Everyone please welcome Elisabeth of Arona Designs to our Cast Wednesday Artist Feature! She has offered a giveaway of one dancer illustration of choice from her shop. To enter, visit her shop and come back here to leave a comment with your favorite item. Winner will be chosen using random.org. Please remember to leave your email addresses!

Elisabeth, introduce yourself!: I am 23 years old and the 3rd out of 6 girls, the two youngest are extra blessings (not biological sisters) that we've had for almost ten years. Hoodies, cooking, babies, laughter, and sarcasm are just a few of my favorite things. I have always loved to draw and do crafts and started thinking about clothing design in my teens, but wasn't really sure at that point what I'd go to college for--just something to do with art. My dad has always supported me in all things craft, and I ended up deciding on going to college for Fashion Design and I earned an Associates Degree in it. Basically I took all the sewing and design classes and core classes but no business ones (oops.)

After finishing school in January 2010 I was kinda burnt out; I had an internship, visited friends a lot in different states, taught (and still teach) Sunday school, and only played around with design. This year I started getting serious about really getting things done, and after encouragement from my parents and a few close friends I decided to really attempt starting a business selling what I make. I somehow found myself taking a job as a nanny/full-time babysitter-in my home-of 6 month old twin boys, and although I thought I would have time to also design it didn't happen. Fast forward six months later--August 2011-and I'm closer to the place I want to be. I can already tell it's going to take tons of work, but I get so excited when people love my designs as much as I do and every sale has been like a little bit of sunshine on a rainy day.

How did you get your start on Etsy? A friend I was visiting in another state told me that I should get on etsy because people could order custom-made clothes from there using the (no longer available) alchemy feature. I had no idea what she was talking about, but as soon as I got back home I went on and checked it out. I was just starting illustration classes, and thought putting up a listing for custom illustrations would be cool. This was in '08, and at the time there was maybe one other person doing them, and only for wedding gown illustrations. I sold a few things, but never did anything but keep that one listing for the most part until this year.

How did you choose your shop name? My dad's name is Aron, and my middle name is Arona. According to him, when my mom was in the hospital for my delivery, they had a nurse named Johnna (her dad's name was John) and dad made a joke that my middle name could be Arona-So I'm Elisabeth Arona. As a child I would always get people to guess my middle name and they never could, I liked that and thought it made a great unique name for my business, so it stuck; Arona Designs. When I first signed up on Etsy I never realized my username would be my shop name, so I typed in AronaWalsh and was stuck with it (while in school I always referred to "my business" in assignments as Arona Designs.) I recently switched shops so that I could get a name change and so it is: Arona Designs.

What does a typical day look like for you? I don't know if there is such of a thing as a typical day; there are some things that occur in almost every day, so I guess I'll go by that...I wake up and try to every morning make the first thing I say a prayer, usually it's just a half-asleep "Lord thank you for waking me up and help me to have a good day..." and soon after (almost every morning) receive a text from my friend who gives me her prayer request of the day or wishes me a good day, then I grab up my computer and jump on etsy to see if anything is going on at the team gathering place. Following this is always checking emails then deciding whether I want to start on illustrations or sewing or patterns. I've started making lists every night and putting them up on my corkboard, so I check it to see if there is anything I need to do that I may forget; a friend suggested this to me and it has helped me in amazing ways. Generally somewhere thrown into my day is always the normal stuff, a sleepy phase around 2 or 3, a quick devotion, usually I cook dinner, and then at night I become very active: I turn my music on and start drawing, read business articles, chat online with friends, read a book, or any other variety of things.

If you could be anywhere in the world for one day, where would it be? I honestly think it's less about where I would be, as it is about who I would be with (surrounded by those I love), BUT I love to travel and going to Paris has always been high on my list of places to go just because it's the fashion capital of the world. A close second would be Jamaica, my dad's originally from there and I'd really like to visit at least once.
What is your favorite Bible verse? This changes from time to time, but as I struggle to get Arona Designs off the ground I have kept this verse in mind and encouraged myself with it. "Let every man prove his own work and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another." The satisfaction of knowing your hard work has paid off will be worth every bit of stress it has taken to get where you are.


What is your favorite Etsy item listing to feature? My kimono sleeved shirt. It's the first shirt that I've listed, hopefully the first of many, and it was immediately liked by others which made me so happy.
-URLs to where else we can find you on the internet:
You can find me in cyberspace at these places...
My blog: www.lizzisays.blogspot.com
Facebook fanpage: www.facebook.com/aronadesigns
Twitter: @lizzisays

Elisabeth thank you for agreeing to be featured and letting us get to know you a little better!
Everyone please go visit her shop and give her some love. Don't forget to enter the giveaway!