Sand bottle necklaces...

I love jewelry that reminds me of a really great person, place, or memory.  My family and I went to Disneyland years ago before they dropped me off at my school for college.  I bought and wore a cheap plastic bracelet for years that had little mickey mouse beads just because it always reminded me of that happy time with my family.

I truly believe that every place has something special to offer and for Hawaii, it is definitely our beautiful beaches.  These sand bottle necklaces are the perfect piece of jewelry to remind a person of this amazing place!  I used to get homesick a lot when I was in college and I really think that these necklaces would have been the perfect thing to help me feel a little bit closer to home.  It also makes a great gift to share a little piece of Hawaii with anybody around the world!

How bout you???  Do you have a special piece of jewelry that reminds you of something significant?

Finding balance...

I seriously thought that I would have more time to enjoy life this summer but it seems that I'm busier than ever!  I worked summer school, started my master's program, and did a few jewelry sales.  It doesn't really sound like much once I list it out like that but my master's program has been insane where I've been spending more than 5 hours a day doing assignments.  Add that to my list of daily chores like cooking, cleaning, etc. and I've basically got a full schedule.

One thing I realized is that once I have something that I need to do, I become completely focused on just that which can be a good thing but at the same time, I end up losing sight of everything else.  Seems that the biggest thing that I struggle with is valuing my relationships with my friends and family.  I live with my boyfriend, so it's easy to get caught in a trap of forgetting to spend quality time together.  The drive to my parents' house is only about half an hour but I visit them only about once or twice a month.  I keep putting off spending time with my friends and when I finally do get to see them, I can't get my mind off of my schoolwork and I always end up rushing to leave and go home.

GAH!  After a while, I started to feel a little insane and exhausted with my life, but luckily, against my will, my sister dragged me to the beach and I had the chance to learn the importance of taking a break and resting!  For a whole afternoon, I just enjoyed myself and had fun with her and her husband :D  Next day, I enjoyed a pool party with some friends and the day after that my boyfriend and I saw two movies back to back at the theater.

Everyday now, I'm going to try my best to live 100% in every moment.  So that means that if I'm going to do something fun with others, I'm going to focus on enjoying myself without obsessing about all the work that I need to do.  Then while I'm working, I'll be able to completely focus on that.  I'm really going try hard to be the best me possible!

Ala Moana beach is only a few minutes walk away from where I live, so it's the perfect place to take a breather when I need it :)

Rainbows of Happiness!

Hawaii is known for having really beautiful rainbows that happen almost on a daily basis.  Even though rain can be a gloomy nuisance sometimes, you can always be sure that there's going to be a colorful bright ribbon spanning across the sky.  I think that's probably another one of the reasons why I'm not so sure if I could be happy living anywhere else!  Anyway, I was inspired to create a treasury on Etsy featuring some of the most beautiful rainbow colored items that are available for purchase on the site.  I'm posting a screenshot below but if you're curious and want to learn more about the individual items, you can visit the treasury here.

Anybody else have any rainbow colored items that they wanna share?  If so, post a comment below!  :)

Jewelry Garage Sale!

Hawaii has a lot of incredibly talented people who are great at making all kinds of different arts and crafts.  Unfortunately, there are not always a lot of affordable venues for artisans to be able to share their crafts with others.  Lately I've been racking my brain to come up with creative venues for me to be able to sell my handmade jewelry, so my mom suggested that I try selling on a Saturday morning while people are on the hunt for garage sales.  We put up signs around the neighborhood early in the morning and set up shop.  I wasn't really sure how it would turn out but amazingly, quite a few people showed up and bought a few things :)

I really believe in supporting local businesses and especially local artisans and crafters, so lately I've been thinking about how wonderful it would be if more small businesses had the opportunity to set up shop on a regular basis.  Wouldn't it be great if we could all shop local more than we shop at big box stores???  I keep having images of every garage on my street opening up every weekend to reveal all kinds of great treasures all available for purchase.

Anybody else have any creative thoughts or ideas for selling handcrafted items?

