And All Good Things Come To An End

When it comes to jewelry, I have a few motto's:

Bigger is Better

More is More

That said, I can always appreciate the beauty of a delicate piece: of course there is the option to stack them, but sometimes a single piece of delicate jewelry can convey endless elegance.

The Atlas Pierced Bar Pendant in rose gold

P.S. Orchids don't smell like anything. I did not know that until I actually tried to sniff them.

Sipping on a margarita at Luxe while wearing Atlas Bar Bracelets in sterling silver and rose gold. 

A closer look at those Bar Bracelets. The rose gold version even has tiny diamonds in it!

And with that, as with all good things, my time with my Tiffany & Co. treasures has come to an end. 

A huge thank you to Tiffany & Co. and their PR representatives for allowing my this truly amazing opportunity. Also, a great big thank you to N and my dear friend Melissa for being my photographers. And last, but certainly not least, thank you to YOU, my readers, for joining me on this adventure. I had an absolute BLAST doing it, and I hope you enjoyed reading it!

We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming next week!! 

XOXOXO

Disclosure: Tiffany & Co. lent me a number of pieces from their 2013 Atlas Collection and asked me to blog about how I would incorporate these pieces in my daily wardrobe. I have received no other compensation other than the ability to wear these pieces for the allocated time period. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.  

Celebrate EVERY Day with Tiffany & Co

I used to be the kind of person that used to save all my "treasures" for special occasions. Then earlier this year, I read a quote (and I wish I remembered who said it) that essentially advocated (and I'm paraphrasing here): Stop saving your beautiful things for special occasions because LIFE is a special occasion.

In the spirit of this very wise saying, here's me wearing my most FAVORITE Tiffany piece!! It is the Atlas Hinged Bangle in rose gold, and lets just say that if I owned this, I would wear it ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE!!

My dress is the Gemma wrap dress from Banana Republic, shoes from Nine West (discontinued but similar to this). And in keeping with high-lo, the chunky resin necklace is from Francesca's 

As you can see above, I stacked the Atlas bangle with a cuff bracelet from my personal collection. I'm also mixing metals with some rose, gold and silver!! 

Here's a closer look at my new obsession. Isn't she gorgeous?!

So what do you think of my new motto to Celebrate Every Day? Are you inspired to wear some of your "treasures" more frequently?

Disclosure: Tiffany & Co. lent me a number of pieces from their 2013 Atlas Collection and asked me to blog about how I would incorporate these pieces in my daily wardrobe. I have received no other compensation other than the ability to wear these pieces for the allocated time period. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.  

Tiffany & Co. at Work

While I work in a generally conservative field, I am lucky enough that my dress code is business casual on days that I'm not visiting clients. For me, business casual takes a few different forms: a dress + cardi/blazer, a skirt + knit top/blouse, or my new favorite, skinny pants + blouse/cardi. Between the J.Crew Minnie and the Gap Ultra Skinny, I have amassed quite the collection of black skinnies. 

When I'm looking to make my work wardrobe more "fun" I usually turn to the big 3: shoes, bags, jewelry. I think of them as a way to inject some personality into what might be an otherwise boring look. 

Gap Ultra Skinny Pants, Gap black tank, polka dot sweater from Marshalls, red Nine West peep-toes from years ago, but similar to these.

On days like this one, where my outfit may be veering a little toward casual, I like to dress things up with more sophisticated jewelry: diamonds or pearls are guaranteed to glamorize any outfit!!

Here I'm wearing the Tiffany Atlas Open Pendant with diamonds (note that this piece is bigger than the one I have linked to) and Atlas hoop earrings (note that the earrings I'm wearing are smaller than those in the link)

Here's a closer look at those earrings.... oooooh SHINY!!! 

While diamonds may not be realistic for every budget, I firmly believe that it is important to invest in a few classic, quality pieces. You can never go wrong with a pair of elegant pearl studs or a simple, understated necklace! What are your go-to pieces when you're trying to make an outfit more elegant or glamorous?

Disclosure: Tiffany & Co. lent me a number of pieces from their 2013 Atlas Collection and asked me to blog about how I would incorporate these pieces in my daily wardrobe. I have received no other compensation other than the ability to wear these pieces for the allocated time period. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.  

Wearing Tiffany To A County Fair

Each Labor Day Weekend, the Geauga County Fairgrounds host The Great Geauga County Fair. While a county fair is not typically my thing, we have a 3-year old nephew who really wanted to see barnyard animals, so off we went. I had two major concerns for the day: (1) What is the appropriate attire for a county fair, and (2) What sort of fried cheese would I want?

