Giveaway from Shining Stones

 Sapphire Blue Swarvoski Drop Necklace 

Technically, that picture was my first impression of Ellie. It was beautiful, and very close to my birthstone. But what I didn’t realize as I swooned over that piece was how her story would soon find a cozy corner in my heart. (::collective awww::)

I couldn’t help but love Ellie . I specifically remember clicking through her Etsy store for at least an hour the first time I saw that necklace. I wanted it and everything else I saw. 

It took a minute (or 20) for it to all come together. This was the woman, a friend of a writer whom I blog stalked, whose story I’d previously read.

A mother.

A wife.

An alcoholic.

I was completely humbled by her openness.

I wouldn’t say that I’m anywhere close to sharing my story of how alcoholism and addiction has affected my life. Ellie, however, has turned her alcoholism and recovery into something truly inspirational.

Like me, she calls a spade a spade. She understands the true power of tough love. She advocates for others to reach out and to share. To stop hiding behind excuses and to bring light to this taboo - that mother’s can be alcoholics. It’s the secretness, the dependency, the excuses - all the things that have to be unearthed, shoved into the light, and dealt with before they can begin to take their rightful backseat.

Aside from Ellie’s amazing story, her safety net for other’s who wish to share, she’s an artist. An amazing artist.

Her jewelry can stand alone without the backstory of alcoholism, the recovery, the support. 

Some of my favs:

See? Speaks for itself.

(And there’s always free shipping in her shop!)

So you guys want to win one of Ellie’s pieces from Shining Stones?

It’s like I read your mind.

AND! You get to choose which one! Enter this giveaway for a chance at a $25 gift certificate from Shining Stones.

Here’s how this works. You are allowed to do each thing once for one entry per… thing. Yay me for proper wording! (Clarification: Do 1 thing = 1 entry. Do 2 things = 2 entries. Do 0 things = you suck. Etc.)

• Go to Shining Stones and pick out something you LOVE - leave the name, a comment about it, and the URL (click on the picture, copy and paste the address from the navigation bar into the comments section) **You must do this for any other entries to count!***
• Subscribe to the Shining Stones newsletter. Now, guys, I hate junk mail, but Ellie is great about sending these out about once every 3-6 weeks and they are full of discounts and fun news. So, it’s really worth it. Click this link to do so and make sure to tell me you subscribed!
• RT this phrase on Twitter “Giveaway on @hushamanda for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate for jewelry from @ShiningStones #giveaway”
• Subscribe to One Crafty Mother, Ellie’s blog! (Button in the sidebar) (Totally worth subscribing anyways. Good stuff.)
• Favorite one item on Shining Stones’s Etsy page - let me know which one!
• Subscribe to my blog (using Google Friend Connect in the right sidebar) for another entry.

That’s it! The maximum number of entries is 6. (So no matter how many times you RT on Twitter, yes, I’ll love you more, but you won’t get additional entries). You can either come back and leave a comment for each entry you’ve done, or just leave one comment stating which entries you’ve completed.  

A winner will be chosen on Monday, May 31st by 9:00 PM - please use your email address when commenting so I can contact you.

Good luck!