Foolin' around...

Had some time last week to fool around with some old things and new things. Some old settings recovered quite by accident from one of the big drawers in back at the store proved a perfect fit for some vintage shell cabochons, and were then paired with some tiny medals, crosses, and a diminutive holy spirit medallion for our new In Spiritu earrings...

A brand new and beautiful cross will be featured exclusively in our Renaissance earrings, and we've paired them with little immaculate medals and even tinier haloed virgins. They're topped with gemstone rondelles that will vary by selection. We hope to have these kits in store by this weekend...

Another design in process is the Clarity necklace, which will feature vintage chandelier pendants paired with vintage Swarovski channel set drops, and chaining composed of vintage rolo chain, fab new brass connectors and Czech glass beads...

It's a start, and it almost feels a little like I'm finally catching up. These designs will go to Tinsel and Treasures with Dede and I in the fall as well, along with other I hope to add to our line. We'll also be restocking some of our most popular designs, starting with the Immaculate series. Stay tuned!

Spring cleaning...

This weekend, after working Friday and Saturday, and teaching the next day, Monday really felt like my Sunday, and Alain and I worked outside on the back deck, clearing away the messes from winter storms, and sorting through our own plants (some of which had gone to seed) as well as some that my friend Linda had bestowed on me as she was packing up to move.

I got into the rhythm of dividing, making those hard decisions about who was going to stay on, and who would get along, putting them into their new homes, terra cotta pots rimed with calcium that I have had for years, and a couple of new pots from the local Ace Hardware memorial day sale. After a day of hard work, we celebrated Linda's move with her friend David, Dede, myself and mister J, who plied us with sliders from the grill.

Tuesday was my Monday, and we cleaned the front porch, pulling the huge antique bird bath Linda gave me into place in a corner of the porch. George carried the huge fern out and placed in the bird bath for me...

A trip to Lowes garnered lot of inspiration and several small succulents, with are now rooting in a little soil and some river pebbles. George says they will get enough filtered sun to flourish there throughout the summer, and I love the way they look.

Under the Big Top...

My daughter surprised me the other day at the store with a note prefacing something she wanted to show me. In the note, she explained that although she knew I wasn't wild about tattoos, she liked them as a way to contain her memories and keep them with her.

She also wanted to think of something special about her relationship with me, and what she remembered and loved most about me. The two things she landed on were something from my past, and Gilding the Lily. She told me that they represented to her my adventurous spirit, and what I had created in the store and its ever growing community of creative women. Hence, the elephant....

...holding a lily in its trunk.

You may be asking yourself what these two things have in common. For Nathalie, they are an expression of my past and present. You see, I once ran away and joined the circus.

It was an old fashioned, big top circus, and at the time was the biggest show under canvas in the world. I joined my friend Brandon and we lived like gypsies in a trailer, and traveled the length and breadth of the United States, moving every few days. We ran a concession, worked like dogs, but made good money selling Coca Cola. Business was brisk when the weather was hot, and when it was cold, I would sneak behind the popcorn vendor and give it another shake or two of salt...

It was an international community, and my neighbors were from all over the world. I lived cheek to jowl with South American chimpanzee trainers, Czechslovakian performers, tigers, wild Andalusian stallions they finally had to geld, the bears I loved so much (especially Cindy, the cub in the little ruffled skirt), and of course, the elephants. For, besides slinging cokes and running the water for the show, I also rode the elephants in 'spec.' Short for spectacular, this was the start of each show, a parade of every performer, and many of the animals, once around the three rings inside the tent.

My friend and I were fitted for costumes, and ran before each show to the menagerie tent, where we put on our headdresses (14 pounds, no less) and climbed up on the elephants knees when they knelt down at the trainers command. One then grabbed the harness at the back of their heads, and at another command, up they went, and you'd better be ready to sling yourself over their neck and tuck your legs behind their ears. We worked hard on perfecting our waves, and in general, had a helluva good time.

It was an experience I'll never regret, and never forget...for the people, and what I learned in those two years of working in another world. And evidently, neither will my daughter. Funny, when I was doing it, I never thought it was role model material...

An early spring....

Well, the groundhog didn't see his shadow yesterday, so we are promised an early spring. As cold as it is this morning, though, I feel doubt niggling at that promise. That being said, I am readying for longer days (and hopefully warmer ones), and find myself drawn to the lovely colors of the millinery flowers, shown here in corsage boxes, one of my favorite things...

I spent a good deal of my day yesterday carefully packaging up the Victorian Valentines that are now in the store. These beautiful old expressions of love and endearment are a miracle to me...pieces of paper and tissue that are well over a hundred years old, still intact and lovely. I enjoyed looking at each and every one of them, as well as the more whimsical Whitneys from the 20s and 30s. I count among my favorites these fold out Valentines with little paper hinges. Each layers sets out in front of the last, framing vignettes of amorati and bowers of blooms within...

Gale stopped by and we looked at the signatures and messages scrawled within, some in careful script, others in juvenile hand, and she remarked on how it was if you didn't get as many cards as you had hoped. We wondered if in the day it was the equivalent of not being "friended" on FaceBook. I guess for all the time that has passed since these lovely mementos changed hands, things are not so different after all...