Lots of great news and $200 giveaway!

So, first of all, the highlight of the week - my new laptop has arrived! I'm so happy and I feel like I won't sleep tonight because I have so much to catch up on! Also, it's finally Friday, it was a long and busy week. Tonight we visited Ben's parents, had an amazing Korean dinner, spent some relaxing time in the garden, now Ben is playing his guitar and singing, I just chatted with my family on Skype.. life is good!

Let's make everything even better! You might remember Datevitation from when I did a giveaway in January featuring Ben with his early Valentine's Day gift. This month, they're giving away $200 - isn't it exciting? Look at the graphic below for the info and a discount code.. and good luck!

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I have something for you (plus a giveaway!)

Are you looking for fresh ideas, photos that inspire and a new blog to read? Let me introduce you to Jessica! She is the blogger behind Foreign Room - a place where you can find her latest adventures, thoughts about life, personal style, creative endeavors and things she's loving right now. My favorite post from March was about her trip to Yosemite - the photos are amazing, they make me want to pack quickly and drive down there right now! I wanted to get to know Jess a bit better, so I asked her to tell us about herself - please enjoy her story below and don't forget to enter the giveaway! Have fun!

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I'm Jess, a graphic design and photography student living in the San Francisco Bay Area who loves art, exploring, and my little black dog. I decided to start blogging because I wanted to document my adventures and day to day life, and also have found it to be a great creative outlet. I was feeling burnt out by the art I had been creating and wanted to find something else to pour my creative energy into. Plus, I wanted to be a part of the great community of bloggers out there.

My favorite things to blog about are the simple every day moments that make me happy, projects I am working on, wanderings I go on with my friends or dog, and the things that inspire me. I am inspired by nature, art, architecture, and other blogs! I love things that make the mundane and over looked beautiful, and draw attention to the quieter parts of life.

This year, I would like to do something new. I plan on traveling to new places, meeting new people, and trying new things. I'd like to see where stepping outside of my comfort zone gets me. Follow my adventures at Foreign Room!

Win this simple, cute, elegant personalized necklace. It's great for layering or wearing single. From a 14k gold filled chain is gold plated disc with initial. Disc measures 12mm round. This necklace is 16 inches long.

Giveaway is open internationally, a winner will be drawn in a week and notified via email. Good luck!

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Giveaway and a new style blog

Happy Friday, everyone! Today I want to introduce you to one of our sponsors: Lauren, who runs a style blog called "Sincerely, Lo". She also owns a pretty Etsy shop full of handmade jewelry. Lauren will tell us a little bit about herself, and at the end there is a surprise for you! 

Hello! My name is Lauren. I am a 22 year old student working towards a major in marketing. I started making jewelry almost 2 years ago and it really fueled my creative side to start a style blog!

I started my blog with the focus being my jewelry shop with the occasional outfit post, but lately I have been posting more outfit posts and also an occasional DIY! I have only been blogging for about 4 months, so I am still figuring out my style of blogging, but blogging definitely has made me more motivated to wear all my cute clothes rather than throwing on sweats which I would often get trapped into doing. It also motivates me to try new things through other inspiring blogs. I hope one day I will inspire many through my own blog! Thanks for reading!

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Win a $50 gift card to Shabby Apple! - Closed!

Warm days are around the corner and it's time to get more colorful and light dresses! I have a perfect opportunity for you: You can win a $50 store credit to spend at Shabby Apple! If I were to choose I'd go for the Garden Isle that looks so dreamy, or I'd get this aloe green dress from the new collection, or maybe this floral dress which is on sale. I love dresses and I'm very excited for the winner. Good luck!

Mandatory rules (please leave a way for me to contact you!):

1) “Like” Shabby Apple on Facebook.
2) Leave a comment telling me which Shabby Apple dress or item is your favorite.

