Unlocking the Timeless Elegance: Exploring Anna Wintour's Jewelry Collection

     In the realm of fashion, few names hold as much sway and reverence as Anna Wintour. The formidable editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine is not only a powerhouse in the industry but also a style icon in her own right. While her signature bob and sunglasses are instantly recognizable, it's her exquisite taste in jewelry that truly sets her apart. Join us on a little journey as we delve into the captivating world of Anna Wintour's jewelry collection, where each piece tells a story of elegance, sophistication, and timeless allure.

Anna Wintour's Bold Jewelry Choices

Anna Wintour is renowned for her ability to make a statement, both on and off the pages of Vogue. When it comes to jewelry, she follows the same philosophy, opting for bold, eye-catching pieces that command attention. From oversized statement necklaces to intricate cuff bracelets, Wintour effortlessly elevates her ensembles with the perfect accessory. Discover how her signature chunky gold chain necklace adorned with large pearls embodies the perfect fusion of classic and contemporary style.

Every aspect of Anna Wintour's style is carefully curated to reflect her personal brand and the image she projects to the world. Her jewelry choices are no exception, serving as a visual representation of her impeccable taste and discerning eye. Whether she's attending a fashion show or gracing the red carpet, Wintour's jewelry always speaks volumes about her confidence, sophistication, and unwavering commitment to excellence. Her jewelry collection embodies the art of personal branding and inspires fashionistas everywhere!

Anna Wintour's jewelry collection serves as a source of inspiration for fashion enthusiasts around the globe. From aspiring editors to seasoned stylists, everyone can learn something from her impeccable sense of style and her fearless approach to accessorizing. Whether you're drawn to bold statement pieces or prefer the timeless elegance of pearls, there's something in Wintour's collection to suit every taste and occasion. Be inspired to elevate your own jewelry game and embrace the power of personal expression through adornment, just like Anna Wintour!

Anna Wintour's jewelry collection is a testament to her status as a true fashion icon. With her keen eye for design, her love for statement pieces, and her unwavering support for emerging talent, Wintour continues to set the standard for elegance and sophistication in the world of fashion. As we admire her impeccable styling and iconic accessories, we can't help but be inspired to emulate her aesthetic and infuse our own wardrobe with a touch of Wintour-worthy glamour.

Sacred Cake Jewelry is my top pick for go to pieces that ooze glamour at the best prices!

VISIT SACRED CAKE HERE! Everything is ON SALE!

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Blue Hues: Statement Necklaces Echoing the Serenity of Water

As a girl growing up in the deep south, water was truly an essential elixir. Water was a beacon of hope when the oppressive heat of the Florida summer summoned every drop of moisture from my smooth brown skin. Florida heat is not a dry heat, it's steamy and sauna - like. Wading into sea green waves, cool blue swimming pools, leaning over the sides of bass boats to run my fingers through the dark waters of Lake Santa Fe. Those were the ways to escape the scorch of the summer sun.
I think of these things as I make my necklaces, setting the sparkling rhinestones in the colors of deep blues, Aquamarine, iridescent grays and pale greens. They are like fastening tiny memories together, one by one, into something beautiful and tangible.
I had never heard of Anna Wintour until about 7 years ago when a customer asked me to create a Georgian collet Necklace like the ones she is famous for wearing. More and more requests came, for different shapes and styles as I added my own interpretation of the antique pieces that inspired me.
My favorite is my signature and most popular piece, the aquamarine colored statement necklace in gold settings. The color of the stones sends me somewhere back to the white sands of the gulf coast...clean and blue and clear. Making these pieces is a meditation in beauty. For me, I'm not just making jewelry. I'm making memories. I'm conjuring goodness and then sending it out into the world.

Anna Wintour necklace, Aquamarine 

Anna Wintour collet Necklace in Aquamarine  and Sapphire

Wholesale Jennifer Valentine Jewelry (gone but not forgotten.)(I learned a lot)

pink line of Creative Co-op Jewelry (being discontinued)

