GIFT IDEAS FOR WINTER BRIDES

There is something special about a winter wedding, something magical about it. While the image of the spring bride with cherry blossoms and the summer bride with that beautiful outdoor ceremony may dominate the culture, winter brides have their own regal beauty. But for many coming up with gift ideas for the winter bride can be daunting. After all, Christmas has just passed and we may be concerned that she has everything she needs. But when it comes to gift ideas for a bride we need to think beyond the season. We are giving the happy couple something that will help them to start their new life together. In order to go beyond the obvious kitchen appliances or dust collectors we need to envision this new life and what will make it easier. Gift ideas are about both the future and the past, as we look for inspiration in both places.

Vintage Gift Ideas

These days everything old is new again and that certainly applies to the home. How about doing some research and gifting them a vintage clock made in the year the bride was born? Many young brides love old vintage looks because it reminds them of childhood and what was in their home when they first dreamed of being a bride. Vintage clocks, vintage wall ornaments or even vintage tablecloths and dishes can be great gift ideas for the newly married couple.

Brainy Gift Ideas

Does the bride to be love books and all things brainy? Is the groom an absolute book nut? While everyone else is coming up with gift ideas for the home, why not feed their brain? How about a gift card for their favorite locally owned bookstore? If that seems too boring, you can attach it to a great looking bookcase to hold all those great books. If they are like most young people, their bookshelves probably consist of bricks and boards or something similar, so why not introduce them to beauty with some great looking bookshelves like the ones shown on the Incredible Things website. Go ahead – get inspired with gift ideas that go beyond that toaster!

Commemorating the Day

Several brides have mentioned this idea – of taking the wedding invitation and turning it into a piece of art. Why not have it photographed and framed and mounted for their wall? Add in a great picture from the wedding and you have the perfect commemoration of the most important day in their life. Not an artist yourself? You could ask a local artist to take the photo and make a small painting based on it. You could have the invitation printed on a pillow and have it embroidered or even made into a wall hanging. The concept is creating gift ideas that are unique to them.

The Gift of Time

If your winter bride and groom live in a city with a great art museum, why not gift them an annual membership to the museum? This is such a great luxury when you are young and they will enjoy the gift all year long. If they aren’t fans of art but love a local amusement park, the same idea applies. An annual membership to a place they both love but can’t always afford will give them a year of pleasure just when they need it most.

His and Her Jewelry

Nothing quite says romance like matching jewelry for the bride and groom. While it is true that they already have those matching rings, how about a set of matching brooches to commemorate the wedding? We have a great collection of beautiful brooches that would look dashing on a coat or sweater for either the bride or groom. What a lovely way to remind you of your new love when you have matching brooches that keep you connected throughout the working day.

Are you still thinking about gift ideas for someone special in your life? Whether it’s a winter bride or a special new love, you can find the perfect little gift at Inbal Designs.

THE SURPRISING SECRET HISTORY OF VALENTINE’S DAY

We all tend to think of Valentine’s Day as a day for lovers. It is the day when we send chocolates and flowers to those we love and let them know how much they mean to us. But the 14th of February wasn’t always called Valentine’s Day and it certainly was not always a day of romance. Valentine’s Day has gone through several changes over the century and a half that it has been recognized. It has been transformed from a day of religious atonement to a day of mocking those who are alone until today it is seen by many as one of frivolous celebration. Valentine’s Day has gone through quite the changes in our culture.

It Begins with Two

Although most people are aware of St. Valentine, did you know there were actually two people named Valentine who became saints? It is even said that they were both martyred on Feb. 14th and both named Valentine. The most well known was a bishop in Roman times. At the time Rome was in need of more soldiers to fight their battles and so the emperor decided to outlaw marriage. His reasoning was that married soldiers didn’t fight as valiantly because they wanted to survive in order to return home. But Bishop Valentine decided that marriage was a sacred duty and continued to perform marriages. For this crime he was executed. This video below tells the story in a charming way for anyone who is not familiar with it:

Modern Romance and Valentine’s Day

But this doesn’t mean that today’s version of Valentine’s Day began back in Roman days. For hundreds of years, until around 1500, February 14th was simply a day of religious recognition of the sacrifices that St. Valentine made. Many credit Chaucer with having made the connection between romance and St. Valentine’s Day. He wrote in his famous “Parliament of Fowles” that February 14th is the day that birds begin to look for their mates. Another old influence was that February 14th is also the old roman fertility celebration of Lupercalia, a day when men would choose women to be their mates in a day long ritual of wooing. It is around the 1500s that Europeans began their love affair with all things from the ancient world of the Romans and Greeks.

