North Star: Radiance & Pure Love

Silent Night, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry):
silver midnight star charm (north star)

Your soul is a bright star that lights the way through darkness. Celebrate the radiance of your pure love by holding a gleaming star close to your heart.

Happy Holidays!!

Yesterday I woke up and realized the whole holiday season slipped right past me. I've decided to listen to my own advice and spend some quality time family around the Christmas tree. So I've closed Hint Jewelry for the rest of December and will return from vacation on January 4th.

Thanks to everyone for making my holiday season very special with your warmth, presence, and support! I look forward to rejuvenating for the upcoming year and revealing a few special projects I've been secretly working on.

Blessings to you and your loved ones as you celebrate the season!

The Secret Life of Peridot

Awakening, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry):
peridot, plum freshwater pearl, and silver bunny rabbit charm

In chapter five of Jewels: A Secret History, Victoria Finlay explores peridot -- a perky, green stone known for centuries as "the evening emerald." Conjuring up that image put a whole new spin on one of my favorite gemstones!

Apparently, peridot -- a bright, volcanic crystal -- is best viewed at dusk rather then during the bright light of day. Life in the Northwest is currently overcast, so I'm looking forward to a lovely spring or summer evening when I can take a strand of peridots outside and see "the evening emerald" for myself.

One of the biggest surprises I learned from Finlay's Jewels: A Secret History, is that ninety percent of all known peridots are found within the San Carlos Nation, Apache land located in southeastern Arizona. Finlay travels to the San Carlos Nation and learns a little bit about Apache history as well as how minimal mining of this cheerful stone is a conscious remembrance to protect sacred land.

Secretly guarded by Egyptians on the "Island of Serpents," found by NASA on the planet Mars, or falling to earth in the form of a meteorite, this happy, green stone is hard to resist for its color speaks to me of fresh, spring fields and tart Granny Smith apples. Peridot pairs so well with other gemstones and adds that bit of zest to your designs that say, "hey, look at me!"

To explore more of Victoria Finlay's travels around the world looking for gemstone stories, visit my blog series The Secret Life of Gems.

Giving and Receiving

Merry Christmas Tiles, Beth Hemmila: porcelain and green glaze

I grew up Lutheran and from an early age gladly became entrenched in both the sacred and secular aspects of Christmas. I can't speak for other celebrations that involve gift giving, but I think it's pretty unanimous that for most participants, Christmas causes stress.

This year I got clear on the fundamental issue stimulating so many intense emotions for me -- the concept of giving and receiving.

It's hard to avoid all the propaganda around being a loving, giving person, but you rarely hear anything about receiving. In many ways, a lot of people are unaware that they are walking around with their receiver turned off.

I fully recognize that my core mechanism for giving and receiving is in the process of being rehabilitated. I've been consciously working on this aspect of my personal growth for the past five years, and my business Hint Jewelry is one of the mediums through which I am exercising giving and receiving. A business is a relationship, and I've found it to be a wonderful tool for toning my giving and receiving muscles. The more jewelry and charms that I give to others, the more money I receive in return. The more money I receive, the more money I give towards philanthropy. It's a cycle that continually revolves, growing and expanding each step of the way as I allow myself to give and receive more.

Here are some personal observations that I have made along the way.

When you stop giving to others, you open an empty space to receive from another human being. By participating in another person's moment of giving, you begin to understand that receiving is a type of giving that expands the circle wider. Giving can sometimes be as simple as doing nothing and letting others do instead.

Giving can feel invasive. Asking before giving allows another person the opportunity to choose if they are open to recieving. Appreciate any outcome.

You don't have to be open to receive nor do you have to be ready to give to another person. Always check in with where you are at in the moment, and this will be the most authentic experience. In being consciously aware, you are giving and receiving compassion from within, which is equally as important.

Sometimes the impetus to give or receive grows slowly over time. Be open to letting things change and communicate your need to mull an idea over. Answers can always wait. It's more important that giving and receiving come from genuine connection.

Give first to yourself. When your tank is full and you are balanced, then give to others. Never start the day on an empty tank.

When you are more giving to yourself, you are naturally more giving towards others.

