march in instagram

cool wall art at free people

snack time during a shopping trip to bergdorf goodman

completely in love with the spring stripes at stella mccartney

in the process of reorganizing my nail polish collection

 

birthday parties call for polka dot straws :)

  

celebrated st.patrick's day with green nails

also celebrated st.patrick's day with green velvet cupcakes from sprinkles

spent a warm sunny afternoon at the bryant park grill patio

new project: wood and gemstone necklaces

celebrated a friend's birthday with tres leche cake at mole

exciting new project in the works, details to come :)

best discovery ever!

nail polish + sparkle

essie nail polish in absolutely shore // katie bartels rose quartz and peridot bracelet

please vote for me!

a few weeks ago I learned about a street style contest on Lifestyle Mirror and I submitted a photo of myself wearing my favorite feather skirt and multi gemstone necklace. totally did not expect anything to come out of this. then this morning I received an email telling me I was one of the 25 finalists! so crazy! I never win anything. well, that's not totally true...I won bingo when I was 9. so, I would love if you would vote for me (it takes like 2 seconds and you don't need to sign up for any mailing lists, etc--pet peeve of voting for stuff). just click here! thanks so much!

serious sparkle

every april and december, christie's hosts its magnificent jewels auction in nyc. it is heaven. I always go to the auction preview and buy the catalogue so I can daydream about owning everything, especially the diamonds over 20 cts. the auction preview is incredibly fun and as a gemologist, I'm a kid in a {very expensive} candy shop. the preview is open to the public and you can even try on some of the pieces (they said "no" when I asked to try on a $5m yellow diamond ring...).

last april I tried on this 50 ct sapphire ring. perfection.

this year the auction will take place on april 17 and all of the details of the lots for sale are now online and there are some incredibly stunning pieces. I'm most excited about all of the colored diamonds. here are a few of the pieces I cannot wait to see in person:

a 9 ct fancy vivid purplish pink diamond ring

emerald and diamond earrings 

ruby, diamond, and gold necklace

colored diamond necklace

all images, christie's

kate spade+nail polish=perfection

(image, beauty high)

I am counting down the days until the kate spade nail polish collection launches! the colors are fantastic (mint green, tomato red, peony pink, and sunshine yellow--oh my!) and they come in adorable travel size bottles. the collection was put together by Poppy King, who collaborated with Kate Spade (and J.Crew as well) last year to do a lipstick line. I have been a huge fan of Poppy ever since I read her book, Lessons of a Lipstick Queen, about the successes and set backs of starting her company. she is a very inspirational business woman and a truly delightful person. so excited to add these colors to my personal nail polish collection (which is now up to 63 polishes :) )!

wish me luck!

a few weeks ago I promised in this post to start writing more about the behind the scenes of my business. february was a bit of a challenging month. sales are always slow in the beginning of the year but it can still be frustrating and result in plenty of "should I keep doing this?!" moments. I had several of those but every time I had a really down moment something happened to keep me positive.

example: I met up with a friend after a pretty rough day when I got some bad news. I was really upset. there were tears and I talked about looking for a job, maybe reconsidering my decision not to go to business school, and other "negative" thoughts. after about 30 minutes of venting and feeling super bad about myself, a complete stranger came over to our table and said to me "I just wanted to tell you that I am obsessed with your necklace, it's fabulous!". it was one of the best timed compliments of my life.

and then about two weeks later an exciting business opportunity arose!

so you never know what's around the corner...

with that said, tomorrow morning I am showing my designs to a famous high-end nyc retailer. I'm definitely nervous! I'm bringing my good luck charm (pictured above), which is a buddha that my grandfather carried during wwII when he was in europe. he rubbed the buddha's tummy every morning and my grandmother, who was back in nyc, rubbed the tummy of her buddha every morning for good luck. he returned home safely so this is a very special good luck charm. hopefully it will bring me luck tomorrow when I show my designs to the buyers :).

these are a few of my favorite things...in spring green!

yippee its officially spring!

1. katie bartels flower laser cut wood and onyx earrings // 2. fred flare sunglasses // 3. cambridge satchel co. satchel in green // 4. pantone iPhone case in green // 5. j.crew viv flats in festival green // 

you get what you pay for!

the other day I came across a rather shocking article on NY Mag about a study done by the Ecology Center, which revealed that a lot of costume jewelry for sale at stores such as Forever 21 and Claire's contains dangerous chemicals, including lead and even arsenic. yikes! I never buy jewelry from stores like Forever 21 because of a moral objection (the vast majority of their pieces are copied from higher end brands and as a designer I find it so disheartening), but now I definitely will never purchase anything from these stores because of the presence of really dangerous chemicals. hopefully this study will result in changes of materials used by these stores. definitely an argument for purchasing gemstone jewelry :)

happy st. patrick's day {tomorrow}! hope everyone enjoys themed cupcakes, 

drinks some beer, and rocks green accessories. 

four leave clover paperweight, john derian

guest post with lemons and loafers!

check out Julia's fabulous blog here !

