stacy and baby koa

b's sister and her new baby.

gua sha

I'm lucky to have friends who are healers. whenever I arrive in L.A., someone ends up doing some sort of alternative therapy on me. I have bad nasal allergies and a lot of tension in my back and neck, which are probably related. my friend Laura is a healer who is always learning new therapies, the latest being the chinese/vietnamese/javanese method of gua sha. the treatment involves scraping the skin with a jade blade and oil, to unlock tension and promote circulation. she asked me if I'd like to try it the other day, and I have to say I'm hooked. my back and neck were immediately looser in a way I've never experienced with even the deepest qui gong massage, chiropractic, or acupuncture treatment.

If you live in Los Angeles, you can contact Laura through her blog for an appointment.

first day

ahh...just woke up from the nap that cured the jet lag. had an unbelievably bad flight last night. was supposed to leave jfk at 5:05 pm via virgin america. soon after the initial welcome and safety announcements, the pilot got on the p.a. to inform us that there would be delays. lloyd, a nice guy and superb pilot, was a poor communicator of bad news. seems the hurricanes that swept through texas and residual bad weather had delayed flights and sent a ripple effect through the takeoff queue. through a grueling eight and a half hours on the tarmac we were given confusing information which changed course a number of times. no food or drink was offered except a ration of a half sandwich each brought in from the airport, and if you walked to the back there were bottles of water. later on I was able to get a coke out of the flight attendants. when we finally got in the air at 12:30 am, the flight was turbulent most of the way, making it hard to sleep.

but alas, b and I spent my first day here at hermosa beach, which made up for the rough night. for those of you who might remember hermosa's gritty past (b kept wondering where the wafts of pot smoke were) the beach town has come up a bit. like I said on my last trip to L.A., south bay is a great alternative to the congested nature of the main part of the city. the beach was nice and quiet compared to santa monica, as we could hear french being spoken by happy tourists as we laid on the sand. on va à la mer.

now...for some dinner?

taking off

hello friends!

I'll be leaving for the west coast tomorrow afternoon. As stated before, I'm leaving my assistant Felecia in charge of shipping orders. And I'll be checking email periodically. (probably more often than I should)

take a look at my sale section, as a few items have been marked down.

when I return, I plan on streamlining the site and gearing up for fall. until then, adios.

heat wave sale!

it's currently 94 degrees here in in nyc, so what better way to spend a heat wave weekend than by cozying up to the a/c and taking advantage of summer internet sales?

I've got select items marked down 15%-20% through Monday, July 21.

check 'em out here.

*note* after Monday, certain items will move into the sale section, which will return to the site. Others will go back to full retail.

up to my eyeballs in inventory control

I'm getting ready to leave on a long trip and for the first time ever, I'm leaving my assistant in charge! or leaving anyone in charge, since she's been working for me for a relatively short time. b had suggested taking my inventory with me as I had over the holidays, but the jewelry and my computer added a lot of weight to my bag. I really want this to be a vacation, and I couldn't envision taking that much work with me.

so in preparation for all of this, I have to make sure that a) she has enough projects to work on and b) all of the inventory listed on the site and on supermarket is either 1) here and ready to be shipped or 2) left in pieces for felecia to assemble. it's a lot to think about and prepare for.

I decided that I will take some samples to show to potential wholesale customers. there are some L.A. shops I have in mind.

okay, that's it for now. I just needed to take a break from all of this left-brained activity.

and I will be posting about a special website offer soon, so stay tuned.

my grey hairs

okay, this is something I think about updating you readers on every time I look in the bathroom mirror. but then I think, oh the most recent photos of me are on b's computer, and b's in L.A., and yeah b could email them to me, but then I'd have to ask him, and then I just talk myself out of doing the post altogether. so maybe i'll just do the post and then it will motivate me to get my mits on some pics.

this is what I think whenever I look in the mirror, now that there are many inches of grey grown out and only a speck of hair color left on the ends- it's not nearly as grey as I thought it was going to be. after ten-plus years of keeping it under wraps, sure that the grey would be shockingly noticeable- I come to find out- not so much. here's something to keep in mind if you are trying to grow out your color- the roots you see look greyer than they actually are because they are next to a solid band of color. here's something else I've realized- my grey is predominantly on the first few layers of hair, starting from the crown. All of the hair underneath is dark brown. It's like the opposite effect of greying at the temples. I suppose each person's hair has a different pattern.