They could easily have combined Chaucer’s poem with the old Roman holiday to give St. Valentine’s Day a whole new meaning. By the 1700s it became a common ritual on Valentine’s Day to have the single men draw lots from a container that held the names of single women. The women would then cook a meal for the man and they would attend a dance together. The idea was to find your own true love through this and many did. Some small towns in the US continue this when they use picnic auctions to raise money. So the old time romance ideas are still quite alive in many parts of the country today.

An American Valentine’s Day

Of course, here in America the ritual of sending your own true love a valentine wasn’t always the sweet practice we know and love today. Throughout the 1800s it was still very common to send mean verses to ugly, single women to mock them on St. Valentine’s Day. It was considered hilarious to send out these mocking verses and they were just as common as the “penny valentines” that were decorated with lace and covered in pink hearts that lovers sent to each other on Valentine’s Day. The truth is, between the two types of valentines sent out on February 14th, the biggest complaint was how it overwhelmed the poor mail carriers on this day!

While today we think of this day as a “Hallmark holiday” it is still quite suitable to put together your own Valentine’s Day card for the one you love. With the rise of the handmade revolution, making your own card complete with a romantic verse and lace doily could be quite romantic. You may even want to create a romantic card that holds a little treasure such as a heart shaped pin like the one you see above. Giving your heart away to the one you love was never easier then today – when you make a sweet card and add a little memento of your love to it.

What is your favorite gift on Valentine’s Day? If you are still looking for the perfect Valentine’s Day gift, why not cruise through our catalog of fine gold and silver handmade jewelry today?

STARTING OFF WITH AN EYE CANDY POSTERS

In three weeks from now, my husband and I will be on a plane going from Tel Aviv to New York city. We've planned a three weeks trip to the east coast, filled with different kind of activities. The trip that started off as a family visit and attending a cousin’s wedding in Miami, turn to be a honeymoon, and later turn to be a business trip as well.

Allposters.com                                    Flyergoodness.blogspot.co.il

Traveling abroad is so much fun. I usually try to make the most of every trip to learn something new or to meet new people. So, every trip starts with in depth research of what there is to see and which places I must visit (that always includes art and design museums and must visit shopping sites!) In this trip planning I've stumble upon old travel posters I had to share with you.

These amazing colorful posters, that were common in 1920’s through 1950’s, mostly in travel agencies, are so eye catching and alluring (I suppose that’s what they were meant for…)

Vintagevenus.com.au                                                  Art.com

These are some of the most beautiful vintage travel posters I found online. If you want to see more of them, I collected more of them in my Pinterest new vintage posters board, so click it and explore.

Flyergoodness.blogspot.co.il                                                        Decoratingevents.hubpages.com

Pop-ology.com

Vintagevenus.com.au

New Haven Connecticut – Traveler.es

Do you absolutely love them like I do? Tell me down below what you think!

Picking Wedding Jewelry and Accessories

So the big day will be coming soon, the day you get to shine in all your fantasy glory. With the wedding dress picked out you may think that you are done with the big planning, but you would be wrong if you didn't include plans for wedding jewelry. The trick is to pick the style and materials for your accessories and jewelry that enhance the dress instead of fighting it. Here are a few tips.

Wedding Jewelry Materials that Match

Because there are so many shades of white for a wedding dress, you need to make sure that the materials your wedding jewelry is based on will sit beautifully against that particular shade of white. Not sure which metals go with which wedding dress white? Here are a few ways to make sure everything matches:

White – If the dress is a pure white stay away from any kind of gold accessories including your wedding jewelry or any crown or hair wreath you plan on wearing. The best choices would be a platinum white or sterling silver, or pearls if you plan on wearing them.

Diamond White – This is a very popular off-white that looks lovely against gold and silver, as well as rose gold. Even pearls look good against this new shade of wedding white.

Ivory – Do you love the old-fashion look of this color? If you are planning an old-fashion theme to the wedding that includes a cream or ivory gown, be sure to keep the wedding jewelry within the yellow ranges, such as those you see in our Micro Collection.

Matching the Necklines

Don't forget when choosing that necklace that matching the neckline in your wedding gown can be crucial. If your dress has a plunging or v-shaped neckline, you of course have a choice of pendant, string of pearls or can even be daring with a choker. Sweetheart necklines look perfect against pearls and of course if you are dressing in an antique or vintage dress make sure your necklace and earrings match the era.

Wedding Jewelry for Bride and Bridesmaids

Weddings are a time of stress, so why not take the stress out of it by choosing the perfect wedding jewelry for the entire party online at Inbal Designs? We have just the right simple pieces that will reflect your love and this incredible day in sterling silver or gold. Whether it is the simple lines of our floral-inspired Jasmine Collection or the modern look of our Ktan-Tan Collection, matching the entire wedding party is easy with Inbal Designs. Weddings are stressful enough; take some of that stress away by picking a line of handmade jewelry that pleases everyone.

