Michal Negrin

Michal Negrin designs jewelry and clothing that reflect romance, femininity, and love. Her website (and her stores and designs) looks like a delightful fairy tale.

I just want to meet her and talk with her and find out what makes her tick. She's seems like a really sweet lady. She's an original and her items aren't for everyone, to be sure, but I just can't stop looking at her things.


With celebrity and royal custies she's a global force of capitalism and happily-ever-after. At first blush it looks like someone swallowed rainbows and shit roses and Kewpie dolls but further observation reveals damn fine design elements so I have to give it to her for finding a niche market and for squeezing that fucker for all it's worth.

link

Read more...

New Lydia Courteille

(Click to see a larger image)

The latest version of the astrological jewelry collection “The 13th Sign” can now be viewed in our store.

Pamela Hastry - Boutique Lydia Courteille

231. Rue Saint Honoré
75001 - Paris, France
Tel: +33 (0)1.42.61.11.71

www.lydiacourteille.com | Go see the individual, detailed pieces right here.

Currently crushing on the Scorpio and Gemini.

Read more...

Bea Valdes

Bea Valdes is such a marvelous jewelry designer. Wouldn't you agree? From Manila, Bea started out designing one-of-a-kind evening bags. Vogue saw her collection in 2005 and she's been in demand ever since.

Read more...

Definitions of Chatelaine:

* the mistress of a chateau or large country house
* a chain formerly worn at the waist by women; for carrying a purse or bunch of keys etc.



These Chatelaines are victorian, sterling silver items and can be featured as a ring, on a belt, as a purse, or a pendant. A chatelaine will have several items linked together in common.

Sewing Chatelaine: On the left is an F&B Heart Needle Case, Kerr Kissing Cherub Patch Box, Kerr Sea Creature Perfume/Vinaigrette, and an F&B Lion Whistle.

Notepad Chatelaine: On the right the chatelaine includes a sterling pencil, German silver decorated notepad with pages intact, a mesh coin purse, and silver perfume.

Read More (left) » | Read More (Right) »

Aren't these just cool as shit?

Read more...

Subversive Jewelry

Justin Giunta's Subversive Jewelry won a prestigious 2009 CFDA award recently. His wondrously designed pieces are random genius.

Some of it is a little pricey but those creative ones could take a queue from his designs and pull out your old pearls, broken chains and loose stones and see what you can come up with.

link

Read more...

"Badass" Jewelry

For Your Favorite Badass
link

Read more...

Etsy Goodies

I collect things related to the White Rabbit and during a search I found those and other goodies at Etsy.

Etsy really has nice handmade work. The prices are good and you're usually buying from an individual who is working from home, making these unique items with their wee leetle hands.

And in hard economic times, it's good to know where your money is going.

The Perfume Poison necklace was found at TheBirthOfVenus Etsy shop, who also has a beautiful Absinthe Bracelet with soft ice green elements, but it's a little pricey for me-- $230.

Hoolala's Etsy shop has many affordable Alice In Wonderland items. And this Stewed, Screwed, and Tattooed piece below.

Read more...

ADAM TENENBAUM Bespoke Jewelry - Featuring bracelets and necklaces. Industrial style. Veddy nice.

Read more...

November 26 is Buy Nothing Day

The good little sheeple will be trudging off this Friday to purchase all the products they're told they just can't do without. No big sacrifice for us broke-ass folks who avoid programmed shopping like the draft anyway. Let me offer you some food for thought and take it one step further so we can be more conscientious of how we spend our money.



My name is Susan and I am a recovering Predictable Spender. I used to march off to the sales like a good lemming. I shopped the big stores, used the big plastic, as expected of me. A real mind-numbing experience. After I stepped back and realized how predictable I was and what it all meant, I formed my own 12 8 Step treatment program for Predictable Spenders. I know it's not easy to jump from strung-out hard core shopaholic to completely avoiding all the big convenient sales. I'd just like you to hear me out and consider this way of spending.

