BYZANTINE NECKLACE * DEEP BLUE MEDITERRANEAN BRACELET * GOLDEN GREECE BRACELET

The Byzantine Necklace is named for the designs on its unique clasp. When I was last in Greece, I spent a lot of time in the jewelry stores (of course, right?) and in an older shop near Kolonaki in Athens, the young jeweler showed me a catalog of 100 year old designs. He would go through the book and remake the Byzantine designs on new pieces of jewelry in 18 karat gold. I vowed to shop carefully on my limited budget, and in Crete found myself a lovely "Hercules Knot" ring with Marguerita (daisy) designs on it. Byzantine.
When I saw this clasp, it's decorative geometrical design spoke Byzantine to me, and I decided to let the clasp lead me to the beads. Deep purple amethyst in natural shapes are interspersed with carnival crystal roundels. The carnival colors are gold and purple - the perfect way to tie the amethyst to the clasp. Simple, dressy, classic, with just a few purple velvet swarovski crystals to compliment the vintage button custom clasp set in Sterling Silver.

I also completed two great bracelets:
The Golden Greece Bracelet is composed of white freshwater pearls, bali silver beads and large golden crystal roundels. Twisted Sterling Silver toggle clasp.
The Deep Blue Mediterranean Bracelet is deep blue and rich. The shine is subtly enhanced by the deep blue fresh water pearls nestled between dark blue roundel crystals. Twisted Sterling Silver toggle clasp.

BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING NECKLACES

Sparkly, shiny & colorful. This is the necklace you can wear with anything, including your dressy dress. It's almost all crystals with an occasional fresh water pearl to give it a Breakfast at Tiffany's twist. It is super long, with a small sterling silver toggle clasp so that you can also double it up for a shorter necklace or one with two lengths. The beads are amazing.....Large Purple luminescent roundels with not as large lilac roundels, deep purple Swarovski crystals, some small opaque lavender beads, and clear crystals. It can be worn with so many colors, and with many different looks. It will dress up a white blouse and jeans....it will look great with skirt and cardigan for work, look great with a suit at church, or let it swing with a plain dress and super high heels at that greek wedding. Can you greek dance in 5 inch heels? Some can. Some do..... This necklace is a multi beaded delight including large blue/green/purple roundels with smaller faceted blue/green roundels, purple bicones and opaque squares or light green barrels. Wear it beautifully with a sweater or dress, or tuck it inside a blouse or suit jacket for just a hint of sparkle and mystery. A discreet sterling silver toggle clasp completes the circle.

INVENTION OF LYING

Yes, I am making jewelry! Stay tuned for the Big Fat Greek Wedding collection, and maybe something with Drachma in it's name. I want to have some simple pearl earrings too.

Invention of Lying - This movie was in the theaters for a minute and I missed it. However Ricky Gervais is one of my favorite actors, and I loved this funny quirky movie. He plays a guy who lives in a world where lying doesn't exist. There isn't even a name for it. Everyone is very honest, but they don't seem to get very angry. Ricky tempts fate, and the rest of the story is the movie. Very over the line sometimes, yet very sweet, just like Ricky himself. I love his accent. And that twinkle eyed smile.

HEAD CASE * GET OFF YOUR "BUT" * CHOCOLATE

Head Case - My friend Sue showed me this show on her Starz On Demand last week, so I decided to do something I rarely do, which is to get the whole season DVD at the library and watch it. In a week. I thought there were only a few shows to this craziness, but there were more like 12 or 15, and I watched them all in the last two nights. Alexandra Wentworth plays a therapist to the stars, Elizabeth Goode. She is funny and irreverent, and anything goes. She's very insecure and crazy and it's a fun show to watch.

Get Off Your "But" - by Sean Stephenson - Is this not the best title for a self help book?
Sean is a real life therapist in the western suburbs of Chicago, and he's had to overcome many obstacles in his life. I zipped through this book yesterday and just now took a look at Sean on You Tube . This is the book I'd recommend to any young person with excuses or negative self talk. Sean's message comes across as true and sincere.