 With the almost complete  phase out of my wholesale Jennifer Valentine Jewelry line with Creative Co-op, comes the inevitable feeling of total failure. And some tough lessons learned as well...but right now, the failure part and the "what if?" questions that invariably go through my mind.
I was told it was strictly a business decision and not to take it personally...that jewelry lines do not last very long...and i thought, well, no one told that to my idol, Miriam Haskell. Her jewelry line has outlived HER!
     The truth is, if I had it to do over again, there would have been much I would have done differently.  But I suppose that is where that cliché about  hindsight comes from. It is always easier to look back and see where things may have gone awry...but the truth is, that I know in my heart that I did my absolute best. It is really difficult for me because I thought that this "partnership" was going to be the thing that i stayed up all of those nights for, falling asleep with my pliers in my hands...
And that voice in my head that told me to keep going...surely the answer was Creative Co-op. That was the reason. My dreams had finally been realized.
It was all finally going to be ok.
Because the royalty checks were going to be the answer to the financial poverty that is all that I have known my whole adult life. (I say financial poverty, because I have never been impoverished of spirit or joy or gratitude!)
I am right back where I began, wondering what to do. Living below the national poverty line and struggling to make ends meet. Feeling like i have, once again,  failed myself and my children. I wanted my children to see that it was worth it. That hard work pays off. That the underdog can win...That all those nights i worked away at my little table were worth it.
I wanted to be their hero.
I'd be lying if I said that it didn't really sting when my boss asked for more products, only to later say that my line was being discontinued.
I'd be lying if i said i did not take it personally.
I'd be lying if i said i didn't still cry about that loss...and the loss of that identity...that feeling of "Look Ma, I finally managed to make something of myself!"
The truth is though, that i adore my work.
Giving it up, for me, would be like not breathing. 

I just cannot give up.
     I make pretty things that make women all over the world feel better...I create pretty things that become part of their life story.  I bring what one of my customers called "necessary beauty" to her life. That is what keeps me going, when I am doubtful.
I teach local women through the library system, how to make their very first pairs of earrings...i witness the look of joy and accomplishment on their faces.
That is worth more to me than all of the money in the world.
I have to believe that the end of Jennifer Valentine Jewelry with Creative Co-op does not mean that it is the end of the line for me. I have to believe that it is only the beginning of something greater and more significant. 

The Creative Co-op Catalog Jennifer Valentine section photo (the last)

I am so hoping to be noticed by boutiques interested in my handmade work, and I am working on a new collection in antiqued copper to come soon. I have also been working on my website, SacredCake.com, learning as I go!

It has proven to be difficult, as more people go mobile, I have to make the sight enhanced for Mobile viewing as well. WHEW. It has kinda been kicking my butt. I worked for several days just to get as far as I have, but it is becoming more of what I want it to be...to look more like "me". I am using the WIX.com plug in platform, for those of you interested. Be sure NOT to do what I did and build a website using flash.

SIGH.

Not the way to go for mobile formatting. 

Love and Light to you and yours,

Jennifer

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.

64 Gifts

Yes, that's me. The lady in the oddish black hat In isle 2. I'm the one a little sleep deprived, sniffing an open box of Crayolas and sometimes packages of Pampers. I've had that same hat for eleven years of badhairdays. --been sniffing boxes of crayons much longer. There is just something about a box of new crayons... Untouched tips full of color and of promise and they have always smelled the same. Since those summer days at my grandparents picnic table when i would break open that box of 64 gifts, so thrilled with my favorites of periwinkle and gold. A new box of crayons smells like hope to me.

Surfacing

It comes when I least expect it. And I am left wondering where it came from. What triggered it...

The feeling that I cannot catch my breath...the feeling of being smothered. The helplessness that comes with a memory I don’t want to remember. The brief bewilderment, the ache and sadness that comes with it. I find myself inhaling deeply. Calming with each free breath.

            I wonder if the memory comes with  stress, or the feeling of not being able to catch my breath, or if it comes after. I just know it arrives.

 No  longer the victim, I say to myself. No more, does he have the power to make me feel afraid. And almost as quickly as it comes, the memory finally fades. We cannot control every thought, or every memory; but we can control how we react to it…

My hope is that by writing these words, those of you who were abused at the hands of those who were supposed to love and cherish you, will find comfort that you are not alone in it. I know the darkness at times can seem overwhelming, and we get weary of fighting it, but there is light. There is hope. Always hope. I believe this with all of my heart.

I find that childhood  memories usually come in the stillness when I am holding one of my children, or one of my grandchildren. Or as I watch my children from afar.

The thought that comes is how? And Why? How can anyone abuse an innocent child? A child like me? A child like mine?

It just seems so easy to love.

