As promised I'm back today with the first of two giveaways this week.
This one is for one of these three necklace pendants with included chain.

To enter this giveaway and get the chance to win a Cage Necklace Pendant made by me worth 39 USD (260 swedish kr) all you have to do is leave a comment to this blog post and write which one of the tree pendants you would like to win and why you like that one the best.
Don't forget to write your email adress so I can contact you if you win!

For additional entries you can:

•Like lottalosten.com on facebook.

•Favourite my shop on etsy.

•Tweet about this giveaway and use the following sentence: Win a necklace pendant from @lostenjewelry on http://tinyurl.com/q32vd2j

Please write each additional entry in separate comments.

The giveaway is open until monday (july 1st) at noon and the winner will be randomly picked and announced at around 1 pm the same day.

Hello hello hello to this wonderful day!
It's lottalosten.com's birthday and not only that, it's the FIFTH one so that calls for extra celebrations, doesn't it!? Well, I sure think so!
For this entire week lottalosten.com will be packed with great giveaways, discounts and fun blog posts.

When I first started lottalosten.com I was so new to this kind of thing. I had been making jewelry for a couple of years and was beginning to feel like word of mouth was not enough to put my jewelry out there. I didn't really plan to use the site for blogging but I added a diary part to the first page for small updates on what was going on in my life. The remainder of june 2008 I made exactly 8 entries, most of them about technical issues but already at the end of that month I realised that I want to do more of this blogging thing! July had 9 entries and I started to write longer texts. I found that I loved to write about my everyday adventures and even though I had no comment section under each post at that time people wrote to me in my guestbook when they thought something was funny or pretty. That really boosted me a lot. In august I think you could say I really had it going.
I bought a small camera and fell in love with taking photos of things I noticed on walks through rugged parts of Gothenburg and my interst in photography grew rapidly.
Since then lottalosten.com has changed a lot but at the same time I feel like it's here for the exact same reasons I made it in the first place.
I have started blogging in english and even though I sometimes miss the freedom of being able to twist and turn a language I know in and out I actually really love to get to know the english language in the same way as swedish. I'm getting more confident in my writing and I love that this page has readers all over the world. Isn't that amazing!

I've spent so much time here and I've loved every second of it. Some months have been more quiet than others and I don't blog every single day as I did in the beginning. There's many reasons for that probably but one of them is that I now spend more time on making sure that the posts are good. I take lots of photos and I want them to look lovely before posting. I guess you could say that it's more work for the posts you see today than the ones I made in the beginning.
I love lottalosten.com so much, I don't think you can understand just how much. It's a safe haven, a playpen, a work space, a home, a channel for all the artistique sides of me and a place where nobody but me can decide what's right or wrong. I'm the boss of lottlalosten.com. I'm the best friend of lottalosten.com. And I intend to keep this place forever (and ever and ever and ever...)

So this marks the start of the festivities. Make sure to pop in every day this week as I have the intention of bringing you lots of celebration fun.

I am so very very happy to have readers that keep coming back here to see what I've been up to lately. I hope you like this part of cyber space and feel welcome, because you truly are!
Thank you, thank you and welcome both new and old readers.
And don't be afraid to say Hi or Wow or :-) (or whatever you feel like) in the comments because I love to hear from you and I can't bite over the internet (not that I would bite in real life either, not without asking first at least).