OPI a roll in the hague // Essie Lollipop // Essie Sugar Daddy // Essie Spaghetti Strap

back in the studio

after taking far too much time off from creating jewelry {to attend to other big projects such as redoing my website--relaunch soon!, editing dozens of photos, etc}, I'm back at my design desk and it feels great. I've got lots of new pieces in the works. definitely excited for what's to come!

blogger love

I was so flattered when hunter from navy and orange nominated my blog for the liebster award, which is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers as a way to show love to those of us who are relatively new to blogging and working on establishing a readership. I've been an avid follower of hunter's blog and she did a fabulous nail polish guest post on my blog back in january. it was such a nice surprise to be recognized and I look forward to passing along the honor to five up-and-coming bloggers really soon!

kurta love

I've been obsessed with tunics and kurtas for a while now and my favorite brand is rikshaw design. the kurtas are super comfortable and come in fun patterns, made from the hand block printing technique. I wore their kurtas while traveling in India and back in nyc and ct I wear them with my wood necklaces. they just launched their newest collection and I'm in love. 

one of rikshaw designs' classic kurtas 

me wearing one of the kurtas at the taj mahal

I love wearing the kurtas with my wood and sparkle collection

this summer I plan on pairing the kurtas with my 

summer 2012 wood and coral collection (available in may!!)

gorgeous graphics

I have received so many compliments on my blog header and other touches on my blog, and its all thanks to the lovely graphic designer jen kahn! her work is really fantastic and I love seeing all the new projects she works on (she just did the graphics for gretchen jones' fall 2012 presentation invites!). here are some of her recent projects:

I'm also obsessed with Jen's tumblr blog, kind of want. and I'm obsessed with this animation she did.

new laser cut wood collection!

I'm obsessed with my newest addition to my spring collection: laser cut wood and onyx flower earrings in every color of the rainbow! they are lightweight and an awesome statement piece.

blue laser cut wood and onyx flower earrings

so many colors!

the good, the bad, {but hopefully not ugly}

via

when I first started my blog and titled it "passports and pearls: the adventures of a jewelry designer" I decided to keep it light and just about things that inspired me, new designs, and my travels and adventures living in nyc. basically, the fun stuff. but then I started thinking about the adventures I was leaving out: the ones where I'm incredibly frustrated, disappointed, and drained in the process of trying to establish my business.  this is a really big part of my story. I'm optimistic about my jewelry because I believe in my product and am not one to give up when the going gets tough. but I still have plenty of moments of doubt, as does pretty much every entrepreneur.

so I've decided I'm going to start sharing stories about trying to make it.  the good, the bad, {here is the part where I'm supposed to say "the ugly" but I really hope things never get ugly!}.

wish me luck...

why hello spring!

I'm excited to announce that my spring collection is now available online!

my collection is made from rose quartz, amethyst, and peridot gemstones. I have always been a huge fan of the light pink-purple-and light green color palate for spring. throughout the month of march I will post ideas about what tops to pair my necklaces with as well as some nail polish pairings!

amethyst and peridot necklace

rose quartz, amethyst, and peridot necklace

I am in love

be still my heart...

every now and then a designer makes a piece that I absolutely fall in love with and literally daydream about. miuccia prada's spring 2011 collection had this affect on me. when I first saw prada's sequin stripe clutches at bergdorf goodman I had such an emotional reaction (well, it was a loud gasp) that the sales associate asked me if I was alright. I replied, "I'm in love". she of course thought I was crazy but how can you not swoon over hot pink sequins?!?!

this season, stella mccartney has done it to me. this cocoon coat is my new love. stripes, satin, multiple colors...what more can a girl ask for?! I already know it would look good on me because the model in the photo has my hair color. fate?!

these are a few of my favorite things..for march!

1. katie bartels silver sparkle necklace // 2. D&G layered tulle midi skirt // 3. 100 years of fashion illustration // 4. deborah lippmann yellow brick road nail polish // 5. j.crew viv printed flats

hello march!

I've never been a fan of winter (especially after going to college in ithaca, ny--brrrr!). once christmas is over I just want to get the show on the road and get to spring. the first day of march means we're in the home stretch. it might not quite feel like spring, but all the shelves of clothing stores are filled with springy colors, daffodils are starting to peaking out, and we set our clocks ahead (sunglasses past 6pm!). so, happy march!

image, tumblr