Visit our retailers on Small Business Saturday for a chance to win a Freshie & Zero exclusive!

Above: The Farmhouse Store, Westfield, NJ; Bliss Inc., Boulder, CO; Bella Vita, Collierville, TN.

We have the best retailers! And on Small Business Saturday, we wnat to show them some love.

So, we're having a little contest!

Here's how to enter:
1. Visit any of our retailers Saturday for Small Business saturday.
2. Snap a photo of our jewelry in the store.
3. Post the photo to Instagram and use the hashtags #freshieandzero and #shopsmall.*

Everyone who posts a photo will be entered to win a FREE exclusive Freshie & Zero screenprinted canvas tote with a SURPRISE inside!

*In order for us to count your entry, your Instagram profile must be public. Otherwise, we won't be able to see your post!

So, which store are you going to visit? Find a local retailer here!

How do you wear it?

Does your Freshie & Zero necklace perfectly complement your favorite dress? Do you have a go-to pair of F&Z earrings that you wear with everything? Show us how you wear it!

Post a photo of yourself wearing a Freshie & Zero piece on Instagram and use the hashtag #freshieandzero.

We'll pick two winners, who will each get a $40 gift card to our website!*

➸ In ADDITION two of our mailing list subscribers will be randomly selected to win a $40 gift card, just for keeping in touch with us! (click here to sign up for our mailing list and be entered to win!)

That brings our gift card giveaways to a total of 10 for 10 years!

*Official Fine Print:

1. You must have a public profile 

2. You must correctly use the hashtag#freshieandzero (how else will we find you?)

3. Two winners will be selected Tuesday, April 26 (entry period is through April 25, 2016)

4. Instagram's official contest rules apply

The 10th Anniversary Party Continues!

We've had the BEST time so far during our anniversary month! Thanks to all of our awesome customers for celebrating with us. We can definitely feel the love! To keep the party going, we have a little gift for YOU. ALL retail orders qualify for FREE 1ST CLASS SHIPPING through April 30, 2016!  That includes Australia, Canada, and Europe!* It's time for the next round in our anniversary giveaway! This time, THREE people on Instagram will win a $40 gift card. Head on over to our Instagram profile to find the post below and enter to win! THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the Facebook round of our contest. The winners have been notified. :) Don't forget! Limited edition styles are available only through April 30! *First Class Shipping may not be available for all orders

It's our 10th Anniversary! We're going to party all month long!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!

It's our 10th anniversary and we are ready to celebrate with our customers who have made this milestone possible! Throughout the month of April, our birthday festivities will include coupons, giveaways, and contests. We hope you'll follow along with us! :)

To kick off our anniversary month, we are launching the first round of our massive gift card giveaway. Before the month is over, we will give away TEN $40 gift cards to our website!

To enter the first round, click here to go to our Facebook page and find our birthday post. Be sure to like our page and then follow the instructions!

For a limited time, we're bringing back 10 of our favorite retired styles!

I've designed hundreds of pieces over the last ten years! Unfortunately to make room for new styles, I occasionally have to retire some of my older pieces. What better time than my ten year anniversary to re-release some of these familiar faces?

If one catches your eye, don't delay! They are only available through April 30.

Thank you again for making this anniversary possible! Keep your eye on your inbox for more birthday fun coming soon.

 🎉🎉🎉

Mother's Day is coming!

I have two exciting bits to share for this upcoming Mother's Day!

First, do you have a new mom in your life who is anticipating their very first Mother's Day?

Or perhaps your very own mother has received some grocery store hand-picked flowers from you too many years in a row?

Allow me to suggest what I think is the perfect Mother's Day gift: the Freshie & Zero Love Necklace - a delicate handmade piece with just enough sentimental value, it represents the transition into motherhood. In fact, I designed it when I was pregnant with my first child almost 6 years ago! I've had another child since, but there's nothing like the first time you become a mother: the jig is up - no more sleeping in or carefree schedules once that baby enters your life!

As a bonus, each Necklace (or bracelet) comes with the card shown above (when ordered from our website). We also offer gift wrap for a small fee! Be warned: this gift may bring tears of joy to her eyes and years of enjoyment! (order by May 4th for delivery by May 10th)

• • •

Our second bit of news is the Mom of the Year contest sponsored by Laughing Moms, Parenting Magazine, and us! Prizes include the above Love Necklace, a $250 Visa gift card, beauty products, and more! To read all about it and nominate your favorite mom on their website, click here.

