New Necklaces and a Sad Evening

Hello everyone.

Firstly I'm just going to say how STAGGERED I am at how many giveaway entries I've had. It's only the third day of the contest and there are currently 40 entries, with a total of 21 people. Thank you all!

I also listed five new necklaces on Etsy tonight!
Pink Pearl Cascade: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=29753013 (essentially a pink version of the giveaway necklace)
Seashell Cluster Necklace: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=29754416
Spiral Pearl Necklace: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=29755108
Pearl Tear Necklace: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=29755684 (probably my favourite)
Small Pearl Ruche Necklace: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=29756681

Take a look and see what you think, as ever feedback and constructive criticism is welcomed!

Despite all the Etsy goodnes, I'm feeling really quite down tonight. It's a Sunday, which always means a small bit of sadness in the evenings as it's the longest time before I see my partner again. He lives about three hours drive from me, so we really only get to see each other at the weekends. Added to that is the fact that on Thursday, my smallest sister is flying to Cambodia for a whole year. She's working with AIDs orphans and won't be coming home until next August. It's only just hit me...I'm going to miss her so much and she's going so soon.
I keep trying to tell myself that a year isn't -that- long and that when I'm back at uni the time will fly by, but it's not helping much :(

On a more positive note, my dad and his fiancee have set a date for their wedding! September 11th, 2010. Unfortunate I know, not entirely sure who's idea it was. Still, it will be fun! And I get to be a bridesmaid :D

Giveaway!

Ok, so I've been threatening to do this for a while now and the time has finally come!

I've selected a necklace for first prize, hopefully I've made the right choice. Feel free to tell me if I haven't :P

*drumroll*





























Tadaaaa!

This beautiful little necklace is made from stunning ivory and white pearls strung on silk. Radiating out from the center are 25 headpins, with yet more pearls. It fastens with a toggle clasp in a floral design, made from tibetan silver.

2nd prize is £5 or $10 off anything in my Etsy shop.

The retail price for the necklace is £15 or $25 and this is the chance to have it for nothing.

'How?!', I hear you ask? Simple! The first entry is given for simply emailing me. That's it! You can, however, obtain more entries simply by doing one or more of the following:

1. Tweet about me on Twitter.
2. Blog about me.
3. Mention me on your Facebook status update.
4. Feature me in your Deviantart journal.

In order to qualify for these bonus entries you MUST put a link to either:
1. my blog
2. my Etsy shop ( http://www.eiriel.etsy.com )
3. my Facebook fanpage ( http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=285100344&ref=profile#/pages/Birmingham/Eiriels-Eclectics/119458250659?ref=mf ).

Preferably all three :P

Once you've done any/all of these, drop me a line at saidar(at)gmail.com linking me to your blog, twitter account, deviantart or facebook page so I can check you're not being naughty and trying to cheat :P

The closing date for this is Saturday the 29th of August and I will use random.org to find the winner!

If you need clarification on any of this, please comment or email me and I'll get back to you :)

Photos of New, Shiny Things!

You may remember me muttering something a while ago about waiting for some pearls to arrive. Well, they were waiting for me when I got back from Spain. The following necklaces are what I've made so far...there will be a lot more to come, I got 20 strings of each colour :D

These aren't on Etsy yet as I need to take more photos. And some of them have been sold, so I need to remake them. You will be notified as soon as they're listed :)

Spain, Third Time Lucky.

Lastly, some mountains. On one of the cooler days we took a drive up into the mountains. The drive itself was horrendous - the journey time was double what it should of been because of the traffic and my sister was in the worst mood and kept arguing with everyone. Not helpful when you're trying to concentrate on driving on a different side of the road to normal.

Eventually we reached the village we were aiming for. It's really pretty - we walked up the hill to the old part of town where the manor house was. The house itself wasn't very impressive. Being British, I'm used to elaborate stately homes with their original decoration and such. This had all been rendered and painted white - it looked so...modern.

There were some small remains of the original castle, which we could walk up to. That was good :)

Right, I am now going to bed. Had a fairly unsuccessful show this evening and I need the sleep!

Tomorrow's update will include photos of the many, many (6, I think) necklaces I made this week. Most excitingly of all, it will include details of the giveaway, namely how to enter and what prizes you can win! Very, very exciting. Or at least, exciting for me.

Night all!

Spain Take 2: Flora and Fauna

Well, I hope you all found the pictures of my family amusing. Or at least not completely horrendous.

Now I shall bore you with non-people photos!
Bwahahahahaa!

Here we have two lovely hibiscus flowers and a fantastic waterlillie that I was able to catch at full bloom.

































More hibiscus photos. I came out of the villa one morning to have a read in the sunshine and notices that this hibiscus was full of ants. It looked so interesting that I had to take a couple of photos.































Animals next :) A very photogenic frog and some fairly blurry terrapins.































Birrrrdies! I went to the Garden of Nations with my mum and step-dad. It's a large park with a pond in the middle and the island in the pond is shaped like Europe, complete with flags and everything. The UK part was covered in shrubs, so we couldn't go on it :( Whoever designed it also over-estimated how far Wales stuck out, but oh well.

