Cook the Silver

Education is not filling a pail, but lighting a fire.  Yeats.  College English.

Suppose lighting fires is just the tip of the iceberg?  Stephen King.  Fire starter.

A few years ago, while partying my way to a degree,  I knew I had to take an art course and was looking for an easy way to go when I learned I could get credits for playing with fire.

The jewelry studio was an option.  A lab full of acetylene torches sealed the deal. I didn't have to pay for the hazard insurance so, sure, why not?  Then silver smithing pulled me in.  Designing and making silver jewelry! I wanted to do this.  I made my first piece of jewelry, a sterling silver ring with a bezel set obsidian. From there, all I wanted was to make great looking pieces and molten sterling silver is where it starts.  Just say it starts at 1763 degrees F, the melting point for silver. 

No one let me fire up 11 torches like this guy is doing but now I'd burn down the barn if that's what it takes to make a lump of silver into wearable art.  It's what I do.  ~  David in Mexico

Trending on. Fashion Blogs.

Not saving the world, two Louboutins at a time.  Sometimes it's just about how fabulous you look.  Because everyone knows you can look good and do good at the same time.

Olivia Palermo

The Bag Snob

The Man Repeller

A Continuous Lean

Into the Gloss

Stylette

The Covetuer

Japanese Streets

Fashion Gone Rogue

A Beautiful Mess

Refinery29

Hypebeast

The Blond Salad

Audacity

A couple of audacious things that are going on with Beyoncé's new album....One is the fanfare, the promotion, the build up.  You're so right!  There wasn't any.  Sneak attack, this one.  It's being called the surprise album.  And know what?  It worked because the collection hit #1 faster than you can say acid hot. 

And two, she went solo, no fatherly, inside or outside management team.  Nerve works most times.  She aced every decision.

The videos she released have her dripping in her trademark statement jewelry.  Luscious silver pieces all up and down gorgeous, and while Queen Bey nails the jewelry, I have to draw your attention to the NYC boutique that supplied it to her.  They've got some nerve and not the good kind. Because their price points are staggering...I know I'm staggering...right past their $1485.00 silver chain bracelet on my way to a real world jewelry store. 

JCK Magazine says Beyoncé didn't buy these pieces, only borrowed them.  They are gorgeous.  I'm not saying they're not gorgeous.

The shop is called Margo Manhattan and you might have guessed that it is in high rent Manhattan which helps explains a lot.

If you find yourself in Manhattan, if you're richer than Beyoncé and want a silver chain,  check them out.  Their jewelry is very nice, I gotta say.  ~  Carolyn in Mexico

All the News You Need to Know

I like that I get Elle, Vogue and Harpers Bazaar subscriptions online, the style whisperers.  Love finding them there among my email morning and night, sandwiched between Visa's "you have a payment due"  and  eBay's "you've been outbid" notices. A spoonful of fashion helps it all go down.

Do I miss paying 8 dollars a copy for reduced sized, ad-filled paper issues?  No I don't because I subscribe to those as well,  locked into Publisher's Clearing House such that I am.  And the US Postal service.  And the timber lobby.

Blame the gloss.  Blame the ads even more, because they're over the top and full-page gorgeous.  Time and money were spent here. I guess that makes me a student of style marketing.  Or just a student of style.  I like the ads.  Chanel and Versace speak.  I just want to hear them out.

Guess who else has gone over to the glossy side?  WSJ. The Wall Street Journal wants us to know that black is this season's new color (like we haven't known since we were 10 that black is always the season's new color) and looping a dapper scarf over one's suit is the gentlemanly way to prevent winter chill. Their words, not mine.

And Forbes is in the game....their Style File "covers all things design".  Pick up a copy to catch up on SoHo's street vendors or jewelry chic along with your stock quotes and they'll throw in an essay about asset allocation.  Day traders are like everybody else.  They just want to beat the street while looking drop dead dapper.  ~  Carolyn in Mexico

Stalkers

I don't know, but I think I'm being stalked.  My own fault.  I'm fabulous.  I'm so fabulous almost everyone either hates me or stalks me.  Just please, don't hate me AND stalk me. Not sure how Clooney and Conan cope...except they don't give out maps to their bedroom.  Like I do.



Just for Me?  He knows me so well. But how?

When a stranger waves from your swimming pool, you say, okay the clever guy got past security.  But how do they get on your computer screen?  How?

Do one google search for "silver jewelry" and pretty soon, every time you open a screen,  SilverSea, John Hardy, and Novica are jumping out at you. Go away, Blue Nile.   On top of that, I also get ads for fine jewelry in Spanish.  How do they know I live in Mexico?  How?

