What bargains did you find over the holiday weekend?  What treasures did you discover?  There were so many sales, it makes you wonder what the “real” price should be! Did someone ever pay full price?

We’re all watching our money – or we should be – and it’s difficult to watch it go into someone else’s pocket – or cash drawer. So, it’s very important to shop for value. Low prices can look good and big discounts can sound like a bargain, but usually, you get what you pay for – or a whole lot less than you bargained for…   Dii

Today, my goal is to get at least 10 new pieces of wonderful vintage jewelry on berniesvintage.com. I have so many wonderful pieces of jewelry. Yesterday I spent the day looking at other web stores and jewelry and collectible information sites. I signed up for blogs to find out more about Miriam Haskell and Julianna jewelry. I know some of my pieces are unmarked D&E Julianna. There is a great site where you can verify your pieces as D&E. I think I can set up a to their site on berniesvintage.com  but I have to get my friend to tell me how to do it. So sad, I am not very computer literate and I don’t know enough about the wonderful jewelry, evening purses and other pretties my Mom left me. That goes for my collection too, just picked up beautiful things, especially bling where ever I found it. Many garage sale finds. Many “junk store” finds too. Here is an example of a find. It is for sale at berniesvintage.com. Have a good day and remember to wear your bling. Bernie

r

If there is anything more fun than buying a new bike, then it’s buying a new bike with someone else.

Leah probably has the only Kästell bike in Australia, possibly the world. I’m sure this post will generate the very first “Kästell bike” hit that appears in Google, it’s that rare. Kästell is an Austrian ski company that had a very brief foray into making bikes (ca. 1987). The main problem with the Kästell is that it’s indestructible, built with very thick steel, severely limiting the opportunity(excuse) to up-grade. Another consequence is that it weighs a whopping 15.3 kg and like skis it only goes fast in the downhill direction. Time for a new bike.

Where to start? There is the joy of “reading copy”, and there is the advice everyone gives: go to the bike shop(s) and “get fitted”. It soon becomes apparent that Leah has a short upper body compared to leg length.

The industry is way ahead of us, and have it covered: WSD (Women Specific Design: TrekTM), Juliet (Merida), Femme (EMC2), Féminine (Cannondale) are just a few of the women specific road bike offerings.

Hard to go past this, it’s almost a lay-down misere. Horizontally stiff AND vertically compliant, the Holy Grail. But very expensive.

Avoiding the carbon (which Cannondale in known skimp on) the Synapse Féminine 5 still comes in at a cool 9.3 kg. Watch out Xmas Epic!

<home

Celebrate the UAE National Day with a big BLING on your Key Chain. This beautiful piece is hand-made with love and know-how and original SWAROVSKI crystals by the German Designer SARAH ASFUR.

ORDER ONLINE HERE:

http://www.souq.com/Art-Collectables/Handcrafts/NATIONAL-DAY-GIFT-UAE-FLAG-KEY-CHAIN-with-SWAROVSKI-crystals/6155529/?mode=1&lan=EN

This weeks Spotlight Special is Bling. All the bling is on sale this week. Who doesn’t like bling? It’s a perfect accent to any project. Here are a few examples:

Chris Brown recently showed off his new bling! Looks like it is a blinged out spray can with the words breezy on it.

by Darren Quick

Goldstriker International, a company which specializes in dipping mobile phones in gold and platinum, appears to have snatched the title of world’s most expensive mobile phone from the iPhone 3G King’s Button with the creation of the iPhone 3GS Supreme. Priced at £1.92 million (approx. US$3.14 million) this is one phone you definitely wouldn’t want to leave on a bus…Before you go reaching for your Titanium credit card, you should know the iPhone 3GS Supreme was commissioned by an anonymous Australian businessman from the gold mining industry.
And I thought we had left all of this rotten excess behind!

Der heutige Cocktail-Wettbewerb war ein voller Erfolg, denn SIR MOUNT H kam überall sehr gut an. Viele der Anwesenden suchten das Gespräch und wollten mehr wissen. Oder sie gaben Tipps, wie und wo SIR MOUNT H noch vermarktet werden könnte. Leider können wir wegen technischer Probleme noch keine Bilder präsentieren. Das holen wir sobald wie möglich nach.

Jeder 10. Teilnehmer kreierte einen Cocktail. Die gewählte Jury, bestehend aus vier Mitgliedern, erkürte dann gegen 21:45 den Gewinner. Sein Erfinder heisst Robert, und so hat er den Cocktail Sir Bobby Mountain getauft.

Hier das Rezept:
1 Limette klein stampfen, mit zwei Löffeln Rohzucker. Vier cl Limejuice, dann auffüllen mit SIR MOUNT H. Rühren, nicht schütteln. Ein Stengel Pfefferminze und eine Scheibe Orange dazu.

Der Gewinner-Cocktail – alkoholfrei, gesund und sehr gut schmeckend – wird dann beim nächsten Internations-Event ein möglicher Welcome-Drink sein.

