Another "I spent my paypal balance at FutureFashionista" thread

[LGK]

Yay! It sounds like Elana is shipping my new sorta-not-really-Pelosi strand out tomorrow. She has most of them drilled but was getting a shipment of baroque teals in today and wanted to wait to send until she got those to include if they worked. It's going to be a fun selection of cooler tones and white and I'm totally thrilled to fiddle with it and decide what goes where. The challenge will be to not start stringing it while at work

Hmmmm... you think it would annoy the customers if I strung pearls at the desk between ringing sales? Heh. I might if it's slow. Maybe!

Anyway, I really cannot say enough how much Elana is just awesome to work with, and what beautiful pearls for the price she has. Even though I didn't keep the round strand it was a great price for the size and everything... I just realized I'm a baroque girl at heart. I also found her return policy super easy to work with, no return authorization numbers or restocking fees. She is fun to chat with via email (she does make me giggle, she's got a great sense of humor) and she keeps in great contact with her customers. I've fallen in total true pearl love with my baroque strand (it's so gorgeously lustrous and iridescent!) and it is going to be painful to decide what to wear!

 

[cushioncutnut]

Date: 3/3/2010 8:27:06 PM
Author: LittleGreyKitten
Yay! It sounds like Elana is shipping my new sorta-not-really-Pelosi strand out tomorrow. She has most of them drilled but was getting a shipment of baroque teals in today and wanted to wait to send until she got those to include if they worked. It''s going to be a fun selection of cooler tones and white and I''m totally thrilled to fiddle with it and decide what goes where. The challenge will be to not start stringing it while at work

Hmmmm... you think it would annoy the customers if I strung pearls at the desk between ringing sales? Heh. I might if it''s slow. Maybe!

Anyway, I really cannot say enough how much Elana is just awesome to work with, and what beautiful pearls for the price she has. Even though I didn''t keep the round strand it was a great price for the size and everything... I just realized I''m a baroque girl at heart. I also found her return policy super easy to work with, no return authorization numbers or restocking fees. She is fun to chat with via email (she does make me giggle, she''s got a great sense of humor) and she keeps in great contact with her customers. I''ve fallen in total true pearl love with my baroque strand (it''s so gorgeously lustrous and iridescent!) and it is going to be painful to decide what to wear!

This new strand can''t come soon enough! At least you have 2 other gorgeous strands to tide you over! I never really chatted with Elana but through the few emails that I have had... she really is awesome to work with. She told me that the reason she sends a whoopie cushion is that she wanted to be a comedian!! LOL!

 

[elle_chris]

So glad you decided to keep the baroque strand. Gorgeous color and luster. I was also considering the Pelosi strand but someone beat both of us to it. But I bet yours is gonna turn out way better as you get to pick your own pearls. How great is that!

 

[LGK]

Guess what came today??

It's totally gorgeous. I have it strung on tiger tail right now to "test drive" the current arrangement of pearls. This is the second restringing so far

and I'm pleased with the arrangement of the center pearls and the length, but the middle pearls on either side need swapping around a bit.

The teardrop fuschia pearl is *to die for*. It is so gorgeous! There's also this one single almost perfect round purple/emerald pearl with knockout lustre. It looks out of place with the strand, so I'm shortening it to choker length and deciding what to do with the single perfect round one later.

Also I have a confession to make.

I'm a dork. I ended up taking off both white south sea pearls. They're both beautiful, but the strand was better without them. They just stuck out too much. I polled all my co-workers (hey, it's an antique mall- we all have opinions on jewelry!

) and all of them said no SS, which I reluctantly concurred with after making Louise walk around for a while wearing it so I could inspect it at a distance. (I'm lucky everyone I work with is almost as crazy about jewelry as I am- almost! They're very patient with me anyway

). So, despite the white yumminess- and one of them was HUGE, white and gorgeous, with the prettiest silver/pink orient- it has become a large, lustrous multicolored Tahitian only strand.

It is totally beautiful though. Elana sent some knockout pearls- there's this soft blue lavender drop one that's awesome too. Several amazing purples, a couple of lovely teal ones, a sky blue one, a greypink one, and a lot of others. It's really lovely and I'm in loooove with it. It is driving me a bit batty that I can't see the overtones well in the light I use to string with though- I ended up putting one of the best teals almost at the end on accident because my light washed everything out. I can't wait for a perfectly overcast day to sit and play with them outside for a while- grey days are the best for admiring pearls for some reason.

I will have to post pics much later. I am working some super long days and I'm probably going to go home and die sometime around 10PM like I did the last week. (I ooopsed and didn't realize I'd forgotten to eat all. day. long. yesterday until I got home at after 10PM and nearly wept when I saw there was *nothing* to eat.) Hey, who needs sleep or food when you have pearls to fiddle with, right?