All giving and receiving starts and ends from within. Always begin with your own truth in regards to giving and receiving, not what you think you should be to make others happy.

Behind the Scenes: Goal Setting

I finally published my book!
haha, well at least a prototype :)

If you have been following my blog over the last year, you'll know that I have been dragging my feet on publishing a book of affirmations, and this month I felt the final push to make it happen. This little gem is a gift to myself. A way of honoring the goals met and set aside during Hint Jewelry 2009.



Last June, I was procrastinating on my goal of publishing a book of affirmations because I had unanswered questions. Waiting five months proved to be the best medicine for my project. I refined my affirmations, learned to let go of concepts that were getting in the way of the message, and came up with a better way of packaging my book Heart Speak.




Back to the beginning. Heart Speak grew out of intensive personal therapy that I faithfully performed over the course of six months. Whenever I noticed a negative core belief getting in the way of me being at peace in the world, I would journal my judgments about a situation and then turn the statements around into positive beliefs. The simplest metaphor was that I took lemon thoughts and made lemonade beliefs. Wow, there were a lot of lemons to work with!




Once I found the single most perfect positive affirmation that transformed my negative core belief into something liberating, I would write it on a 3 x 5 inch card and use it during meditation practice. I would say the affirmation aloud and then feel the positive feelings associated with the moment. My stack of cards grew until I started repeating myself, signaling that I had cleaned up my fundamental core belief system.




Through the practice of dialoguing nonviolent communication (NVC) with myself, I noticed that I rarely touched upon positive feeling words. Like being lost in the desert, looking for a drink of water, my soul was yearning to feel a positive feeling.

It was not enough to just say "I feel happy" or "I feel confident." I had to learn how to feel in my body the physical sensations of what it would be like to feel "happy" and "confident." This was quite different then saying the words because I used my imagination to project an image where I was feeling a positive emotion and all the sensations accompanying it.

The more work I did with Marshall Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication practice, the more I wanted to spend time with his list of positive feeling words. When using my affirmation cards I would associate the phrase with a positive feeling and mentally imagine the sensations.

Remember being a kid in the middle of a heatwave and feeling the joy and refreshment of running through the cool mist of a sprinkler? This is the closest picture I can paint of what it is like to read these affirmations and give myself permission to feel positive sensations.




I created a poem of pure emotion through positive words. I love shuffling the cards and seeing a new random song of myself each day, watching fresh connections form as a feeling word pairs with a positive affirmation. Now I know what Walt Whitman meant when he wrote "I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself." Like a devotional prayer, every morning and evening I read through my stack of affirmations and positive feelings and experience blissful renewal.

Acknowledging the amazing randomness of the cards was the last element I needed to see the structure of my book as a stack that can be used in a variety of non-linear ways. This concept led me to choose Moo.com to publish the prototype of my book as a stack of business cards. All I needed was one photo image and then jpeg files with the words and phrases for the reverse.

I imagine women carrying these cards around in their purses and pulling them out in frustrating situations. Or people tucking them in their pockets and reading a card during a stressful office meeting. Word Refreshment!

What are the next steps in fulfilling the vision of Heart Speak? Right now my book is completely unaffordable to be resold, so I need to find a way to print these cards in a cost effective manner. I've also been imagining them as an electronic book (ebook) that people could download to their smartphones so that a positive affirmation is just a click away. How different would life be if you looked down at your phone when someone is yelling at you and saw the message "I surrender to the beauty of others."



I had set out in January 2009 to self-publish a book by the end of the year, and in my own fashion it manifested into being. It took some goal setting and a great deal of letting go of expectations, but these two actions continually motivate me to be in business for myself. When you in engage in goal setting, you are creating a relationship with your deepest desires. It's like partnering in a dance with your Self. What could be more beautiful?

Sometimes the goals you set fall away or turn into new goals. Sometimes they don't happen in the manner or timing that you planned, but the most important thing is to first put the goal in motion, step out on the dance floor and enjoy a moment of being with the most authentic parts of yourself.

Whatever goals you've set for this past year, I hope you have had fun playing with them and whatever goals you've had to let go of, many blessings to your heart for putting them in motion and experiencing your most beautiful self in a new way!

