I am the sunlight

Today's Words of Wisdom are a fragment from Mary Elizabeth Frye's poem Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep. It was the first poem she ever wrote. It is written from the perspective of someone who is dying, and is addressed to the people he/she is leaving behind. It tells them not to "stand at my grave and weep", and emphasizes the notion that he/she will still be present in the world around them. I have been in love with this poem for years, and we are still figuring out a way to capture these feelings in ideas into a piece of jewelry.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning's hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night
- Mary Elizabeth Frye

Do you know any poems that are both sad and beautiful, like this one?

xx Lisa

Monday's Musical Delight - Playlist #12 In memory of Lou Reed

Today, I spent most of the day indoors, because it was storming really hard outside. This is usually a great opportunity for me to light some candles and listen to music all day long, and today wasn't any different. Sadly, my musical experience was a bit overshadowed by the passing of Lou Reed yesterday. 

For the ones who don't already know this: Lou Reed was a rock musician from New York who became famous with his band The Velvet Underground in the sixties. He has been incredibly influential in the music world and I have admired him for as long as I can remember. So, today, in memory of this wonderful artist, I want to share with you a selection of his work.

Love,

Lisa

Weekly Inspiration Post

Last Friday, we posted a set of pictures that showed a side of nature that we find incredibly beautiful. Even though we both love bright colours, flowers, and practically anything happy and cheerful, there is something wonderfully mystical about the rough, pure aspects of nature that are shown in these pictures. Images like these have inspired us to make items like the ones below. The two necklaces (the left one is not yet available, the right one can be found here) are made with very delicate gemstones, but we used a matte bronze chain to give them a more rough appearance. For the Pilgrim's Journey bracelet, we also used bronze chain, and added red jasper beads for a little ethnic touch. For the Greek Goddess bracelet, we used irregular tigereye chip beads - we fell in love with these beads the moment we lay eyes on them!

What do you think about this combination? How would you match these items?

Love,

Lisa & Ivanna

Spirit of Nature

We get a lot of inspiration from nature. Not only do we love to enjoy nature in real life, for example, by going for a walk in the forest, or by camping, but we also love to use natural elements in our personal style. We like to show it in our clothing, and we have worn feathers in our hair for several weeks. But of course, we also use nature as an inspiration for our handmade jewelry. It was even the first inspiration that we had for making our bracelets, when we started with Spring to Fall. And it still inspires us today. That's why, for this Friday, we want to show you some wonderful pictures about living close to nature, which is beautifully displayed in this pure photographs.

girl in forest, wise woman, feathers, wolves

What do you love most about nature? Do you have special memories about it?

xx Ivanna

Never the same love twice

Love is something very special. In your life you will meet different kinds of love. There is the love for your family, the love for your friends, the love for your boyfriend or girlfriend, or for your pet. The relationship that you have with someone is very unique; the feelings and the experiences you share are different for every relationship. It comes in many forms, and that's what makes love so fascinating!

This lovely quote is written on a letter board in Lisa's room and we felt like we wanted to share this with you!

"There are all kinds of love in this world,

but never the same love twice."

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Who or what do you love the most at the moment?

Love,
Lisa and Ivanna

Monday's Musical Delight - Playlist #11: London

At the moment this post is published, I will already be strolling around in London :D I'll stay there from Monday to Thursday, and until I come back, the blog will be in the hands of the lovely Ivanna. But of course, I couldn't leave without making a playlist for this Monday - 10 songs from and about London. Enjoy!

xx Lisa

PS: I promise I will make tons of pictures!

Weekly Inspiration Post

This week we chose for a combination with a modern and futuristic look. The design of each bracelet is simple but luxurious. Therefore, this combination fits an elegant woman who keeps her both feet firmly on the ground. The bright blue and turquoise colors stand out, while the hematite cubes give a shiny touch to the set. Did you know; the name of the hematite stone is derived from the Greek word for blood, ‘aima’, because this stone can colour surrounding stones red.

