Adorable Dolls For Your Lil One or The Lil One In YOU- NEW GIVEAWAY!

Meet Elizabeth Woodward and her magical world of Toegeehttp://www.etsy.com/shop/Toegee!!!!  I will tell you that I have bought many of these adorable dolls from her shop for my 4 year old and 6 year old.  They love them.  She made and created two custom sets for me.  She made a whole Nativity set which is perfect for Christmas time for my girls to reenact the story of the birth of Christ.

 

She also made a whole Alice In Wonderland set for my girls who recently had an Mad Tea Party (see Themed Parties Section in this blog).  

 

I CAN NOT believe the detail on these adorable dolls.  My girls just love them and the quality is PERFECT!  We have a specialty toy store here were we live and they only sell non mainstream or mass produced toys.  I know they would LOVE to carry her dolls!  Her creations are perfect for a Christmas gift or stocking stuffer.  I recently noticed she made a whole Strawberry Shortcake set for someone with all the characters.  I think my next order will be Annie or Wizard of Oz since my girls love those movies. I asked how she learned to make her adorable dolls and she responded, "Since I can remember I have always had an eye for crafty creations. I enjoyed art and really enjoyed everything about making projects. I believe that being artsy is something that is inspired not learned."  Amen to that!

 

Elizabeth says she started to make these crafts just last year for something that both her and her daughter could share.  She says her little girl and her nephews inspire the dolls she makes.  She says, "I enjoy caring for children and creating crafts that remind me of a child's imagination."

Speaking of inspiration and since I am a musician, I asked if she had any groups or songs that inspired her when creating? "I enjoy listening to my favorite 80's band The Cure, Enya, any score from Tim Burton films."  She sounds like a girl after my own heart!  It is all about the 80s and The Cure is still one of my favs!

I had to ask her about her shop's name, Toegee.  I asked how she came up with the name.  She replied, "I used to have a cat named Katoja but for short we called him Toegee. Katoja in Nigerian means lets be friends. I loved my cat so much that I was inspired to name my shop after my little cats






Elizabeth is a stay at home mom.  She says she is a mom to a "wonderful red headed girl and a wife. I enjoy that I get to share my creativity with my daughter and hope that she develops a knack for being crafty as well."

I asked her how she juggles mommyhood and her shop and her life:  " I am fortunate enough to have a husband who lets me stay home and be a mother and a crafter. It can sometimes be tough to balance the two.  As long as I involve my daughter in what I do with my crafts, I get to experiance the best of both without alot of stress.


As for her shop....I asked her what is new that may be coming into her whimsical shop.  She said:
"I would like to expand creation of new charaters, but still keep my own touch on anything that I create. I would like to create more childrens charaters, like Spiderman, Strawberry Shortcake, etc."

I asked her what the first doll was that she created for her shop and she said, "She had green hair and a purple dress and had arms that were way too long for her body. It looked like a doll so I guess she turned out ok...even with long arms lol."

Elizabeth enjoys being on Etsy because she gets "the chance to reach out to millions of people worldwide with my crafts is a great opportunity that I get to have being on Etsy." 

If you go to Elizabeth's shop you will see her profile picture.  She has striking pink hair.  I think it is just fab, but I had to ask her about it.  I asked her what made her want to color her hair pink? She replied, "Pink is such a fun girly color. I love that I have the opportunity to color my hair any way I want it. Sometimes its fun not only to create art but also to be art. My daughter and her friends think it looks cool and I absolutely love it."

Elizabeth is going to giveaway these two beautiful mermaid dolls.  My daughter have two of her mermaid dolls and love them!  You or your lil ones are sure to love them too.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Toegee

GIVEAWAY

I like Elizabeth's unique and artistic nature, so I thought I would do this giveaway different than all of the other ones.  

Please follow my blog before you enter....

Requirements for this giveaway 

1. Favorite her shop and then come back and tell us what your favorite item is in her shop.

2.  Once you do that, all you need to do is pick a number between 1 - 100 and post the number in the comments of this post. 

**Make sure someone else has not already choosen that number in the comments, of course.  As always, list where I can reach you (email) if you win!  Good luck!

THIS GIVEAWAY ENDS Nov. 27 at 10pm Eastern Time 

Artsy Coasters GIVEAWAY - GREAT CHRISTMAS GIFT!!!

Meet Anne Yacovitch.  She is wife, mom, career woman, crafter and shop owner of Anne Anna Bell on Etsy.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/anneannabell  She makes marble coasters and trivets that are stamped with designs and images as well as beautiful notecards. 
  
