Impressions Jewelry by Romano Sculpture!

Hi there-- I hope you're having a wonderful week!

Today I'd like to share my mom's new Etsy shop, Impressions Jewelry by Romano Sculpture!  She creates beautiful, unique handmade jewelry using pearls and semi-precious stones.  I'm so impressed by the way she can combine colors and shapes and textures in ways that are completely unexpected and gorgeous.  Her shop officially launched on Sunday, July 13th, and it was stocked with 14 stunning pairs of earrings.

 

 

The sunstone in this pair has the prettiest subtle sparkle when it catches the light!

 

 

I love my mom's take on the classic color combination of pink, black, and white.  They're a bit feminine and a bit tough.

 

 

This pair is one of my favorites-- the Baroque pearls are so beautiful and I've never seen anything else  like them!

 

 

 

This pair reminds me of a walk on the beach at night-- the luminous moon shining on bits of beach glass.

 

 

I love this pair-- the combining of sterling silver, rose gold, and yellow gold looks so modern against the sleek black onyx.

 

One of my favorite aspects of these earrings is the mix of textures.  The pearls are polished, but soft, in contrast to the matte finish of the amazonite and the reflective smoothness of the tourmaline and onyx.

 

This pair is no longer in the shop, as they have already sold, but they were one of my favorites and I couldn't resist posting them anyway!

Which pair is your favorite?  If you would like to stay up to date with Impressions Jewelry by Romano Sculpture, add it to your Etsy list of favorite shops so that you can see new pieces as they are added!  Custom work is also welcome-- my mom is happy to work with you to create the perfect jewelry to give as a gift, or to wear for a special occasion! (I've already asked my mom if she will make my bridal jewelry, when the time comes!)

Thank you for letting me share my mom's beautiful new creative endeavor with you-- I am so proud of her and so impressed with her work!

♥

happy birthday zach!

with my dad on his first birthday

Today is my brother Zach's 24th birthday.

He's been my role model for as long as I can remember-- to the point where when he got a haircut, I found some scissors and gave myself a Christmas haircut because I wanted to be just like him.

He's funny, sweet, and smart.

I'm a really lucky little sister.

Happy birthday, Buddy!

♥

happy birthday mom!

Happy birthday to my wonderful Mom!
We've had so much fun together, and we've been there for each other through so many ups and downs.
And I know we always will be.

I love you so much!

♥

sometimes I do college-kid things. really.

          Aaaaah, last night was so great!  Remember when I mentioned that my ridiculously talented cousin Kaleigh was gong to be playing at The Delancey?  That was last night, and honestly, she just blew me away.  For the past few years, I've been able to hear her play at family get-togethers, and she's always been talented, but I can't believe how far she's come in the past two years.  She opened with "Don't Close Your Eyes," then went into a gorgeous cover of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire," and a super-fun version of Vampire Weekend's "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa."  She also did a fantastic cover of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep."  Kaleigh's original songs were the ones that brought me to tears though (don't worry, I hid it well.  Sort of.  Ish.).  We've dealt with some similar issues over the past few years and her songs "Walking in Circles" and "I'd Rather Be Living" kind of dealt with those, and ohhh, I am just so proud of her and adore her so much.  I'm really hoping she puts out an EP soon because I need more of her gorgeous music in my life.  And I got to see my adorable cousin Monica, and my lovely aunt and uncle, and family friends, and just in general a good time was had by all.

     Conveniently, the Brendan Benson show I went to afterward was just a few blocks away at the Bowery Ballroom.   The ID-checking guy hit on me in literally the most awkward conversation ever.  It went a little something like this.

"No way, dollface, you're like sixteen years old."

"Nope.  21.  Here's my ID."

"Alright.  So... are you looking to mingle?  You wanna get together after the show?"

Yeah, dude, that's why I came here tonight, I was hoping to get together with a mildly creepy individual who up until five seconds ago thought I was sixteen.  How'd you know?

(I didn't actually say that.)

"Um...no.  Thanks though.  Can I go in now?"

