THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING!

I love jewellery. Who doesn’t? Shiny baubles hanging from the ears, neck, wrist and even feet – they never fail to give that instant pick-me-up to an otherwise drab outfit. A year ago I started playing around with making my own jewellery. I started off with the simplest of tools, findings and beads. As time went by, those skills improved, and I thought to myself, hey, why not try to sell them?

My first sale was actually to Geekchic. She saw some beautiful knitting row counters disguised as bracelets, and asked me if I could make her one. I did, and I’m glad she liked it. With her encouragement, I approached a few haberdasheries to see if they were interested in looking at my handmade knitting accessories. I was completely over the moon when one of them purchased all of my stitch markers. It was a sign.

I wasn’t contented on selling my pieces on a blog. Please don’t get me wrong, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with having a blog shop. But I was very keen on learning more about e-commerce and how to actually set up a shopping cart system on the website, so I decided that there wasn’t a better time to pick it up. It wasn’t easy, that much I can tell you. Doing everything from scratch was a great experience, exhausting, but exhilarating all the same.

Alrighty then, I’ve talked far too much now. Without further ado, please let me welcome you to my new baby, Sweet Contemplation Accessories!

All pieces are handmade, especially the chainmaille ones. I am a HUGE fan of chainmaille jewellery, and I think the complexity of the designs (and how rare it is found in retail shops out there) give them such an appeal.

As part of the launch, here are a couple of perks I’m offering, just for my readers.

1. From today till 16 November 09, I’d like to offer you a 15% discount on any item in store. Please note that shipping is free for Australian residents, and a flat shipping fee of AU$6 for international readers. Just enter the code LAUNCH09 in the discount box.

2. A GIVEAWAY!

a) I’ll be giving away two sets of my pieces – one set to my Australian readers, and another to my international ones.

Over here we have the Byzantium bracelet, completely handcrafted, and a pair of Isabella earrings (please click on the links to find out more about the pieces). Both incorporate the Byzantine chainmaille design, and each set is worth AU$50. Don’t worry if you do not have pierced ears; I’ll use clips instead.

HOW TO ENTER

To take part in the giveaway, simple answer these 2 questions by leaving a comment below the post:
1. Where are you from?
2. What’s your favourite piece of jewellery? No, not from my store (although you can still name one from there if you like ;)), but which piece of jewellery do you love the most? Perhaps given by a loved one? Tell us your story!

TERMS & CONDITIONS
1. This giveaway is open to ALL readers.
2. Anyone can enter regardless of whether you’ve won anything here before.
3. One comment per contestant please. Let’s give a chance to everyone, yeah?
4. If you would like to boost your chances at winning, you may do so by linking to this blog post on your blog. You don’t have to do a full-on post about it, just a link and a phrase would do the trick. Please email me with the link at sweetcontemplation[at]gmail[dot]com to let me know, and you’ll get an additional entry. I.e. 1 comment = 1 entry. 1 comment + 1 blog post = 2 entries. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
5. Another chance of winning? Use the power of Twitter! Simply tweet this:

RT @fortheloveofme Sweet Contemplation Accessories Discount and Giveaway! http://tinyurl.com/sca-giveaway

6. Please keep it clean and spam-free.
7. Winners will be chosen randomly via an online-super-duper-random-list-generator-thingy.

CLOSING DATE

The closing date for this giveaway is 10pm, 6 November 2009 ((Melbourne time, +10 GMT). All comments will be closed, and results tabulated. A random winner will be picked, and will be announced on 9 November. I’ll try to send the gifts out as soon as possible.

Feel free to spread the word even if you’re not taking part in the contest (why aren’t you?? Go back, go back! :P). I’d really appreciate it.

Good luck to all!

First of all, allow me to apologise to you dear readers (and you dear blog), for how much I’ve neglected you. I’ve been so busy and distracted working on a project of mine, that I’ve completely lost focus. With that loss of focus, I haven’t been shopping or doing any much-needed retail therapy for the past three months (well, other than the essentials, of course. Shampoo counts, right? And lipgloss too? Or three?). I’m going out of my mind!

On the other hand, I’m really excited about my new project, which I can’t wait to announce to you tomorrow. I’ve been working on it for many months now, and I’m just itching to show you.

