If I had £1,000 to spend on jewellery right now…

If I had £1,000 to spend on jewellery right now, what would I pick? Hmmm... tricky one. 

This is a blog post that I've had in my drafts for a while because this is not an easy question. What would I pick, right now, for £1,000? I don't think it would be very interesting to just pick one item because it would be a pretty short answer [it would be Alex Monroe's 8mm Hoya ring in morganite - see, quick!]. So let me have a think... 

1. A gold scalloped button bracelet by Lindsay Pearson - £197. Solid gold and very, very cute. This charming bracelet has been on my wish list for a number of years. £803 left... 

2. This heartbeats necklace by Erica Weiner. Thunder only happens when it's raining. Fleetwood Mac and jewellery, in the same thing? YES. £37 / £766 remaining. 

3. This vintage Chanel gold medallion necklace. £625. Every jewellery fanatic should own a classic Chanel piece and I think this one is wonderful. This leaves me with £141. 

4. These opal teardrop studs by Alexis Russell. £136. I am a little obsessed with opal at the moment and I think that these studs are perfect. I love the simplicity of the claw and the beautiful cut of the teardrop. Magnificent. That leaves me with £5... 

5. With a whole £5 to spare, I think I'll spend it on something fun like a friendship bracelet. I like them and wear one or two at any given time. Here is a nice looking one from Etsy for less than £5, leaving me with some change for a boiled sweet. 

So there we have it; five items for less than £1,000. I'm good! 

I hope you've seen something that you like. G'night. 

Oh, wait, here's the 8mm Hoya, just in case you're interested... #swoon. 

L. x 

If I had £1,000 right now... Monica Vinader

Good evening, folks. I've had a full Monday at work, I've just finished watching the last ever episode of Gossip Girl and I would like an imaginary £1,000 to spend. 

Of course, if you gave me £1,000 right now, it would go into my "dream ring fund", details of which I'll share another day, but for now let's play the game...

I don't want to go too far to spend my £1,000 so I'm going to make a single trip... to Monica Vinader. I adore her use of liquid-esque metals and stunning gemstones, as well as her combinations of lapis and yellow gold, and rose quartz with rose gold. Her designs are some of my favourites, so it only makes sense for my imaginary shop to take place there. It's just very tricky narrowing it down to £1,000!

So, MV has creating an amazing collection where you can mix and match various pendants to create a beautiful necklace. They have one of those nifty online tools to make your own and I've done just that. This stunner can be yours [or mine] for £575 [breakdown to follow]...

1. I chose the 32" sterling silver Lungo chain for £210. I like the little hoop that you can use to attach all of the pendants. 

2. I then added my favourite pendant, the rose gold vermeil Marie. It looks like an old Pirate coin and I love it. Of course I'll be mixing my metals for this necklace, it's what I do! £125. 

3. Then I added the Riva gold vermeil ingot for £105. This isn't my cup of tea on its own, but when added in this combination I think it's just stunning. 

4. Then the Ava small round pendant in sterling silver. A bargain at £40, and a well-balance addition, in my opinion.  

6. Then, last but not least, I added the siren bezel pendant in yellow gold vermeil with blue lapis [one of my favourites]. £95. 

Isn't this the perfect necklace?! Here are a couple of ready made ones from the MV website so get the creative juices flowing. 

Anyway, I've got a further £425 to spend, so I want some things to match this lovely piece... 

For £130 I would buy the Siren ring in 18ct rose gold vermeil with moonstone. I love the natural shape of the stone and the rose hue of the pink gold. Beautiful. 

That leaves me with £295... 

Which is exactly what these Siren medium drop earrings in rose gold vermeil and rose quartz cost. Handy, right?

I don't think my choices are too bad at all and that was really fun. I'll be spending more imaginary £1,000, I can assure you of that. I think I need to play the Lotto this weekend! 

Take care, thanks for reading. 

L. x

Free People - new discovery

Good morning! I've got the day off work today because we're going to the O2 Arena tonight for a good ol' fashioned concert. I've spent the morning listening to Rumours by Fleetwood Mac on vinyl and eating scrambled egg and avocado for breakfast. You could say I am winning, and you'd be right. 

That reminds me, before I get into the reason I'm actually writing this post today, that I added a necklace to the wish list last night... 

Heartbeats by Erica Weiner. It's new and it's 100% me. You can pick various lyrics but of course I want the Fleetwood Mac one. 

Back to the reason I've suddenly had to blog... 

