It's raining gemstones

My gemstones arrived today!

And they are even more gorgeous in person.

Instead of reading my book like I usually do, I spent the entire train ride home staring off into space, my mind on design overdrive, dreaming about how I wanted to arrange the stones, what I wanted to make with them, and how they would look.

I just finished cataloging the lot of them and now I'm going to play!

Chalcedony and pearl earrings

A very exciting thing happened today! Last night I started posting this pair of "Leslie" earrings (named after my cousin, who is Mom2Amara's sister), but then took it down because I wanted to tweak some of the pictures. However, this morning I received an Etsy convo from a buyer asking where they went, because she wanted to buy them!

So Leslie has been sold. But here is a picture anyway, so you can see what she looked like.

The best part is that the buyer maintains a blog where she features various artists and crafters as well as sells advertising for Etsy stores. The blog is called The Downtown Boutique, and I'm hoping she features me on her blog! At the least, I am definitely buying some advertising space here. It looks like a great resource for handmade items.

I was not as productive as usual with my jewelrymaking this past weekend owing to a pretty busy one, so I don't have much to post this week. The other reason why my productivity level was on the low side was because I made this gorgeous pearl bracelet that took up a lot of time. It turned out really well. But I can't post it yet because the pictures didn't come out well, so I have to wait until I get another chance at a photo shoot. I also finished a custom order for another Abigail!

Happy Easter

One of my more memorable Easters was the one I spent in Paris, sick as a dog. I had planned on taking the train to Rome to meet up with a friend for Easter, but since I got sick I was forced to stay in my apartment in Paris with my ramen and my applesauce (there was no access to arroz caldo there). I remember being bewildered at the profusion of chocolate chickens in stores and on TV, not realizing that the French don't do Easter bunnies. They do Easter chickens. Which, if you think about it, makes a whole lot more sense than bunnies. Or Peeps.

Speaking of Peeps, check out the winners of this year's Peeps Diorama contest. I look forward to this each Easter since they started the contests. There are some truly clever ones submitted.

Last night the "10 Commandments" was on TV, the one with Charlton Heston. Glossing over the fact that this movie was made before the advent of CGI, thus forgiving the laughable special effects (the angel of death looked like Slimer from Ghost Busters), it really is a remarkable, classic, enduring story. Everything that makes for a great story is included: lust, revenge, hubris, love, adventure, schadenfreude, redemption, and a happy ending. It was just too bad Moses didn't have a TomTom at his disposal ("At the end of the oasis, turn left"). And how unfair that he never got to see the land of milk and honey after wandering around for 40 years? And how would he feel if he were alive today and saw that Mt Sinai has now become the ubiquitous name for every hospital in America?

Still, Charlton Heston sure made for a pretty dreamy Moses.

And I realized that Lent is over and I ended up not giving anything up, not even meat on Fridays. In the past I've given up swearing (very hard to do) and chocolate, but this year it seems like Lent and Easter came too early to prepare.

Crafting

So, so excited - one of my favorite jewelry designers is selling off her excess gemstones and supplies, so I snapped up a whole lot of them yesterday. I got aqua quartz, lemon chalcedony, peridot, smokey quartz, blue chalcedony, and amethyst nuggets. They are just gorgeous and I can't wait to get them. I wanted to get more - perhaps next time.

I've also been looking into taking more jewelry classes, particularly in color theory and metalsmithing. I really want to develop my skills in metalsmithing - working with metal would be so much fun and would open up a whole new world of designs for me.

Then, lo and behold, I came across a jewelry certificate program at a very prestigious art and design school, which luckily is local for me, so I am looking into enrolling. The classes are a lot of metalsmithing, but I'll also learn casting techniques, stone setting, enameling, and glass bead making. They'll teach me how to use a kiln. I really want to learn how to use a kiln.

As well as how to solder properly. Right now I'm teaching myself soldering, and it's slow going and harder than I thought, mostly because I didn't have the proper tools at first and it took me a while to assemble them through research.

I'm really excited about this certificate program. I will be required to take ten classes total. I hope the scheduling works out!

Happy Spring!

It's finally here!

Though it was a windy and blustery day, I was in high spirits. The best part was I could still see the sun when I left work. Yay for daylight!

To celebrate, I wanted to post a few of my favorite spring things.

Check out this wildly colorful Balenciaga purse, which I wildly covet. It looks to be in the same style as their Motorcycle purse, just a different material and color palette.


And then I saw this pair of Prada shoes and thought, "Nice classic peep toes," until I noticed the heel. And then I promptly fell in love. Flower heels! How awesome is that?


I also love this strapless dress by Tibi.

And this pretty, fresh yellow dress by 3.1 Phillip Lim, one of my new favorite designers.


This pair of Linea Paolo shoes I am contemplating getting for real. I love Linea Paolo. If I could marry this brand and tuck it away in my pocket forever, I would. I own several pairs of Linea Paolos and I dust them off and coo at them and talk to them as if they were my precious babies (which they are!) You see, Linea Paolo has every one of their styles in size 4. Do you know how hard it is to find grown up shoes in size 4s? Not only grown up shoes, but flirty, cute, and funky shoes? Very hard. Very, very hard. So when I discovered Linea Paolo, it was like manna from heaven. I wish I could buy a pair in every style. But this is the pair I am eyeing for spring; it has 3 1/2" heels!


Lastly, I love love love this green dress by Alice + Olivia.

Robin's egg blue and gold

Robin's egg blue is one of my favorite colors. It's very light and pretty, and so refreshing and cool to the eyes. This pair, similar to the Lauren and Victoria, is "Lorna", after my aunt (the sisters series is hereby complete!)

So a few posts back I was talking about this jewelrymaker who knew a lot of celebrities and got them to wear her designs for her. Well, I completely forgot that I, too, know a celebrity - my friend Lisa, who is a meteorologist and weather anchor for a local TV station (she gets recognized everywhere she goes around town). She told me that last Friday, she had worn the Stephanie earrings on air, and that her co-anchor had complimented them without any prompting! I was so excited. Lisa is going to send me a DVD of the newscast so I can see the on-air debut of the earrings.

And a huge thank you to Meridith, who, in addition to custom ordering Lauren, also bought Nikki and Alissa. Yay! This brings my total sales to 28, which is a nice, fat, even number, if you ask me.

Today was the draft for my fantasy baseball team. I always love draft time because it means spring is here. Hopefully my players will do well this season!

Earrings, a bracelet, and a book

First up, the earrings that are a custom order for Meridith, which feature sapphire blue faceted briolettes in the style of the Victoria. I named these "Lauren" in honor of the recipient. I hope she likes them!


Next up is a chrysoprase bracelet, named "Melanie" after an aunt (I am slowly making my way through the names of my mom and her sisters: Bella, Mila, Kathleen, now Melanie, and then Lorna will be the last in the series).


I love these aunts - my mom and her sisters are, to me, the epitome of all that is competent, fierce, brave, commanding, kind, and capable, all perfect examples of what motherhood and womanhood should be. My sister, my cousins and I all stand in fear and awe of these wonderful women. So I'm proud to name my designs after all of them!

And last up, Mr Hazel's mystery Valentine's gift finally arrived in the mail. Remember when I was unsuccessfully searching for a French novel to use for my photographs? My search is done! Because his gift is a book of French love poems:

Quelle merveilleuse!