Twitter Shop of the Week: LMCreation

Our Twitter Team Shop of the Week is the very talented Lisa Murdin of LMcreation: "Handmade Handbags Purses Pouches Cardholders."

Lisa's bright and colorful Etsy Shop has a beautiful array of handmade purses, pouches, wristlets, eye glass cases, IPod/Cell phone cases and more! I absolutely LOVE the wristlet above -it SCREAMS my name!

During the week of Lisa's feature, she is offering the following:

"LSpecial Deal Offered : 10% discount offered to Twitter customers until July 12. Use code "EtsyTwitter" in the Message to Seller and 10% of purchase price will be refunded"

There is much more in Lisa's gorgeous Etsy shop, so please go see for yourself! You can also find Lisa on Twitter: http://twitter.com/LMcreation

To read the full feature, please visit our team blog: Etsy Twitter.

Happy day & enjoy!
Rocki

Peace & Inspiration - Marie Dodd

Our life journey offers us many opportunities to enhance our personal being along each of our paths. These opportunities present themselves in a variety of ways, such as in physical form, mental, emotional, imagined, created and so on. When we accept these opportunities with our whole heart, a new and exciting path is created.

Mary Jane, the Etsy Shop owner/creator of Mari Dodd "jewelry to feed your creative spirit", is one of my opportunities. Mary Jane, aka MJ, is one of those very kind hearted souls that can touch your life without even being there in person. I've been wanting to feature her shop for some time now and am honored to finally share her with you.

In short, MJ & I met months ago when she first started purchasing from me. Recently I got to know her a little more and discovered what a truly peace loving person she is. I admire her from many aspects and absolutely love her work! You can tell that MJ creates from the heart, the soul, the depth of her very spirit.

Each inspiring creation that she makes, has a fitting title for it and a description to match. The one above is call "seeing clearly" and I simply love the description as much as the piece itself. MJ also inspires me with my own work.

There is so much more I could say about Mary Jane, but I will leave you with this quote from her shop Profile, which you can read more when you visit her shop:

"in my very normal running-around-mom-lifestyle, working with great components brings me peace and inspiration... i love when things come together... you get a great feeling when you wear something that a person actually had their hands and imagination on..."

Besides traveling through her inspiring creative Etsy Shop, make sure to visit her inspiring blog. It will brighten your day - and your life.

Peace & love,

Rocki

My Shining Lights

Without a doubt, I can honesty say that one of the most rewarding things about being a part of the Etsy community is meeting people from all over the world. Especially ones that turn into friends.

Jo, of My Shining Lights, is just that person. She started out as a customer and our friendship grew from there. She is a very sweet and loving person who I enjoy talking with and getting to know more and more. We have some similar things in common, plus we're both December babies, so that brings us even closer.

If you are near the Canadian border please wave as you can almost see where Jo lives in the western corner of Minnesota. The following is a quote from her Profile, I just love what she has to say:

"My first endeavors in creating jewelry were beaded memory wire bracelets and beaded lanyards. These gave me a way to pursue a form of art. I think that, being female, means that the desire to enjoy pretty things is somehow interwoven into our genetic makeup. From the first time as infants that our eyes caught the dancing glimmer of a necklace that was draped upon our loved ones neckline and we tried to grasp, and most likely taste it, we were hooked. It is a "girl thing."

Jo is fairly new to Blogging & Etsy and is eager to learn how to promote her shop as well as other tips & tricks in running them. I've offered to help her along with this.

Please give a warm welcome to my friend Jo and visit her Etsy shop. While there, read her Profile on how she came up with her shop name - it is very sweet. Oh and her blog is Journey Through This Life - I just love that title. So please stop by her blog and say hello :)

From my heart to yours,

Rocki

Heart of a Cowgirl

"Cowgirl is an attitude, really. A pioneer spirit, a special American brand of courage. The cowgirl faces life head on, lives by her own lights, and makes no excuses. Cowgirls take stands. They speak up. They defend the things they hold dear. A cowgirl might be a rancher, or a barrel racer, or a bull rider, or an actress. But she's just as likely to be a checker at the local Winn Dixie, a full-time mother, a banker, an attorney, or an astronaut."- Dale Evans Rogers, Los Angeles, 1992

I took that quote off of Bridget's blog, but she also has it in her Etsy Profile in which she she states it: "sums up the creative force behind my jewelry designs."

Bridget is a cowgirl and creates from that heart. I can relate to how she feels about being a cowgirl as I lived the cowgirl life many years ago. I breathed, ate and slept the cowgirl life. Went to rodeo's, dated cowboys & rodeo clowns (that was a trip) rode horses and was even on a Country & Western dance team called "Hooked on Country". It was hard putting away my boots, but it was harder trying to walk two different paths. I realized my true direction and followed it. That is what you need to do. Follow your heart, be who you truly are and create with that force. This is exactly what Bridget does.

