Finally, A Reason For Space Travel

Astronomers discover a planet made of diamond

Astronomers have spotted an exotic planet that seems to be made of diamond racing around a tiny star in our galactic backyard.
The new planet is far denser than any other known so far and consists largely of carbon. Because it is so dense, scientists calculate the carbon must be crystalline, so a large part of this strange world will effectively be diamond.

"The evolutionary history and amazing density of the planet all suggest it is comprised of carbon -- i.e. a massive diamond orbiting a neutron star every two hours in an orbit so tight it would fit inside our own Sun," said Matthew Bailes of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne.

That's a lot of rough...
do you think that DeBeers is developing a space program?

And for something closer to home
The jewelry collection of Elizabeth Taylor will be on display prior to the December auction by Christie's.
Here are the locations
- Moscow: Sept. 15 – 16, GUM, Red Square 3
- London: Sept. 24 – 26, Christie’s, 8 King St., St. James
- Los Angeles: Oct. 13 – 16, venue to be determined
- Dubai: Oct. 23, Jumeirah Emirates Towers
- Geneva: Nov. 11 – 12, Four Seasons Hotel, 33 quai des Bergues
- Paris: Nov. 16 – 17, Christie’s, 9 avenue Matignon
- Hong Kong: Nov. 24 – 27, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center
- New York: Dec. 3 – 12, Christie’s, 20 Rockefeller Plaza

I can't wait to see this collection

Meanwhile, according to IDEX, a 32.77 carat yellow diamond is expected to fetch some $18 million or so.

According to Christie’s, the diamond's color is highly saturated. “The vivid yellow literally blazes with color, unlike any yellow diamond I’ve ever seen,” said Rahul Kadakia, Christie’s Head of Jewelry for Christie’s Americas.

Yellow diamonds gain their color from nitrogen replacing carbon atoms in the diamond’s structure. The level of nitrogen determines the intensity of the color. The vivid yellow offered by Christie’s absorbed an unusually high level of aggregated nitrogen, giving it a superbly saturated golden yellow color, the firm said.

I won't be bidding...in case you were wondering.

Have a great weekend...and to my peeps on the east coast, stay dry!

Ca$hing In Like A Karda$hian - Princess Style

Outside of the British royals aka Windsor Inc., has there ever been a family so brazenly branded as the Kardashians?  No, I didn't think so.
And not surprisingly, the brains belong this brilliant branding campaign belong to the power mom, Kris Kardashian Jenner.

This woman is a genius.  No really she is.   There should be case studies written for the Harvard Business Review about how she turned her B list brood into the big buck$.  I have nothing but admiration for her marketing skills which begat a very successful and long running reality tv show making her girls into superstars. And now the biggest star of them all, Kim Kardashian, has just had her celebrity all star wedding.

In case you weren't invited to the ceremony, here's the exclusive video. I wonder if the amount that she made by selling the exclusive film rights to E! paid for the cost of the wedding...I bet it did and more. Kim, like her mother, is seriously  savvy (product endorsements, business ownership, self promotion, etc.) and honestly I admire her business acumen.


Kim is a truly beautiful girl, a true Hollywood princess. Don't you agree?
And doesn't she make a radiant bride?

And I am so thrilled that she chose to grasp the trend that we've been tirelessly promoting at Beladora. Yes, you know what trend I'm talking about...jewelry worn on your head, princess style.  We've been wearing necklaces on our heads for years, no really we have.

Here's a photo from a couple of years ago of  Miss de Ville wearing our Queen of the Nile emerald and diamond necklace on her head.  Seriously, there isn't a fancy necklace here at the HQ that doesn't at one time or another end up draped across a forehead or perched across the top of a head tiara style. So perhaps now, after the Kim Kardashian wedding photos, this trend will finally catch on.

So, if having your forehead draped in diamonds isn't your style, what about wearing a brooch that belonged to a Grand Duchess?

This story that we have on this diamond brooch was that it belonged to the Princess Juliane Henriette Ulrike of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld who married into the Russian royal family and became the the Grand Duchess Anna Feodorovna of Russia.

Here is her portrait by Elisabeth Louise Vigee LeBrun. 

The Grand Duchess led quite a life. Married at the age of 14, she was miserable in Russia and returned to Coburg after three years in 1799. After a brief reconciliation with the Grand Duke, she left him for good.  Later, like Germaine de Stael, she led the kind of libertine-intellectual life that was only available to women of her class.
According to Wikipedia

On 28 October 1808 Anna gave birth to an illegitimate son, named Eduard Edgar Schmidt-Löwe. The father of this child may have been Jules Gabriel Emile de Seigneux, a minor French nobleman. Eduard was ennobled by his mother's younger brother, Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and assumed the surname von Löwenfels by decree on 10 January 1818.



