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Posts Tagged ‘birthstone jewelry’

May 12 Brunch en plein air

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on May 2, 2013| 2 Comments »

We’re going to the Mother’s Day brunch at Verrill Farm, one of 18 farms in the Boston suburb Concord.

The farm started out as a dairy business in 1918, but today just raises flowers, fruits, and vegetables. There’s an enclosed farmstand that in addition to produce and flowers, sells prepared meals, baked goods, and specialty items. Verrill bounced back from a devastating fire a few years ago and is often credited on menus around the region.

We enjoy the farm’s outdoor brunches. Suzanne and John are likely to run into people they knew in elementary school, now with their own kids in tow. We’ll eat at trestle tables under tents, and the grandsons will be able to ride ponies, climb on a wooden climbing thing like a boat, and roll down the hill. Our granddaughter usually gets a kick out of watching whatever her brother is doing.

The moms will probably be wearing their birthstone jewelry from Suzanne’s company, Luna & Stella. You may want a piece, too, for yourself or your mom. If so, Suzanne says, “You can use BLOGMOM13 for free shipping.”

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The Wisdom of Crowds

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 7, 2013| 2 Comments »

New York has solicited design concepts for giving its old payphones new life. Now the city is asking “the crowd” to pick its favorite.

As Amar Toor writes at The Verge, “The City of New York this week announced the six finalists in its Reinvent Payphones challenge — an initiative that invites students, urban planners, and designers to propose their visions for the payphone of the future. The finalists were selected as winners in six different categories, and are now in the running for the Popular Choice Award, to be determined later this month.

“Not surprisingly, interactive and digital features play a major role in most of the six designs, including NYC/IO, winner of the Community Impact category. Created by Control Group and Titan, the proposal calls for the city’s phone booths to be replaced with high-tech kiosks, replete with transparent screens that pedestrians could use to not only make calls, but find restaurants, pay parking tickets, or surf the web.”

Read about all six designs, here. “You can vote for the best design on the New York City Facebook page until March 15th.”

And speaking of tapping the wisdom of crowds, Suzanne would love to have you vote on a logo for her new line at the birthstone jewelry company that hosts Suzanne’s Mom’s Blog. Targeted at young women and girls, the new line is going to be called Stellina — it’s the younger sister in the Luna & Stella family. The voting ends tomorrow, March 8. Do take a look at the logo designs, here, and vote if you have a minute.

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Asakiyume’s Lent Season

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on February 14, 2013| 2 Comments »

Last year my friend Asakiyume, whose family is Catholic but who admires Ramadan, decided to fast for Lent the way people do for Ramadan — all day until sunset. She saw the fasting as a way to connect to people who have no choice about hunger.

Some members of my extended family observe Ramadan, but it’s their religion. And I knew a Somalian in Minneapolis to whom I once, in my ignorance, said, “Happy Ramadan.” He laughed and told me patiently that Ramadan wasn’t about “happy,” rather it was a time of reflection and sacrifice. I realized my blooper was a bit like saying “Happy Good Friday” or “Happy Yom Kippur.” One doesn’t say “Happy Lent” either. “Happy” is for the day before Lent and Mardi Gras.

Read about Asakiyume’s thought process and why she once borrowed another religion’s custom here. She writes a wonderfully eclectic blog full of deep thoughts and photos from her walks that suggest mythical vistas and fantasy characters to her.

light and shadow

(Today, of course, it is perfectly fine to say Happy Valentine’s Day! And if you missed getting birthstone-jewelry hearts for your Valentine at Luna & Stella, here, fear not! Mother’s Day is just around the corner, May 12.)

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Le Jongleur de Notre Dame

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on December 6, 2012| 2 Comments »

I read the Anatole France short story “Le Jongleur de Notre Dame” in high school French class, and although I have retained only a fuzzy memory of the details, I have a pleasant feeling about the ending.

A poor juggler (jongleur) goes into a church wanting to show his gratitude for something to Mary but feeling he has nothing to offer. Standing before her statue, he decides to present the thing he knows best: juggling. Just when church’s clergy appear and are about to reprimand him, they see the statue bend and reach out to receive the juggler’s gift.

I have blogged recently about gifts that serve a second purpose, like TOMS shoes, which gives a pair of shoes to a needy child when you buy shoes for yourself. Now Suzanne says that Luna & Stella will donate $5 to the Homeless Prenatal Project for every purchase now through December 24. Use the code ANGEL12.

