Category: Personal
Shadia x Luke
This weekend my favorite part of Louisville was up here in Chicagoland. My friend Shadia and her boyfriend Luke were in town this weekend for a wedding that Shadia was photographing sunday afternoon. Luckily, they were able to hang out with a bunch of us during their visit. Friday night was dinner and drinks at Nightwood, which is hands down one of my favorite restaurants in this city. Sunday morning a group of us gathered for Dim Sum at Cai, which was chased with some incredible bubble tea and a stroll around Chinatown. This morning after stuffing ourselves full with blueberry buckwheat pancakes I asked Shadia and Luke if they wouldn’t mind modeling some jewelry for me so I could take some photos. Lucky for me, they happily obliged. Here are some of my favorites:
I got the World Cup blues…
This was my first year watching the world cup. I mean, I knew it existed but, I never really got into it. I mostly understood the sport, I had no problem watching it and “getting it”, unlike good old American Football. Try all you want I will never truly grasp it. When my husband Jeff and I started dating a few years ago, I quickly learned that the premier league schedule would dictate the course of our weekend plans. Jeff is a massive, die hard Tottenham Hotspurs fan. Maybe some women would get annoyed with this, and I’ll admit there were (and still are) times it was kind of annoying but I made a decision: if you can’t beat them, join them. I started watching games and learned a little bit. Jeff taught me about the players, histories of certain teams, club songs etc. I even got more familiar with the rules of the game. Although, the whole “Off-Sides” rule still really puzzles me from time to time. After a year and a half of watching Premier League Soccer, I decided it was time to choose a team. Naturally, you’d think I’d choose my husband’s team, the Spurs. Which I did ...
We’re all a little weird
“We are all a little weird, and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love” Back in April, my cousin Katie’s husband, John, contacted me and said he wanted to have something special made for their first year anniversary coming up on June 1st. John, being the very thoughtful person that he is, wanted to incorporate paper which is the traditional first anniversary gift. As you might know, I don’t generally work with paper too often, but I was completely open to the challenge. Now, I realize that it doesn’t sound practical, paper jewelry. My first thought was necklace… I could draw something cute… put it in a handmade locket… BRILLIANT. Then I remembered, Katie can’t wear necklaces. No matter what the material it always irritates her skin. I begin to panic, and I turn to John for some help. He agrees that a necklace isn’t a good idea and he thinks a ring would be best. A lightbulb goes off… Katie is an English teacher, she loves reading. I can put a quote on the ring in paper. ...
Where Do I start, Where Do I Begin?
It’s so typical of me, I have done nothing but put pressure on myself for my first blog post. Tons of thoughts started running through my head as I sat down about a month ago to write this. How do I start, what should I write, I hope I don’t bore people. I mean, its so important because first impressions are everything right? Despite my utter insecurities as a writer, I sat myself down with a strong cup of coffee, my macbook pro and decided to just dive right in. Back in spring of 2007, my best friend Emily called me up one afternoon and asked me if I was interested in partnering up and starting a jewelry store. I immediately agreed, even though I had a good job working as a bench jeweler at a local jewelry store (that had benefits, benefits!!). I was learning so much working as a bench jeweler. I learned different things compared to what was taught to me in art school. I learned how to set diamonds in all sorts of configurations, repair old worn jewelry. I had acquired expert torch control and obtained pretty awesome polishing skills. Even though I was learning all ...