Just about a year ago, I posted about the charm Scott bought me from Julian & Co. I discovered their website when I was searching for jewelry to celebrate Simone’s birth. The pieces are lovely, and the artist, Tania, is the mother of a former 29-weeker (her son Julian, for whom the company is named). I feel a certain loyalty to and kinship with other mothers of preemies. We’re like a sorority: a haggard, traumatized sorority, whose parties are known for their stiff drinks and plentiful hand-sanitizer.
I sent the link to Scott last October when he asked for birthday ideas, and last Christmas I visited the site to buy my mother a tiny charm with Simone’s name below a pair of footprints, her birthdate on the back.
Back then Tania found my post and wrote to thank me for the mention and grant my readers a discount. She has since become a regular reader herself, and last week she wrote again, to generously offer a piece of her custom jewelry to one of you. I don’t normally host give-aways, but I am making an exception. You have all been so good this year. Think of it as an early present from Schmutzli.
And the prize? Well. It’s a new design:

The cube is just under 1/2 an inch, and is a bit more interesting than traditional baby name necklaces. It can be engraved on up to five sides with your children’s names and birth dates, or a secret code, or your favorite French pronouns—it’s really up to you. The sixth side holds one large initial:

This may be used as a wax stamp to seal fancy letters or forge Elizabethan assassination orders, and to that end the necklace comes with a stick of sealing wax and a set of notecards. If you aren’t into that sort of thing, the sixth side remains a very pretty way to wear your initial.
(Though, let’s face it, wouldn’t it be satisfying to seal that collection agency payment with a wax seal, just to show them with whom they are trifling? Maybe that’s just me.)
To enter, leave a comment on this post by the end of Thursday. I promise not to insert myself under a pseudonym, though I can’t promise to avoid thinking covetous thoughts toward the lucky winner, who will be chosen via that random number generator thing that I know exists somewhere on the Internet. Because this is a third party giveaway, and I am not in charge of shipping, the winner has an EXCELLENT chance of receiving her prize in a timely fashion!
One comment per person, please, and I will announce the results Friday.
Now, everyone say thank you to Tania. And to me, because I just typed up this whole entry, all by myself. And maybe in your comment, you could tell us something interesting about YOU, like an unusual talent you have. This won’t affect your chances of winning, but it will amuse us all immensely.
GO!

