Winter Fair a great success for True Colours and other exhibitors!

Those green shoots are beginning to appear! After two quarters where the Irish economy has shown slight growth, we saw great support for the quality craft work we were offering in Dalkey Castle at the Winter Fair. On Saturday alone, more than 2,000 people came through the doors and found quality gifts to purchase, for Christmas and other occasions. Great signs of progress and hope!

Winter Fair in Dalkey Castle

True Colours Freshwater Pearl and Gemstone Jewellery at the Winter Fair

Looking forward to the first major craft fair of the winter, in Dalkey Castle and Heritage Centre this coming weekend! Excited to be unveiling my new pearl necklaces and bracelets and my gorgeous silver- and rolled gold-wrapped gemstone unique pieces in this gorgeous setting.

Admission free to the public, Sat-Sun 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Venez nombreux!

Meet Aura-Soma® Colour Care at Mullingar Park Hotel Sunday 11th April

With my good friend and fellow-Aura-Soma® consultant Olive Daly, I will be giving a talk about this wonderful system and offering short consultations at a holistic fair in the above venue, from noon until 6 p.m. To ensure your place for a life-changing consultation, be sure to come and book in with us early in the day!

As an added bonus, I am selling off lots of wonderful books from my holistic collection at only €5 each! Many great books that are currently out of print but no less helpful for that.
Venez nombreux!

My new card

I had Stephen put together a new card for me, bringing in the necklace from my shop and blog and soldering it to my two favourite Aura-Soma® bottles. I'm very pleased with the result.


Having spent the last two years or more developing my jewellery-making and business skills, my Aura-Soma® colour work which has been with me since 1993, and which really helps people at a soul level, is clamouring for attention and time. I'm doing a one-day colour workshop, an introduction to Aura-Soma®, on Sunday 18 April and a 6-day Aura-Soma® Level I training 30 April-2 May + 14-16 May. I just love how the colour connects deeply with people!

"That'll put hair on your chest"

The designer of my lovely new business card, Stephen McNally, has submitted a rather fun tee-shirt design to Threadless.com


I'd appreciate if you would support him by clicking on the title and giving him a five if you like his design which I personally think both looks intriguing and has the requisite element of whimsy...

The Dragon and the Apprentice: Top Tips for Business Success in 2010

This event was held on Monday 11th January to raise funds for the coming season's schedule of free training seminars for Irish Women in Business. The two main presenters were Bill Cullen, chief taskmaster of The Apprentice
and Sean Gallagher, "the firiest dragon of them all".
The MC for the day was Michelle Daly, a real new media wiz, and she and Tara Wilson Black, founder of IWIB, seem to have done the lion's share of the backroom work, ably aided by a team of helpers. A number of other presenters took part. And the day was brought to a rousing end of astonishing quality by Veronica Canning, she of 'Shoeisms'.

Michelle, Veronica and Tara seen here with Bill Cullen.

The event was outstanding for the positive energy that characterised its organisation and execution - the team even managed to manifest a thaw so that the snowbound could travel to be there! Outstanding too were the level and quality of sponsorship it brought together, with services being donated free by a number of companies. Michelle made sure that those who could not attend had live updates on Twitter and YouTube, and some great photos have been posted on Facebook. I was fortunate to secure a stand within the conference room to showcase my work and was delighted to get to know the gracious visitors to my stand.
Bill's advice was based on the principles in his book, Golden Apples, while Sean emphasised the need to respond to change with positive action. A common theme was the importance of passion along with a willingness to work hard but smart, and to have someone to bounce ideas off - an 'accountability partner' to use Sean's American expression. Other speakers reinforced the theme of keeping one's energy positive on many levels, and Veronica ended the day by inviting us to formulate a 'big audacious aim' - I sheepishly reduced it to BAA as my nmemonic, pardon the pun! This BAA to be where and what we would like to be three years down the road. It had worked spectacularly for her, why not for us too?

Winter Wonderland

Check out the amazing snowy photos of Ireland under a blanket of white!
http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0107/snow_gallery.html

This link came to me courtesy of my lovely horticultural hort'curious friend Ena Ronayne who does a great gardening blog.

I'll be travelling the snowy roads tomorrow to get to the Osprey Hotel in Naas, I have taken a stand to show my jewellery at the exciting event, The Dragon and the Apprentice. I'll try to post a report on it afterwards...

DIY stand for my rosary beads

I saw a tip posted on Rena Klingenberg's great tips newsletter and website - http://www.home-jewelry-business-success-tips.com - and sent in by Beth Millner. I felt sure I could adapt it to hang and display my various semi-precious stone rosary beads. Beth had made hers from a combination of wooden dowelling and curved and t-connectors for copper piping and was using it to hang cards for her pendants.

The incredible thing was that when I went shopping in Woodies, dowelling was actually 50% more expensive than copper piping (!!) as well as being a shorter length, so I was delighted to be able to treat myself to a long length of half-inch copper piping and make a really good-looking stand which I have protected from tarnish with a light coating of Renaissance wax.

The hardware shop was also my source for the clear shower curtain rings I used to hang the beads on; very convenient as they can be opened individually to remove a rosary to show clients.

The beauty of this design is that it can be made to almost any height and width you might require. It did a great job for me!! I can see myself making more of them!

Five great days at the National Crafts Fair, RDS, Dublin 2009

It was a big step for me, and I had such a lovely time! Set-up on Tuesday followed by five days (the first three from 10 in the morning to ten at night) on the balcony with wonderful friends on either side of me. The event organisers had created a great atmosphere with musicians and a terrific food emporium as well as a huge Christmas tree and great pennants hanging down.

I was delighted to be in stand B8 - the Aura-Soma bottle B8 is all about lightening the heart by following your joy and doing what you love. I loved connecting with those who came in to my stand, and quite a few remarked on seeing my motto - made with love, wear with joy - that they could feel the love in the jewellery.

The Aura-Soma Air Conditioners came into their own for clearing and lifting the energy on our stands. There was such a great sense of positive energy surrounding us and people seemed to relax and open their purse strings to treat themselves to something nice as well as buying beautiful gifts for friends.

The long-drawn-out two-month process of applying for a credit card machine culminated in delivery of the machine in the nick of time, the evening before the show opened! And a number of people commissioned me to make something for them in the weeks following the show, so tons of encouragement!

Dalkey Winter Fair was good...

Dalkey was interesting. The torrential rain on the invite-only opening night kept the crowds small, and I stepped in a puddle in the dark which got me wet over my ankle, shoe, sock and all.


My wirewrapped pendant necklaces were much admired, and people were delighted to get lovely freshwater pearl earrings, both drop and stud, at good prices. Especially popular were my birds nest gemstone rings, a show special at just €19!

All very encouraging with the RDS craft fair coming up 2-6 December.