Our house is so empty of groceries that I had a toasted hot dog bun for breakfast. I told my mom about it and almost began crying. TOASTED HOT DOG BUN!
Today’s bangles: Swarovski crystal bangles, gem charm bracelet from my mom, agate bangle, Tiffany’s hearts. The agate and Swarovski ones are for sale HERE, use the promo code BathSense20 to get -20% off.
How out are you with your blogging/social media identities? Becoming Cliche has a great post today on how to twitter. I twitter (@bathsense follow me! I mostly tweet about TWD or the Bachelor, sometimes stuff about my shop), instagram, facebook, tumblr, wordpress (duh)… But I’m not completely “out” about my blog.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who I am when reading my WordPress blog but it still is a little bit anonymous. Anonymous enough that I haven’t connected it to facebook. Nor do I link my blog to twitter. Oddly it’s not my blog readers that I’m hiding from, it’s my facebook friends. I am so honest and open on here in a way that I’m not comfortable sharing with this mixed bag of people, my facebook friends. Facebook is too full of schadenfreude.
But twitter? To help promote my blog, should I link it to twitter? It’s much more abstract, and I am but a tiny ant in the ocean of tweets (or whatever)… But is it too emotionally risky to push my blogs out to my twitter account? Thereby semi opening my blog up to facebook friends in a roundabout way?
Do you push your blog out to twitter and/or facebook? Any regrets? How open are you about your blogging? Do tell me your experience.
Tiffany’s Key at 1st Dibs
Secret locket by The Dedication Company on Etsy
Lock & Key bangle by Blue Nile
Does anybody ever actually run out of nail polish?
Today’s bangles: Elsa Peretti X from my dad, red Indian rhinestone bangles from Goodwill, brass and black bangle, strange stretchy metal bracelet, Swarovski crystals now for sale on Chairish.com, tortoise shell bangle.
Not to brag too much but I recently discovered a Pirate King is a big fan of my blog. For some reason he lives in a shack. But that’s fine, I don’t judge! I just think that maybe being King and all he might choose a pirate castle or something, but shack is cool too.
Anyways, he eased into the multitude of comments slowly.
Does running a well-established website such as yours take a large amount of work?
I was so flattered! “A well-established website such as mine”! Oh boy. And yes, Pirate King, it does take some work but not an overly large amount, thank you for asking.
Your means of describing the whole thing in this paragraph is really nice, every one be
capable of effortlessly know it
Again with the flattery, Pirate King. *blushes furiously* I suppose it would be cool for everyone to effortlessly know about my bracelet collection. Bracelets are pretty universal, right? I mean even a famous Pirate King is apparently into them so…
I suppose its good enough to use some of your ideas
Huh. Okay, I must admit this feels a bit like a back handed compliment. I’ll tell you up front, I don’t know how I feel about that, Pirate King.
This post could not be written much better! Looking through this post reminds me of my previous roommate!
He continually kept preaching about this. I am going to send this information to him. Fairly certain he will have a great read.
So you’re saying my post could be written better? I guess that’s fair. We all have room to improve. But I don’t know about this former roommate of yours. How did you both fit in a shack? Is he also a pirate? And why’s he preaching about bracelets? I mean, I can talk bracelets, man. But even I don’t proselytize about them. However, thanks for forwarding my blog on to him.
Everything is very open
Yeah, totally. Everything. A quick question, Pirate King, are we still talking jewelry?
But so, since the Pirate King is so interested in my bracelets, here’s today’s bangles: Hermes twilly wrapped bangle, a JKC ripped off by Chanel bangle, and my dad’s Baume & Mercier watch.
Really? Do I really need to explain the anniversary on this one? Let’s just say, give me the right setting, a little take out food, a barely furnished apartment, a big brown dog, and the guy I met two nights prior in 2007…
We watched American Idol. For my very first time. I definitely mentioned that part in yesterday’s post. I couldn’t bring myself to link anything American Idol *shudder* so instead is the Haim song I like the most right now. It sort of works with the memory theme, right?
In case you are just tuning in, I’m telling the story of a very life changing week. It started with meeting a guy at a bar on a Monday, back in 2007. Not to give too much away but the timeline is a Monday to Monday string of events.
Some days were less interesting. Like Wednesday. It was a very regular day, I think. Except that it formally counts as “our first date” being that I went over to Aaron’s barely furnished apartment and we watched American Idol and I met the Moosehead. He was a hell of a dog. Before AI we took the Moose up to Alamo Square dog park. We also hit up Bar 861 on Divisadero for happy hour. I think this was all the same day. Regardless, it has become a conflated memory of a date.
