NEW YEAR WITH MY LOVE!

NEW YEAR WITH MY FRIENDS!

I joined Etsy on January 1st, 2010. That same day I opened my shop. Boy was I excited! My work would be seen from allover the world! What I didn't realize back then was that I wasn't just opening an e-shop -- I was joining the most wonderful, amazing artist community. It's been a wonderful year that has changed my life and perception of art. I've met lots of wonderful persons, incredibly talented artists and some really wonderful friends. We have given each other "hearts", we've supported each other, we've shared ideas, we've given each other precious advice, we've grown together... and most important of all, we've given each other the gift of Friendship.

I would like to thank you, my dear friends, for being part of my 2010, for your wonderful support, for your friendship and for being the sweet persons you are! My first year on Etsy has been a great one thanks to you. You have enriched me and I have learnt a lot from each and every one of YOU. Thank you for sharing my world, my love for animals, for loving my Zoe and for your endless patience with this Island-crazy girl :)!
From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU.



Thank you...
VICKI: for your wonderful support that we all know and for being such a sweetheart!
SANDRA: for being such a sweet and supportive friend, and for making me dream with each one of your amazing, colorful creations!
VIKTORIYA: for making me feel an Island Girl too!
STEPHANIA: for being so warm and supportive, and making me feel at home in the Greek community!
KIMBA: for teaching me so many things about true love for animals, and for that wonderful Kitty Fairy that is so dear to my heart!
MERCEDES: for being such a wonderful and supportive friend, for always believing in me and and for your endless patience with my Island-and-Guitar-Hero stories :)!
HAGAR: for taking me on your wondrous and magical trips, and for being one of these "smiling faces" that make you feel warm and at home!
CARRIE: for being such a sweet and supportive friend, celebrating my every little success with me!
ANTIGONI: for making one of my dreams come true!
MARIA: for being the sweet and pure person you are, for your wonderful support and for making me dream with your sweet little creatures!
KATERINA: for being a wonderful and supportive friend, and for sharing a common love for the Islands (see you in 2011!)!
NANCY: for being such a sweet, sensitive and lovely person, and for making me dream with your art!
ELENA: for your warmheartedness and sweetness, and for making me feel at home in the Greek community!
SEBNEM: for being one of the first "smiling faces" I met on Etsy, for your precious guide and support, and for listening to me when I most needed it!
ELENI: for being a true and sincere friend, and for sharing your world with me!
MARIETTA: for making me smile with your wonderful art and for your sweetness!

IMPORTANT: There is by no means a "ranking" in this Treasury, I put your artwork together in a way that would be pleasant to the eye... And EACH item represents something about my world and my plans and hopes for 2011! I really hope this Treasury will NEVER make it to Front Page, as there are NO "alternates" here! :)
HAPPY NEW YEAR and see you in 2011!!!
(with some of you this might literally come true)

NEW YEAR WITH MY LOVE!

ZOE and 15 Cute Calico Kitties!

My sweet little princess ZOE is very happy and proud of this Treasury I dedicated her :)!

CUTE CALICO KITTIES (from Zoe with love)

Color Palette: RED

Have you ever noticed that your color palette may change according to different phases of your life? My absolute favorite color used to be BLUE... most of the jewelry I wore and created was in shades of blue. I still love blue a LOT, and it's still one of my absolute favorite colors, but recently ORANGE has made a definite entry into my life. I wear lots of accessories in orange, and this color has an important place in my creations! But now I have noticed - to my greatest surprise - that I have started wearing RED quite a lot too! I especially love warm, vibrant shades of red with orange hues. It gives such an energy boost in the winter! It's great with black... and I guess the vibrant hot color phase in my life reflects a new energy!
What are your favorite colors for accessories and jewelry?

Even my latest Treasury reflects this tendency :)...

HOT WINTER

CATS AND ARTISTS!

My new CATS AND ARTISTS collection :)!

"CATS AND ARTISTS"

Refined and delicate natures understand the cat. Women, poets and artists hold it in great esteem, for they recognise the exquisite delicacy of its nervous system.

J. Champfleury

COLORFUL WORLD!!!

This week I'm celebrating blue (one of my favorite colors), my beloved Greek Islands and... COLOR of course :)!

"DEEP BLUE SEA"

"GREEK ISLAND DREAMS"

"WE WANT COLOR!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Lovely Blog Feature by LILLYA

A dear friend and artist who's preparing her work to be launched on Etsy soon has dedicated a lovely blog post to me, my work and my Treasuries! Lillya is a lovely person who works hard to promote Etsy artists that she showcases in wonderful Treasuries and on her blog Handmade Colors. Thank you dear Lillya :)!