I was just reading on BuzzFeed that Urban Outfitters have reported less of a profit than usual and in that article they mention that they have another store within their ring of brands, and it's called Free People. I may well be behind the times, but I've not seen this company before. Of course the first thing I did was to check out their jewellery section on the website and I am impressed! They actually have fine jewellery [hoorah] instead of just 'not forever' jewellery. So here are some of my favourite picks... [warning, this one is going to have a lot of pictures!]... 

Bhanda stone bracelet // by Adorn // £58 // available in pink or turquoise. I actually cannot pick between the two. I LOVE turquoise [I've mentioned it once or twice before] and I thought "bah, I probably won't like the pink" just as I clicked on the link, but the pink is ALSO beautiful and it turns out that it's made from pink opal. Here they both are... 

What's next...?

Tell me about it cuff // by Nashelle // £128 // available in 'forever' or 'amore'. These are gold fill and made in the US. There are a million + 1 cuffs out there, but there is something quite sweet about this one. I think it might be the pinched ends? 

Loved ring // by Nora Kogan // £128 // available in sterling silver. Yikes, this is pretty expensive for sterling silver, but I had to post it because it's a ring that I've had my eye on for a while but I've only seen it on American sites. It's nice that this website has some lovely American designers. This has a message on side especially for the wearer. Very cute! 

This one made my heart skip a beat. Erica Weiner. IN ENGLAND! I'm still waiting for my Erica Weiner wedding ring to get to me all the way from America, so it's nice to see that she's selling some things over here too - it makes the process a lot quicker! This is one of my favourites. I think I'd have snapped it up already if it came in my size and I only found it 10 minutes ago! 

Herkimer diamond solitaire // by Erica Weiner // £88 !!!! // sterling silver. SWOON. 

Tribal princess hoop // by Studio Lil // £98 // 18K gold plate on sterling silver. These beauties are made in Israel. I've noticed quite a lot of nice jewellery coming out of Israel lately. I got a lovely lace bolero for my wedding from Israel too. I love unusual earrings and these fit the bill. Fit for a princess. 

Making shapes bracelet // by Marida // £48 // 14K gold filled and made in California. I have a personal Pinterest board of geometric shapes. I like things that are shape...y. This bracelet is just wonderful. 

Here comes another absolute GEM from Erica Weiner... 

Gypsy Spark ring // by Erica Weiner // £325 // 14K gold ring with .03 carat diamond. I'm seriously going to have to freeze my bank card in a block of ice. This one has me itching to make a purchase. I wonder if this one can be re-sized... available with black diamond or white diamond. I'd usually prefer the black diamonds but I think the white is stunning. Look at those carved bits! As always with EW jewellery, there's a little story behind the design of this one, so please check out the link. 

Well, I was going to end it there but I thought I'd have another quick look through in case I missed anything and... CATBIRD! They have Catbird! I can see that I'll be stalking Free People a lot. They have this lovely, delicate chain ring which sounds pretty odd but looks really pretty on... 

Tiny gold chain ring // by Catbird // £58 // 14K solid gold // made in New York. 

Right, well, you've heard far too much from me for so early in the morning so I'll leave you for now. I'm listening to Jagwar Ma's album Howlin and looking forward to some Japanese food later at Wagamama. YUM. I'll also be checking out the rest of the Free People website in case they have other amazing bits & bobs. 

Thanks for reading, 

L. 

Mr Gingerbread man - foodie necklace

I thought I'd keep it short today, so here is the necklace that I wore to work. It's one of my favourites and I actually won it from Alex Monroe in a Twitter competition. Here is a link so that you can buy one of your very own [£180] >> LINK and here is the description from Alex Monroe >> 

Yes, you read that correctly, he has 5 black diamonds for eyes and buttons. Cute, huh? He comes in silver or gold vermeil. Finally, here are a couple of my own photographs [the one of me wearing it is from today - please excuse my uniform] and there is also one of Mr Gingerbread man riding his Alex Monroe bicycle! I'll tell you all about the bicycle next time I wear it. 

Do you have any food-inspired jewellery? If so, please comment. If not, please say hi anyway. 

'night folks. 

Thanks for reading. 

L. x

Today I wore...

Amongst other things, today I wore my Alexis Dove Belle Hook Earrings. These were a birthday present from my fiancé this year. They are so delicate and pretty. Made from gold vermeil with seed pearls inside, they are an unusual design for dangly earrings, but that just adds to the appeal for me. 

They also come in silver and with different stones/beads in the middle. At the moment they are being offered in ivory seed pearls (as pictured/mine), pink garnet, and labradorite. 