Bonus entries:
+ Follow Chestnut Mocha on Bloglovin'
+Tweet about the giveaway: Win $50 gift card to @shabbyapple on @ChestnutMocha blog! http://chestnutmocha.blogspot.com/2013/03/win-50-gift-card-to-shabby-apple.html
+ Pin the first image from this post to Pinterest.

Open to the readers with a US shipping address only (sorry, International readers!).
I'll announce the winner in a week.


Update: and the winner is.....

Kristine Foley! Congratulations!!

Share the Love Giveaway!

Happy Valentine's Day! I'm so happy to introduce you to some really awesome blogs and shops today! They're all getting together to share some love with you and offer one lucky Chestnut Mocha reader lots of prizes! Somebody will win $300 in different goods! What's for grabs:

I love you Deer message box//Rainbow Star Felt Garland

Pink Heels Pink Truck Blog Upgrades//8x10 Watercolor Splash Heart Painting Set

$20 to ModCloth//Grumpy Cat Brooch

Hedgie Wood Pin//Rain Printed Leggings

Disco Ball Bracelet//Ubtan, Eye Cream and Hair Oil

Large Ad Space on Chestnut Mocha for 1 month!

Just use the Rafflecopter form below to enter and good luck! The winner will be announced in a week, the giveaway is open internationally!


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Giveaway: get ready for Valentine's Day!

Christmas is long time gone, New Year as well... we should start getting ready for Valentine's Day! Do you have a gift idea for your special someone? We have you covered! Meet Datevitation!

Datevitation is the web's first online platform to create a custom love coupon book. You pick the dates and can customize the text to your liking. Their library contains over 200 date ideas ranging from skydiving to stargazing to steamy adult-only activities. And you can choose from over 60 book cover options to suit any occasion. And it's possible to make a book for anyone: your husband, wife, sister, mom, friend, etc.!

Books normally start at just $20 so it makes for a thoughtful yet economical gift. But you can use code CHESTNUT for $10 off at Datevitation in January! It's 50% off!

The entire process of ordering my Datevitation coupon book was super easy and actually a lot of fun going through all the date ideas they had on the website. I gave it to Ben right when I got it in the mail and he loved it. The book is packaged in a cardboard box with a word "Surprise" on it - super cute!

And now the best part: one person gets to win their own custom coupon book today (books ship to U.S. only). Enter below & good luck!

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giveaway: $50 to Anna Delores Photography

I'm Emily Reiter and I'm the photographer behind Anna Delores Photography. My maternal great-grandmother's name was "Anna" and my paternal grandmother's name was "Delores," and I thought a salute to my heritage was appropriate for the vintage-inspired photography that is the stuff of family heirloom: nostalgic, cherished, historical, beautiful time capsules.

I got my first camera (a purple plastic 110 film Kodak) before I was 10 years old and I’ve been obsessed ever since. I was always the girl at parties, restaurants, family gatherings, and vacations taking photographs of EVERYTHING to the point where people would yell, “Emily, quit taking so many pictures!” I’m glad I ignored their advice! I got a lot more serious about it when I got my first DSLR camera a few years ago. Anna Delores was first founded as a fine art print shop on Etsy back in March 2011, and since then has grown to a full-time photography business specializing in wedding, boudoir, and fine art imaging. My photography style is simple, nostalgic, romantic, and photojournalistic and my fine art images are of favorite places in Southern California, from flea markets to famous Los Angeles landmarks, as well as to destinations I've traveled to, including London, Rome, Paris, and Eastern Europe.

I'm currently based in Ventura County and my business is focused primarily on boutique wedding photography in Southern California.

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GIVEAWAY: $30 credit to the 7Jaded shop

Here's what you can win! $30 to spend on the beautiful designs like social media icons, logos, banners, headers -- and everything else to help you customize your corner of the Internet. And here's Vanessa who owns the 7Jaded shop and was so kind to provide the prize:

"A year ago, after a little encouragement from my husband, I started freelancing as a website builder and I have been hooked ever since. I'm nerdy, awkward, friendly, and I love helping others, which makes me love what I do even more. Building a website can be stressful at times so I like to think that I help take some of that away. Just recently, I began working in graphic and blog design, and am trying to get my name out there in the blogging community to see if I can help even more people, and to make some awesome new friends!"

