KelseaEchoBazaar Alice in Wonderland Jewelry

06 Feb, 2010 by in etsy 14 comments

Our giveaway today is from KelseaEchoBazaar on Etsy. She is giving away a set of Alice in Wonderland “Eat Me, Drink Me” earrings and handmade necklace.

My name is Kelsea and I am a designer-in-progress based in Seattle. I am currently very busy with an unrelated 40-65 hr/week full-time job but I continue to run my etsy shop with zest, as it is my portal to the world of being an indie designer.
I love creating artwork. I’ve dabbled in all sorts of different arts/craft forms over the years, often to make gifts for those I love. Now, I like to mix them all up and create things on whim. I collect cool materials whenever I find them so they are usually very limited supply. I also like to reuse and create newer, cooler things out of older things, which makes for a lot of unique pieces.
Diverse materials, diverse subjects. That’s how I roll.
By the way, I live in a 100% smoke-free home.
Enjoy and thanks for taking a look around!
MY OTHER SHOPS:
Gemstones/SS/GF Findings: http://www.DeliciousGemstones.etsy.com/
Other Supplies Destash: http://www.KEsupplies.etsy.com/
To enter to win the necklace and earring set:
leave your name and email address below:
Additional entries
+2 go to her shop and comment on your favorite item by pasting the link
+2 go to Etsy and heart her shop
Become a fan of KelseaEcho on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kelsea-Echo/279067647212
+3 tweet this contest-leave the link
+5 post it on your blog or facebook- leave the link
+5 add our button to your blog
+3 follow us on twitter @FireIcePhotos
+2 become a fan of Fire and Ice on facebook
+2 add us as friends on Goodreads
Add your entries up and leave the total in your comment
Contest ends March 13th and is open to International Entries. Good Luck!

Book Review-Wintergirls

06 Feb, 2010 by in book review, penguin USA, speak, Wintergirls 3 comments

Wintergirls
by Laurie Halse Anderson
published March 9th 2010 by Speak (first published March 19th 2009)
details Paperback, 288 pages
literary awards An ALA/YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (2010), Cybils Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2009), An ALA Best Book for Young Adults (2010)
isbn 014241557X
“Dead girl walking,” the boys say in the halls.
“Tell us your secret,” the girls whisper, one toilet to another.
I am that girl.
I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.
I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.
Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend’s restless spirit.

In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the multiple-award-winning Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lia’s descent into the powerful vortex of anorexia, and her painful path toward recovery.

I read Wintergirls a couple of weeks ago and it took me a while to process. Laurie Halse Anderson does a wonderful job of taking her readers into the mind of an anorexic. Counting calories with each meal, feeling guilt and anger eat her from the inside out. Lia is born to a perfectionist physician mother who is cold and measures worth by her accomplishments. Her father isn’t quite sure how to handle the situation and step-mother is stuck in the role of weigh-in nurse. Lia’s thoughts become more and more erratic and disorganized as she spirals further into the pit of self-destruction, telling herself over and over again “must not eat.”
This is not a fun read by any means, nor a feel good fuzzy book. It has graphic descriptions of cutting, suicidal thought and anger. Wintergirls may not be a wise choice for any girls recently in recovery for eating disorders because of triggers to relapse.

This is my favorite review I read on the book http://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/nm_reviews/?detail=129276kd
Some really good quotes from the book
“I am beginning to measure myself in strength, not pounds. Sometimes in smiles. “

“Do I want to die from the inside out or the outside in?”
“I am angry that I starved my brain and that I sat shivering in my bed at night instead of dancing or reading poetry or eating ice cream or kissing a boy…”
“I don’t just use yarn from a store. I buy old sweaters from consignment shops. The older the better, and unravel them. There are countries of women in this scarf/shawl/blanket. Soon it will be big enough to keep me warm. ”
“I’m learning how to taste everything. ”
“There is no magic cure, no making it all go away forever. There are only small steps upward; an easier day, an unexpected laugh, a mirror that doesn’t matter anymore.

I am thawing. “
— Laurie Halse Anderson (Wintergirls)

Visit Laurie Halse Anderson’s website at http://www.wintergirls.net/ for a view inside the book, resources for teacher and other products
In this video Laurie talks about why she wrote the book and her conflicts in writing it…

Chouette’s Handmade Jewelry Giveaway

06 Feb, 2010 by in matryoska doll 33 comments


Today’s giveaway is from Etsy store Chouette’s!
What a fun little shop she has with vintage jewelry. And she makes my favorite items…matryoska doll charms.




Welcome to Chouettes, where you will find vintage, vintage inspired, estate, French inspired, Old Hollywood Style, and kawaii (cute) jewelry.

I will be adding many new items this week.

******************************************************

For more information about my jewelry and information about packaging, custom orders, rhinestone color charts, necklace lengths, and ear wires, please go to:
http://www.pentouffe.com/etsy.html

To enter to win a Babuska doll necklace or pair of vintage lucite polka dot earrings
leave your name and email address below:
Additional entries
+2 go to her shop and comment on your favorite item by pasting the link
+2 go to Etsy and heart her shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/chouettes
+3 tweet this contest-leave the link
+5 post it on your blog or facebook- leave the link
+5 add our button to your blog
+3 follow us on twitter @FireIcePhotos
+2 visit our Flickr gallery and pick your favorite photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/heatherzahngardner/galleries/
+2 add us as friends on Goodreads
Add your entries up and leave the total in your comment
Contest ends March 5th and is open to International Entries. Good Luck!

