Travel Thursday

Plans for the big trip to the motherland are coming together very nicely.  So in 4 months you will find me being an obnoxious tourist doing this.....

and knowing me I will have to take a number of re-takes cause I'm never happy with my hair in pictures lol!!

How lucky is this girl?

Imagine being invited to a party in Malibu, sounds amazing right?  The sun, sand, gorgeous people, gorgeous homes.  What more could you want?  How about job offer from Victoria Beckham?  I would pass out just seeing her and her husband at the same party of me. I am sure that will never happen to me lol. 

For a little known actress Alice Greczyn it did. Crazy right? According to reports while she was a barbecue in Malibu, Victoria offered her a position as the face of Victoria Beckham Denim.

She seems like a great fit to Beckham's, brand the jeans seem to be effortlessly chic, lots of skinny jeans that look amazing with stilettos and of course over sized Posh sunglasses.  I think Alice looks adorable in the sunglasses and I love that they didn't photo shop her freckles out.  It gives a relatable connection to the model that she is like lots of other girls

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Make Up Monday

I probably shouldn't be writing about my obsession with make up seen as I barely took time to put foundation on today, but seen as you can't see me I am going to pretend my make up is always flawless and keep on writing.

As far back as I can remember I have had an obsession with make up.  In the 80’s I loved playing in my Mum’s best 80’s Avon colors, I was mesmerized by silver and blue eyeshadow.  For dance competitions and plays I loved the over the top make up and in my high school days I enjoyed being the make up artist for school productions.  Now I am an amateur make up artist to friends and could spend forever in Sephora and MAC.

Recently, I signed up for The Birch Box, it is a beauty subscription program where each month they send you five full size samples of the best and new products out there for only $10.  I just received confirmation my first box is on its way and I can’t wait to see what goodies I get to try.  I really enjoy trying new products but often don’t want to spend a lot of money to buy the full size products so this idea is genius.  I will fill you in on what comes in the box and my reviews for each product over the next few weeks.

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In the meantime I would love to hear what your current beauty obsession?  Mine is still MAC False Lashes Mascara.  I bought the mascara around New Years and I cannot rave enough about how it gives great natural length with a little drama and no clumping.  However their advertisement is anything but natural lol.

Photoshoot Pics

Just a quick post to show you a couple of pictures from the Stella Jewelry photo shoot my friend Jenna did.  I love the jewelry against the brick and railroad fence.  I can't wait to see more, thank you Jenna!

Jenna also started a blog check her out at:

 http://birdseyeviewoflife.blogspot.com/

A trip down memory lane....

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When I was approximately twelve my Mum took my brother and me to London for the first time.  It was around the time Jurassic Park came out so she wanted to take us to the see the Dinosaur Exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Hall and the British Museum of History.  I was amazed by the city, so vibrant and busy. So different than my little Northern Market Town. 

We visited Harrod’s on that trip which ultimately caused my shopping addiction.  Exiting the classic London Cab we were greeted at the door by gentlemen in trademark green jackets and hats, I entered the store and gazed in amazement.   Fabulously dressed shoppers and sales associates, elaborate and enticing displays on each floor, stocked with gorgeous clothing, shoes, anything you wanted.  We entered the Toy department, verging on my teenage years I wasn’t as interested in this department as I was the designer clothing, until I saw the teddy bear collections.  Beautiful classic teddy bears perfectly sewn and stuffed, nothing like the cheap Build a Bear shells of today. They were bears a child would have a lifetime, made to last through the wear and tear of the roughest child’s adventures.  I analyzed and debated which my favorite was, all of them were my favorite, I’ve always been the worst at choosing.  Eventually I chose a beautiful white unicorn instead of the Classic Teddy Bear; the silver glitter on the horn sealed the deal.  The sales associate was beyond friendly and complimented my choice which was just the icing on the cake for my first luxury shopping trip.  The way the lovely associate made me feel made me a Harrods fan for life.        

I have visited Harrod’s a number of times since I was so young and each experience was just a lovely.  The delicious food halls, beautiful gifts and the Golden staircase and Princess Diana memorial and of course the clothes, the clothes are everything.  

  

As I plan my big vacation to England I am factoring in plenty of time to visit my favorite department store and today I found out Harrod’s now has guided bus tours on Vintage Double Decker buses.  I have taken other bus tours in major cities where you can hop on and off as you please.  Although they are so typically touristy they have been a great way to see lots of things in a short period of time.  The bonus with the Harrod’s tour is you can have lunch at Harrods.  How perfectly yummy, I can’t wait. 

What is your favorite shopping memory as a child?  Has anyone taken a bus tour, what are your thoughts on their value?

What would Gibbs do?

He would follow his gut, ALWAYS! Hence this being my new motto.

I have talked a few times about needing to follow my gut in life. About how I often ignore that feeling and the outcomes all differ from what I want.  So to create my life with the right intention for me I am going to listen to my gut 100%.

Using my gut in Business

I have spent a long time thinking about how can I get our jewelry online, way to long in fact.  I have analyzed fees, photos, design restrictions, pay pal buttons and my limited website knowledge for hours.  I have played with Etsy and LOVE Etsy but my pieces get lost in the mix.  I need a lot of time to keep pieces relevant on the site and until I have that I need a simple shopping cart on Stella Jewelry Store. Hence my discovery of Big Cartel. 

I was hesitant at first and looked through the site a couple of times pondering my worries.  In reality I was just holding myself back from taking the next step in business and ultimately ignoring the annoying feeling that said JUST DO IT.  Maybe I am scared to see what I can really do with our jewelry, maybe it will be too much to handle and maybe it will fail, that definitely scares me. 

However, not taking the next step is making me fail before I even start.  I am failing at making decisions for our company (I'm a Libra so decisions are really complicated for me lol).  If I was on NCIS and this was some sort f mystery I would have definitely received a Gibbs slap and told to just do it.

So the first act of following my gut is signing up for Big Cartel and it integrates with my website seamlessly.  I can't wait to get everything loaded to show you all and so far my gut thanks me for listening.  

Thank you to everyone who left sweet comments on prior posts about following my gut!

Has anyone else used Big Cartel for their small business?  How did it work for you?