Anna Wintour Collet Necklace featured in a Stunning Bridal Shoot!

I was so thrilled to be invited by Kat Howes to have my beautiful Anna Wintour inspired navy blue collet necklace and french flourish earrings included in this amazing bridal shoot by Best Day Ever Studios. What a thrill it was to see my work professionally photographed and styled! Isn't the model beautiful? Everything was supremely gorgeous. I am one happy girl! Please see all of the links below for photography credits, veil credits, cake, venue, etc. Very talented people! And Please come by my shop, Sacred Cake, for this necklace and more in this seasons most popular colors.

collet necklace

collet necklace and french flourish earrings

Anna Wintour Necklace

Sacred Cake's navy blue french inspired bridal earrings

THANK YOU KAT! DESIGN & CREATIVE DIRECTION: Best Day Ever Studios

LOCATION: The Arbors Events
PHOTOGRAPHER: Peepsakes Studios
HAIR & MAKEUP: Simply Beautiful Artistry
FLOWERS: New Creations Flower Co
CAKE: Got What It Cakes
ACCESSORIES: Ritzy Rose
JEWELRY: Sacred Cake
HEADPIECE: Gilded Shadows

VINTAGE RENTALS: Mason Dixon Rentals
INVITATIONS & MODEL: Tessa Machen

EVENT RENTALS: Cooke Rentals

GOWN: Pixton Bridal
MARQUEE HEART: Darling Weddings

Don't for get to pin! Find me on Pinterest at SacredCake.

Find me on Facebook at JenniferValentineJewelry

You know, I'm on Instagram too?! Here.

Twitter? WHEW! I'm here!

Have fun exploring all of the amazing vendors responsible for the amazing bridal shoot. It takes teamwork right? SO TRUE. Working together makes great things happen.

Amazing cake by "Got What it Cakes" (click photo for link)

As Angels Must

     I've done it a thousand times...with each child. Jeremy (in the photo) is my fifth (and last ) child, and tonight I watch him sleep just as I did with my Jonathan, my Rebecca, my Emily, and my Christian.
I brailled the contours of their faces with my eyes, stopping for a moment to ever so lightly trace a little finger or the edge of an ear.
     As I watch, my mind overflows with thoughts of what their dreams are like, how much I want to protect them, who they will become...and of course, what they think of me and what moments they choose to remember and cherish long after I am gone from this world.
     I can only hope that my super silliness and singing and holding hands and twirling to the Bee Gees, favorite books read before bed from dog-earred pages, soft words of comfort in the stillness of nighttime and heart shaped birthday cakes and rolling down grassy hills...all of those things...I want them to remember always.
Never the impatient sighs, the old cliches, the exasperated tone or the words poorly chosen. Though I know they will.
I can only hope they choose the light and laughter and lots of the silly.
     I swear there is no sweeter sound in the world than a child's laughter...except perhaps the sound of their breath as they sleep. So beautifully as angels must; carried in sleep by the hands of God and the tangible tide of a mother's love.

DIY New Life for Old Plates, Millinery Flowers and Junk Jewelry

I wanted to share  a little project I love to do when I have some spare time away from making jewelry to create FUNctional assemblage pieces. I have collected shabby old vintage and antique plates for many years now. I wrote about it in 2012 for Stampington, along with a mirror plate project that was a bit more simple. I love this little plate mirror project because it incorporates many things that I love to collect~ mirrors, vintage jewelry, old plates and vintage millinery. I love the results I got with this recent project. I think the key is not to over think your design...just go with it! You can always go back and add or subtract as you see fit. When I first started this project, I did not tape the mirror in place on the plate and it slid to one side and cured that way. I decided to fill the bottom in with flowers and broken bits of vintage jewelry. This one has a shabby old vintage watch in the mix, as well as flowers and velvet leaves from old hats, vintage pins with missing rhinestones and backs, and bits of tatted lace.

Basic materials you need for this project:
broken jewelry parts (Ebay, Etsy)
old (or new) millinery flowers (Estate sales, Etsy, Thrift Stores)
round, beveled mirror that fits into the center of your plate (I got mine at Michael's)
old plate (check thrift stores, garage sales, estate sales)
E-6000 and/or hot glue gun (Michael's, Walmart, Etsy)
popsicle stick
blue painter's tape (hardware store, grocery store)

close up of assemblage mirror plate embellishment

large chipped vintage Wedgwood dinner plate, embellished with flowers and old jewelry

Spread the glue onto the back of the mirror with the popsicle stick and place on plate. Tape edges down with the painters tape until cured (about 8 hours).

