Vive La France!!!

Ever since my trip to Paris, I have been so inspired to create! It's amazing what a little weekend trip to France can do. Here are my latest creations that are everything French...

I was so in love with the last French wrap I made, I just had to make another! This one has little blinged out Eiffel Towers in it and this one just may be a keeper for myself. (LOL)

 

 The wrap is full of French medals, souvenir charms, vintage rhinestones, faceted semi-precious stones, and

old mother of pearl rosaries. Lots of yummy goodies in this 55" necklace! 

Vintage rhinestone hoop earrings with little French Holy Mary medals...

The "Springtime at Notre Dame Bracelet" centers around the vintage mother of pearl Notre Dame souvenir pin and the Victorian sterling silver butterfly pin. Can you tell how much I LOVE mother of pearl??

 "In Love With Paris" Bangle is really sparkly and very special. It has a vintage and large Eiffel Tower souvenir charm off of the side.

All of these new pieces of French inspired jewelry can be found in my Etsy store, if you would like to see more pictures of them. Feel free to leave a comment on your opinion of my new pieces...and stay tuned because I will be making a piece of jewelry especially for my next post and my exciting jewelry giveaway coming up in January!

Merry Christmas...

I just wanted to take a minute to wish all of my friends out there in blogland a Merry Christmas, and also would like to wish everyone a happy, blessed, and prosperous New Year! May all of your hopes and dreams be fulfilled in the coming year! Love To All...

Christmas Bracelets...

Remember all of those buckles I showed you a couple of months ago? Well one of my friends saw them and commissioned me to make his special lady friends some nice Christmas goodies. Here is what developed out of the vintage buckle madness...

Stay tuned, my blogging friends, because starting next month I will be having a jewelry giveaway. In the process of making these bracelets I realized I just had way too much stuff! So I am going to start sharing the love with just my blogger friends. I will start giving away special one-of-a-kind pieces that I make just for this giveaway. All you will have to do is leave me a comment anywhere on my blog and you will be put in the hat for the drawing. This is also just a special way to say thank you to all of my blog friends for taking the time to stop by my blog during the past year.

Taking Time To Smell the Flowers...

I'm apologizing to all of my blogger friends out there for not being more efficient in my posting for the past week, but one of my closest inspirations passed away this week. At the beautiful age of 83, my grandmother and a living legend in all of her family and friend's hearts and minds went to be in eternal peace. I loved her so much, she is truly where I found my love and passion for jewelry. She absolutely LOVED jewelry! She was as crazy about it as I was, and every time I saw her, I would try and bring her something that I made for her. On her last day, she was wearing a pair of earrings that I had made for her. She was the most special person and I will greatly miss her beautiful presence in my life. I am dedicating this blog post and writing this in her honor, and just reminding myself that nothing matters more in life (not blogging, jewelry making, cooking dinner, doing the laundry, etc.) than spending time and making special moments with people that you love here on earth while they are here. So my New Year's resolution for next year and the future years to come is to make time for the people that matter while they are here. Life is fleeting, so we must take and make time to "stop and smell the flowers" that life places on our path! Here is my beautiful grandmother,

I LOVE YOU MONNA....

An Exquisite French Wrap...

I have been working feverishly lately to get caught up from my recent trip to Europe. Along with much great inspiration from a once in a lifetime vacation comes much panic and despair on getting caught up from being off for two weeks. Here are a few things I have been working on lately...and don't forget, if you need any last minute gifts I am offering free shipping in my Etsy store. Also, I will guarantee before Christmas shipping up until Monday, December 20th!

An Exquisite French Wrap....

 I just love the versatility of this necklace! You can wear it long (a staggering 56 inches) or doubled, or even tripled and it is choc full of interesting French trinkets, crosses and rosary beads.

There are all types of stones on this piece too. Lemon quartz, smokey quartz, agates, tourmaline, silvery pearls, and old mother of pearl really pop out against the medals and wooden rosary beads.

The necklace below layered with the French wrap is called "A Bird's Eye View".  I named it this because of the sweet little souvenir book the bird is holding. Inside the vintage 'souvenir album' are various old miniature photos of different locations throughout Europe. If anyone knows of these locations shown in the photos below, do leave a comment and fill all us Anglophiles in on their whereabouts. I do know one location is Lyon, France.

The above photos are of Gare Centrale and L' Embarcadere, which I think is in Lyon, France. The other photos in the album, but not shown, are Maisons Des Corporations, La Cathedrale, and Panorama du Port.

This necklace is currently in my Etsy store, you can see more pictures of it there.

 I absolutely LOVE, the way these earrings turned out! They are so French Chic with their vintage chains, art deco rhinestones and tiny golden sparrows...

The 'Garnet St. Anne Earrings are also very lovely. With their heart shape faceted garnets and their old French medals, they turned out to be stunning one of a kind earrings! Both pair of these earrings are also currently listed in my Etsy store.

A Wonderful Winter Wonderland...

Our final days in Europe were spent in a snow covered, beautiful winter wonderland. I never realized what a calming peace a beautiful quiet snowfall could bring. We spent our second to the last day at an old German monastery built in 1125 AD. Can you believe how old...and still standing in it's original breathtaking grandeur! My brother-in-law and myself were hoping to score some good monk beer that day, but they had shut everything down on the grounds except for the sanctuary of the church.

Some of the beautiful grounds of this stunning monastery. 

The sanctuary...it's mind boggling to imagine how many people have worshipped here over the centuries...

The monastery grounds permanent residents...

This is how I felt at the end of this day filled with snowflakes and frigid temperatures... 

Peaceful, isn't it?????

The last day of our trip was spent at the caves in the Valkenburg, Netherlands. The church below was located in the center of town. I thought it was so picturesque. It looked as though it fell out of a fairy tale!

The caves of Valkenburg were actual hiding places for people fleeing Hitler's wrath during the Holocaust. Even Americans hid there. Now they are caves filled with vendors selling arts and crafts.

This vendor inside the caves was selling bulbs he had harvested all throughout the year. He had every type of flowering bulb you could dream of. The crates below show just a small fraction of what he actually had. He had the biggest and most  beautiful amaryllis flowers I had ever seen!

Our anniversary dinner on the last night was also spent in Valkenburg. This little Italian restaurant we visited made pizza that would rival any great New York style pizzeria!

Hubby and I toasting to our 10th wedding anniversary with some tasty German apple schnapps. I really love this picture because my 4 year old niece is in the background cheering us on. (Like she knows how hard it really is to achieve 10 years of marriage. hehe  :~).

My first design inspirations to come from my journeys...

This is called my "Tribute to Trier". I  love this piece, it is really, really special to me. I think having traveled the 8000+ miles to hand pick the antique rosaries and experiencing this old and beautiful religious city itself  makes this piece really sentimental.

Victorian Father Time earrings, currently in my Etsy store.

I looked up what the inscription "Andenken an Trier" on the old medal that was attached to one of the rosaries said...it means "Memory of Trier". I found it a fitting added tribute to this beautiful piece of jewelry.