1. Thou shalt shop the Mom and Pop stores. This keeps money in your community and you meet nice, hardworking local people.



2. Try to avoid the large chain stores. If you knew where your money went that you gave to some of them, you'd avoided them long ago. And doesn't it make more sense to spread it around to someone more needy?



3. Visit your town's Main Street. You'll be pleasantly surprised at their competitive prices. I buy most of my jewelry, clothes, music instruments/supplies, fabric on our Main Street.



4. Think flea markets, tag sales, bartering, free-cycling. And re-gifting!



5. If customary to buy gifts for the holidays, try to draw names instead of buying for everyone and set spending limits.



6. Better yet, re-assess the whole gift giving thing and give charitable donations as gifts when you can.



7. Even better, make your gifts. We do this often. I designed wooden shelves and tables, and painted/stained them and my husband cut them out and sanded them. I've given needlepoint and baked goods, and quilted or sewn items as gifts. (thanks for reminding me, KarenM)



8. Try not to be such a predictable shopper, automatically marching off to sales like a Stepford Wife. Be cognizant of why you shop and try to be more creative with who you give your hard earned cash to.

Buy Nothing Day

Read more...

Ballsies don't sweat

Ballsies don't cling

Ballsies are cuter

Than the real thing



An Arizona-based pair of entrepeneurial designers have come out with "the first line of jewelry that captures the essence of everyone's favorite baggy buddies".

Buy Ballsies for holiday gifts. =)

Read more...

Why, hello there...thanks for stopping by.







Nobody Died When Clinton Lied - keeping track of similar signs around California. T shirts and bumper stickers.



::Daily Mislead - A Daily Chronicle of Bush Administration Distortion



::Auction Witch is like a Pagan Ebay site. Jewelry making supplies at $2.00 a chance because of a recent family emergency.



::Blues fans can witness performances by the best and brightest talents of the blues genre taking the continent by storm. Otis Rush’s smoldering 1966 rendition of "I Can’t Quit You Baby," laying down the template for the Led Zeppelin version that followed three years later; John Lee Hooker, or Howlin’ Wolf on three songs backed by the even-then-legendary Willie Dixon. The American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1966 Also, BB King was 78 years old yesterday.



::How much is inside a Sharpie? (from the folks at the always entertaining Cockeyed)



If I don't get my 23 and a half hours sleep, I'm cranky all day.

Read more...

Enjoy your day. Damnit.



::ArtCar Fest The West Coast's Largest Gathering of Art Cars! Thursday, September 25 -- Sunday, September 28, 2003. Most of you understand my fondness for Art vehicles that begin with my old 1962 VW van in 1970. It was navy and I painted the moon and stars on one side; and a huge sun on the two side doors. It sounds so trite now, but no one had ever seen anything like it in Smalltown, USA, where I grew up. And very few had seen anyone like me when I stepped out of it with my enormous Robert Plant-like long, curly, bushy hair, and jewelry and leather dripping off me in my embroidered jeans or gypsy skirts. Everyone stopped and stared everywhere I went. In college, Suzy Creamcheese had a VW bug that was painted like a fish with fins attached. We both happened to be Art Majors, so it seems like a painted vehicle certainly reflects your lifestyle, too.



::Comments are back hopefully to stay. We've been without them for what, 10 days?



::Once upon a time I had Earthlink and it was still on my hard drive. Yesterday I removed it. It also removed my IE FAVORITES I've had saved for 3 years and 10 months. Close to 500 files. Gone, and already deleted from the recycle bin. Now I have to rebuild it. Yahoo has many of them and so does Opera where I'd exported from IE, but it's still a huge do-over. Don't you hate it when you do something stupid like that?



Fun Links du Jour

Can you stare down Sally?

And Another site where you choose a picture to write your own caption.

[both via: presurfer]



Quote For Wednesday

Emancipate yourself from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds. ~Bob Marley



If you can't laugh at yourself, allow me.

Read more...

Good Morning. I have a gorgeous sunny day in North Carolina.