Knowing that it was going to be ridiculously hot and humid, and barnyard animals = barnyard animal poop, I decided to keep in casual and comfortable with shorts, a tee, ankle height boots, and of course, jewelry. While a county fair may not be the first place one might expect to see Tiffany jewelry, the beauty of the Tiffany silver jewelry pieces are that they are absolutely casual enough to wear anywhere, including The Great Geauga County Fair!!

The Tiffany Atlas bangle in medium and narrow

The bangles again, with the Atlas lariat in sterling silver

Tiffany would be perfect on a Harley too. 

A closer look at the bangles while I play tug with Clair

As far as the second question of the day: Fried swiss cheese on a stick was definitely the way to go!!

Disclosure: Tiffany & Co. lent me a number of pieces from their 2013 Atlas Collection and asked me to blog about how I would incorporate these pieces in my daily wardrobe. I have received no other compensation other than the ability to wear these pieces for the allocated time period. As always, all opinions are 100% my own. 

The Pinnacle of My Blogging Career

OMG! I HAVE REACHED THE PINNACLE OF MY BLOGGING CAREER!!!!

It is no secret that I'm a lover of sparkly things, particularly jewelry. So, you can only imagine my absolute JOY when I was contacted by representatives from Tiffany & Co. about a collaboration to celebrate the opening of their new store on Chagrin Boulevard. 

The collaboration is this: Tiffany has lent me pieces from their 2013 Atlas Collection to incorporate into my daily wardrobe. If you haven't seen it before, the Atlas Collection features classic Roman numerals, as shown below- 

So for this entire week, you will see posts of me wearing these incredible pieces of jewelry along with my normal wardrobe! CUE THE SQUEALING!!

Disclosure: Tiffany & Co. lent me a number of pieces from their 2013 Atlas Collection and asked me to blog about how I would incorporate these pieces in my daily wardrobe. I have received no other compensation other than the ability to wear these pieces for the allocated time period. As always, all opinions are 100% my own. 

So Ready for Spring...

Its a good thing that we're finally getting a break in the weather this weekend because Spring is definitely on my mind.  And while I'm likely to never embrace floral pants, I am certainly not opposed to a floral accent, or even a dress.....

Florals by cleshopaholic on polyvore.com

Is it Spring yet?!?!?!??!?!?!!!!!!!!!!

Shop Local: LINGG (Valentine's Day Ideas for CLE men)

Over the holidays, I made my first ever trip to LINGG-- an independently owned jewelry shop and art gallery, located on Chagrin Blvd. in Woodmere. Its not a very big jewelry store, but has a completely unique collection of jewelry, at a range of prices. Heidi and Beth travel to New York multiple times a year on buying trips, so you can be assured that you are seeing some of the newest jewelry lines and styles available. They also work with local artists, so its a well rounded out collection.

On my very first visit, I completely fell in love with this bracelet, and lucky for me it was on sale!!  Needless to say, it came home with me.

I visited again a couple of weeks ago, and there are many, many items priced under $100 that are perfect for Valentine's Day, as you can below:

In addition to jewelry, LINGG also carries a selection of bags and even some clothing, so  you should definitely go check it out!! 

Bubbles & Sparkles- A Stella & Dot Party

Its been a crazy couple of weeks, so I apologize for not being in touch on the blog. BUT, it is summer in Cleveland, so can you really blame me? : )

A few weeks ago, I hosted a Stella & Dot party with the theme "Bubbles & Sparkles," which was, as the name suggests, an excellent excuse to consume bubbles and ooh and aah over shiny things. Our stylist for the evening was Jennifer, and she brought over some lovely pieces from the summer collection; honestly, I probably tried on everything!!!

Here are some pictures from the evening...

 The drinks.... we went through 8 bottles...

 The spread... it was very hot, so I stuck to cold nibbles...

Danielle and Courtney trying on goodies... 

 The sparkles...

 Lisa, Courtney and Janet giving the pieces a try...

 Beautiful ladies on the patio... Alexa, Allison J, Lisa, Tiffany, Sara, Janet and Danielle... there was a lot of very loud chatter and laughter that evening-- LOVE LOVE LOVE evenings with the girls!

And last, but certainly not least, my purchases.... I absolutely ADORE the packaging!!

So, I placed my order on a Thursday, and even though they say its 5-7 business days for delivery, I had my pieces in my hand the following Thursday! Unfortunately, my earrings broke in transit, but a quick email to my stylist Jennifer, and a return authorization was issued immediately! As with exchanges with most companies, they requested that I send back the defective pair before they would send out the new one- I sent them out first thing Tuesday, and I had my new earrings on Thursday!! Talk about fast!! Although I was a little disappointed that I couldn't wear the earrings on day 1, I was very very impressed by level of customer service!

Stella and Dot just released its fall collection this past week, and here are some of my favorites: So what are you coveting this fall?

