10 Things I’ve Learned in 10 years as a Creative Entrepreneur NUMBER ONE: Hire people better than you.   Don’t be intimidated or threatened, rather CELEBRATE their giftedness! Help them follow their dreams as they help you follow yours! Early on, when I was defining what success meant to me, a desire that frequently bubbled to the surface was creating a JOYFUL work environment where my team c...

MY MAGICAL MEANING MANIFESTO... By the power vested in me by the magical vintage fairies I, Ansley Schrimsher, hereby decree:   Dora Mae is not about selling jewelry! I seriously would shrivel up and creatively die if that was our dried up business plan. Instead, we are inviting you into the process of restoring life and beauty into your family heirlooms! No heirlooms to recreate? No problem...

Evelyn Ruth, beloved grandmother of our customer Amy Rich, was born in 1914 and lived through the worst of the great depression. Evelyn was always ready for a party, although money was scarce. She strategically wore a simple wardrobe of black yet added flair and personality through costume jewelry. Her favorite spots were the jazz clubs her grandfather played in throughout the 1930's. Amy br...

Dora Mae is EXTRA in every way!  If you describe yourself as "understated" then Dora Mae Jewelry probably isn't your thing! (Although we've converted a few minimalistic fashionistas over to the "extra" side!) Not only is Ansley's design aesthetic "extra," it also takes a lot of "extra" to own and run your own creative business. Makers need extra magic, extra grit, and extra caffeine to make th...

Addicted to busyness, productivity, achievement, approval? Always in a hurry? You are not alone.  The following is both a prayer and birthday poem for my daughter on the meaning of her name... Haven   A solace of still in the storms of hurry A shelter for the spirit to sigh A prayer of peace in the woes of worry A glimpse of more than meets the eye   A symphony of silence, mist and ca...

As a creative in the fashion industry, I find myself in many conversations about true beauty. I sat down with Susannah from freedomgraceandfitness.com and answered from the heart.    Susannah: You obviously love designing beautiful things. What role would you say beauty has played in your life? Ansley: In many ways Beauty has been my song – often times sung with dissonance and lies. But other ...

School is out for the summer which means, for my 9-year-old Haven, if she's not in camp or on a play date, she's in the studio with me! This week Haven decided she wanted to try her hand at photography. We came up with a plan inspired by the colors of summer and the colored walls of downtown Orlando. Haven styled the shot, told me how to pose, made me laugh and act silly and even tried her hand...

I would love to invite any willing seekers to join me on a mission to discover what it truly means to be a “free spirit.” Your input would be quite helpful! I’ve lost count of how many people have recently referred to me as a free spirit and this has brought two questions to mind: 1) What do you think people mean when they say “free spirit”? Is it positive or negative? Or both? 2) What do you t...

I decided to depart from the sunnier subject of style and embrace a darker side of life today. Doubt is a hole I want to enter rather than just try and fill. Doubt hasn’t destroyed a person…it’s the energy expended trying to avoid the doubt that does that. I have been challenging myself by reading authors who generally have my same faith, but who hold different beliefs. They interpret scripture...

September 18th, 2015 is a good day.  1. It's my birthday. 2. My first shipment of handmade chain is arriving from Madagascar. 3. The Dora Mae studio and gallery that I have been dreaming and envisioning and  planning and praying over is finally OPENING! A gift from heaven. A dream come TRUE! My heart is so full that words won't come...so here are images from the celebration. 

This post has nothing to do with Lemurs…except that their leap is an incredible thing to behold. So faith leaps and lemur leaps have that in common. (I really just wanted to include one of our lemur pictures. So here you go!) Speaking of faith leaps, I’ve been asking God questions that sound something like this: Why did you choose this elusive concept called “faith” as the mystical passageway ...

I hesitate to share because I only know the very beginning of this story. However, I’d still love to allow my friends and community to walk alongside me as this new adventure continues over the next couple months. To make a long story short, I am going to Madagascar. Yes, this girl who has had a long prejudice against “mission trips” and more than a little irritation with Americans trying to s...