Thursday, June 21, 2012

june lust list

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so now that i've returned to the us of a or the birthplace of freedom as i like to call it (these colors don't run!), i've had ample internet time to just sit and peruse the world wide web in search of jewelry inspiration.  my days have been filled with the archives of my favorite blogs, a fair amount of juicing (thanks to the one and only judy aldridge for the life changing sweet potato smoothie recipe), and working on getting a website built that's worthy of housing all the amazing jewelry i brought back from my trip.  i'm still trying to sift through the remains of my camera so there might be a few portugal pictures in the near future.  in the meantime, i thought i would share some of my current favorite jewelry finds in today's lust list.  basically a list of pieces i need to make my summer wardrobe complete.



one: raw gemstone necklace from nallik by jean balke.  i met her in brooklyn once to discuss possibly being her intern.  she was great and i got to keep a lookbook that i go back through every now and then when i want to see beautiful things.  i love that she uses raw gemstones, it really makes every piece feel totally unique.
twovenessa arizaga crystal bone cuff (available at scout.)  before i knew venessa as an amazing jewelry designer i knew her as an amazing customer at the restaurant i used to work at in brooklyn.  she is one of the sweetest people ever and her designs are the funnest (or is it most fun?)  i love this piece in particular because it fills a void in my life.  i had the most amazing antique gold cuff bracelet that i used to wear every day.  then for some weird reason i thought for sure it was going to set the x-ray off on my way through airport security so i took it off like a frenzied idiot and never saw it again.  this cuff looks similar enough that it might save me from the black hole of grief i entered after losing my original.
three: ursa major collection by kate jones silver blanket cross earrings (available at love adorned).  the ursa major collection is what my dreams look like.  love adorned is what i want my dream house to look like.  lori levin is a genius.  the store is like a museum of wonderful things but you're allowed to buy stuff.  aka it's paradise.
four: cavern collection petrichor antler necklace/pipe: amazing.  i can't get enough of cavern collection recently.  i love the earthy, tribal vibe to all of their pieces.  their clothing is also the comfiest.  best travel pieces ever.  (i'm looking at you tusk dress).
five: katrina lapenne snake bangle.  i have a small obsession with snake jewelry.  unfortunately i think that a lot of people share this obsession, which means there's a ton of snake jewelry out there and not all of it is great.  so when something really nails it i'm all over it.  katrina nails it and then some.  her snake collection is pretty much perfect.  she uses just the right amount of serpent to keep her pieces dangerous yet delicate and great for everyday wear.
six: unearthen flat top crystal rings (available at bona drag).  unearthen is so consistently beautiful it's insane.  gia bahm is magical.  since all the crystals have healing powers i really feel like these pieces should be covered by insurance.  well in a perfect world anyway.  a perfect world in which i even have health insurance to begin with.
seven: bario-neal shark pendant.  i am a recent convert to anna and page's amazing designs.  how perfect is this shark pendant for summer?  more importantly though, they produce their jewelry in an environmentally conscious manner.  these ladies use recycled materials, conflict free diamonds, and colored gemstones sourced through mines in the tanzania women miner's association.  LOVE that.  LOVE them.  you can read all about their company's ethical practices here if you're interested, and you should be!
eight: mania mania the source ear cuff.  i have been super into ear cuffs lately.  blame it on all that back reading of fashiontoast i've been doing i guess.  or maybe it's because i've been wanting a new piercing but haven't been able to commit to anything.  whatever the reason, these ear cuffs are doing it for me.  i really like the idea of wearing just one at a time.  although whenever i do that with earrings i always get people telling me that i've lost an earring.  and i'm all um no this is a style choice but thanks anyway.
nine: made her think stoned slave chain bracelet-bar.  who isn't lusting after meredith's designs these days?  i love the idea of the bracelet into ring for the summer when it gets too hot to fathom piling on too many pieces, (unless you're a real trouper like the man repeller, whose dedication to arm partying knows no bounds).
ten and eleven: pamela love small ellipse necklace and zellij breast plate.  (both available at bona drag here and here).  have i mentioned how much i love pamela love's spring 2012 collection?  pretty sure i have.  the zellij breastplate is a total pipe dream.  the most beautiful pipe dream ever, but a pipe dream nonetheless.  but i've already thought of like 100 ways that the small ellipse necklace could make the jewelry i already have better.  so that just seems like sound investing.
twelve: lady grey double channel ring (available at totokaelo and on sale no less!).  have i mentioned how much i love lady grey's spring 2012 collection?  pretty sure i have.  i just can't get over how incredible the gold and crushed bismuth look together.  i especially love this ring because two is definitely better than one.  at least where crushed bismuth is concerned.  and ice cream scoops.
thirteen: jessica winzelberg boulder opal and jade earrings (available at roseark).  jessica makes some of the most amazing gem stone jewelry i've ever seen.  the details are really what set her pieces apart.  i feel like with all of this heat wave talk this is going to be the summer of the top knot so i really need these earrings to spruce up said top knot.  and can we talk about how amazing roseark is?  i'm mostly moving to la just to be closer to it.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

