Here are the winning entries from Julie’s contest! If you missed the post all about the contest and the winners click here.

To read more about Julie and her on-going specials for Disneyways readers click here.

Solid Sterling Silver Four Leaf Clover n Crystals DeSIGNeR Earrings

by: Kristen

Sooo… What would a girl (a really old girl) named Iannotti want with a pair of four leaf clover earrings?! Let me explain…
I am TOTALLY not Italian. I like to believe that my Irish genes have sufficiently diluted my husband’s Italian lineage. Pale skin rules!! My second son (three’s a charm – I LOVE my boys!) was due on April 4, 1995. My husband and I went around and around about a middle name. He wanted something that was “significant” to his life. He tried to convince me that Tiberius (James T. Kirk!!) was an awesome middle name. I was not buying it!! We settled on Dylan (of course, for Bod Dylan). We had already chosen Jacob for the first name. So became Jacob Dylan Iannotti. On the morning of Friday, March 17, 1995, I still had three and a half weeks before Jake was due. His older brother, Tim was one day late so I held no hope for early parole. As I dried my hair that morning, I looked in the mirror and thought – What a cool day to have a baby – then, I went to work. I worked part time for a financial planning company. I had been told by my doctor that things were moving along very well and Jake could arrive at any time. The Office Manager kept telling me that everyone was going to a big meeting on Monday and that I would be completely in charge of the office. I kept telling her she might want to have a back up plan. She insisted we were fine… The whole office had a shower for me that day. Everyone had pitched in for gift certificates to the mall. It was a very nice shower and I ate enough cake for three. Me, Jake, and Jack (who would not arrive for two more years but I knew that he would have wanted cake…!). I left to pick up Tim at his kindergarten day care. We stopped on the way home at the local hobby shop (which sold a little bit of everything) because it was going out of business. They were at 70% off. Tim picked a stuffed dinosaur and I got a shirt for my husband. While we were still looking around, my water broke. I calmly told Tim (just 6 years old) that my water broke. He asked what that meant and I told him his brother was on his way. I proceeded to the check out (are your kidding me?! – how often do you find 70% off???) and told the prehistoric woman at the counter that I was in a hurry because my water just broke and I needed to purchase these items and get to the hospital… It made things worse and she was slower than usual. Jake arrived, during the NCAA playoffs, at the exact moment that ODU and Villanova went into trip overtime – ODU won the game…
Suffice it to say that Jake is my St. Patrick’s day baby – born on a day that was exciting in many ways! This past St. Patrick’s day, he turned 18 and will be leaving for college in 2 months. I would love to have the Four Leaf Clover earrings to wear while he is away. I a not a real jewelry fiend. I wear only a few rings, a belly button ring that I never change (from YOU!! – it is SOOOO perfect!!), and earrings. I have LOTS of earrings and change them every day – they are determined by mood and what I am wearing. I think that the earrings would bring luck to both me and Jake – me because I won something!! – Jake because, while I definitely don’t need earrings to remind me of him every second, it would be another connection to know that WHILE his mom is thinking of him, she’s looking GOOD!!!
This is an awesome contest idea. I love your products and love to look around your site. I have given several of your items as gifts and the recipients have also loved your work. I know something like this will bring about a lot of great stories. I hope that you will considering emailing some of the “runner ups” and seeing if you can post their responses. I think the greatest part of this idea is not the free gift but the opportunity to share some cool stories!

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Minnie tropical Lei Necklace – my favorite……

I guess my story is going to be, that when I go to Disneyland, or DisneyWorld, the people there, admire all of the items I have obtained from you, and I love to share your shop, and feel the delight, and a twinge of jealousy from anyone that admires your creativity !! And the fact that I have it…and they do NOT !!

Love Ya, Joyce !!
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I received an email about a competition and thought why not…but this is soooooooo difficult because 1)everything in your shop is lovely and 2) sob stories always win…always, however, I’m lucky not to have one so I’ll just try to amuse you with my humor (!)

Ok I really like the Mermaid N Lampwork Flowers Floral Glass Belly Button Ring (Listing # 123158548), and would love to win this. it’s actually quite silly as I don’t have my belly button pierced and don’t think it would be very pleasant for onlookers to see my belly but I’m sure I could find somewhere to dangle it from!

I like this because it reminds me of the sea and i grew up near the seaside back in the 80’s. brings back some good memories…now the beach near our house wasn’t lovely and colored like your bead…it was actually rocky and a bit smelly and the weather was crappy most of the time (I’m in Scotland!) but fun times were had there! Anyhoo, if I’m lucky enough to win id treasure this bead and promise to look after it.
(everything crossed..including internal organs…mm) take care.

Nylah X
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SALE APRIL SHOWERS Black and White Spotted Owl Lampwork DeSIGNeR EaRrings Fall Fun
Hi my name is Cynara
I love these earrings my mom loves owls and these showcase them so well that it would be like a good luck charm when I would wear them. Okay, the story why I should win! Kind of lengthy but I think it’s great!

