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 

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. 

Liberty, oh Liberty

I'm going to just put this out there. I love Liberty. I do, I love it. Here's a little history of the shop for those of you who are not familiar… (shamelessly stolen from Wiki). 

Liberty: 

Liberty is a department store on Regent Street, based in the West End shopping district of Central London. The department store sells a wide range of luxury goods including women’s, men’s and children’s fashion, cosmetics and fragrances, jewellery, accessories, homeware, furniture, stationery and gifts. Liberty is known for its floral and graphic prints.

Liberty’s third and fourth floors showcase innovative designs from famous gifting and homeware brands such as Ibride, Moorcroft, Emma Bridgewater, Mason Cash, Rob Ryan, House of Hackney, Rory Dobner and Tom Dixon. The third floor’s central atrium is home to the Liberty Haberdashery department and is dedicated to the Liberty Art Fabrics collection, which introduces new designs and reused updated prints each season.

It looks like this: 

They sell all sorts of wonderful things in Liberty; scarves, handbags, stationery (oh the stationery), fabric, much, much more, and… jewellery! 

When in store they have some more unique one-off antique pieces, which they don't have on their website, but these pics are from the website as I don't get to visit much in person. They stock some of my favourite designers, so you'll hopefully recognise some of them along the way… 

You'll notice that they carry the more unusual pieces, and this is one of the things I love about Liberty. 

1. Gold plated fine baroque double front ring by Alex Monroe. £150. 

This ring is just stunning. It is made from 22ct gold plated (silver, I assume?) with a green cabochon green tourmaline with seed pearls. It is a part of Alex Monroe's Banquet collection which came out only recently and this particular piece is exclusive to Liberty; lucky Liberty! Sadly it won't be adorning my finger as I'd need to get it re-sized, but it really is just beautiful. 

2. Silver oculus cuff by Pamela Love. £180. 

I've only recently discovered Pamela Love recently, so this cuff is brand new to me. I can't tell you much about it, but I do love a cuff. It's sterling silver and has an amazing double eye feature. There's a place in my heart for "evil eye" jewellery, so this is why this cuff made it on the list. I also like the extra "tear" detail on the right-hand eye. Nice touch. Here it is: 

3. Silver evol fire opal stud earrings by Anna Sheffield. £165. 

There are two things I like about these earrings. Number one: The amazing, amazing fire opals (set in sterling silver). Just look at that colour saturation; fire opal is certainly the correct name for them. I might have even called them lava opals. The second thing you don't spot until you see the side view. Look at how these fantastic opals are mounted… backwards! Who does this?! It gives them an extra edge which moves them from "they are pretty" to "oh my goodness, how will I live my life without them?". Here are both views for you to enjoy: 

4. Here comes the big one… 18ct gold, sapphire, and diamond ring by Kojis. £8,500. 

Seriously folks, look at this bad-ass ring! It features lots of good stuff - a cabochon moonstone, some oval sapphires, and then a gazillion brilliant cut white diamonds. I would be planning cocktail parties every week just so I had an excuse to wear it! 

There are a million and one pieces that I'd love to own by Kojis, and I'll save those for another day. Their catalogues just make me speechless. 

5. Gold nectar jasmine droplet necklace by Annoushka. £950. 

I like that this necklace has stones in the chain and then there are also droplets. I'm a sucker for droplet necklaces, especially "dew" type ones. These droplets are made from white sapphires. 

6. Last one (before the honourable mention). Yellow gold garnet and diamond ring by Ruth Tomlinson. £1,065. 

I'm enjoying ovals turned side-ways at the moment, which I think is why this one makes the cut. I also love the rustic/Roman-esque styling of the metal. It looks ancient! 

It's made up of red garnet and two diamonds. It doesn't say what colour the diamonds are, but they are obviously not white. So, so pretty, and very unique. 

That's it for tonight folks. I've got a chilli chicken in the oven and I've had a lovely weekend. I was also gifted a new Pandora bracelet today. It's one of the new bangles (Moments charm bangle) and here is a stock picture from their website: 

Oh, and before I go… Liberty are offering £30 off when you spend £150 online when you enter 30LIBERTY at checkout.

Bye for now. 

I just remembered my promise of an honourable mention! This necklace is the Blue resin key necklace by Isabel Marant. The reason it's getting an honourable mention is that I LOVE it, and I think the enamelling is just amazingly unique and perfect, but the necklace is made from brass and I don't know how long-lived that makes it, and at £115 that's a shame. I would have paid  bit more to get it in a precious metal. Isn't it beautiful?! It's actually in my top three from today's lot! 

Bye again!