Hey friends!  Today I have a special guest post to share from my new friend Melissa Erickson! She is sharing her heart behind her jewelry business + a giveaway for one lucky winner.  Just leave a comment at the end of this post or on Facebook and one winner will be chosen at random on January 27th.

P3 Personalized Jewelry by Melissa Erickson

IMG_2710Personalized necklace giveaway at shelivesfree.com

Special thanks to Melissa for sending me this beautiful piece!

Jewelry making has been a hobby that I have pursued to varying degrees from the time I was a teen. In recent years, I found that my jewelry making (along with other hobbies) was taking a backseat as I focused on my family, two young boys, and the small preschool that I run from my home.  I was in need of a creative outlet, something that would allow me to carve out some time that I could call my very own. I had been thinking about getting back into jewelry making for a while when Ireceived some great advice. I was told that often the hardest part of doing a new thing is taking the first step, and that I should just take one small step to get started. So, I placed a small order with a jewelry supply company and excitedly waited for it to arrive. Once it did, I just started playing with the materials and exploring all of the ideas that had been bouncing around inside my head. It wasn’t long at all before I was sneaking in little bits of time to go “play” with my necklaces and soon my boys realized that when they saw mommy hunched over her work table (aka kitchen counter) she was otherwise occupied for the moment.  I started wearing the personalized necklaces I was making and friends began to notice and comment on them, asking where I had gotten them. Before long, I was making them as gifts for friends and taking requests for friends of friends.  The necklaces I make are personalized with messages of life, love, and faith and now throughout the day words or phrases will pop into my head and I will grab a pad of paper to jot them down to use on a later piece. Nothing brings me greater joy than seeing one of my necklaces being worn, or hearing from a friend or customer what the message on the piece means specifically to them. I’ve recently set up a facebook page and an etsy store which is helping me field requests and orders in a much more organized fashion. Choosing a name for my business was probably one of the more difficult decisions along the way. Ultimately, I went with P3 personalized necklaces. P3 carries meaning as it references Proverbs 3:

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.

What started as a hobby seems to be growing into a fun little side business, which is so thrilling and rewarding for me. Formore information or to view my work head on over to the P3facebook page or etsy store at:

https://www.facebook.com/p3personalizedjewelry

https://www.etsy.com/shop/P3personalizedjewlry  

So tell us – which piece is your favorite in Melissa’s shop?  Do you love her personalized jewelry as much as I do?  I love sooo many of Melissa’s pieces because glitter.  Additionally?  sparkle.  Oh and those life-giving words of truth guaranteed to make you smile.  But I finally narrowed down my selection because yellow and sunshine are two of my all time favorites ever.  Boom.

So start thinking about which one you’d choose and make sure you check back next week to see if you won the giveaway!