-- Vanessa

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GIVEAWAY: Origagas

Happy Thanksgiving to all our American readers and Happy Thursday to everyone! You might recognize this pretty origami animals - Ben and I wore a cat and a peacock in one of our previous posts. Today we have a chance to meet the creative ladies behind the brooches and pins -- please say "Hello!" to Antonia and Fran from Origagas! 

Hi everyone! My name is Antonia Santis and together with my sister, Fran Torres, I started making origami pins two years ago. My sister is a successful Chilean fashion designer and the broaches were first sold at her store, Cazadora, when a friend of hers suggested we also sell them on etsy.

While it was my sister's idea, I am the one that paints every one of the pieces. The creative process is a very special one where I am inspired by certain colors and together with my sister we come up with a name for each of the collections. The pieces are painted with a special technique using nail polish, brushes and needles.

We are currently working on new products for our shop, such as cloth necklaces and Mondrian-inspired pins. We love all things geometric, like the Chinese game Tangram, or paper Origami itself. We are also big fans of polka dots, so you will be sure to see them incorporated into our next collection.

Great news! You can win a brooch or a pin of your choice from Origagas! The giveaway is international and the winner will be announced in 2 weeks. Good luck!

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GIVEAWAY: an iPhone case from The Case Of Mr. Pelham

Today we have a fun giveaway for you from our sponsor, The Case Of Mr. Pelham! For all of you who have iPhones, The Case Of Mr. Pelham creates fantastic cases! And they are giving away an iPhone case to one lucky reader! Meet our sponsors:

We're Flavia and Alejandro, we're both 25 and live in a small apartment in downtown Santiago, Chile with Lucía and Alfred, our two tiny chihuahuas. We met the first week of our first year of college and we've been together ever since. We both studied design, I majored in fashion and motion graphics, and Alejandro in graphic and editorial design.

In The Case of Mr.Pelham we complement each others talents, inspired in fabric prints we develop our patterns that we hand print on our cases. We couldn't live without our iPhones, they're with us all the time so we love to be able to add some of our own style to them, and to be able to share it with the world is really amazing.

When we're not working on our cases, Alejandro is teaching graphic design and I'm working on my clothing and accessory lines, you can see some of it here: Maguida.

In case you were wondering, we got our shop name from the title of an "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" episode, that's where Alfred got his name too.

The giveaway is open internationally. The winner will be drawn at random and announced next week. Good luck!

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GIVEAWAY: illusy jewelry

Happy November! It's holiday season, which means it's a time of gifts, shopping, joy and happy celebrations. In my October Favorites post I showed you my new favorite piece of jewelry - a hand stamped necklace with B and K initials for Ben and Katie. I absolutely love it and have been hearing compliments about it since I received it. Today I have two surprises for you - 1.) you get to meet Janet who owns Illusy jewelry store and... 2.) you have a chance to win any item from the store! Holiday season it is. :-)

Here's an interview with Janet where we talk about her jewelry, shop and big dreams:

Janet, you are currently in Torrance, California, right? Are you originally from there?

Yup! I'm originally from Torrance, CA. I lived in San Francisco for a couple years before moving back to Torrance recently.

How did you develop your style?

I can't remember a time when I didn't do something related to crafting something from hand. As a kid I was stringing rose petals to make bracelets, from there it just never stopped and I went to art school for small metal arts jewelry.

What inspired you to open a shop?