What I can tell you concretely, this was the day that I wrote this to my best friend:
“I met such a cute guy last night- this is his myspace pic. And he already called and we’re watching american idol and eating dinner tonight smile emoticon hooray!”
Oh wait, so I guess I watched American Idol on Tuesday? Oops. Must change the time line.
To be cont.
Today’s bangles: yellow Hermès from my brother, Angela Cummings from my mom, and an Alaska charm bracelet of my mom’s from when she was a girl.
This is the week, folks. The week of important anniversaries that changed my life. Today is the day that eight years ago I… Well… Let me set the scene.
It was a Monday evening. I was working in downtown San Francisco. This was life before my darling little shop back when I was a small fry in a huge international corporation. My job was shaking hands with clients and showing them how to use a computer program (ha! Right? Like I knew how to use a computer program!!!) So really I spent most of my day going to appointments while pretending either to look busy or to know what the hell I was saying.
To relieve all this make believe I went out. A lot. Even on Monday nights. I know my mom is shaking her head right now going “but it was a school night!” It was a school night! Can you believe it? Not literally, because I wasn’t in school. Though it was still literally a school night. Blah, whatever! It was a school night, just not for me. There.
Anyway, back to setting my scene. It was a Monday, afterwork. I probably had changed my outfit. Which is not an important detail but to get the writing juices going I had to let you know. An acquaintance and I hit up some bar on Pine Street, though I had a headache so I briefly considered going home. However, she urged me to tag along with her to meet her friends at another bar, the Cellar. It was a karaoke night! “Margaret does not karaoke,” I’m certain I told her. But I was young, 27! And went anyway. Hangover on Tuesday be damned.
Once there we scooched into a sparkly vinyl booth. I leaned over the table and asked her “Are there going to be any cute single guys?” And she said yes. And guess what? There was! For narrative sake I’ll say he walked in right then. He carried a motorcycle helmet under one arm, wore this big hulking bomber jacket and glasses. Which, as we all know, is the recipe for female catnip. When I found out he was going to sing a song I told him “Margaret does not karaoke but she does dance”, and volunteered to be his back up dancer.
And guess what? That guy is my honey! Cruel man that he is he made me back up dance to the Cranberries “Ode to my Family” (you know how hard it is to dance to that song?!). So today is the 8 year anniversary of that, my first major life change: I now karaoke.
But more importantly it’s the anniversary of the day that I met my honey. I just now went into the bedroom and kissed him and said “I’ve known you for 8 years, honey!”
Picture of us (me dancing or, rather, posing for the camera, and him singing the Cranberries) from that very first night. This picture, my friends? It is a bona fide film photo. As in not digital. Woh! Blows your mind, right? And I still have this dress though Bandit ate the boots at some point. Anyway, Aaron and I were pretty hot and heavy right out of the gates; a date almost every night of the week! And I’m going to tell you all about them! Because they were full of firsts.
To be cont…
1.15.2007 bangles: my blue Hermès Cape Cod watch, and skinny Orange Clic-Clac
Today’s jewelry are all the ones from my honey:
Hermès Collier de Chien from this Christmas, Hermès Astrologie from last Christmas, Tiffany’s pearl bracelet from my 30th birthday, Jawbone UP from last birthday (35), rose gold wedding band, engagement ring, rose gold Tiffany earrings from a birthday (33?), and pink pearl necklace he won at an auction. Last is our anniversary ring with Leroy’s head, my honey adds a stone at each anniversary. The colors are for the married years.
I just realized maybe I’ve never before revealed my husband’s name. It’s Aaron, but I’ll probably continue to call him honey. Because that is how I do it!
Remember my love of Goodwill? If no, here is why- the middle wide ribbed cuff that I am wearing today. I bought it and it looked like this:
Can you see that? Here’s the closeup:
Hideous, right? Some numnuts splatter painted a cuff bracelet with ugly colors of acrylic paint. But, I’m proud to say, I saw the potential. The little chips showed something shine-y and for a few frantic moments I thought I’d found gold. GOLD! I freaked out, then soaked, scrubbed, and chipped at the paint. Despite the top photo with the jewelry cleaner this was mostly accomplished with my finger nails. I am a classy dame.
Alas, no gold. The easy test was holding a magnet up to it. Gold is not magnetic, brass and other metals are. But whatevs. Look how gorgeous it is, regardless of the material.
Yay me!
Today’s bangles are: Astrologie from my honey, the Angela Cummings bangle that was a gift from my dad to my mom, my Goodwill find, and a silver Tiffany’s woven looking bracelet.
