A Golden Moment of Time...

I'm sure you've noticed the price of gold lately, flirting with $1,000 an ounce again and even tempting some analysts to say it will hit $2,000 an ounce by the end of the year! Do you follow the gold price? If you don't already and would like to, I like Kitco.com for its live streaming charts 24/7 and lots of other great information.

If you haven't already stashed some away under your mattress or in your cookie jar you still have a chance to invest in gold bullion or awesome collectible gold jewelry which is also a wonderful way to protect your hard won earnings and your grand children's inheritance. And by the way, it's also obviously fun to wear! Check out this fantastic solid 14K gold vintage Swiss watch bracelet studded with diamonds and emeralds. A heavy chunk of gold went toward the custom design and elegant craftsmanship adding up to about 1 1/2 ounces.

Vintage 14K Gold Emerald Diamond Geneva Swiss Ladies Watch Bracelet

Would you like to know more about this gorgeous piece of jewelry? Click the picture or the link and have a look at the details on our Posh Adornment website or in our Posh Adornment Etsy store. We have other solid gold items for sale...and of course you'll find lots of great antique and vintage jewelry that glitters and makes you smile and isn't solid gold.

While I'm thinking about it, do you know the difference between Gold Filled, Rolled Gold, Gold Plated, Gold Vermeil, Tombak and Pinchbeck and the other gold simulants? Interested in discovering the wealth of information on alternates to solid gold? You can read about Gold and Gold Simulants in our article on the same subject on our website.

And by the way, stay tuned for part two of our adventures in Costa Rica!

Cameos Are Forever, Birthdays Come Once A Year!

It was Bryana's birthday a few days ago, and I'm a little late wishing her a Happy Birthday...but then again, she missed her due date by a couple days so I guess we're even. She is the co-founder of our Posh Adornment website and our Posh Adornment store on Etsy even though you don't see her much. She is the main support staff and holds all these many things we do together with her amazingly capable ability to do anything and everything. I don't tell her often enough, but she's really incredible!

Bryana is my first daughter... my only daughter and she's been a peach from day one...actually from before day one. Before the beginning Bryana was the perfect baby in utero and the perfect shopper. After she was born she slept through the night from the beginning, awoke with a gurgle and a smile and loved pretty clothes and jewelry from the git go. Always fashion forward and having great flair, she loved hats and set trends even as a youngun'. She began life at the mall...well, she began life a little before the mall but she spent her earliest days nesting in her nice little warm, dark place in my belly AND at the mall. There was one day in particular at the mall that has sealed itself indelibly into my memory when I was about 5 months pregnant.

It was cold and I was dressed for winter. Never liking panty hose or tights I struggled to get my maternity tights on twisting in ways that my swollen body would not allow and swearing as they kept twisting back on me so I had to continually yank and pull until they went all the way up. And then when they were all the way up, they weren't really all the way up. Because my belly wasn't yet big enough to fill out the kangaroo pouch at the top of the panty hose, they kept going beyond all the way up to the very top of my head. If I had been clever I could have wrapped a rubber band around the top of my head and used them as a cocoon or used them as part of my bank robber disguise but I wasn't that smart in those days.

But I was sort of smart and thought best thing to do was to roll the waistband down to just under my bra and pin them to the bottom of my bra to help them stay up. This was a mistake!

Bryana and I were shopping that day, me in my nifty maternity corduroy jumper, high fashionable winter boots, fur coat and rolled up or down panty hose pinned precariously to my bra. With every step I took the tights were pulling and threatening mutiny and I was left wondering if the girls would tumble out from the bottom of my bra and find a new home in the top of my rolled down panty hose or burst out the top of my bra and find no home at all! And to help matters along Bryana was looking around too checking everything out and making ready for when she could shop on her own. With every twist of her head my rolled panty hose shifted and twisted in sympathy and unison.

It was fortunate for me that I was standing in front of The Gap when the crisis happened. The ripping, whirring sound, the snapping and shussing when the delicate fabric of the tights ripped through the pins and at the speed of light, kept rolling down only to stop at my knees in a morbidly tight tourniquet of elastic and terror instantly disabling me and preventing me from moving with anything like a normal gait. I was finally a mermaid with essentially a tail and two feet attached. All I could do was stand there because when I attempted to walk my feet moved in tiny little circles and the rest of me tilted, threatening to fall flat on my face. Bryana, in the meantime was sqirming and wiggling, trying to get a look at it all from the inside out! You see her face here as she clings with every breath of life to the zip line in the tree tops in Costa Rica? That is not a smile, it is the look of abject terror. That is what my face looked like that fateful day at the mall and it must have stuck permanently in Bryana's memory banks and comes out in similar mortifying situations.