I LOVE BEAUTY!!!!!!!!!!

I like to think of myself as a "pagan worshipper of Beauty". I love Beauty in all its forms. I love to see Beauty in nature, in colors, in a breathtaking landscape, in a moving sunset, in an animal, in a flower, in the shades of the sea... and... well, in a beautiful human being. My Treasuries these days were dedicated to Beauty.
Guess which Treasury was my all-times view-buster ;)))))! For those of you who missed.... enjoy :D!
PS: if you click the title under each Treasury you can see the collection online and... click each "item" in case you'd like a closer look ;D

"EYE-CANDY FOR GOOD (AND NOT-SO-GOOD) GIRLS!!!"

"And yes... WE WANT COLOR!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"CATS AND ARTISTS"

Refined and delicate natures understand the cat. Women, poets and artists hold it in great esteem, for they recognise the exquisite delicacy of its nervous system.

J. Champfleury

HOT SUMMER DAYS!!!

During these really HOT days (we are in the middle of a long heat wave) I have created a few Treasuries inspired by summer! I have devoted one more Treasury to my great love for COLOR! And it was a HUGE success and my most successful Treasury ever!!!! Over 700 (SEVENHUNDRED!) viewers clicked my collection! This makes me really happy, as it means lots of people love COLOR the way I do, and my message encountered a lot of agreement :)!

"WE WANT COLOR!!!!!!!!!!!!"

This collection was inspired by the current heat wave... Maybe I should have put a refreshing collection together to cool off a little bit, but I couldn't resist showing off my love for bright orange tones, LOL :))!

"HEAT WAVE"

And just for fun... I tried my hand at my very first hot and sexy Treasury! One more big success ;)... Sexy CAN be tasteful, can't it??

"HOT & SEXY"

I LOVE ISLANDS, COLOR and CATS!!!!!!!!!!!

It's really hot and my inspiration for my Treasuries this week was mostly about... my beloved Islands!

This is a homage to my beloved Greek Islands and to a country I love! Dedicated to all Greece lovers but in particular to all my lovely Greek friends - thank you for your wonderful friendship and support!

"BEAUTIFUL GREECE! "

"BEAUTIFUL GREECE! - Part II"

"ISLAND GIRL!"

And as I passionately love COLOR as you know, I decided to create a very colorful and bright Treasury as many of us feel a definite lack of COLOR on Etsy's Front Page lately... As I found out from the enthusiastic comments, to my greatest joy there are LOTS of people who share my opinion and who passionately love COLOR the way I do!

"WE WANT COLOR!!!!!!!!!!"

And last but absolutely not least, a special Treasury dedicated to that special connection between CATS and ARTISTS!

Refined and delicate natures understand the cat. Women, poets and artists hold it in great esteem, for they recognise the exquisite delicacy of its nervous system.

J. Champfleury

"CATS AND ARTISTS"

Sunsets of Love, Summer Fireworks, an Enchanted Valley and that very special Connection between Cats and Artists!

These days my inspirations for beautiful collections have been...
those wonderful romantic summer sunsets we'll never forget...

"SUNSET OF LOVE"

...and fireworks on warm summer nights, when the sky is full of millions of stars...

"SUMMER FIREWORKS"

One more inspiration was the enchanting beauty of my beloved woods...

"ENCHANTED VALLEY"

And last but really not least, a Treasury inspired by my love for these wonderful creatures that are cats... and by a great quote about the special connection between sensitive souls and cats. 

"Refined and delicate natures understand the cat. Women, poets and artists hold it in great esteem, for they recognise the exquisite delicacy of its nervous system."

J. Champfleury

"CATS AND ARTISTS"

Hot Mediterranean Summer Afternoons, The Milky Way and Peter Pan's Neverland!

I love creating an atmosphere or telling a story with my Treasuries... These days I have created these collections inspired by hot Mediterranean afternoons, the beauty of starry nights and Peter Pan's magical Island... Neverland!

"HOT MEDITERRANEAN SUMMER AFTERNOON"

"UNDER THE MILKY WAY TONIGHT"

"NEVERLAND - L'ISOLA CHE NON C'È"

Aegean Sea, Summer in the Alps, The 4 Elements... and a Special Love

These days I was inspired to a few Treasuries that express feelings I have...

First of all a new collection dedicated to the magical Aegean Sea...