Among my experiences as a young girl, one particular moment is emblazoned in my memory, like the branding of cattle. I was held under water in a pool for so long, I thought for certain I would never surface again. I was only seven years old, and I was afraid of the deep end of the pool at our apartment complex.

“Let's jump in together then,” he said.  Reluctantly, I held his hand, and leaped into the pool...only I did not get to surface.

His grip tightened, and I was held under for an eternity. My lungs burned. I remember struggling, looking up at his distorted face through the ripples of surface water…and the sound of the bubbles of my last exhaled breath rumbling in my ears. And it seemed like such a long way up to the surface where that breath awaited. An eternity, it was, for me.

When I was finally allowed to come up for air, I got out of the pool gasping for air and choking on tears of disbelief and hurt.

That was the last time tried to leap fearlessly.

I am not telling this story to elicit sympathy. I am telling it because it is part of my story.  It is a part of the story of my life. Just one of the many many moments that changed me, and my feelings of security and trust for most of my life.

We who are left to struggle with the aftermath of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse often times identify as victims. It becomes our brand. Our excuse. We try to control our lives and our relationships in ways we sometimes don't even realize, because at an early age, we were completely powerless. We were at the mercy of other people and their control over us.

We worry about what people think. We become people pleasers. We demand love on our terms. We live our lives around everything and everyone but ourselves. We feel unworthy. We have inner voices that drag us through absolute hell. We put ourselves last…

And we feel broken.

For years, I lived inside of the brokenness. I lived inside of the feelings of unfairness and anger and resentment and regret. I had no self-worth. I chose all of the wrong men and tried to “fix” them to my liking. I felt absolutely unlovable for the first 37 years of my life.

 I feel like I am finally beginning to surface. Even now, at 44 years old; even when I think I have fully conquered it, it is still here.

I am sometimes still giving my past abuse, and my abuser, the power to determine my self worth. I still struggle. I'm not here to lie to you and tell you I'm leaping fearlessly and to tell you I'm all healed up shiny new and I never make mistakes. I work on healing every. single. day.

What I am here to tell you is that I know it is not easy.

I am here to tell you that we can rise above it.

I am here to tell you that you are not alone in your struggle.

I am here to tell you that we are worthy of joy and happiness and love.

No matter how old we are, we can always begin.

Give yourself the chance to surface.

 

playing with seagulls, 2012

Assemblage Jewelry in Dreamy Sapphire Blues

Really loving the assemblage jewelry pieces in the shop that would transcend well from the workday to a holiday party or a special date. This blue really pops and would be great if you are like me and wear a lot of pretty basic colors and styles to stretch your wardrobe.

sapphire and cobalt blue necklace

The antique cobalt blue colored rhinestone is fairly noticeable, about the size of a quarter...and it's paired with vintage french pressed glass givre rosary beads in a monochromatic look.

blue french rhinestones and flourishes of gold

I do enjoy using vintage and antique props...the above photo was shot with my good 'ol canon point and shoot using very old little peach lusterware tea pot and a tiny creamer that depicts birds and flowers. I am noticing more and more on Etsy that most of the items that get noticed and included in the front page collections are ones that use a white background. To me, it just doesn't look right and its not especially creative or fun, so I'm sticking to using the old props for now.

sapphire collet using vintage rhinestones

This sapphire collet was shot using an old ledger paper and some dried peonies from KW's spring garden. My favorite window for light is the bedroom window at about 10ish, so i have a little photoshoot area set up there. I makes it easier to shoot the jewelry if everything is right there on hand. I have my props in a basket and a stool and my favorite antique mannequin right by the window. I try to get new jewelry made the night before, shoot it the net morning, then edit and post.

sapphire assemblage earrings with vintage pressed glass cabochons

These earrings are made with gorgeous vintage pressed glass cabochons that look like you could just eat them... lots of light through the vintage crystals on the bottom. The shabby silver beadcaps and rondelles are from an antique necklace that came apart. This photo was made using a letter written to my great-grandfather, Harriman Simmons. He was a business man who at one time, had his own tea company in New York, partnered with a man with the last name of Bleeker.
Some of us in the family collect the "Bleeker & Simmons" tea tins that are still out there floating around the country.
These earrings are a one of a kind pair. My favorite thing to make. A one of a kind piece is a bit like making art that cannot be replicated. I like that. a lot.

