CELEBRATING THE COMPANY WE KEEP

It's a quiet week, a week for gratitude.  I guess it takes cresting my forties to realize how true it is that we're only as good as the company we keep.  My friends inspire me, they shape my day, inform my preferences; they surprise me and make me laugh.  

This Thanksgiving, I'm celebrating the company I keep.  

For Style and Substance...

I started designing many, many years ago, making wire-wrapped jewelry for my friends.  While my own aesthetic has developed (a lot!), I still design with my friends in mind, knowing that if they can wear my jewelry, it'll look perfect on every woman, everywhere.  

And yet there are those people whose style is something… different, you almost can't put words to it -- in fact, they can't put words to it, so effortless is their look.  

Kathleen Cook-Hunter's style is in her quirkiness.  She doesn't follow trends, she creates them.  Her brilliant use of color is unconventional and deep.  This kind of saturation is what I strive for in the colored stones I choose every season.   

Kathleen with Christie, both in Elizabeth Showers

Karen Bates Novakowski is not only a friend, she's worked for me for years, and there hasn't been a day she hasn't delighted us all with her effortless chic, even in workout clothes!  Karen is a study in layers, and is the perfect muse for the way my jewelry can be worn together. 

Karen and me at the Couture Jewelry Show in Vegas, 2009

To explore distant places…

My most intrepid friends are hands down, Ann Alford and Erin Fenstermaker, both of whom have the tenacity to pick a spot, map its highlights and challenge me to go there with them.  They don't hesitate, ever, and it's with them that I've scaled boulders, bathed elephants, shot rapids and jumped from cliffs, and extended my own borders in every way.

For their taste buds...

Christie Coker introduced me to Pickapeppa sauce.  It was a childhood tradition, she doused it over cream cheese on tortilla chips, I think it got her through high school.  (Simple solutions!)  I've refined my own Pickapeppa tradition to accompany hummus on gluten free crackers.  Maybe a tad less "high school," still pretty decadent!

Coveting their Closet...

I have to include my sister Susanna in any conversation about friends -- especially when I'm thinking about closet influence.  The 5050 Boots from Stuart Weitzman (I'm wearing them today!) were Susanna's picks years ago, and I've passed them on to countless others.  So sleek and sexy, my pair is literally on their last leg!

For Popcorn and Culture...

Jennifer Stagen and I go to the movies together, and - I'm not proud - our recent obsession was with the Twilight Saga.  While I probably shouldn't call it Culture (not with a capital C), the power and energy of the characters, their interaction with nature - it speaks to me. 

Alice Cullen, the vampire world's greatest friend!

Their Eye for Art... 

My favorite pieces of art are those that are made especially for me.  Kristan Vinzant created Bark Art, made from tree bark applied to canvas.  I am using tree texture in more and more of my jewelry.  I'm surrounded by it! 

"BARK ART," Kristan Vinzant, 2009

A Friend on the Ground...

I've just moved to a new neighborhood in a new town.  Only 30 miles from where I've been, I wouldn't know where to start without Kim Boyd.  They say moving is up there with the top most traumatic life experiences, and without Kim's rapid response as my friendly City Guide, her tips for a masseuse, a dry cleaner, great restaurants, a tailor, a nail salon, and way more -- I would feel lost.

My new home, Fort Worth


And Words of Wisdom From Friends...

"Date someone for all four seasons before you decide to marry him."

"Rejection is God’s protection."

"Nothing in this world happens by mistake."

"Practice the 3 M’s to stay sane:  Meetings, Meditation and Masturbation!" 

 … Priceless! 

With friends: Ronda, Christie, Kristen, Ann, Christie

Go on, celebrate the company YOU keep!

Feel beautiful!

Elizabeth