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Dear Readers, this is just a reminder that I’m Suzanne’s Mom (John’s Mom, too), and Suzanne is the founder of the contemporary birthstone-jewelry company Luna & Stella, which hosts this blog.

Mother’s Day is a big season for Suzanne, and you will be seeing her moon and stars charms and her antique lockets in magazines such as Marie Claire and on websites such as CoolMomPicks.com.

Suzanne is also giving away one of her beautiful antique lockets. Here are the rules for entering the drawing, as seen on instagram @lunaandstella:

We are giving away this sweet hand-engraved floral antique locket for Mother’s Day. 🌸
To enter
1. Follow @lunaandstella on Instagram or Facebook
2. Tag 2 friends
3. Tell us in the comments portion of this instagram post whose photos you’d put inside
Giveaway ends Monday May 8 at 3 pm EST.

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I have to say, I’d be thrilled if the winner turned out to be a reader of Suzanne’s Mom’s Blog. Do consider entering the Luna & Stella drawing on Facebook or instagram.

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What is important to you? Who is important to you?

Today I’m thinking about all the ways we hold what we care about as close as we possibly can. Maybe we love to wear an article of clothing that reminds us of the dear friend who gave it to us. Or a ring that belonged to a great-grandmother. Or a child’s photo in a locket.

As you know, this blog appears because my daughter, Suzanne, suggested five years ago that I write a blog tied to her contemporary birthstone jewelry company and (I’m still amazed by this) basically said, “Go forth, and write about anything that interests you.” Wow.

Today what interests me is letting you know that Suzanne’s company, Luna & Stella, is now offering antique lockets that are rapidly finding a mix-and-match niche. The handmade hinges, just to mention one highlight, are nearly invisible, impossible to find today.

Dear Friends, carry what’s important with you wherever you go. In your heart. Or maybe in a locket. Get those creative juices flowing … maybe a photo of Lady Liberty would be good.

From the founder: “Luna & Stella blends its own contemporary heirlooms with antique and estate pieces.  Influenced by the moon and star icons used in Victorian jewelry, Luna & Stella creates fine jewelry that is symbolic of loved ones, using birthstones and other symbols to represent the relationships between parents, grandparents, children, partners, siblings, and friends. 

“A passionate collector of antique jewelry, Suzanne curates a selection of antique lockets and Victorian and Estate stacking rings chosen to layer with Luna & Stella’s collection of modern talismans, charms, symbols and birthstones. 

“I love finding lockets with the original photos inside.  It is a glimpse into another time and place.  I wonder about the people in the photos – were they her parents?  Her husband? Her children? Her sister or someone else important to her? Whoever they were, they were important to the wearer and I think it is so special that those memories have been preserved in some way, over a 100 years later.  When the new owner puts in her own photos, the locket gets new life and new meaning to each caretaker.

“The url to our website is http://www.lunaandstella.com/ and to the collection of lockets is: http://www.lunaandstella.com/collections/vintage-locket-collectionNot all of the pieces you have are online, yet but they will be by Nov 15.  Clients can customize the lockets with a new or antique chain, and charms from our or their own personal collections.”

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Imagine how chuffed I was to see this article about Suzanne by Charmaine Gahan!

A close friend since kindergarten, Charmaine has been a huge support to Suzanne and the birthstone-jewelry company that hosts this blog, Luna & Stella.

In a delightful report, Charmaine describes how her whole family joined Suzanne’s family in New York City over school vacation to lend a hand at the Playtime trade show, a big deal for promoting new products to retail shops around the world.

Among the highlights of Suzanne’s growing collections are sweet Mama + Me bracelets, just in time for Mothers Day (May 8), and some stunning vintage lockets.

Notes the website, “All of the lockets in the Luna & Stella Vintage Collection were made in Providence, East Providence or Attleboro between 1880 and 1940.”

Why vintage mixed with contemporary? That’s kind of an interesting story, too, being the result of a hunt for beautiful hinges to use in new lockets. After the long search, Suzanne concluded that they just don’t make smooth and subtle hinges like they used to.

But sometimes an apparent dead end can lead to even better ideas, and Luna & Stella’s cool mixing of old and new seems to be an idea that is catching on.

At the Concord Journal (here), you can read more about the two friends and their families working the trade show in New York during the coldest week of the year.