Angel: Divine Light & Immortality

Immortal Beloved, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry): silver angel charm

Your true essence is an angel – a divine light that is ever expanding with no beginning and no end. Connect with your angel nature and live knowing that you are immortal and now is your eternity.

Bunny Flight: Harmony with Nature

Bunny Flight, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry): fine silver bunny charm

A small band of rabbits in Watership Down embark upon a heroic journey of self-discovery. Their quest begins with the simple desire to find a better home, but eventually echos our own deep yearning to live free and in harmony with nature.

Wear Bunny Flight and find your true home in nature.

The Secret Life of Opals

Peruvian blue opal

Opal was the chapter in Victoria Finlay's Jewels: A Secret History that made me want to write The Secret Life of Gems blog series. Finlay turned my prejudice against opals upside down. I found myself wanting to visit the local gem dealer for a clandestine meeting where he would pull out his most precious opals and reveal their deepest secrets.

Seriously, until reading the chapter on opals in Jewels: A Secret History, I usually snubbed my nose at these gems. I really didn't get them, and I certainly had no appreciation for them. For me, opals were like a challenging food I tasted as a kid and decided never to go there again.

The first surprise was discovering that today most opals are mined in the outback of Australia. That was enough for me to sit up and take notice. Gorgeous landscapes, rough riders, and a burning sun spell adventure and romance to me...I'm hooked, sign me up!

From interesting characters scouring the outback to an ancient Roman senator choosing exile over relinquishing his prized opal, Victoria Finlay paints a picture of curiosity. Who wouldn't be intrigued by buried cat bones turning into rose opals or making glittering stones in glass jars? This chapter made me scratch my head and ponder opals afresh.

One of the most interesting reveals on opals, is the story of how they may have acquired the reputation for being a bad luck stone. In the nineteenth century, Sir Walter Scott wrote Anne of Geierstein a spooky ghost novel, where a mystery lady called Hermione is magically linked to her favorite opal. After giving birth, a drop of holy water falls on Hermione's mystical opal and changes into lifeless and colorless stone. In the novel, the opal mirrors Hermione's every mood and aptly foretells her demise into a pile of grey ashes. Who'd want to wear opals after reading this scary novel?

Well, of course Anne of Geierstein may have not been the only reason for opal's bad reputation, and I'm still skeptical of all that flashy color, but adventuring through Victoria Finlay's Jewels: A Secret History sure makes me stop and wonder what I've been missing out on by letting my prejudice get the best of my curiosity.

Collaboration as Inspiration

Diane's Story, Design collaboration between Diane King and jewelry designer
Jennifer Casady; necklace designed by Jennifer Casady and charms fabricated by
Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry): sterling silver chain, fine silver charms, apatite, garnet,
amethyst, chrome diopside, pink tourmaline, kyanite, and peridot

What fascinates me most about Hint Jewelry is the idea of multiplicity. Right now Hint Jewelry has over 50 charm designs, so if you're a math wiz, you'll realize stringing them on a chain allows for endless combinations. Recently, I came to understand that the only way I could see all these design possibilities is to loosen the slack on being a jewelry designer and bump up my game on being a charm supplier.

Since I started Hint Jewelry, choosing between being a charm supplier versus jewelry designer has been a nagging question that I have been reluctant to answer. I wasn't ready to let go of control and give in to something more powerful and spontaneous.

The two necklaces featured in this blog mark a distinctive emotional shift from doing to inspiring, and this has made all the difference in the success of my business over the last three months.

Have you ever held on to an idea so tight that you suffocated the creative process? This happened when my friend Diane presented me with a lovely design for her story necklace. I wasn't listening. I wasn't seeing the design in my head. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't let go of my own ideas and trust the process. In my own awkward way, I was asking for help. Luckily, Diane shared her vision and Hint Jewelry charms with jewelry designer Jennifer Casady, who was able to pull together color, shape and texture into these two magnificent story necklaces.

Alison's Story, Design collaboration between Diane King and jewelry designer
Jennifer Casady; necklace designed by Jennifer Casady and charms fabricated by
Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry):sterling silver chain, fine silver charms,
amethyst and chrome diopside

When Diane emailed the pictures of the final necklaces, a part of my heart lit up with delight. I LOVE THEM! There is absolutely no way my necklace design would have compared with the final results produced by Jennifer Casady.

