How To Wear Estate Jewelry On St Patricks Day

Choosing to go for just a wee bit of green
this is my estate jewelry choice for St Patricks Day

I love the collar design and the big pebble like gemstones

It's definitely makes a statement but a soft one.
Isn't it pretty?

Multi Gemstone Collar Necklace in Gold Vermeil $2550

And thank you to the Duchesse, aka one of the famous O'Malley sisters, for picking out a few affordable and St Patrick's Day approved pieces with gorgeous green from Beladora2.com

and to superglam preggers Faux Fuchsia for posting about the Beladora.com and Beladora2.com donations from all March sales to the Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami Relief Fund.
So Erin Go Shop

Beladora Getting On Board For Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief

Even though Beladora is based in Beverly Hills, we are not a Beverly Hills - centric company.
Because our business is online, our clients are from
Brazil, Mexico, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, England, Canada, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia...
and I probably missed a few other countries.

We are deeply concerned about the situation in Japan. 
Liz Kollar, our Beladora Creative Director has aunts, uncles and cousins who are Japanese, and who thankfully were out of the major quake/tsunami zone.  Because of her family, Liz is in the loop on a lot of what's going on the there and we do know that it is winter, supplies are low, and things are bad all over Japan.

I have already made a donation personally towards the relief efforts in Japan.
But I can do more than just make a personal donation.

So, I've decided  that Beladora.com and Beladora2.com,
which have donated to causes such as ovarian cancer research in the past,
will now donate a portion of all March sales to the
American Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami Relief Fund.

Maybe you have a birthday or anniversary coming up. 
Maybe you need a special gift.
Maybe you want to start early on your holiday shopping.
Or maybe you've have a piece of estate jewelry on your Beladora wish list. 
With jewelry priced at $195 and up, there is probably something that you could use.
Please consider making a purchase from Beladora or Beladora2 this month.

San Onofre or Tempting Fate

We'll all be planning that route

We're gonna take real soon
We're waxing down our surfboards
We can't wait for June
We'll all be gone for the summer
We're on surfari to stay
Tell the teacher we're surfin'
Surfin' U. S. A.

Haggerties and Swamies
Pacific Palisades
San Onofree and Sunset
Redondo Beach L. A.
All over La Jolla
At Waimia Bay


Everybody's gone surfin'
Surfin' U.S. A.

This is San Onofre State Beach, the one mentioned in the famous Beach Boys song.  It is a long stretch of sand on the southern border of Orange County where generations of young Californians learned to surf. Even my own kids were bundled into the car and driven there for surf days when they were young.

San Onofre is also the home of a nuclear power generating station built in the dazed and confused era of Orange County during the late 1970s. By dazed and confused, I mean that a there was a lot of drinking, drug taking and dealing during the construction of the power plant. Don't ask me how I know that, I just do.

I'm not saying that drugs were responsible for the fact that a 420 ton nuclear reactor vessel was installed backwards or for the fact that unit 1 had to be dismantled. But what I am saying is that I've never trusted the structural soundness of the power station.

Strong, spherical containment buildings around the reactors are designed to prevent unexpected releases of radiation. The closest tectonic fault line is the Cristianitos fault, which is considered inactive. Southern California Edison states the station was "built to withstand a 7.0 magnitude earthquake directly under the plant".

Well that's nice to know.

But what if we had an 8.9 magnitude earthquake like Japan.

Would we be having explosions and radiation leaks?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against nuclear power.

But I've never understood why any area that is seismically unstable would choose the nuclear option.

Sunday At Home or Creating Order Out of Chaos

Like the rest of the world, I can't stop watching the videos from Japan.
This one from the BBC shows when the tsunami first hits the land
It's truly frightening to see the unrelenting power of the tsunami.

As for the report that radiation has leaked from Japanese nuclear plants is going to cross the Pacific and hit the west cost

It is admitted that the first plant has melted down, and 6 more nuclear power plants in Japan are in danger. If they fail, this situation could get even worse. Japanese authorities are distributing potassium iodide to its population for thyroid protection.

For U.S. populations, we can hope that most of the radiation will disperse into the ocean and never reach us, however, with the U.S. West Coast in the direct path of the jet stream from Japan, it is a good precaution to stock up on potassium iodide or natural iodine from kelp, which can prevent the absorption of radioactive iodine, the most common complication from radiation poisoning.

OK, so I didn't run out and buy potassium iodide
Instead I took a clue from Faux Fuchsia and went out to brunch
which is something that I rarely do
But when life brings you circumstances that you can do nothing about
it's good to spend time with your brood

and enjoy a bloody mary
and catch up on what's going on in the lives of your children and their significant others

Since the weather was warmish we sat outside and enjoyed the sun.