I've been craving chocolate lately, and fortunately or unfortunately there is a lot of chocolate in the house. Just when I think I am getting to the end of the supply, I stumble onto some more, like last week at group when Susan asked if I wanted to take the box of Frango Mints since no one else was interested in them. "Sure" I said, "Steve loves these", while refusing the offer of vegetables and hummus. It's more like Dianne loves these, as well as the Twix I conveniently keep in the old fashioned covered silver soup tureen my mom and George gave me (really one of my favorite hiding places for chocolate), and the M & Ms in the drawer of the dining room credenza, the Fanny May chocolate bars in the kitchen cupboard stash, and the big box of mint chocolate covered graham crackers which is almost finished. Yesterday I got into the last of the four plastic inserts of those. Each plastic insert has three sections of thin mint crackers. I eat one section then give them over to Steve and say "finish these!".
A couple of nights ago I made some microwave Moulten Chocolate cakes with the Frango Mints. I'd made them for group, but over baked them by a minute or so and they were delicious but not moulten enough. Here's the recipe:

Microwave Moulten Chocolate Cakes
1/4 pound butter
4 oz chocolate (any chocolate; adjust sugar for sweetness)
1/2 to 1 cup confectioners sugar (depends on sweetness of chocolate)
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
6 Tablespoons flour

Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Butter 4-6 custard cups

Melt the chocolate & butter in the microwave for 1 minute.
Remove from microwave and whisk until the chocolate completely melts
Whisk in the sugar and combine well
Whisk in the eggs one at a time, then the egg yolks
Stir in the flour

Pour into custard cups
Bake at 425 12 - 15 minutes depending on how well done you want the edges to be.
Cool them for 5-10 minutes and enjoy

TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU * YES MAN

Ten Things I Hate About You - I finally watched this 1999 movie last night. Only 10 years late. The trailers always looked good, but then I'd read that it's a remake of Shakesphere's Taming of the Shrew set in a modern day high school, and say maybe another day. As I watched, I was convinced that the actor playing the wild guy who gets the taming job was a younger Aiden from Sex and the City. Same smile, same shape of face, same voice. You know, something about him. Come to find out at the end of the movie that it was Heath Ledger. Maybe it's time to watch all of Heath's movies. If you like the high school genre, this is a sweet one. Oh, and the boy who plays the kid who wants to date the younger sister is the guy who is the lead in 500 Days of Summer.

Yes Man - A long time ago when Jim Carrey came onto the movie scene in Mask, I tried to watch it, thought it was awful, and put it at the very bottom of my list. No story, just this person stretching his face and being really hyper. I can get that at home. I kept trying to watch Carrey's movies (all those great reviews) and could never finish one - they were all the same. Silly, hyper, creepy. And actually although I liked Yes Man, I didn't finish this one either (fell asleep)! The premise is good, though, and he's not so hyper anymore, there are some really funny scenes, and Steve and Peter enjoyed it. So yeah, if you need a movie to watch this month, and 10 Things and the others I've liked aren't On Demand, then Yes Man might be a good choice.

PEAR NECKLACE

When I was a little girl, my grandparents had the most fantastic garden at their house in Detroit. My grandfather's section was next to the garage, and he grew farm plants....fruits and vegetables and I remember you could hardly go in there it was so wild and green. My grandmother's garden was neat and organized, and ran along the fences on either side of the yard. She had phlox, peonies, hosta, shasta daisies, and roses. I'd give anything to have pictures of the plants and the line up. On the side of the house were the lilies of the valley. Still my absolute favorites. They also had a pear tree somewhere in the yard, because I remember the most delicious pears. We'd sit on the metal chairs that were always propped against the big tree in the yard, and my grandmother would use a paring knife to cut up the pear for us.
A few years ago, in Mexico, I bought a lovely glass pear, and when I showed it to my mother in law, she said "Psomi, tiri, kai axlathi"....bread, cheese and pear. This was a saying that her mother and grandmother used to say, and I guess it was a meal that they'd eat as well.
When I saw the pear clasp, I knew that I'd make a necklace about pears. Then, when shopping for beads, I spotted these colorful coin beads and asked the vendor what they were. "Pear Jasper" he said, (in what I thought was pretty clear english). I had to have them for the pear clasp. Only it turns out that they are really "Imperial Jasper".
The necklace is lovely. I paired the "pear" jasper with colorful freshwater pearls, and gave the necklace three strands. By the time it makes it to the show, it might have a couple of dangles on either side of the clasp as well. The clasp is a vintage button which is set into a Sterling Silver base.