maroc on

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everytime i go to a store or a flea market or even a farmer's market i always wish that they had a section that is called "things abby likes".  we can get into the narcissistic psychology of that sentiment later, but for now i'm here to tell you that i found that place and it's called morocco.  every single turn in every single souq in every single medina led me somewhere amazing and introduced me to things i'd been pining for and to things i didn't even know i needed.  massive tribal jewelry, NEED IT!  hand tooled leather bags and belts, yes please!  the world's tiniest tajine for my poached eggs, how have i lived this long without it?!  to steal a cliche from every guidebook ever written, morocco truly is a feast for the senses.  and yes i know if i was on that new girl show i'd have to put money in the douchebag jar.  but honestly everything in morocco is scintillating, there are no mundane experiences.  we witnessed some of the most heated arguments over the most trivial of things but they always ended in a handshake and a glass of sugary mint tea.  and by the way morocco, i'm a little worried about your sugar intake.  we learned real fast that you have to order your mint tea sans sucre if you're not a fan of drinking syrup.  but that's just morocco i guess, once you figure it out you love it.  ugh, douchebag jar i know.  morocco was such an adventure, absolutely delicious, and a total treasure trove.  as a lover of jewelry, bright colors, and lentils morocco was pretty much heaven for me.
we started our adventure in marrakech where we wandered around the jamaa el fna for hours trying to find the side street that would lead us to the hotel that had been recommended to us.  we ended up on an accidental trek through the medina prolonged by the fact i insisted on stopping in the souqs to ogle the beautiful things.  gotta say, shopping while wearing your luggage really makes you think about the impact of your next purchase.  but fret not, my caution was to go to the wind the next day and shop i did!  shopping in morocco is an adventure in itself.  moroccan shopkeepers are magical.  they're charming and know exactly what you want to see and hear and they are very persuasive and extremely persistent.  i swear there's some kind of voodoo going on in those shops because you walk in and you're surrounded by these beautiful things and time kind of stops and they say all the right things and you walk out feeling ever so satisfied with yourself and it's not until hours later that you realize you've been ripped off.  i decided not to care but i very foolishly decided to not go too crazy in marrakech because i wanted to wait and see what the rest of morocco would have to offer.  i (erroneously) figured that marrakech was just the tip of the iceberg and that the best was yet to come.  totally wrong on that one, marrakech is zenith indeed and i majorly regret not going full crazy at the souqs there instead of the reined in half crazy i allowed myself.  but i guess it's a pretty good excuse to go back!


roof with a view in the old medina in marrakech.


more tables should look like this.  just go ahead and wrap all of that up for me.

necklaces, colorful plates, and spices.  one stop shopping marrakech style.

stripey purses and harem pants so that no one will doubt you went to morocco.

spotted in marrakech, the only fan of satc 2.

  after marrakech it was on to casablanca, which we had heard mixed reviews about but it was actually a really great city.  and if nothing else it's super photogenic.  like i'm the world's worst photographer and my shots from casablanca read artsy.  i also found the most amazing sandals which i bought because they reminded me of the chanel jumpsuit that kate moss wore to her 34th birthday party.  so yes not even the knock off for me but the moroccan shoe "homage", such is my life.


the cinema rialto in casablanca.  are you getting that artsy vibe i mentioned?

after casablanca it was on to meknes, which had a wonderful medina.  it was big enough to have tons to explore but it was small enough to be manageable.  or maybe i just remember it fondly because the world's cutest kitten lives there.  at any rate i definitely loaded up on damascene jewelry and more evil eyes (safety first y'all!).


made friends with this little guy in meknes!
          
really wish i had made friends with this guy in meknes. 

then it was time for fes or the mother of all medinas.  you don't know what lost is until you've set foot in the fes medina.  douchebag jar, i'm aware.  ryan and i did a practice run of the place the afternoon we got there and couldn't find anything and gave up and left and then got even more lost on our way out and didn't make it back to our hotel for hours.  it was more of the same the next day.  we went in through the wrong entrance, we wound around in circles, we got ripped off at lunch and in the tanneries and in the souqs.  it was one of the most intense market excursions of my life and it ended with me weeping by the side of some road we didn't mean to be on in the sweltering heat when the hundredth full taxi passed us by.  i've said it before, i'll say it again: the things i do for these jewels man.

not having it in fes.

but we finally made our way out and it was all uphill from there, quite literally, as we made our way up to chefchaouen, a lovely little mountain town with a much more manageable medina.  it ended up being a real highlight and where i did a lot of my shopping.  everyone was really friendly and helpful and it was just the perfect antidote to our fes fiasco.  i got the most amazing leather purse and suitcase and some beautiful hand painted treasures.  i'm wondering if far and wild accessories needs to happen.  just trying to build an empire, no big deal.

beautiful things from chefchaouen or a photo of my happy place. 

far and wild jewelry even looks good on giraffes.  scratch that, especially looks good on giraffes.

now that you've read about my adventure in morocco, i highly suggest that you keep that moroccan mania going strong and also read kelly framel aka the glamourai's travel diary from morocco over on her site (day 1day 2day 3day 4day 5).  her pictures, her outfits, and well her life really put mine to shame, but we've both got that brooklyn takes morocco thing going on!  next stop portugal!


Wednesday, June 6, 2012

spiked and stoned

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so i was stalking around refinery29, as i'm wont to do when i feel like trying to make myself cooler, and i came across a lookbook for lady grey jewelry, the amazing jewelry line of two brooklyn (we go hard) based jewelry designers jill martinelli and sabine le guyader.  the lookbook is for their spring 2012 collection and it is beyond amazing.  i love how they put crushed bismuth stones into these neat little settings to give a raw edge to their structured geometric pieces.  further inspection led me to their website (oh hey t-rex skull necklace) and  needless to say i'm now obsessed and i've made a mental wish list of all the pieces i want.    it's only like 7 or 8 pieces, i'm not a total monster.  some of my favorites from the spring 2012 collection (all photos from refinery29):

nips out!  but you probably won't even notice those with all that beautiful jewelry to look at.  that is assuming you're female.

i love the pieces that combine the gold studs and the crushed stones.  very hard meets soft.  tough meets delicate.  sugar meets spice.

i need more fingers.

have i mentioned how much i love a good collar necklace?

one for each wrist!

i feel like this could add a much needed pop to my summer uniform of white tank and jorts.

these are begging to be put in a rihanna video.  and on my ears.