Tape should peel right off, leaving no residue.
Use hot glue to adhere the millinery flowers to the plate. Since they are not weighty, they shouldn't come off easily.
Use the E-6000 to adhere the jewelry parts, using the painter's tape to keep pieces from sliding around if necessary. Let cure for 12 hours before hanging with a plate hanger.

 If this inspires you, Don't forget to pin this to your craft board on Pinterest! (and please credit me as well!)

If you would like to purchase these one of a kind pieces, visit my Etsy Shop.
www.SacredCake.Etsy.com

Slipping into Something More Comfortable

Ladies, let's face it. My waist 'aint what it used to be. So at about 40 years and five children later, my waist decided it wanted OUT. I'll be 45 in a couple months and I have not seen it since.
Did my waist line ever exist? I think it actually left the building. I am working on weight loss, but it has been a slow process. It has been about lifestyle changes, breaking old cake habits (new cake, old cake, birthday cake, coffee cake, anykinda cake) and trying to work in more exercise. I've lost two dress sizes this past year, but I'm not certain my waist will ever come back no matter how hard I look for it. One thing is certain, the good lord made clothes for us waist challenged ladies. I've taken to low slung jeans, with a wide cuff, a pair of cute comfy shoes and a sweater or a tank and a funky jacket for those hot flash kind of moments....I'm either freezing or boiling and nary the twain shall meet.
I wanted to share with you some easy to wear goodies I've discovered over at my favorite handmade marketplace, ETSY.
Whenever I complete a major milestone, or a big project I've worked hard on, I reward myself with something pretty. Recently, I bought two more beautiful hand dyed vintage slips from a favorite shop called MIREIO on Etsy. Wende is so kind, she keeps an eye out for slips in a larger size and lets me know when she's made them up. Not only are they hand dyed to perfection, she makes an amazingly beautiful flower pin that matches the slip color.
These are perfect for layering, wearing to bed, wearing under a favorite denim jacket...perfect for travel. I wear mine over leggings or jeans with a cute thrifted jacket. (I am ALL about thrifted finds.)

My Hand Dyed Vintage Slip Collection from Mireio

A Slip from Wende's beautiful Travel Pretty Collection

Another lovely shop I've found, and have loved for an eternity is Pamela Tang on Etsy. Her clothes are generous and forgiving with just a little fitting where it counts. After years of waiting, I finally purchased a lovely duck egg blue linen pinafore that I've long coveted.
It was a defining moment for me to finally "gift" myself with such a pretty piece. All the way from Australia...made just for me.

just for me

Photo from Pamela Tang on Etsy

Please come Follow me on Pinterest! http://www.pinterest.com/sacredcake

My Grace

Jessica Seivane said this to a friend of mine on Facebook when she needed encouragement today...Thank you Jessica. Though I don't know you at all, you softened my heart today. I truly needed to be reminded of this verse and wanted to share it.

Corinthians 12:9-10 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Amen.

That is why, with careful consideration, I chose to get this, my only tattoo awhile ago...done in my mother's handwriting (which is very precious to me), and placed on the inside of my left wrist...as a reminder of God's grace at work in my life.
Always there.

