Sunday glimmers - Surprises

You may have heard the word "glimmer" before. Glimmers in psychology are the opposite of triggers, small moments of peace or joy sparking positive feelings. Those can be completely simple things that you might not even notice consciously, but noticing and appreciating them can help your mental health.

This week was my birthday.
You may remember my post the other day in which I vented about the piece I had wanted to make for myself as a special gift (saying it was a gift was my motivation to finally get on it) which went completely wrong. While having a very vague idea how I could not save the piece the way I imagined it, but try a different approach, that obviously didn't work out in time.

Then a surprise parcel arrived a few days early. I was completely clueless when I opened it, I had never heard of the shop and wondered what was going on.
The parcel contained a cat figurine, but no card, no nothing.
Could this be a mistake? No because the next day I got an email.
I met M. on Plurk (a social networking and microblogging service) many years ago. We live in different countries and have never met in person, but we never lost contact which I'm very happy about.
The email's title was "A feline spirit to celebrate 60" and I'd like to share these lines with you because I think they are absolutely wonderful:
"There are prettier cats, funnier ones, those with more history, and probably ones that better suit your style or your home. But what I like about this one is that it's precisely an anonymous cat - not representing a specific one but capable of representing them all: past cats, present cats, and future ones. It's like a spirit, a totem of cats, saying: "this home makes cats happy.""
Isn't that perfect?
And please ignore the voice from the background saying he would be even happier if he got more snacks.

On the birthday itself, I put the recycling bag into the hallway to take it down later and found a pretty box with a gift from my neighbors. What a nice surprise at 5 in the morning!

For that day, I expected a cat food parcel and thanks to an email from the postal service obviously also one from the drugstore which puzzled me as I hadn't ordered anything from there.
Quite early in the morning the bell rang which completely confused me because it was way too early for the mailman ... and had she said "flowers" through the intercom?
Flowers indeed, sent a by a good friend! Look at that!

The next surprise came in form of my sister who brought me something from the oldest café in town. I didn't think of taking a picture there, sorry. All I could think "my precioussss" and eat the cake.

When the announced parcels arrived, I knew again what the drugstore parcel had been about. At least three months ago, I had checked a box for the giveaway of a test box with four products while I was on the drugstore website. I had completely forgotten about it as I never win anything, anyway!
What a coincidence that it arrived that day.

Also this week a print arrived that I ordered because it's perfect for me, but I will show you that one in another post.

Now you may say, well, it was your birthday, you must have expected something.
I didn't really. My birthday is not a big thing to me, no celebration, no party, so it was really not just the gifts themselves although I loved them of course, but the surprises that made it extra special and knowing someone thought of me (well, not the drugstore of course).

And who knows, maybe I will be able to finish that gift to myself after all. Wish me luck!

And the winner is ..........................

You didn't really think I'd just blurt the name out, did you? Let me tell you about my morning first.
It started with Greebo knocking a tin off the nightstand and rolling it around on the floor. Although I didn't have much sleep - which is my very own fault as I knew the brats don't care how early in the morning I go to bed - I gave up pretty quickly. Once he tires of knocking around stuff, he usually plops down on my head next. Today I wasn't sure if I was ready for that.

So I got up, fed the monsters, did a bit of this and that and then wrote the list. The list has all the names from people who commented on my giveaway post and I want to thank you them for entering!
Each name got a number, then I went on to Random.org.
And the number is 3!

Now who's got the #3 on my list? It's Carole! Congratulations, Carole! I'll send you a message and your Golden Cat will be on the way soon!

P.S. Sorry for not having a quote of the week today, but this was so much more exciting, wasn't it? ;-)

The Golden Cat - A HeatherCat giveaway!

Last week I told you about my new loom. By now we have made our first piece together and just as I promised, I'll have a giveaway. One of you will own a very special HeatherCat pretty soon.
Meet the Golden Cat, a variation of the Black Cat.
Golden Cat comes as a bead loomed (obviously!) pendant.
She is from golden Duracoat Delicas with some matte dark golden shadows. Her eyes remind me of the sea, a transparent bluegreen. The background is a beautiful misty blue grey, one of my favorite colors. She comes with a golden ball chain of 23.5 inch or 60 cm length.

