I made it into a treasury! littlebirdproduction.etsy.com included my ANGEL WING necklace in this beautiful collection. The photos all work together, creating a wonderful ethereal quality to the page. How appropriate that it's about angels.

You should check out littlebirdproduction's etsy shop. It's loaded with eye-catching knitwear, especially the Wine and Dine Me Scarf. Love it!

Helloooo Out There, Anybody There?

I finished a 5-ring stacking set today. Yay!!! I'm sending them off to Japan in the morning. I love sending my creations off to far away places.

Now, for things closer to home. Okay, I have to admit that I'm so new at this blogging stuff that I obsessively check throughout the day to see if anyone has left comments for me. It's so sad that I always see 0 comments. Just one comment, is that too much to ask??? My blog manager, aka my tech-savvy, hip daughter tells me I have to spice things up a bit, but I'm not quite sure how. I need to start thinking hip, I guess. I've gleaned some terrific advice from a fellow etsyan's blog at http://www.timothyadamdesigns.blogspot.com/. He seems to have a whirlwind of activity on his blog and on his etsy site. He definitely knows what he's doing. I have much to learn. I'll keep going, one luddite step after another.

Ahimsa is Good for Your Marriage

After being out all day, I couldn't wait to get back to my workshop. I have some Etsy orders to fill and am eager to get to work. After looking at my freshly cut pendant I felt it appeared a tad plain and needed something more, a little embellishment. So with tools in hand I started pounding away. I like the way it turned out...more paisley like, don't you think? I also decided to stamp AHIMSA on it. It's a reminder to live life by doing no harm, whether it's with your thoughts, words or actions. It is reminiscent of the Buddhist teachings that urge us to try to think pure and beautiful thoughts, to say pure and beautiful words, and to do pure and beautiful deeds.

When I showed it to my husband he seemed a bit confused and asked why it said "Amnesia"? Funny how I was presented with a perfect opportunity to practice ahimsa. I had to remind myself, only pure and beautiful thoughts.

Hello from DonnaO Designs, donnaodesigns.etsy.com

I'm really new to blogging so I'll be learning as I go. So here goes...

I have a shop on Etsy, donnaodesigns.etsy.com, where I sell my handmade jewelry and accessories. I'd like to use this space to kick around ideas and possibly find inspiration for new ideas along the way.

I set up shop there a couple of years back, and had an unexpectedly great year last year. I was expecting a pretty grim holiday season, but it was everything but that. I love filling orders and am grateful for any and all, large and small.

I'm currently branching out and moving away from strictly beading and doing more metalsmithing. I really enjoy pounding metal and using my hand saw. I love different shaped pendants as a backdrop for hand stamping names, inspirational words or phrases. I'm working on a paisley-shaped one at the moment. I love the organic feel of the swirly nature of paisley. Now to try to find the perfect word to stamp on it, hmmm. I'm always drawn to sanskrit words like satya, ahimsa, tapas. They're short, discreet and loaded with meaning.