The Filigree- Interview and Giveaway!

As if I needed another reason to love Etsy... A few months ago, while shopping for some fantastical prints to decorate my new apartment, I found The Filigree. I fell in love with the beauty and style of just about everything in this shop. I ended up with these two beauties-

These are the kinds of images I get lost in-- looking at them is like reading a great story! (You can order yours too, by going here and here). In my ordering process, I exchanged a few emails with Celena, half of the creative team behind The Filigree. We got talking and she and her husband Martin agreed to an online interview- a first for Dreams & Happy Things! 

Martin Øbakke, a native of Denmark (home of the Little Mermaid), met Celena Cavala, ballerina and Nashville native in Florence, Italy- last century. They started making Fairy Tales and haven't stopped since. In their work, you'll find elements of old world Europe to Southern Gothic charm. Martin does the illustrating and sculptures while Celena sews and writes the world they live in, in their Nonsense News, the Filigree. They currently live on a small town square outside Nashville in an old Victorian loft, where all of their works are created and sent off to admirers from around the world. 

They're inspired by the Invisible world and Imagination and the points in between that they refer to as 'the Filigree'; thin gossamer strands that connect everything...                   

-The Filigree, about

D&HT:  Thanks for being the first interview on this blog! I am such a fan of what you both create--your work is amazing and interesting! How do you come up with the things you write about, paint, sculpt...?
C&M: By working together throughout a day-- we'll chit chat and these ideas will form. It's enormously satisfying to chase an inspiration and see it materialize.


D&HT: If you were not creating the world of Filigree,  what do you see yourself doing?

Celena: I was a classically trained ballet dancer so I would probably be teaching and perhaps choreographing.
Martin: I would probably be involved in some furniture design/construction.


D&HT: Describe your "dream" day... what, for you, is the perfect day?

C&M: We love our lives so basically everyday is exactly what we want to do~  love interacting with customers online, finish projects, create more art and pack things to be shipped out all over the world and ideally, do some yoga and always eat well.


D&HT: Ok... At a beautiful garden luncheon, who are the other 4 sitting at your table?

C&M: Hmm, difficult question! Joyce Carol Oates, (an enthralling and very prolific american author) & Oscar Wilde,  Edgar Allen Poe, & Sherlock Holmes.


D&HT: Where is your Happy place?
C&M: Not a particular material place as rather a quiet room in our mind where we Imagine.

The Giveaway!!!

Not only is this Dreams & Happy Things first interview, but the lovely duo at The Filigree has agreed to a giveaway! One lucky reader will win a trio of prizes- Mermaid cards, a Mermaid paper doll, and an issue of The Filigree Newspaper featuring articles about all sorts of goings on in the invisible world, including a headline about our favorite underwater hybrids- It's truly a Mermaid Extravaganza!!!   

I am already jealous of the winner...!

How to enter:

First, make sure you are a follower of Dreams & Happy Things, so that you can comment on this post. Think of every comment to this post as a raffle ticket. At the end of the week, I will put each comment into a 'hat' and pull out a winner at random. You can have lots of chances to win- its as easy as 1,2,3 (4,5)! 

1. Go to The Filigree and browse around. Come back here and tell us about one thing that caught your eye. (anything from the Gallery, Shops, Studio Journal, etc...)

2. Like The Filigree on Facebook (come back here and leave a comment saying you did so)

3. Like Dreams & Happy Things on Facebook (come back here and leave a comment saying you did so)

4. Follow The Filigree on Twitter (come back here and leave a comment saying you did so... see a theme?)

5. Follow Dreams & Happy Things on Twitter (come back here and leave a comment saying you did so)

*Already following/liking? Leave comments saying so and you get counted too!

**Want even more entries?? Retweet or share this post on your Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook accounts and write two more comments! That means you could have 8 chances of getting chosen! Those are darn good odds!

Remember to leave your email address or some way of contacting you if you are the lucky winner! (Or else, check back on Saturday,  Jan. 28th to see the winner announced)

Good Luck!