This must be a first for me, more necklaces than bracelets. My mom went on a bit of a tear on Thursday giving me her mom’s old jewelry from Brazil. So I’m wearing some of it today. Stone charm bracelet, matching multi stone necklace. Then there’s my other Brazil goods, too. A Kokopeli charm, a feather to carry me, and a little figa on a necklace with T charm that I found in my dad’s things. Maybe I should smile more in my selfies?
Living in the same city as my mom I see her a lot. But even so, I walked over here yesterday after work. I felt like Michonne with my honey’s army backpack full of gear (by gear I mean makeup and high heels), my two doggies on leashes trailing behind me, stomping through the wilderness of San Francheesie. Once here, my mom and I ate cheese and tried to connect her computer to her TV. But to no avail. I think it takes more than shoving an ethernet cable into each device. You can start calling me a technology wiz at any point now.
Then my mom said “Oh I have some old bangles for you!” And lucky me, the luckiest of all girls, my mom gave me these two big bangles from my dad to her from back in the eighties. Both have special inscriptions in them.
So I am thankful for many things today. For my mom and my brothers (even when I am annoyed by them), my honey, and my doggies, and for the air that I breath. Happy Thanksgiving to you all, too!
Tiffany charm’s are pretty much universally beloved, but I am here to search out for you something special this holiday season. Think of me as your personal shopper. Welcome to 16 days of jewelry gift ideas for the special lady (mom, grandma, lover, daughter, sister, saint) or kind sir (father, brother, boyfriend etc.) in your life. It’s the time of the year where Very Bangled —-> Very Gifted.
Now, as you all know, I own a shop. I trudge thru the front lines of the gift giving mania each year. With my many years of battle scars I have several tried and true gift giving theories. Listen up, because I aim to hit these targets on your behalf for 16 days leading up to the holidays.
1. Most women love a gift tradition. I don’t know what came first, my love of bracelets or my dad giving me bracelets. But now almost my entire collection is thanks to my dad, and I love it. Best part of the gift tradition? Once you’ve set yours, you are golden for gift ideas on every occasion. Just continue the tradition! It’s a promise of the future of your relationship, and a special reminder of the specialness of that relationship.
2. The gift is about you, the giver, more than it is about the receiver. That moment where you’ve scored that something special for your loved ones? And their eyes gleam bright because you hit the nail on the head? That is the BEST feeling ever. But sometimes you will miss the target, and that’s okay. That’s why there are gift receipts. It’s better to shoot and fail then to tie yourself in knots and give nothing. It REALLY is the thought that counts.
3. Always go with your impulse. There is no nicer saying than “I saw this and I thought of you.” It’s heart warming. But that being said… don’t always impulse PURCHASE the item. Write it down for later. You might find something even better, but do NOT wait until the week of Christmas to complete your purchase. We, the retailers are picked clean by that point and that impulse item will be long gone.
4. Give something you love. This ties back into the gift is about the giver. You reveal a special part of yourself when you give a gift. Share that with your loved ones, they love you and giving something YOU love is sharing that love. I’ve found that my most cherished gifts are those that I would never have picked for myself, but once it’s mine, it’s so much more special because of that relationship that I have with the gift giver.
5. Stay within budget! This one is kind of derr but you can always find something special within budget. That’s the entire point of vintage. Don’t blow your money on the name. Tiffany’s costs more because it’s Tiffany’s, but is it worth more? No. Let me put it this way, do you want to give earrings and matching necklace for the same cost of one dinky little charm? YES. The answer is yes.
6. Customize! Always customize. If there’s ever an engraving or monogram or add her name option? Do it. It makes the item extra special. Years later she can look back and say “Oh yeah, that’s from Christmas 1994”.
7. Remember this is supposed to be FUN. There is no failure in gift giving. If you are unfortunate enough to have someone in your life who makes you feel bad about your gift choice? Well, they are serious jerks. That’s plain mean, inconsiderate and RUDE. They are crossed off the list for next year. No gift is deserved, gifts are wonderful opportunities to spoil the people you love, but if they are too bratty to appreciate that? Than they won’t appreciate anything ever. Don’t beat yourself up over their bad attitude. You tried your best.
Did you slog thru everything? No? No matter, I’m keeping this list in consideration and you just need to follow my recs. Starting Monday the 24th, for 16 days straight, I will give you a gift idea for every type. Trying to shop for someone specific? Tell me their fav TV shows or sports teams, interests, hobbies or anything and I’ll dedicate a post to it. You know I love this stuff. It’s the thrill of the jewelry hunt!!
Very Bangled 