Double Tap To Win!!

First up: Last week's winner of the $80 gift certificate was Anne W. of Chicago - have fun shopping, Anne! We'd like to thank everyone who has participated in our giveaways thus far - it has made our 8th birthday that much sweeter. ♥  If it hasn't been your lucky day yet, there is still ONE more chance to win something from our collection... For the final week of our month-long birthday party, we are hosting a Double Tap To Win giveaway on Instagram. We are big fans of Instagram and love sharing sneak peeks, behind the scenes, and life in general behind the hammer on our feed. Are you following us on Instagram yet??

How to enter Double Tap to Win:  1. Follow us on Instagram (@freshieandzero) 2. Double Tap* the Instagram picture that matches the one above for a chance to win our new Rose Cluster Necklace featured in the image. That's it; easy like Sunday morning. :) *a.k.a. like // Please note, this contest is only open to residents in the US and Canada.

Instagram Wishlist Giveaway

We're excited to announce our very first Instagram Wishlist Giveaway! This is your chance to WIN that piece of Freshie & Zero jewelry you've had your eye on! 

How To Enter: 

1. Go to our Freshie & Zero website and snap a picture of one of our pieces that you HAVE to have. 

2. Post your picture on Instagram, mention @freshieandzero and tag it with " #FZwishlist ". 

Easy, right? Next Monday, we will do a random drawing from the photos submitted to @freshieandzero with the #FZwishlist, and present one lucky individual with their wish list item. 

Best of Luck and Happy Snapping!

(If your profile is private, please comment on our Instagram post about the contest that you entered!)

Giveaway in honor of my 200th post!

Wow! It's only taken me four years to get to number 200, but here it is! I was going to post up some banner ads I just made so you can see the marketing machine hard at work - the marketing machine named Freshie. :) But in honor of my 200th post, I think I should have a GIVEAWAY! Enter to win the Cartwheel necklace that is featured in a few of my new ads! And in honor of #200, I'll pick two winners - completely at random.

To enter the giveaway, simply comment on this post by answering the following question: What is your favorite Freshie & Zero piece and why? Easy enough, right? To win, you MUST include your email address so that I can contact you! Entries will be accepted through midnight on Monday, September 7th, and I'll announce the winners on Tuesday, September 8th here on the blog and also via email so please add beth(at)freshieandzero(dot)com to your list of email addresses so my email does not possibly wind up in your spam filter!

So, without further adieu, here is one of the latest banner ads, featured on SF Weekly (last month). I've been experimenting with different color backdrops - mostly to jazz up my etsy site, but I think over the course of the next few months, I will start shooting all of the jewelry on a slate background for the website, so that the colors are more consistent than the white I am currently using (which always looks grey in the photos anyway).

These ads take way too much time - in fact it's 1:45 and my plan was to make jewelry all day and what have I done? Written a blog, answered emails, and worked on the 3rd ad you see above. Now it's time for lunch, and when I come back, I have to file my business tax. The time flies when you're in charge of your own business! I don't know how I get any jewelry made with all the marketing and paperwork! It's been a good day, though. I've had two reorders from shops, and I am going to get ready for the Grant Park Festival in Atlanta this weekend. Life is good!

Happy giveaway entering! I can't wait to see everyone's comments!

Happily Handmade Giveaway News

The giveaway is over - I hope you had a chance (or 40) to enter! As promised, I am giving away a $25 gift certificate to one lucky person who entered Happily Handmade through Freshie & Zero, and the winner is...

Laura McC. of Signal Mountain, TN!

The 25 winners of the Happily Handmade Giveaway prizes will be notified today, so keep your eye out to see if you won!

Busts and Musts

So... the Athens show was kind of a bust. Oh well - the rain and wind was working against us and I should have known that a small show based in a college town would draw the cool kids - the cool kids with no money. I heard lots of "I wish my mom was here" a.k.a. "I wish my mom and her wallet was here". Since they had us tear down overnight, all of my equipment was wet and getting danker by the minute in my car so that the next morning when I saw that the forecast again called for rain and storms, I hit the road. I never neglect a commitment I have made to a show, but the thought of setting up again, maybe selling a necklace or two, and then getting stormed on after a few hours, packing up in the rain and then driving home for 5 hours sealed the deal and for the first time, I did not fulfill my show commitment. Time is money, people! I felt bad, but sometimes you just have to weigh your time and effort against the bottom line. It's the first show I've lost money in a really long time. I actually sold more on my website over the weekend than I did at that show. I guess it's a good thing I have an online store!

hmmm... to return or not to return...