THE ROAD FROM HOME * GREEK SOUL-MEMORIES OF A DETROIT CHILDHOOD

The Road from Home by David Kherdian This Newberry Honor book is the story of Veron, an Armenian girl who survived both the 1915 Armenian genocide and the 1922 Smyrna catastrophe. It's written in the first person and it's unbelievable that a person could survive so many hardships and so much pain. The book covers the years from 1907 to 1924, and takes Veron from childhood to young woman betrothed to a man in America. I loved reading the details of her life with her family in their village before the march and other events that would take her family and leave her orphaned. Somehow, the goodness of others and her sweet tough nature helped her at each juncture. She always made good decisions in spite of it all. It's a memoir from the heart and mind of an amazing woman. If you only read one account about the Armenian Genocide, this is the one I'd recommend. It's for all ages.

Greek Soul-Memories of a Detroit Childhood by Stelyani Sandris - I started this book last night after finishing Road from Home, and couldn't put it down until I'd finished it this morning. It's one of the more poignant and unique books you'll ever read. Stelyani was Estelle Changas, and throughout her life she wrote about her childhood growing up in Detroit. Her family was poor after her father died young, and her own experiences and memories, as well as those of her family, changed and shaped her and stayed with her through her life. Probably riding around on her shoulder and rattling around in her brain, the way mine do. In these stories, she put her heart on her sleeve.

KNOSSOS NECKLACE

When you return from Greece, if anyone asks you about the colors of Greece, you might never mention the color red. However, if you visit the ruins of the Minoan Civilization on the island of Crete at Knossos, you will see red. The first time I experienced Knossos, I loved these ruins compared to the dusty gray stones we had seen in the Peloponisos. These Minoan people had murals! They had colors! They had bathtubs!
(That's another story - it turns out it was a roomful of sarcophagi, but I was young; I thought they were bathtubs, and no one ever told me they weren't). Very civilized. When I took my son to this fabulous place years later, it had changed. The first time we visited, when I was young, we wandered around, climbed around, and there were maybe one or two other visitors there. In the 2000s, however, there were lines, and people, and waiting, and everything was cordoned off. Very civilized.
So I come home, and I'm telling my Koubaro about how much I love these ruins (I still do love that red!), and he tells me that those ruins were painted by the original archeologists who excavated the site. Not by Minoan muralists. I googled, and of course, he was correct. However, there are reds in Greece. On Crete. And they are beautiful.
And they inspired me to make this necklace. I wanted it to be fluid and curvy, like the red columns, so I used deep red crystal roundels in two sizes. They are set off by hematite squares and Swarovski crystal bicones. The square Bali Sterling Silver clasp is the finishing flourish.

500 DAYS OF SUMMER

500 Days of Summer - I loved this little movie. It's about love in your twenties and relationships and dating and friends and how some of us are obsessed and some of us are casual. The acting was great, the story wonderful. I loved watching it and wouldn't have minded if it had gone on and on. It's a bit quirky but very confident as a movie. I'd only ever seen Zoey Deschanel in fashion blogs and magazines, but she's beautiful. It's a modern movie with an element of timelessness. Here's the link.

JEWELRY BY DIANNE SOPHIA * GRAPEVINE NECKLACE

At my grandmother's house in Detroit in the 1960s there was a wooden two story porch, and all along the porch in the summer was the most beautiful grapevine. The story was that she had brought the grapevine back from the "old country" a few years before. The "old country" was actually the new country, because she and her family did not originate in a village outside Thessaloniki in Greece, but rather in a village outside of Smyrna in Asia Minor. My grandmother's father died when she was 9 years old, and her mother died of a broken heart (so the story goes) when my grandmother was 16 years old. Therefore, in 1922 when they were chased from their home, she was was 18, and responsible for her younger sisters and brother. Their father had owned lands on which were grown Sultana (golden) grapes for raisin production. When I saw this clasp, all the memories came back to me, as they do whenever I encounter a grapevine. We never ate my grandmother's grapes in Detroit, they were small and kind of bitter. She mainly grew this vine for the leaves with which she would make everyone's favorite dolmathes, or stuffed grape leaves.
In this necklace I was motivated to use these wonderful large Green Opal coins which rest on your neckline beautifully. They are like picture beads with their varying shades and designs of green and red and brown. All the colors of grapes and grape leaves, as well as the healthy earth on which they thrive. The little dark green jade chip beads provide an accent of leaves, while the silver bali beads remind me of little grape clusters. It's lovely in person. This necklace actually has two focal center designs. The Clasp can be worn at the front of the necklace for major impact, or if you prefer, the clasp can be worn traditionally at the back, and a lovely square vined bali sterling silver bead can be worn at the front.

