BEST OF....

Isn't it cool how the media these days has become so collaborative?  Who doesn't LOVE a curated list of what's fun, what's delicious, and the year's most fabulous visits and venues?  D Magazine, here in Dallas, has truly embraced the "Best Of", helping to put our city on the map.  We are thrilled that Elizabeth Showers was chosen as the Editor's Choice Best Jewelry Designer of Big D this year, and alongside so many other bests of Dallas.

In the spirit of CONGRATULATIONS, I thought we'd give a shout out to some of our very favorites of this year's Best of Big D.  (And if you aren't a Dallasite yourself, we know you will travel through the Big D, for business or pleasure.  Keep these handy in your travel file.)

We too LOVE these eating spots:

Best Gourmet

Eatzi's!  I'm a lunchtime regular...so easy with it near my office.  Sushi, sandwiches, and incredible prepared dinners.  Love their sign as you walk out:  See you Tomorrow!  A combination of "thanks for coming" and "yep, we know you don't cook!"

Best Vegetarian

I adore Cosmic Cafe.  Great food (and homemade Chai)  It's such a calming, peaceful hideaway, right in the heart of the busy Oak Lawn area.

Best Burger

I'm picky, and Twisted Root is a great burger!

Best Chinese

Royal China is not just my favorite Chinese in Dallas, it's one of my favorite restaurants.  I've traveled to Hong Kong and China 5 times, and Royal China nails it.  My girlfriends took me there tonight to celebrate my 42nd birthday, and once again, yuuuummmmmy!

Best Ice Cream

Paciugo's Straciatella - basically, a high quality chocolate chip - is delicious.

And watering holes:

Best Coffee

I'm dating a coffee aficionado, which has me very often switching from my staple green tea over to the dark stuff.  Tommy is always looking for a better Americano, and we are very excited to try Cultivar Coffee. 

Best Hotel Bar

I'm not a bar-goer, but there's a special place in my heart for the Library Bar at the Warwick Hotel.  I was a cocktail waitress there as I was starting my business, at age 24.  I wasn't too great at it, but kinda had fun doing it!  

Best Bar with Games

Barcadia is so much fun.  Lots of vintage video games with my favorite being Ms. Pac-Man.  Remember her?

And when you visit Dallas, you must shop these favorites:

Best Designer Label

Forty Five Ten of course!  We love their team, and Brian Bolke has a great eye.  Our  Monkey Tales Collection lives exclusively at Forty Five Ten.

Best Jewelry Store

Ylang 23 is an amazing store.  The Teichmans are super smart and have designed an incredible website featuring a truly creative array of jewelry designers.  I also love Reader's Pick Nine-Eighteen.  We're neighbors in our Turtle Creek offices, and co-owner Darin Kunz has been a friend for many years (since our first jobs together working as sales associates at Crate & Barrel).

Best Fine Jewelry Designer

Carter Malouf is the Reader's Pick...I adore Carter.

We love sharing trade secrets with one another, and his fun wife Jill's law firm is in my building.

Best Shop for Outdoor Furniture and Accessories

Big Mango Trading Company is, indeed, a "wonderland".  I admire Lori and Jaime Smith's work and love that their inspiration never rests...they take frequent trips to Indonesia.  

I am fascinated and would love to tag along soon!

Best Custom Clothier for Women

Nha Khanh is an incredible ready-to-wear collection!  I sat on a panel of 3 designers for the FGI (Fashion Group International) Career Fair recently, and Khanh Nguyen was on the panel with me.  I was moved by her smarts, her humility and sheer talent.  I may ask her to design a dress for me, one day soon.

Best Consignment Women's Clothing

I have been consigning my clothes with Clotheshorse Anonymous for years.  I love thinking about what glamorous events some of my favorite ex-outfits might attend without me.

And for some CULTURE, high brow or otherwise:

Best Museum

We are so lucky in Dallas.  The Dallas Museum of Art is incredible...so easy to drop in for a smaller exhibit (changing constantly) or stay a full afternoon for meditation or to get inspiration.  But the new Perot Museum of Nature and Sciences is an experience, for all ages. These two museums alone are reason to bring you to Dallas.

Best Movie Theater
Angelika Film Center gives me a feeling of being in New York.  I could choose almost any film they feature, no matter the genre, and like it.

And these?  Dallas' cultural ICONS:

Best TV News Team:  WFAA CHANNEL 8!  

Ronda Gibbons White has been with WFAA since her early 20s and is one of my very very bestest of the best friends, and Best of Big D Broadcaster Gloria Campos is a faithful supporter of the Elisa Project, my beloved favorite non-profit for support from and awareness of eating disorders.