Loving the CHIN I'm In

I'll be 45 soon...and it shows.
My hair is noticeably thinner and I've just let it grow like long rye grass on top of my head. Sparse and whispy like cotton candy...and it's ok. They say your hair falls out two months after a stressful event...but I can't think of one that would be any more major than others...I think it is just age and genetics. I'm ok with that. I'll either cut it impossibly short and dye it blonde, or just wear a hat. I'm still thinking about my options.
I have "crows feet" around my eyes, wrinkles and lines that get longer by the year...but I celebrate it. I earned my stripes fair and square...from lots of laughter. If laughing so much in my life means I get wrinkles to prove it, then bring 'em on! Laugh lines! The best kind of line in my opinion.
But can we talk for a minute about my chin? My chin has always been an issue with me. I've been painfully aware of it, and have been since high school, though no one ever made mention of it...they only teased me relentlessly about my unusually long legs. Bet those women wish they had my legs NOW. (smiling to myself) Though I'm sure no one else goes home at night and says to their friend or spouse, "Did you SEE the CHIN on her?!" It isn't really that bad, but we know how we magnify, in our own self defeating way, our flaws both real and imagined. You do it too. I know you do. It's part of being human.
I had a dream the other night that my birth father came to see me and we just held each other for the longest time. He asked me what happened and I said to him that I was getting old, and that was the reason I didn't look the same as the last time he saw me. I told him I'd be 45 soon and that years have a way of sneaking up on us.
They have! Suddenly I need glasses! I carry "readers" in my purse for the times when my regular glasses won't do.
But I am embracing the changes. Almost in a curious, science experiment kind of way.
I go most days without any makeup, and once and awhile, I catch a glimpse of myself in the post office window while waiting in line and I think, damn, I look awful! These people probably think I'm really really sick!
I am, and always have been prone to dark circles under my eyes and now with  the extreme hair loss and pale crepe-y skin, people must wonder! (and that is ok too)
Though they might wonder, I see wonder. Instead of going into aging kicking and screaming and smearing creams and potions onto my face and neck and fretting about looking older, I marvel at the aging process. I almost laugh at it. What I love most is, the learning process that comes with it, and being o.k. with who I have become.
I would imagine for years how I would look with a suction/lift "chin job"...looking in the mirror with my hands holding my little second chin up to see how I'd look with no "pouch" there...
BUT Today I had a revelation.
My youngest son and I were up here in my little studio and I had on the most amazing, colorful,vintage rhinestone necklace that I just repaired. He noticed that the rhinestones were catching the sun and making rainbows. All around us were colored orbs on the walls and ceiling...moving as I moved, and reflecting upward on my chin.
I asked him to capture a photo of it.
He took this one, and this one~

This is me. Unfiltered. Unsoftened. Unmade-up. But NOT Unhappy. This is the real me and the chin that I have, until today, had such disdain for and have been self conscious of my whole life. Even at my thinnest(in high school), I still had this wierd little second chin!

My chin has seen so many good things...beautiful necklaces that I, and other amazing artists have created. Sunlight reflecting from the waters of Lake Santa Fe. It has been caressed by cool mountain air and wind from southern beaches. It has been touched by tiny baby hands. It has traveled with me through life and stretched out with yawns made from remnants of the most amazing, most awe-inspired days. And it has stretched with the weight of my body, pregnant with life. 

My chin has never been happier.

Do you have a particular part(s) that you can make peace with today? I'd love to hear about it! Please leave a comment.

Ten Thousand Saints

     As the snow keeps pouring from the sky...covering my part of the world in a lovely white, I fear that my patience with winter has grown weaker with each passing day! I am so ready for spring!
The house is quiet, which is rare these days, and I can concentrate a bit to write. Grand babies are asleep, and the big boys downstairs in the "man cave" eating subs and playing games. Around here is a little crazy as of late, since my youngest daughter is temporarily back home with her children. Life is very full with homeschooling our youngest, trying to keep our 18 year old son busy, my husband Ken teaching college, me working away and trying my best to stay well and energized, and our  daughter trying to find her way through school and parenting and life.
Life is very VERY full. 
     Recently, I was asked by an amazing man and very talented stylist, Christopher Fulton, to create some hair jewelry pieces for an upcoming movie he is working on. It was quite a challenge, which I truly love.The movie is set in the late 1980's, so I had to do some period pieces, which was great, (since I was very much there in the 80's and all) and I remember that time very well....(I'm smiling to myself)
One character is a high class woman, for which I made a selection of barrettes, combs, modern pony tail holders, hair bands (made from vintage modern necklaces), and clips~

80's style hair jewelry

The second character is a bohemian type artsy woman, quite the opposite of the first character. She has long, flowing hair and needed pieces in a boho-hippie style...hair sticks and simple pieces reflective of her character. For her I made hair sticks out of antique fan parts with authentic Art Nouveau pieces, combs and ties made from real Art Nouveau and Victorian Gothic buckles, and a leather barrette made from a very old tooled belt that I aged and sanded further to make it look as if she'd had it forever~

bohemian style hair jewelry

The movie is called Ten Thousand Saints.  I am so thrilled to be a small part of the whole huge process. Thanks to late night photo-texting and Chris' infinite patience and support, I was able to pull this off in a short time frame and come up with usable pieces for the shoot.
I think that is what I like most about creating the things I do...I get to be a part of something much bigger in the world...people that wear my work carry with them a bit of myself, my thoughts, and my deep love for my work and for humanity, into weddings, huge events, little victories, into work and now into a movie...how truly wonderFULL life can be.

me, circa 1988 (see? told you I was there!)