Whenever I do blog features I like to give the title a fitting name for the shop and/or person that I'm spotlighting. However in this case, the name of Bridget's Etsy shop & blog (which feels just like home) is absolutely perfect: Heart of a Cowgirl.

I could go on and on about how very talented Bridget is, how she truly creates from the cowgirl heart - which you can see in all her pieces from jewelry to leather work - or tell you about all her animals that surround her loving home, but this blog post would turn into a novel.

So please head on over to Bridget's Etsy shop to see her heartfelt creatioins and also to her blog to find out more about this Heart of a Cowgirl's life - you won't leave hungry.

Cowgirl up,

Rocki

Elfin Earwires Go Hollywood!

I don't usually blog twice in a row about my creations, but this is BIG time news for me!

My Elfin Earwires hit the big time! Okay, they are not ACTually going Hollywood, but close enough in my eyes! Although I can't disclose too much at this time, I am able to announce that my Elfin Earwires will be in a well known jewelry magazine!

That's right! In a MAGAZINE! I'm still tickled pink about it and have to slap my face a couple times a day just to keep it real.

So HOW did this happen, you ask? Well, again without going into too much detail (for now at least), one of my faithful customers and a very talented fellow Etsian submitted one of her fabulous creations using my Elfin Earwires to the magazine. She let me know that she submitted them and then when they were accepted to be featured! Not only will my earwires be holding the gorgeous creation made by Sue, but my shop name/link will be included in the feature!

Who is this AWEsome person, you ask? Sue Beads - creator of her Handmade Lampwork Beads! Oh and this isn't the first time Sue has had her creations in a magazine. Her Chinese Lantern Earrings that she designed was featured in the July 2008 Bead Style magazine.

You can also find Sue's other Etsy shop at BellaHannahJane and her blog at Sue Beads.

I cannot tell you how very exciting this is for me (and for Sue as well I'm sure). Mark is very happy for me too. In fact, last night he made a comment of how cool it is to be able to connect with people from all over the world, including Internationally, work so close together and end up in a magazine. Thank you Sue! Wow. Truly wow.

So there you have part of the nutshell. The rest will be disclosed as soon as we're able to do so.

Still slapping my face,

Rocki

All Fired Up

I came across a very cool and unique Etsy shop the other day when I was looking for glass items to put in a Treasury I was working on. I knew I had to blog about it, so I contacted Lisa Rippee, the owner/creator of Cloud Eleven. I’m glad I did as I believe I’ve made a new friend.

I’m a firm believer that challenges and events change the course of your direction in life (I speak from experience). A stressful job as a juvenile intake and assessment specialist took up most of Lisa’s time. I can only imagine her stress! Long hours and overnight shifts isolated her from friends and family. Then one day in March of 2005 Lisa picked up a torch. Hot glass became her therapy, obsession, meditation, passion, and the perfect vehicle for her creative expression. Who needs a therapist when you have a torch!

Lisa has a studio in her home, in Kansas City metropolitan area (on the Kansas side). Her home is small & colorful, and some describe it as eccentric (I would love to see it!). She enjoys listening to music while creating, but in the beginning she only listened to instrumental Jazz “while learning the rhythm of the glass dance” (how poetic!). The Beatles, Zepplin and Mary J. Blige are in her CD player right now. Right on!

When asked what inspires her, this is what Lisa had to say: “Anything that elicits a strong emotional response would probably be the short answer. Everyday moments that make me smile or laugh usually find their way into my creations. The social issues that I’m passionate about show themselves as well. My muse is very in tune with my moods."

Lisa’s creations are fun, amazing and full of life. There is a big variety as well: Wine Stoppers, Vessels, Magnets, Focal Beads, Sculptural Glass Vessels and more. I especially love the blown-out mouth vessels as they are so realistic (many have uvulas!) In fact, I bought the Make Me Smile vessel (the one at the top of this post) and can hardly wait until he arrives!

Oh! Lisa eventually left the high stress job. Her torch therapy led her to a part-time job at a local stained glass shop called Bearden’s Stained Glass and eventually a shop on Etsy. How did she come up with her Etsy buisness name? When she first started flame working, every time she turned around it was 1:11, 11:11, etc. So, she figured she was on the right track of making her dream come true and since hot glass had her “beyond cloud nine”, she simply had to name her business Cloud Eleven.

Just goes to show that when you get all fired up about life’s challenges, you can turn them around into something spectacular!

Happy day everyone!
☼ Rocki

P.S. Lisa sees dead people. I do too, but I’m not telling anyone ;)