ETA: Oh, and the lustre is really nice. It is definitely a lot more lustrous (and nicer all around) than my PP strand, which was of course a lot cheaper. It is not *quite* as lustrous as the other baroque Elana strand I got earlier, but close. The colors are a knockout though, and the pearls are enormous; overall I'm thrilled with it and very glad I ended up being able to customize it, I know I wouldn't have liked the original actual Pelosi style one nearly as much.

 

[that_someone_special]

Can''t wait to see!

I would absolutely do the same thing- have someone else wear the necklace so I could see it from afar.. lol

 

[LGK]

Annnnnnnnd I''m up to no good again on FF

I have wanted some great earrings forever. But I''m picky. Nothing seemed quite right. Then I was fooling around on FF and realized that I really adored one of her pairs of earrings, but they had south seas pearls in them- lovely but I wear Tahitians mostly.

So I pestered the ever-patient Elana to see if she could make me some with Tahitians. Turns out it''s a standard finding she has, and no problem. We''ll figure out what exact pearls soon. I don''t need them to be perfectly smooth teardrops or round- most of my pearls are baroques. So I told her my favorite colors and we''ll see what I end up with.

I''ve had a very good month with my mineral makeup website

hence the pearl binge. My husband''s & my deal is that my profit from that is mine to play with. Works for me!

This is what they will look like, but with darker Tahitians. The findings remind me of the work by that designer Christina Aguilera wears all the time, Stephen Webster- I absolutely adore his stuff, it''s fairly goth but not too much so, very much my style.

 

[cushioncutnut]

OH goodness you are in deep! The description of your necklace and the way you re-arranged them sounds lovely...even without the SS pearls. Now you have some lovely SS pearls to play with. And I have absolutely adored those earrings from afar!

They look gorgeous with the baroque tahitians! I know you can''t post your mineral make-up website on here...but can you give a hint as to the name........???

I am a huge fan of mineral make-up!

 

[elle_chris]

Very pretty design. What color tahitians are you looking for? I''m thinking peacock (but that could be because they''re my favorite haha).

 

[LGK]

Cushioncutnut, thanks

My company is Archetype Cosmetics- the URL is the obvious one. Hopefully that isn't pushing the rules too much

I am a *huge* makeup freak- I really love being able to make whatever color I want. I ended up starting Archetype after I realized I'd made a zillion colors that were nifty but that I couldn't wear- so I had to inflict them on others, of course

It does save me a LOT of money since I rarely buy other makeup now, which doesn't hurt. (Well, the occasional MAC lipglass still finds its way in my purse I must admit

)

Elle, I just told Elana my color preferences and let her decide. I figured she'd know what I like all too well by now, heh.

 

[LGK]

I got the earrings today! My lord they're pretty. The findings are exactly the same as above, and the pearls are a lovely deep purple. Not really aubergine- less reddish- more of a deep green body color with very strong pure dark cool purple overtone. The pearls are round, with perfectly gorgeous lustre, and they measure around 12mm. A few blemishes on the back which I couldn't care less about- the lustre and the amazing purple tone are just absolutely perfect for my taste.

Since Elana had worked with me to make a necklace before, I let her pick the pearls with no input at all except that I wanted Tahitians. She clearly knows my taste perfectly- they're exactly what I would have picked.

Incidentally, I found my calipers. My huge baroque necklace from FF is not the 14.8mm she quoted- the center pearl is a bit over 16mm. Elana always underestimates! No wonder it seems like a freaking gumball

I found a pic that is about the same color as the earrings I just got off of Elana's site. She calls them pigeon grey purple, and they're pretty darn close to what mine look like (though maybe a smidge more vivid purple than mine- same shade combo though), with a different earring finding. So picture the pearls in this pic with the findings above, and that's what's on my ears right now

Real pics later when my camera is charged

 

[cushioncutnut]

If they are that color... they are just gorgeous! Elana surely has aimed to please! Can''t wait to see your photo shoot! I will check out your website too!! Thanks for the info..........

 

[elle_chris]

WOW

That is one of my favorite colors for tahitians. In fact, I asked Elana if she had any in the 11mm range and she was out.

FREAKING GORGEOUS! can''t wait for pics.

 

[HHPmom]

Date: 3/18/2010 9:33:11 PM
Author: elle_chris

FREAKING GORGEOUS! can''t wait for pics.

Yep! I say the same thing.

 

[risingsun]

Date: 3/18/2010 8:27:52 PM
Author: LittleGreyKitten
I got the earrings today! My lord they''re pretty. The findings are exactly the same as above, and the pearls are a lovely deep purple. Not really aubergine- less reddish- more of a deep green body color with very strong pure dark cool purple overtone. The pearls are round, with perfectly gorgeous lustre, and they measure around 12mm. A few blemishes on the back which I couldn''t care less about- the lustre and the amazing purple tone are just absolutely perfect for my taste.