Measuring Up

self portrait: late nights at Sacred Cake

 I want so much to measure up...be that amazing blog writer, that spectacular jewelry designer, the amazing mother, the saintly peace keeper.. the word DYNAMIC always comes to mind...and I always seem to fall so short of what I want so much to be.
It is humbling. I reach, reach, reeeeaach...and pull back only a fistful of air...but it is in this fist full of air that I remember that the air is a gift.
A reminder to breathe deeply and remember God's grace...

I am limited. I am human. My body limits my life and my wants and it is frustrating.
I find myself scrambling to matter before I leave this world...to be like the poet's or artists' name that everyone remembers...
but the truth is that if only one of you remembers my kindness...if my children remember the laughter and the generosity long after I've gone, then I have mattered more than the poet that everyone knows; more than the song that everyone can sing. It is in the little things that Grace resides...that memory serves...
The fist full of air is a gift in itself that I must not forget. It means that I have the gift of another day to spread the word about God's grace, in the smallest ways that matter most...the only word that really needs to live on in the hearts and minds of mankind, Grace. Gods promise of eternal life, after this world is not just about being in his presence after we die, but in living our lives to the best of our ability to show to others, the grace he has given us...in words and actions and in forgiveness and in the little kindnesses. That is the way we live on. That is the way we matter. That is the way we become famous. That is the way we are dynamic and amazing.
That is the way we become eternal.

Love and Light to you all today,
Jennifer

IN other news, I have drawn the winners of the Raffle for Jenny Wenworth's Trip to Paint with Misty Mawn! and here they are~

GLENDA, YOU are the winner of the Assemblage Bee Necklace!

SUSAN, YOU are the winner of the Pink Collet!

JOAN, YOU are the winner of the Yellow Collet!

Earring Winners are:

Meghan

Joyce

Sherry

Lisa

Jane

&

Colleen!

THANK YOU ALL!

The Messy Middle

Below is a poem that is currently on SARK's call line. Read by her.  I call it when i need someone to tell me that I really matter. When I need someone to give me a virtual hug. When I need a cheerful voice of affirmation and I can't think of anyone to call that I'd like to burden with more of my life "stuff". SARK doesn't mind. I'm grateful that today her inbox had room for my message of thanks back her. If you'd like to call it, here is the number~ 415-546-3742. Her website is www.PlanetSark.com ,for more inspiration, free printable things, wallpaper, workshops and books.

Benjamin

Life has become so much more full, since we've become full time caretakers of our little grandson...so full of joy and smiles and song and fumbling for what works; full of so many shifts that were sudden and stressful and rewarding and a whole mixture of joy and sadnesses as well. Susan Kennedy calls it "the messy middle", where most of us spend a lot of our time living.
I find myself blaming myself for the way my youngest daughter E. has "turned out" so far,even though I know in my heart that I have been the best mother I could be. Wondering where it was that I went wrong. She is 19 now. Watching her destroy herself again and again when I've spent so many years doing my utmost to build her up and foster her dreams, is so difficult. For me it is akin to watching a terrible car crash coming that I am helpless to prevent. For my husband and I, it is a feeling of fresh grief and loss, mixed with hope and fervent prayer that she will one day find her way. And a feeling of exhaustion from trying to juggle my work, his work, new baby, homekeeping, our relationship and two other boys (ages 7 and 17) that need us too.
I can say that I am proud of E.'s selflessness when it comes to doing what is best for this precious and happy go lucky little fellow. She knows his best place is here with us until she "sorts out her life." I am grateful for that. And so incredibly grateful for this~

And grateful for SARK (Susan Arial Rainbow Kennedy) and her message line, and for introducing me to a now favorite poem that resonates so deeply with me.

Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.


Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.


Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.


Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

—Naomi Shihab Nye from Words Under Words: Selected Poems

Blessings to You and Yours,
Jennifer Valentine

Really Noticing, and Thoughts on Simplicity and Enough-ness

antique books from my mother, antique creamer, hydrangeas

Today I took just a few minutes in an exercise I call "purposeful noticing". I do this when I find myself sinking into the cavern that sometimes opens beneath my feet if I let it. It begins with pangs of self doubt, a bit of worry, thoughts focused more on the lack than on the abundance...and before the pit opens and I fall in, this is what I do. (all of the photos you see here, came from the same ten or so minute exercise this morning).