I'm still fascinated by just how many people, especially women, color their hair. Seeing someone who is grey is strange to the eyes. Adjusting to my new appearance isn't easy- many times I'm tempted to run into the Duane Reade and buy some hair color. And I avoid looking at myself in the mirror in certain stores that have unflattering lighting. I hope I'll get over my hangups sometime soon. Maybe my appearance will inspire someone else to stop coloring his/her hair. and before you know it, it won't be such a strange thing.

watching the woodstock movie made me long for a time when people looked more natural. I was only three when the concert took place, but I remember the era stretching well into the 70's. maybe it's time for a new era of peace, love, and rock n' roll?

link problems

You might be having trouble viewing some of my blog links on the sidebar. I switched the formatting over to blogger's new "blog list" feature which uses rss feeds to keep them in order of most recently updated blog. But they seem to be linking to the rss feed rather than the blog itself. I will see if blogger says anything about this- I couldn't find anything in their help section yesterday. anyone know anything? I don't want to have to convert the lists back to regular link lists. thanks.

perfect summertime movie

wanna feel good? watch this.

have a little seltza!

When citing facts about the environmental practices used in my jewelry business, this sentence has been often quoted "I run my studio out of my home, where I practice daily conscientious decision making on the amount of waste I produce and how many resources I require to live." Having lived by myself in studio apartments smaller than 200 square feet for the past eight or so years, this was something I was able to attain, practically turning it into an art form. I don't buy paper towels, napkins, or tissues. I almost always carry a bag with me, to avoid taking plastic for purchases. I always consider the packaging when buying something, and avoid as much as I can items that come in non-recyclable wrapping. If I do take a plastic bag, I keep a really small amount of them in the house for kitchen garbage. I recycle every scrap of paper, and diligently get myself (and former tenants) off of mailing lists. I could go on.

Okay, so all of these practices have been very easy up until last October, when I had no one to answer to but myself. Last fall my boyfriend and I moved in together, and while b's not by any means a wasteful person, his habits are far less extreme than mine. While he has been very aware of what is important to me and has made efforts to be conscientious, he hasn't (and probably won't) gone completely to the green side. And the way I see it, this is something I'll just have to live with. To quote another part of my artistic bio, "I discovered recently that environmentalism is not about doing everything perfectly; it's about doing what you can." Being a very idealistic person my whole life, I've learned what does and doesn't work when trying to get people to understand your beliefs. Meaning it's usually better to set a quiet example than to pound it over peoples' heads.

So while I have to do my best to understand b's priorities, I'm also noticing where my own green habits have been slacking since forming our partnership. Suddenly what was so easy to control, such as what goes on in the kitchen, became more challenging. In the past I would go to great lengths to find dried garbanzo beans to make my own hummus. Now we were buying the packaged variety, and going through it more quickly than I was used to. The city only recycles narrow-necked bottles, so the plastic containers were starting to pile up. But the good part is that as soon as I bring these things up to b, he gets in on the game and helps me look for stores that carry dried beans. Hummus is one of the easiest things to make from scratch, and something I kick myself for not making more often. By making it at home it's healthier, less expensive, and creates less waste.

In general, the more foods we can make ourselves, the less waste we'll produce. B has brought a great gadget into the house that helps in this respect- a seltzer bottle. He ordered online a stainless steel model that uses compressed co2 cartridges. We fill it with filtered water, inject it twice with the recyclable steel cartridges, and in a couple of hours have fresh, cold seltzer. It's delicious plain, with fresh-squeezed lemon, lime, or orange juice, and/or sweetened with a little honey. There are countless ways of flavoring it, and you can make your own chocolate egg creams! yum! Some of the benefits include no waste from plastic, the seltzer itself isn't stored in plastic, and you don't have to lug heavy bottles home from the store. As far as the health benefits, if you love soda, you will no longer be a slave to high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners. And if this is important to you, you won't be supporting big businesses such as Coca-Cola or Pepsico. So go ahead! enjoy!

p.s. I'm not sure from where he ordered our bottle, but this is the same model.

afghan keychain?

it was pointed out to me by a browser of supermarket, who formerly lived in afghanistan, that I had incorrectly called the above item the "aghani keychain." She explained that "afghani" is the country's currency, and "afghan" is the correct term to describe something of or from afghanistan.

According to wikipedia and the free dictionary, the word afghani can either refer to the country's currency, the language, or be used as an adjective.

hmm...any other opinions out there? I changed the title to afghan on supermarket, but haven't yet on my site.

new earrings

I made some very long, dramatic earrings, and they're up on the site. check 'em out.

who are you?

Checking over my blog statistics, I find that in addition to my readers in the nyc/n.j. area, my mom, and my sister, I have people from all over the U.S. and abroad looking at the blog. Countries include Canada, Mexico, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, The U.K., Greece, Sweden, Australia, Singapore, and South Africa! Recent visitors from the U.S. include those from Utah, Texas, Florida, Colorado, Michigan, Illinois, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania, California, Washington, Virginia, Nevada, Rhode Island, and North Carolina.

