Man Oh Man - Michael Fassbender in W!

Every so often I think that things are going to slow down and that I'm going to be able to take a little break from my real life and catch up on all the blogs that I've missed over the past few months...
and then things speed up even more!
Such is life, non?
But being busy means all good things in my life.

While my time to blog has been drastically limited to a few minutes here and there I wanted to share with you something special.

Michael Fassbender photographed by Jeff Burton for W Magazine

Yeah, I thought that you would think that this was special too!

Miss de Ville was lucky enough to get to deliver the Beladora jewelry to this photo shoot and get a glimpse of Mr. Fassbender in dishabille.

Here is the ring that he was wearing in this photo.



Crest Signet Ring in 14K

As I've mentioned here before, we send out copious amounts of jewelry for magazine photo shoots, but we never know whether or not our pieces will make it into print...until we see the magazine.

So of course we are thrilled to see our estate jewelry in W, ELLE, Marie Claire, Vanity Fair, InStyle and other major fashionista magazines.

(Thank you editors and stylists...we LOVE you!)

Outside of all things Beladora I've been busy reading all the George R.R. Martin and Diana Gabaldon books.  Because of my minor amount of obsessive compulsiveness, when I find an author that I like, I tend to read their entire oeuvre. 

Do you do that too?

Luckily, with my trip next week to the Miami International Antiques and Estate Jewelry, I will have plenty of time on the cross country flight to read.

What are you reading right now?

Can you make some suggestions?

While I love Martin and Gabaldon...I'd like to find some books that have less than 700 plus pages!

Soap Is Good - SOPA is bad

Naturally, I would have an opinion on this issue.
Seen today at purseforum.com

If you are not following the SOPA situation, you should be.

Americancensorship.org

And as Dash reminds us on her blog French Sampler
We owe thanks to Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the internet...
you know...the real one...
who gave it to the world for free.

A Very Merry Christmas Indeed

Ah, Christmas is finally here.



Happily this year our family will celebrate Christmas at my son's home in Brentwood. 
It's wonderful to see the traditional family dinner now passed down to the next generation.
In addition, the highlight of this holiday is my son's engagement to the lovely lawyer Laura.
Today I will meet her family which arrived this week from New York.
So, this is a very special holiday for me.

I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas.

Christmas Comes Early For Korea and The World At Large

As you can imagine I have been busting it out this week. 
There has been so much to do at the office and at home to get ready for the holiday this weekend.

But, I just can't let the busiest week of the year pass without posting the best news of the year or perhaps of the last few decades.
Kim Jong Il will finally face his final judgement.

I don't think that I've ever mentioned it here before that I love Korea. 
Why you ask?  I don't know it's complicated.
But like my being a Francophile, an Anglophile, a  Switzerlandphile and an Australiaphile,
I am a Koreaphile too.
And, if you watched as much Korean drama (K-dram) as I have
you'd be a Koreaphile too.

But back on topic.
Kim Jong Il was evil. Yes, there I've said it.
He was so bad that he made Middle Eastern tyrants and African despots look like nice guys.
Like Stalin with his failed agricultural policies in the 1930s which caused the starvation of millions,
Kim Jong Il's policies caused the starvation his own people.
You can read about it in this article from The Atlantic
How Kim Jong Il Starved North Korea

Oh, and if that isn't bad enough,
Under Kim Jong Il, dissenters and others were forced into prison/concentration camps.
In fact entire families, with small children, were sentenced to hard labor and starvation.
There is ample evidence about the conditions in these camps on the internet including in this article from the Huffington Post
North Korea: Behind The Veil

"In this country, one can die from uttering one wrong word; people starve to death; one cannot go anywhere without a public pass. In this country, there are modern-day Auschwitz concentration camps; no religion exists; the regime supports production of illegal drugs, counterfeit bills and cigarettes. In this country, the whole population is classified into twelve hierarchical groups; millions starve to death while the dictator spends close to a billion dollars for his father's memorial; there is neither radio nor internet. In this country, one has to serve at least ten years in the military; there is the biggest income gap in the world; and the monthly wage is less than a dollar for most people. This country is North Korea."

I don't know what is going to happen in North Korea now, but I pray that Kim Jong Il's death will bring a new openness and an amelioration in the harsh conditions that the people of that country have been living under at the whim of their tyrannical totalitarian leaders.

Yes indeed, Christmas has come early for some 24 million people.

RIP Hitch

I am very sad to read about the passing of Christopher Hitchens.
I didn't always agree with him but I always appreciated his intelligence, wit and well researched writing.
Ron Radosh has a nice tribute to him,

And here's a link to his many articles in Vanity Fair