Anyway, that's it for my BUST portion of the blog. Now for the MUST - the Happily Handmade Giveaway! You only have one week left to enter and if you haven't yet - go for it!!! There are 42 sponsors, so you have 42 chances to enter! Check out the amazing prizes!!! For more info about the giveaway, visit their website.

Freeloaders!

So you want some Freshie & Zero jewelry but you don't want to pay for it? Then you need to head over to my favorite indie shopping blog, Indie Fixx and enter to win a free bracelet from my new collection! It's easy to enter which means it's easy to get your hands on a free piece of jewelry! What are you waiting for?

help still needed for custom boxes

Yes! I am still seeking help for my custom boxes! There was a $75 gift certificate at stake but now I'm raising it to $100 just for a little extra incentive. Not to mention having your design on my boxes for who knows how long?

Please contact me directly with questions & submissions at freshie{at!}freshieandzero.com. You may read the original post here with all of the specifics. I guess I should add some legal jargon about how the design becomes my property and I can use it in the future etc, etc but I guess I'll work that out with the person who submits that winning design...

Thank you fabulous graphic designers!!!

Calling all graphic designers and creative types!

I need help! Some might call it a favor... I am going to get 1,000 custom jewelry boxes made (sounds fancy, doesn't it?) and I really need some creative input.

First – an aesthetic question: I can’t decide what ONE image to put on 1,000 boxes – the embossing stamps I am using now are flowers & birds but they aren’t really related to my jewelry - they're just cute. Then I thought about putting my logo on it but that won’t really work because they don’t recommend overlapping. I could just put the business name on it in a cute font but then that’s kind of boring. What kind of image says "Freshie & Zero"? What sort of image would you get excited about if someone handed you a jewelry box that had some Freshie & Zero jewelry inside? Is it a company name or is it a cute little drawing? I thought about my little hammer I drew (at top of blog) but then I thought - who wants a hammer on a jewelry box???

So basically - I'm open to designing help. When I say open to, I really mean begging for design help, and I'm not above a little bribery. I'm a little overwhelmed right now with, you know, making jewelry and stuff and I don't have the creative energy to create this fabulous new box image. IF you design something for me AND I use it on my boxes, I will give you a $75 gift certificate to http://www.freshieandzero.com/. Enticed? Keep reading!

Here are the specs:

The image will be going on a chocolate brown kraft box, measuring 3" x 2 1/8" on top. These are the boxes, to be exact. I would prefer the image to only be on one corner of the box. Here are the art requirements from the printer:

Art requirements for printing on pre-made products.
Send BLACK AND WHITE Camera Ready Art.
1. Vector files may be in color but will have to be converted to BW
2. Bitmapped files must be Black and White and at least 600 dpi and sized as closely as possible to your actual plate size. We
cannot enlarge art more than 150% without losing clarity around edges.
3. Please convert all text to outlines or curves.
4. Screens cannot be hot stamped or ink printed on pre-made bags or boxes.
5. In order to lessen fill-in problems do not send art with large solids, fine lines, fine
details, or overlapping images.
We recommend against large “reversed areas in the art”
6. Business cards and faxed copies are not acceptable.
7. Minimum line width 2 point.
8. Small text (10 pt or under) not recommended on hotstamp bags.
Special Considerations: The nature of Flexographic or Hot stamp Printing does not allow us to print heavy ink/foil coverage,
halftones or very fine or small details.
Accepted file formats: .psd, .pdf, .tif, .eps, .ai
Adobe Illustrator® EPS files
Art should be Vector (Illustrator .EPS or .AI) To prevent font problems convert all text to outlines. Select your type with the
Selection Tool, go under TYPE on menu to CREATE OUTLINES and click on that. Save the document as an eps. or an ai.
Include all linked images when emailing the file.
Adobe Photoshop® TIFF files
A SETTINGS menu will pop up before you begin to scan.
Make sure you scan with these settings:
Type: Line Art or Grayscale (Line Art or Bitmap images make smaller file sizes.)
Res: 600 dpi.
Scan original art close to the size of the plate you are purchasing from us.
Once the image has been scanned, check your art under the Photoshop® Menu under IMAGE – MODE should be Bitmap
(grayscale is acceptable but will have to be converted to bitmap). Under IMAGE SIZE check your Document Size in inches and
check your Resolution at pixels/inch. It should be 600 dpi.
Photoshop art that is too low a resolution will be choppy and rough around the edges.
Freehand® files are acceptable if exported as Illustrator EPS with text converted to paths. Include all linked images.
CorelDraw® files are acceptable. Convert type to curves. Save as Illustrator.ai Include all linked images.