It affirmed everything that I already know but just needed it played out in the universe. Hint Jewelry charms offer people an opportunity to come together for inspiration and collaboration. Two is fun but three is always leads to something more powerful. Having this experience of letting go and watching Diane and Jennifer Casady take over the design process, allowed me to see that being a charm supplier is my greatest gift. Giving people charms that spark inspiration, make human connections, and lead to something creative is being accord with my highest self.

Nothing could have warmed my heart more, then when Diane wrote me about her necklace and said,"I wore it for the first time today and felt so empowered." My deepest gratitude to Diane and Jennifer for their creative energies that helped me see something extraordinary in the world.

Behind the Scenes: Planning Ahead with a Jewelry Marketing Calendar

Frog Prince, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry):
fine silver frog prince charm

A couple of weeks ago, I caught one of Disney's promos for The Princess and the Frog opening in movie theaters December 11th. If someone had snapped a photo of me it would have looked a lot like a woman panicking as she watched her plane take off without her. How could I have missed this cool opportunity to launch my Frog Prince charm alongside a Disney film?

Business takes planning and in this Behind the Scenes blog feature I'm going to offer some insight into how I have developed a seasonal marketing calendar to keep me more on track. This calendar is a work in progress, so if you have experience that can help me as well as others understand how to keep your business in step with the seasons I'd love to hear more.

It all started this summer, when I began reading my Etsy emails and noticed that they had started an aggressive campaign of merchandising using seasonal themes. Remember I'm not business savvy, so duh a light bulb went off, there must be a calendar out there that stores use to plan their marketing strategy for the whole year. I never found a calendar online that completely made sense to me, but Jerry Smith, Beads & JSBeads.com compiled some great ideas on how to get started on a marketing calendar.

I drew up a document that sketched out month by month what I should doing. There are three main categories of work that I need to focused on:

1. Launching and fabricating seasonal charms.
2. Designing and marketing seasonal jewelry.
3. Designing stamp molds for future charms.

By understanding how long it takes to make charms, design jewelry, and photograph work, I began to see a pattern. I should always be working at least two months ahead on fabricating and designing jewelry and for marketing seasonal themes, I should be working at least one month ahead. Here's an example of a project plan for January 2010:

JANUARY

Holidays
New Year's Day
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Lunar New Year
Lincoln's Birthday

Fabrication & Design: March
Fabricate spring charm & jewelry collection
Plan bridal collection

Marketing Campaign: February
January 1 - February 13: Valentines charm & jewelry collection
Chinese New Year's charms and Pisces charm

For each month, I went through my desk calendar and noted all the holidays in my merchandising plan, so if I see a connection to one of my charms or jewelry designs I can use it for tagging and marketing.

As you can see this calendar could become more complex as my business grows, including key dates for submitting ads, magazine designs, and applications for jewelry shows. This year I'm starting simple and noting where I may need to make adjustments.

All this work on my jewelry marketing calendar, and I didn't account for popular culture. This is where my Frog Prince charm fell through the cracks. Ironically, Frog Prince is one of the first stamp molds I created, but the silver charm has never seen the light of day because he needs to be redesigned. All the little details like his crown and froggy feet need to be enlarged so they are more successfully rendered using a rubber stamp mold.

This year I have been stepping away from popular culture: hiding out in my studio, watching less TV, and reading fewer magazines. Nevertheless, it seems sensible that when you fully define your audience, you need to stay in touch by following at least one form of media. The focus of my business is still a bit scattered, and I haven't fully defined my audience. So understanding my market is one area growth for 2010.

To learn more check out my Behind the Scenes series, where I explore making jewelry, designing metal clay charms, and running an online business.

Rosy Revolver

Bali Hai Bauble - A Vintage Glass and Sterling Silver Finger Festoon,
Rosy Revolver: sterling silver and vintage glass

Last week I fell in love with Rosy Revolver on Etsy. Mentioned on the Humblebeads blog for an amazing ring that features one of Heather Powers' polymer clay pendants, I couldn't resist the pure craftsmanship that is evident in the carefully arranged metal flowers. My favorite is this Bali Hai ring that calls to mind something that could be both tribal and classically Western all at the same time. Of course anyone that uses a song title from South Pacific has my attention!