Photo: Charmaine’s girls join Suzanne to look over the Mama + Me collection from Luna & Stella.

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Well, this is a new one on me: a bookstore that sells only one title at a time.

Amy X. Wang reports at a website called Quartz that in September 2014, “Yoshiyuki Morioka, a bookseller who had been running a store in Tokyo, Japan, for 10 years, had a curious thought. Lots of customers, it seemed, dropped in during book launches and other events to buy the same title; others often appeared overwhelmed by all the extra variety. So why not start a bookstore that only sold one book at a time?

“Now, Morioka Shoten — Morioka’s new venture that threw open its doors in Tokyo’s trendy Ginza shopping district in May 2015 — operates around that very principle. The store stocks multiple copies of only one carefully selected tome each week …

“Takram, the design engineering firm that helped Morioka put together the look of his new store, says the experience highlights ‘the importance of a physical venue in the era of digital reading.’

“Books that have been displayed so far include Swedish-Finnish author Tove Jansson’s The True Deceiver, Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales, and works from well-known Japanese writers like Mimei Ogawa and Akito Akagi. Each title is displayed for six days in a row—Tuesday to Sunday—and then swapped out for a new book.

“And things are going quite well at the quiet little store. According to Morioka, Morioka Shoten has sold more than 2,000 works since it opened. Proof, then, that readers seeking deep, personal relationships with physical books are still around across the world.” More here.

You know, that last sentence strikes a chord. I was just explaining to a friend today how this blog resulted from my daughter asking if I would apply my love of blogging to support the vibe of the jewelry company she founded, which emphasizes deep, personal relationships.

If you’ve never clicked on the Luna & Stella site (or even if you have), please do now. Suzanne and Erik have posted a steady stream of new birthstone-jewelry designs and charms over the five years I’ve been blogging. Each one is full of meaning.

Photo: Takram/Miyuki Kaneko
The one-room bookstore Morioka Shoten in Tokyo

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Trade shows have been helpful to Suzanne’s birthstone-jewelry company, Luna & Stella, as it branches out from being strictly online to selling to retail outlets like Talulah Cooper Boutique in Providence.

A couple weeks ago, Suzanne took Luna & Stella to the trade show NewYorkNow (“the market for home, lifestyle + gift”). Today, she is making an impression at PlaytimeNewYork — while making friends with other relationship-oriented businesses, like Little Paisley People.

I love how the founder of Little Paisley People describes the origins of her business: “I spent the most memorable summers of my childhood in Amalsaad, a quaint village, in Gujarat, India. … I grew up watching my mom work with the local artisans to hand-make toys that would support the local community. Those are the toys you also see in the Little Paisley People line. And that’s the logo you see – the passing on of the thread over the generations. …

“We create handcrafted lifestyle products for children, never forgetting that kids need to be kids. The handmade nature of these products evoke an understated elegance but are always playful. Social responsibility, the people who make these products, and how they make them are very important to us.”

Here, she and her daughter model Luna & Stella’s mother-daughter heart rings. How nice that new businesses are emphasizing the importance of family and friend relationships!

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If you are in Providence on Sunday, do stop by the flea market and see what Suzanne is selling. As she writes on the Luna & Stella website, bargains will be had.

“My husband gazing at a tray of rings I have prepared for our first sample sale, asks, what’s wrong with them?

“What’s wrong with them?  Well, nothing.  A slightly included emerald, a band that came in a millimeter to wide or too flat, a bale a tiny bit too large, a style we decided not to put in the assortment because we already had something similar.

“They’re beautiful, he says.

“We are having our first ever sample at the Providence Flea at 345 South Main Street in Providence this Sunday, September 13.  If you have never been to the Flea, it’s a outdoor juried market inspired by the wildly popular Brooklyn Flea. We love the vintage/modern mix of the Flea, and the idea a shopper could find a great vintage charm from one of the other sellers and mix it on a necklace or bracelet with one of our charms.

“In addition to our full price line … we’ll be selling our almost perfect samples for 50 – 80% off the original prices.  That ring of trays you see?  With genuine rubies, emeralds, aquamarine, etc set in sterling silver or dipped in 18K gold?  Most will be $30, nothing over $50.  These are prices you will never see on our website. ”

More at Luna & Stella, the contemporary birthstone-jewelry company for which I blog. (“Write whatever interests you, Mom.”)