Bienvenido todos! Bienvenue tous!

Now...how about introducing yourselves? I'd love to hear from you. Who are you? How did you find my blog? Tell me a little about the place where you live.

thanks. merci. gracias. danke. obrigada. efcharisto. tack. grazie.

speak up!

I recently contacted a few blogs that had posted incorrect information about my business. I was tossing over the correspondence in my head as I prepared lunch, and it got me thinking about speaking up. Among my friends I'm kind of known as the person who points out inaccuracies, injustices, and other things that are wrong. Years ago my friend Willie started calling me *The Enforcer.*

I probably get this tendency from my mom and maternal grandmother. My Grandmom Adele lived in a high-rise apartment building with assigned parking spaces. Irritated with a tenant who repeatedly parked in her spot, she ordered giant stickers which read, "you're parked in my spot," and when removed, ruined the car's paint job. (My grandmother grew up in Manhattan, btw.)

Speaking up isn't the easiest thing to do, and I've had a history of feeling guilty after doing so. (this has gradually subsided.) The benefits far outweigh the idea that other people will think I'm weird. What makes me feel most uneasy about doing it is the reaction I get from other people. Sometimes it's the person I'm addressing the complaint to, because it can often be met with resistance. But also it's the lack of support I get from others in the same situation. It's that tendency for others to look away, stare blankly, or look uneasy that really gets me. And I sometimes get this from my own friends.

To me, speaking up is the first step in becoming an activist. It seems ironic that so many of us who grow up in U.S., home of the "Great American Experiment" in democracy, are so reluctant to use our Constitutionally- granted freedom of speech. Perhaps we assume that since we live in a democracy, our leaders will look out for us. That all we have to do is vote, and our responsibility ends there. Or that we trust authority in general, on all levels, and give them more power than they deserve.

There's a sense that the average American feels powerless. That they're so busy working to support their family, make house and car payments, pay for health insurance, etc., that there's no time to think about politics and the larger picture. What I believe is that the power begins at home. That the small steps made by speaking up when you notice something will lead to larger change.

I'll give a few examples of situations in which I've spoken up recently:

•B and I were walking to the train behind a group of about ten middle-school aged boys, when one of them tossed his sandwich wrapper on the sidewalk. I picked up the wrapper, handed it back to him, and asked him if he dropped it. Then I pointed out the trash can at the end of the block. His friends were about to make fun of him, when they saw me watching them, and they stopped. The kid then threw the wrapper in the trash.

•B and I transferred from a local to a limited bus, but were charged a second full fare instead of getting a free transfer. I told the driver, whose response was, "There's nothing I can do." (they're supposed to hand you a refund request slip and envelope.) I noted the bus number, and when I got home, I submitted a complaint on the MTA website.

•here's a big one- I have to do this every day. I tell the clerk at any given store that I don't want a bag. I do this over, and over, and over. I know that more people would do this if they didn't feel intimidated. I've been doing this for years- it's like second nature now. This goes for straws, take-out utensils, and packets of sauce. If they're going to end up in the trash, then I simply hand them back to the person- they usually don't mind.

Given that there's an important election coming up, now is good time to start thinking about how you can become an activist in your own community. Are you concerned about potholes on your street? Call the city. Is there dog poop on the sidewalk? People in my neighborhood post signs, asking dog owners to obey the law and clean up after their own dogs. Since the city isn't enforcing its own law, it's up to the citizens to do it. Play an active part, and don't expect government to do everything for you. (because they won't)

You might be wondering- how do these small steps lead to larger change? For one, if you start speaking up, making phone calls, sending emails, it will lead to a sense of personal empowerment. Doing our little part might inspire others around us, which will lead to more change. If we all do our part, we can rely less on government or big businesses or any given organization to do it for us. We can stop complaining when things don't get done and realize that we have the power to do it ourselves, or contact the right person who will do it for us.

All of this doesn't work 100% of the time of course, but it's important not to get discouraged. Keep at it, and pretty soon it will become a habit.

Happy Independence Day.

how we're spending july 4

•napping
•making ice cream
•downloading season three of the office
•sewing a rag doll for a new baby
•showing b my afro-caribbean dance moves

two things you can count on in the hood on this day: exploding things going off all day and overly loud amplified music.

good times.

Shop-A-Matic

Three pieces of molliedash jewelry are featured on today's New York Magazine feature Shop-A-Matic! nyc boutique owner Rogan has made a selection of eco-friendly items for this edition. go check it out!