I always knew I wanted a shop, just because it meant I could make jewelry and do something I love, but there was one incident that made it clear of wanting to open a shop. I was making my own jewelry all throughout school and a friend purchased a necklace as a gift for her sister in Korea. Her sister sent a picture of herself wearing the necklace and it was one of those wow moments for me. The idea that somewhere, someone would be wearing my jewelry was amazing. Plus right now I'm shipping to places I've never even heard of, how cool is that!

What do you use to make your pretty jewelry?

My main material is metal (sheet and wire). I try to source all my findings/beads from local stores and make it a habit to visit my supply stores regularly for new items.

I also do a lot of hammering, sawing and soldering. Depending on the jewelry piece it can vary from wire wrapping to soldering.

Any big dreams for your future?

Yes! Illusy is actually only one part of the shop and has a sister shop called "Flat". I had two very different styles of jewelry that I made and so I decided to split it and make Flat and illusy. I'm working on jewelry for Flat at the moment and hopefully it will open in the near future.

Other than that, traveling to some of those cool places I never heard of is something I'm planing for the future :)

Thank you for the interview, Janet! It was great to learn a little bit more about your shop and how all this magic happens. Good luck with Flat! I can't wait to see what you have there.

And now... giveaway time! Win an item of your choice from Illusy shop! The giveaway is open internationally. To enter you must be a Google Friend Connect follower of Chestnut Mocha. Good luck!

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GIVEAWAY: Derek Sullivan Prints and Cards

First of all... I'm back!! It was such a long trip from Russia to Idaho - I'm still jet-lagged. I am becoming old hahah But seriously, I left home in Moscow on Monday night and I got here on Wednesday evening! Three airplanes and four car rides. In other words, I'm really tired. On my 3 week trip it was impossible to reply to all the comments and emails, I'm going to do it soon! For the next couple of days I'll try to get all my things together and make clear plans for the nearest future. To celebrate my reunion with Idahome I prepared something super cool for you. I hope you enjoy it! So...

Let me introduce you to one of my favorite finds on Etsy - Derek Sullivan Prints and Cards Shop! I love the animal illustrations so much - my top list from this shop consists of Dodo and Narwhal prints. And moreover there is a Visit Idaho print that just melts my heart! We just moved to Idaho but whenever we move forward to a new place in the future I'd love to take a print from my state with me. 

I was curious about the story behind this shop and organized a little interview. Meet the talent behind all this awesomeness - Derek Sullivan!

Derek, you are currently in Seattle, WA, right? Are you originally from there?

-Yes, I've lived in Seattle for the last 6 years or so. I grew up in Vancouver, Washington, just outside of Portland.

How did you develop your style? Did you go to school for graphic design or arts?

-I pretty much started developing my style from a very early age. When I was in first grade I would draw Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck for my classmates, and then a couple years later it was characters from the Simpsons. After high school I moved up to Seattle to go to the Art Institute to get a degree in animation. I then went up even farther north to Western Washington University and got a degree in graphic design, which is where I started to be more graphical with my approach and incorporate typography into my work. So now my day job is as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator.

What inspired you to open a shop?

-I opened up my shop when I was working at a design agency and I felt like I needed an outlet to create prints just for fun and not for a client. It's been very rewarding to be able to create prints and cards whenever I'm inspired to and get positive feedback from people. 

What do you use to make your prints and cards?

-I create my prints and cards using Illustrator and Photoshop. I first draw out the basic layout, then scan it in and draw again using bezier curves. Then I take the vectors into photoshop and paint on the shapes and add textures.

Any big dreams for your future?  

-My next big goal is to publish a children's book. I have a few pages finished and once I have a few more I'm going to try to get a publisher interested. It's a long shot, but a fun process no matter what happens.  

Thank you, Derek, for helping to feed my curiosity! My very best wishes to you and lots of luck with the children's book! And now it's time for something absolutely fantastic! Derek is giving away $20 shop credit to one lucky reader of Chestnut Mocha! I wish I could win it! I would get a couple of prints for sure.. or maybe a tshirt.. ahh to hard to choose! Just follow the rules below and good luck!

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