Above is my official logo just for a jumping off point, but I'm totally open to anything - as long as it's cute and classic! You may send questions or your images to freshie [at!] freshieandzero.com. PLEASE HELP! Thank you thank you!!!

and the contest winner is...

Holly!!

Holly, a.k.a. H, will receive the limited edition sterling silver heart necklace, just in time for Valentine's Day, and the Hidden Habitats Calendar, just in time for February where the illustration features horses, foxes, and bunnies. Too cute!

Thank you to everyone who entered the contest - I loved reading all of your entries so much so that I may have to make this a monthly or bi-monthly thing! If you entered but did not receive the discount code for being a participant, just email me at freshie[at]freshieandzero[dot]com and I'll gladly send it to you. If you missed the contest completely, just sign up for my e-newsletter and then you'll totally be in the know.

Thanks again!

Contest! Valentine Gift Ideas

In honor of my website makeover (which I am still finding mistakes on, so bear with me) and Valentine's Day (I adore seeing all the pink & red products on display everywhere!), I am having a CONTEST! What might you win? First up for grabs is this Blissen 2008 Hidden Habitats Calendar illustrated by west coast artists Jill Bliss and Saelee Oh. I loved this calendar so much that I bought one for myself and one to give away!


Together they have collaborated on 13 fabulous months of nature's magical, undiscovered places in all their whimsical, illustrated glory. Each 2008 calendar (valued at $16), which measures 9.5" x 11" open, is printed in full color with vegetable-based inks on 100 percent recycled paper and processed chlorine-free.

In addition to that, you'll also win a limited edition sterling silver heart necklace from Freshie & Zero, not EVEN available for sale on my website! If you live in Nashville, though, you may find a few at Queen Bee in Edgehill Village.


How do I win, you say?

All you have to do is post a comment on this blog about something handmade that you think would make a great Valentine's gift for you, your best friend, or your significant other. Please enter the link of where to buy it, too, so you can share the love! Don't forget to include some way of getting in touch with you in your comment (preferably an email address)! The last day to enter is January 31st, so don't delay! Easy, right? I'll start...

I would love to give (or receive) this adorable, fabulous, understated, beautiful bird bowl by Whitney Smith pottery for any upcoming occasion. I can't see how anyone who might open this up as a gift up wouldn't be delighted! Go and get it here. In fact, her pottery is so fabulous, I'm adding her to my links page right now!



1.22.08 update
Wow! Thanks for the amazing response, everyone! It's so great to find new items made by other indie designers, and there really are some great suggestions! I decided to post up some of my favorite reader submitted gifts that I've received so far...

I love the Mr. Poncho ipod holder submitted by Karen and it is the perfect gift for any one who owns an ipod (re: everyone). In fact, I may have to get one for myself...

This print by yumiyumi on etsy submitted by Edie is also very pretty and would make a great Valentine's gift for a friend or sister:

This necklace by amieking, submitted by Holly, is very edgy and pretty at the same time:

I liked all of JLC Studio's picks (I even gave my husband a set of custom typewriter key cuff links for our wedding day!), but I like this tongue-in-cheek tie by toybreaker the most:


Another of my favorites has to be these super cheeky red heart sequined pasties by FondaPetting Designs submitted by Ginger Girl. They have a lot of other fun little items in their etsy shop, all perfect for Valentine's Day!

CONTEST!

I've decided to create a contest! I hope people actually enter, since I think it will be so fun to post pictures of people across the country (or world) wearing my jewelry on my website! Want to enter? It's super easy! Here are the details:

.:::FABulous FAN Contest:::.

.::Deadline: February 20th, 2007

.::Email a photo to beth(at)freshieandzero(dot)com of you or someone you know (with their permission, of course) wearing your handmade hammered goodness

.::Use the subject line "FAB FAN contest" in your email

.::Include your full name and mailing address and anything else you want to tell me

.::You must be at least 18 to win

.::Prizes will be awarded to three lucky winners!

.::I'm not looking for anything in particular, so just send me something funny, cool, artsy, original, whatever! Use your imagination and have fun!

.::Winning photos will be featured on the website, so don't be shy!