It’s that time of year again..time for shopping!
That’s right! St. Valentine’s Day!!
The day when boyfriends and husbands hit the street in their last minute attempts to find something special and meaningful for their honeys! 🙂 Yay! And all of us ladies wait in anticipation of what this year will bring- and what could be better than jewelry?
Unfortunately, if you’re looking for something UNIQUE, then you’ll have to look beyond the tradtional jewelry stores… They’re busy competing with each other to sell the most “Open Heart Pendants.”
Open Heart Pendant
 Generally speaking, I try very hard to refrain from negative criticism of other jeweler’s work. I’m all for new ideas! But come on, really? Is this really what ladies are looking for? This pendant was based on the painting of actress, Jane Seymour… wow.. They don’t really even look like hearts- more like a diamond encrusted ‘Z’. And OPEN hearts? What message is that sending to the one you love?? Enough said.
So, clearly it is my mission to create something a little romantic, a little unique, and, of course, beautiful to give you guys another option! Of course… I only have 4 days left, there’s only so many I can make! Valentine’s is almost upon us. So, in honor of this momentous occassion (at least, we hope it will be momentous! Come on guys, get out and come shopping over here!!), I’ve designed some limited edition heart pendants!
Silver Heart Pendant - in progress!
The Quest Begins
My quest, in Laura terms, is to find the perfect dress to wear at her wedding. One would think…..Go shopping! duh. Well, been there done that. It’s not so easy to find a beautiful dress to fit an imperfect body, that looks good, is appropriate, coordinates with the wedding, etc. etc. There are a lot of ugly dresses available these days. And, to top it off I refuse to wear beige. I look terrible in it and I’m just no good at sitting down and shutting up either.  So instead of complaining my quest begins with improving the body. Won’t help with the myriad ugly dresses but should do wonders for my self esteem. Here’s my plan, gonna start paying very careful attention to what I put in my mouth. No More Grazing! Also, I will dedicate at least one half hour each day to some form of physical exercise . Here I am staring with the doable and hoping to form a habit that I can build on. I’ve been a slacker lately. I started the paying attention to food last week and lost 2 lbs.  Hey it’s a start. Started the exercise portion of my program yesterday. I’m a little sore today but that’s all good.
In order to find the perfect dress I need to look at what went well and where I missed the mark in my last quest. I had only a few requirements and yet I spent a lot of time searching for the right dress.
My requirements for the dress were:
Must coordinate with the wedding party (They wore red silk kimonos with black obi belts)
Must fit and look nice
Must be able to dance in it
As a guideline of what I want to improve I’m going to reveal the mistakes of my mother of the bride dress for Alexis’ wedding.
Lucinda at Alexis' Wedding
Mistake # 1 – Peau de soix – another french word ….can’t translate it but it’s what a lot of bride’s maid and mother of bride or groom dresses are made of these days. It’s a lovely fabric but it’s shiny.  Apparently shiny fabrics show all of our figure’s imperfections as soon as we move. Who knew? Tim Gunn and the ‘What Not to Wear’ people but I was uninformed until I saw the pics. Oh my!
Mistake #2 – Neckline. This one I knew but couldn’t find a better neckline so I settled. Note to self … don’t settle!
Mistake #3 – It looks perfectly nice when standing still in front of a mirror. Not so when moving. Who wants to be a statue at their daughter’s wedding? Do remember the sit down and shut up thing I said earlier.
In assessing my performance I can honestly say I acheived coordinating with the wedding party, fit and moveabilty for dancing. and failed in the looking nice department. All in all, only three mistakes that I know about. You people can probably point out another 10 or so….feel free. I received a lot of compliments on how beatiful I looked. It was a happy day and I had a lot of fun. That part I got totally right.
The quest continues.
Photo Love!
Earlier this week, a good friend of ours came over to our shop to shoot (yes, with cameras!) our jewelry all professional-like! Zach and Jody Gray of Gray Photography did my (Alexis) wedding and have since taken us under their wing to help us get our business off the ground. They are pretty much the epitome of wedding photographers!! So when Zach offered to come and take some amazing pics of our stuff, we jumped on the chance- not only to spend some time with our favorite photographers, but.. well, the results are stunning (to use one of Zach’s favorite words)! The did an excellent job setting up and lighting our stuff for these pics. In addition, we have the honor of being given the spotlight on Gray Photography’s Blog! They’re so sweet! So if you haven’t already, check out their site!! They are a trip to follow (no! I don’t blog stalk..never! 🙂 )
So here it is, the moment you’ve been waiting for! A sneak preview to the results of the photoshoot!!
mantis pendant
Silver pendant with colored resin
kyanite pendant
maple rose pendant
Setup for the photoshoot.
