Alloy Necklace giveaway . . . .

Today I am very happy to tell you that I will be giving away a beautiful necklace from Alloy Jewelry. I recently had the pleasure of being introduced to a wonderful young mother, Leah from Vermont, who not only makes beautiful jewelry, but has a beautiful story behind what she does and why she does it. First, take a look at this lovely necklace........

This 'Listen to the Surf' necklace is hand stamped on to this 1 1/2" copper bar. The bar is hand hammered to give a rustic texture, and a sterling silver starfish charm and freshwater pearl charm finish it off. Chain length is 16".

And now, please meet Leah. . . . . 

First and foremost, the most important thing I do is take care of my children.  That being said, while I think there's a certain amount of becoming a mother that comes naturally, I think people overlook the aspects of motherhood that DON'T come naturally.   Motherhood was a shock in many ways, and making jewelry (and the myriad of other half-finished creative projects I have strewn around the house) became my daily practice of paying attention to myself, even if it was for five minutes.  I began to see that the more I took care of myself the more patience I had with my kids. I went with it, and soon people started asking if they could "commission" a piece here and there.  I opened an Etsy shop and saved and saved, buying a new piece of equipment with the money from each necklace I sold.  I sent out samples to magazines, relentlessly looked for other ways to market myself and dreamed of the day I would have my own website and be able to call this my "job".  (All this while I had been editing legal books for a former employer as my "profession" and it was just SO not me!)

Eventually, I got an edit mention in Family Circle Magazine, and boy do they have loyal readers there! It made Alloy Jewelry more visible to the public and the business took off from there. I started doing quote and zodiac pieces to make the business more attractive to retail stores since custom work is hard to stock in stores.  I found that the quote pieces were becoming an obsession for me-I have a love of reading and words.  I started to see that as I would choose a quote for a necklace, I would associate that quote with one of my dear friends-for example "be with those who help your being"-Rumi necklace is for my girl, Anne, who lights up our lives even though we are far apart.  The necklaces I made had a new meaning to me now-I wore them and could hold that friend close to my heart-AND I could connect with customers in a different way, because they would ask for suggestions and would tell me the story of who they were buying for and I could help them pick out a quote (or design a new one) that was perfect.  Fun! 

More of her lovely creations.......

"I began to see that the more I took care of myself,

the more patience I had with my kids."

-Leah

All you have to do to win is leave a comment below before 11:59 p.m. EST on May 7th. The drawing will be Tuesday, May 8th and is open to readers worldwide. Good luck!

In life,

you can only ever be scared,

when you believe in limits.

You can only ever feel lonely,

when you stop doing things.

You can only ever become bored,

when you no longer follow your heart.

And you can only ever get overwhelmed,

when you think the illusions are real.

Whew!

Who knew it could be so easy

to get back on track!

Via Notes from The Universe