Bella True is a fine jeweler who asks: Do you want BLING or BRAND? For the price of a 1/2 carat diamond ring elsewhere, you can afford a full carat from Bella True. Let the ROCK fight begin

http://bellatrue.com/

“Venez comme vous êtes” ou “Venez comme nous croyons que vous êtes” ?

Cette publicité met en scène un jeune danseur noir, dans plusieurs tenues, avec plusieurs habitudes.

Malgré le désir de promotion de la diversité de McDonald’s, je suis frappée par les stéréotypes véhiculés dans ce spot.

On voit le personnage en premier abord habillé tout à fait normalement puis il porte une coupe afro puis des tresses, et ensuite un long manteau de fourrure et tout un tas d’autres tenues caractéristiques des rappeurs afro-américains. Les autres tenues sont également associées au monde du hip hop américain de différentes époques. Il danse le hip hop et la pub finit avec le jeune homme portant un nombre incalculable de bijoux dit “bling-bling” encore associé au hip hop. Il reste cependant important de noter que le stéréotype est ici reconnu dans la publicité parce que le jeune homme agit comme s’il pensait qu’il avait beaucoup trop de bijoux.

Malgré ce dernier élément, je suis assez étonnée que le jeune danseur n’ait été montré QUE en rapport avec le hip hop. Pourquoi n’est il pas dépeint comme danseur de classique ou comme rocker ? Où est la réelle diversité proclamée par McDonald’s ?

Citrine comes with a huge “family” of other quartz varieties!!  Purple is amethyst; pink is rose; brown is smoky; and green is well, green. There are other varieties – just too many to mention here today.  

The interesting fact about citrine’s color is that is begins purple – is heated – and becomes the yellow to orange variety.  This treatment is permanent and the color won’t revert back to amethyst.  No special care is required; however, some jewelers avoid using a steam cleaner.  And, they take special care to protect it from heat while performing any repairs – such as sizing a ring set with a citrine.

Although citrine may be described as topaz quartz or citrine topaz, it’s a different mineral altogether.  It’s an easy separation – gemologically – so don’t let the name fool you.   …Dii

This is quite possibly the best token of appreciation I’ve ever received from a colleague: SHRIMP BLING!

So...shiny....!

Notice the Sparkles!

“Bling Teeth”

Indiana – At a rest area somewhere along the highway towards Chicago, while on tour with This is How Rumors Get Started.

March, 2009

Taken by John Forrester

(flickr/johnsforrester/all rights reserved)

Courtesy AGTA

November has another option for a birthstone – the Citrine. This golden beauty is from the quartz family – and comes with a lower price tag than topaz. (generally speaking.)

With any color gemstone, the color is so important.  You want a rich color – not too light and not too dark. However, keep in mind, the cutter has a lot to do with the final result.  You can own a pretty citrine because of its color – but for the exceptional one, keep an eye on the cut.   …Dii

Yesterday I went to look at buying  a racehorse. Well actually, I went along for the ride, to watch a friend buy a portion of a race horse (as you do). Having never really been to anything like that before I didn’t really know what to expect. In my mind I thought it would be all hairspray, hunters and tweed – lots of “rah , rah, yaah Daaarling’s” being bantered about. But it wasn’t the case – it was prime-time people watching heaven. I was in my element! I love horses, but I very nearly missed the ones being paraded about looking at a fellow “buyer” who had the most bling I have ever seen on a man or a woman. No digit was left unadorned. Gold and diamond rings on every finger and thumb. A real diamond geezer who no doubt had plenty of pony to invest in a racehorse or two, or three…

A Dagenham Dime Doused in Diamonds

Being the final female left on The X Factor obviously means that Stacey Solomon is one well dressed girl every weekend.
She accessorised the outfit with £100,000 worth of rented diamonds and was tailed by a security guard, who removed the jewellery as soon as she stopped singing.
She was wearing a diamond cuff with 36 carats of diamonds, diamond chandelier earrings and a stunning circus ring for the performance.
A Norwich jeweller loaned the £100,000 worth of diamonds for Stacey Solomon who performed ‘Who wants to live forever’. She was ablaze with the white ice jewellery when she was on stage and said she felt like “a million dollars!”

Bought some rigidity bars for the Silvia: a room bar (as the Do-Luck one is too expensive) and 2 point fender bars
Brand is Ultra Racing, which happens to be made in Malaysia… hmmmm. Not too sure about the colour.

Fitted the room bar with no issues

But when I went to take off one of the guards, it appears the fender bar doesn’t fit? It says s15 on the bar, so maybe this is the issue… After enquiring, it appears that you are supposed to drill holes to make them fit?
Not so sure about that now!
Doesn’t matter anyway, managed to tidy up the loom in the inner guard which was previously rubbed through by the tyre! Sweeeet!