Later, Anna moved to Bern, Switzerland, and gave birth to a second illegitimate child in 1812, a daughter, named Louise Hilda Agnes d'Aubert. The father was Rodolphe Abraham de Schiferli, a Swiss surgeon, professor and chamberlain (French:Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, German:Oberhofmeister) of Anna's household from 1812 to 1837. In order to cover another scandal in Anna's life, the baby was adopted by Jean François Joseph d'Aubert, a French refugee.


Two years later, in 1814, Constantine, accompanied by her brother Leopold, tried to get Anna to return to him but her firm opposition prevented this attempt from succeeding. That year, Anna acquired an estate on the banks of Aare River and gave it the name of Elfenau.[5] She spent the rest of her life there, and, as a lover of music, made her home a center for domestic and foreign musical society of the era.

I love her story and I can't wait to learn more about her.

Some Thoughts on Blogging

This week is the 10 year anniversary of Glenn Reynold's Instapundit.com which I have been reading daily for the last decade. How Glenn, a husband, father, constitutional law professor, author, interviewer and commentator can also put out the most successful aggregating blog for 10 years is beyond me, but he deserves some crazy kudos. That man is a god, no wonder they call him the blogfather!

Recently I read a report about the correlation between the hours spent watching television and life expectancy. You probably saw that article too.  What I wonder is what is the correlation between time spent blogging and life expectancy?  I would guess that is it is something similar.  I can personally attest to a correlation between time spent at my computer and middle age spread....and so can my derriere.
Which brings me to my point of asking this question...
Is there a optimal amount of time that you can spend blogging before all hell breaks out on your body?

My guess is yes, but it depends on your lifestyle.
If you are an active person, an hour a day is probably alright. If you a working person, comme moi, who spends an average of 10 hours a day at the office in front of the computer, any amount of additional time spent blogging must be detrimental.
So what does a working person do?  Stop blogging?  Blog only on weekends? I don't really know the answer.

Blogging has opened up my world in many ways. 
I've put Australia, Scotland, Wales, Belgium  and the Pyrenees high on my list of places to visit...just because I've enjoyed all the posts by FF, Tabitha, Ruth, Greet and Dash.  I couldn't have predicted this when I started BHB. 
I've also learned a lot about my favorite subjects, history, art, literature, gardening and decoration through reading blogs. 
And, being an anti-social person by nature who avoids social interaction whenever possible, I believe that I have a better understanding of people by reading about their lives and interests.  More importantly, I've learned that there are people out there in the blogosphere that I would love to hang around with....so much for my being anti-social!

Blogging has also helped me to accomplish my primary goal of making people aware of the benefits of buying estate jewelry versus paying retail for new jewelry, and of course about Beladora.com. Let's face it, when you are starting a business and you don't have a budget for advertising or PR...blogging is one way to go.  I look at it as the DIY of branding.  But BHB has also co mingled some of my personal opinions with my brand, which is not what I set out to do.  (Fortunately, I am in the process of upgrading the Beladora website with new code and such, and adding an actual Beladora blog to the site which will solve that issue.)

Blogging has certainly been a worthwhile experience, both personally and professionally, but I've decided to cut back on posting to one day a week. 
I know that my general health, and my derriere, will thank me for it.

Away To Rancho Bernardo For a Wedding in a Winery

Sorry about the slacking but it's been one of those weeks...and it's only Tuesday!

Last weekend while Tabitha was off grouse hunting and FF was celebrating her birthday with her fellow Leo's, I was off on a road trip to the Rancho Bernardo Inn.

To be honest, it was nice

but it didn't look anywhere as awesome as in these photos that I snagged off of the interwebs.

I certainly never saw a pool that looked anything like this.

Nor did I see a jacuzzi that looked like this.
Somehow I missed all these scenic spots.
Well no matter, I wasn't there for spa vacation. I was there for a late afternoon wedding at a local winery.
I took some nice photos of the reception on my iPhone but I've been unable to download them, so all I can show you is this bird cage thingy table decoration.  Pretty isn't it?

This was my summer wedding in a winery garb, a Tracy Reese silk chiffon dress, a vintage Celine handbag and some new strappy sandals from the Kitson outlet store in Beverly Hills.

I wore some pink sapphire and diamond jewelry too.
It was pretty.

It's hard for me to believe that the summer is almost over.  It seems to have flown by.

