LupRocks Gossip

When it Rains, It Pours....

I'm just going to put it out there and say, this has not been a very easy month for me.  Okay, it's not been a very easy year so far.  Like everyone else, the economy has affected me, not in the "oh my God, I have to move into my mother's basement but she lives in an apartment and doesn't even have a basement!!" kind of way, but in that everything just seems so much more difficult all the time.  It doesn't help that some people, who shall remain nameless, don't seem to feel obliged by legally binding contracts which has put us in a bit of financial turmoil, not to mention April 15 hit us hard and I'm still trying to catch my breath from writing that...gulp....giant check.  On top of it, I've been hit with a romantic trial here and there, some really sad friend problems, and some mild to extremely annoying physical issues. 

But what am I gonna do about it???

While I might want to spend many mornings cowered under my covers, I really don't have that option, do I?  And besides that, experience has taught me that there is a damn good reason that when it rains it pours.  The reason is that if I continue to dwell on every little thing that goes wrong, even more sh!t is gonna go wrong.  Without fail. 

I reported here that I recently got back from a trip to Las Vegas.  So there I was; I hadn't seen real air in several days, hadn't eaten a vegetable in at least as many days, was working on an average of 4 hours of sleep a night, with several nights to go and loads of pressure to make new connections, nurture existing connections and drum up new business, I hadn't read a sentence of a book, talked to my family, worked out, or spent more than 10 minutes alone, I was missing one of the biggest Orman weddings of the century where my entire family was having a blast that they'll be discussing for the rest of my life, and frankly, my entire world felt like it was crumbling around me.  Any chance I got, I was sneaking off for a moment to cry before applying more black eye-liner and carrying on with a big smile plastered across my face.  Then I got a call from my doctor telling me I needed more tests to establish if I had a serious problem, or merely an annoying one.          

It was then that I realized...I'd been tuned into this self-pitying misery channel for far too long.  It took me a couple of hours--hours that I had to force myself to give to myself--to work my way out of this mood, off of this channel, and tune into something else.  I realized that while I desperately missed my family and vegetables and exercise and books and sleep and AIR, they would all be there waiting for me when I got back to planet earth.  And so would my problems.  In the meantime, I have a solid family that loves me unconditionally, great friendships, while possibly struggling, a thriving business with a great reputation worth fighting for, and most of all, a healthy intellect, a great sense of humor and my old reliable feistiness.  Sitting in my room (or the ballroom bathroom) crying wasn't doing me any good.  At all.  And dwelling on my problems while I was just so tired wasn't going to solve anything.

So I decided to change the channel, count my blessings, try to recognize my moments of grace, make a call to a sibling and let him/her tell me about his/her issues or tell me a joke rather than venting about the minutia of my daily existence, spend as much time as possible with people I genuinely like, and, well, hit it big at the blackjack table.  And guess what!  I ended up having a really, honest-to-God good time.

So, my dear friend Masuo, when I say "change your mindset" and you respond "Bahhh!  Change your mindset!  What the hell is THAT supposed to mean!  You can't just change your mindset!!!"  Know, in fact, that you can.     

The quid pro quo of other people's weddings

 

It’s happening!  I am talking about the period of time sandwiched between Memorial Day and Labor Day. For kids, this time of year means heading to the local pool and eating ice cream; for adults, it's finally warm enough to head up to that beautiful and isolated country home of yours, if only you weren't stuck in the city celebrating other people’s social functions.  I know four people who got engaged this past week alone.  That means that already four Saturdays are shot to H*LL come June. Since I try to remain a positive girl, (my Midwestern roots have held strong in my five years of living in the more harsh Big Apple City), I look for the good in what will be another summer spent indulging in others rather than myself.

So the good: jewelry is a must! The bride needs her ring, the bridesmaids need their matching necklaces, the groomsmen need their cufflinks, and the mother of the bride gets to finally justify buying that new expensive piece she had been eying, because after all, it is really all about her, right? Sales should boom a little in the prep months leading up to these weddings. The funny thing is that it was not the four newly engaged friends that brought this approaching reality of summer into clear focus, it was actually JCK’s wedding style magazine.  Which is another good that exists in all of this:  I love bridal magazines, (probably why I persued a career in jewelry!), and JCK has done a great job this month.  Not only is the layout and editorial guidance of this issue clean and exciting, but there were also several LupRocks.com members featured.  So congratulations to BlumLux, Amgad, Carolina Bucci, Sonja Picard Collection, and Gumuchian, who were all featured in this enchanting JCK bridal spread.

See the JCK Blog for Bacilio Mendez’s behind the scenes scoop of the photo shoot.

Boy Oh Boy! BlumLux Men's jewelry is HOT!

This year, fashionista femmes won’t be the only ones catching the light with their high fashion jewelry. The Fall 2007 issue of JCK Luxury points the modern and stylish male in the right direction--the destination being Luprocks member Nick Blum’s designer line BlumLux.

The glamorous yet masculine collection is perfect for any man trying to add a little extra “bling” into his life. BlumLux is featured in the cover article “Oh, Man” among a few choice men’s jewelry designers as a rising star to keep an eye on.

To see more BlumLux Jewelry on LupRocks, Click Here.