Precious Things

i do . . . just three months ago

Precious thoughts

precious thoughts .....

my eternity has just begun. . . . .

hug that feeling close to your heart.....

know yourself and hold your head up high.....

such little things.....

we all have choices ........

Loveliest girl

. . for almost a decade Miina Savolainen,
finnish photographer, art and social educator photographed 10 girls from Hyvönen Children's Home.

the outcome was this photo book/project

"The Loveliest Girl In The World" The basis of the project was “empowerment”

"to give girls a different perspective of themselves,

to bring to the surface their true persona,

or perhaps a persona they wished they could be"

it is a touching story about becoming visible & accepting yourself

"everyone of us is entitled to feel precious and loved"

"The fairytale quality of the photographs reveals

a truth often obscured by the rough and tumble of daily life

the person each young girl feels she really is inside.

It allows the girls to regard themselves as strong and undamaged people.

These photographs are deeply authentic,

revealing the universal desire to be seen as good and valuable."

* * *

"Accepting one's own portrait

is a metaphor for accepting

one’s own personality"

Time for Reflection

a stretch of days just me, myself, i

nothing but my own thoughts for company

with time . . .

time to paint on and on undisturbed

time to read for great long lazy stretches

time to eat when i wanted to eat

time to sleep (guilt free) for 14 hours solidly!

waking up to do it all over again

thank you Mr O for giving me

those wonderfully peaceful few days

how precious that was x

i wonder what precious "me" time others get ??

Grayson E

There are so many luscious patterns for felted bags - we thought they deserved equally decadent handles. These beautiful leather handles are from Grayson E and they’re available in a variety of sizes. Grayson E leather handles are hand made in California. The colours are straight out of a Mediterranean painting featuring aqua, tuscan red and saturated olives (to name just a few).

Of course now that the Grayson E handles are on the daybed in the sunroom, India has scouted out less crowded places to snooze. Her people called to complain that Gracie was getting more face time on the blog. India’s contract clearly states that she gets equal billing however she’ll take

our written apology here under considereation.

Precious Jewelry

All that chic modernism had me REALLY hankering for some cheesy seventies stuff.

All these puppies went up on Etsy, along with new Maneki Neko necklaces.

Confession time.

I have a latent modernist streak. I love vintage, romance, junk stores, scouring, scavenging. I'm not going anywhere. But sometimes more is more and sometimes less is more.

I'm also a beader at heart and I love beadweaving and I missed it so much lately that I have started another line:

Enso is a higher-end alternative to the costume line at bombalurina, utilizing precious metal, 22K plated glass cylinder beads and semiprecious gemstones. Take a fast peek -you'll be surprised.

Pushing into more vintage revamps, I decided it was time to make this coro bracelet a part of something bigger and grander.

I love camo colors, olives greens and blacks. I wanted to do something that was both really outre and really sophisticated in palette.

This resulted.

I'm really pleased. It does lie right, it just wasn't at the time of shooting - I may re-take those. Such is the low-budget life of a designer with no model - camera at arms length might be proving a little too lazy-ass but I wanted to get it up on Etsy. I think my favorite part of this was the recognition that the brooch I just designed is the perfect focal for this. I also like the introduction of the blue stones, so it's not too monochrome.

A recent revamp. Usually I'm about more-is-more. This is not one of those times.

It deserved a really nice goldfilled chain.

In other jewelry news, there's a cubic right angle weave breakdown in the latest step by step beads - normally not my favorite magazine. But this has me quite excited - I've tried to puzzle that out on my own to no avail.

Pearls gone Wild

I love approach to beads, gemstone, and otherwise pretty and precious things to make them exciting, bold, at times a little industrial, and much more substantial. In a sea of vapid starlets these stand out like Dietrich. Without being, like, "wow Joooolery" Long Island bold, either.

See see? Springy, tangy, outsize and yet totally sophisticated. I love.