Please excuse my temporary drab blog appearance.
We are currently updating the blog to be more user friendly and include all necessary tools for sharing.

Along with that will come a nice new header with some of our favorite ocean friends.

Smiles and Aloha,
Donna

No bad at all!

Smiles,
Donna

PS Read a great article about it all here in the Ventura County Star

You can’t vote on it any more, but please come watch my video and be inspired!
Fingers crossed, my friends!

SMiles and Aloha,
Donna

As you may know, I’m a finalist in the Intuit Small Business United Contest.
I submitted my story, it won among over 1900 entries as one of 50 finalists with the help of many of you who read my story and rated it as Inspiring Funny and Useful.
So for the next round, I had to create a video, which is now live.

http://community.intuit.com/contests/aP3kaUx0aqllvkab8P4pmk

This video expresses how one can turn a passion into a viable business.
I think this video really hits a nerve because the free-fall that I experienced when I left Berlin and struck out on my own once again is not unlike what many are experiencing today in our economic disaster era with the loss of stability connected to the loss of the status quo on so many levels.

This shift is a time of true opportunity.
One CAN create a business based on passion.
There’s nothing to lose, really, if you think about it…

http://community.intuit.com/contests/aP3kaUx0aqllvkab8P4pmk

Bonus: you will finally get to hear me sing. ; )

How to “vote”:
-click on link above and watch the video
-rate it as INSPIRING USEFUL and/or FUNNY (you get THREE votes, one each category)
-Create an Intuit Community ID and password (sorry! But it’s very brief)
-Leave a comment if compelled, but not necessary
-Spread it far and wide via your blogs, social networks and more

Thank you!

With love and gratitude,
Donna

But I doubt there will be much of a chance of survival in the age of transparency.

I’ve been talking about transparency for years now and am relieved to see it starting to become a reality with the way business is done. That has been Green America’s mission for 25 years, to change the way business is done in America.
My small business, Betty Belts, is a Green America member and more importantly, screened and approved business for social and environmental responsibility.

There’s been so much hype about GREEN, but what good is an organic cotton tote bag if it’s made in a sweat shop in China?
Or if you buy it in a big box retailer that cheated the small company that sold it to them with their “vendor compliance” chargebacks or even more common these days, simply hasn’t paid them?

I welcome transparency, I look forward to the day when big companies can’t stop news of their disreputable tactics from being spread because of the power of their money and lawyers.

Read my winning story here: Passages
and see what you think!

My video will be posted by the 18th and then another (shorter) frenzy of voting begins then.
Stay tuned! I will need your vote then too!

Smiles,
Donna

It’s not just in the ocean, but in our streets, in our landfills and in our parks. Let’s stop it now!

***

Have you ever been at the beach and noticed all the tiny pieces of Styrofoam in the sand?

Or, have you ever worked to clean up a beach only to realize that nothing you could ever do would remove all those little pieces of Styrofoam? That’s why we need to ban single-use Styrofoam containers today.

Join the 7,000 people who have called on the governor to take action.

Why not just ask the fast-food chains to use bio-degradable takeout containers? It just seems crazy that we would use something for 10 minutes and then have it float in the ocean, or lie in the sand, for hundreds and hundreds of years.

The benefits simply do not outweigh the costs.
Styrofoam (expanded and extruded polystyrene foam) is getting more and more pervasive in the marine environment. When littered or blown from trashcans, it is carried from streets and through storm drains out to the ocean. It breaks into smaller and smaller pieces that wash onto the shore, and which animals mistake for food.

Styrofoam has not been around long enough to know its true life. Most scientists agree that it will break down into increasingly smaller pieces but never disappear.

Let’s ban single-use Styrofoam takeout containers before they cause any more damage. Click on the link below to tell the governor that you want to take back your beaches. And please, forward this e-mail to your family and friends.

http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/action/oceans/say-no-to-styro?id4=ES
Thanks for standing up for our beaches,

Dan Jacobson
Environment California Legislative Director
DanJ@environmentcalifornia.org
http://www.environmentcalifornia.org

She is well qualified to as author of the book Surfer Sister.

Here is a blog she wrote as an introduction for those interested in the world of surfing.
http://www.examiner.com/x-2148-LA-Surfing-Examiner~y2009m1d19-Do-you-want-to-start-surfing

It’s truly amazing how surfing changed my own life. Connecting with the vast and mysterious ocean almost every day is something I would not trade for anything now. My Betty B. Shop (and Headquarters) is located just four blocks from the beach and I can even see the ocean from here.

I love it.

She then found it and pulled out this perfectly teardrop shaped piece of yellow sea glass she scored on the beach by her house the other day. I call it the Canary Diamond of the Sea, as yellow is an extremely rare color for sea glass and it’s perfect shape, honed by the ocean, sand and rocks, is mind-boggling.

I’m blown away that she decided to give it to me. Tracy walks on the beach almost every day for sanity maintenance and her walks are the source for much of the sea glass I use to make my jewelry.

I am excited about my latest designs, which are now in my shop in Ventura. We started working with recycled silver and the results are fabulous. Come by and check them out!
Or find a selection on my website too!

Thank you, Tracy!