Hej!
As most of you probably know by now I'm a big fan of cemeteries. I just really like the dramatic mood and the calm combined with the pretty flowers and trees. Lately I've taken up running in the evenings. For those of you who've known me forever this might seem odd and not like me at all, and yes, I thought so too.
When I was younger I danced a lot and went to aerobic classes several times a week. I absolutely love to move to music and that's what aerobic was all about for me. I went to step aerobic classes but my knees really didn't like that and it eventually gave me some kind of sports injury that made it impossible to work out. I changed to a more low impact aerobic class and it turned out fine. But I think I got scared of hurting my knees again so since then I've stayed away from everything that's too bouncy and jumpy. I love to take really fast walks so that's sort of been my workout through the years.
But that feeling of wanting to move to music didn't get satisfied and I found myself starting to long for running. I have NEVER run before. Like never ever. It was such an alien thought that it actually took a couple of years of convincing myself before I dared to try it. My body doesn't know how to run so I started out extremely slow because I did NOT want to hurt my knees again.
As well as being a bit terrified of hurting myself I was also very self conscious about how I looked when I was running. I couldn't let go of the feeling that everybody looked at me and judged my technique, my loud breathing or my pace. I chose the cemetery both because I love the surroundings and also because I knew I could be sort of hidden from weird looks. Yes, there is other people there but not as many and not as evil looking, haha.
I still walk more than I run but I'm definitely getting there. And I'm not as scared anymore. The most amazing thing to me is that I still, after almost two months, think it's wonderful. I've made a playlist on spotify called Jag springer, jag springer (I'm running, I'm running) with music perfect for either walking super fast or running and some of the songs fit my pace so perfectly I sometimes smile widely and mime along to the lyrics. I also really love to see how the cemetery changes from spring to summer. Every time I'm there I stop to snap a photo or two and here is the result. All of them taken with a sweaty iPhone and a somewhat shaky hand.

Right outside my house the sun is setting below my neighbourhood beech tree.

The grave chamber of the Keiller family hiding in dusk one spring evening.

Ah, Magnolia you pretty flower!

Popping out.

Everywhere there's hidden stairs and pathways.

I have started to love rhododendron this spring. Has it been an especially rhododendron friendly season this year or why do they seem to pop up everywhere lately when I haven't really noticed them before?

Sun through tree branches will always make me stop and sigh.
And snap a photo.

The city on the other side.

When the sun sets it paints the graves in the most amazing light and makes this cross look like it's on fire.

Perfectly situated house.

Rainy and grey is pretty too.

The Keiller family sure thought they were important people...

On my way home I pass these fighting dudes. I think it's such an hilarious statue and for some reason I think the weather and the light makes it look different every day.

And I'll end this post with a picture of me coming home from the worst rainfall ever. I had just passed through the gates to the cemetery when it started to rain but I said to myself it probably wouldn't be so bad. Well, yeah. It poured down the entire time and after ten minutes I was completely soaked and decided I couldn't get any wetter. I turned my face up and smiled to the rain and the music in my ears took off at the same time as the rain. It was actually lovely.

Hello!
Monday today, but for me it's more like thursday. I've been working all weekend and still have two more work days to go until I have a day off.
I have been listing a bunch of new necklace pendants in my shop over the last week and thought I'd show you some of the pretty pendants that are up for grabs.

This Bubbelgum Coloured Drop Pendant might be one of my personal favourites lately. It's just so sweet and soft coloured!
This is what I imagine unicorn tears look like...

The marbles in all these pendants are vintage glass marbles that I've found during my fleamarket hunts. I love how every single one of them is like it's own little universe.

A Grass Green and Coral Spear Cage Pendant that screams of summer, doesn't it?

This Dark Purple and Golden Spear Cage Pendant has one of my favourite colour combinations. Purple and different yellow and golden shades are just so lovely together!

These pendants looks different from every angle because the marble picks up the surrounding light and makes the entire pendant glow from inside.

This is another teardrop from some fantasy animal. A Champagne and Transparent Drop Cage Pendant that is so bright and beautiful in it's light colours.
A true light collector for perfect summer evenings.

These are only four of the ten new jewelry pieces I've listed lately so pop over to my etsy shop and have a look at all the pretty things there!

The day before yesterday I lay awake and realised that on june 24th lottalosten.com celebrates it's fifth birthday and I had totally forgot about it! I had been really tired before this thought popped into my mind but after that it was absolutely impossible to go to sleep. I just got so many ideas for how this five year anniversary has to be celebrated. It's going to be so much fun! I have so much fun stuff planned for the entire week because isn't it amazing that the 24th of june is actually the first day of the last week of june!?
Lovely festivities ahead!