Since Elana had worked with me to make a necklace before, I let her pick the pearls with no input at all except that I wanted Tahitians. She clearly knows my taste perfectly- they''re exactly what I would have picked.

Incidentally, I found my calipers. My huge baroque necklace from FF is not the 14.8mm she quoted- the center pearl is a bit over 16mm. Elana always underestimates! No wonder it seems like a freaking gumball

I found a pic that is about the same color as the earrings I just got off of Elana''s site. She calls them pigeon grey purple, and they''re pretty darn close to what mine look like (though maybe a smidge more vivid purple than mine- same shade combo though), with a different earring finding. So picture the pearls in this pic with the findings above, and that''s what''s on my ears right now

Real pics later when my camera is charged

OMG

These are the most gorgeous color!! Just what I would want, if I wasn''t on a jewelry ban

I love your FF baroque pearls, too. I normally lurk in this forum, but I had to say something about these beauties

 

[LGK]

OK, here''s one of them. The other is not going to come out of my ear today, the piercing is unhappy with me, and I don''t want to fiddle with it. Cruddy pics courtesy of my phone

- I swear someday I will find my good camera...

 

[elle_chris]

from the "teaser" pic the earrings look gorgeous.

just hold the phone up to your ear and take more woman!

 

[DiaDiva]

Beautiful!!!!

We need to see ear shots, LGK.

E is the greatest, isn''t she?

 

[that_someone_special]

Lovely

 

[jewelz617]

Date: 2/14/2010 1:47:19 AM
Author: swedish bean
and the second one

Oooooh... nice.

 

[cushioncutnut]

very pretty!!

 

[y2kitty]

*SIGH*. Elana put more strands up.

 

[cushioncutnut]

Date: 3/24/2010 11:57:21 PM
Author: y2kitty
*SIGH*. Elana put more strands up.

I KNOW!!! ...and I already inquired about one or two.............

of which I have no business doing!!

 

[collectingmore]

I just noticed the new tahitians too. They are gorgeous! And the prices! I think it is our civic duty to continue stimulating the economy by shopping (delusional rationalization is always one of my strong points).

I bought one of the silver drops and am in the process of getting another round multi from her.

 

[cushioncutnut]

Date: 3/25/2010 10:19:39 AM
Author: collectingmore
I just noticed the new tahitians too. They are gorgeous! And the prices! I think it is our civic duty to continue stimulating the economy by shopping (delusional rationalization is always one of my strong points).

I bought one of the silver drops and am in the process of getting another round multi from her.

 

[LGK]

Arg. I did not need to see those! I haven''t been able to pry my other necklace off my neck as it is! Gah. That fuschia one is gorgeous. But I don''t need it- really, really don''t.

Also I suck. I can''t get earshots to save my life!

 

[y2kitty]

And now there is more. Like this. Or this.

 

[cushioncutnut]

Date: 3/26/2010 4:13:29 PM
Author: y2kitty
And now there is more. Like this. Or this.

If I was smart, I would save my pennies and get one like the first link you posted!!

I guess I am not so smart though as I just bought another less expensive strand from Elana. She pulled a few that she had yet to list on the website and I just fell in love with the seafoam pistachio hook, line, and sinker!!

I wanted a lighter, silvery strand!

 

[elle_chris]

Nice CCN! Looking forward to the pics.

She sent me a bunch of loose pearls so I can play around and make my own strand. So far, what I thought I wanted, and what I'm thinking of actually doing are two very different things.

What do you guys think? Ignore the size as I didn't string them in order, just by color, and I was out of golds that were drilled

. The interesting thing is they look really blue on my skin.

 

[cushioncutnut]

Date: 3/26/2010 6:34:02 PM
Author: elle_chris
Nice CCN! Looking forward to the pics.

She sent me a bunch of loose pearls so I can play around and make my own strand. So far, what I thought I wanted, and what I''m thinking of actually doing are two very different things.

What do you guys think? Ignore the size as I didn''t string them in order, just by color, and I was out of golds that were drilled

. The interesting thing is they look really blue on my skin.

OOH me likey! I would switch the silvery pearl on the right of the picture with the one in the middle because to my eye, it looks bigger than the one in the middle. Other than that......it is just gorgeous! Those pearls look so beautifully teal!

 

[y2kitty]

Date: 3/26/2010 5:48:25 PM
Author: cushioncutnut

Date: 3/26/2010 4:13:29 PM

Author: y2kitty

And now there is more. Like this. Or this.

If I was smart, I would save my pennies and get one like the first link you posted!!

I guess I am not so smart though as I just bought another less expensive strand from Elana. She pulled a few that she had yet to list on the website and I just fell in love with the seafoam pistachio hook, line, and sinker!!

I wanted a lighter, silvery strand!

I really, really like the first one. With the discount its not too bad, right??