Stay tuned to tomorrow!

My current read is Mama Mia by Mia Freedman. She’s the former editor of Cosmopolitan, Cleo and Dolly, and writes the popular blog which I frequent, Mama Mia. So far, I’m really enjoying the book. I couldn’t help but nod at every few sentences when she wrote about her love for magazines, because I was that girl too. I still am.

I remembered my first magazine. I was 9 or10, and it was an educational one, Kuntum, which my dad bought for me. As time went on, my dad continued to buy more advanced educational magazines for me, like Dewan Pelajar and Dewan Siswa. My mum, on the other hand, introduced me to girly, fashion mags. She bought me my very first Teen magazine when she was in Singapore, and then Teenage. My educational mags were, sadly, cast aside as I pored over every beautifully glossy page of Teen. From then on, I’d beg my parents to buy me a copy whenever they were in Singapore for business trips.

At that time, Female was far too “old” for me. It wasn’t something I appreciated. “Aiyo so aunty lah the clothes“, I’d exclaim, when I browsed my mother’s Female mags. As time went on, my parents stopped going to Singapore, hence my supply of Teen and Teenage mags depleted. Still hungry for more glossy pages, I started buying the Malay version of Teen, Remaja. I sneakily told my dad that I wanted to improve my Malay, hence Remaja mags would be very good for me (even though I was looking at the pictures more than reading the words). After a few months, it just wasn’t the same. I wanted more.

1996. I remembered the first Cleo that hit the news stands. It had Nikki Taylor on the cover. It cost less than RM5. I was in glossy heaven. It was LOVE. From then on, I never missed a single Cleo. Much to the annoyance of my parents, I’d bug them to go to every news stand at the end of the month just to see if the next month’s issue was out. I started reading Marie Claire too when I was 17, but it was never quite the same as my Cleo. I dedicated a large portion of my shelves just to store my magazines. I had just about every issue till 2000, when I left for the UK.

Now international magazines in Malaysia are very expensive. After adding import tax and whatnots, a magazine like Seventeen would cost the same as a paperback. It just wasn’t worth the money. I loved reading mags like Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, Allure and InStyle but could only do so, flipping the pages at a bookstore. So imagine the second level of heaven (if there was one), when I stepped onto UK soil, and entered WH Smith. I was no longer hungry for magazines, I was a girl obssessed. Ask my friends, they could vouch for me. I had so many magazines during that three years in the UK, it was crazy. I had to throw away stacks and bags of them when I left. It was heartbreaking.

Back in Malaysia, Cleo continued to be a monthly staple. However that “staple” started to include Female, Marie Claire, Elle and so on. When I was in Japan for a year, besides spending loads on international magazines, I bought Japanese magazines too. The latter’s a lot cheaper, the fashion and beauty section were extensive, and I didn’t even have to know Japanese to understand the context. Mooks (magazine-books) with freebies attached weren’t too popular back then, so I never bought any.

When I finally moved to Australia, things changed. In Malaysia, Cleo was intended for late teens to young working adults. The articles were relatable. Australian Cleo is completely different. It caters to teenagers and girls in their early twenties. Everything just screams teenybopper.

As much as I loved Cleo in Malaysia, I just couldn’t bring myself to enjoy Cleo here. When I stopped buying Cleo, I felt as though I was betraying my love. I guess as I got older, my interests have changed. There’s only so much of partying and loud clothes I could stomach. My favourite magazines are now InStyle and Marie Claire. InStyle for the classic, elegant (and bloody expensive) clothes, and Marie Claire for the insightful articles on current issues. I’ve also started buying home design magazines too, which I adore.

With my love for magazines, came the secret desire to want to work for one. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. However, thanks to technology, blogs came about, and it wasn’t long before I hopped onto it. This beauty blog is nowhere near a magazine, but you know what? It feels damn good to be known as the Editor, even of a tiny website such as this.

Whenever I’m back in Malaysia, I never hesitate to get a current issue of Cleo. After all, my darling, you’ll always be my first (well, close enough) love.

Sidenote: A question to my Singaporean readers – is Teen and/or Teenage magazines still around?