     So that was weird.  But the show was amazing!  Young Hines opened, and he was really great-- lots of energy, clearly excited to be doing the show, just lots of fun.  His album only came out on April 10th, so there's not much of his stuff on Youtube yet (Oh yeah.  Rackin' up the hipster points.) but definitely check him out on Spotify.   He's actually being produced by Brendan Benson, on his new label Readymade Records.  My favorites from the album are 'Don't Break My Fall,' 'Just Say No (Sometimes),' 'Hold You and Scold You,' and 'No One Knows.'  

     Aaaand Brendan Benson was just as fantastic as I hoped he'd be.  He seemed really humble and sweet, if a bit too skinny.  Should've brought him some baked goods.  (Whoa.  We've got an Italian girl here, ladies and gents.  And yeah, I've been known to gift musicians with baked goods on occasion.)  But the music was really, really great.  He brought Young Hines back out for a few songs, and they seemed to be having so much fun that it was impossible not to get caught up in their excitement.   He played a bunch of my favorites-- same situation with videos, his latest album was only released on April 24th, so not much on Youtube yet, but he also played a bunch of my favorites from his previous albums.

'Tiny Spark'

'Cold Hands, Warm Heart'

'Sittin' Pretty'

Yay!  And the new album is on Spotify-- I especially like 'Happy Most of the Time' and 'The Light of Day.'  Also, the crowd was so nice!  No pushing, no shoving, no errant beer spilled down my back, nothing.  It was great.

Alriiiight, back to working on e-portfolio stuff for me.  I'm actually writing this from my school's library computer lab.  Here's what I'm up to at the moment.

It's a little tedious to set up, but I'm excited to have digital version of my portfolio that still has the feeling of my actual book.

Hope you're all having a great Sunday!

♥

don't close your eyes

Oh my gosh, you guys.  I have the most talented cousin everrrrrr.

Kaleigh just put up her first music video and it is so, so pretty.  The music, the softness of the video, it's perfect.  So check it out!  I'm so proud of her. ♥

If you're in the NYC area, Kaleigh will be playing at The Delancey on May 5th at 7 p.m.  You can get tickets here.  Yay!  Support an up-and-coming artist and hear some beautiful music.

♥

built to last

        “…and don’t forget to bring your juke-box money!”

          The stereo blasts as I make my way through the crowd of dancing legs and hips at my eye level, gathered in the small living room of my house.  Between the music and the shouting and laughing of my family, the volume of the room is almost overwhelming.  I manage to single out one voice, singing along raucously, and battle my way to a pair of cropped black pants and tall wedge high heels.  I tug on the sleeve—my Aunt Fern looks down at me, into my chubby little face with big brown eyes and rosy cheeks.  “Heeeeeeeeey!” she shouts, as though she hasn’t seen me in months, even though we sat together for dinner earlier.  She’s wearing big dark sunglasses, her long, long white-blonde hair in a bun on top of her head, and the sleeve I’m tugging is covered in gold sequins, glimmering in the light from the lone lamp in our living room.  It’s our annual Halloween party, and I’m dressed as a seven-year-old Wednesday Addams.  The gray wool dress is buttoned up to my neck making me itchy, and in my free hand I’m clutching a headless Barbie doll—homage to Wednesday’s decapitated companion.  Aunt Fern swings my free hand and pulls me into the thick of the dancing.  Though I can’t see their faces, I know everyone—my Aunt Annie’s infectious, raucous laugh, seeming to explode from her petite frame, and my dad’s friend Pete, who has a baby doll strapped to a big orange square of foam on his head and a wooden cross in his hand (“I’m the holy Baby Cheez-Its!”).  I hug Aunt Fern around her waist, then scoot back out of the crowd.  Too close for me.  I run out onto the front porch, where my dad and my brother and my Aunt Nan are laughing.  Aunt Nan brings a rubber mask for my dad every year—this Halloween, it’s a creepy King Kong mask, which my dad is wearing with a button-down shirt and a pair of the slacks he wears when he substitute-teaches.  “Daddy!”  I demand, hurling myself into him.  He picks me up and sits me on the porch railing, but first he takes off the scary mask.  He knows I don’t like them.

