Glass + Resin Pendant Giveaway

I am excited to announce that I am participating in the Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway Day! What is Giveaway Day, you might ask? Well, first off- it's awesome. Second- it's a chance for you to win many, many amazing handcrafted items from some very talented crafters. Bloggers and shop owners are giving away fabric, handmade bags, items for the home, jewelry, and accessories - the list goes on and on!  So be sure to visit from  Sew, Mama, Sew now through December 16th for your chance to win!

I've chosen to give away one of my Glass + Resin Pendants in the Lichen color way.  Each handmade pendant features a microcosm of tiny glass spheres encapsulated beneath multiple layers of glass-like resin and is set in an antique brass bezel. The Lichen color way features a monochromatic selection of green and gold glass spheres perfect for the holidays!  

The pendant includes an 18" hand-oxidized brass chain and will arrive boxed and ready for gift giving!  

To win this lovely necklace all you need to do is comment on this post and tell me what your favorite holiday tradition is.  Do you bake an assortment of cookies for family and friends?  Do you host a party? Is there a particular dish that you make each year?  Tell me- I'd love to know!  Be sure to leave an email address so that I can contact you, too!

There are two more ways to win, and they are in no way mandatory.  I am simply offering these two additional entries as a thanks for my old and new followers.  : )

a.)  If you are a follower of my blog, please leave an additional comment and let me know!

b.)  If you have fanned Helen Ethel Studio on Facebook, be sure to comment that you are a Facebook follower!

You will have until Friday December 16th to enter.  Comments will close at 5pm PCT on December 16th and one winner will be chosen at random (using random.org) on December 17th.  I will announce the winner no later than Sunday, December 18th and will note whom that is in this giveaway post.  If there is no contact info, or if I do not hear back from the winner within a week of my original email, I will select another individual at random.

Finally, I will ship INTERNATIONALLY!

Thank you for stopping by and participating in this great event.  Be sure to visit my my shop, Helen Ethel Studio, as there is still time for holiday shopping!  From now until December 17th,  I will be offering free shipping on all items.  This is open to domestic and international shipping.  Please enter the code FREESHIP2011 at check out.  Thank you!

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Regarding a current cookie obsession

Happy December everyone!  Like many of you, I can hardly believe that we are already trucking our way through December and knee deep in the holidays.  I will not lie- I'm rather excited this year, for many reasons.  One of those reasons just happens to be due to all of my baking plans!  Now that Dan and I have moved and are for the most part settled in to our new place, I finally have a space to dedicate to cooking and baking.  Our last kitchen was a tiny 6'x4' (I'm being generous here) space with next to no counter space.  It was a depressing site for any one with a desire to get serious in the kitchen.  By the end of our 5 years in that apartment I rarely desired to bake as it would only end up in massive bouts of frustration as I strategically created counter space where counter space should not belong and wedged cookie sheets into our tiny little oven. But, one must do what must be done if one wants to enjoy homemade sweet confections.

Thankfully, this year will be different.  We now have a kitchen that is nearly the size of our old apartment's living room and kitchen combined! AND I acquired a dining room table off of craigslist a few weeks ago (a vintage teak Danish Modern piece, I might add!) that will allow me to really spread out and get down and dirty as I bake my way through the month.  I've been thinking a lot about cookies- sugar cookies in particular.  The ones made of rolled buttery dough, formed by quirky holiday themed cookie cutters, and adorned in jewel-toned sanding sugars and sprinkles.  The ones I never would have dared to even consider baking in our old apartment.  THOSE.  Sugar cookies and I have got big plans this holiday season and it all begins with a recipe for Cardamom Sugar Cookies I saw on Etsy a few days ago that I just can't get out of my mind.  I picked up a handful of woodland and elf themed cookie cutters from Ikea last night that I can't wait to use with the recipe.  I also hope to make these Salted Caramel Cups, package them up nicely with the delicious sugar cookies, and take them along to a holiday party later that night.  I will then repeat the process over and over again until I can hardly take it any longer.

In honor of my recent cookie fixation, I've created an Etsy treasury dedicated purely to delicious and beautiful holiday confections.  Warning:  I highly advise having a cookie within arms reach while perusing the list!

What about you?  Do you have any recipes you have been gravitating toward?  What is on your holiday dessert menu? Do share!

'Sweets for the Holidays' by helenethelstudio

...mostly sugar cookies. I just can't seem to get them out of my mind!