Later in further FF style there was some gardening

specifically cleaning up my wildly growing mint, parsley and cilantro

and of course some cooking

with Chicken Chasseur de Ville for Sunday dinner

which was super easy to action

OK, so I admit that it wasn't real poulet chasseur because I left out the mushrooms and the cognac

but it was tasty anyway

Here are the basics

Saute some chicken ( I used organic boneless chicken thighs) in a little butter and oil

remove chicken from pan and add chopped red onion, chopped roasted red pepper, chopped garlic and cook vegetables until soft.

Add one can of chopped tomatoes (I used the no salt added kind) and some red wine and bring to a boil

Return the chicken to the pan and add some fresh parsley, basil and a bay leaf

Cover and cook in the oven for about 30 minutes

Serve with asparagus and hot baguette

There is something so calming about domestic activity

because when mother nature, who's not your friend by the way, brings you chaos

organizing your home, a reasonably achievable goal,

brings you at least some semblance of order out of chaos.

Earth Shifting On Its Axis...Again

Putting all of our petty woes into perspective
At any time and without warning
a quake of such magnitude that an entire country moves
and the earth itself shifts on its axis

(CNN) -- The powerful earthquake that unleashed a devastating tsunami Friday appears to have moved the main island of Japan by 8 feet (2.4 meters) and shifted the Earth on its axis.


"At this point, we know that one GPS station moved (8 feet), and we have seen a map from GSI (Geospatial Information Authority) in Japan showing the pattern of shift over a large area is consistent with about that much shift of the land mass," said Kenneth Hudnut, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Reports from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Italy estimated the 8.9-magnitude quake shifted the planet on its axis by nearly 4 inches (10 centimeters).

To put things in perspective
the Sendai earthquake was about 1000 times more powerful than the earthquake in New Zealand

Like after the 2004 tsunami which killed 230,000 people, the US is sending in the Pacific fleet, literally.
But how much help aid can they offer at this point with thousands dead, thousands missing
power and water out for millions
and a potential Chernobyl style meltdown.


Glenn Reynolds, for years, has been linking to sites about disaster preparedness. 
It's one thing if you live out in the wilds of Idaho or Wyoming to have this list and/or this list of emergency supplies. 
But who in a major metropolitan area keeps these things around the house?
At the very least, anyone who lives in California should have one of these at home and in the car.
I've ignored the whole subject of disaster preparedness for years
Perhaps today is the day to start taking it seriously.

Living In The Ring Of Fire

If you haven't seen the video of the horrendous tsunami in Japan

watch it here.

Chile, New Zealand, Japan

Is California next?

Those of us who live in the Pacific Ring of Fire can never be complacent.

Putting Things Into Perspective

It's easy to get the feeling that we live and work in some kind of parallel universe considering that:

1. it is beautiful about 325 days of the year in Southern California
2.  our office is located on one of the nicest commercial streets in the US
3.  we work with wonderful people and with a product that is intrinsically beautiful
4.  most importantly, our clients are awesome

In our world the biggest disappointment that can occur in our daily working life is finding out that our product is not going to be worn by an A-list star on the cover of a major international fashion magazine. 
While PR and branding are very important to building our business, we accept that these things happen. 
It's a process and we plod along and hope for another opportunity.

Today, we have another sunny day with mild temperatures and clear blue skies.
The fresh faced beauty and daughter of Sissy Spacek , Schuyler Fisk, is wearing bangle bracelets from Beladora.com in this month's issue of Vanity Fair.
We are pleased.

It would be easy to forget that on the other side of the world this is going on.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

But we haven't forgotten. 
We have clients in Australia and we are worried about them, indeed about all of the people in flooded areas.
Hopefully the waters will recede soon.

Aussies are undeniably resilient people.
They will deal with this once in a lifetime natural disaster far better than we dealt with the Hurricane Katrina flooding.  But the worst isn't over yet and there will be months if not years of clearing debris and rebuilding.
We wish them potable water, electricity, available food and godspeed to get through this trial by water.

Of Biblical Proportions

Things are bad in Australia, really bad.
A flooded area the size of the state of Texas bad.
People have died, others are lost.
Hurricane Katrina was nothing compared to what's going on in Australia now.
Our favorite Aussi blogger FF has been caught up in it in Brisbane
and fingers and toes, she and the future baby FF will be fine.
Go send her your best wishes...while she still has the electricity for her computer.