Giveaway Winners!

Drumroll, please!

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3rd Prize of £5 or $10 off anything in my Etsy shop goes to Sandra!

2nd Prize of any pair of earrings currently in my shop goes to Stephanie!

1st Prize of the lovely aluminium, pearl and vintage glass necklace goes to Janet!

*round of applause*

Congratulations ti the lucky winners and thank you to everyone who took part :)

As a thank you to everyone who took part when you spend over $10 in my Etsy shop, you will receive one free pair of earrings. Simply let me know what pair you'd like in the 'message to seller' box and I'll post them to you along with your purchase!

Apologies and Fancy Dress

Firstly, apologies for the delay in announcing the winners. I finally handed in the 3rd chapter draft of my dissertation, so I celebrated by taking the afternoon/evening off and watching films with friends.

The winners will be announces this afternoon, once I get home from uni. Sooo....probably around 3-4pm GMT. Hurrah!

It was the last Cirus meeting of the term on Monday, so we went out for a curry. This being circus, there was a fancy dress theme. ANY fictional character. It was so hard to think of a costume that involved minimal effort (mostly with my hair) but in the end a friend from Gilbert and Sullivan suggested Cruella De Ville, from 101 Dalmations.

Perfect! I didn't have to do anything strenuous with my hair and I managed to find some dalmation print fabric at the market. I did end up being 1.5 hours late for the circus session, but I was in plenty of time for the actual food. Hurrah!

Other characters included Link (from Zelda), Princess Mononoke, Minnie Mouse, a Smurf (complete with blue latex arms) and the Cheshire Cat. As ever, it was lots and lots of fun.

Giveaway - Last Day!

Afternoon all!

Just a quick one, the giveaway ends at midnight tonight, GMT!
You officially have 10 and a half hours to enter the giveaway, or to send me links for extra entries!

Good luck, everyone!

Winter Giveaway Up and Running!

First Prize:












A gorgeous aluminium chain necklace embellished with pearls and vintage chandelier glass, worth $33 or £20.

Second Prize:
ANY pair of earrings from my shop!
















Third Prize is £5 or $10 off anything in my Etsy shop.

Any of these prizes would be perfect gifts for someone at Christmas, or just as a present to yourself :)

'How can I win these fantastic prizes?!', 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 Tuesday the 7th of December 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 :)

Prettty New Earrings!

Made and listed this evening, in a bizarre fit of activity!
Lots and lots of uni work done today as well, I managed to finish the 1st draft of my 2nd dissertation chapter.

Anyway, have some pretty earrings to look at :)

http://www.eiriel.etsy.com

Quick Update and Pretty Sewing Photos!

Evening all!
I have a spare few minutes this evening, so I thought I'd give you a bit of an update.
Life is, as ever, busy. Lots of dissertation work, lots of lecture reading and (oddly for me) lots of social contact. Bizarre...

Spent reading week at home, which was fun. For those who don't know, reading week is, supposedly, a week for reading. Science students tend to scowl at arts students because it's essentially a week of freeeedom that they don't get. They never believe us when we say we actually do -work- during our week off. Seriously! I do. Lots of work.
And...
well...
sewing.

Sewing is work, yes?














I is making a dress. A pretty dress, from a vintage 1950s fabric pattern and some gorgeous curtain fabric. Pretty!
:D
There will hopefully be more photos after next weekend, I only have access to a sewing machine when I'm at my parent's house so progress is somewhat sporadic. I'm planning on wearing it at my boyfriend's work-christmas-party-thing.

This week has so far been spent (apart from working) making 21st birthday presents for the twins! Somehow, they're going to be 21 in Thursday. Very strange. Photos of the presents will be appearing early next week...if I post them now the little minxes are likely to find them.

Brother bought a tarantula. Not sure how I feel about this. If I find a shed tarantula exoskeleton on my pillow, I will be less than impressed.

Oh, there will most likely be photos of the night out on Thursday. I'm off out to York to see Erin (female half of the twins), which will involve afternoon tea (we are British, after all), then cocktails in the evening followed by dancing. Excitement, I haven't been dancing since Spain :D I've planned my outfit and everything! Gorgeous purple/blue silk dress plus by black boots. I love them, they've got a 4" heel. Stunning :D

Anyhoo, must go now. Have to be up early to get to town before my lecture starts! Have a lovely evening :)

Strawberry and White Chocolate Muffins

Something you may not know about me is that I LOVE to bake. I rarely find the time, but it's one of my favourite things to do. I generally enjoy cooking, but there's something special about baking :) It tends to get reserved for the weekends and my partner always enjoys helping. He generally does useful things like make sure the mixtures tastes good and testing any chocolate we're using. And he licks the bowl clean afterwards ^^

Today's recipe was strawberry and white chocolate muffins! Very delicious and you can pretend that they're healthy because they have fruit in them! It's just a basic muffic recipe that's been modified slightly. Instead of fruit/chocolate you can always use ginger and nutmeg - a highly recommended combination for the winter months!

Ingredients:
250ml milk
125ml oil
1 large egg
300g self raising flour
150g caster sugar
170g chocolate
170g berries
(the last two can be increased/decreased according to taste!)

Makes 12

Preheat the oven to 170oC/gas mark 3. Place 12 paper cake cases into a muffin tray.

Cut your strawberries into quarters and put 12 pieces to one side. These will be used to decorate the muffins :) Crush the chocolate into small pieces. My partner's favoured method is bashing it against the closest wall.

Whisk the milk, oil and egg together in small mixing bowl. You don't have to use an electric whisk, especially if (like me!) you don't have one. I made do with a fork and it worked perfectly well.
Sieve the flour into another bowl and add the sugar, chocolate and berries to it. Combine with a large wooden spoon. Or, you know, a small one. Whatever works for you.
Stir in the milk, oil and egg mix, a little bit at a time until the mixture is nice and gloopy! (Yes, 'gloopy' is a technical term).
Split the mixture evenly between the cake cases and place a piece of strawberry on top of each one.

Cook for roughly 25 minutes - to test, press the top of the muffin down lightly. If your finger squishes through it, they're not done yet! They should feel firm and slightly springy.

Leave to cool slightly and enjoy!

Sadly no photo. Will try and take one before they all get eaten!