Now You Can Follow My Blog on Bloglovin'

And, if Twitter and Facebook aren't enough, now you can follow my blog on Bloglovin'! Okay, the world has gone mad and looks like I am going with it! Now...back to the jewelry bench.

Yes, that paragraph is one giant link because I can't get the code to change. So, just ignore all the blue above, for now. Ta!

From the Land of YouTube

In the last few months, an interesting and quite unexpected phenomenon has taken place in the world of Tanya Lochridge Jewelry. You might want to sit down for this...I have become infatuated with YouTube. I know...I said it would never happen, but you know what they say "never say never."

Coming Full Circle

I spent some time over the weekend catching up with an old, old, old friend. It was so much fun talking about our glory days at the beach and our crazy life at school. It’s interesting to me how you sometimes forget certain events until someone who shared it with you way back when brings it up and suddenly it’s as if no time has passed and you are reliving the moment, detail by detail and giggling about it all over again. I love that. Unfettered laughter is good for the soul.

Say it isn't so!

This morning, one of my worst nightmares came to life. Okay, so that’s a little dramatic; but stick with me here. On my Twitter feed there was a tweet from an accessories rep group that went something like this – “…I would never want to do a collaboration with a 50-year-old women who wears clogs.” My first reaction was to step into a smack down on Twitter.

Lavender & the Color Purple

Every year, when I harvest my lavender I bring it into the studio to dry for several months before removing the little buds or whatever they are called from each stem. I love having the lavender inside especially when I sit at one particular location of my workbench. As I work, my feet jostle the ends of the stems under the bench and with just the slightest movement the soothing scent of lavender is released into the air. It’s heavenly.

Open Arms & 2013

This morning I joyfully welcomed a new year with wide open arms. The New Year greeted me in return with glorious sunshine and blue skies – an unusual sight in this part of the world. But, I’ll take it. For me, the sunshine feeds my soul and reenergizes my body – I love it for that! Although it is only 28 degrees this morning, I’m sitting on my patio, bundled in one of my favorite toasty cabled afghans, letting the sun shine on my back, sipping fresh Peet’s coffee and enjoying the gifts of Mother Nature. It’s a lovely picture, isn’t it?

Cookie Cutters?

It’s the season for shopping and it seems that so much of what I see looks the same to me. Is it just me or are all of the “big” stores selling identical merchandise? Of course, I look at jewelry a lot…come on, I design it, so it’s only natural I would look at what’s out there in the market, right? Spikes and skulls and druzy, oh my. While I am sure my likes and dislikes are age-related…after all I am no spring chicken. Hell, I am not even a summer or fall chicken…but I just can’t imagine wearing a piece of jewelry just because everyone else is wearing it, no matter their age.

NYC, Sandy and Gratitude

Looking at images of NYC post-Sandy and I feel heartsick. I spent the better part of the last several days connecting with friends to make sure they were all right. I can’t help thinking that if I was still living there I could do something…anything; but I’m not there, so all I can do is sit and watch it all unfold. I was able to make a few monetary donations which in some small way helped assuage my feelings of uselessness. In my heart I was thinking it would be weeks…maybe even months before trains were up, bridges were open and life took on some semblance of normal again. Today I am amazed at the speediness of it all – trains, planes, buses, bridges and tunnels all seem to be returning to regular schedules and power is coming back to life, with some limitation.