Breaking Boxes Ring - Rustic Finger Festoon, Rosy Revolver:
sterling silver and polymer clay bead (Humblebeads)

Rosy Revolver has some gumption alright, mixing decidedly feminine themes with hard-edged masculine metal and making something completely unique. She is designing jewelry that explores what it means to be a woman in a world of contradictions.

Bud Studs for Rosy Lobes, Rosy Revolver: sterling silver

There is a little bit of something for everyone at Rosy Revolver's shop like these quaint Bud Studs. I can't help but think that when you're done shopping at Rosy Revolver you're going to feel completely cared for because she even remembered to include "love" in the list of materials!

Stillness: Divine Existence

Stillness, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry): fine silver spiral charm

A gentle raindrop hits a puddle and tiny waves ripple out from its still center. Like the absolute stillness of pooling water, you too can locate inner peace at any moment. For you are a letting go -- an absolute still point of divine existence.

The Secret Life of Pearls

Beloved, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry):
freshwater pearl and silver angel wing charm necklace

The next part of my series The Secret Life of Gems covers Victoria Finlay's third chapter of Jewels: A Secret History -- pearls! By the way, I totally scored this week. My hubby tuned into my blog and picked up Jewels: A Secret History as a Christmas present, and now I'm starting to see another advantage to my online diary!

I could blather on endlessly about pearls because frankly they're my fav. Sometimes I have to hold myself back from adding a pearl to one of my Hint charm necklaces, because it seems sensible to spread the love to those other beauties in my bead stash. What is it about pearls that is so enticing? For me, it represents what I feel most close to in nature like the luminosity of the moon, fluffy white clouds, secret treasures found underwater, pure falling snowflakes, and being able to appreciate the unique qualities of each living thing.

I don't care if people make fun of that 1950s stereotyped housewife beaming by the kitchen stove wearing a glistening strand of white pearls. I love her! She was the best our society could do in that moment to preserve our fragile relationship with Aphrodite (Venus), the ancient Greek goddess of love, beauty and creativity.

In Victoria Finlay's book Jewels: A Secret History, you will discover how pearls went from being something rare, incredibly expensive, and available to only the most rich and famous of the ancient world to becoming the everyday woman's most beloved accessory.

In this chapter, the biggest surprise for me was learning that the British Isles has a long history of producing natural river pearls that led to a Roman invasion and occupation by Julius Caesar in 55 B.C. Am I the only one that is clueless about the existence of river pearls in Great Britain?

Well, if you are as in the dark as me about pearls in rivers, then you will also be shocked to know that these freshwater beauties come from mussels instead of oysters. These wild mussels are now endangered and pearling in Great Britain has been banned. Nevertheless, Finlay seeks out one of these old pearl-fisherman, who is part of a group of travelers found in Scotland.

From this unique encounter with an old Gaelic storyteller, Finlay learns the symbiotic relationship between these people and the rivers, tricks of the pearl-fishers trade and real truth about how a pearl is made.

December Angels

Blessed Assurance, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry):
freshwater pearl, apatite, silver angel wing charm, and gold filled chain

I love a good angel, don't you? For Hint Jewelry, I finally produced a couple of angel themed charms that are perfect for the holidays as well as year round gift giving. It took me a while to come up with charm stories for each of these beauties because of course there is so much I want to say about angels.

To get you in the mood for the upcoming festivities here are my angel charm stories and a few designs to inspired your creativity.

Immortal Beloved, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry):
freshwater pearls, sterling wire, and silver angel charms

Your true essence is an angel – a divine light that is ever expanding with no beginning and no end. Connect with your angel nature and live knowing that you are immortal and now is your eternity.

These are a pair of earrings I designed for my mom to give as gift this Christmas. I'm just tickled that a couple of angels will be whispering secrets in her friend's ears this season!