Now, what do you have to do to enter my giveaway? It's actually pretty easy. Hop over to my Zibbet shop where the HeatherCats are sold exclusively, pick your favorite among them and let me know in a comment to this post.
Don't forget to give me an e-mail address or some way I can contact you if you are the lucky one!
You have time until next week Saturday midnight my time (the time zone is called UTC +1 if you need look up the difference), well, actually until Sunday morning when I get up, but that depends on my cats, so you may be lucky or not. It's the 22nd of February.
Better do it right away if you want the Golden Cat, so you won't forget.
Once I am up on Sunday and have survived the feeding of the monsters, I will give each comment a number and then draw the winner with the help of Random.org.

Good luck!

Advent bloggalendar or The first door

Today I have the honor to be behind the first door of the "advent bloggalendar", a pre-Christmas blog calendar project by a bunch of talented German artisans.

For those who missed it two years ago and don't know what an advent calendar here in my part of the world is - here you can find something about the history of this tradition.
I'm going to try ... that's no promise because there are some time consuming private things coming up in my life ... to blog each day to make the holiday time a bit more interesting and fun for you, and it's going to start with a bang aka a giveaway. Yes, you understood that right. I will be giving away three hand knitted pieces for you to keep yourself or maybe to give to a loved person.
There are different ways to enter:

Are you following me on Facebook or Twitter yet?
Wanna share my pages with your own crowd there?
Do you want to blog about my giveaway?
You don't have FB, Twitter or a blog?

Comment on this post, either with the links to your plugs or, in the last case, with an e-mail address where I can reach you, should you be the winner.

Each one of these actions will count as an entry, that means you can have five entries at most.
You'll have today to leave your comments, then I'll draw the winner with random.org.

Are you curious now about what it IS that you can win?

First of all there's this sturdy key chain. From a silver tone key ring and chain dangles a large crystal rock in a safe wire knit setting which looks cool on the back as well. This is something for a lady or a man.

Then there is this beautiful "Pebbles in the stream" bracelet. It is knitted from a warm orange copper wire with stones, pearls and crystals on it, a real attention catcher.

Last but not least I really went all out with a lovely necklace. It features five bright blue (looks great against light!) glass beads, some shiny, some matte, inside a light golden twisted wire knit tube which is attached to a gold tone chain that you can close with a lobster clasp into each link to change the length if wanted. From the last link dangles a little rock crystal brio for some extra fun.

So what are you waiting for? Try your luck!

SATeam's Mother's Day Giveaway Event

Mother's Day is not far away. The USA and Germany celebrate it on the 8th of May.

The Starving Artists Team decided to start a big giveaway in honor of it. We'll give away three gift certificates in the value of 100 $, 50$ and 25$!

The winners can choose items from any of the participating shops. Now doesn't that sound great? And entering is so easy!

Hop over to our team blog for more information. Can't wait to see you there!

The third door is hiding the winner

Aaaand the winner iiiiiiiiis ........ Michele!

Congratulations ... your new rainbow ornament will go out in the mail to you within the next few days! :-D
I hope you'll have fun with it!


Thank you to all who shared their Christmas memories with us. As promised now I'll share one of mine with you from the year 1970 when I was five years old.

24th of December and an excited kid (you know we celebrate the main event on the 24th) in front of the living room ... the door opened .....
and there was a brand new doll's pram inside. And even more, hand sewn doll clothes.

Little Cat was a little ingrate, though, I'm afraid to say. Her older sisters got Mattel dolls and since little Cat has always been a sucker for miniature (which hasn't changed to this day), she was fascinated. The small shoes, the tiny buttons and zippers ... Cat started nagging like only a five year old can. She annoyed her sisters wanting to look at their dolls.
And finally she was promised that she would get her own doll as soon as the stores were open again, the 27th. Those must have been difficult two days for the whole family!


