Commissions!

So the past week has been a great one for custom orders!

My friend Camille has commissioned me to design and create the jewelry her bridesmaids will be wearing for her fall wedding. I am very honored and excited about this opportunity. She gave me ideas of what she had in mind and I am currently researching stones and playing around with designs. Camille commissioned four bracelets and four pairs of earrings.

I think that having handcrafted and original pieces of jewelry worn at your wedding is a beautiful way to add that unique and personal touch to the day.

I hope she'll like the end results!

My other friend Marnie also requested another Astrid necklace with a matching bracelet as a gift for someone for Mother's Day. I didn't think I could find any more of the stones I used for the original piece - they are these beautiful imperial jasper square beads - but as luck would have it, I did find them. It was like a really fun treasure hunt.

And lastly, Angie from The Downtown Boutique and Rio Oso Designs loved the Leslie earrings so much that she has requested a matching necklace to go along with it!

I will be posting pictures here as these pieces are completed.

Thank you so much, ladies!

Play ball!

Over the weekend we used the first of our shared season tickets to watch our baseball team in their brand spanking new ballpark. Our seats were incredible - right on the main level, second row! We were actually eye level with the players on the field and did not need binoculars to see all the action. We were also right behind the ball girl, as you can see from the picture.

It was a blast.

Things around here have been a mite hectic, what with coming down sick as well, so I've had my hands full in the last few days. I also have some very cool developments with the biz, of which I'm in the midst of sorting through the details.

Also, my sister reminded me that I actually did forget a few family members in the naming of the pieces, so I will be remedying that in the near future.

Aqua charm bracelet

It's hard to get back in gear after vacation, but my friend Lisa told me I had to produce this weekend. I managed to get just one piece finished (another one I was working on didn't come out like I had envisioned, so it's back to the drawing board for that one).

As I have also finally ran out of friends and family names for my pieces (I hope I didn't forget anyone), I am now turning to both literature and celebrities for inspiration. Like peas in a pod, right?

Hence, this new bracelet is called "Eloise," after the little girl who lives in the Plaza Hotel. She is made up of aqua chalcedony and aqua quartz in a charm bracelet style, and can be extended from 7" to 9" in length.

The colors remind me of the Caribbean Sea. And I'm not just saying that because I still have the post-vacation blues!

Eloise is now available at the shop!

Friday kitty blogging

One great thing about coming home after vacation, besides sleeping in my own bed again, was coming home to the kitties. I missed them. Moxie apparently missed us, too, because the night we came home she got all pink in the ears, a sure sign that she was very excited. They both came right to the door to greet us.

Forget spring - today feels like summer! The pollen count is also in the high billions, as evidenced by the burning in my throat and watery eyes. Still, I can't complain!

Post-vacation blues

Sigh...

I have a major case of post-vacation blues. As in, depressed. Soooo sad. I keep looking at the pictures and reading about future cruises on the Royal Caribbean website in an effort to cheer myself up and get out of my post-vacation funk.

The funny thing is I always get like this after vacations, but this time it seems worse because of the fact that yesterday it poured rain all day long - a noisy, fierce spring thunderstorm that normally I would have loved - except not on the day we get back from the Caribbean. And then today the rain continued, and it's the kind that I have grown heartily sick of - drizzly, damp, gray, chilly and overcast. The ironic thing is the week before we left for vacation it rained every day and I could not wait to escape the city...and then what do I come back to? Yes, more rain.

So to cheer up, I will post more pictures. And I'll think of these as I trudge along in my rain boots and coat and long-sleeved sweater this week.

Cruising on the Caribbean

I am back after seven wonderful days of sunshine, warm blue waters, yummy food, awesome sights...oh, and drunken evenings.

My incredibly generous in-laws took the whole family on a cruise as their Hanukkah gift to us all. Our route took us to:

1) Tampa, Florida (embarkation port)
2) Cozumel, Mexico
3) George Town, Grand Cayman
4) Oranjestad, Aruba
5) San Juan, Puerto Rico (disembarkation port)

This was my and Mr Hazel's first time cruising and it was a very interesting experience.

Here are a few pictures to start with - our ship, the Grandeur of the Seas. My first up close glimpse of it was awe-inspiring.


This is the atrium in the center of the ship.


The front of the Grandeur as we docked in Cozumel.



Here is the Grandeur anchored off the coast of Grand Cayman along with a Carnival ship.


In Cozumel, we went to see the Mayan ruins at Tulum, which is a pre-Colombian walled city. This is the main temple.


We also walked through the town of Playa Del Carmen, which was charming and reminded me a little of Laoag, Philippines. We sampled some quesadillas, and I bought a corn on the cob rubbed with lime and sprinkled with queso and chili powder from a street vendor.


In Grand Cayman, we visited a turtle farm and the town of Hell, swam with stingrays (or in my case, ran away from them), and sampled rum cake. Mr Hazel fell in love with the rum cake and bought a box to take home with us. They tendered us to shore - here is a picture of the tenders coming towards our ship.


The town of Hell.


The devil hanging out on some hell rock.


Visiting the stingrays!


This is Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman.


In Aruba, we boarded a submarine that took us 130 feet to the bottom of the Caribbean Sea.


We saw a shipwreck, which sank 9 years ago.


And then we saw divers!


One of them came right up to our porthole to say hello.


And finally, here we are docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico on our last morning.



Since I've been away all week and don't have anything in the way of new jewelry to list at my shop, I'll be posting some more pictures throughout the week.

This makes me sad. I wish we were still back there!

Happy Friday

Love,
Nomad