DRY

Dry - by Augusten Burroughs - I won't rest until I've read them all! I think this is my favorite of all of Augusten's books. Dry is a memoir about his alcohol addiction. He's honest and descriptive and serious and droll. He writes candidly about drinking ungodly amounts of alcohol, and then about his experience in rehab, and about working as an advertising copywriter. It's a book to learn from - he writes a lot about dealing with his addiction. His introspection on so many parts of his psychology are food for thought for life.

SANTORINI BRACELET

I've always been fascinated with the 1920's...the jazz age. Art Deco, flappers, the Charleston, Palm Beach, the stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald. (That's how it started, actually-we all know I'm not necessarily a student of history otherwise). I'm fortunate to live in a 1920s designed and built home, and my eye always goes to an Art Deco look when I see it. It's totally modern, yet classic. Symmetrical elegance. The Santorini Bracelet is so called because it is once again made of those materials that remind me of the black "sand" volcanic beaches of Santorini.
This bracelet pairs round jet beads with silvery crystal roundels. The clasp is magnificent - a deco gem composed of diamond-like gemstones set into a vintage button which has recently been set into Sterling Silver. Understated and elegant, wear it with that simple little black dress, or any time you're in all one color. The deco element will always surprise, never disappoint. It's truly timeless fashion.

DIANNE"S CHOPPED SALAD

For years I made my greek salad with Iceburg or Romaine lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, feta, spices, olive oil and red wine vinegar. It's been evolving, though, and the latest version is really yummy-does the white Basalmic Vinegar make the difference? I make a big bowl of it and feast for days. Sometimes I wrap it up in a quesadilla. Here it is in my new yellow bowl.

Dianne's Chopped Salad

1 Heart of Romaine Lettuce
1 Tomato or 5-10 cherry tomatoes
5-10 baby Carrots
Onion - a small amount
Some Cheese
1 Hard Boiled Egg

Olive Oil
White Balsamic Vinegar
All the spices in your cabinet
Cavender's Greek Seasoning
Soy Sauce
Helmann's Mayonnaise

Dice the onion, practically mince it but not really...maybe a couple of Tablespoons when you're done, put it in the Salad bowl. Chop the Lettuce and Tomatoes into small pieces. Shred the carrots into the bowl, do the same with your cheeses...hard cheeses like Asiago, Romano, Parmesian are my favorites. Chop up the hard boiled egg and put that in. You could add chopped cucumber or other lettuces or cabbage. Just make sure everything is chopped and shredded.
Pour Olive Oil all over it, and shake in some of the White Basalmic Vinegar. Now shake in a little of all the spices in your cupboard...more of the ones you like, less or none of the ones you don't. I keep my spices in alphabetical order, and so use Anise seed, Basil, Celery Salt, Cilantro, Dill Weed, Garlic Salt, Marjoram, Rosemary, Tarragon and Thyme. Shake in a generous amount of the Cavenders Greek Seasoning. Spritz the Soy Sauce over it all, and last but not least add two or three good dollops of Helmann's. Toss it all gently until it's completely combined and enjoy!

POSEIDON NECKLACE

After trying many different patterns of Labradorite and blue crystals, I finally created the perfect balance in the Poseidon necklace. The Labradorite stars with it's occasional iridescence or "Labradorescence", flashes of sparkle and rainbow color among the facets on an individual bead. The beads themselves are the shades of blue/gray that Poseidon experienced as god of the undersea world. The Poseidon clasp is a find....a vintage button enjoying new life set in sterling silver. I think this is my favorite piece so far, but I promise not to keep it, although I may be modeling it at church tomorrow. Take a look:

THE POOL

The Pool - This movie was a 2007 Sundance film festival winner with a Special Dramatic Jury Prize, so I dvr'd it the other day, and watched last night. It's about Venkatesh and Jhangir, two boys from a small town in India who work in the city of Panjim. Venkatesh is fascinated by a swimming pool in which the owners never swim. The story unfolds sweetly....who are these boys? who are the people that Venkatesh watches? How can boys live and work alone in a big city? Why couldn't they stay in their village? What's with the girl in the story? A wonderful soundtrack gives it another Indian dimension. Somehow living in Panjim doesn't seem like the worst fate for a young boy. These are amazing and resilient children in a story and movie that are timeless.