vintage linens in the bedroom window

I find it is always the simple things during this awareness exercise that catch my eye. The shadows of the old linens in the windows, the one favorite sugar bowl filled with dried hydrangeas; that I've taken from one end of this country to the next and back again; intact, I might add...and I remember when there was a simpler time, when that one sugar bowl along with one favorite plate was all I really had, on a shabby little white mantle in the country in the deep south. It was all I needed. It was all I could afford. And I was still a happy person.
There has been a noticeable little undercurrent throughout my life since the days of my walks in the woods as a young girl of 9...and the undercurrent consists of the love for the simplest things. Poetry stuffed into an old suitcase. One extraordinary wildflower. A shabby old book. Vintage linens. Pressed leaves...the shape and look of hydrangeas...painted white walls and salvaged furniture....a favorite old brooch...walks in the woods...laying beneath trees...

When did my life become so complicated? The sugar bowl has now become a vast collection of antique ironstone platters, plates, pitchers and vases and a big 'ol cabinet to house them all. The brooch has turned into vast amounts in stacked boxes and containers of vintage jewelry pieces and parts that I can never in a lifetime use up, because I keep buying more before I use what I have. The old suitcase has turned into at least twenty two vintage suitcases, along with countless little boxes, antique trunks and containers.

bridal earrings I made, atop little antique paper boxes from my (shrinking) collection

I feel like my life has lost its simplicity somewhere and there has, along with that thought, come the revelation that I am not being true to myself in so many ways. I'm not honoring my true spirit.
Fear is what is keeping me from myself... it took writing that word, "fear" just now, for me to realize exactly that.
What if I do simplify back to the days of that one suitcase? Back to the days when I made jewelry to please myself...before it became all about selling jewelry that I cannot even afford to buy for myself...while my first love, vintage assemblages, gathers dust on my desk? I fear what will happen financially if I stop creating the jewelry that has now become what I sell most of and most often. The jewelry that is of my alter high society event ego?
Maybe I fear how empty this big house would look without the stuff that it is stuffed with and then maybe realize that this much space isn't really necessary. Maybe I fear my Etsy shop will just be overlooked.
And in exploring this feeling of not enough-ness, and fear, which comes right along with the cavern that I discussed in the beginning of this post, comes the camera exercise. If you try it would you share your thoughts and photographs with me?

morning feet

I am asking myself lately, what exactly can I live without? What possessions do I truly need to be happy? Are any extra possessions needed at all? And what is considered extra?
I heard of the 100 thing challenge awhile ago, but never thought I could do it. While writing this post, I realized that I already had done it by 1998. I really had. Before Dave even began talking about it I think. But then came the backslide into acquiring more and more.
You can read about the 100 Thing Project at www.guynameddave.com.

What is enough?
I want so much to get back to that one plate, one sugar bowl, one suitcase mindset...to let go of the material things that need dusting and shuffling around and finding a place for.
Even if they are just cheap old things that only cost two dollars and it was such a great old pitcher how could i go home without ONE more old pitcher for two dollars?
                                                           sigh.

This word was brought to me yesterday, with a visit from a dear friend, Michelle Stambaugh, an amazing potter whom I adore. And my word mantra has become this~

A One Word "simple" Bowl by Michelle Stambaugh on Etsy

Simple.
A glorious soothing pool blue swirl of simple. (that is far from simple!)(her work is extraordinary, highly detailed and vibrant)

I think I'm going to call this "The Simplicity Project". I don't think I can narrow it down to just 100 things like Dave. At least not just yet.


**More of Michelle's Work Can be found right here:
www.mudluscious01.etsy.com

A Return to Myself

just plain me

Hi. I've come back! I cannot even begin to tell you what the last two months have held for me. Things you might find hard to believe! I've been almost steadily sick with one thing or another for the last two months... some things serious, and not so serious and I am just returning to what feels like normal again. I've been involved in a really big project and keeping my shop afloat for the last couple of months while being so ill and working on a big assemblage jewelry making project has been quite a challenge....
I've been creating a lot of the jeweled collet necklaces (I'm wearing a fave in the photo), and though I love them and their sparkle so much, it isn't where my heart really resides. It is the assemblage jewelry that I make that really makes me feel like I am expressing my best self...the true me. The "me" that began this journey almost three years ago.

assemblage collage locket necklace

victorian button necklace (in the shop)

There are so many things I have to tell you about where I've been, stories about who I've met along the way, grandchildren coming into the world right before my eyes...and the latest, last week, a melanoma scare that has me, a woman who is really big on not worrying----worried.
More about that later on when I know more.
I really just wanted to say hello. I haven't forgotten about you at all. Writing is something that always tugs at me. I compose blogposts and poems in my head often that never make it into black and white during the bustle of the day.