Everyone's taste is different. When it comes to your wedding, would you choose silver or gold wedding jewelry for your special day?

Jewelry Ideas - DIY Jewelry Organizer

When it comes to good jewelry ideas for the lover of all kinds of jewelry nothing really beats being able to come up with your own jewelry organizer. If you are looking around the bedroom and see necklaces draped around doorknobs, earrings tossed across the closest dresser and rings left sitting wherever you took them off, you are a great candidate for a quick and easy DIY jewelry organizer project. Best of all, it doesn't have to be complicated or hard to accomplish. You just need a couple of good ideas. Lucky for you we have plenty of those. Once you look our ideas listed here you will soon find yourself with a ton of great fanciful storage concepts for jewelry ideas of your own that suit your needs to a "T". Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Jewelry Ideas for Small Collections

If you don't have dozens of necklaces and around fifty pairs of earrings you probably only need a simple concept for your DIY jewelry organizer. This will make it so much easier to find good organizer jewelry ideas because you don't need to create a whole section in your room for your bling. Here are some simple ideas to steal from:

Tree Branches

These can look like art if you use them right. Take a walk in your neighborhood or if you have a tree in your backyard consider taking a small branch from it. If you live in an area that recently had a heck of a windstorm, walking around and looking for interesting branches to use means you help clean-up and get some great storage jewelry ideas to boot! Simple branches hung from a ribbon are great for necklaces and I have used mesquite branches mounted on a board for earrings in the past.

Old Picture Frames

Take the back off of an old picture frame and instead staple some netting or lace to the back of the frame. This is a great simple jewelry idea for holding earrings that have the hooks instead of the posts on them. You can arrange by color or shape to make a very pretty display on your wall. Another idea is to mount the back of an old picture frame with corks from wine bottles. You might have to cut a few to make them fit and it works best with older frames that are pretty deep. Once you have them all squeezed in you can add steel dressmaker pins to hold your jewelry on the cork board you just created.

Covered Cork Boards

You can also pick up some cheap old cork boards at a supply store and cover them to look pretty. I have used everything from old fabric to wallpaper left over from a project to some of that pretty handmade paper you see in the stationery stores these days. Paint the frame to match the paper and then add dressmaker pins to hold the jewelry pieces. This is particularly nice if you have sets of necklaces and earrings you want to cluster, such as you see with our collections like Jasmine or Ktan-Tan.

Cake Stand Organizer

If you love vintage dishes this is an easy one. There are many beautiful cake stands from bygone eras that make beautiful trays for bracelets or pins, or any larger pieces that don't hang well. It can be fun to go shopping for these as your local thrift store is a good source and really inexpensive! You might want to do more than one, if you find yourself unable to choose.

Jewelry Ideas for Big Collections

Some of us just can't stop collecting jewelry. You know who you are if this sounds familiar. For those with dozens of necklaces and over a hundred pairs of earrings (guilty as charged) then the hunt for great jewelry ideas for storage gets serious. This is where you might want to cheat and go to your nearest hobby supply store for some organizer ideas.

Fishing Tackle Boxes

There are two roads you can go down with this one. You can begin with the little plastic boxes that have dividers in them that you can find in hardware stores. These are actually great for oddball earrings you can't hang and because you can adjust the size of the compartments you can have various sizes in one box. Then you can stack up the boxes organizing them by color.

The other way is to use the true fishing tackle boxes that come in the metal boxes and fold open, accordion-style. These are wonderful for bigger collections and you can glue in felt at the bottom to make them look nicer. I have taken contact paper to the outside to give them the less rustic look. You would be surprised how much jewelry one of these bigger tackle boxes can hold!

Shoe Box Organizer for Bracelets

I love bracelets but they can be so hard to store. They are big and clunky. If you don't see the pattern you can't always pick them out to wear. But of all the inexpensive bracelet storage jewelry ideas I have seen, this is the easiest and certainly the fastest to put together. You probably have a couple of shoe boxes lying around, who doesn't? Grab one, add a few notches and a couple of dowels and voila! A great way to store your bracelets, make them very visible and if you decorate the box it can sit right there on your dresser.

Jewelry Ideas for Great Jewelry

Of course, the inspiration for all of this is that we have been designing up a storm lately here at Inbal and so we want to be sure you have plenty of room for all the great looking new pieces that will be coming your way soon. As we get to the end of another great year we want to remind you that prices are going up next year so you just might want to grab a few more pieces from your favorite collection today. Check our catalog for new ideas and grab a few of your old favorites as gifts today.