On the 27th then we went to the store and I got my first Mattel doll. It was Stacey, Barbie's British friend, with platinum blond hair. I loved her and she's still in my collection. Her face has turned yellow, she's missing half a foot, so she prefers to wear boots with the evening dress my sister made for her. When sending her to the library that I had set up in my chair, her feet hit the ground a little too hard, I guess. She's also missing a finger, it broke off from putting bracelets on her wrist too often. If you look really close, you can see one on her left arm. She has a head split from taking her head off too often to put clothes on her or handmade necklaces (nowadays I know how to make a necklace you can put on without having to take their heads off ;-)).

If you worry about my baby doll, there's no need to. She was taken for walks outside in her new pram and she wore her new clothes, too. When she finally broke (she kept losing her limbs), my teddy bear who had about the same size, inherited her more unisex kind of clothing.
Ok, so that is no excuse for behaving like a spoilt brat, but I apologized more than once for it over the last 40 years, so I think I'm forgiven by now.

Deck the halls ... Cat's Wire's Christmas giveaway!

Ok, I know it's only November, but if I want to have a giveaway you see it makes not much sense to start it in December, right? I'd run out of time.
To keep suspense up a bit, let's have a look at my decoration ideas first.

When I was a child, I bought small Christmas ornaments for my grandmother's artificial tree. The memory inspired me to make this set of 10 miniature wire crochet ornaments from colorful copper wire. Of course there are so many more colors, so if someone does not want pink or orange on the tree, no problem!


These are the big siblings of the mini ornaments. They too come in lots of different colors. They look beautiful in candle light.


Just as beautiful look these light baskets in different sizes. You can't only use them for tea lights, but also to collect your coins or to drop your earrings and rings for the next day. They are also a nice gift filled with some candy.


Now I have made you wait long enough. It's time to announce Cat's Wire's Christmas giveaway!
Let me know one of your Christmas memories in a comment to this post or, if you don't celebrate Christmas, tell us about some other holiday memory of yours and you can win this ....

.... rainbow ornament!
It's about 2.5 inch or 6.5 cm high and is made from different colors of copper wire and even some bronze wire.
Put it on your tree, it looks great in the light, or if you don't have a tree, hang it up elsewhere and just let the bright colors make you smile. Rainbows always make me smile!




The winner will be drawn from all those who commented until the 30th of November, so don't forget to leave something that lets me contact you.
Now I wish you much fun on your trip down the memory lane :-D

The SATeam

Do you remember last year? The SATeam Wrist Candy Holiday Giveaway?
Time has flown by. Don't look at the calendar, just look at your screen - cos here it comes, the 2010 SATeam Wrist Candy Holiday Giveaway! A new charm bracelet, a new chance for you to save AND win!

Last year's bracelet had the subject Christmas. This year we locked ourselves up in a cave in Northern France. Only water and crackers were allowed until ... you don't believe me? Okay, you are right, but it might have been fun. We had a poll and so here it is, this year's prize!
Flowers, in all colors, shapes, made in different techniques, I wish I could play!


Check out the Etsy team shop for all the savings you can get during this sale and giveaway which will be held from the 17th of October until the 28th of November! And check out the team blog for updates. Come and join us, it'll be fun!

Sales and giveaways - wherever you look!

I already told you about the Polymer Clay Smooshers Masquerade Clay Ball where you can win a fabulous bracelet.
But if you think that was it already, you are way wrong.

Handmade in Europe, my other ArtFire guild, started a great Halloween giveaway game today. There is not just one prize, but a whole lot of them, a coupon booklet for all of the participating studios, among them humble me. I offer a 15 $ coupon for my ArtFire studio.
Come and play with us!


And there's even more.
DaWanda has started a discovery sale. You'll get 15 % off in participating shops that you haven't bought from before, including mine!

Are you as excited as I am? :-D

Where's Flappy Flambé?

You know I'm member of the ArtFire Guild "Handmade in Europe" together with some very talented artisans.
You know that our logo is the phoenix (if you looked at the right column on this blog).
What you don't know is that we had job interviews for logo models. It was a tough choice.