Benji and KW

Which reminds me, my days are filled with even more bustle, now that my oldest grandson lives with us temporarily. He's 6 months old and the sweetest baby in the universe...such a joy, but still a lot of work too!

 It is so hard for me to find balance in my life. Is it hard for you too? How do you cope when you feel like parts of you are so far flug here and there? How do you center yourself?
I know that a big cup of hot tea is a start for me...then some favorite music...singing out loud...and making a list helps to get things out of my mind and on to paper.Somehow writing it down works to settle my thoughts.

I hope to be back soon!
Many Blessings to You and Yours,
Jennifer

Nine and Fifty Swans and My Bum Pinky

Yesterday I was off to the neuropsycholigist for testing to see what might be the issue with my failing memory and increasing issues with peripheral neuropathy (progressivve nerve damage in hands and feet). I was early and the view of the lake in Paw Paw was so beautiful.~

Seeing the swans gliding on the water made me think of my first ever college class. It was British Literature. I loved it. I would walk through the Bellevue Community College campus near Seattle, Washington and tears would leak from my eyes with the amazement and the gratitude for finally being there in that place. College meant more to me than anything in the world. I was a high school drop out, and 17 years later, the longing to learn...to be taught...was finally no longer a longing, but a reality. We studied names I'd never heard before...Yeats, Housman, Wilde....and it was unforgettable.

I wanted to share with you, a favorite poem of mine by William Butler Yeats~

The Wild Swans at Coole

THE TREES are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones	5
Are nine and fifty swans.
The nineteenth Autumn has come upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount	10
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.
I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
And now my heart is sore.
All’s changed since I, hearing at twilight,	15
The first time on this shore,
The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.
Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold,	20
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.
But now they drift on the still water	25
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake’s edge or pool
Delight men’s eyes, when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?	30

I am praying that "they" find out what is wrong with my hands. I try not to fear the worst...which is, that they are going to leave me the same way my feet have. The pinky on my left hand is almost completely numb...I call it "my bum pinky"...it is frustrating to type with it, but it really hasn't affected the work with my hands, for which I am SO grateful. I keep my focus on abundance. Not lack. Finding gratitude for the little things is so cathartic...and lately, so is much prayer.

self portrait

I'm thinking about my "word" for the upcoming year...I didn't choose one last year, like a lot of people in the blog world did and I felt kind of "nekkid" without it this past year. I think maybe I need more than just one word for the new year...embrace, grace, and self love. 
Lord will someone give me some kind of spackle recipe for my dark circles?

My Love Affair with White, assemblage jewelry, and some Etsy Favorites

"Beatitude"

"Cathedral Windows"

My love affair with all things shabby and white began in 1987, when I was a young mother, like our Em is now, and furnishings and money were scarce. I had a big ol' green station wagon and a whole lot of determination and strength. (and a better back too!) I'd find things on the roadside that I needed, that were in need of a new home; load 'em into the back of my wagon and bring them home to a fresh coat of white paint.

our lovely bed

The first home decor book I ever purchased was "The Natural Home" by Tricia Foley, and I still own the same book. It is filled with lovely, timeless images of nature inspired homes that I still find inspirational and so soothing.

"Tapisserie"

I still can't resist the charm of white, though now I "paint", making my assemblage jewelry with shabby antique glass and pearls...something that I never would have guessed then, that I'd be doing now.


Some of my favorite "swoon-worthy" items from Etsy~

Pillows and quilts by Cindi at DreamyVintageSheets on Etsy

Paper Angel Ornament by RememberMeEmily

Scarves by Gloria Kirk

Prints by Carissa Paige

collages by Michael Douglas Jones

These are just a few of my faves, I'll be posting more soon during the holiday season...I intend to relish every. single. day. of it.
What is your favorite seasonal thing to do?
I'm also looking for great recipies to share here! Please email them to me at:
sacred_cake [at] yahoo (dot) com.


This season, I am offering free shipping and a lovely pair of earrings, free with any purchase.

free with any Sacred Cake purchase,gold plated antique french rhinestone earrings

I'd like to thank you all for your sweet comments about my new grandson...the house is overflowing with such newness and love!


See you again real soon. Love and Light,
jennifer