I still miss Janet. We met in 9th grade and were best friends until she passed 5 years ago. Our husbands were also friends and we had side by side apartments when we were all starting out fresh out of college. And both of us still learning to cook. The interesting thing is that she looked a lot like Janeane Garofalo. I suppose that's a part of why I'm always behind her when she's getting slammed by the haters in the media. Janet and I had a lot in common, as best friends do. But we were opposite in very many ways. She enjoyed listening to Tom Jones and Englebert Humperdink while I was rocking to the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin in high school. I was a fashion slave and into makeup and dyed hair, while she wore her aunt's army boots, made her own clothes and never cared for makeup or jewelry. But we were best friends from age 14 until our forties. A lot of tears and laughter were shared between us two. Many, many life changes. The one thing that remained constant was our friendship. She was my base, my foundation. I still miss Janet. I miss her every single day and I just wanted to talk about her.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Katherine also has a weekly meme called Wednesday Wonder where she gives you a topic to explore or a project to do. It may involve crafting or writing and always involve fun, enlightenment and critical thinking. Last week's assignment (May 28, scroll down) was about pronoia. The opposite of paranoia. It's a very interesting way to view life on a different plane. Read the first 13 steps of Pronoia.



3 Random Blogging Photogs

Kane, in Hawaii, always takes wonderful photos he shares daily. Lynn is a photographer in Nova Scotia who always has pretty pics. And beautiful photos taken by Bea, from Canada, can be found on her lovely site.



A Barbie Autopsy? This guy needs a hobby. Well, it looks like it is his hobby.



Has anyone seen For Love Or Money on television? It's an NBC reality series on Monday nights at 9:00. Lindsay Robertson has a great piece on the first show on Flak Magazine. It's just sleazy enough to watch.



Quote For Today

He who knows he has enough is rich.

~Tao Te Ching



I'm out of bed and I made it to the keyboard. What more do you want?

Read more...

Ilana's back from a hiatus with a new design and lots of good links to visit. Thanks, Shirl. (If you visit and the pop-up comes up to download the text in Hebrew, just hit 'cancel'.)



Rhonda mentioned the C-SPAN (US television) "Blogging" story yesterday. So I stayed up watching the 3:00 am re-run of it this morning waiting for the Blogworld to be well represented. The guy from Buzzflash and the guy from WhatReallyHappened were on there who respresent nada about blogging. (Still waiting...)Then they had some pretty lame bloggers that called in. Was some sad shit and an hour lost I won't get back.



I liked Molly Ivin's Texas take on the Killer D's Attack.



Men or women's hands? I only got 6 of 16 right. [via: b3ta.com]



Get Underground is a decent forum for activists, etc, I like to visit and you might, too. The rerun of the Feb '03 Hunter Thompson interview is fun if you've not read it and they're always looking for good writers.



I never get tired of watching very busy Dave Navarro. Camp Freddy (Donovan Leitch on vocals) was on Carson Daly's Show last night. Carmen Electra and the Pussycat Dolls were dancing in the background. Setting back the women's movement 30 years in one fell swoop.



Nice custom designed silver jewelry found here. For men and women.



I've really had a great response on sing-ups for that Birthday List on the right. Thank you.



Useless fact of the day - A flea's penis is roughly 2/3rds the length of its body. So if someone tells you, "You're hung like a flea", it's not an insult. Show them the respect they're due next time.



Quote For Today

"I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain." ~Notes of a Native Son - James Baldwin



saturday morning me//

coffee/lemon tea cookies/bottled water/pepto/

old long skirt/ballet flats/navy tiny tee/

long wavy blonde-red hair combed--yea!/

hb playing 12-string/daughter sawing logs/

how's about you?/



Look on the bright side. And while you're doing that, I'll be over here looking through your stuff.

Read more...

OFF LIMITS

OFF LIMITS

I always made a bee line for her bed whenever I visited. Grandmother's white chenille bedspread stretched so tightly that you could bounce quarters on it. I moved my arms and legs over it; snow angel style. Then lie perfectly still, willing the bumpy spread to leave it's marks on my young skin.