Best Athlete:  DIRK NOWITZKI!  I have always had a little crush on him.  There is something so inspiring and attractive about his spirit.

Best Annual Festival:  STATE FAIR OF TEXAS...a walk down memory lane for me.  I've been going every September or October since I was a little girl.  I will always eat a Fletcher's corny dog with LOTS of mustard, a Diet Dr. Pepper, and ride the bumper cars and ferris wheel.  It's one of my favorite things to do every year. 

I love Dallas.  It is vibrant and dynamic, it's changing every time I turn around.  (I even wrote an entire post on how my city inspires me, read it here.)  D Magazine captures the heart and soul of that vibrancy, every month on the newstands, and more (on the big screen and small, with incredible sponsorships and crazy fun events.  And online, check it out here.) 

We love you D Mag--keep up your amazing work!

Feel Beautiful!

Elizabeth

For the entire list of Best of Big D: Shopping 2013, click here.   

THE LYRIC COLLECTION SINGS!

Last week, early August in Aspen...it's the long awaited unveiling of the Lyric Collection, my design collaboration with the amazing Kelly O'Donovan, artist and co-owner of the Elliott Yeary Gallery in Aspen.  (Read more about our work together here in a post from May 1st.) The unveiling coincided with ArtCrush, the annual gala for the Aspen Art Museum.  Unimaginable energy is in the air, so much creativity and stunning natural beauty! 

Aspen trees in late summer

Teresita Fernández's "Blind Land (Green Mirror)," part of a current exhibit at the Aspen Art Museum 

I pinch myself.  Again I am reminded how my work is a catalyst for such extraordinary experiences.  In this case, it's the opportunity to create something all new, even a bit out of the box.

Our feature in the current issue of Aspen Magazine

The Lyric Collection is truly a meeting of two aesthetics.  You'll recognize me in the exotic stones and unique settings.  What Kelly brings to the Collection is an artist's eye.  In her work, words come to life to tell the kind of story that breaks your heart and makes you laugh, all for its honesty.  It was this raw courage that captured my imagination when I saw Kelly's canvases earlier this year.

Kelly and I at the Gallery in front of her painting, entitled Amazed

Being in Aspen to unveil the Lyric Collection gave me a chance to learn more about the inspiration behind Kelly's work, about her vision and her life.

Let me introduce you to Kelly.

Elizabeth:  Kelly, Amazed is truly an amazing work of art.  In the painting, you even talk about atoms and protons.  Will you say more?

Kelly:  I work from the perspective that we are all on the deepest level, interconnected, we're all one.  The painting has a section called ‘Science Lesson’- it is a simple explanation about all things in the physical world being made up of the same thing down to particles. While we don’t know what particles are made of, we do know each one is connected to every other one in the Universe. We all share something. This fact should make us all feel a bit less lonely and more compassionate and altruistic toward each other.

Elizabeth:  We used Deep Blue Sea in the design of our Lyric Collection earrings.  These words also appear in Amazed.

Kelly:  The Deep Blue Sea section of the painting that those earrings are based on is about that big feeling of in-loveness we all have at least once in our lives. When we are little, maybe it is about our mother or father or a sibling. When we grow up it can be about a significant other and even our child. It’s about loving someone else so much, that marvelous wanting to be in the presence of another. The wish to have them all to yourself, for just a moment but hopefully longer. The dream of getting on a boat and just floating together and letting ‘the wind and the waves’ carry you away.

A pair of earrings from the Lyric Collection

Elizabeth: And the hidden key under a rock by the door?  That too is in Amazed.

Kelly:  Right!  When you are close to someone, you know where that key is--there is a familiarity that's comforting. For me, that part in particular is about my Mom. She passed away last year. All of my life, she always left a key under a rock by her front and back doors. All who she loved knew where it was and were invited to come inside her warm and cozy home. That line also rings true in a different way for someone we are in a loving relationship with. Sometimes we close ourselves off, intentionally or not, but those that love us always know there is a key and they will be ‘let in’, so to speak.

Elizabeth:  I love your honesty--I definitely share these feelings about life and love and our interconnectedness.  So, is your work all autobiographical?

Kelly:   This painting is very autobiographical in that it is a written and painted expression of my thoughts and feelings about life, relationship, love and more. The fun is observing people ‘reading’ the work and identifying so completely with so much of it. Further proving our interconnectedness. A primo example of that is here in Amazed (she points to her painting and reads): "There might be some tendencies that lean toward the dramatic.” 

OK, I think she may be referring to herself with those words, but Kelly is calm and cool, and such a centered person.  With that very fun tendency that "leans toward the dramatic!" Introducing Kelly O'Donovan, and the Lyric Collection!

