I am the Winner

As I mentioned in a previous post I received some wonderful news this week which was even lovelier as it was so unexpected. Way back in October I had filled out a form in the Dumfries & Galloway Life magazine to win a piece of jewellery designed by Sheila Fleet, a Scottish artist who lives in Orkney. The mere fact that I did this means that I absolutely loved the jewellery as normally I don't often bother with such forms. However this had all slipped my mind completely in the intervening period. So I was completely taken aback when I received a phone call from  Andrea Thomson, the Commissioning Editor of the magazine, to let me know I was the winner. And today the  Flagstone pendant arrived from the sponsors of the competition Scottish Designer Jewellery.

As you can see in the above photograph (also my blip for today!) Sheila Fleet's jewellery is inspired by where she lives in Orkney. This is what she says in the leaflet enclosed in the box the pendant came in: "born from my love of the sensational natural rock shorelines that once linked Orkney and Caithness". I fell in love with this pendant as soon as I saw it pictured for the competition and seeing it in real life I love it even more! It speaks to me on a deep level and is also a symbol for me of my adopted homeland Scotland.

Of course a picture had to be taken of me wearing the necklace to send to both the magazine and  Scottish Designer Jewellery who sponsored the competition and provided the necklace and you can see it above. Poor John was tasked with this undertaking and he was very patient and took many pictures till I was sort of satisfied with the end result. As most of my regular blog readers know I far prefer to be behind the camera myself instead of in front of it!

I will treasure this beautiful necklace and look forward to wearing it!