Inspired & Lifted by Your Music

Music cleanses the understanding; inspires it, and lifts it into a realm which it would not reach if it were left to itself.

~Henry Ward Beecher

Thank you ever so much for all the fun that was had this week for the first ever Challenge of Music!

Whew! It took me a few days to get through it all. I wanted to be sure to listen, really listen to the music that you selected so that I could leave a comment that is worthy of your creations. I heard music that I may have forgotten, discovered new music and artists along the way, experienced world cultures and had a fabulous time getting to know all of you a bit better through your unique musical fingerprints! I have a better understanding of who you are, where you come from, what is important to you. Someone commented to me that it was like getting to know all these fabulous people on a deeper level so that we can appreciate one another in our little community so much more. I couldn't agree more!

I knew that I would get a lot of great musical inspirations, but I really wasn't prepared for how deep your interpretations were. I am truly humbled by all of your words and beautiful interpretations. These inspirations really brought out the best in all of the participants. There are some really thoughtful insights on these blog posts.

By the way, if you missed going to Molly Alexander's blog Beautifully Broken Me, please go back and check out her post. Somehow she was inadvertently missing from the list and I added her in later in the day. You won't want to miss her interpretation of her favorite song, a song that I identify with Miss Molly everytime I hear it!

I know that it was a challenge for some because they could not narrow it down to one song or genre, or because they wanted to try something new and it just couldn't come out of their head and into their hands as easily as they thought. I know that some of this music stirred up passionate and powerful personal stories. I guess that is why it is called a Challenge (I never said it would be easy!). I loved hearing that this will inspire some of you to continue creating based off the music that is the soundtrack of your life. That makes me happier than you can ever know. Your outpouring of love for this event, and also hearing from some who couldn't take part or learned about it too late, has inspired me to make the Challenge of Music an annual event. I am not sure if it will be in February next year, but I have decided that this is the type of challenge that would be great to look forward to as well as providing a very large range to choose from every year. I hope you agree!

The next quarterly challenges will be in May, August and the return of the 3rd annual Challenge of Color in November. Mark your calendars! You will have to sign up using the form on my site and I email the participants about three times over the course of the month so we can all be on the same page. Watch for information on signing up the first week of those months!

I promised some giveaways for those who commented on my post and for the hoppers themselves.

To these commenters on my post I will make a special 'simple truth' pendant with a musical message that I am working on:

Lola Surwilla

Erin Fickert-Rowland

Brandi Hussey

And to these three faithful hoppers, I will give them each a choice: one of my new Story Beads created just for them or an iTunes gift card to explore more music!

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Malin de Koning

Sarah Sequins ;-)

Winners, please email me your mailing address to me at enjoytheday{at}tesoritrovati{dot}com and I will get started on your prizes.


And just a heads up that the lovely Miss Lori Anderson of Pretty Things will be hosting the 5th Bead Soup blog hop tomorrow, Saturday, March 3rd. It promises to be another exciting journey around the world, they each keep getting better and better. Unfortunately, I was not able to commit to participating this time around, but I know from experience that it is one amazing hop with some incredible designs from around the world. I can't help but be inspired by the Bead Soup and it is always fun to make new friends around the world. I understand that there are participants from 16 countries. So cool! Please go and check out Lori's blog tomorrow!

Your turn...
What themes would you like me to consider for the upcoming quarterly Challenge hops in May and August? Give me some suggestions of what you would like to see, what you like about my Challenges, or even things that could be improved on with my hop. I am open to suggestions!

P.S. Of course since I had nothing better to do this week (;-) I accepted the request of a local group to set up a mini one person show at an event with loads of ladies on Saturday. I am hoping they are in the mood to buy. So of course I created more jewelry into the wee hours late last night, and will do so again tonight. However, that means that I will put my shop on vacation mode tonight to pull all the stock in preparation. If there is something you have had your eye on you best snatch it up! I am hoping that it will all sell out tomorrow and I won't have a thing in my Etsy store... that just means I will have to get off my butt and make more! FLASH SALE! If you use the code: MUSIC you can get 15% off but only until 6:00 PM tonight! Go to the shop now!