It's Only Teenage Wasteland

Well, as more and more reports come out about the riots in the UK I'm not surprised to read about who some of the young looters were
The middle class 'rioters' revealed: The millionaire's daughter, the aspiring musician and the organic chef all in the dock

Take this young lady on the left in this photo

According to the Daily Mail
this cocktail dress clad young lady is the desperate, downtrodden and obviously disenfranchised
Laura Johnson who lived a Dikensian existence

at this horrible country house - tenement with a tennis court

Millionaire's daughter Laura Johnson, 19, was charged with stealing £5,000-worth of electronic goods, including a Toshiba TV, Goodmans TV, microwave and mobile phones.The goods were allegedly found in a car being driven by Miss Johnson after a branch of Comet in Charlton, south-east London, was raided.Bexleyheath magistrates heard that a 'public order kit' of balaclava, gloves and a bandana was also found in the car.Miss Johnson attended St Olave's Grammar School in Orpington, Kent, the fourth best performing state school in the country, after transferring from its sister school Newstead Wood.
She achieved A*s in French, English literature, classical civilisation and geography A-levels, and is now studying English and Italian at Exeter University.

Yeah, the millionaire's daughter probably needed another microwave oven...
don't they all...

opportunistic looting by so many well fed but obviously not well bred students
they should be ashamed

Teenage Wasteland indeed

Fall Fashion 2011 - More Mid-Century

I know that those Aussie babes FF and SSG are all over the Missoni thing this Fall
but I'm kind of excited about the Mad Men trend at Banana Republic

After seeing this new B-Rep ad campaign

and Beladora vintage brooches all over the September issue of ELLE it seems apparent that Mid-Century looks will be in style this Fall and Winter

And do I ever love this look!
But why do the B-Rep hemlines have to be so high? 
Two inches longer would have been so much more chic.

I kinda of think that B-Rep copied my Adriana Papell dress

 Don't you?
I wonder if they are borrowing my estate jewelry looks too?

Mabe Pearl and Diamond Earrings in 14K from Beladora2.com

 

Blue Topaz and Diamond Ring in 14K from Beladora2

 
Banana Republic clothes and Beladora 2 vintage jewelry make a good pair
Are you starting to shop yet for Fall?
 
But since Summer is still here, I'm hoping for a hot and sunny weekend.
What are you up to this weekend?

Fall 2011 Jewelry Trend - Vintage Brooches

I just opened my new issue of ELLE magazine
and look what I found!!!!

Vintage Brooches from you know where

Check out the Beladora Press Page to see more jewelry in the fashion press

and on the red carpet

And, there's going to be more coming up this Fall!

Around Town - Blonds and Bombs on Rodeo Drive

The usual view on Rodeo Drive

and the unusual view

Here is a photo of the corner of Brighton Way and Rodeo Drive
where the street is blocked to traffic because the police found a suspicious suitcase with wires

So far no loud booms and all is quiet
we're good to go!

OK...so I got the rumor on the bomb scare.
Inside of the mysterious suitcase there was a script that had been delivered to a literary agent to read. 
The agent thought it was not worth reading and tossed it in the garbage in the alley...but missed the giant trash receptacle and the case ended up on the side of the alley.
Bomb Squad Blows Up Movie Script Meant For Agent In Beverly Hills

London - Letting Barbarism Win

If you haven't heard the audio of these riot girls bragging that is attached to this BBC video you need to listen to it now.
Showing the rich we do what we want

Oh yeah girls, you really showed them didn't you!

Linked by Instapundit.com
Brian Micklethwaith on Samizdata.net has this to say about self defense and the trouble with letting the UK police handle the situation.

One of the more depressing things about these riots is the way that the only thing that the Police can think of to say to us non-looters and non-arsonists is: “Don’t join in” and “Let us handle it”. If the bad guys start to torch your house, let them get on with it. If they attack your next door neighbour, don’t join in on his side. Run away. Let the barbarians occupy and trash whatever territory they pick on and steal or destroy whatever property they want to.

There was a fascinating impromptu TV interview with some young citizens of Clapham last night, not “experts”, just regular citizens, one of whom stated the opposite policy. Law abiding persons should get out of their houses, he said, en masse, and be ready to defend them.

The trouble with “letting the Police do their job” is that in the precise spot in which you happen to live, or used to live, their job probably won’t start, if it ever does start, for about a week. In the meantime, letting the Police do their job means letting the damn looters and arsonists do their job, without anyone laying a finger on them, laying a finger on them being illegal. This is a doomed policy. If most people are compelled by law to be only neutral bystanders in a war between themselves and barbarism, barbarism wins. The right to, at the very least, forceful self defence must now be insisted upon.

Here in armed Los Angeles we know something about self defense.

Do you know who these guys are?

These are Korean shop owners and employees defending their business during the LA riots in 1992.
K-town wasn't going to put up with wholesale looting and arson.
Either was Beverly Hills where the local police basically shut down access into the city.

A curfew was implemented and the National Guard was called up
and the US Marines were brought in to patrol South Central

Even with the police and National Guard, there were 53 deaths, a thousand some injuries and more than $800 million in property damage.
I can't even imagine what the damage will cost in the UK.