Sweet Blessing, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry): silver angel wing charm

In loss, you are infinite love where deep sorrow is a sweet blessing. Let sadness awaken you to universal connection. Find comfort in the seed of your sorrow and wisdom will move you to a higher consciousness -- a place where every loss is a perfect blessing.

Sometimes my husband thinks my writing is too sad, but I'm really want to understand grief, and how can I write something happy about loss? For this angel wing charm, I tried to see the happiness in sorrow.

Immortal Beloved, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry): silver angel pocket charm

Secretly I've always wanted a pocket angel. Oh yes, I meander through the shop at Portland Art Museum and consider buying a little pewter pocket angel and then always cross it off my list before final purchase. Maybe its because I was waiting to create my own little pocket angel!

A couple weeks ago someone asked me to make a pocket angel out of my charm design, and I fell in love. It's so tiny and sweet without the hole. She's the angel I've always wanted. For years I've been window shopping at Wendt and Kuehn's wooden angel shop seeking the perfect angel to add to my Christmas decorations. It is no accident that Hint Jewelry's angel charm design grew out of looking at Wendt and Kuehn's wood carvings.

Wishing you many angels this holiday season!

Behind the Scenes: Publishing a Print on Demand Book (POD)

Personalized Your Story Charm Jewelry,
Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry):
print on demand book from Lulu.com

Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.
Promises Message from a Dove Chocolate...dark chocolate of course :)

I wrote step-by-step computer instructions for a living, so it's no wonder that when opening a box from Ikea I first study the manual and sort out the supplies. I'm a planner, organizer, instruction reader, and big picture thinker.

So don't ask me why I threw every piece of common sense out the window and dove in head first when self-publishing a book. Call me over excited, but my little book project took twice as long, caused a good deal of hair loss, and an opportunity to being again with a little more intelligence :)

In this Behind the Scenes moment, I'm going to share my experience self-publishing a book that acts much like a portfolio and showcases personalized Hint Jewelry charm story jewelry. Most people find deeper connection with Hint Jewelry by reading my charm stories, so I published this book to be part of the display at the Face Body Soul show in October. I wanted a way for people to meet me, even when I'm not physically present. My idea was to take my Etsy web site and transform it into a book. I loved the idea of having a book that is actually a portfolio of all your past and current work.

Personalized Your Story Charm Jewelry,
Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry):
copyright page for print on demand book from Lulu.com

Before choosing Lulu.com as my vendor for my book, I did do some research regarding self-publishing, print on demand, and different companies. Here are some links that might be helpful:

Self-publishing for fiction, photography, poetry, cookbooks, etc.: Lulu
For people who are serious about self publishing and selling a book on Amazon.com: BookSurge
Good self-publishing for arts, photography, and craft related books: Blurb
Publishing through CafePress: CafePress's Publishing Learning Center
Software for people that really want to get into publishing and uploading to Blurb: Adobe InDesignComparison of a mini book publishing experience (excellent for comparing brands): Greenchairpress.com
Publishing On Demand (POD) defined and list of potential publishers: PublishOnDemand.net
25 Things You Need to Know about Self-Publishing a Book
Self-Publishing vs. POD Publishing
Warnings and Cautions for Writers of Print On Demand Books

After making my grand tour of print on demand books, I decided to try out Lulu.com because they had a format I liked, were relatively easy to use, and since I'm not distributing this book it seemed like the simplest solution. Lulu.com is a good place for that book of family photos, recipes, kids drawings, and poetry that you've always wanted to turn into a lasting memento. In the past I had used iPhoto on my Mac to create a family album as a gift, so I was pretty confident that I would enjoy the results from Lulu.com.

I really wanted to use Blurb because they have some beautiful hardcover formats, but unfortunately in order to design a book, I had to download their BookSmart application, which didn't run at top speed on my Mac -- I'm talking huge lag time between uploading photos and processing the design. It looks like I may not have had enough memory to run this application. Everything on Lulu.com is uploaded directly to their web site but designed in another application on your computer such as Microsoft Word.

If you are going to publish a book, and leave it out in the world, be sure to include a copyright page. Here's a example of the text I used for my print on demand book.

Copyright © 2009 by Beth Hemmila

Cover and book design by Beth Hemmila


All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval
systems, without permission in writing from the author.