"Amazed" by Kelly O'Donovan and the back side of the Lyric Collection Pendant

Feel beautiful,

Elizabeth 

EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE

Recently, we received a handwritten note from one of our customers, a thank you note.  This one, though, was not just a "high five" for providing her with a jewel she'd coveted.  Far more poignantly, this note filled us in on the details of a story that touches us deeply.  

Some time ago, this customer purchased a pair of my earrings for her wedding.  She wore them for many years and loved them, but also considered them gifts she held in safe keeping, for a future daughter or daughter-in-law to wear in her own wedding festivities, sometime off in the future.  That was the plan, until they were stolen in a home invasion.  

The beauty of artisanal jewelry design is our agility.  It was in that spirit, and in hopes that we could pick up the pieces of the story, that we were able to have a pair of her earrings specially made, even despite their being part of a collection in the archives.  All in a day's work?  Maybe.  Until we received this sweet note of thanks and learned that these weren't just earrings.  Having them back after such a trying time, our customer wrote, "makes her feel more herself".  

The earrings that made such a difference: White Quartz set in Rhodium over Sterling Silver.

That's the Feel Beautiful message, in real life!

We put beautiful jewels out into the world, and that's our way of connecting with you.  But it occurs to us (thanks to this amazing expression of gratitude), that we may owe you a little bit more.  So:

THANK YOU!

For Wearing the Jewels we Invest with So Much Love

For Coming When We Call, for Sharing our Occasions

and

For Voting!

Thank you!

Feel beautiful!

Elizabeth

“In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices.” 

― Elizabeth Gilbert

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

  

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

In the crush of time and the buzz of business, it's always easy to opt for what's easy.  That path of least resistance seems to be an increasingly popular route.  

Which is why, when so many of my favorite friends and dearest customers ask if they can  drop by my showroom, I know it's time to stop, and listen.  What is more empowering than being close to my customers?  To hear your stories and to know what you think is beautiful?

Today and tomorrow, my team and I are opening our doors for a spontaneous Sample Sale.  Looking back at photos of past events, I'm struck by how happy everyone looks, how much fun we have together! 

Won't you come see us? 

If you're not local or are just too busy, give us a call.  We are all acting as Elizabeth Showers Personal Shoppers.  Why should you miss out if you don't live in Dallas! 

Check out some of our friends and family, past and present!

I learn as much about my jewelry from you as I do from the making of it!

Here's one of the Elizabeth Showers' tribe, Karen, 8 months pregnant, with my friend Shelly, also pregnant - I think there were 4 pregnant women at the trunk show that day!

And I get to hold the babies, too!  (Meg and her son Pope)

One of our favorite mother-daughter teams (Kim and Myrna - and Kim just recently had a little baby girl)

It's fun to look back and see past designs.  Might they come back, in another guise?

One year, we offered gorgeous jewel-toned macaroons.   

There's always more, please ask! 

Love taking trunk shows on the road.

Friends from far and near, here are the ladies from Astley-Clarke in London.

I love telling my stories too!

I'm struck by Susan Sontag's words in this quote - makes me realize that if we don't reach out and grab the opportunity to connect and share with each other, the time will pass us by.  So...

"Do stuff. Be curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.”
- Susan Sontag

Feel beautiful!
Elizabeth

our sample sale is going on now!  come join us for treats and sweets at our Dallas Showroom
3131 Turtle Creek Blvd., Suite 1118
214-879-9944 x108 & x110

POSTCARD FROM MISSISSIPPI

“Make voyages. Attempt them. There's nothing else.”

- Tennessee Williams, Camino Real

 Some of my most special travel experiences happen organically.  They sort of evolve, just as life does.  "Hey, why don't we go..." kind of thing.  That's what took me deep into the heart of the south in July - it was to visit my boyfriend's hometown, for the first time.  

Columbus, Mississippi is the epitome of a genteel southern delta town.  Self-aware in its way - almost like it knows that if you've found your way there, you really want to be there.  There must be millions of towns like it across the US.  There are so many lives lived and stories told in these small towns - we only get to hear them if our own story intersects with theirs.  

Indeed, Columbus has a very rich story.  It was a "hospital town" during the Civil War.  Thousands of soldiers from both sides of the conflict were buried in the town's somberly named Friendship Cemetery (check out this beautiful You Tube video about Columbus' Civil War history).  

Columbus was also birthplace of playwright Tennessee Williams, who set almost all of his incredible plays to the rhythm of the fading south.  I have no doubt he is channeling his own hometown as he writes.

