dark angel

Confession... my latest guilty pleasure has been reading The Mortal Instruments series.  I have been totally sucked into that world and have the hardest time putting the books down every night.  This angel wing necklace, by Finn, looks like a totally badass accessory I can see any of the Shadowhunter ladies wearing.

happy 200, P&P

Happy 200th Anniversary, Pride & Prejudice!  Hands down, if I was stuck on a desert island, this is the one book I would want with me.  I could read this book over and over again, and it is just as entertaining the 50th time as the 1st.

My favorite P&P movie is the BBC version with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth.  Almost a 6 hour miniseries, it is just long enough to satisfy my craving for P&P!

Out of Print Clothing has some amazing P&P products!  I am wearing the sweatshirt today in celebration, but I would also love this tote for everyday use and to buy my daughter, Clara, the kid's tee!

And in case you too would like to turn your daughter into an Austen-ite, there's a kid's version of P&P to spark the love affair with this novel early on!

this is what my memorial weekend looked like...

...and what a glorious weekend it was! I am an avid Jane Austen fan and even these longer adaptations sometimes aren't long enough for me. I think a rereading of all the novels will soon be in order. (Top to Bottom: Emma 2009 BBC miniseries, Persuasion 2007 BBC TV movie, Sense and Sensibility 2008 BBC miniseries, Pride and Prejudice 1995 A&E miniseries.)

sunny california

I am heading off tomorrow for a week long vacation to California so there won't be any new posts during this time. I am so excited to relax, spend some quality time with my family, and read a hell of a lot of books. (I plan to read this, this, this, and this.) And I am especially excited about a shopping trip planned for the jewelry district in LA. See you in a week! (image courtesy of flickr)

out of print

I was introduced to this website, Out of Print clothing, and I am not kidding you, I literally want EVERYTHING on their website. They take out of print cover art from classic books and print them on t-shirts and sweatshirts. They have such an amazing selection and the great thing is, for every item you buy on their site, one book is donated to Books for Africa. I see a mass amount of awesome t-shirts as gifts in my friends' and family's future! Above are my top three choices for myself (Brave New World, Pride and Prejudice, Catcher in the Rye... all tees are $28).

I'll be celebrating the holiday with my family for the next week and intentionally plan to stay away from computers and the internet. I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday!

*NOTE: Out of Print T-shirt sizes run a little small so I would recommend going up one size.

a lazy labor day weekend

To pass some time during my very lazy labor day weekend, I went to Barnes and Noble to peruse their craft section. I snapped a photo of these beautiful earrings in one of the books I looked through (I am awful... I didn't write down the name of the book so I can't give it proper credit!). I was excited about manipulating wire for the frame of these earrings and decided to swap out the sapphires for iolite.

100th post!!!

This is my 100th post! Thanks to all that read this little blog of mine. It has been a pleasure writing it and I hope you have received some enjoyment from it as well.

I celebrated a birthday in the last couple of days and I got some excellent reading material as gifts. I'll be sure to let you know what I think of them when I am done. (Both are available on Amazon.)

Jeweler's Resource: A Reference of Gems, Metals, Formulas, and Terminology for Jewelers by Bruce G. Knuth- I love reference guides and these tend to be the books I look back to the most. So excited to learn some new things.
Craft, Inc. : Turn Your Creative Hobby Into a Business by Meg Mateo Ilasco (w/ the Craft, Inc. Business Planner)- This has been on my must read list for awhile now. I know this is going to help me get some further insight into running my own business. It has been painstaking at times but totally worth every moment! Props to those out there that have been managing their own at home business... it is a true labor of love!

the lost girls

I have yet to see the new Alice in Wonderland film (directed by one of my faves, Tim Burton) and I cannot wait to see this lovely piece of eye candy! Seeing the advertisements of the new Alice makes me want to don ice blue and color my hair back to blonde. But my love of this story follows along with my love of other children-lost-in-a-fantastical-world stories, like The Oz books. And, as an adult, I love the dark interpretations people are taking with these beloved stories.
Who remembers this movie?! Return to Oz, comprised of the 2nd and 3rd Oz books written by Baum, The Marvelous Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz (my personal favorite!), takes a darker twist than the more familiar Wizard of Oz musical. Electro-shock therapy, the wheelers, Mombi, oh my! A cinematic gem that has been, for a long time, underrated.

a love of all things austen

I love Jane Austen... I mean I LOVE her! I have multiple copies of all of her novels (I really don't know how it happened but before I knew it I managed to have 3 copies of Pride and Prejudice on my bookshelves) and I have started a collection of her novels' movie adaptations, from my all time favorite, BBC miniseries version of P&P starring Colin Firth, to the more liberal adaptations and modern takes on Jane Austen, like Bride & Prejudice and Clueless. So OF COURSE I am totally psyched about the new Emma miniseries on PBS. I can't wait for the next installment this Sunday!

a surprise gift

I am a lover of vintage books... if I had the room, I would have a rather large collection. (In fact, my dream house has a room entirely composed of wall to wall bookshelves.) I love the hard covers, the fragile discolored pages, the illustrations, the smell! So imagine my surprise when I came in to work on Monday and a vintage book on jewelry design was waiting for me at my desk... a gift from one of my coworkers. She saw it and knew it was for me. Very little has changed in the techniques but the material is far more thorough, rather than broken down step by step into charts or bullet points like most newer jewelry design books are now. Don't get me wrong, these are great when you are in the studio and you need a quick answer, but there is something about reading chapter upon chapter of discussions on jewelry that the nerd in me loves.