In the meantime, I'm working on a necklace of Labradorite, a shimmery, quiet blue/gray mineral, which is paired with the Poseidon clasp and sea blue crystal roundels. The Poseidon clasp has a story. When I first saw it, I thought it was St. George slaying the dragon, and wanted to make something for my mother with it, because my dad was named George, and now she is married to a second George. Then one day I showed it to my friend Amalia, yes, she's Greek, too, and she looked at it and said "that's not St. George" very matter of factly. Huh? I had this big plan to please my mom! No, says Amalia, St. George rides a horse, and this guy doesn't. Also, St. George uses more of an arrow, and this is a trident. Furthermore, that's not a dragon. And that's how I knew that I had the mythical sea god, Poseidon clasp rather than the religious Saint George clasp. Stay tuned. I'm going to get this necklace right today and it will be a beauty.

JEWELRY BY DIANNE SOPHIA * GREEK KEY BRACELET

I remember hearing the term Greek Key and asking my grandmother what it was. She replied by drawing it for me, and ever since then I've been hooked. I love this design.... to see it, to doodle it, to sew with it, to wear it, to decorate with it. My favorite every day ring is a greek key cutout ring that I bought on the street on Crete. My favorite Greek key is a simple border pattern. One continuous line shaped and tamed into pattern.

This bracelet features a clasp that I had made using a sterling silver Greek key earring. The clasp artist used small sterling silver dots and pebbles to set off the symmetry of the circular Greek key design. Two rows of colorful Freshwater Pearls in earthy tones are like the pebbles or rocks that are the terrain of much of Greece. Greens, grays, purples, golds, blues. In spite of the sunshine and blue sea, Greece is not rainbow colors. It's a subtle blend of earth and mountain and sky and olive tree and farmland and dirt road in the village. These are the things that these pearls evoke. Two Bali Sterling Silver beads, one on each strand of pearls are the civilization of Greece, for although it seems untamed, people have lived and created lives and art there for thousands of years.

JEWELRY BY DIANNE SOPHIA * CHARIOT RACER NECKLACE

The ancient equestrian sport of chariot racing was added to the Olympic games in 680 BC, expanding the games from a one day to two day event. I can always tell when I'm in a greek home because there will often be a vase, plate or bowl with a black background and red designs often depicting a chariot racer and his team of four horses. We had a plate with this image on it. So when I spotted this pendant depicting the same image, I knew that I would pair it with beads in shades of red and gold. The faceted round Red Agate beads have the colors and tones to evoke the ancient colors. They are set off individually by matching swarovski crystals, and Bali sterling silver. A simple sterling silver clasp is reminiscent of the type of clasp that might have been used in ancient times.

MORE ON FACEBOOK

So my facebook profile photo is a great photo of me taken in the summer in Florence - a highlight of 2009. It's black and white and looks like a good photo of me. BUT, when you look at other people's facebook photos, they are often not well composed and have other people in them but cut off, like they are part of a group but the person just edited their own face for the profile. Is that a better thing to do? Does that show that you have real life friends who you are in pictures with? Does it show that you are more popular? I must say that the people with those kinds of photos have the most numbers of friends, and I would have to add that they probably don't obsess about these things the way I do. Also my photo, not being colorful, looks kind of bad in the newsfeed. Maybe the photo where I'm obviously sitting at a table would be better, or a color photo would look better on newsfeeds. Some people would put all the photos in a profile folder, but I don't like that idea. So now I check 2 emails and facebook every day. This is unbelievable. Maybe since I have so much time to goof around with Facebook, I could just change my profile photo every week or so, or whenever I feel like it. That might just be the answer, and sometimes I could just put a picture of something I like on there. I almost made my facebook photo a picture I took of the glow in the dark carpeting at our local bowling alley. It's sort of outer-spacey firework-y and very colorful on a black background.