April GIVEAWAY…by Sarasota shop ME2Designs!

I’m excited to say that this month we will have 5 winners! Meg from ME2Designs is a true Jill of all trades with her arts & crafts, she always has such a lovely variety of items in her Etsy shop and I’ve wondered for years how she can hold a full time job and create SO many things in her free time! She’s also a huge supporter of handmade artisans and a huge asset to many in the Etsy community.

This is a special 2 week giveaway, ending on Friday, April 15th. We will choose 5 winners who will each get their choice of a vintage jigsaw brooch from a hand picked selection by Meg. (See some of the options in the slideshow below).

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TO ENTER, just leave a comment on this post with your favorite item from Meg’s shop, just one entry per person! Good luck and I’ll be contacting the winners on April 15th!! Meg is also having a sale in her shop while the giveaway is active…Enter coupon code RubyC at checkout for 15% off your entire order!! Now lets learn a bit about Meg, shall we?

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My initials are MEME, so ME2 Designs has been my brand since the early 1980s.

My Mom is an artist and my Dad was an architect, so I had the creative push from a young age. I won my first award for a painting that I did when I was 4 (watercolor of watermelons). In the last 25 years I’ve designed clothing and home furnishings and have had gowns, furniture and paintings in several juried exhibitions in Florida. 

Sarasota is located on the Gulf of Mexico (west coast of Florida), with white sugar sand beaches, aqua blue water, and has a long, rich history of arts & culture. I wanted to live here since I was a little kid and made the move 20 years ago – driving from Illinois with sleet coming down & Stevie Wonder singing “there’s a place in the sun” on the radio *Sarasota is known as the cultural capital of Florida, and has more arts per capita than anywhere else in the US outside of Manhattan.

My day job overworks my left brain, and creating & my Etsy shop provides the balance I need from my right brain. Love all kinds of music, and I play my piano whenever I want to relax and get lost in music. I cannot create in a silent void, and music is my constant companion.

I have collected old wood jigsaw puzzles for years, and after I opened my Etsy shop I started making pieces from various puzzles into brooches. (US states being the most poular!) It’s my way of upcycling and trying to keep these precious pieces that will never be produced again out of landfills, etc. I’ve found that these old pieces are conversation starters (for example, people always look for Sarasota on my 1915 Florida brooch when I wear it, but Sarasota wasn’t incorporated until 1921, so it’s not there).  I have collected quite a few GJ Hayter ‘Victory’ wood puzzles as well. All the wood pieces in these were hand cut at the Hayter Company in Bournemouth, UK in the 1960s.

I’m giving away a total of 5 of these brooches! I’m giving away 3 US state wood brooches – these are from a Parker Brothers jigsaw puzzle from 1915. It’s amazing how many cities/towns outside of the northeastern US did not exist nearly a century ago – we are definitely a young nation! I am also giving away 2 bird brooches from the Victory Bird Watch puzzle from the 1960s. Each wood bird brooch also has a companion wood brooch that contains the bird name. Since these items are vintage or antique and are not reproductions, they’re ‘wearable history’ in a way.

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THANKS MEG and thanks ahead of time to everyone who enters! Meg is also having a sale in her shop while the giveaway is active…Enter coupon code RubyC at checkout for 15% off your entire order!! I’ll email the winner on April 15th and you can also check my facebook page for updates. Good luck! ♥