Introducing: the FOLIAGE collection.

It's all about renewal and hope.

A cold and wintry day, while I was sulking and complaining about winter probably, I saw a photo that I had taken the year before in the middle of summer. Hmm, it this real? I thought. Have we ever lived in such a paradise? Does so much green ever exists? Those where the silly questions I was asking myself while trying to remember what was like not to be cold and to look outside the window and see green instead of endless white. 

And although all this can seem quite negative, something positive was happening in my mind at the same time: Spring and Summer are real and, they are coming (how Game of Thrones Spring-edition, of me). Yeah, living such a long Winter makes things to your mental sanity but it also make you appreciate the beauty and promises of warmer times.

So this collection was born somewhere there, when stretching myself to reach the happy thoughts of the upcoming warmer months, the blooming of the flowers, the coming out of the leaves. I was filled with hope and I wanted to celebrate it.

And what better way to celebrate than with a new line of leave-inspired jewellery, something to remind us that, even in the darkest  winter hour, spring is coming and with it, all that's green and colourful and warm. And we can apply this to everything, really, specially in these times of so much violence and intolerance. We are the change, things may be dark but we can bring out light, all may look barren, unforgiving, cold but life is there, and while there's life in this world, there's hope for humanity. The leaves and the flowers will bloom. 

Click on the photos to know more about each piece.

I used sterling silver and bronze to make the pieces and with the exception of the Foliage necklace, didn't mixed the metals together, rather giving two options to choose. I'm very proud of this collection, I love it from start to finish: the designing process was a joy: I was planning to make a small, quick line with the idea of the tulip brooch and the leaf earrings but as I started working on the prototypes, more ideas kept coming and it was so awesome to explore them. At the end, it was hard to left out some ideas, but probably they come up someday anyway! 

The Foliage bracelet is so much fun to make, I'm using a technique that is quite basic but that I hadn't used it before, so yay! is nice to keep exploring new ways to make jewellery, that's the exciting part in making new things, the learning that come with the creative exploration.

Also a piece different from what I've done before is the Foliage climber earring design! the look lovely on, I didn't know at the beginning if i would enjoy wearing them, but I wanted to make some anyway, and, surprise, surprise I love to wear them, plus I receive so many compliments on them when I have them on.

Oh, also important to mention, the Tulip necklace makes a 180 degree turn! the kind of piece that you'll be mindlessly playing with when you wear it, just the kind I like.


Well, I hope you like the new Foliage collection, I absolutely loved making it and love wearing it so much! Visit my shop for more details about the measurements, prices, process and more! 

Thanks for reading my blog!
Iveth
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Back Home.

We were away, yes we were. Husband had work/things to do in Massachusetts and the little one and I tagged along. We spent most of our time in suburban Boston, going to Whole Foods market (and wishing we had one in Montreal) and doing just a tiny bit of shopping (got myself an awesome pair of running shoes! hopefully I'll get to use them plenty this year). A couple of days me and the little one took the train downtown and visited museums, the Boston Public library (which is so, so beautiful) and the neighbourhood of Back Bay, one of my favourites because of its beautiful architecture. Most days were almost as cold as Montreal but a lot less snowy and that fact was well welcomed :) On the last weekend we visited the aquarium, we have been there many times but I love it so much and of course, the little one, too. Then we visited Boston's North End neighbourhood for the first time and I was enchanted, so beautiful! We ate Italian food at a small restaurant called 'Locale' it was modern but cozy and the people that attended the place were so nice and the pizza was absolutely delicious! And then we went to Salem. This little city was always on my to-visit list and maybe I had high expectations but I didn't enjoyed it as much, but as I said, maybe it was just because of high expectations. We had a charming time there, though! ate delicious tacos at 'Comida' restaurant, learned a bit more about the witch trials and spend a bit of time by the sea, enjoying the sunlight and the warmth of the day. Then we came back home, slowly as we pass across a storm in New Hampshire, it helped us keep well awake and alert!

And as the last couple days we were there were sooo warm, it created certain illusion in my mind that made me think I was about to jump into spring any minute but then we arrived in Montreal and the illusion was gone: it's so cold, so cold. Maybe it feels colder because I had spring in my mind. Anyways, cold or not, it feels so good to be home again and rest in my bed, getting a bit of rest (because we catch a cold) before wrapping myself around work again. Well, actually now I'm about to finish packing orders so the task has begun :)

How are you? is it looking like spring already where you are?

Have a lovely week!

Iveth

Apple blossoms

More like Spring, Montreal is looking very summery: It's been so sunny and warm! And the trees have leaves now! the world is looking green again and that always makes me happy. 

We went to an apple orchard this past weekend in hopes to see the apple blooms and although several trees had flowers already, most of them were not quite there yet. Regardless, it was such a beautiful day and we took photos of the blossoms and also enjoyed walking up a little hill under the bright new leaves of the maple forest.

I hope your weekend was nice and that you feel ready to start your week. Have a lovely Monday!

Iveth

All photos by me and my husband.

Attempting to grow things from seeds

I've never been much of a green thumb, wait, I've got to correct that before I continue because what I've always been is a plant killer which is nothing close to a green thumb. I love plants so much and I always try and try to make them happy but somehow they just hate me and prefer to die. A year ago we moved to a place where we have a small green area on the back of the apartment and since then I can't stop dreaming about having a garden of my own. 

I started to buy plants like less than a year ago and surprisingly some of them have survived and although they seem a bit pale and on the not-so-happy side, they are alive! And I'm determined to make them love me.

Having said all this, I was utterly surprised at myself when I agreed with my husband to buy some seeds and attempt to have a proper garden this year. I did not do any research on planting or growing things to be honest, I just bought the damned seeds and dirt and stuff and planted the seeds accordingly to the seed package. 

A couple days after having done that I was oh-so excited about thinking of my future garden and also I started to be curious about my seeds and I went straight to search more about planting on the internet. The little I read was enough to give me a major head ache and disappointment, I mean, who new growing things from seeds was such a hard thing! I was sure it was like, just throwing the things on the dirt, watering them and transplanting them to my garden once they were strong enough but no: I have to be worried about heat, light, spacing, humidity, and what-not. Yes, I know that sounds pretty logical but as I'm nothing of a green thumb I'm now sure my seedlings will have a hard time making it. I'll try to make them strong and happy, don't get me wrong, but I don't want to keep my expectations high: I'll just be happy if I can make one grow to a full plant.

But it's hard not to dream now that they are sprouting out :)

This is what I've planted so far: tomatoes, jalapeno pepper, zinnias and lupins. I still have tons of flower seeds but I didn't planted those because I need to wait and plant them directly on the garden when is not cold outside anymore. Or something like that.

Do you have any advise for successfully growing plants? I'll appreciate it so much if you share your advice with me on the comments. Thank you!!!

Have a lovely day :)

Iveth

A bouquet of flowers

So spring is here. We kicked off the season with plenty of snow and freezing temps but then last week was nice and sunny and perfectly spring like and we were like 'yay!'.

Today though, it's a different story: so cold and windy! We went to the post office to drop off some mail and we froze our faces off walking to there.

And as flowers always make me feel happy and warm, I present you with some of my favourite flowers from lately. I hope your day is bright and lovely :)

Photos taken by me with my phone :)

xx

Iveth