Flappy Flambé didn't get chosen because he is a little wild, so he stormed off to take over our studios. Scary stuff regarding the fact that he is a fiery little dude.
Where is he? Help us find him!


You'll find all the information you need to join our posse right here.
Did I mention there is an award, not to say a bunch of awards?? :-D

Felt critters

No, not by me, don't you worry. I've told you before that I can't sew if my life depended on it.
But I know someone who can.

She is witty, she is funny and she makes the most hilarious felt creations.
And now you have the chance to win one of them!

Go to her blog Kitty creates and check out her giveaway!
Comment on the blog, tweet about it, blog about it and if you are the lucky winner, choose from three fun items.

But don't you dare take away my evil lemon!!! :-D

Teamwork

As mentioned before I am not a lonely fighter on the streets of the internet. I am member of Etsy's SATeam (Starving Artists Team) and a member of the all new and shiny ArtFire guilds Handmade in Europe and the AF Plurkies Guild. If it weren't for my great admins and fellow members (and other online friends, but this is a story for another time), I would have lost faith very quickly I guess, and I might not be here anymore. My wire would slowly tarnish in its corner and my crochet hooks would rust. The cats would take over the bead stash and ... oh, you already got the idea? Good ;-)

What is teamwork? I actually found something in Wikipedia and I quote part of the article:
Teamwork is a joint action by two or more people in which each person contributes with different skills and express his or her individual interests and opinions to the unity and efficiency of the group in order to achieve common goals. This does not mean that the individual is no longer important; however, it does mean that effective and efficient teamwork goes beyond individual accomplishments. The most effective teamwork is produced when all the individuals involved harmonize their contributions and work towards a common goal.
...
Teamwork can be more than two people, but the importance is working as one.

Now you probably think it was unnecessary to write that down? That is something everyone knows, you think? Well, everyone might know it, but it's not easy for everyone to do it. Actually I think it's hard for most people to do it and I am counting myself in, no doubt about that. "Ah, today I don't feel like it." "Oh, there will be enough others commenting." "I am so tired." And my favorite one (NOT!): "She/He is doing such a great job, I don't feel I am needed."
That's not true. Everyone is needed. Granted, there will be days you just can't make it and it's a good thing to be backed up by others, but you have to do your part of backing up as well. That is what teamwork is about. You know what? After a while when you have defeated what we call our "inner pig dog" in Germany ;-) you'll feel so good. If you don't have that feeling you are maybe not a team player, but that's ok, we can't all be the same, right? Most people, though, can contribute something to a team and if you put a whole lot of little things together, something great can develop.

Look at this example - the SATeam Wrist Candy Holiday Giveaway. Team members have each chipped in to create a beautiful bracelet that combines many different talents. Each time a new charm donated was posted, I had to hold my breath. That is what collaboration is about. This is a team bracelet, it doesn't matter who made which charm.


What are you waiting for? Check it out, there is still time till the 6th of December. And while you are at it, check out my team. They are worth it.

European ArtFire guild giveaway!

And here it is! The Christmas giveaway from the European Artfire guild. For the past couple of months we have been working to put together the collection of goodies you can see in the picture below. There are hairpins and hairclips, some holiday themed glasswork beads, a shawl, gorgeous jewelry, Christmas decoration, a pair of ladies' fingerless gloves, a christmasy box and I bet I forgot to mention something.

If you want a chance to win all these lovely handmade goods from Europe all you need to do is write a comment to our guild blog, you can even get your name in the hat twice if you blog or twitter or help us promote this giveaway in any other way. So be sure to let us know.
We will ship to anywhere.

On the 27th of november we will ask random.org to pick us a winner.
Please don't forget to provide an e-mail address you regularly check when you comment so we can contact you for your home address if you turn out to be the lucky winner.