Santa Cookies - Hol... thePieceDeResi... $30.00	Jam Rings Vanilla S... justcrumbs $10.50	Candy Cane Peppermi... PerfectlyGoodD... $14.00	Christmas Tree Snow... SugarMeDessert... $15.95
Christmas Cookies -... nadiascookies $42.00	Gingerbread Men Min... SugarMeDessert... $17.95	FAVORS Decorated Co... katieduran $32.50	Assorted Christmas ... KaysSimplyHome... $28.00
Christmas Cookies G... ButterBlossoms $20.00	FAVORS Decorated Co... katieduran $34.50	Snowy Pine Tree Sug... SugarLaneBakeS... $33.20	Coffee Pecan Sablé... Janjoupatisser... $7.99
Snowman in Hat Ging... SugarLaneBakeS... $28.00	Cookies Cranberry D... ButterBlossoms $13.50	ELF Cookies - GNOME... lorisplace $34.99	Candy Cane Cookie P... ButterBlossoms $13.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Glass + Resin Pendants have arrived in the shop

Finally, I am getting my act together and loading all of these goodies into the shop!  Today I listed a handful of brass Glass and Resin Pendants in the Helen Ethel Studio Etsy shop and I invite you all to take a peek.  I have many brass pendants, but if silver is more your thing, you'll find silver Glass and Resin Pendants in the shop later in the week.  These pendants have proved to be very popular at the festivals I've sold them at and I hope you will all agree!  They look great with jeans and a relaxed top but look amazing against a simple black dress.  Fantastic for the holidays, no? 

Glass + Resin Pendant in Plume

Glass + Resin Pendant in Lichen

Glass + Resin Pendant in Automne

Glass + Resin Pendant in Carnivale

new work: focus on color

"Color is joy.  One does not think joy.  One is carried by it." -Ernest Haas

LE MER COLOR SHIFT NECKLACE: faceted blue agate + solid, raw brass beads + vintage brass chain + $45*

REIMS PENDANT: mystic purple drusy + hand wrapped in oxidized brass wire + vintage brass curb chain + $36*

*Necklaces will be linked to the shop in the coming weeks. Please stay tuned!

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East Goshen Harvest Festival

Hello to all!  I wanted to drop a quick note to let you all know that I will be selling my jewelry and accessories at the East Goshen Harvest Festival in West Chester, Pennsylvania.  I'm pretty excited about this one because it is the first time Helen Ethel Studio will be represented at a festival in the Philadelphia region.  

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The annual Harvest Festival, formerly the Pumpkin Festival, will be held on October 22 (rain date October 23) from 10 am -4 pm at East Goshen Park.  It will be family friendly with Hayrides, a Scarecrow Pageant, farm market goodies and prepared foods, music and pumpkins- lots and lots of pumpkins, I'd imagine.  So, if you are free and want to enjoy the harvest season please stop by and say hello!  I plan on having a mug of warm, mulled cider by my side, all day long. 

For more information, please visit the event's Facebook page.

Thick, Chewy Granola Bars

This past Labor Day weekend, a group of friends and I travelled from far and wide to convene on a little patch of land, next to the Juniata River in Central Pennsylvania.  This was our third year participating and Dan and I consider it our last big exhale of the summer, where we can kick back, relax and just enjoy the warmth of the sun, laughs with friends, and nature.  It was especially important for us to really embrace the idea of relaxation because we knew the weeks to follow would be a bit of a roller coaster for us.  The month of September was a whirlwind of travel for a wedding, moving and all of the packing and unpacking that goes along with such things.  And because of that, I did not post one. single. time. in September.

This camping event has typically been a pot-luck sort of deal and it works quite well.  I signed up for salads and baked goods.  I tacked the baked goods onto my list because we had finally received our replacement oven weeks earlier after being without one for nearly six months. Oh, how I've longed to bake! But because our apartment was in a shamble sort-of-moving-limbo state, I didn't want to get in over my head by spending hours baking cookies or a cake or any other time intensive confection.  Instead, I opted for a practical, semi-healthy treat that would give all of us campers an easy snack on the run for our daily floats down the river.  I made these thick, chewy granola bars that I found on Smitten Kitchen.

Spyglass Ridge Winery Celticfest: Booth Photos!

Here is a peek at my booth set up from this year's Spyglass Ridge Winery Celticfest in Sunbury, Pennsylvania.  This was my second festival appearance and I was very happy with the way things turned out.  I was especially happy with my booth display.  Below are a few of my favorite shots which give a nice overview of the set up.  I'll be posting more about the details in the coming days, so stayed tuned!