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No way am I the first comment! Cool… but I feel like it will not win, which bums me out. (Don’t try to talk to me about STATISTICS or COMPUTERS NOT HAVING FEELINGS, etc.)
Unusual talent… I can pick things up with my giant monkey toes. Or pinch people, like my unsuspecting husband. :)
Thank you Alexa and Tania!
ooooh. that is just beautiful.
(talents include: sleeping through alarms (yep, like fire alarms!), mixing the perfect hot buttered rum cocktails, and always making a silly laughing face in photos. always.)
Unusual talent? I can touch my nose with my tongue!
I love the necklace. Talent: never winning anything.
Oh, I mean, I can make my stomach growl at will. I like to exercise this talent during boring meetings.
Thank you alexa and tania!
Does bending an unruly two-year-old to my iron will count as a crazy talent? It should!
I love it! I’ve been looking for a non-traditional baby name peice of jewelry!
Can’t resist posting to say how lovely the charm is – whoever wins it :)
I never enter these things, but I would really love to win this, as I can think of the perfect thing to inscribe on each of the sides, for my 5 children and my husband.
Cube = awesome
Talent = touching nose with tongue
Thanks, A & T!
That’s a beautiful die, that is.
Talents: ripping apart others’ prose; lightning-fast successive nostril flares (would have to film it for proof); cartography.
Thank you Tania and Alexa.
Now for the interesting thing about me.
I sat on Shamoo. I was chosen out of a crowd at Sea World when I was five. Actually, my kid sister was chosen but she was too scared, so there I was grinning wide eyed at the divers. It was a proud proud moment in my life and we have no pictures of the event.
Ok, I know this was random but I when asked to share something interesting about myself I just had to share the Shamoo story. I mean, it was Shamoo!
Thanks Tania!
I am not sure about talents, I do a pretty good impression of a duck for my one year old!
Thank you Alexa and Tania! It’s a lovely necklace! My talent? I can visualize complicated spatial things very well. :)
Hi – thank you!! My talent is hiding the blogs I read behind work on the multiple computer screens in my office….
Talents, talents. Hmmm…. I can make a pretty mean ginger mojito, and drink it while simultaneously changing a diaper!!!
That necklace is gorgeous! Very classy. As for a hidden talent… hmmm… does getting places on time even with a small child count?
Thank you Alexa and Tania!
I can write my name (and other various other words) upside down and backwards.
Lovely, lovely necklace. May forward site to husband who is currently on my grump list (see also: doghouse) for Christmas/birthday (Dec 26) ideas.
My very special talent? I am the best procrastinator in all the land.
Talent: I know all the words to R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine).”
thanks!
and i can fit my whole fist in my mouth. or, at least i could in college. i haven’t tried in a while!
Unusual talent I have? I semper ubi SUB ubi. HA.
Thanks Tania and Alexa!
Hidden talent is to lose huge amounts of time reading blogs whilst baby boys sleep!!
That is really cute. If I win, I’m going to give this necklace to my cousin, who is expecting her first baby in December.
My talent? I have an excellent taste in blogs :)
So pretty! My hidden talent? Hmm…I can double-knot a cherry stem, but I suppose if you went to college with me that’s not so hidden.
So very pretty. Thanks to you both for the chance to win.
Weird talent? I can correctly adjust the idle on a 1974 Porsche 914 using a quarter. In a formal gown.
So pretty! Thank you, Tania and Alexa :)
My special talent is fetching ping-pong balls from under ping-pong tables. And I can cross my eyes independently of one another.
Thanks Tania and Alexa! My hidden talent, taking care of my farm on farmville while checking in passengers at work.
Thanks to you Alexa for your writing. And Tania for offering her beautiful jewelry.
Hidden talent. Hmm, well I can taste whether or not something has been frozen or refridgerated. For example, if someone cooks hamburger for tacos but puts it in the fridge first, I’ll know. It’s a gift.
Gorgeous, thanks to both of you for sharing it!
Special talent? Today it appears to be making five year olds laugh mid-tantrum. Unfortunately this only delays the continuation of the tatnrum, so maybe my other talent is turning the car radio up loud enough that i can hear NPR over the screaming kid.
Thank you Alexa for writing about your life. I think Simone is so cute.
Thanks Tania for this awesome giveaway!
Hrm, unusual talent….seeing a word one time and never forgetting how it’s spelled. Ever.
I can turn both feet all the way around.
I almost never comment on giveaways, but this one is awesome! Thanks!
Thank you thank you thank you!
My talents include fake-tying cherry stems into knots with my tongue, pinching with my knuckles & playing the piano with my toes.
YAY!
Oh right, the hidden talent. My not-so-hidden talent is skimming the details and forgetting something, you know, like listing a talent in my other post. You can delete this one if you like, I don’t want to skew my chances. Or do i?
A real hidden talent would be the ability to smell a skunk from 3 miles away. Yeah. I’m blessed, I know.
Covet the charm.
My talent is this: I learned how to play the wood saw (yes, those kinds of wood saws) in grade school.
Love the necklace!
My special talent procrastination – and blog reading – and super bargain shopper… I think the last two are really because they help me procrastinate…
Whimper. . .
My talent is picking out superbly attractive men, for my friends.
Gimme! :) Special talent–ability to get lost when driving o places like the local super market and the mall.
My talent is my ability to still do the splits (all three ways) at the age of 32. Although the last time I did them it required a bit of limbering up via beer.
That is an awesome piece of jewelry!!! I must have one .. and if I don’t win I will buy myself one!!!! Can I buy one?!? Please?!?
I have no talents. I am completely untalented.
Thanks for hosting the giveaway!!!! SAM
Thanks Alexa for hostessing and Tanis for donating.
If I were to win, I would cultivate a new talent for sealing Elizabethan assassination orders with my new necklace!
oh now that’s awesome. my talent is being able to bs my way through just about anything! :) very helpful on final exams, that.
Me, me, me!! Pick me!! [gesticulating wildly over here]
My unusual talent is writing backwards. Meaning that I could write an entire novel that you’d need to flip over and hold up to a light to read. Hell, my backwards cursive is actually better than my forwards cursive. Tell me what kind of mental defect THAT represents…
Wow, what gorgeous jewelry. When # 2 gets here, I think I’m going to have to get myself a necklace for both.
Hidden talent: Wasting extreme amounts of time at work on the internets.
Lovely!
Talent? Uh…I make a mean fried chicken. Does that count?
Thanks, Tania!! MY SIL had preemies in May. They are home now, but things are still tough going! I’d love to stick this in her stocking. She’s love it!
My talent is that I can explain the ratio of the sides of an isosceles right triangle to anyone and have them understand it. I am a math goddess.
Funny, I was just looking for the perfect finishing touch to my Elizabethan assasination orders! Really, though, such lovely stuff.
Talents: Picking up hip-hop choreography quickly; cracking my feet like you crack your knuckles. Related? Possibly.
Thanks for showing the pretty necklace!
Talents: Making the best chocolate chip cookies ever; learning 75% of the lyrics to many songs.
I’ve been reading your blog since we were infertile cyclesistas together but have never commented. I absolutely LOVE the idea of this necklace and had seen Tania’s website before you posted last year about the charm Scott got you…I had coveted one of these pieces of jewelry, but never acted on it. My special talent: I can make an astounding variety of weird noises with my mouth! Wait! It gets weirder: my now 19 month-old daughter can make a lot of the same sounds…she just does them randomly…I think it is so cute, but my husband is a little scared by it all!
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