          “Having fun, Jules?” he asks me, grinning.  His hair is a little wild, the brown and silver strands mussed further by taking off the mask.  I beam back and nod and keep my hand in his, feeling safe in that little haven even as our house was full of singing and stomping and shouting.  “Daddy, will you sing the song later?”  I don’t have to specify which song—at family gatherings, he always sings me “My Girl” by The Temptations.

          “Of course, as soon as we start playing,” he replies, and I feel like the most special girl in the world.  Who else’s dad would get a bunch of loud and rowdy grown-ups to play a special song just for her?  Aunt Nan laughs at something my brother says—the Romano family laugh, the staccato ‘ha-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!” that my dad shares with his three sisters and his brother, and presumably his late brother, too, although my only strong memory of him is his sing-song calling of “Juuuuuulie, Julie, Julie!”   The air is a little chilly, and I slide down off the railing.  “I’m gonna go find Mommy!”  I push through the living room full of adults, now singing along with The Grateful Dead’s ‘Built To Last.’  All these trials soon will soon be passed…Look for something built to last…

         My dad calls after me.

“Love you, Jules!”

♥

this is an excerpt from my term project for my memoir class, a series of vignettes from my childhood.
more info can be found here, as well as another excerpt.

bittersweet

    

      I wrote a few weeks ago about my frustration with finding a topic for my memoir class, mentioning how I'm generally quite a private person (despite all evidence to the contrary, given that I'm writing this on a public blog, which quite literally exists for other people to read) and how while I love to read memoirs, writing down intimate details of my life to share with others is not so much my thing.  I managed to write one piece that I was reasonably pleased with, and it got a good reaction from my classmates, and I felt like I was getting somewhere with this whole experience-sharing business.  But even with that piece, there were details that I deliberately omitted-- the memory was too close to my heart to share more than a glimpse into it.  When it came time to write the next piece, I was stuck right up until the night before class.

     I decided pretty early on in the semester that I wouldn't be writing about losing my dad and everything that led up to it.  It's still much too soon for me to be able to think about it without crying, never mind sharing it with a class.  But it made me wonder if I was being neglectful or disrespectful to my dad's memory by not writing about it, because it's truly the most intensely painful and impactful thing that I've ever experienced.  It's on my mind constantly, he's on my mind constantly.  But writing about it in detail felt out of the question, and not only would it be really, really difficult for me to write.  My dad's life shouldn't be defined by its ending.  Instead, I started writing about some of my favorite memories of my childhood-- coming home from school and spending time with my family and the special bond that we shared and still share.  Finally, a subject about which I have years and years of experience and emotion.

     Writing memories from my childhood, which was as wonderful a childhood as anyone could ever ask for, was bittersweet.  I'm so relieved to finally be able to remember life before my dad got sick.  The good memories are slowly making their way to the top of my mind instead of being firmly pushed down by the upsetting ones.  After my professor read my memoir fragment on Monday, she said "It's lovely...I was just talking with [another professor at my school] about how if someone were to write a deep, heartfelt memoir about a happy experience, we'd love to read it, but those aren't generally things people write memoirs about.  Keep writing about this-- a happy childhood is rare and the rest of us who didn't have one can live vicariously through reading about it."  Her words really resonated with me.  My blissful childhood was an event that deserves description just as much as any of the devastating memories.

     As much as I'm enjoying recalling happier times, it's also painful.  As I wrote about the simple pleasure of coming home from school and opening into the door to our wonderful, welcoming hobbit-hole of a house and saying hello to my parents, I couldn't suppress one thought from circling in my mind.

How could everything have gone so wrong?

It's a question that I'll never have a satisfactory answer to.  And that is really, really difficult to live with--the idea that tragic things can happen completely arbitrarily.  Right now, though, I'm trying to find comfort in exploring my recollections of a time before I ever asked that question.  I'm trying to honor my dad by remembering his life and how joyful my family's lives were together. 

 I'm trying to remember that before everything went wrong, everything was right.

♥

if you're interested in the memoir fragment that inspired this blog post, feel free to read it here.

♥

dad's birthday.

Today is my dad's birthday.  He would have been turning 57.