"AEGEAN SEA - Part II"

One more Treasury was dedicated to the 4 Elements: Air Fire Water Earth! I'm a Libra (Air) born on the Scorpio cusp (Water), my ascendent is Sagittarius, my Moon is in Taurus (Earth) and I have 3 planets in Virgo (Earth)... so I have all these elements in me! And with this collection I wanted to celebrate them all!

"AIR FIRE WATER EARTH"

My beloved mountains have then inspired this Alpine Treasury! I'm lucky enough to live literally at the feet of the Alps, so this collection is celebrating their beauty in summer time!

"ALPINE SUMMER"

And, dulcis in fundo, this very special and meaningful Treasury...

"CANZONE D'AMORE"

Senza fine

Tu sei un attimo senza fine

Non hai ieri

Non hai domani

Tutto è ormai nelle tue mani

Mani grandi

Mani senza fine

Non m'importa della luna

Non m'importa delle stelle

Tu per me sei luna e stelle

Tu per me sei sole e cielo

Tu per me sei tutto quanto

Tutto quanto io voglio avere

Senza fine

La, la, la, la

Senza fine

"Senza fine" Gino Paoli

Aegean Sea, Oriental Nights and Enchanted Forests!

With my Treasuries I like to celebrate things I love...
So I dedicated a treasury to the wonderful Aegean Sea that is for sure one of the most beautiful seas in the world...

"AEGEAN SEA"

...and another Treasury to the magical "oriental nights" I have felt in the air in Rhodes, where the geographical closeness to the Anatolian coast of Turkey to the North and to the Middle East to the East has made me feel so close to other, equally magical starry nights...

"ORIENTAL NIGHTS"

...and my first Treasury dedicated to another great love of mine: my beloved woods, where I love having long walks enjoying beauty, peace and nature... I was inspired to this collection by my walks in the woods, an enchanted world that is really close to my soul and a part of it...

"ENCHANTED FOREST"

FLAMING ISLAND SUNSETS

With this Treasury I have tried to capture the awesome, breathtaking and deeply moving Beauty of sunset on a Greek Island of the Aegean... the flaming explosion of reds, purples and golds...

This is a tribute of love to the most beautiful Islands in the world!
"FLAMING ISLAND SUNSETS"

ISLAND ROMANCE...

My new Island Treasury! "ISLAND ROMANCE"...

My hottest Treasury ever!!!

Inspired by HOT summer days!!! "HOT AS FIRE!!!"

Love for my Island Treasury!

There are indeed words that one can receive from total strangers and that make an artist's heart rejoyce...
As you know, my friends, I really love the Greek Islands and they are a part of my heart. Yesterday's Treasury was a tribute to this love. And when I got these messages from two Greek artists living abroad I felt I had communicated what I had in my heart... It was exactly the same feeling like creating a piece and hearing it moved somebody's heart. Thank you girls, you made MY day! And thank you Etsy :)!

Here is Marietta's convo. Marietta is a talented ceramic artist based in Minnesota, US. Her wonderful artwork can be found in her Etsy shop Blue Room Pottery as well as in many galleries allover the world.

Hi Anna,

Your list is just the thing I needed to see as I start the week! You have really made my day my dear! So refreshing, reminding me of my home country and all the beautiful summers I have spent there. Thank you so much, I love it!

I also love your work, I wish you a lot of success!

Cheers,
Marietta
xoxo

And here is Katerina's comment on my Treasury. Katerina lives in Berlin, Germany but she's originally from Greece. She creates wonderful felted items that she sells in her Etsy shop QaraQul.

You are breaking my heart with this collection!
I want to SEE the SEA!
Indeed it is beautiful! Well done!

SUNNY DAYS, ISLANDS AND RINGS...

Today is a great sunny day! Last week we had a lot of rain and clouds, but I managed to find the perfect moment for some photos of my jewelry! They turned out really great, the light was fantastic! Look how wonderful this glass ring looks... it reflects the light in such a magical way... it really makes me dream about the Aegean sea!
I had bought some wonderful glass hearts in Berlin years ago, and I then decided to make rings out of them! Each glass heart is unique, and as I love them so much I picked one for myself... and that's one of my favorite rings to wear! You should see how it reflects the light on a sunny day... just a dream! The pics here are of the ring I listed for my Etsy shop. I took these pics on my mom's balcony window sill, it's natural stone and the perfect setting for my photo shoots! I'm going to show it better on one of my next posts :)
Curious about the name of the ring?
"DREAMING OF BLUE BLUE SEAS" :)...

Today I also created one more Treasury dedicated to my beloved Greek Islands! Thank you to all the great and talented artists who contributed to this Treasury and made it wonderful!!!

"Island Dreams!"