Tennessee Williams was born in this house in 1911

Tennessee Williams captured the human character like few others.  His respect for imperfection, and the way he draws his characters into a fight for dignity, are admirable and yet, tragic.  Think about The Glass Menagerie.  And Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  A Streetcar Named Desire.  Williams himself has been quoted as saying that leaving Columbus was a sort of goodbye to his carefree boyhood, and the point at which he began to turn inward, and write.

Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1958

Paul Newman directed Joanne Woodward, John Malkovich and Karen Allen in The Glass Menagerie in 1987

Amazing Victorian and Antebellum homes still stand, as museums and private homes, all around town - preserving and continuing Columbus' rich stories.  We visited Rosedale House whose details are incredible, both architecturally and as a still life of how life was in its day.

Rosedale House, built in 1856

A mother-of-pearl footed compote at Rosedale House

The staircase at Rosedale House

The famous stories aside.  On Independence Day 2013, Columbus Mississippi was a story of family, and getting to know some very special people as they live life in their corner of the world.  The fireworks were homegrown and quite magnificent, as was the experience.  What a privilege to be part of such a story.  

Feel Beautiful,
Elizabeth

Quite by coincidence, on our return to Dallas, Tommy found and sent me this quote from Tennessee Williams.  I posted it last week as my Friday Quote on Facebook.  Dignity: it's at the center of all of our stories.    

WHAT MAKES ME FEEL BEAUTIFUL

This week marks our first ever Feel Beautiful Week, and we've asked several dynamic fashion & design bloggers to pick their favorite pieces from my current collection, style them in their own unique way and include their thoughts about the Feel Beautiful message in their own lives.

As I've read these incredible, creative posts, I'm inspired to tell my own Feel Beautiful story.

Feel Beautiful has been our mantra for years now.  At the center of a profound shift in my business (read about that here), it is still a daily reminder for me and my entire team about how we operate as a company and live our own individual lives.  Indeed, the Feel Beautiful message is an integral part of every design I create - I think of it almost as a quiet whisper that accompanies each piece of Elizabeth Showers jewelry, urging every woman to feel beautiful, in the moment.  Not to wait until tomorrow, or for when those 5 pounds are lost.  Not this afternoon after a workout, not when our hair finally gets colored, or when we graduate, or get married, or when our husband does what we want him to do, not when our children are out of the house, not when we are retired…  

But to Feel Beautiful,  RIGHT NOW. 

My Swinging Monkey pendant is a whimsical Feel Beautiful reminder!  

The tree branch shank of my Rutilated Quartz ring evokes the Tree of Life

Here is this same ring in white moonstone

At this moment, I am sitting at my kitchen counter typing these powerful words.  Still to this day, they inspire me to keep still and feel great about myself, right now -- the birds are chirping outside, my dogs are sleeping on the kitchen floor at my feet, my air conditioner is running and cooling the house on this scorching 100 degree day in Dallas.  
It's this moment that matters.

The Feel Beautiful message is my way of giving back to the many women who have so graciously given to me.  Thank you, all of you.

Feel beautiful!

Elizabeth

Be sure to read and enjoy these Feel Beautiful posts written by some of our favorite style bloggers to help celebrate Feel Beautiful Week!

Carly, of C. Style: Jewelry from Day to Night

Albertina, of Mimosa Lane: Feel Beautiful

And stay tuned:  tomorrow, Monica will post on her Blueprint for Style

With sweet Lexi on my terrace.  Living for the moment!

HOW I LOVE A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE

True Icons are not just curators of style, they're women who have made conscious choices that shape our culture for the better.  Kate Winslet is one of those Icons.  I was thrilled that my Bird's Nest ring was recently featured alongside this extraordinary actress in Today's Chicago Woman (TCW) Magazine.  Even better, it was in their 100 Women of Influence issue.  

Kate Winslet has defined her work, and her exquisite beauty, on her terms, which is  admirable in an industry that is literally "skin deep".  Think about her role as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, the single mom of 4 boys in "Finding Neverland".  And the incredible paradox of her enchanting - but totally reckless - Marianne Dashwood in "Sense and Sensibility", and the passionate and deeply scarred Hanna Schmitz in "The Reader".  Each of these characters is flinty and independent - but ultimately, so vulnerable.

Kate Winslet in "Finding Neverland" with Johnny Depp

In "Sense and Sensibility" 

and in "The Reader"

Kate Winslet has been unwavering in her advocacy for a healthy body image, and has cried out loudly for the entertainment industry to take a stand and change their devastating message: that happiness is all about how you look.  

We at Elizabeth Showers are channeling Kate Winslet as we launch our first Feel Beautiful Week.  Look for fun collaborations with several great style bloggers who will post about how they bring the Feel Beautiful message to life, in their own words and images.

Feel Beautiful! 

Elizabeth