 And here we are!! No good photo shoot is complete without a shot of everyone together at the end!! 🙂
Lucinda, Zach, Laura, Alexis
Dolphin Earrings
Natsuko, a friend of ours living in Canada, has made a special request for dolphin earrings- but not just ANY dolphin earrings- they have to be special! They have to be different! So, I decided to apply a technique that I learned in Indiana which incorporated dyed epoxy resin into jewelry. Now, I know it sounds strange- using what is essentially glue in fine jewelry, but it can be very beautiful- catching the light and glowing with exciting colors without adding the weight of enameling (they’re earrings afterall, we don’t want them to be heavy!)
Here’s the drawing that I did to show Natsuko what I was planning (it’s a bit tricky to designe things for people in other countries!). She approved the design with a modification of colors- she wanted only pinks and a little blue.
Dolphin Earring Design
The next step was to cut the dolphin shapes out:
Dolphin Earrings in Progress
After they’re cut out- it’s filing and sanding to perfection!
Cut out Dolphin Earrings
Then they’ll be ready for the resin and hooks for a fun, yet elegant, twist on a popular theme! I’ll let you all know how they turn out! Hopefully, we can get a picture of Natsuko wearing them when they’re done! 🙂
Our Story…
So, I’ve been reading up on weddings (surprise!) and I’ve come across a lot of really great stories- how we met, how we got engaged, etc. and I thought, considering the fact that I have a great one, that it’s time to share our story!
Once upon a time… (sorry, it’s necessary to begin this way!)
The year was 2008. The state, Tennessee. I was visiting Franklin, TN with my mother as we were searching for the perfect location for our store. On our visit, we stayed with my Aunt Ellen and her family; they kindly introduced us to their next door neighbors- Sandy and Mitch and their two children Allison and Max who are around my age- really fun people all! Allison and I quickly hit it off- she’s very friendly and up-beat- and the two of them invited me to go out with them to the movies one night along with a friend of theirs…(wait for it…you know it’s coming…): Jim! We went to see the Reaping (I know, I know… ) and Jim was to meet us there.
Allison & Rhea (cousin)
In we went! We chose our snacks and our seats and Jim walked in just as the previews were ending (I found out later that this was not unintentional as he hates previews!). Nervous and intrigued (I’d heard several stories about him by this time as he was a favorite of my young cousin as well as a close friend of Allison and Max’s)- I said “Hello” and he…stepped right over me without even noticing me! I shrugged and figured we’d meet after the movie. However, I managed to forget my purse when exiting the theater and had to go back for it before introductions were made. Allison waited, but the guys moved ahead to their respective cars with the plan of meeting up at TGI Fridays for food and conversation- so again, the meeting was postponed. We made it to the appointed meeting place and I headed straight to the bathroom (drinks at movie theaters are ridiculously huge!) and so I joined them late at the table- a circumstance which led Jim to believe that I was an uncommonly friendly waitress!
- Slow Jim
His mistake was quickly remedied and we began to chat a little (he was not very talkative as there was a football game on in the bar that kept grabbing his attention)- this was not entirely unfortunate as it gave me plenty of time and opportunity to look at him without him noticing- GORGEOUS eyes! (They’re green with flecks of gold, blue and red with long lashes that any woman would be proud to have). So, not an entirely auspicious meeting, but we continued to encounter each other at various social gatherings and continued to dance around each other, being interested but not making a move, for several months. Finally, after I had been living in Franklin for a few months, Jim managed to get my phone number from my cousin whom he’d been friends with for years and took the plunge!
He took me out for the first time on Friday, August 3, 2007 (yes, I remember the exact date)- we were laughing and joking before we’d even pulled out of the driveway. It was a lovely night and to his surprise, I called him the next day to thank him. Common knowledge will tell you that he’s supposed to call and not until a few days later (indeed this was the advice he’d received from his friends on the subject), but I decided that he’d been the one to make the first move and I wanted him to know that I definitely wanted to see him again, so why wait? We saw each other again on the 5th and every day there after with very few exceptions. We’ve only been apart a total of 5 days since that first date. It is one of those peculiar cases of love, not at first sight exactly, but perhaps third or fourth.
And so, we decided to marry. I proposed to him on March 15, 2008 and made him an engagement ring of his very own. (I had him go on a scavenger hunt without telling him what he was looking for (the ring) and was there waiting to ask him when he found the ring.)
Jim's Ring
Not to be out-done, Jim proposed to me February 4, 2009 and presented me with a ring that he commissioned my sister, Alexis, to make
Laura's Engagement Ring
Benny & Joon
(he made me dinner with a rose petal and candle path to a room that he had tarped from floor to ceiling for splatter painting (I paint and he has just begun to paint as well- we both love the movie “Benny and Joon” and were preparing to paint alla Joon)- he set up a large canvas in one corner for me and in the opposite corner he had a smaller canvas on an eisel. Once I had begun to work, Jim painted “Will you marry me?” on the smaller canvas, got down on one knee and waited for me to turn around- it didn’t take long as he was being abnormally quiet- “I get down on one knee to ask you to stand with me for the rest of our lives.” he said. How perfect is that?)
Wish me luck (not that I need it with a guy like Jim…ahh the corn!)
Adornments Watch 