy Flex Blue Sapphire beading wire, and I can’t wait to design something with it!  I have several ideas in mind, from an illusion necklace with pearls and Czech glass beads, to some long earrings with crystals and pearls.  I’m sure I’ll come up with several more before I run out of this wire.

Thank you to Foxy Findings for having these fun contests on Facebook and Twitter!  It’s things like this that make the social networking so much fun!   You can be sure that I will purchase supplies from Foxy Findings in the future!

Aubrey Baby Blue Hand Painted Wall Letters $18.00 These beautiful letters will add that special touch to your little ones room. Hand painted to order with your child's name.You canalsochoose a coordinating [Read more] Dwell Baby 4 Piece Dots Chocolate Crib Set $384.00 The Dots Chocolate Crib Set is part of dwellbaby's renowned collection of stylish bedding and accessories. Crib set includes play blanket, bumper, fitted sheet, and crib sk... [Read more] Sweet Baby Pink Frame $32.00 This adorable 7x 7 wood frame is hand painted and accented with a bow. Holds a 4x4 pic. [Read more]