Our family dog, Chibi, was so thrilled to greet customers.  Actually, not really since she hates strangers :P

Melon Pink Gladiolas...

There's something about flowers that always cheer me up, so when I saw these on sale at Safeway, I had to pick up a bunch for myself.  They had the most beautiful Gladiolas in different colors and I was dazzled by these ones.  I don't really know exactly how to describe the color of these, so I refer to them as a Melon Pink.  Or maybe they're more like Bubblegum Coral?  Hehe, anyway, they were all tight buds when I first bought them, so I wasn't sure if they would actually bloom but within a few days, each flower blossomed!  I was so inspired by these flowers that I made a set of dangle earrings with reddish-yellow flowers and white cockle seashells.  The color isn't exactly like the flowers but they were the closest things that I had.

I've been bogged down with school and work lately which has caused me to be feeling an incredible amount of stress!  It's led me to re-think a lot of the things that I do everyday and I think I'm learning to prioritize what is most important and how to let go of little things that don't really matter.  Everyday, it's important to stop and admire the flowers!  (I couldn't stop and smell the roses because the flowers were Gladiolas and they don't have any smell)  :P

More Memory Wire Bangle Bracelets!

I previously posted about a set of memory wire bangle bracelets that were just released a few weeks ago.  In case you missed it, you can check out the post here.  These bracelets were really popular, so I'm excited to share with you all the next four pieces in the series!  As mentioned before, these bracelets are made of high quality Czech glass strung on memory wire.  They're all open but they hold their shape, so they can fit any wrist size and you don't have to worry about fastening any annoying clasps.  Each bracelet has a seashell charm in the middle, so they make perfect gifts for beach fashion lovers!  They'll be posted up for sale shortly, so you can check them out in my Etsy shop together with the previously released four bracelets here.

Trying to be eco-friendly!

One day while I was at the beach, I found a beautiful piece of coral in the sand.  I took it and, of course, I did what I love to do most...I made it into jewelry!  Since no two pieces of coral are exactly alike, this necklace is completely one of a kind and will be available for purchase in my Etsy shop.

Growing up in Hawaii, I've learned a lot about trying to save the beautiful coral reefs that surround our islands.  Since I'm featuring a piece of jewelry that is made of coral (it was a dead piece that was washed up on the sand-I didn't kill it!!!) I figured that now is a good time to share that global warming is threatening our reefs all around the world!  It's a little horrifying actually, to find out just how quickly a lot of the most beautiful underwater places are being destroyed.  If you want to learn more, you can click here to check out a good infographic that explains what happens when we lose our coral reefs.  I try to be eco-friendly by recycling as much as I can and not wasting water or electricity, so I hope that everyone else can try to make more environmentally friendly decisions everyday too!  Together, we can save Nemo's home (for all of you "Finding Nemo" fans).  :)

Teal chiffon outfit...

I've never really considered myself to be a fashionable person.  Everything that is considered cool and trendy I usually find too expensive and not very practical to wear when I'm running around at work in our hot and humid Hawaii weather, so I never really bothered to try to keep up with what's in.  I've always LOVED jewelry though, so anytime I go to a store, even though I might just breeze through the clothing, I can spend a lot of time perusing through earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and rings.  Recently, I thought up an idea that maybe I can try to begin at the end and work backwards by starting out with a piece of jewelry and then picking out the rest of the outfit.

I started off with my Starfish Earrings from my Signature collection since it's the piece of jewelry that I wear the most (almost everyday!).  I love these because they're unique and everytime I wear them, I always end up getting compliments from strangers :)  Anyway, sea green and coral are really hot colors for this summer, so I added in this beautiful green dress from JollyChic.  It's actually on sale right now, so get it while you can!  To complete the ensemble, I also added a white shoulder bag and these super cute rhinestone studded starfish sandals.  All four items together create a really beautiful beach-themed summer outfit that's perfect for day or night!

Earrings:  My Etsy Shop

Dress:  JollyChic

Sandals:  JollyChic

Bag:  JollyChic

What about you?  Do you have any other ideas for outfits that can go with these earrings?  If so, please comment below! :)