Here they are (images taken from the Alexis Dove website):

Aren't they just so pretty?

My Monsoon/Accessorize picks

Although I don't buy a lot of costume jewellery, I do love to look at it. I think the reason I don't buy much anymore is that in the past I've purchased costume jewellery, become really attached to it, and then I've become sad when it wears away and I have to retire it to the big Velveteen Box in the sky. 

But like I said, before I became all misty eyed and dramatic, I do still look at it more than I probably should. Monsoon/Accessorize is a good place on the high street to enable me to look, and they have some rather lovely pieces at the moment. For those of you from places other than England, Monsoon and Accessorize are the same company; Monsoon does clothes, shoes, and the occasional home accessory, and Accessorize sells jewellery, handbags, scarves, gloves, hats, stationery, etc. To confuse matters, and the reason for Monsoon being mentioned at all, Monsoon also sells Accessorize jewellery and sometimes has things that Accessorize does not… yep, very confusing! 

I've rambled tons and there are still no pictures of lovely sparkly things, so here goes… here are my top ten items from Monsoon/Accessorize. 

1. Box chain and teardrop collar necklace. £15. 

What I like: It's a statement necklace. I like statement necklaces. 

What I love: The colour of the "stones". Paired with the "gold", this collar necklace gives off a luxurious vibe. 

2. Monte Carlo statement ring. £15. 

What I like: The halo reminds me of a lion's mane. 

What I love: That stone in the middle. Dreamy. 

3. Natalie statement necklace. £15. 

What I like: The regal feel that it has going on. 

What I love: Those pear-shaped red stones. 

4. Katy jewelled Montana necklace. £25. 

What I like: The way it reminds me of a bird of paradise. 

What I love: The extra/double chain across the top. This is a really pretty feature. 

5. Laverne earrings. £59. This is a piece from their Swarovski elements range, hence the higher price. 

What I like: Onyx is one of my favourite, favourite stones, and these remind me of onyx. 

What I love: Being Swarovski, they will be super sparkly. 

6. Sterling silver triple ball bracelet. £8. 

What I like: I love cord bracelets. 

What I love: The sterling silver elements. 

7. Sleek stone ring. £8. 

What I like: It's huge! 

What I love: That shade of green. 

8. Ellie flower ring. £8. 

What I like: It's a flower. 

What I love: Look at it!

What I dislike: 1. It's not sterling silver. 2. It's not mine. 

9. Mesh belt buckle cuff. £12. 

What I like: It's sleek and modern. 

What I love: The double belt loop. 

10. Baroque stone long pendant. £12. 

What I like: The styling. 

What I love: The pearls. 

So there you have it folks, my top ten picks! 

Sunday spotlight… Citrine & gold.

It’s time for the Sunday spotlight and this week I’ll show you some beautiful ways to wear Citrine and gold. Citrine is a stunning stone from the quartz family that comes in many different shades. But less chatting and more showcasing! 

In the spotlight above I’m showing off the 22k gold vermeil necklace with a hand cut, faceted citrine. This is made by Dinny Hall and can be found here for £150. I think that the drop shape of this necklace gives the necklace a luxury look and the gold really shows off the deep colour of the citrine. I’m also going to quickly show you what the clasp looks like on this one because it’s a nice-looking feature. 

Dinny Hall also sells these citrine earrings (which can be found here). These earrings feature 7mm heart trillion cut gemstones with rose cut facets. 

Moving on I have to show you this ring from Tiffany & Co (here). It’s a bit out of range for a “pay-day treat” at £1,325, but it is Tiffany. 18k gold (not vermeil like above - not a bad thing but explains the price difference) Sparklers cocktail ring with an 8.5 carat, cushion cut citrine. Look at that colour saturation! The Tiffany & Co website only gives the bare minimum amount of information, sadly. So let’s just have a look... (look at that cushion cut - my favourite). 

Next there is a ring from Etsy (here). It is gold plated sterling silver and this time it’s a champagne citrine. Still beautiful, but more on the smokey side rather than bright. 10mm faceted round cut citrine. At 10mm this is going to be on the large side, but I have size 8.75 / R1/2 fingers so it would fit quite nicely. It can be yours for $62 from seller OhKuol. I’ve not purchased from this seller before, so I am not recommending, but they have some beautiful looking Druzy so it might not be too long. 

So there we have it. Some beautiful examples of citrine (at least I think so!). Let’s finish off with a “what I wore today” picture. These are my Alex Monroe Tiny Bird Loop earrings. Aren’t they wonderful? 

Bye for now folks. Keep checking back for updates. 

L. x