In the park, there was quite a large collection of birds, including two peahens with chicks. So, I took photos. There was also the most adorable collection of baby chickens...so I took photos. And a photo of the peacock. And a small bird drinking from a puddle.



















































































Unfortunately, there was also a tank with several large lizards in. I say 'unfortunately' not because I dislike lizards, but because of their living conditions. The tank had nowhere for them to hide, no wood or pools. The poor lizard I took a photo of had it's face pressed up against the glass and a large, red sore on it's chin. None of them looked in very good condition.














And I do believe that is all for today. My apologies for not updating yesterday as planned, I was making a necklace until about 11pm and then I went to bed.

Mountain photos will hopefully be added tomorrow morning!

Spain: The Joy of My Family

In this post you will have the joy of seeing various amusing photos of my family. Flora/fauna photos will come tomorrow, including photos of some very cute baby chickens.

Don't panic! There will be a select few, the whole load will be put on Flickr for you to browse should the mood take you.

My family are a funny bunch, so it will hopefully be interesting.

The first one is, unfortunately, of me. I promise I am not posing. My partner stole my camera and took a photo when I was looking at the pretty lights when we were in a bar :( The necklace I'm wearing was originally bought by my dad for my mum when they were on holiday in Portugal, looong before they had us children. Mum hasn't worn it for years (I don't think I've ever seen her with it on) and she said I could have it ages ago. It's one of my favourites, made of a shell cut lengthways.
My hair is silly at the moment >.> I've been growing it out and giving it a rest from being dyed a variety of flourescent colours, so it's currently a natural blonde. Sad, but true.

No. 2 is my craaazy brother, Barney and my step-dad, Al. On a pole. Naturally. They weren't as drunk as you'd imagine, oddly enough. Inside every man is a pole-dancer, waiting to emerge! Barney used to have the most gorgeous long, curly blonde hair. He looks like such a thug with it shaved like that...although given that I used to have a very similar hair style I can't really complain!









D'awww. My sister, Erin and her partner James. And Barney's hand. Barney and Erin are twins! Strange but true. When I was doing my Art Foundation, I merged two photos of their faces on photoshop. A bit trite maybe, but it was kind of spooky. All I did was adjust the opacity and they really did merge and look like one person.
James doesn't usually have bright green spots on his nose, I just managed to catch him when the lazers were on. I like lazers :D
Erin's so pretty. She has a bit of a bent nose (she was a very clumsy child) but I think she's really beautiful.






The obligatory MySpace photo. The first time I've actually done one and it was...funny. All three of us burst into hysterical giggles afterwards. Come to think of it...that may have been related to the Moscow Mule and G&Ts.

Anyhoo. The one on the left is my baby sister, Flora. She's actually quite attractive when not pulling faces. She's flying to Cambodia in just over a week to look after AIDs and HIV orphans for a whole YEAR. She can't even come back for Christmas :( I'm going to miss her an awful lot, but I'm jsut so jealous! I'd -love- to do something like that. Kind of wish I'd taken a gap year before Uni, but oh well. Middle is me, pouting in a most uncharacteristic way and on the right is Erin again.

My beautiful, darling Mum. She is the most amazing woman I've ever met and, frankly, looks pretty darn good for her age (50ish). Somehow she raised the four of us by herself, on benefits and I had the happiest childhood I can imagin. Mony was a bit tight, but we had so much fun that none of us really noticed. I have no idea how she did it :)










A smooshy photo of myself and my partner, Tom. He shaved of his goatee-thing, sadly. I really like it (it's ginger!) but he says it takes too much effort :( He's insane and does clever things that involve computers and engineering. I will say no more for fear of boring you with 'I have the most amazing boyfriend EVAR' talk.




Last but not least, a nice photo involving a bridge.

That will be the end of today's broadcast, I hope I have not bored you overly! More photos (and text actually relating to Spain) tomorrow!

I'm Hoooooome :D

Spain was amazing. The heat was just wonderful, although occasionally a bit too much. And I'm one of the lucky ones who tans instead of burning...I have no idea how my poor boyfriend coped, he's mostly vampire and doesn't get on well with the heat.

There will be more information and photos (and hopefully a video of the cutest baby chickens EVER) on Monday or Tuesday, sadly I can't do a long post today as I have work tomorrow. Got home at 3am this morning, so I need mah sleeps.

Updates this week will include:

1. At least one new piece of jewellery. Finished a new necklace today and I have more planned later in the week as I have a show on Thursday.

2. information on a giveaway I'm planning! Hooray! You will have a chance (if you wish it) to win one of two prizes. First prize is an item of jewellery to be specified once I make my mind up (suggestions welcome, take a gander at my Etsy and let me know!). Second will be a discount code for anything in my Etsy shop.

3. General ramble, photos, videos and such about my time in Spain. Possibly not thrilling, but I hope entertaining!

4. Whatever else I feel like discussing.

A fun-filled blogging week for you all to look forward too! I'm also planning a wire-wrapping tutorial (just the basics) before I go back to university, so stay tuned.

Right, I'm off to cuddle my rat-men before I go to sleep. They were very good for the babysitter, but I missed them!

Hope you all had a good two weeks :)