What's your great idea for a DIY Jewelry Organizer? 

Living a Beautiful Life – Winter Jewelry for Coats

Part of living a beautiful life is being surrounded with things that reflect the beauty in life. For many of us that becomes a little bit more difficult when it comes to finding the beauty in winter. Those long grey days can make you sad and sometimes leave us feeling that our idea of a beautiful life may well be one that is far far away from here. But even in the darkest cold days of winter, you can bring beauty into the lives of those around you. Sometimes it can be done with something as simple as a smile and a bright piece of jewelry on our winter coats.

Dressing up the Outside

When I was a child I remember my mother taking out a drawer of beautiful old coat broaches to choose the one she would wear that month. Obviously at Christmas time it was usually one with a Christmas theme, such as a jeweled version of a branch of holly. But January and February saw other pins that brightened up her coat and her smile. I know that today I seldom see coat broaches and think it is time we revived the old tradition. Why not dress up the outside that the world sees by adding a broach to your coat today?

Vintage and Antique Pins

One of the fun ways to add some glitter to an otherwise full day is to go shopping for coat pins in your neighborhood thrift stores or vintage/antique stores. I have found some beautifully crafted pieces at places like this. Local rummage sales also make a great place to find those little hidden treasures such as an old coat pin or even hat pins that you can wear in your coat lapel. They add an unusual sparkle on an otherwise cool grey day.

Giving a Beautiful Life

For those who are lucky enough to have a niece or granddaughter that love fashion, you can give them an unexpected gift of understanding beauty by going shopping for their coat brooch. This is especially fun if they are visiting for the holidays and it will give them something they love that will always have the memory of that special day. Somehow a life is always lived more beautifully when it is shared.

Try Gold and Pearls

Of course, here at Inbal Designs life never stands still. We just recently happened to add some new designs, all in geometric shapes with pearls at the center. Best of all, they happen to be pins and would look lovely either anchoring your favorite scarf or shiny and inspiring on that winter coat. They come in different shapes: star, heart, diamond and a snowflake: all in gold. They are the perfect complement to our recent additions of heart-shaped pendant and earrings and we know you are going to love the simple design – just right for winter! Because living the beautiful life should never be confined to the summer months – we deserve it all year round.

 

How do you reflect your beauty in life?

FASHION JEWELRY TIPS — WINTER WHITE

When it comes to fashion jewelry, nothing quite says winter like the gleam of white silver. While gold may get all the attention, the cool clear look of silver as a winter fashion jewelry accessory just can’t be beat. There are a wide variety of ways to take this fashion trend to the top of your list. Whether you are a party girl who needs a ton of the best fashion jewelry to show off the latest in winter togs or just love a bit of bling to brighten up your favorite winter coat, we have you covered.

Check out these ideas for winter white in gleaming silver that will always look cool and collected.

Coat Brooches for Showoffs

I don’t know about you but when winter approaches I love to haunt my favorite thrift stores for some of those old fashion coat brooches. They liven up any coat and if I am really feeling adventurous I may even look around for some stunning antique silver brooches for each of my coats. When the weather gets cool we tend to cover up our clothes with another layer, but that doesn’t mean we have to hide our sparkles. Plus, you get the fun of hunting through all those beautiful old jewels for the perfect complement to that favorite winter coat! And if you really love them, there are tons of great variations on this for even more places that your beautiful vintage brooch might sparkle up your wardrobe this winter.

Sparkly Winter Bracelets

Here is another way to display your charms. When the temperature heads below freezing why not layer your favorite chunky bracelets over your gloves? Take that great piece of fashion jewelry that is sitting in your bracelet drawer and let it dangle over those cute little mohair gloves you love to show off. If the bracelet is dangly and shiny, that is even better! Don’t hide your charms under layers of wool — add some winter white with a silver charm bracelet that tinkles softly as you walk.

Make a Statement with Fashion Jewelry Earrings

I love big statement hoops and in the winter when hats can hide your hair they are really important. That might be why these silver statement hoops with tiny hearts are such a great winter accessory. Can you just picture them peeking out of that glorious fur toque to make you look like something out of Dr. Zhivago? Whether you decide on these or a pair of big fat silver hoops — just make a statement with those earrings! One that says “Winter won’t stop me from looking fabulous!”

So don’t let this winter stop you from being the fashion maven that you are. Whether you love to sport the quiet beauty of a simple silver curve or adore the bold brassy look of chunky colors, just flaunt it! Not sure where your heart lies? Check out INBAL Designs Catalog of great simple beautiful designs and find one that is right for you.

What white winter tips do you practice?