So I got married 9/9/10 after being with my now husband for 1 year and 8 months to the day. This story involves my mother in-law. Planning the wedding I pretty much did so on my own or with my mom. My MIL would ask questions along the way, first question what day. Well the reaction to the day was flat why because we got married on a THURSDAY, for the formal wedding and reception, in Buffalo NY, with a guest list max of 60 people. Then we had a reception two days later for the 200+ family member in my home state of MA. Style pig roast! Oh the humanity, how dare us not have huge wedding with everyone invited to the actual day and be 20,000$ in debt because of the extravagant nature of it. So in a few days she asked the theme or colors of the wedding theme Beauty and the Beast, colors yellow and red! Now she was really flabbergasted like how do make a wedding beauty and the beast themed. So I explained and she still wasn’t buying it. Then I had to tell my in laws we were not getting married in a church… Oh Boy did that take a bit to calm down from!! Then I had to tell her we were having no alcohol at the wedding in Buffalo (we did at the reception in MA), now you think I had finally told her everything and well the alcohol thing did not go over well… It was all well we will pay for the alcohol or how about just wine (which I am allergic to) so we explained we all have to drive 6 hrs the morning after we want to be safe and no one will have to drive with a hangover or god forbid still drunk. So now I told her all the “bad news” nope!! Last bit of craziness I wasn’t wearing a white dress! I wore yellow just like Belle! Yup marrying to a very religious family, no church, no wine and no white dress! So the wedding day passes and all went perfect not one problem! We get to the reception in MA and my MIL pulled me aside and said “I have never been so happy to be wrong” and continued to say all the fun amazing things about the wedding! It was just the best moment that they really accepted me into the family even though I wasn’t “traditional”. My in laws are great and awesome! After 8 months of them thinking I was crazy, I got a little victory!! Lol and Yes I did do a Happy Dance when no one was looking!

Thank you for doing the contest you are awesome and I hope you get a lot of Great stories!!!

Cynara
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Contest:(my favorite item is the Bracelet: All that is Disney Sra
Lampwork Disney Inspired Mickey Minnie Mouse Style DeSIGNeR Bracelet Black N Red Polka Dots Trend)

Why I chose the item above brings back a memory of wearing Mickey Mouse not to mention I love Mickey and Minnie especially when it is
jewelry; Years ago on my of trips to Disneyland, like other people or fans I bought all kinds of keepsakes of Mickey and Minnie Mouse goodies.
On our way home, one of the stops was Napa Valley to visit the wineries. Of course I had to wear my Mickey Mouse Jean Jacket and Mickey
Mouse watch with a cute dress and sandals. Well, from one winery to another I was starting to feel a little tipsy from all the wine tasting, not to mention we had a picnic at one of the wineries and drank a bottle of wine. If you have ever been there you know that it is not quiet, there is
a lot of chatter and noise as people are talking about the wines or amongst each other. In this one winery we stopped at they had a beautiful gift shop that had a large display of crystal wine glasses and other accessories. I came across this real cool framed board that had all different
wine corks from all the wineries displayed in this frame. Being my usual self I never take the first one from the front, so I reached behind to get the one from the back. Well the next thing I know all of a sudden it was like a dominos effect; my Mickey Mouse watch strap somehow caught the corner of one the framed boards and knocked the next one and then so and so on until I hear a large shatter of glass! The last board knocked over at least 1/2 a dozen of the crystal wines glasses and they shattered all over the tile floor. Trying to act cool and collect I looked up and all these eyes were staring at me with astonishment and it was “dead silent” (you could even hear a pin drop at this point)I stood there frozen. My partner of course decides to do a dine and dash and leave me stranded having to defend myself. As the store clerk came over with a broom to sweep it up, I am telling him with a dumb founded look on my face “I do not know how that happened” while some of people are now whispering saying it was that Mickey girl. My next move before I get stuck with a bill or even with more embarrassment was to slowly back up and head out the door.
As I head out the door I am now splitting a gut laughing along with my partner but not so much on what happened, but how it happened
and the expressions on everyone’s face.

Lesson in all this; never reach for something from the back.

Julia

I am submitting my email to you here as I don’t have an AOL account. Anyway, I have the pink set and the Mickey set of charms that you made me awhile back and have gotten a lot of complements on it. Anyway here is my story.
Five years ago I met the love of my life on Facebook. We met on a Facebook chat room and have been together since we met in 2008. In 2009 we were blessed to have a son, Oliver, who has brought us joy everyday in our life, but even with this blessing there was something missing. I was never the girl that wanted to be married, I was happy in my life the way that it was, but that was destined to change. My fiancé is from England and fate seemed to lead us to each other. He came to Canada to begin a new life and we made the trip back to England for Oliver’s first birthday. I was terrified and even cried as I was terrified of flying, but I had to be brave for both my son’s (Stephen is from a previous relationship) and was so happy when we finally landed. We spend a couple of weeks over in England meeting all of David’s family and friends and it was then that I realized that I could not imagine my life without him in it. When we returned to Canada we went shopping and that is when I finally agreed to make the leap that I never thought I would, I agreed to get married! Not only have I agreed to marry this wonderful, loving man, but I also agreed to hold the wedding in England. We are getting very close to the Wedding date now, August 9, 2013. I have been looking over and over at the Mickey and Minnie wedding set that you have in your shop, as I absolutely love them and would be happy to be the recipient of your gift! I have always loved Disney and cherish the charms that I have from your shop and continue to let people know where I got my beautiful charms from, so even if I don’t win I want you to know that your beautiful creations are cherished! Hope you enjoy my story.