This set contains the turquoise version of Delicate as Stone, the black version of Two's A Pair, the blue spotted jasper version of Royal Princess, the transparent white version of Sunny Beaches and Squaretacular Bloodstone.

xxx Lisa and Ivanna

Sleeping in on weekends

It's weekend again, which means we get to sleep in! One of our favourite things to do ;) At our age, it is probably more socially accepted to go out and be, well.. social, but sometimes our beds just seem a lot more appealing. Besides, if you want to be creative, it is important to get enough rest, and to clear your head sometimes. It will ensure that you get inspiration again, help you stay focused, and makes you able to  resume your work with a fresh view. And quite frankly, we don't think there is anything more enjoyable then staying in bed till noon. Don't these pictures look absolutely dreamy? They sure make us want to catch up on our beauty sleeps...

birds, dreamcatcher, sleeping girl, clouds

Do you like to stay in bed all morning? Or are you an early bird?

Lisa & Ivanna

Strength

Sometimes you might experience a period when things are not going so well for you. It may seem as if many things are going wrong at the same time. You might get the feeling that you are standing in a storm and that it blows you down. But there are many others with you that go through times like these. The most important thing is how you deal with this. You can let the storm swallow you, but you can also choose to accept it and just try to make do. There is an awful lot of truth in the expression "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade". The best thing to do is to look at the possibilities and do something with it! The way you work from a setback is instructive and will only make you stronger!

She stood in the storm,

and when the wind did not blow her away,

she adjusted her sails

- Elizabeth Edwards 

Love, 
Ivanna

PS: We used this quote as an inspiration for our Greek Goddess bracelet. This piece of jewelry is also inspired on Pallas Athena - the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, strength, strategy and skill.


Monday's Musical Delight - Playlist #10: Just a perfect day

Today was a good day. I started out a bit grumpy, because when I arrived at work, I had apparently been taken off the schedule. My initial reaction was annoyance, but then I realised I had just gotten a much needed day off! I had a very long to-do list (with stuff that should have been taken care of a long time ago, but that I just didn't get around to), and today I got most of it done, which is a load of my chest. So no I am well rested, have a clean and tidy room, and a considerably shorter list of tedious tasks! To help you join me in my happiness, I have made a little playlist of happy songs. May your day be as good as mine was today :)

Lots of love,

Lisa

Weekly Inspiration Post

The jewelry that we make is suitable for women with different personal styles. This week for example, we chose a combination that has a bit of a 'rock chick' style. The soft pink color of the rose quarts gemstones shows that the wearer of this jewelry also has a sweet side. Of course, the bracelets shown in this picture are also available in different colours and with a different lucky charm. In our shop you can create your favourite combination by chosing your own variations. In this way, the jewelry that you wear becomes very unique and personal!

This set contains Ménage À Trois (wishbone charm), the brown version of A Little Peace and Dead or Alive (white skull).

Love,
Lisa and Ivanna

Little Things

As a follow-up to this week's Wednesday's Words of Wisdom (finding beauty in humble places) we collected some photographs with roughly the same theme. The pictures below all present little, everyday things that can make you very, very happy - browsing through records, the sound of rain, running around on the beach or through the meadows... Sometimes, finding happiness can be so simple!

Which little, everyday things do you enjoy most?

Love,

Ivanna & Lisa

jumping girl, music browsing, rain, girls on beach

Beautiful things

You can find something beautiful wherever you look, but you have to open up to it. Beautiful things are to be found in 'humble places'. You can perceive this as if you can find it in unexpected places, but also as if it's the 'little things' in life that make it beautiful.

Because there is much activity going on in life, and because you meet so many people, you might not see these 'little things' anymore. It's very satisfactoy to take time to appreciate this. Sometimes, when I am waiting for the bus for example, I take a moment to really look around. Then I notice that I see nice things happening that I didn't notice before. The message of this quote is therefore 'open up'.

Blessed are they who see

beautiful things in humble places 

where other people see nothing.

- Camille Pissarro

PS: We used this quote as an inspiration for our Gypsy Jade necklace.

xx Ivanna

Monday's Musical Delight - Playlist #9: Soft&Melancholic

Even though I have been feeling a bit under the weather the last couple of days, I still had quite a lot of work to do. It wasn't that awful, really, since my regular (side) job isn't all that bad, and I absolutely love working on the blog and shop (and believe me - we are working very hard on the shop!). It's just that everything seems a lot more tedious and tiresome when you're not feeling 100%. So, when I got home from work today, I just lay down on my bed and listened to some nice, quiet songs. They may seem a bit melancholic, but I really like them, and I hope you do too :) 

xx Lisa

PS: I promise next week's music will be more cheerful!