And I'm serious here....... it's creepy.  Because, think about it.

Check the twisted smile, the Jack Nicholson eyes.  Does he look sane to you?  Maybe.  Probably.  Yes, actually.  I mean here's a man that pairs and wears hot pink and orange....it's starting to make sense now.  He's not psychotic.  He's branding.

And I love the silver bangles, all texture and pave-like.  With gorgeous settings and great colors.

John Hardy, you're looking good.   I'm re-thinking the whole restraining order thing.  Okay, this relationship could work.  ~  Carolyn in Mexico

Shopping in Mexico- If They Don't Have It, You Don't Need It

As you can see Tianguis have been a part of the Mexican culture for more than 500 years.  Tianguis comes from the Nahuatl word for market.  Little has changed in the centuries, except for maybe the clothes.

It is a place for meeting friends, old and new.  But in the more rural communities, it is also the place to get everything you need, hence this is why you can by almost anything you want, IF you know where to go.

Blankets:

stuff for the home:

food to take home:

 

Food for the road:

plants for the home:

Time has passed, peoples have come and gone, but the tianguis of old is still here to reach into our hearts and make us smile.

-David in Mexico

My Favorite Things

Did you catch that special starring Carrie Underwood in The Sound of Music?

I am not going to bash it, don't worry. That is one of my favorite movies, mostly because it was a true story with a Happily Ever After. No matter, it's pretty hard to mess up the story, and I have to say, I loved this scene:

Yes, I know that doesn't have anything to do with the post, but this was just such a great song - even Carrie Underwood is crying! Now that that is out of the way, let's try to get back on the topic. And quit distracting me!

So then my other favorite part of the original movie version is, in fact, My Favorite Things (hence the name of this post). It's the sweetest song, isn't it?

Well, a few of my favorite things are gifts that have meaning. My family and I went last summer to see my husband's family in Argentina. They were all absolutely gorgeous, artsy, loud, and quite simply fabulous people.

All had such generous hearts and gave special gifts to us. One of the ones that touched my heart was a pendant made by my husband's uncle. He is an artisan and used to make exquisite and intricate pieces, but now, with advancing age, he has begun to make larger pieces and bombillas for mate. Still beautiful, but you can't exactly wear them!

Bombilla is the metal straw, it has a strainer at the end, to keep out the yerba mate leaves.
The container is also called a mate, and can be made from a gourd, leather, stainless steel, to name a few.

This is what he made for me. Yep. For me.

Silver and onyx.

I didn't realize onyx could be these lovely shades of coffee and cream. Isn't it beautiful? Now, I am just waiting to get back to Taxco so I can find the perfect silver chain for my pendant. A new favorite thing.

~Leslie in Texas

Americans in Paris

Paris.

Nice.

You have the Eiffel Tower.  Lauduree macaroons...with gold foil. But limited edition macaroons, really?  Seriously? They're cookies, for goodness sake. Get some perspective.

Isle de la Cite, Champs Elysee, Arc de Triomphe, the Seine, Pont Neuf, Place de la Concord.

We get it.  Paris has nice stuff.  The Louvre.  Bateaux mouches, street mimes, berets and French bread, French perfume, French cuisine, French fashion, haute, haute, haute.  Blah, blah blah.  Nice.  But.  You could do better.

You could do Mexico, tierra del sol, but this isn't about sunshine or cactus, mariachis or pork skins.  Oh, sure, we got those.  And this isn't about charm, not that we don't HAVE charm.  You ever heard of cobblestones?  Well, we've got 'em. 

This is about Highway 57. 

If you're far from home and have been for a while, home is going to come back to you in memories.  They are the memories you don't summon, they just come when they want to, hang around a while, make you happy. Make you sad.

Sad, because you left a lot back there.  Tex-Mex, the Galleria, Trader Joe's.  Really sad.....kids, grandkids.

Happy, because you have Mexico's Highway 57 that takes you back to Houston and then brings you back again to Mexico, to mariachis and pork skins.   Paris isn't handy like that.  Adios and adieu.

~  Carolyn in Mexico.

Down and Dirty

Save the pieces!!!  Crashing, splintering noises, we love 'em around here because they mean pieces.  And that means jewelry.

Broken anything. Dumps and landfills.

We like trash.  We like discarded.

Talavera factories, pawnshops, junk stores.

Taxidermists....ha,  just checking to see if you're actually READING this.

Silver and Gold?  Diamonds?  Oh yes, we love and wear them and of course, we prefer them.  But the dumpster behind Autozone?   Well YES!  Because we know how to have fun.  ~  Carolyn in Mexico