The Golden Olympics and my giveaway

The 2012 Olympics came to a close on Sunday and what an incredible games it was. I am so very proud of how GB hosted the games and also how our amazing athletes came away with so many medals.

 29 gold
 17 silver
 19 bronze.

What an achievement this was and we came 3rd overall in the medals table.

Well done team GB, your performance will not be forgotten. There is a victory parade planned in London is September and rightly so. I am glad you all enjoyed my visit to the games in my last post.
We have a local girl, Joanna Rowsell who is one of the gold medallist cyclists. She was born at our local hospital. This young lady is a particular inspiration as she has alopecia and lost all her hair around the age of  11. My son's girlfriend knows her as they both used to swim for Surrey. She really is a most remarkable girl and a huge inspiration to people who suffer from such a distressing condition.

To honour all our team GB medallists the Post Office decided to paint a post box gold where these champions were born. So we have a  local post box  which has been painted gold in honour of  Joanna's gold medal.

How cool is that! It has caused quite a stir and many people have stopped to take a photo of it.

Those of you who were unable to visit the Olympics liked the "inside" photos I shared last week.  I promised that I would show you the mementos I bought there.

I  bought a new mug which was only available inside the Olympic Park. It reads "I was at the London 2012 Olympics" and is made by Royal Doulton so is lovely quality too. I actually have a cup of tea in it as I type this!

I also have my tickets which I treasure. I am thinking of making a small scrapbook if I get time to put these things in as they are so lovely to look back on. I even have a special "Olympic" travel ticket which was included with the ticket cost.

As you know I do like pin badges and I found a couple of beauties. One is 1 of 1 as it was made from a photo that was taken of me.....holding no less than a real Olympic torch. Coca Cola ran this shop within the Olympic park

The photo was taken and then I handed it in. The badge only took a few moments to make. It was so impressive as unlike most handmade badges it is a proper enamel one.

How about that for a rather unique badge. I have worn this lots and had lots of double takes where people see it is me on the badge! This really is one to keep.








I also bought another limited edition Coca Cola 2012 Olympics badge

and 2 Venue only badges from the Aquatics Centre where we saw the springboard semi finals last Tuesday. So you may be asking why 2 badges...as they were hard to find.

Well.....one of them is the first prize for my promised 2nd Bloggerversary giveaway. This is a little overdue as it happened on 26 July but with the wedding etc I did not have a chance to sort this out.


As it is 2 years since I started blogging I am offering a 2nd prize too. The 2nd prize winner will win a bag charm of their choice! Just leave a comment at the bottom of this post and let me know the colour/theme you would like and I will try to make something appropriate. There are lots of "sold" or for sale bag charms in my  Etsy shop here and here are a couple of recent commissions to wet your appetite;

A pair for an owl lover...

and one for a Sewing Queen!!

Yes I have even started on my Christmas stock ;0)
















My giveaways are always open to everyone.
You do not need to be a follower but it is really lovely to see how many new friends have joined me recently.  You are all so welcome here.

So for my card challenge today; again I wanted something joyful to sing out the happiness that I have experienced during the Olympics and also for 2 wonderful years of blogging.

This is one of my all time favourite Lili of the Valley stamps called Dandelion Clock. This card is up for sale in my Etsy shop here

I love using blue and pink together. I coloured her using my Promarker pens and highlighted using my Prismacolor pencils. I used papers from my stash.All the sentiments including the tags are from Lili of the Valley. I also used blue ribbon and a pink bow. There are 2 Prima paper flowers secured with a brad and I add some bling to her headdress and flower with Stickles glitter glue.

I would like to enter my card in the following challenges;

Divas by Design #47 for a female
Papercrafting Journey anything goes
Make it Monday Linky party #102
4 Crafty chicks #102 up, up and away
Cute Card Thursday #229 tag you're it
Whimsy Stamps Inspirations Challenge #49 summer fun
Penny Black and more August challenge, whiskers and/or wings



There is lots of treasure here in my post and I hope to share some of it with you too. Remember to add in your comment what colour and theme you would like to have for your bag charm if you would like to enter my giveaway. It will close on the last day of the month, 31 August. Do feel free to come back and leave a choice as a second comment once you have had a think about it. I am a "names in the hat girl" so it will not affect the numbers as I will put one name in for each person who wants to enter.Just make sure you do this by 31 August.

Thank you everyone who visits me here at Jane's Journal  for 2 wonderful years of blogging fun. I really love reading your comments and visiting you too and I have made some really great friends. People who do not blog never ever understand how and why people blog but I know just how much love there is out there ;0)

Bye for now,

Jane x