TEAM WORK Blog Feature of DDOTS ® Spiral Notecards by SimaGJewelry.blogspot.com

I am honored to be featured by SimaGJewelry!

I created custom DDOTS ® Spiral Mini Note Cards for Sima's signature Spiral Necklaces and Charms.

Thank you for the wonderful write up and feature Sima!

siempre- dorana

Chocolate? Meat? NOPE! This Year the ULTIMATE "Giving Up For Lent" Sacrifice: FACEBOOK AND MYSPACE

The first year that I joined the millions of Catholics around the world in the traditional practice of "giving something up for Lent" (the days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday, although Lent comes to an end after the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday) was in the fifth grade.

I had celebrated my First Communion the year before, later than most, but I was newly determined in my faith and went about celebrating and participating in the traditional ceremonies and practices with vigor and conviction!

There was no question what I'd be giving up, my greatest passion at twelve years old: CHOCOLATE!

My resolve was steadfast!

Our Lord had sacrificed his only son for me, I could give up CHOCOLATE for 40 days!...

That first day was torture!

I pushed away the dessert chocolate brownie at lunch in the cafeteria with the heartbreak of watching a puppy die!

Every Sunday my parents would pitifully offer me m&m's or other chocolate goodies attempting to assure me that,

"Sunday's don't count!"

Even then that idea was ludicrous to me!

Sunday's don't count???

As a good student of faith, even as a child, I knew the absurdity of the concept of "Sunday's OFF" during Lent.

Lent isn't about "giving something up" for the sake of "giving something up" that culminates in the "pigging out" and indulgence of that "something" on Easter Sunday...

There HAD to be MORE TO IT than that!

I found a wonderful resource while preparing for this article in Friar Jack from Friar Jack's E-spirations on AmericanCatholic.org.

"Lent is about conversion, turning our lives more completely over... The goal is not to obstain from sin for the duration of Lent, but to root sin out of our lives forever..."

My favorite quote from Friar Jack on fasting from meat on Fridays during Lent as a way to create a simple meal to link us spiritually to those whose diets are poor:

"Avoiding meat while eating lobster misses the whole point!"


Surrendering the luxury of chocolate at age twelve and later in high school renouncing meat for almost five years in the spirit of humility and sacrifice were fitting and honorable for that time in my life.

This year however, I couldn't think of anything that would truly be a testament of my will and a sacrifice honorable enough to match that first day in the lunch room when I pushed away that brownie and the pang in my gut all those years I passed on burgers and hot dogs; but more importantly, something that would make me a better person for doing it.

And then one night when I awoke in the middle of the night wondering if I had a message waiting for me on mySpace and what everyone was doing on facebook, I KNEW what I had to do!

I'd give up mySpace and facebook for Lent!

A dear friend of mine recently exclaimed,

"The internet is the devil!"

Neither of us really believes that as the internet is truly a genius work of art and science where anything and everything is possible, bridging oceans and cultures and ideas!

What IS true however is that

"Idle hands are the devil's workshop!"

How many HOURS are lost each day randomly surfing the internet? How many more are lost finding out what your friends and family are "doing right now!"

Do I really need to know what everyone I know is doing 24 hours a day? What they are listening to, eating, reading, thinking?

I hadn't truly realized my addiction to the personal social networking sites until that day at 2am when I tossed over in bed reaching for my laptop aching to find out what my online world was doing!

Some of you might quickly counter claim, but what about twitter and the forums and all the other internet sites you work on each day!?

The key word there is WORK! Trust me, I've never tossed and turned at night wondering what the front page of Etsy looks like or how many followers found me on twitter!

And as Ash Wednesday neared I wondered whether I would truly be able to stay logged off of those sites.

I began to realize that my addiction was not only taking away precious moments in each day, but that the practice in those sites contributed to my own laziness = sloth, envy in the accomplishments and lives of others, greed as I put my time online above the needs of the people I love and my responsibilities... If I'm really honest with myself, I can admit that in some way I allowed myself to indulge in each of the 7 Deadly Sins in those actions.

So I committed to not only "give up something" for the 40 days of Lent, but to become a better person in my sacrifice here after...

I've ignored friend requests from my friends, cousins, and even my step-mother!

