Long Weekend and Earring Binge

Here’s another post that’s bound to be more pictures than words. I had a productive and enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend. I didn’t plow through all the magazines I wanted to get read, but I got a few out into recycling. I had a total earring-making binge Thursday and Friday. I always love it when the Muse is hot!

Today, after Weight Watchers, the day was so gorgeous, I slipped on my older, yuckier sneakers (it rained a bit last night) and headed for the Fullerton Arboretum for a stretch of the legs and a few cell phone pix for your enjoyment.

The new building that houses meeting space and a museum exhibition room, now featuring From Farmers to Flyboys, the history of the El Toro Airbase. The Potting Shed gift shop is to the far right.

Windmill surrounded by greenery and roses. You wouldn't believe the number of monarch butterflies I saw today!

Heritage House, built in 1894, is the heart of the Arboretum.



Doesn't it look like we're in the desert? Huh? Oh yeah, California IS in the desert...






Pretty color! This is part of the Children's Garden, which is being refurbished.




A picturesque gazebo in the center of the rose garden.

If you want to know more about the Fullerton Arboretum, click HERE. Even if you're not close enough to travel there, they have wonderful virtual tours with way better pictures than what you're seeing here ;-)


And now for the Earrings!




Eiffel Times 4, my version of French Envy!




Sparkling Peacocks, with the help of Swarovski crystals and nicely detailed peacock charms.



Expressing my inner geek! Star Wars, anyone?





Going Green, with pretty leaf and dragonfly charms and framed glass beads in bright green.





And to do a full circle to tie us into the Arboretum, here's The Garden at Dusk. I LOVE the color of these earrings, the dusty purple with just a hint of pink. Sweet!

If you’re interested in any of these earrings, click on the photo, they’re all linked back to their Etsy pages.


Hope everyone has had a great Thanksgiving holiday! Oooooo, Christmas is just around the corner. I have all the presents wrapped, I just have to make some tags, get all the Back East boxes ready and I’m done. Woo Hoo!! Bring on the Christmas lights and hot chocolate~oops, that’s another post for later…

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A Few New Things

The last two weeks have been busy. First, we were on vacation and then last week, there was a big layoff at work and I had to write most of the final checks. Such a bummer. So I’ve been working on personal Christmas gifts between photographing new work and posting it to Etsy. Here’s some of the new jewelry I’ve posted lately:

Intermittent Sunshine Memory Wire Bracelet

Shy Petals Glass Moonstone Earrings

Midnight Blue Sparkle Earrings

Jeweled Butterfly Upcycled Necklace

And some Holiday Offerings:

Dreidel Holiday Earrings

Seasons Greetings Holiday Earrings

Hanukkah 3 in 3 Handmade Chain Bracelet

For more information on any of these pieces, click on the picture to take you to Etsy.

I hope everyone has a great, relaxing Thanksgiving! I'll be running a Facebook special over the holiday weekend, so this would be a good time to become a Fan! Just log into Facebook, do a search for Bearchick and Fan me!

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Anneliese, Barbara and Mare’s LA Adventure

My friend, Barbara, invited my other friend, Anneliese, and me for a day of bead buying at the Fashion District in LA. I’d heard people talk about the fabric and bead shops in that area but I and my credit card had never been there. We met at Barbara’s this morning and took a tour of her studio. It’s to die for! Tons of cabinets and beautiful countertops filled with papers, tools, stickers, clay, raw materials for mixed media art, a carousel of paints--basically an artists’ dream studio! I was so jealous!!