Monica
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I work in a pretty stressful job. I try to get to Walt Disney World at least once a year to re-charge my batteries, but that isn’t always possible and it
always feels like a long time between trips. I do whatever I can to add a little magic everyday and your jewelry helps me do that in a classy way. So basically I’m hoping to win these earrings so that I don’t have to be a grown up and you can add a little magic into my life! Mickey always makes me smile and smiles are the best gifts we can share! Thanks for the chance to win them for free.

PsyFi
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It’s been my experience that when you are a mother, it is easy to get lost in the “hussle and bussle” of things and sometimes we forget a little about ourselves. I have been so busy lately that I’ve completely put “ME” on the back of the ‘to do list’. Sometimes the day becomes too much and all I yearn for is a quick nap, but instead I go into a ‘5 minute snore’ with somebody in my ear saying “Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom…..” (for the whole 5 minutes). seriously, EVERY time. 😉 Well, GETTING FIT and making time to “beautify myself” has become an urgent need for me, lately. ~My very own Prince Charming & I are engaged to be married this September. SO as you can imagine, I am struggling to get into that nicely sized dress… ~ This is mainly why I fell in love with the idea of owning your -Rhinestone N Mickey Minnie Mouse Style Disney Inspired DeSIGNeR Belly Chain- because this is a more than perfect way to get motivated and inspired. I would like to see my fiancé’s face when I wear such a “delicious” design on our Wedding night/Honeymoon trip! ;-D

Lori
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Ok First off let me just say you have beautiful jewelry and things! Second if I won I would love to win Beadserroneous Pansy Pansies Sra Lampwork DeSIGNeR BrACeLeT Pink Purple Flower Garden Srajd for my Grandma! If it were for me I’d love to win Tropical Pink Minnie Mouse Style Disney Inspired Lampwork Bead DeSIGNeR Necklace Hawaii Lei Sterling..
Alright on to my story… When I was two years old my Grandparents took me to Disney World. I was their first Grandchild and they spoiled me a bit…I don’t remember a lot from that trip except seeing Mickey and his house (Mickey’s Toontown) and a big ball (Spaceship Earth). Through the years I have heard the stories from that trip many times and every single time my Grandparents recall that trip they smile so it must have been pretty memorable…So on the way to Orlando we got stranded in Chicago because of heavy snow…we were stranded overnight and I hear it was pretty miserable.. Apparently everyone was sleeping on the seats and floor of the terminal lobby because no one could leave the airport. My Grandma tells me it was very crowded and uncomfortable. Grandpa always said even as uncomfortable as it was, everyone was entertained my the dancing, & singing two year old girl who despite poor conditions kept right on talking and smiling…I was and still am quite the chatterbox. My grandma said I was so excited to see Mickey I was awake all night and it took them forever to calm me.. (If I only had a bit of that energy now).. That night my Grandpa wrote a letter about my birth and a few other key life events leading up to that day…When my daughter turned two he gave me that letter and told me about that night…Both of my grandparents also told me that the whole way there I recited my address and phone number to anyone who would listen and that I had everyone laughing the whole flight the next day…I also hear I rode It’s a Small World half a dozen times 🙂 I am so very thankful that they loved me so much to bring me on such a magical trip and only wish I was old enough to remember more of it. I now have two children and my youngest is two years old now..Next year we are going to Disney and I hope to be able to save enough to take my family of four as well as my Grandparents to Disney with us. I want to build more memories with them and my children and want my kids to have the experience of going to Disney with two of the most loving, caring and selfless people I know. My Grandparent have done more for me and my family than anyone, they are both very special people. If I could give them the whole world it still wouldn’t be enough to repay them for all the blessings and kindness they have given me and my children. I’m sorry if my typing is so bad…I haven’t typed a story or a letter in ages.. Thanks for taking the time to read my story and I hope you enjoyed 🙂 Have a Wonderful Day!
-Chelsea

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I read about your contest…:) Just so you know I love everything you make…but I know my most favorite will be my grandma’s necklace. How can it not be..I have 9 wonderful and precious grandchildren. I have always wanted something that not everyone has…so many stereotype jewelry items..So…when I asked about the pancreatic cancer Mickey for my dad I thought to myself…I know Julie can create for me my very own grandma’s necklace…So this necklace will mean the world to me…and every time I look at it I will have very special memories of everyone of my grandchildren…So thank you…for making a treasure I will hold close to my heart forever….

Also….Can’t wait to get my Live Your Best Life Now….More people need to have the opportunity to get one of these…Those words cannot be more true as today’s world is in chaos….So…Julie…Live Your Best Life Now!!!!

Hugs to you
Jo Ann.