Enter to Win Holiday Giveaway

The Holiday's are always an exciting and busy time of year for me. There is never a shortage of things to do balancing work with the additional Holiday events and activities. It can be stressful at times, but I always remind myself to relax and have fun along the way.

One of the "fun" tasks I do each year is to identify a great prize for the Holiday Giveaway. This year, I'm excited to announce the grand prize is a $100 Macy's Gift Certificate. Wouldn't it be great to win $100 to spend any way you wanted at Macy's?

There will be opportunities to enter through December 23 and the winner will be announced on January 2, 2010. To start the promotion, all new Facebook FANS will receive an entry into the giveaway. Become a Facebook FAN here! Once you've become a FAN, comment on this blog post indicating you are a new FAN so I can track of your entry.

Another opportunity to enter will be during the Black Friday - Cyber Monday Sale at my Etsy Shop . I'm offering FREE worldwide shipping and FREE gift wrap on all purchases from during the November 27 - November 30 Sale. And, all buyers during this sale will automatically be entered into the giveaway.

I will be announcing a few other prizes for 2nd and 3rd place winners. Those announcements will be made in the coming weeks. So check back for more information on opportunities to enter the contest.

Pinocchio the Pearl

Have you ever seen a Pearl with a nose like Pinocchio? Well I hadn't, until I was searching through some beautiful naturally colored freshwater pearls I had purchased about a year ago at the Tucson Gem Show. The photo on the right is a few of the strands I purchased. As you can see by the photo, the pearls are baroque shaped and somewhat irregular. I was excited when I found them because the Chinese freshwater pearl farmers have begun to nucleate freshwater pearls with beads (similar to the culturing process used for Akoya and South Sea pearls). This creates larger pearls in a shorter period of time which ultimately results in a less expensive larger pearl.

The colors of these pearls also appealed to me, the beautiful array of gorgeous golden, cream and metallic colors where absolutely beautiful (it's hard to capture this beauty in a photo). Normally, these pearls would be bleached to remove the inconsistent colors however these pearls were left untreated making thing all the more unique.

So, one day I began to make some necklaces showcasing these new pearls. I thought it would be wonderful to find some of the most interesting pearls and create a simple pendant. I wanted each individual pearl to stand out so I added the pearl to a simple black cord. As I was searching through the strands, I found this unusual and unique pearl with a natural protruding blemish.



The first thought I had was "it has a nose as long as Pinocchio". So, I put a sterling silver bead cap on top for a hat and created this fun pendant. A pearl with personality! Although Pinocchio is no longer for sale, there are other beautiful pearl pendants available in my ETSY shop http://www.HTJewels.etsy.com. I hope you enjoy viewing these beauties as much as I enjoyed creating them.