Winner...

I'm not quite back in the fold of things yet, but I thought that I would mention that I was the winner of Nina Designs September Jewelry Design Challenge: Seven Moons!  A big thanks goes out to everyone who voted for my piece, Night of the Shaman!  I appreciate the help and support!  Winning does much to bolster my spirits and is always a nice feeling!  Thank you!  (Plus, I won a treasure trove of goodies and that too does much to brighten any day!)

The competition was really steep!  What amazing talent!  I was really honored to have my piece go up such talented designs.  A big "GREAT JOB!" goes out to my fellow challengers!

I encourage you to enter next month's challenge.  CLICK HERE to check out the Design Challenge Calendar.

Sometimes people say, "Oh, you're so lucky!  You win all the time!"  But I really believe in something that Oprah says frequently: Luck is preparation meeting opportunity.  If you don't enter, you can't win.  So my strategy is to enter as many things as I can realistically and feel good about the job I've done.  You have to create your own opportunities and strive for it.  Even if you don't win, you shouldn't be discouraged.  Learn from it and use it as practice for your next challenge.  At the very least, you'll end up with a piece of jewelry.  In the grand scheme of things, I have lost more times than I've won.  Losing is sometimes more educational than winning and it's a lesson in brushing off your knees and getting back up again.  (So I expect to see a dozen or more entries for the October Challenge.)