"Get off the bed!" she yelled. "You'll mess it up." Rising up, my hands lingered over the bumpy fabric as I hopped down from the bed. "O-kay!" I shot back.

I later found not only was her bed off limits, but so were most things a young girl wanted to snoop through. Her hope chest, her lavender, quilted satin-covered box that held beautifully starched and pressed handkerchiefs. And Colgate powdered toothpaste in the bathroom! I really wanted to shake that stuff out of the can.

Sometimes she'd take down her jewelry box and show me her cameos, rhinestone pins, pearls, and rings, etc. I especially liked a peach and ivory cameo brooch set in gold that had been her Mother's. And her gold wedding band that was etched with flowers and engraved inside with, "WEP - HBM 5-14-21". William Erwin Pippin to Hattie Blanche Miller - May 14, 1921. I began to understand Grandmother as a real person with a real life.

I'm no longer a young girl, and Grandmother passed on ages ago. And I've found myself saying, "Get off that bed!" to both my children over the years. Items of hers previously off limits are now treasured keepsakes in my home. Including an engraved gold wedding band and one very special bumpy bedspread on my bed.

Read more...

Mo Dowd reports" Desert Spring" on the horizon. The military is "banking genetic material before deployment", American embassy staffs in the Mideast are moved out, network anchors are packing their bespoke flak jackets, and the 101st Airborne moves out to the Persian Gulf, along with the Kitty Hawk. We're on track for a mid-March invasion of Baghdad.



Dozens Protest "Players Ball"

To get to the "World Famous Players Ball" (Club Mirage in Atlanta) on Saturday night, partygoers had to pass about 50 protesters carrying signs reading "Shame" or "Pimping Ain't Popular." Some men attending the party Saturday wore full-length mink coats, fancy hats, alligator boots and jewelry. Protester David Smith objected to the party's glamorization of pimps.



Unaware that it was a straight lift from a PHD thesis both Tony Blair and US Secretary of State Colin Powell this week paraded the dossier as quality research and a searing indictment of Saddam's regime. Unbelieveable. Doesn't anyone fact-check this stuff? [jpg via: whatreallyhappened]



Quotes For The Day

"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."

~Kahlil Gibran



There are many ways to measure success; not the least of which is the way your child describes you when talking to a friend.

~Unknown

Read more...

I'll give you a topic. Owen Wilson. Talk amongst yourselves. And while you're talking about him, I"ll eavesdrop to see if anyone thinks he's as good looking as I do; in a quirky kind of way. I can't put my finger on it {behave, Susan}, but there's something about him. I wonder if he likes older women. It never hurts to ask. [unless you're talking to a dominatrix] He's in that movie, Shanghai Knights, now with Jackie Chan. Even though I think he's nice looking, there are probably 20 or so guys I think look better than him. He's been on my mind because I've seen a lot of him lately on tv. Top of my wet just dreaming list? Mick Jagger would always be Number One, and Dave Navarro is very fine.....



The Iraqi Inspectors had their deadline on, Jan 27, Monday. There wasn't a lot of talk about it. Or their voices were barely audible over the White House's drums of war. Were the inspections just some mutual circle jerk set up by the White House [Cheney, Bush, Rumsfield] axis of evil?



Fleetwood Mac's first studio release in fifteen years in scheduled for release April 15, with a May tour to follow.



Lynn, my photographer blogging buddy is collecting pictures of hands. Why don't you send her a picture of your beautiful hand?



Surfing Goodness:

»Particpating

»SUV/Small Penis Connection?

»Complaint Generator

»SuperPortal

»Celtic Jewelry & Gifts

»Your Name In Flesh?

»Denim Cool



Quote Of The Day

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

~Anon



Haiku For You

Your grandmother's dead

I was so sorry to hear

That it wasn't you

[via:haikooties.com]

Read more...