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What an amazing birthday gift to me - Nnenna Freelon wore my (award winning) Stardust earrings on stage while she performed with the Count Basie Orchestra. I am forever grateful. 

Personally, I love these earrings - but as the designer/ mom of these earrings I am not really able to be objective. So when an amazing singer, performer, songwriter and six time Grammy Award nominee wears them, it means even more.
If you have kids, you probably understand. 

In spite of the summer sunshine, beautiful flowers and these earrings winning 1st prize in the InStore Design competition (which was REALLY wonderful, by the way), this has been an emotional few weeks. A long time friend passed away suddenly from Prion Disease - which has no treatment and no cure. (It is related to Mad Cow Disease. And horrible). I just recently visited a friend in Canada who I have known since I was 6 years old - and she is now 101.  She is sometimes with us - and sometimes not. Just the other day, another friend lost his dog of 13 years. And one more thing, just yesterday - a close friend was just diagnosed with ALS. My heart is so sad and it needs joy. 

Old age is what will happen to all of us - and honestly 101 is amazing. I have no words about Prion Disease. But ALS has some exciting treatments that are being tested now - including regenerative treatments. But imagine if YOU received that diagnosis... All this has struck me very hard. And I need to be strong to support my friends. 

I am a positive person. I do my best to be funny and joyful, and not to be negative. THIS is one of the reasons I create colorful jewelry.... with tons of sparkle. Sometimes color and "happy" jewelry has the ability to raise one's spirits. Believe me - I am trying to put on all my jewelry right now, to try to raise my own spirits. No, I am NOT going to take a photo of me trying to wear it all at once. Just trust me it is pretty silly. And that is making me smile.

I hope YOU will find that my colorful jewelry helps to make you smile, too. I am not a political being - so there is no politics involved with my jewelry. It is just designed with the colors of the universe in mind. And I believe in the universe. 

Sparkle like a Starburst.... like Fireworks.... or like a Falling Star. 
With all the colors of the sapphires, you can express your inner happiness and wear them with every outfit you own. 

Did the summer fly by for you the way it did for me? I can't believe we are in the middle of September already and yet as I look back.  There were visits with some customers, new designs and even  2 trade shows. Some of my jewelry was featured in  - The Jewelers Collective Magazine, Fall 2023 and the AC Magazine. To my great joy - some of my jewelry won awards. 2  second place awards from the InStore Design competition and one pair of earrings won a CASE Award.

There was a fun adventure New Mexico to visit jewelry friends. We got to see amazing views + many petroglyphs. We visited Santa Fe and tasted delicious New Mexico wines. Some of the not-so-fun things were eye surgeries, (just cataract surgery - so it was not so bad) and injuring my shoulder while doing push ups. Talk about embarrassing. 

The Stardust Earrings that I am showing you here are the earrings that took a first place CASE award (from Jewelers of America). And they are finalists in the Accessories Council Design Excellence Awards. Stay tuned for how that turns out. 

JCK Magazine - July 2017

On this day in July, at the last (but fabulous) JCK Show in NY, here I am just a "little" excited about discovering that my brand new Comet earrings were shown HUGE in the magazine! The amethysts were cut by the fabulously talented Erik Martinez. 

CIRRUS Tahitian Pearl Post Earrings with Diamonds

Included in the Pearl Breeze category in the Trendvision Jewellery Trendbook 2017 - the CIRRUS earrings. This category celebrates pearls that have rid themselves of their stodgy personals.

This earring design in gold with front diamonds and an amazing Tahitian Pearl, is still available. Just ask. 

You might or might not know this, but before becoming a jewelry designer, for many years, my career was as a wardrobe stylist and costume designer for theater, film and TV.  And because I lived in Boston, most of my work was commercial work.  In 2006, I pretty much left the industry, doing only a few more scattered TV jobs after this point and started my new life in jewelry design. Then, in 2019 a commercial for Mixfit Nutrition, my past and present lives converged. 

A wonderful art director/set decorator friend asked me if I would design and make the jewelry they wanted/needed for a commercial for MixFit, a personal nutrition system. Needless to say, I was honored and thrilled!!!! And I had a blast creating "pill" jewelry. I almost wanted to start a line of fine designer "Pill Jewelry"... but then, I realized creating drug jewelry wasn't really my passion. LOL.  Still, working on this commercial was a fantastic few weeks of designing and creating something so out of my wheelhouse. 

It isn't the be all or end all, but when my jewelry is featured in the Jewelers of America Style Guide, I get so pleased. It means that other jewelry folks see that I am designing trend setting jewelry. And I feel so honored. And I feel seen.

My goal (I hope this doesn't sound snobbish) has never been to follow fashion. If I tried to keep up with the fast-paced world of fashion, I would constantly be playing catch up. And of course, never catching up. I would be living in a world of "me too!!!! Wait.... ME TOO!!!". With all that goes into designing, marketing and selling - adding that to the mix would really give me anxiety. Therefore, I have to assume that sometimes my ideas will be looked at and ignored. And other times, my ideas will be given some credence. 

I hope you will feel this way about my jewelry - that what you purchase from me today will not be going out of style in 3 months, 6 months, a year or even 10 years. It will always honor the universe, the stars, the moon, planets and the sky. And that never gets old. At least not to me.

Writing blogs is not what I do well - but sometimes I get so excited about something I have to talk about it. And today, since it is now November, and I am working hard to get excited by the coming holidays, I wanted to share some thoughts about "sparkle". Because I love sparkle!! 

The cold weather arrives and the flowers die back... Now the frost shimmers and sparkles on the lawn. The air is clear of pollen and smog, and the stars seem to twinkle more brightly. Maybe it is because our nights are longer than our days now? Soon, we will see the snow on the ground sparkle in the sunlight and moonlight.

Though I definitely prefer the warm weather to the winter snow, because I grew up in the northeastern part of the US, the coming holiday season seems to shimmer more in the cold. The nights are longer and we light our candles and enjoy fires in our fireplaces. Some of us decorate our homes with festive and twinkling lights. Romance abounds.

The holiday season is when I gravitate toward sparkling jewelry, wearing it even when in my own home where no one but my immediate family sees it. I love silky, velvet sweaters with my jeans, and I wear my sparkling earrings. Somehow the coming holiday just feels more festive. I believe, it is about feeling good. For me, when I feel that I look good, I feel good, too. Silly, I know. I am not sure how that works. But it does. (And yes - true confessions here, I am one of those women who puts on make up every day, no matter whether I am leaving the house or not. It makes me feel pretty.)

My message to you today is to pull out your sparkling jewelry now and wear it with glee. Tis the season!!! Never mind if you are staying home - wear it!  Photograph it - and share it on social media. Feel beautiful! You deserve it. We just spent almost 2 years locked in our homes. So - take out your jewelry and wear it. Make every night an occasion!!!! And if you don't have something sparkly to wear, you might find something on my website that will appeal to you.