Participating artists:

Jane from http://loopylou.artfire.com/
Bernadette from http://berniolie.artfire.com/
Alison from http://thesheriffsdaughter.artfire.com/
Neki from http://nekidesu.artfire.com/
Jenny from http://jennykarlssondesign.artfire.com/
Wendy from http://eddyspressies.artfire.com/
Helen from http://kittyballistic.artfire.com/
Cat from http://catswire.artfire.com/
Susanne from http://BabsBeadsandDesign.artfire.com/
Mary from http://truecolours.artfire.com
Liesan from http://ignisfatuus.artfire.com/

Letting the week pass by in my memory

This wasn't one of my best weeks. Nobody's fault, there are just times that stress me out easier than others.
It was a mixture of a cold coming and going, dry lips (yes, that IS a problem if it starts to keep you from smiling or eating because it hurts), not enough people at work, a "neglected email" list that goes from here to Saturn, five million WIPs at home, items waiting to be photographed, darkness when I came home (bye bye, "summertime") and two more highlights I want to tell you about.

Number 1 - how to lock yourself out

1. Take a camera, a Christmas ornament and your keys and go outside to catch the last light of the day
2. Be sure to not wear a jacket because you only want to be outside for a few minutes
3. Take pictures on various plants and surfaces
4. Go back inside, only to see a plant in front of the downstairs neighbors' door that looks perfect for one more picture
5. Go back outside to throw something into the trash can, taking the ornament and the camera with you
6. Reach into your jeans pocket to notice you forgot the keys beside the plant IN the house
7. See that the door closed
8. Ring the neighbors' bell just to see they are not home
9. Decide to wait for the tall guy (you can insert whatever matches for you) and feel it getting colder
10. - 29. Take silly pictures of yourself until it is too dark for that, afterwards delete them because you look like a creep
30. The tall guy arrives after 45 minutes. You go upstairs and jump into a HOT bubble bath and go to bed afterwards

Number 2 - take the train to Beimerstetten

1. Make an appointment for dinner with a friend
2. Take the train and get your feet trampled by a 4 - 5 year old girl whose grandmother is worn out by the day and won't tell her not to play standing on other people feet (not even after you carefully dare to bring up the topic)
3. Shortly before the train reaches your station, listen to the train conductor telling you you all have to get off at Beimerstetten (2500 inhabitants, I checked in Wikipedia) and from there buses will pick you up - reason: an accident in the next station
4. Call to get picked up by car
5. Get off the train with hundreds of other people who gather in a large crowd in front of a pathetic little station building (sorry, but I doubt that station has ever seen so many people)
6. Come to the fun part - talking with fellow victims, for example the guy who tells you he just made it home from Madagascar without any delay and "now I am standing here in BEIMERSTETTEN". He was surprised that nobody came running out of the house to take the chance and offer coffee and sandwiches ;-)
7. Really enjoy the talk which makes waiting much easier, then see the car pulling up and say you are going to leave now.
8. Listen to an incredulous "you won't go and leave us here now", get into the car and wave while driving by. Ok, I'm not sure if that was taken the way I meant it, but I felt the urge to wave goodbye, just to the people I had talked to.
9. Warm up in the car!!

There were some nice events, though.
You know I still have my giveaway going (have you voted yet and commented yet?) http://catswire.blogspot.com/2009/10/help-me-name-my-dragon.html) and this week two more giveaways started, from my Etsy's SATeam and from my ArtFire guild. Check them out, they are worth it!

As for new items, I must disappoint you. No pictures yet, but I really hope you are looking forward to the ones coming up soon!

Etsy’s Starving Artist Team Wrist Candy Holiday Giveway and Sale!!

Take a look at this amazing collaboration of SATeam members! This holiday themed charm bracelet could be yours. You want to know how?


If you buy something from one of the participating shops on Etsy, your name will be included in the drawing and maybe you are the lucky one to wear this bracelet on YOUR wrist soon!


The SATeam Holiday Sale begins today, October 26, 2009 and continues through December 6, 2009.

You'll find a list of the participating shops at the Starving Artists blog. You can also find holiday sale items on Etsy by searching for sateamwrist.
During this special promotion I'll put in a little surprise gift with each bought item.