My First Front Page.... Hopefully Not My Last!

I can't believe I missed it, but about a week ago a piece of jewelry I have for sale on Etsy (middle picture, top row) was featured in a Treasury created by another Etsy jewelry designer, JennyBunny, and landed on the front page of Etsy. Fortunately, another user (monaraebeads.etsy.com) was kind enough to send me a congratulatory message. Otherwise, I'd never have known. Etsy is a wonderful community of very giving, thoughtful artists!

Getting on Etsy's front page is a big deal in Etsyland! To be in someone's Treasury is a real compliment. It means the curator somehow came across an item in your shop and liked the photo enough to use it when they had a chance to incorporate it into their Treasury. I've never attempted to create a Treasury myself. In the first place, they are very hard to come by as only a limited number can be created and posted at any given time, and it looks like it would take time, patience and of course talent, to make a good one. To see what I'm talking about, go to http://www.etsy.com/treasury.php and check it out for yourself. To see the current front page Treasury, go to Etsy.com.

Treasuries are picked by Etsy staffers to appear on their front page for some limited length of time. Unfortunately, not all of them make it. When it does, it gives all of the sellers in the Treasury free advertising and exposure, but most importantly of course, it provides that oh-so-coveted 15 seconds of, well, not 'fame' exactly, but a sense of affirmation that what you're creating is appreciated by other artists. Yes, that is a very big deal!

Many thanks to JennyBunny and Mona Rae Beads! Oh, and to Etsy, too!

Heartache

As I was getting dressed the other morning a design for a pair of earrings floated into my conscious brain, fully formed. When I was finished making them, I knew immediately what to name them, Heartache. I don't know where this came from because, on that day, I wasn't experiencing any particular emotional pain. But I remember so well what it feels like. There is always plenty of secondhand heartache to be felt for those around me who are suffering, as I seem to have an over-developed sense of empathy for other people's sadness. My heart can feel heavy just listening to the evening news, to say nothing of how I react to the pain that those I love are dealing with. But it's a different level of heartache when it's your very own.

I have not forgotten nor am I finished experiencing what firsthand heartache feels like: that pinprick of pain when the hurt first strikes (the single red crystal), that burdensome weight in my chest that never seems to lighten (the dark patina on the silver), the lethargy, the sense that I can't inhale enough oxygen when I breathe (the white pearls). I know it all so well.

On that day, however, I was reminded how wonderful the absence of heartache feels. I was having to remember what it felt like rather than being able to reach in and access it at that very moment. I learn so much during the difficult times of my life, though, which doesn't exactly give me something to look forward to, but it gives heartache a real purpose in my life. It's also when I allow God a chance to fully be my God. That can't be a Bad Thing.