Twinkle Studio

Organize Your Stash - Part 2 - Cleaning

Now that you have everything laid out and organized, it's time to do some cleaning. Back in January, I did a post on the nitty gritties of cleaning your jewelry. Read all the details by clicking here.

With your cleaning is complete, it's time set up your storage and display options in the next post. 

Organize Your Stash - Part 1 - Sorting

This is the first of a few posts about organizing and storing and displaying your jewelry. The key is that you want to have everything sorted and organized so that you can see all your options...and choose the most fabulous pieces for a particular outfit. 

STEP 1 - Sort!

The key to sorting your jewelry is to lay everything out where you can see it. I recommend laying out a large white bath towel and putting everything on it.  White is best for seeing the colors and the bath towel has enough "grip" to ensure you don't have beads and baubles rolling all over the place. 

As you lay your items out, group them in 2 ways. First, sort by silver or gold-tone. Put all the silver-tone on the top horizontal half of the towel and the gold-tone on the bottom horizontal half. Secondly, sort by jewelry type. Lay out all the earrings on the far left, necklaces next, then bracelets, rings, and miscellaneous things (watches, pins, brooches) on the far right. If you have a lot of a miscellaneous item, create it's own category. 

Now that you have everything laid out in a way that you can see it all, pull out all the broken pieces and either bring them to get fixed or put them in a "to-donate" pile. Then pull out all the items that you can donate or bring to a swap party. Put all these items in small plastic bags and dispense with them. 

What you should have left are all your cherished and favorite pieces. 

Up next: Cleaning your goodies! 

Go Downtown!

I recently had the pleasure of connecting up with Susan Brown, the guru behind the blog that highlights all things trendy and fashion-related in Saratoga Springs. It's a fun, fresh perspective on all the great things that are available downtown. Click here  to check it out!

Last week, Susan held an unveiling event of some new looks she put together for her friend, Margyt. Some of my pieces including earrings, ring, and a fascinator were used as part of the new outfits. They looked dazzling! 

Here I am showing off some goodies at the event: 

Photo by Niki Rossi Photography

Again, check out Susan's blog for all things splashy in Saratoga : www.downtownsusiebrown.com  

Nights Out

I have been spending quite a bit more time in upstate New York than in the past and have found some excellent places to wear my posh jewelry. This is a much smaller community than those I've lived in and it's been a bit more of a challenge to find fun events, but with a little digging I've discovered some really fun options. These are all places where a little sparkle and glam are very much appreciated!

Proctors - This theater in Schenectady is really a beautiful, classy venue. It's architecture is fantastic! We saw The Rat Pack (I'm loving Dean Martin!) show last weekend which was a perfect event for my new '50's styled black dress and lots of shimmery vintage rhinestones. We're going to see Craig Ferguson there this weekend.  http://www.proctors.org/

 

I wore earrings just like these to the show. You can get these ones here. 

Forno Toscano - I re-discovered Forno recently and find it to be one of the best restaurants in Saratoga Springs. Excellent wine, delicious food, attentive service...perfection! It's casual, but dressy so I can wear pretty much any of the Twinkle Studio jewelry here. Yum! http://www.fornobistro.com/

Revolution Hall - This venue is fantastic for partaking in some great music and dancing. I love that it's small enough so that you're quite close to the band, but it's expansive enough to allow for plenty of dancing and socializing space. It's balcony is the best! We saw Ozomatli here last week (they are THE best!). I wore some big sparkly earrings and bangles to this show and they were perfect. http://revolutionhall.com/

The Egg - Not only does this venue have the most comfortable seating arrangement inside (more on that in a sec), but it is the coolest looking thing from the outside. It looks just like an egg!

We saw Madeline Peyroux  (AMAZING! AMAZING!) recently. Her opening act, Kate McGarry  was also phenomenal. You HAVE to listen to Kate's version of Just What I needed by The Cars. Wow! The layout of the inside seating at The Egg is really terrific. The seats are quite large and the leg room is the most I've seen. It really makes for a comfortable situation. Nice! This is a great place to get dressed up for a night out! http://www.theegg.org/

Ferretti's - I am in love! We stumbled across Ferretti's delicious, cozy restaurant by accident, but I think it was probably fate. This is my favorite restaurant right now! It's the greatest little authentic Italian place at 262 Ushers Road in Clifton Park (just right off exit 10 on the Northway). The pizza is to die for...Tender, crispy crust, perfectly seasoned sauce, yummy cheese. It's perfection! Don't wear your Sunday best to Ferretti's. This is a casual, comfortable place. Delicious! 

Bad Bloggers

Yikes! Sorry about the gap in blogs, gang. You don't want to know the long (or the short) of the reasons, so I'll just get rolling again. 

Consider this an apology and a re-start of sorts! :)