Boutique Find: Treat's Renee C Vest

One of my favorite things about selling my jewelry at small boutiques is having the opportunity to shop at those boutiques. I tend to rely on chain stores like Gap and J Crew for wardrobe basics, but I love finding unique, special items at boutiques to make those basics more interesting. Last weekend while dropping off new jewelry at Treat in Old Town Alexandria, I was excited about the collection of new pieces (all under $100) from smaller designers that the store has just added. After much deliberation I picked out the renee c vest pictured above. I'm wearing it today for the first time, and I know it will see a lot more use as fall unfolds. It's the kind of thing you can wear with a tee shirt (as I am now) as well as with all sorts of other things. There was a another really cool one in black and darker grays, too. It was hard to decide!

At first I was going to wear it with a necklace, but with the sort of scarf-like, drapey neckline, that felt like a bit much. So I opted for the Bombshell earrings and my new Ruthie B bracelet. Perfect!

Fall Finds

Last weekend, I took advantage of some of the great discounts out there to get a head start on my fall shopping. I got a pair of Steve Madden brown leather slip-on oxfords (not on sale, but still a great price),and a slouchy sweater and cropped skinny jeans from Gap (everything at the store was 30% off, and the sweater was on sale, too.) By the way, in spite of the name, you do NOT have to be skinny to wear these jeans, and they're not too low-cut, either. I think this outfit would look great with my new "Ruthie B" tiered necklace made with delicate brass chains. Now if the weather would just cool off!

New favorite designer—Beth Orduna

I was in Seattle last week for a family reunion, and, what with all the family around, I didn't have much time for shopping. Usually I love shopping in Seattle because I always see interesting things that inspire me, but this time what little shopping I did was mainly clothes-shopping with my daughter at stores like Charlotte Russe and Forever 21 (which was actually a lot of fun, and I admit I got a few things for myself, including an extremely cool black faux-leather messenger bag at Charlotte Russe that was ridiculously inexpensive). I did get a chance to take a quick peek into La Ree, though, a boutique in Bellevue near my parents' house that carries jewelry that I like. The boutique had some pieces by Beth Orduna that I fell in love with. I've always liked her work, but the pieces I saw there were extra-special—a wonderful combination of leather, stones, and oxidized silver chain. Unfortunately, this photo was the closest thing I could find online, and it's not one of the pieces I saw there, although the style is similar to a bracelet I saw at La Ree. Her work has an organic, sort of rough quality but is very polished and stylish at the same time, and she has a huge range of styles, but they are all unambiguously hers. I really wish her work was carried somewhere closer to me so that I could go back and ogle it more often. Although, come to think of it, maybe it's a good thing it's not; if I had easier access to it, I'd probably have bought a few of her pieces by now.

New Photos on My Website

I'm excited about the new photos of my jewelry that I'm having done by Michelle Hayes (owner of the soon-to-open Sweet Lime Portrait Design photography studio in the Lee Harrison Center in North Arlington). Michelle specializes in portrait photography, but she graciously agreed to photograph my entire jewelry line, and I'm very happy with the results! The final two photo sessions are schedule for this week, and soon after that my entire site will be updated. For now, here's a sneak peak of some of the new photos (and new pieces). Click on each photo to see a full description and purchase it from my website.

Dream House

My husband wants us to move out to the country some day. Being an urban girl, I'm not sure I'm 100% on board with that plan. But when I saw these two photos recently on Black Eiffel, I thought, maybe it wouldn't be so bad, if my home could look like this. We have a lot of rustic wooden furniture from Indonesia and the Philippines, and it would look great in this kind of a modern room. I know this is a city apartment, but I don't see why you couldn't re-create this look anywhere.

The terrace photo is by Miguel Flores-Vianna, from Elle Decor, and the interior photo is by Merethe S. Odland from Profilm via Hei Astrid.

Layering Madness!

Lately, I've been loving layers of necklaces or bracelets (probably not necklaces AND bracelets, although some people can get away with that). It's so much fun to mix colors and style. Here is a photo of my daughter Maia (age 16) modeling the look.

Shown here are the "Trendsetter" gold-filled necklace with turquoise squares, the "Bohemian" gold-filled necklaced with hot pink jade ovals, and the "Femme Fatale" extra-long sterling silver necklaces with faceted round blue quartz. All are available for purchase on my website.

While you're there, take a look at the What's New section. I just added some new earrings, necklaces, and bracelets for summer!

Madewell

I just love the styling of the photos on Madewell's new shopping site! I wish my house looked like the rooms in these photos. (The clothes are cool, too).