happy april!

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 :).