I am still looking for your suggestions about gifts that do good. I myself ordered three of Dancing Deer’s charitable gifts this year. Ten Thousand Villages is, as a fair trade retailer, pretty much all about doing good.

And if you live in Rhode Island, please consider supporting the Granola Project.

For angels only. Birthstone jewelry by Lunaandstella

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National Geographic and Bars of Gold

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 19, 2012| 5 Comments »

I recently saw a National Geographic special about money and the central bank. The documentary took viewers into the vault at the NY Fed, where gold bars are stored. Although the security is really tight, anyone may sign up for a tour there. The film also went to places where cameras are usually not allowed, like the National Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which prints dollar bills.

It also went to offices deep underground in the gold and diamond district of New York City. I thought Suzanne would be interested to see the broker who buys gold. Being in the jewelry business with Luna & Stella, she naturally is aware that gold has been expensive since the economic downturn. The film showed the multilingual broker buying small bags of gold objects, which were then shown being melted down and made into a gold bar.

National Geographic has also blogged about the movie: “What Jake Ward of Popular Science magazine discovers in this one hour special is that without the engines that power the world’s financial systems, that world would grind to a halt.

“America’s Money Vault follows 55 million dollars worth of gold as it makes its way down into the most valuable gold vault in the world. Hidden deep under the streets of New York City, hundreds of billion dollars in gold bars  …

“Jake goes behind the storefronts to see how everybody from the street level to the brokers make their money buying, selling and even finding gold. He meets Onikwa Thomas who calls himself the urban miner and claims to earn up to four hundred dollars a week off of gold specks found in the cracks of sidewalks.”  More from the documentary.

P.S. Speaking of Luna & Stella, Suzanne’s birthstone jewelry company, gold vermeil angel wings can make a lovely gift for the right person.

Photograph: National Geographic

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Longer-form Web Writing

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 20, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Jonathan Harris sounds like a kindred spirit. Of course, he’s a real photographer, and I’m not. But back in August 2010, he decided to take a photo every day of something that interests him and write a short piece about it for the web.

He made that decision on his birthday, writes Jennifer Preston in the NY Times.

“For the next 440 days, Mr. Harris, 32, a noted artist and digital technologist, whose work has been widely exhibited from MoMA to the Le Centre Pompidou in Paris, carried out his project. It has evolved into a new Web site he founded, called Cowbird — a social network that has attracted more than 7,000 people since it began last December, including award-winning photographers and writers. Mr. Harris said it is a place for slow, long-form storytelling, the ‘opposite of Twitter and Facebook .’ ” Read more.

The reason I say that he’s a kindred spirit is not just that he writes something longer than one would write on Twitter or Facebook, but because he makes a point of finding something that interests him and then writes about it for the length the topic requires.

When Suzanne and Erik said I could write about anything that interests me in the Luna & Stella blog, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity like that. Not sure how many of you go the birthstone-jewelry company from this blog, which probably doesn’t work like a regular business blog, but at least you know what Suzanne’s Mom is like and a bit about Suzanne and Erik and their extended family, too. They think that’s good, because jewelry that starts with birthstones is all about family and other close relationships.

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Generations in the Jewelry Business

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 8, 2011| 5 Comments »

When Suzanne started the birthstone-jewelry business Luna & Stella a few years ago, I didn’t make the connection right away.

Suzanne never knew my grandmother Mabel, but Mabel (the woman I called Garkie from an early age) was also an entrepreneur, best known for jellies like Cinnama-Tang and for jewelry. I remember seeing her on black & white daytime television in New York when she was interviewed about her ventures.

My cousin Margot was going through the personal items of my late Aunt Maggie (Margot’s mother and Garkie’s daughter) and unearthed articles and artifacts. Here are samples. Styles have changed, but the urge to sell something creative has not.

The angel wing is Suzanne’s.

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Sailing in Sweden

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on July 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

To recap, I started this project in May, having been asked by Suzanne and Erik to write a blog affiliated with Suzanne’s birthstone jewelry company, Luna & Stella. This first post explains.

Folks who have been reading know that Erik is from Sweden. He and Suzanne often go sailing when they vacation there in summer. Erik’s mother recently sent along this photo, writing, “Suzanne, Erik and Jimmy leaving Veddö hamn [harbor]. Sailing along the Västkusten shore in beautiful weather.”

Soon they will be sailing for the honor of Sweden.

OK. Maybe not right away. I like Jimmy’s boat better anyway.

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