Weekly Inspiration Post

For this weeks Weekly Inspiration we have a combination of bracelets with chilly tones. The beautiful blue spotted jasper gives a majestic appearance to the whole set and unites the different bracelets; it matches perfectly with the calm white bracelets and the brown tones are also to be found in the leather bracelet. With this feature of our blog we want to show you that, when combining jewelry, you can be as original as you like and you can make many combinations. Here for example, we used different structures of materials; leather, gemstones and glass beads. 

This lovely set contains Ménage À Trois, the opaque white version of Sunny Beaches, the bright white jade version of Royal Princess and the brown version of A Little Peace.

xxx Lisa and Ivanna

Vintage Nature

Even though we sometimes complain about autumn (especially the weather), we secretly sort of like it as well. There is something very romantic and comforting about this season and we think it has something to do with the colours. After the bright summer, all the colours seem to fade, and when the world gets this yellowish glow in the late afternoon, it seems to get all warm and wonderful again - like those yellowed, vintage photographs. 

deer, branches, grass, girl with feather

Love,
Ivanna & Lisa

Unique

This week's quote is from one of my favourite Fleet Foxes songs, Helplessness Blues. I really like Robin Pecknold's songwriting, since he always seems to be able to capture these ideas in a very metaphorical but clear way. The passage below explains a kind of uniqueness that is similar to snowflakes: from a distance we all appear to be the same, but when you look more closely, you see that every single person is one-of-a-kind.

I was raised up believing

I was somehow unique

Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes

Unique in each way you can see

- Fleet Foxes

The verse continues with: "but after some thinking, I think I'd rather be a functioning cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me" which seems to be a contradiction, but I actually think this doesn't have to be like that. I believe you can be unique AND be a functioning part of the machine.

Love, Lisa

PS: We used these lyrics as an inspiration for our Delicate As Stone and Soft As Stone bracelets. Every stone is completely unique, even though they look similar, which - to us - is a perfect comparison to people (and snowflakes). 

Coloured Highlights!

We've got a new favourite thing: coloured highlights! Lisa and I talked about dyeing our hair in a crazy colour a while ago. I hadn't done this since I was thirteen, when I decided to commit a rebellious attack on my hair and dye a few random stripes bright pink. But now that we are more mature, we found that we could try it the fashionable way.

Since we were a bit nervous about dyeing our own hair, we bought light blonde hairextensions online, which we first dyed in bright colors ('turquoise' and 'shocking pink', as you can see on the pictures. This is semi-permanent dye and fades in a couple of weeks). By using hairconditioner, you can dilute the dye, so that the color becomes lighter. In this way you can create an effect of two colors blending together.

You can attach the extensions to your own hair by using so called 'microrings' (also included in the order with the extensions). To attach your hair to these rings, you take a thin piece of hair and make it wet, so that you can easily stab it through the ring. Then you shove the ring up to about a centimeter up to your scalp, but not too close - make sure it's still comfortable, and push the plastic end of the extension into the ring as well. Then you close the ring by pinching it firlmy with a pair of plyers. The extensions will remain as long as you want, you can wash, brush, and style them.

There you go, a simple manual to very special hair!

xx Ivanna

Monday's Musical Delight - Playlist #8: Upbeat Bicycle Songs

First of all, my sincere apologies for the delay in posting. The last few days have been very hectic in terms of work, and the little spare time I had, was mostly dedicated to the shop (new stuff coming soon!), so I've only just found the time to sit down and scramble some songs for you. This is not entirely true, however, since I already started collecting songs while I was cycling to work this morning. While making my way through the traffic, I noticed my Mondays usually start a lot better when there are happy and upbeat songs involved. So, for this week's Musical Delight, I collected a couple of these for you - to cycle to work, sing in the shower, or eat your cereals to. Enjoy the songs, and the start of this wonderful new week! :)

Lots of love,

Lisa