Here's another interesting comment about self defense on Instapundit.com

The problem with comparing London and Korean shopkeepers is two fold. First, all the property owners and law abiding citizens have been disarmed. So unless a man is going to stab all these felons to death, there really is no self defense. And it’s hard to defend against flying molotov cocktails. And Second, the British Government has made it perfectly clear that they’re willing to incarcerate anyone who defends himself. They have proven this time and again by prosecuting the law abiding citizens who are afraid for their lives.

So in essence, the British government has effectively defanged their first responders in favor of their own police forces who are obviously inadequate to deal with this circumstance.

So what does a business owner do in London, Croydon or elsewhere when they don't have the right to defend their homes and property
and when the police do basically nothing?

Utter Insanity in England

Watching the BBC
What can I say, I'm blown away by the images of the rioting in the UK
Forget the police, where is the army?


I hope that all of my UK blogger friends are safe.

Going Short and Long This Fall

I bet that you think that I'm talking about shorting US bonds and going long gold
but I'm not.
I'm talking about two fashion trends that I can finally get excited about
shorts and longer hem lengths for dresses!

I would totally wear this pair of shorts this fall

See by Chloe shorts at Neiman Marcus $260

and this dress

David Meister dress at Neiman Marcus $390

What trend are you looking forward to this Fall?

(As you can imagine, chez the HQ things have been going a little crazy with the price of gold rocketing over $1700 today.  Is gold going to $2000?  Who knows...but I wouldn't be shorting it right now.)



Music - Split Endz

Yesterday was another sunny summer day in Laguna Beach
where, in spite of the shaky economy,
the sky was so clear, the sun was so bright and the water was so blue
and all the shiny happy people were having fun.
It was the perfect Southern California summer day for a family get together

Even the long drive on the traffic filled 405 freeway didn't seem so bad when we could plug in my daughter's ipod with its 6000 or so songs and listen to music from the 1980s



I'm not sure why she had this song on her ipod
especially given the fact that this it came out in 1982
and she wasn't born until 1985
How could she possibly know this random song?
Do you even remember it?

Nevertheless, driving to Laguna Beach with my daughter,
singing Eighties music in the car,
and spending the day with my family
was pretty much the perfect way enjoy a sunny summer Saturday.

Face Palming Like It's 1929

Just proving that there is pretty much a blog for everything

broker photos from

The Brokers With Their Hands On Their Faces Blog

Meanwhile our President celebrated his 50th birthday with 5 separate birthday parties including the one at the White House where, according the the news, danced for house and lead the conga line.

(I do hope that the news report was an exaggeration...)

Don't get me wrong,

I have absolutely nothing against President Obama celebrating his birthday

with his family and close friends

but was a celebrity filled blow out barbecue at the White House appropriate

in the same week as the US was being downgraded by S&P?

Are you getting that 1929 kind of feeling?

cause I am

Brokers 1929

Problems With Blogging

Last week there was an article on Drudge stating that internet addiction was as difficult to kick as drugs or alcohol. 
Why do I find this difficult to believe?
I spend virtually all day long in front of my computer
so stepping away from it seems like a vacation.
Forget social networking and twitter
I haven't even logged on to facebook in over 2 months.
But I do follow a lot of blogs and I read them everyday.

This year I have been so frustrated with Google blogger because of the problems with  my profile disappearing when I'm trying to comment on a blog post
and as you know by now, I am opinionated...and I like to leave comments.
Because of this frustration I assume that I could easily give up blogging
without an intervention or a 12 step program
so no addiction here.

Have you been having the same frustrations with Google blogger?
If so, how do you handle it?

Is this Google issue or maybe an Explorer issue?
Should I be using  Firefox?

Oh, and I appreciate everyone who takes the time to leave a comment on BHB
If I'm not commenting on your blogs, it's not because I'm not reading them
it is because blogger is on the blink.

Well We All Slog On...

Yes, I know

This week there's not much to be happy about

Wall Street is Crashing...again

US faces a downgrade on debt

Europe is on the brink of a major financial collapse

Consumer spending is down for the first time in two years

Gold Prices reached another record high

Unemployment is through the roof

$13 Trillion Dollars of Debt will soon overtake the US GDP

So why am I smiling in my vintage silver jewelry?

I'm smiling because it's summer...still

and because my brother and my nephew will be in California this week
and because my entire family is getting together for a barbecue

and because while we are always in some sort of economic crisis or another
we just get used to it and slog on

I'm also smiling because at Beladora.com we are in the unique position of being able to offer
jewelry by uber trendy designers
whose jewelry is sold at Barney's New York
such as Pippa Small, Renee Lewis and Aurora Lopez Mejia
at a fraction of the Barney's price
(the jewelry is not uploaded to the website yet...but I'm telling you about it first)

Aurora Lopez Mejia jewelry in 18K

and because at Beladora2.com we've got fabulous vintage sterling silver jewelry which looks great and is priced for these tough economic times

Vintage Silver Jewelry

On we shall slog