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Kate Colby (for whose offer of a room to Suzanne and Erik when they were house hunting there can never be enough gratitude) is a poet.

She came to the rescue when Suzanne was starting Luna & Stella and was having trouble finding a writer to capture the more ethereal qualities of the birthstones.

“What you need,” I said, “is a poet.”

“I know a poet!” she cried. She remembered Kate used to write copy for a catalog.

Beyond such marketing endeavors, Kate publishes poetry, choreographs offbeat theater, and co-leads art/poetry walks. An example of the latter will occur soon.

As Eryn Carlson writes at the Boston Globe, Kate is collaborating with artist Todd Shalom to offer “Duly Noted,” a participatory walk incorporating techniques from poetry, sound, and performance, at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, July 18, at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Carlson comments, “Shalom and Colby know that the very nature of tours makes it easy to overlook the ways in which artworks and their settings inform one another. … The pair created the collaborative walk ‘Duly Noted,’ a poetic exchange between participants and the Lincoln museum’s site and surroundings.

“ ‘Reading the art is apt because it’s so framed by woods and walls and water, and all this history,’ said Colby, who grew up in Wayland and lives in Providence. …

“ ‘It’s all about reframing the site,’ said Shalom, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based artist who founded Elastic City.”

At a performance in May, “participants evolved from visitors to artists and performers. Individuals gave one-word soliloquies atop a stump, announcing their visual discoveries, and, guided by a partner, wandered the grounds with eyes closed to pay special attention to the surrounding cacophony. …

“Shalom and Colby, who met while working on their master’s degrees in fine arts at California College of the Arts, planned ‘Duly Noted’ meticulously over the course of a year, visiting the deCordova several times to perfect the route, pacing, and segues. But a degree of uncertainty and room for spontaneity remained.”

This could be a fun activity on July 18 if you live in the area. The grounds of the museum offer breathtaking views and sculptures everywhere you turn. Add to that a participatory happening like this, and you have the ingredients for a memorable day.

Read more here.

Photo: Barry Chin/Globe staff
Visitors at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum on a participatory walk titled “Duly Noted.’’

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I need to share a really lovely piece on Suzanne and Luna & Stella, the company for which I blog.

Of course, with my eclectic topics, you could be forgiven for forgetting the Luna & Stella connection. But Suzanne’s birthstone jewelry speaks to relationships, and like all good relationships, this blogging one lets me breathe. (Suzanne said, “Blog about anything that interests you, Mom.”)

At OurBackyardRI, photographer-journalist Connie Grosch writes, “Based in Providence, the family-run business was founded in 2009 with the goal of blending great jewelry design with thoughtful meaning. Her merchandising and product development roles at J.Crew, Bally, and Victoria’s Secret combined with her experience as the Vice President of Merchandising and Design at the online retailer RedEnvelope, gave Suzanne a solid entrepreneurial foundation. …

“Having lived and worked in Switzerland, San Francisco and New York City, she and her husband chose Providence as their home four years ago. Living in New York City, pregnant with their first child as she and her husband were both starting new businesses, the couple decided they wanted to have a house and a yard. ‘And it wasn’t going to happen in NYC.’ They started looking for a small city and ‘Providence just came up on the map. We took a leap.’ …

“Suzanne is totally optimistic about the future of the business. ‘Rhode Island is just right in terms of design, manufacturing and business resources – from casting and plating to design and marketing.’

“And she is tapping into Rhode Island’s jewelry manufacturing history. ‘I’m a bit of a history buff and I like the idea of bringing that history to the present.’ Someday, she would like to manufacture the line herself – have a workshop. ‘And when I do, I want it to be in the Jewelry District.’ ”

More here. Grosch’s photo collage, taken at Talulah Cooper in Providence, where Suzanne had a trunk show before Mother’s Day, is really creative and nice. The only thing missing is Erik and Suzanne’s son digging into the shop’s many penny candy jars that day. So I add that here.

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Suzanne’s pre-Mother’s Day trunk show at Talulah Cooper in Providence went really well. It didn’t hurt that the weather was gorgeous and everyone wanted to be out walking around. I went down to help Erik with the kids. He bought two pints of ice cream for his 3-year-old, having learned that less ice cream gets eaten when it looks like too much.

