"Wine is sunlight, held together by water." -Galileo

We are the Ikea poster children. When Le Hubs moved to San Diego, we raided the place and surprisingly the vast majority of it has survived 2 moves since then (minus one coffee table that Scout took out by running into one of the legs full steam). In fact I was recently quoted saying "Everything is from Ikea, in fact, it'd be easier to name everything NOT from Ikea.... I'm not from Ikea."

What's that have to do with Etsy? Well, while we love Ikea for their inexpensive furniture, the tables are notorious for being susceptible to water damage hence the need for coasters. Which is how I stumbled upon RED BIRD INK. And lucky for all of you, you can win a set of these daffodil coasters (pictured below) to protect your furniture, Ikea made or otherwise. Details are available at the bottom of the post. For those of you not lucky enough to be the big winner use the code ADJECTIVES at check out for a 15% discount (valid until Friday February 17))

1.What’s your story?
Hi, I’m Julia B Farill an artist/designer/mother living and working in Decatur, Georgia. I grew up in the woods outside of Charlottesville, Virginia. I love spending time with my family, cooking eating and traveling. I love rearranging the furniture in my house.... several times a year my husband comes home to a new layout. I also enjoy hunting for vintage treasure at thrift stores and yard sales. I had one fish, two cats, two rabbits, five birds all before I turned 12. As a kid I loved to catch and play with crayfish, salamanders, lizards, snakes and turtles.

2. When, how and why did you decide to make what you make?
I went to art school after high school, then made a little detour into landscape architecture, then back to art and design with Red Bird Ink. I decided to get into paper after I designed my wedding invitations. Our guests really liked them and I started getting requests to do more. I've always loved stationery, different types of paper and pens so I think it was a natural path to take.

3. What inspires you?
Plants, landscapes, contemporary and historic cultural curiosities and the natural sciences.

4. Other than Etsy, where else on the web can we find you?
I also have website www.redbiridnk.com, a supermarket shop redbirdink.supermarkethq.com a facebook www.facebook.com/redbirdink. You can also find me in a few boutiques across the country and abroad.

5: What is your creative process?
I get inspired to create all the time. Mostly by plants, podcasts and people. I’ve got tons of notebooks with sketches and ideas. So my process usually starts with a sketch, original photograph, or a few. Often I research whatever I’m inspired by... ferns, daffodils, knitting, quilts.... Wikipedia is amazing. I like to know as much as I can about what I’m working on. Next, I sketch some more and choose materials. Then I take those sketches, scan them in and create a vector image of my design. The next step is getting film made of the design. Then we create plates with a homebrew plate burner my husband built. Or sometimes we hand cut plates with a razor blade. Then we set up the press, cut our paper, mix our ink color or colors and register the design. When the pressure, ink and layout are all perfect we get printing! We repeat these steps for each color. Then we let the pieces dry and make our final cuts. If the design requires a die cut, perforation or creasing then each piece goes back through the press again. We love to experiment, so, when strange things happen we like to think about how we can use that effect in future designs. Then we package and send our little ones out in the world to be enjoyed!

6: If you had to pick something to come back as in your next life, what or who would it be?
Hummmm. Tough question. I've really enjoyed my life so far... so I'm not sure I'd want to be something or someone else for a whole lifetime, but I'd love to be a bird for a day. The idea of flying through the air, landing on a branch and watching whats below sounds really fun to me.

7: What profession would you like to try for a week?
I feel lucky to be doing my dream job right now! But I'd love try a few other things for a week just for fun... maybe a personal trainer, crane operator, scientist, elementary school teacher, or jazz singer.

8: What food could you eat every day?
I do drink coffee or tea every day! I could eat fruit all the time... particularly watermelon, pink lady apples, cantaloupe, pineapple and cherries. I also LOVE toast.

Wanna win a set of springy daffodil coasters? Here's how.
be and follower and comment here with your favorite book of all time along with your email address. The giveaway ends on Friday February 17th at 11:59 PST.
For extra entries you can...
1:Follow me on Twitter.
2:Follow DTA on Facebook.
3:Blog about the giveaway.
4: Tweet about the giveaway and link to the tweet.
Make sure to leave a separate comment for each extra entry.