Book Review- Gone by Michael Grant

05 Feb, 2010 by in book review, Michael Grant 3 comments


Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 576 pages
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books; 1ST edition (June 24, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061448761
4 stars

Summary from Amazon:

In the blink of an eye. Everyone disappears. GONE.

Except for the young. Teens. Middle schoolers. Toddlers. But not one single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. Just as suddenly, there are no phones, no internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to figure out what’s happened.

Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day.

It’s a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen, a fight is shaping up. Townies against rich kids. Bullies against the weak. Powerful against powerless. And time is running out: On your birthday, you disappear just like everyone else…

I received this book in the mail as part of a UK cover set from Egmont Books and I must say I prefer the English cover to the US one 😉 Gone throws a light on what would happen to the world if there were no adults and no accountability… starving children, bullies in the street, anarchy, rich kids against regular kids. As a reader you are pulled into a scene of chaos and wonder as teens and children fend for their lives against mutated forces of nature and residual nuclear fallout. You walk through the every day lives of each character as they search for an autistic brother, rescue a little girl from a burning building and cook food in an abandoned McDonald’s. I enjoyed the premise as well as the interaction between main boy Sam and smart girl Astrid. Super science fiction for young adults. Thanks again to Egmont for the thrilling read!
Book two, “Hunger” is out with part three, “Lies” to be released in May of 2010
Visit Michael Grant’s website at: http://www.thefayz.com/

If you are interested in reading “Gone” or “Hunger” as a part of the book tour, please send me an email at fireandice.heather@gmail.com and I will ship them out to you 🙂

Photography Friday

05 Feb, 2010 by in photography 1 comment


“Oogtsman” by Jar0d


“40 Watts of Bad Idea” by KPauli

” Doorway to the Past”
Serena Livingston CampCrazy Photography


“Guardian of Time” by Alice Popkorn


“Secret Room” by pareerica

These are the photographers currently giving things away in our blog!
Explore their photostreams on Flickr and enter to win…

Book Review-Baba Yaga The Flying Witch

04 Feb, 2010 by in book review, usborne 1 comment

Published February 29th 2008

by Usborne Publishing Ltd (first published January 2008)

details Hardcover, 48 pages

isbn 0746085605

4 stars

Story summary from the back cover


In this fantastic Russian folktale, Baba Yaga zooms through the forest on her flying pot. Her hair is greasy, her hands are arty. Her nose reaches down to her chin. And poor Tasha has been sent into the forest to find her…

First of all, let me say that Usborne Books are my very favorite in the whole world. Their editions are sturdy and withstand my children’s manhandling, chewing and reading. This one I picked up from the library. It has a cushioned hard cover and a ribbon inside to hold your place. I was interested in the subject because of the YA fiction book “Dreaming Anastasia” by Joy Preble. The folk tale of Baba Yaga was introduced within the story and I wanted to learn more.
The Usborne version is easy to read with beautiful illustrations and my children have all passed it around.  They are picky readers, so any book that holds their interest is impressive for me!  I can’t wait to pick up the other fairy tale book in the Usborne Easy Reader series.
To see images of Baba Yaga and the matryoska doll on Flickr see the photo galleries here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/heatherzahngardner/galleries/

Fortune Cookie Charms Giveaway

04 Feb, 2010 by in Uncategorized Leave a comment

Congrats to Erica @thebookcellarx for winning our Fortune Cookie Charms Giveaway! Email me your address so I can ship them out to you! For the rest of you who entered, thank you so much for checking our blog and adding our button! Send me your street address to fireandice.heather@gmail.com and I will send you a free autographed CD 🙂 We will be posting more toy charms in March so check back!

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Whymsical Musings Giveaway

04 Feb, 2010 by in etsy, whymsical musings 13 comments

Today’s giveaway is for a beautiful 5X7 Photo collage along with an Artist Trading Card with a Faerie on it by Etsy artist Whymsical Musings.


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

I Love art in all of it’s forms. I live in rural Oklahoma where nature Inspires and Enlightens me. I am a Mother of 4 grown children and a Grandmother of 5 precious angels. I have 3 dogs and 4 cats. My pug Buddah is my very best 4 legged friend. I have a wonderful husband of 30 years we were high school sweethearts. I love to read and write and I can cook a mean meal.

Come explore my artwork and artistic Collage Sheets:

http://www.whymsicalmusings.blogspot.com/
http://www.moonlightjourney.com/
www.zazzle.com/whymsicalmusings*
http://www.outsiderartists.typepad.com/

To enter her giveaway:

Leave us your name and email address +1
Visit her shop on etsy and leave your favorite item in a link below +2
Heart her shop on etsy +2 http://www.etsy.com/shop/whymsicalmusings

Visit one of her web sites and leave a comment +2
Tweet this giveaway on Twitter +3
Follow us on twitter @FireIcePhotos +3

Post this giveaway to your blog +5

Add our button to your blog +5

Share it on facebook-leave the link +5

Contest ends March 4th and is open to International Entries