A Little Humor

Some things just should not be pierced!

What piercings have you seen that you really don't like?

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Facebook Cover Photos

I've got a number of cover photos for my Facebook business page and I was wondering which might be the most eye catching.  What do you think?  And how often do you think a business should change their cover photo?

Number 1 is some of the raw materials I use to make my jewelry:

Number 2 is a particularly gorgeous custom piece of jewelry:

Number 3 is a picture of part of the interior of my store:

Three totally different approaches to what I do.  Which to you like the best, or which do you think is the most effective?

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So Many Pearls!

PEARLS-- Don't you just love beautiful, luminous pearls?  I have some beauties! 

Freshwater pearls: almost-round in glowing white, fat rice-shape in a rainbow of vibrant dyed colors, or long stick-shape in white, peach, peacock/black, or glowing copper. 

Osmena pearls: domed cabochon-shape in shimmering white and pale colors and a variety of sizes. 

Blister pearls: a natural formation of pearl "bubbles" on a cut section of shell. 

I have pendants, earrings, ear sweeps, bracelets, anklets, rings...you name it!   Check out my Etsy shop for items ready-to-ship, or browse my Contemporary Concepts website where I can make many of the designs in pearls just for you!

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My Favorite Joke

Question:  How many men does it take to change a toilet paper roll?

Answer:  Nobody knows.  It's never happened!


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Twenty-Five Things About Me

Working on this Ultimate Blog Challenge, I've run across a number of "what to blog about" lists and suggestions.  Most are great, and have prompted even more ideas as I apply the suggestions to my own life and interests.  This "list" was one of the suggestions, and as I was looking back over it I realized each of these 25 things could be yet another blog post!  So provided I can get into and maintain the habit of blogging every day--or at least every other day--I have enough material for MONTHS!  Woo hoo!

1. I’m adopted.
2. I hate being cold. And anything below 65 degrees is COLD!
3. This is my 25th year in business. I established Contemporary Concepts on April 14, 1984.
4. I love good landscape photography.
5. I got my first grey hair at 23. My hair color has been out of a bottle ever since!
6. I’ve always had a powerful attraction to the number 8.
7. I’m very right-brained, and I think in three dimensions (hence my innate ability to create beautiful pieces of jewelry…? But don‘t ask me to draw anything more complicated than a stick figure.)
8. It makes me crazy to see advertisements or billboards (or anything else, really) with words misspelled. Get a dictionary, people…and PROOFREAD!
9. My favorite author is Orson Scott Card. He sucks me into a book so deep that I absolutely CANNOT put it down until I’m finished reading it. I’ll also read anything by Roger Zelazny or Michael Crichton.
10. My favorite colors are green, purple, and yellow, in that order. Any combination thereof is also highly appealing.
11. When I was younger, I wished I had been born a brunette with brown eyes. And that I was taller and thinner. In the last several years, though, I have come to terms with all my “imperfections”…yes, ALL of them!
12. Sometimes I wish I had finished my college degree.
13. I’ve never had a broken bone.
14. I really hate being wet. I’m not a big fan of swimming, and when I shower I always dry off immediately.
15. My son Ricky was conceived through in vitro fertilization, and I gave birth at the ripe old age of 40! No morning sickness, I only gained 16 pounds, and my labor was about 5-½ hours from start to finish. An awesome experience!
16. The downside of being pregnant at 40 was that everything that was going to sag, droop, spread, or otherwise go to hell in a hand basket as I got older, did so…quickly and irreversibly! Consequently I now wear bifocal contact lenses and my feet are a full size bigger than they used to be. (I’ll let you take a wild guess at what sagged and drooped!)
17. Ricky was over a year old before I realized that diaper packages come with a perforated side that you can easily rip open. Now there was a “duh!” moment!
18. It blows my mind that I’m going to turn 54 this year! Inside my head I still feel about 28. Only maybe a little wiser!
19. I am mesmerized by moving water: ocean waves, small creeks, even my washing machine and jewelry tumbler. But I especially love waterfalls. (Have you ever seen pictures or video of the Iguazu Falls in South America? Breathtaking!)
20. I love penguins and giraffes.
21. I have a tattoo of a seahorse on my right ankle.
22. My favorite flowers are yellow roses.
23. I love the smell of pine needles (like Christmastime!) and orange blossoms.
24. When I was younger I enjoyed traveling. At one point or another in my life I’ve visited 36 of the 50 United States. Nowadays I’m the consummate homebody--there’s no place I’d rather be than home.
25. My husband is nearly 10 years younger than I am. Grab ‘em young and train ‘em right, I always say!

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Ear Sweeps Anyone?



  An Ear Sweep is a bobby-pin style earring that goes in your regular piercing and then sweeps UP your ear! Get the multiple-pierced look without the extra pain! I have more than a dozen styles, in gold or silver and your choice of gemstone or crystal beads. I've been making them for more than 20 years, and I can guarantee they make a great gift. Interesting, unique, and probably not something the person already has! My mom wears them all the time, and says that people are constantly stopping her in the grocery store or at church, asking about the Ear Sweeps. And that's what cool jewelry is all about, right? Getting noticed? (I wear Ear Sweeps myself most of the time, but the only place I go is my store, so the only people that see me are customers. I sell a lot of them because I wear them!)  I have several for sale in my Etsy shop .

 

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Points to Ponder

I ran across these statements on a Facebook post today.  They were at the end of a little parable about socialism.  In no way do I mean to belittle anyone's beliefs, nor do I intend to force my views on anyone else.  I just think these are things worth thinking about.

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

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Traditional Birthstone List

Traditional Birthstones:
January - garnet
February - amethyst
March - aquamarine
April - diamond
May - emerald
June - alexandrite, pearl, moonstone 
July - ruby
August - peridot
September - sapphire
October - opal, pink tourmaline 
November - topaz or citrine
December - turquoise, zircon, tanzanite

This is not the "ancient" list, nor the "zodiac" list, nor the "modern" list.  Parts of those are the same and parts are different.  (No idea why!)  I've been in the jewelry business for more than 30 years, and these are the stones I learned back in the beginning, and that I've always associated with the months.  The "traditional" birthstones.  Except for, I have to admit, the tanzanite, which was just designated by the American Gemological bigwigs as the "new" birthstone for December only about 5 or 6 years ago.  But it's gorgeous and it's one of my most favorite stones, so I'll happily add it to my "tradition"!

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