Smile when I hear "aren't you suppose to give up candy or something?"

I fall asleep in the arms of the man I love instead of with my laptop.

Enjoyed my first vacation in years without even turning on my computer to check a single email!

Spend my day doing the most productive thing for my business every minute of the day and when work is over, bask in the time with my family and getting reacquainted with myself!

Celebrate in the fruits of my labor as my work gets recognized within and outside the internet community!

And I look forward to creating that healthy balance that is needed in everything in life - 'cause the point is my friends is to be the

BEST VERSION of YOURSELF EVERYDAY!

siempre- dorana

myHandmadeRegistry.com - Not Just Another Networking Site

What I think sets apart successes from failures are those that find adversities and ADVERTISE them and those that find adversities and look for ways to make them ASSETS!

After half of a year dedicated to the idea that people really are interested in the artisan community and then researching, promoting and marketing my jewelry shoppes from various online retailing sites, I came to an enlightening conclusion that I had heard over and over again...

"These sites are really just SELLERS selling to SELLERS!"

After all, before I learned about them from another seller, and joined to sell, I had never heard of them either!

And so I started researching about how I could get BUYERS to find MY STORE of handmade goods and I stumbled across a couple of interesting blog posts...

"I wish I could register for my wedding at Etsy.com!"

"Oh, I'd LOVE it if everyone would get me Etsy.com stuff for my baby shower!"

After searching for several days, I found ONE online registry where registrants could add Etsy.com item numbers to their wish list of goods along with the likes of Macy's, Bloomingdales, ToysRUs, etc.

I thought, "Hey! I CAN DO THIS!" : a Handmade Registry - a place where everyone can create a personal page with a list of their favorite items from only HANDMADE RETAILERS!

Won't be able to find Macy's HERE!

Then the daunting task of figuring out HOW TO DO THIS! With neither the desire to wait what must surely take months to create, nor the funds to support it, I remembered a site that I was introduced to where members could customize their pages to create their own social networking site! And myHandmadeRegistry.com was born!

It's still in its infancy, but I believe it can grow into a powerhouse tool!

It is NOT just another Networking Group - our platform happens to be BUILT as one, but this is my vision...

Imagine the now millions of artisan shoppe owners that flood the gates of the Handmade Community. Now imagine how many times just this past week each one of those members have been asked, "What do you want for Christmas? Hanukkah? Birthday? Anniversary?"

myHandmadeRegistry.com is designed for these shoppe owners to share their Wishlist with their families and friends - especially those that have such a hard time shopping for them! Imagine the incredible relief husbands and boyfriends will feel knowing that there's a place where she has pictures of everything her heart desires and all they have to do is CLICK ON IT and it takes them right to the check out counter! (no offense guys - I KNOW there are many of you that are godsends! but let's face it - this is the promise land for most of you!)

This registry now opens up the artisan marketplace to so many more people!

But lets take this another step further...

I've created GROUPS within the community that I plan to market for OUTSIDE OF THE ARTISAN COMMUNITY - for expectant parents, a house-warming group to share decorating tips on a budget and find that special accent piece, and my favorite :

my $5000 Handmade Wedding!

These days the Platinum Weddings we see on WE are becoming more and more of a fantasy to most of us...

But lately, I've been finding myself watching those shows and saying... "I can do THAT" and "oh! I saw something like that in the forums last week for 1/100th the cost!

My vision in this group is to link these dreaming brides with Handmade Retailers who can make those pictures come to life in quality and affordability!

Members of this group can create BLOG posts on their pages with images of the various ideas for their fantasy wedding with tags relating to the items such as "dress", "invitations", "jewelry", "favors", etc. Vendors who can provide those products or services can then find and leave comments on their BLOG where they can also attach images, sketches, estimates...

How wonderful will it be to have such an incredible resource at your fingertips - remembering first and foremost that the most priceless resource in any network is building relationships - someone will always know someone who can help you fulfill your dreams!

...A place where brides can take those black and white fantasies and turn them into vibrant rainbows of possibilities while keeping as much green in their pockets!


I look forward to a million more endless possibilities with this project and welcome any new ideas, suggestions, questions... but PLEASE COME JOIN US and share what an amazing community of artisans and talented business supporters we have among us!

siempre - dorana