We hopped in the car and Barbara drove us into the heart of the wholesale fashion district. I was in heaven! I was looking for colored chain, which my usual wholesaler doesn’t sell. I found that and so much more. Beads that would cost three times as much elsewhere, charms I hadn’t seen anywhere else, mermaid toggles (I got three packs of those, since I didn’t know when I’d see them again) and some new display busts and a T-bar display for necklaces. Here’s the first shop we hit, a little blurry but you get the idea:

The Street of Beads:

After shopping and lugging our purchases all morning, we walked to Clifton's Cafeteria, an LA icon. Along the way, we encountered an ethnic parade:

Inside Clifton's, we grabbed trays and went through the old fashioned cafeteria line. I would have had memories of high school lunches but our food was never like this:

Inside the entrance to Clifton's:

Awesome LA architecture on our walk in the Jewelry District:

A poster near the employee's room at one of the shops we were in, taken mostly to show The Husband:

Quintessential Downtown LA:

When we'd finished shopping and were laden with packages, we caught a Dash bus (.25 cents a ride--can't beat that!) and didn't realize how far we'd walked until we saw how far we were from the car! We were ready for some sugar, so we set off to Olvera St. but got sidetracked by the Grand Central Market, a much smaller version of Fanieulle Hall in Boston. We got parked and Barbara realized we were right around the corner from The Bradbury Building, a beautiful old structure, where parts of Blade Runner and my favorite film of the summer, 500 Days of Summer, were filmed. First we marvelled at this building:

Then moved on to the Bradbury Building, which is plastered with Subway and Sprint signs... But it's the inside that's amazing and these photos don't even begin to show how spectacular and lofty it is.

To the right and left are old-fashioned elevator cages:

Wrought iron railings:

Two views with my stinky camera, of a Charlie Chaplin statue and us.

Me and Anneliese:

Barbara and Charlie:

From there, we went in search of ice cream (don't tell my Weight Watchers leader...) at the Market. I didn't get any pictures of the market itself but here's Angel's Flight, a little tram service to the top of the hill where The Disney Theatre is. We don't think it's been running in quite a while but it's very cute anyway:

When we finished our ice cream (mint chip, in case you're wondering), we thought we spied some filming down the street, so we investigated. Sure enough, a commercial for Lexus was being shot down the street. Sorry this is so blurry but you get the idea:

In the same neighborhood was this wall sized treatment of Anthony Quinn:

And, circling back to our original mission of beads, we happened to pop into a Persian art gallery on our way back to the car and here's a beautiful display of beads that complement the lovely outfit on this mannequin:

So, are you tired yet?

With only a few slow downs on the LA/OC freeways, we had a pleasant drive back to Barbara's house and I got home just after The Husband. Like a good Do-Be (anyone else remember Romper Room?), I costed out all my beads and findings and put everything away. Now I'm ready to play with all my shiny, new stuff!

Thanks to Barbara for a wonderful, fun day!

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Robert Wagner Book Tour

Tonight we had the pleasure of seeing Robert Wagner speak at our local library, as part of a promotion for his book of memoirs. The meeting room was packed; in fact, it was standing room only. Tangled in Friday night LA rush hour traffic, he was a half hour late but totally worth the wait.

I know this picture doesn’t show it but he’s still a very handsome guy and sharp as a tack. When he came out after the library director’s introduction, which included a reference to his being in the original Titanic, he said “you know, I wasn’t ON the Titanic, she meant the movie!”

Accompanied by his daughter, Katie, he settled in to tell stories about mentors, such as Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable and Fred Astaire, who I’d forgotten had played his father in It Takes a Thief. He spoke about his loves, Barbara Stanwyck (“back then, an older woman couldn’t be with a younger man. Now, an older man can be with a younger man…”) and Natalie Wood and about his three daughters.

Toward the end, he answered questions from the audience. When a young guy was tacky enough to ask about Thomas Naguchi, the LA coroner who talked about Natalie Wood’s death, he and Katie handled it very tactfully, as well as a question about Christopher Walken, who was also on board the ship the night she died. On a lighter note, when several women prefaced their questions with mushy compliments to his looks and voice, he asked “Do you live close by?”, with a roguish smile.

He was very gracious and funny and Katie filled in details and stories with her own memories and viewpoint. It’s pretty amazing to see this 79 year old icon having a great time with a group of fans who are still watching him in movies (Austin Powers) and TV (the recent arc on Two and a Half Men and an upcoming NCIS episode, as Tony's dad!).

Thanks Friends of the Yorba Linda Library!

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