One of my favorite memories of my dad actually happened over the phone.  I was walking down 8th Avenue, talking to my dad on my phone, and it was right around this time of year, because we were talking about his birthday.  He said, "I went this whole year thinking I was going to be turning 56, but when I said that to your mom, she said I was only going to be turning 55!  I did the math, and she was right!  How about that?  I just turned a year younger on my birthday."

I miss my dad so much every single day.  There are days when it's almost impossible to deal with having lost him.  I've been trying to deal with it in part by living in a way that he would be proud of and following the wonderful example that he set.  One of the things that stands out most to me was how openly he expressed how much he loved his family.  Pretty much every time he saw one of us (which was a lot, because my parents worked at home, something for which I'm extremely grateful), we'd get a "Love you, Hon," (to my mom,) "Love you, Bud," (to my brother,) or "Love you, Jules" (to me).  One of the things that has comforted me most since losing him is the knowledge that there was absolutely no doubt about how much we cared for each other.  I'm never going to have to look back and say "I wish I had told him I loved him more often."

This is from my high school graduation party, one of my very favorite memories.

That's what I'm trying to incorporate into my own life-- letting people know that I care about them, and that they're special to me, and never to take anyone for granted because life truly is too short for that.  So if I can make a little request of you, my dear and sweet readers who have given me so much support over the past year, I would request that you help me celebrate my dad's birthday by finding someone who is special to you and telling them how much they mean to you.  Let them know that you're there for them, and that your life is enriched because they are in it.  Tell them you love them while they can hear you.

♥

fill-in-the-blank friday!

via the little things we do

1. My favorite place I've every traveled to is Cape May, NJ.  It's so pretty and holds so many of my favorite memories.

2. Someday I'd like to go to Venice.

3. I pass the time in a plane, bus, car, or train by listening to audiobooks and sleeping.  If I'm in a car, there is virtually no chance that I'll be awake longer than half an hour.  

4. My three must-haves when I travel are my ipod, a pillow, and a 'warmie,' as my mom calls them-- either a blanket or a big sweater.

5. My favorite travel companion is it's a tie between my mom and my brother.  My mom and I bop around to carefully curated playlists, until I inevitable start snoozing.  My brother and I mostly just harass each other in the car, making funny voices and asking would-you-rather questions.  Traveling with both my parents and my brother was the best-- my dad would always put a bunch of fruit in his jacket pockets while we were leaving, which made my brother and me laugh, but it was great when we'd start feeling snack-ish and he'd say "Want a clementine/apple/banana/orange?"  So now I'm in the habit of stashing fruit for car trips.  I love traveling with Marissa, too-- we always laugh hysterically.  Which probably contributes to why we take wrong exits pretty much every time we're in her car.  Once, we were following her GPS on the way back from Six Flags, and I was so incredibly car sick, and of course the GPS takes us down this tiny little dirt road that snaked around like crazy.  We couldn't help finding that hilarious, so the conversation was sort of, "Hahahaha!!!!  Can you believe this?  Hahahaha!!!  ...Oh god, pull over..." 

6. The craziest thing that ever happened to me while traveling was when Marissa and I were going to Disney World and we were (naturally) wearing our Minnie and Mickey ears in the airport, along with out t-shirts with our motto, "What could possibly go wrong?" and the most obnoxious baggage guy EVAH was all, "Oh, Florida, huh?  Heading down there for Girls Gone Wild?"  Marissa and I looked at him with perfectly blank faces and I replied.  "No.  We're Girls Gone Mild."  So we thought that was the last of him, and then we got on the plane and surprise, surprise, he was on our plane.  It doesn't sound that crazy now, but at the time it was both hilarious and horrifying.

7. The most exotic food I've tried while traveling was ...hmmmm.  Marissa and I tried a lot of different foods at Disney World, but nothing's standing out to me at the moment.  I tried Mexican for the first time while I was actually in Mexico, which was really delicious, but not anything wild and crazy.  

8.  If I could live anywhere else, I'd live in Boston, I think.  I love it there, I love the history and the swan boats and the aquarium.  It has everything I like about New York City, but in a much quieter, less crowded space.

9.  I have been to eight states in the U.S.  I might actually have been to more, I don't remember all the fife and drum trips I took when I was younger.

it's a fantastic day to enter my etsy giveaway!