Anne is originally from Madison, WI and she moved to MA 11 years ago after she graduated college because she wanted to see the East Coast.  "I was fortunate to find a job shortly after moving here and I have been working at the same place ever since.  I also met my husband here..so the move was definitely one of the best decisions I have made.  We have a three year old son who is the biggest blessing in our lives."  Anne and I are on the Made in Massachusetts Team on Etsy.  If you have a shop on Etsy, I HIGHLY recommend getting involved with a team or teams.  http://www.etsy.com/teams

 Anne says she started to make the coasters last year as Christmas gifts when her  co-worker of hers told her about her sister who made them.  She explained how they were made and Anne fell in love with the process.  She says, "I found it so exciting to open up a box of tiles to see what natural designs and grooves the marble had.  Then I would try to figure out the best way to stamp on them.  There was a lot more to it than I had originally thought, but I enjoyed it and I couldn’t get over the reaction I got from people when I said I made them."  She was making the coasters first then last Valentine's her creativity morphed into making notecards when she made her son's daycare handmade Valentine's Day cards.    "All the people that worked there loved them so I started making cards and gave them to close friends.  When I finally decided to start selling my coasters, I figured I would do the notecards too," she says.

As for how she picked her shop's name, it is pretty practical.  She says, " My user name for everything is Anneannabell.  It is also the one user name that I can have for everything that no one else seems to have…”anne” and “annabell” are always taken, so I just combined the two."

Anne's inspiration for her art comes from anything she may find relaxing and zen, if you will. She says she works all day and does not get home until 6:00pm.  She says by the time she gets home she has time to play with her son a little bit, eat dinner, and put her lil one to bed.  She says, "My inspiration is something…anything that I can look at and I instantly feel relaxed or happy."  I hope this gives those of you who work, but crave to do something creative inspiration to start taping into that creative side.  It is a good way to relax and express yourself.  

Juggling Mommyhood, work, being a wife, and getting time into do something you love can be hard.   Anne says, "At times it is very hard.  I work as a graphic designer during the day; I try to spend as much time with my husband and son at night and on the weekends. But when I get the quiet time to do my crafts, I find it as a de-stressor for me. The time passes so quickly because I love doing it. "  Well worth it I am sure.  

I asked Anne to share with us her four favorite shops and she said: woolbuddy, Artsychicas, Taromas, segparson

http://www.etsy.com/shop/woolbuddy    

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Taromas

 











http://www.etsy.com/shop/artsychicas 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/segparsons 

 






Anne says she likes being on Etsy because, "it is much more of a community than I originally thought it was, which I love.  There are many artist supporting each other, which I think is amazing" AGREED!

 I asked her if she had ever done any Craft Shows before.  " I just did my first show on October 1^st.  I split the table with my husband’s Aunt who makes jewelry.  It was a lot of fun.  A lot of vendors complained that it was slow but I was happy to be there and it was a great learning experience for me. I have 3 more fairs this season, one of which I got juried in, which is exciting.  Because of these shows, my store may become a little sparse but I am trying to keep a good stock in."

Since I recently moved to Western MA, I asked her what are her three favorite places to visit in MA with your kids.  She said, "It's hard to narrow it down to three, but Gavin loves to go to:"

1.  Bradley Palmer State Park in Topsfield
2.  Smolak Farms in North Andover
3.  Endicott Park in Danvers
I will definitely find out where those places are and take the kiddos!!!  Thanks Anne!

As for my off the cuff question this time....I am going for Disney Characters.  I asked Anne if she were any Disney Character who would it be and why.  "Hmm… at times I feel like Tigger bouncing around everywhere but there are the Winnie the Pooh days where I sit back with my ‘honey’ for the day." CUTE!

Anne is offering this AWESOME artsy set of coaster for one of our followers to win!!!  Loving the birds!!!

Giveaway Entries

Please remember to tell us what you did for each entry by posting it in the comments on this post and please leave a way for us to get a hold of you if you win...etsy shop or email etc..

*1 entry each - heart/favorite her shop on Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/anneannabell 

heart/favorite your favorite item in her shop and come back and tell us why here on this post's comment section.

**2 entries Like her FB page http://www.facebook.com/Anneannabell and leave a comment saying we sent you@ lillollipopsdesigns.blogspot.com

****4 entries:  Create a Treasury on Etsy with the Rustic or Shabby Chic theme with other shops and add one of her items in the mix.  Come back and list the Treasury address.

Giveaway ends Nov. 16 @ 10pm Eastern Time