Academy Awards 2011 ... The Jewels!

Ahh the Oscars – a ray of glittering jewels on an otherwise overcast day! Not such a rare beast today, there were a number of jewels that stood out. Come with me on a tour:

Anne Hathaway looked stunning on the red carpet in a red “archival” Valentino dress and a lovely big diamond necklace and matching earrings from Tiffany. Her numerous dress changes (8!) during her stint as host of the Awards (apparently she acted on the advice of Shirley Maclaine who told her to change outfits frequently) throughout the night also showcased a diamond collar of diamonds and pale amethyst from Tiffany & Co., with a grey and black Vivienne Westwood gown and a large pair of tanzanite sapphire drop earrings with a bright blue sheath by Georgio Armani.







Amy Adams wore Cartier – a diamond necklace with a large hanging emerald pendant on her sparkling blue-purple dress by L'Wren Scott. Amy loves necklaces :)



Nicole Kidman wore her trademark white sheath this time by Dior, with a diamond collar (although I'm not a fan of the oxidised (black) look around the stones). Interestingly, it follows the same idea I had with my 'back necklace' that I posted about back in 2008.





Annette Bening wore large emerald earrings with her pewter dress.



Reese Witherspoon wore emerald earrings and matching ring with her black and white gown and Barbie hair (!).



Susan Downey (wife of Robert), wore large imperial topaz earrings, matching cuff and ring that she said were designed by Angelina Jolie. When interviewed with her husband she was very excited about the jewels and her spouse exclaimed that the best part of the evening for her was wearing the earrings!



Natalie Portman who has recently sported necklaces, this time went for long tassel earrings that matched the tone of her plum Rodarte gown. My guess is that they were either plum ruby or rhodolite garnet in the tassel and diamonds above. I loved them!



Gwyneth Paltrow sported an interesting pair of earrings with coloured stones that appears to include such gems as peridot, amethyst, citrine and garnet. She wore a matching brooch on her hip too!



Helen Mirren went traditional and wore a long diamond necklace from Cartier with her dark grey gown by Vivienne Westwood.



Susanne Bier who won for the best Foreign Language Film wore a lovely diamond collar and bracelet and one of the few blue dresses of the evening.



Celine Dion wore a diamond and emerald necklace on the red carpet and appeared on stage later with a diamond collar and cuff.





All in all a great show of jewels don’t you think?

Regaining a sense of calm, the BAFTA jewels and back to the bench

Good news - I'm slowly getting back into a routine here - some things have fallen off the everyday list though (like exercise oops!) but on the whole, there feels like there is more balance and every so often I even gain a sense of calm.

It is blissfully quiet today. Hubby left early in the plane, the kids left for school, the farm cats are napping, the working dog is quietly watching all, the cattle are in the distance happily eating. Apart from hearing the light breeze move in the trees and some distant bird chatter, all is quiet. Ahhhhh......

I caught up with the recent Awards ceremonies this week - the BAFTAs and the Grammys. The Grammys didn't do it for me - once again, all cuffs and dangly earrings. I guess these just aren't my 'scene'?

I did have high hopes for the BAFTAs, but perhaps the rainy weather got them all down as there weren't as many glamorous jewels as I had hoped for. They did have a couple of highlights - namely Jessica Alba who looked amazing in a flowing electric blue gown and wore a stunning collar of blue/green, perhaps made of azurite-malachite. Miranda Richardson wore a lovely pair of blue-green (possibly aquamarine/emerald) earrings and Thandie Newton a timeless emerald necklace. The rest was all a little ho-hum!







On the creating front I had a lovely day earlier this week with my muse perched on my shoulder whispering all sorts of great ideas. New jewels include exotic wood bracelets set off with a single big gemstone ; concoctions in amazonite (teal/aqua blue)or apatite (neon blue) and smoky quartz (brown); and a couple of pieces in deep amethyst (purple) and pink tourmaline. Then I did a couple of pearl earrings with some little sapphires to set them off. I finally went to bed close to midnight, still full of energy and wanting to create but knowing I really needed SOME sleep! I hope to get back to the bench today to do some more :D

The Connect2Mums network has recently launched a new AusMumprenuer magazine. They did a feature on Rural Mums and interviewed me as part of it. So I'm there (photo and all) on pp 28-29. They also selected some of my jewels in the fashion pages too. How exciting!

Right, best crack the whip and get back to the bench! Today's photo by the way is one of the new pieces - earrings with unusual diamond shapes of smoky quartz with a chequer facet under a mass of blue apatite gems.

Till next :)
Annette

Normality and Routine vs. Reality

I WAS hoping for a bit of normality to return to my life after the kids returned to school, however it seems that 'normality' is far from happy to return - it's off being itself somewhere else and I'm just running around from one thing to the other and not getting anything done.

The children, on the other hand, seem to have settled back into the routine of school ... the routine of not wanting to get up in the mornings and the routine of rushing off to the school bus with seconds to spare. Not to mention the routine of not wanting to do their homework.

I've been told by the girls in no uncertain terms that they'd much prefer to stay home and read. (Good for bookstores and libraries but not so good for their school reports I'm sure).

Perhaps we all need a little more R&R (six weeks obviously wasn't enough...) and my R&R is more likely to come when the children are at school and peace reigns over the house. But then a phone call from MIL, or SIL or a request from the accountant or a job to do for hubby because he can't do it - he has to go and plough ... and next thing you know the day is gone and the kids are walking back up the hill after being dropped at the front gate by the school bus. *sigh*

I HAVE made an effort with son though - his performance (at school) dropped off quite a bit towards the end of last year. Our idea that he should be made responsible for his own work (getting homework done in time, projects finished in a half reasonable state etc) kind of failed. In a world of sink or swim, he definitely sank. So now, each day after school I sit down with him at the dining table and get him to show me what he did that day, asking him to explain it to me. If he can't, I endeavour to lead him through, kind a bit like revision on a daily basis. I look at his diary, make sure his homework/project due dates have been notated and make sure he packs the correct books for the next day. I think he's entered that teen fog where they see and hear nothing that doesn't interest them, so I feel I have to do this. Otherwise he may just fall off the planet and not realise.

The girls have been fine with their homework and seem to understand everything so far, so I guess I should be grateful for small mercies.

On the creative front, I did manage an afternoon at my bench recently and made some lovely heart jewellery to celebrate the imminent occasion of Valentine's Day (the photo above is one - its a gorgeous lemon citrine pendant and chain - a whopping 1 inch across, it's big and sparkly and very desirable!

Are you expecting anything for Valentine's Day? My hubby isn't big remembering Valentines (although I do recall a bunch of long stemmed roses that arrived at my work from him one year). But he will go and pick me a red, red rose from the garden on the spur of the moment - just like he did this morning:



And that's worth more than anything, don't you think?

Till next :)
Annette