♥

i like friends who blog.

photo

Two of my favorite people have recently started blogging!

The first is a lovely boy who has been a close friend of mine since we met in fourth grade, at age nine.  Taryn is articulate, witty, and sweet, and he has a particularly unique sense of humor that manages to be both cynical and optimistic all at once.  He recently began blogging over at So It Goes.

My cousin Monica has started a blog, too!  Her blog is over at 180 Days to Paris.  And that's exactly what she'll be doing-- going to Paris in (slightly less than, at this point) 180 days.  She's quirky and adorable and smart and I can't wait to hear more about her escapades, both preparing for Paris and being there!

Each of these blogs only has three posts so far, so now is a good time to follow their adventures from the beginning-- I can't wait to see everything Taryn and Monica write in the future, and to join them on their journeys both literal and figurative.

♥

celebrating my dad

Thank you so much for all of the support and love during the past few days. The viewing for my dad will be on Thursday 7/7 at Hessling Funeral Home (428 Main St., Honesdale, PA 18431) from 10 a.m. until noon. The service will be at Grace Episcopal Church at 1 p.m., followed by a celebration of his life at my grandmother's house (1708 East St.) at 4 p.m.

"Whoever is open, loyal, true; of humane and affable demeanour; honourable himself, and in his judgement of others; faithful to his word as to law, and faithful alike to God and man....such a man is a true gentleman."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

♥

dad

love you forever, Dad.  the world is so much better because you were in it.  you'll always be in our hearts.

♥

♥happy father's day♥

Just some of the reasons my dad is such an amazing guy...

♥He's the most gentle person I know.

♥He knows so much about plants-- any plant that I point out, he knows what it is, how it's used, and where it grows.

♥He truly has the soul of an artist, and I'm so proud of him for staying true to himself and continuing to do what he loves.  Sculpting with the kids at a family party.

♥My dad reads a lot.  We've always had a lot of books, on everything from poetry to gardening to cooking, and my brother and I both really, really like books.

♥Speaking of cooking, my dad is awesome at it.  He can take a bunch of seemingly unrelated ingredients and make something delicious on a moment's notice.  And he makes the best scrambled eggs in the world.

♥He's never missed events that were important for Zach and me-- dance recitals, graduations, birthdays, band gigs, he was there for every one.

♥He's still madly in love with my mom.  This is from their 25th anniversary party.  My mom was a bride-of-Frankenstein character, with crazy hair and tons of lace over a hoop skirt, and my dad wore a hideous rubber mask for most of the night.  So much fun.

♥My dad is really funny, and he's always so delighted when one of his jokes goes over well.

♥He never told me or my brother that something we wanted to be was unrealistic, or would take too much work.  He's always encouraged us in whatever we wanted to do.

♥He's accepting of people just the way they are.

Happy Father's Day!  Love you so much, Dad.  I can't wait to see you in a few days.

trust30 project: day 7

day 7

I'm not old enough to have had too many of my dreams suppressed, but there is something I've been nervous about: growing up.  I'm the youngest in my immediate family, and let's face it, I do live up to the role of being the baby.  I've been very protected, and I've appreciated it and liked it, but now I kind of have to step up.  I'm not totally sure how to go about that.  I do the student thing well, and the youngest-child thing, but being an adult?  Still trying to navigate that.

...are we there yet?

♥

today

 

special request

Hi lovelies,

If you have a spare moment during your thoughts/prayers/meditations, please send some positive energy to my dad.  Thank you so much ♥

♥ Julie

happy birthday mom!

It's my mom's birthday today!  She's coming home today, and I'm so excited to see her, I haven't seen her since spring break.  Happy birthday, mom!

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11

♥♥♥♥♥

mom

A mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.  ~Emily Dickinson







A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.  ~Washington Irving

I know I'm not the easiest daughter to have.  Sometimes I can be downright difficult.  But I am lucky enough to have an incredibly understanding mother and she's supported me so much.  It's true, nobody ever loves you the way your mom does.  Love you, Mom.  Happy Mother's Day!

♥♥♥♥♥