Beth Hemmila
www.hint.etsy.com

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing: September 2009

I can't tell you if this copyright is legit, but hey it makes me look professional and again I'm not distributing this book and saw it as a way of indicating that the text has some ownership. If you are really serious about registering your book, visit the copyright faqs section on Lulu.com for more details.

Personalized Your Story Charm Jewelry,
Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry):
print on demand book section page

Okay, I can't stress this enough...READ THE DIRECTIONS :) This is where I started merrily skipping all the details and diving headlong into my project. I didn't take the time to read through the Step by Step Guide to the Lulu Publishing Process.

A couple things that were nagging at the back of my brain, but weren't kicking in until I was 90% complete, was choosing the correct format for my file and font type. In my gut I know serif fonts are the best to use for printed material, but I was so utterly hooked on this cool Optima font that I couldn't let it go. This caused a lot of headaches with my upload, sleepless nights where I wondered if every letter would be blurred, etc. So before you put your fingers to the keyboard and start typing your book, read this section on acceptable fonts if Lulu creates your PDF file. Needless to say I was powering on through, making my own PDF files and didn't read the fine print that I would have to embed the fonts in the document before uploading. Don't ask what I did to correct it by waving my magic wand, just pick the right font from the beginning like a nice, easy going, reliable 12pt Times New Roman.

Personalized Your Story Charm Jewelry,
Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry):
example of text and pictures for print
on demand book from Lulu.com

Why was I creating my own PDFs, you ask? I had this clever idea that I would make my book in Adobe Photoshop where I could easily format text and pictures alongside each other. Because of the Guidelines feature in Adobe Photoshop this seemed like an easier method for making text and pictures line up neat and tidy. This meant that each page of my book was one file. So with 35 pages I had to upload 35 files individually. This was super inefficient and converting my jpeg files to PDFs was even more insanity. Nevertheless, with all this added hassle my book turned out pretty decent and my worrying over distorted text was wasted energy.

Personalized Your Story Charm Jewelry, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry):
cover of softcover print on demand book from Lulu.com

I will be redoing my book though. One of the features of the sassy, glossy Lulu.com softcover books is that they don't lay flat. The cover curls up and bugs the perfectionist printer inside of me to no end.

Because I'm going to reprint my book as a hardcover, I have to switch formats and redo all text and pictures for my manuscript. Yes, I'm a little bummed, but this gave me the perfect opportunity to find new solutions. Here is what I am going to do differently the second time around.

1. Read through all the instructions!!!
2. Use a hardcover book format instead of softcover.
3. Pick a serif font that Lulu.com likes such as Times New Roman.
4. Create a file template in Microsoft Word that matches the dimensions of my book format.
5. Create a multiple page document in Microsoft Word so I have one easy file to upload. This also lets me see how the pages will flow together.
6. Use tables in Microsoft Word to format my book so that text and charm pictures are easily aligned.

Hopefully, I'll have this baby published in 2010 so as to share the results of my second time around :)

Check out my whole Behind the Scenes blog series for information on making jewelry and running a business.

Spaciousness

How do you create true spaciousness between human beings?

Lately I've come to understand a physical trigger that says, "hold on, sister, you're losing touch with something very important here." My body starts to feel like it's in a tug of war and usually, I'm too caught up in the moment to understand what's happening.

I'm resisting. I'm stopping that internal flow.

When a person's need doesn't mesh with my own, my first impulse is to submit or resist to what I perceive as a demand. What I am wishing for is that timeless moment when I can just stop and hear the voice from within that has a need, be with it and let all the other stuff fall away. I find it hard to create this spaciousness because I have to intentionally seek it.

My dream is to be like this flower, caught blowing in the wind by the click of a camera, where one moment feels forever free.

Pinecone: Eternal Life

Eternal Life, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry): fine silver pine cone charm

Your soul is eternal, spilling out from All That Is and yearning to create without end. Following a spiralling path of birth, death, and renewal, your soul seeks new learning and leads you there. You are meant to be on the edge of uncertainty, finding renewal in the darkest of places. Wear a pine cone, the ancient symbol for eternal life, and celebrate the unfolding of your soul.