Back at the mall 25 years ago, you might be wondering why I felt it was fortunate to be at The Gap rather than say, in front of Barney's Coffee or a shoe store, no? I was mortified and managed to mince-waddle my way into the store where there were only young, skinny girls were working and begged them to let me use their bathroom. "I'm sorry we don't have public restrooms. There's a public bathroom on the bottom level of the mall." It was this comment where I began to perfect my red-nailed maniacal banshee routine you can read about in my story of my son's birthday here. After explaining my plight and actually lifting my skirt to show them what happened, one scrawny young thing took sympathy on me and helped me roll myself, flipper and all into their back dressing room where I was able to rescue myself. Shoving the girls back in their holding chamber and reattaching the cursed tights in a different and much more comfortable manner, I bought a baby outfit for Bryana and happily exited the mall for the day and went home.

In my haphazard and eccentric life there was always a reward for surviving incidents like these. My then husband and father of my child had a knack of coming up with the best ever jewelry that took away much of the pain and helped me forget my travails. I received this truly astounding, huge cameo which has always been one of my favorite pieces of jewelry and one I have never seen duplicated anywhere, ever. It measures 2 1/2" tall by 2" wide and is beyond fabulicious. Incredible detail and a gilded silver frame. It's also not for sale...soooorrrry!

But if you like cameos these beauties ARE for sale and can be found at our website Posh Adornment or at our site on Etsy.com under the same name, Posh Adornment. Just click the link to read more about them and while you're there have a look around, browse and enjoy our new site!

This is a large and very fine pin or pendant Cameo Of The Goddess Flora set in 14K white gold filigree.

These beautiful earrings are made from the lava of Mt. Vesuvius and are beautifully hand carved Victorian Cameos Of The Goddess Athena, goddess of wisdom. Set in finely detailed brass engravings and for pierced ears.

This is an Art Nouveau Moon Face Lady's Head Czech Cameo Pendant set in brass with an oak leaf ornamentation. Very beautiful, rare and unusual.

And a final HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY BRYANA. Love, mom

Eye Popping 840 pound Emerald Has Its Day In Court!

Get a load of this! An 840 lb Bahia emerald cluster originally mined in Brazil is sitting at the Los Angeles court house waiting to be claimed and for its 'real' owner to be decided! Appraised at just below $400 million, this baby is one prize I wouldn't mind having in my curio cabinet. They say the the actual pieces of gem emerald are the size of arms! Wow, I bet Angelina Jolie who recently wowed us at the Oscars with her 2die4 emerald earrings that appear to weigh close to 500 pounds each would ante up to be the new owner of this heavyweight! And she's probably one of the few who could afford it too!

I have been a rock hound all my life, well maybe not ALL my life, but since I was about 11 years old, and love the idea of going out looking and digging for beautiful gems and crystals. That's actually how I got my first real love for gems and then when I realized you could add precious metals to that I discovered jewelry. But it's the gems that have their magnetic pull on me.

Look at the mind blowing specimens on Elegant Crystals to see some unbelievable works of art made by Mother Earth herself...without any help and not even one single sculpture course taken! If you are taken with any of these and decide you want to buy one, tell the owner, Crystal Bill that Susan from Posh Adornment sent you. I know him well and I bet he'll give you a special price! Here's a few of his goodies for your daily dose of pleasures!

Crystal Bill's 1200 pound Amethyst Royale Geode measures 6'7" high and 26" wide and as you can see a live person fits comfortably inside! Found also at Elegant Crystals.And here is what the raw material morphs into when it's in jewelry. A fabulous natural amethyst necklace consisting of large round beads and gold spacers. Heavy and sensuous and found here on Posh Adornment.

And for those that like a chaser of royal purple gem quality amethyst mixed with their solid 14K gold, check out this large, amethyst heavy four leaf clover set in solid gold also on Posh Adornment.

A perfect cluster of pure silica quartz also known as rock crystal weighs 422 pounds and measures 15" tall by 32" wide. Now THAT'S a coffee table sculpture for those with a devilish taste for the sublime!

And speaking of morphing, this is what can happen when a good stone cutter gets ahold of rock crystal! This amazing, loooong antique Edwardian faceted rock crystal necklace wraps around the neck up to three times and is a show stopper any way you wear it. A rare find and also at Posh Adornment.

What do you think of this humongous Russian Giant crystal point from the Ural Mountains? Also weighing in at 400 pounds and 36" tall. Doggie not included in the purchase price but it's a new twist on cheesecake ads where the girl lays across the car. Instead, cute puppy hugs large obelisk!

And not to be left out and given equal time, the kitty cat cheescake photos too! This Angel of Light gives new meaning to Crystal Balls weighing in at 288 pounds and 19.5 inches across. Incredible, no? Wow! All found on Elegant Crystals.com and sold by Crystal Bill.

Enjoy!