Hayley at Talulah had a free penny candy corner to attract shoppers who have little kids — and to let the world know that she likes having children in the Traverse Street store and doesn’t care about things like fingerprints on glass cases.

A young woman whose navy-veteran dad had died recently decided to give the Luna & Stella anchor charm to her mother next Sunday on Mother’s Day That’s the charm that sends five dollars to the Rhode Island Foundation. Many people bought birthstone charms.

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Talulah Cooper jewelry boutique in Providence 

Suzanne is partnering with Providence jewelry boutique Talulah Cooper to present Luna & Stella jewelry at a trunk show starting at noon, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014. If you are in Rhode Island and have the time, do stop by and see the modern birthstone designs that led to this blog. One more sign that Rhode Island’s reputation for innovation in jewelry continues.

You can read about the trunk show on Luna & Stella’s Facebook page, here. Learn more about Talulah Cooper here (5 Traverse Street, off Wickenden Street in the Fox Point area).

P.S. If you happen to be clicking around the Luna & Stella website, there’s a goofy childhood picture of Suzanne’s Mom with her “cowboy” brother, here — on the page that showcases birthstone charms.

Below, Luna & Stella star birthstone earrings

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And speaking of slate, Suzanne’s company, Luna & Stella, displayed birthstone jewelry on slate brought from Wales by Erik’s family and got a lot of compliments at New York’s Playtime trade show. In fact, one store asked if they could buy some for display!

Suzanne was not up for selling the slates, however. After all, she asked Erik’s sister and brother-in-law to cart them home to Denmark after a joint visit to Wales and then bring them to the US on their vacation. I’m not sure they would do that twice. As a bemused Klaus recounted after his son’s luggage failed to materialize, “We got to the US with no clothes for Axel, but the bag of rocks made it through just fine.”

Suzanne and Luna & Stella will be at the giant NY Now trade show in the next few days (Javits Center, August 16-20). Stop in at her booth if you are there. And you may very well be there as it seems like half the world goes.

From the NY Now website: “2,800 exhibitors and thousands of lines across 400 categories; 35,000 buyers representing 20,000 companies; they travel from all 50 states and 85 foreign countries; 98% place orders based on what they see at the Show; 78% write orders on the Show floor; 38% are new buyers.” More here.

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I am utterly tickled with the updated website for Suzanne’s birthstone-jewelry company Luna & Stella, the company that is behind this blog.

I really hope you will take a look — both for new products like stacking rings and a star pendant and for the wonderful pictures customers submitted showing warm  family and friend relationships.

Suzanne says, “We had so much fun with this contest we decided to keep it going. Send black & white vintage or recent family photos to contest@lunaandstella.com and you could win a $100 gift certificate if we use your photo on the site!”

Suzanne has given me such a free rein with this blog that it’s possible some readers don’t realize it’s a Luna & Stella blog. So I’m thrilled that the new website is up today. It gives me the opportunity to remind everyone that Mother’s Day is the second Sunday in May.

(One of the many perks of being a grandma is that I get a new Luna & Stella charm or ring every Mother’s Day that there’s a new baby in the family.)

 

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Speaking of forebears, I interrupt this program to ask, Do you have something for your grandfather or father on June 16? Luna & Stella has unusual locket cufflinks into which you can put tiny mementos or birthstones of family members.

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Today’s mild weather reminds me that May Day and Mother’s Day aren’t far off. Mother’s Day is a highlight of the year at Luna & Stella, Suzanne’s lovely birthstone jewelry company, for which Suzanne’s Mom blogs.

I hope you know about May Day, too. I’d like to see it revived, the ancient custom of leaving flowers at people’s doors in honor of spring. (I don’t begrudge the workers of the world their version of May Day, but they shouldn’t hog the whole thing.)

Why don’t Girl Scout troops do May Day? Why don’t florists? It mystifies me.

I still remember a May basket I made as a kid from a punch-out book. I thought it was a thing of beauty and kept asking my mother to get me another book like that. But they stopped making them.

Now I work from scratch if I have time. Last year I blogged about one kind of a homemade basket, here.

It’s always a surprise to see what flowers are available on May 1 any given year. Since these are in my yard now, I suspect there will be different ones by  May.

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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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