Credits: Corbin Gurkin, Corbin Gurkin Photography, Rochelle Mort, Blooms by Martha Andrews, Belathee, Belathee Photography, Orchard Cove Photography, Artisan Events, Carla Ten Eyck, Your Las Vegas Wedding Concierge

DISCLAIMER: I’m not a righteous person.. In fact God prolly doesn’t really like me.. But i like to try.. And besides.. Im jus sayin…

Wusup..

So I found an extra $25 dollars today.. I LOVE THAT SHIT! I wish I found money every day cuz I ain’t got shit.. Now I ain’t poor, my family is very comfortable.. But me, Im broke all the time.. Consumerisms a beautiful thing..

But since Im not in a really tight spot money wise right now and it’s a Friday (Jumaa – the Muslim holy day) I decided I’d give it to charity.. Word.. Tryin to git sum redemption son lol…
For some reason I started to think about my chain which is a silver “Allah” pendant.. I thought to myself, I’m waitin on the day I find $10000 extra in my pocket so I can buy a real nice chain and piece wit diamonds maybe..Lol yea I like shiny shit..

But really tho.. I think God would send my vain ass straight to hell for that shit.. I’d get more points by spendin $500 on a nice modest piece and give the rest to a needy family for some basic shit like flour and rice and shit.. Who the fuck has the audacity to be like Ima show the most high how good I am by wastin a TON of money on useless ass shiny rocks..

Apparently ME and Mufuckas like me do!! And rappers, and aspiring rappers and ppl who like money.. Like kanye and shit.. Wit their iced out Jesus pieces..

Smh.. I felt dumb.. THAT CHAIN AINT GONNA SPEAK FOR U WHEN U IN FRONT OF GOD… Not unless u melt it down and use the money u get to help someone out..

Rockin a Jesus piece does not make u righteous or spiritual.. Shit I saw a
Pornstar wit one the other day.. WHILE IN THE PORNO! Fail fail fail… I’m not sayin a pornstar can’t be spiritual or believe in God, etc.. I’m jus sayin..

If u have lots of diamonds in ur Jesus/Allah/Religious piece.. I hope God bitch slaps u in the face and drop kicks u off a cloud.. It makes NO SENSE to wear a $100,000 cross while ppl in ur own communities starve and live substandard.. Ur disgracing the message of the system u supposedly rep..

What would Jesus do if he saw u be all like “Jesus Jesus look wut I got” and u pulled out a $100,000 diamond encrusted heavy link chain with a platinum and diamond cross pedant – hed throw u out the synagogue (remember ppl – Jesus was a Jew)…

So can we please stop rockin the iced out Jesus pieces? And I don’t wanna see no iced out Allah pieces either.. And no diamond stars of David.. Or ohms,(Hindu) or kandas (Sikh) or anything..

I don’t know, it jus made me think and I ain’t blogged in a while so.. Plus I’m bored at my day job.. This got a lil longer than planned…

Sorry.. I’ll shut up now…

Don’t buy diamonds… Help someone poor instead..

Much Love

Militant

Many gemstones are associated with some type of mystery or lore. The topaz is said to help improve your vision. So, what is Mystic Topaz?  This may be a colorless topaz which is coated with a substance that creates a rainbow of colors over the stone. Some are actually the synthetic stone, cubic zirconia, with a similar coating and result.

How long will the coating last?  That depends.  (Don’t you love that statement?) Household cleaners might damage the coating – which, by the way – is only on the bottom of the stone. I certainly wouldn’t recommend cleaning it in an ultrasonic cleaner.  And, if you need to have a ring sized, the heat necessary to complete this type of repair most likely will affect the coating.   Mystery revealed!  …Dii

Precious topaz is also described as Imperial Topaz – which I would describe as a warm gold color with a hint of pink!  This luscious color is more rare and therefore, more money!

Pink topaz can also be found – but not in a great supply from Mother Nature. You wouldn’t know that from looking on the internet. “Pink topaz” is everywhere and offered at very low prices. I put that in quotes because not all of it is even topaz at all!

Many internet sellers don’t even know what they are selling – some of this is either a coated material or a pink color of cubic zirconia!  If you want the genuine thing – see a gemologist/jeweler. They have the knowledge to determine the origin of the color as well as the value.   Don’t let the “names” fool you!  …Dii

Website: grimedaily.com

Well Street: We’ll be honest this so called ‘website’ hasn’t got that much going for it… but one thing it does have is plenty of vidyooos (street spelling) and seems to cater for the well… is illiterate to strong? The only text on the site is on the actual advert banners! But forget all that for now, this site has some real comedy gems. Let us introduce to you a lovely chap called TEMPA T don’t be put off by his urban street name he really seems like a nice guy.

Check out this brilliant interview/day in the life/ documentary it really is something special.

Clean your act up: Like we mentioned before this really scrapes the barrel on calling itself a ‘website’ and in reality is just a slightly polished myspace turd with massive adverts and highly photoshopped ’street/grime’ imagery. It even has to translate it’s own adverts as the typeface chosen for the main advert is just soooooo street it’s not even legible (looks like bumgle, bungle, uncle?) hence a lovely sans serif font spelling it out it plain old English.