Source: shop.stelladot.com via cleshopaholic on Pinterest

Source: shop.stelladot.com via cleshopaholic on Pinterest

Source: shop.stelladot.com via cleshopaholic on Interes

So what sparkles are you coveting this fall?

216 bangles

Its no secret that I love jewelry. Its also no secret that these days I'm really into bracelets and bangles. Late last year, I picked up a lovely set of stackable bangles on etsy from georgiedesigns. One of my favorite things about etsy is the ability to customize, and of course, I did just that by choosing a set of 3 gold fill bangle bracelets with the numbers 2-1-6. Cleveland pride on my wrist!!!!

All wrapped up, and on my wrist!! You can be sure I will be wearing these A LOT this summer!!

A little sparkle for your wrist

Did you have a good Valentine's Day? N and I didn't exchange gifts or anything, but we spent a lovely low-key evening at home! I've been quite the whiz in the kitchen over the past few days: I've made homemade biscuits (from scratch) and gravy, a whole roast chicken, and last night's steak with peppercorn sauce with parmesan mashed potatoes and simply cooked asparagus! Its been a long time since I've actually ENJOYED cooking, so I'm going to make the most of this streak while it lasts!!

Lately I've been really into gold-tone jewelry and I will be sharing some of purchases and obsessions with you over the next few weeks. My latest purchase has been this gorgeous pair of bracelets that I ordered on   Etsy from The Altered Chain

 

Aren't they just adorable?? So simple and delicate and perfect for everyday wear. I will say that the gold coating on the bar has started to fade, but that's my fault for not taking them off AT ALL since I received them a few weeks ago.  The packaging is really adorable too, and if you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, then you know I'm a total sucker for packaging! Add sparkles to that equation, and I'm a goner! LOL.

Do you have an everyday piece of jewelry that you never take off? Besides my engagement and wedding rings, and now these bracelets, I also have Maya Brenner initial pendant that I never take off!! 

A Great Look to Start 2012

So I spent NewYear's Eve at a wedding. Double the need to come up with a TRULY fabulous outfit. And what better way to go fabulous inexpensively, than Rent the Runway! I had used RTR before, my had an odd case of reverse body dysmorphia, and picked a dress, that quite frankly, looked like sausage casing. Luckily, since then, I've discovered the true shape of my body, and picked a dress that was absolutely perfect: the Badgley Mischka draped dream dress, pictured here.

Sadly, I don't think I have a picture of me standing in the dress, but it was absolutely gorgeous on, and I felt like a princess!! Incidentally, if you want to rent your own dress, say for Jump Back Ball, use the RTR link above. In any case, here are some pictures from the wedding (you may have seen them already on Twitter/Instagram, so I apologize).

 

I will offer you one warning about RTR: it is possible that despite reading the reviews, and carefully picking your outfit, you may not like your dress. Therefore, always make sure you have a back-up that you are satisfied with, so as to avoid last minute wardrobe-induced panic!!!!

All that Glitters...

Every summer, I go through a phase where I favor gold tone jewelry rather than the silver I usually wear. Now while I would luuurrvveee for my pieces to be the REAL THING, its just not a budget friendly option. So instead, I've been filling out my jewelry collection with brass instead!! One of my FAVORITE recent purchases is this bracelet (on the right), that I picked up at Dredger's Union last week (I have a serious problem; I've been in this store 4 times already, and its only been open like TWO WEEKS!)

Its a measuring tape!!! How cute is that?!?!?!?

The bracelet is part of Monserat De Luca's jewelry line, and Dredgers is carrying quite a few pieces from the collection, and you should definitely check them out. There's a bunch of really cute, whimsical necklaces, that would make the PERFECT gift for a woman in your life. Some of my favorites include the paper planes and the fork and spoon (great gift for a foodie!). Sure, you could look at them online, but its SO MUCH MORE FUN to go see them in person!! Coincidentally, this weekend is also the Made in 216 festival AND OFFICIAL Grand Opening of Dredgers, so really, you now have multiple reasons to make it down to East 4th this weekend!! Happy Shopping my FABULOUS friends, and hopefully, I will see you around this weekend!!

Show your State some love

If you've been checking out gilt then you already know about Maya Brenner. Maya does some super cute pieces that are features on TV shows and in fashion magazines, but what caught my eye was the "states" collection that's on sale this week at gilt. Here's the catch: the gilt sale runs until 9:00 am EST tomorrow (Tuesday June 29th), so if you want to buy your State necklace for the ridiculously discounted price of $58 (regularly $120), you need to act in the next 12 hours! (all 50 states are being offered on gilt and at Maya Brenner's site).

Isn't it cute?! The one on Gilt is the Sterling Silver without the diamond, which I think I like better. And, it would make a great gift for any Ohio blogger who may be celebrating her birthday in July (wink wink:  plum, butnoteveryday, and I all celebrate birthdays in July!)

O H! I O!