Salon de Maria Blog

After a little break from jewelry making, I decided to explore the bead inventory and see what I could put together.  After seeing the same beads over and over, it's a challenge to feel "fresh" about creating something...

Usually when I start to make a jewelry piece, I don't really have any particular plan or design in mind.  In this case, I took out this little pendant I bought from a local San Diego artist.  She calls her business "While My Babies Were Sleeping" because she did all her work well, while her babies were sleeping!  I bought it a few years ago, but have yet to find the right beads for it.  So, I started pulling out beads to see if I could find a combination of beads that would "fit just right".

Well, after stringing a few beads on, I realized that it just wasn't working.  Usually I start to feel an adrenaline rush as I'm stringing beads together and creating the design, but this time I wasn't feeling it.  After a little while I decided to ditch the pendant and instead ended up with this piece pictured here. I call this necklace "Spring Fling" and it's now available at my Etsy shop!

Posted by Maria Palma at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It’s been awhile since I’ve written any kind of poetry.  When I was in grade school and college, I would write poems and song lyrics.  I’ll definitely have to dig through my storage and find those old notebooks to share some poetry with you.  

Well, I wrote a haiku about my latest online love:  Twitter.  This inspiration was spurred on by a challenge given to me by blogger buddy, Easton, of Visionary Blogging:

 

So, here it is... 

 

 

The next step will be to turn the haiku into a song…In the meantime, visit me over at Twitter and let’s “follow” each other ;)

Posted by Maria Palma at 02:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

When I worked at Nordstrom we were required to write two Thank you Cards a day to our customers.  Back then it seemed like such a hassle - after all, any time away from the floor meant that I was losing sales.  However, it wasn't until I left Nordstrom and began working on my own business did I realize the power of Thank You.

I haven't been consistent in saying Thank You to my customers lately, but today I'm committing to reviving the art of the handwritten thank you note.  Here's an example of what I would write in a thank you card to a jewelry client:

Dear Miss Customer,

I just wanted to drop a note to thank you for your jewelry purchase.  I hope that you are enjoying the necklace!  If you have any feedback, please don't hesitate to call or write to me. 

All the Best,
Maria
"Salon de Maria"

Very short and sweet, but hopefully it puts warm fuzzies in people's hearts.  It's rare to get a thank you note these days - and handwritten to boot!

If you just don't have the time to create your own cards like I do, CardsDirect has Thank you cards that you can purchase online.

However, you don't have to have a business just to send a card - why not send a Thank You to a friend just for being a great friend? 

By the way, have I told you "Thank You!" lately for reading this blog?  I appreciate you! 

Posted by Maria Palma at 02:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

When I first embarked into the digital art world about seven years ago, I had no idea how amazing it was going to be.  I got my first digital camera and I was ecstatic that I didn't have to buy film and take it to the photo lab anymore.  And now all the excitement is back again with the arrival of my new Bamboo pen tablet.  I felt like a five-year-old on Christmas Day as I opened the box and unwrapped this little tool.  It's the little things that make me happy :)

With this pen tablet I can create freehand digital drawings and hand-write notes which can be turned into text documents in Word (although I still prefer to type...much faster).  There's a great deal of other stuff I can do with this pen tablet that I haven't explored yet.  However, the main reason I bought it was to draw freehand in Photoshop.  I bought the small version, but I know pretty soon I'll want to go "pro" and get a bigger one.

So I unleashed the creative juices today and created a couple pieces which I turned into Mother's Day greeting cards.  They're available at my CafePress shop.  Stay tuned for more!

Well, now it's back to the "drawing board" for more practice so I can start creating art like this "Cherry Blossoms" piece by Esther Kirby...



Buy your own Bamboo pen tablet at Amazon.com

Posted by Maria Palma at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As an entrepreneur and artist, I have many jobs and wear many hats.  What you may not know about me is that besides being a jewelry designer and writer, I've also designed all my blogs and do the marketing for every one of them.  This means one of the many hats that I wear is SEO Geek. 

I'm proud to say that I'm a SEO geek.  For those of you who don't know, SEO stands for "Search Engine Optimization" which basically means that I work on designing and marketing my websites so that the search engines can easily find them.  Any and every person who owns a website or blog should be familiar with some SEO techniques and tactics - especially those who create their own content. 

I've spent countless hours researching all the different ways to rank high in the search engines.  It's great to come across other artists and designers like the ones over at this seo blog who have a passion for what they do.  All the reading and research has been worthwhile as I am now able to help the clients I write articles for become more knowledgeable about search engine optimization. 

If you need help getting your website indexed and ranked in the search engines, feel free to contact me:  maria [at] salondemaria [dot] info

Posted by Maria Palma at 02:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My camera has been stuck to my hip since I got it for Christmas and the photography folder in my computer is bursting with photos that need to be edited and uploaded to my Flickr album. Today was the day that I focused on doing just that....

Ok, so one project down. 99 more to go!

After looking at this mosaic, I realized - I mean really realized - just how abundant my life is! The vibrant colors...the gorgeous scenery in San Diego...I'm very grateful for eyes so that I can see all these wonderful things.

Read more about my abundant life over at The Good Life.

Posted by Maria Palma at 09:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Most people think California is all about glamorous celebrities, the beach, easy breezy living, and palm trees.  As a long-time resident who has lived in just about every major city in California except for Los Angeles (I vowed "never" to live there, but you never know!), I've traveled up and down this gorgeous state which is home to a wealth of agriculture. 

There's a long stretch between San Francisco and Los Angeles which has been torture for me to drive in the past because it's just a straight drive with miles and miles of flat land.  Fortunately this past weekend I was a passenger on a trip to Magic Mountain with my family who live in Central California...When lo and behold, I caught a shot of one of those oil drilling thing-a-ma-jiggers...

Not really sure why I was so intrigued by this picture. It's just something out of the ordinary that many tourists don't get to see.  Now you know.

And here's a shot of the grape vines which also grow in Central California, but are very common in Napa Valley, of course. 



I'm taking a trip to Napa in the next few weeks, so stay tuned for pictures! 

Posted by Maria Palma at 04:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)