Happy Royal Easter

Happy Easter everybody! Our family celebrated today at my brothers house, enjoying traditional easter foods, roast lamb, pizza rustica and sweets, oh lots of sweets. We have a lot to celebrate this week so we made sure to do it in a 'royal' fashion.

I'm sure you all are following the fashion feeding frenzy surrounding the royal wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William, which will take place next week. It's a big bang to start one of our busiest seasons in the jewelry business- bridal season. So, to get into the spirit I called my friends over at Buckingham Palace, and sure enough, the Queen was so stressed out with what's going on in her house, she readily accepted our invitation. 


The Chiarella Easter Dinner

 She is actually quite nice in person, and thought former commonwealth subject Thomas Nguy's famous mashed potatoes with garlic were better than what her chef serves up over in London. She even made her coachman drag-race down Manor Rd. against esteemed poet and author Eric Thomas Norris, who narrowly beat the royal carriage with Joe's corvair. It was a sight, I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes!

Seriously, this year is obviously starting out with some spectacular jewels, and I'm lucky enough to be right in the middle of some of the festivities. We made a wonderful necklace to celebrate the one worn by Ms. Middleton the day Prince William asked for her hand in marriage. Us magazine did a feature on this and used our 'Kates Necklace' for the shoot. It came out fantastic, and it's now on sale for you at only $68. I love it, made with Swarovski Elements and a great 16" chain.

Kate's Necklace, the royal one!

If that isn't enough for you, keep an eye out every day this week for the Today Show's daily coverage of the Royal Wedding. I had the pleasure of working with the ever fabulous Jill Martin as we filmed a piece showing my version of some royal jewels you can expect to see (if you're willing to get up at 3:00 AM next friday).

I am not sure which day we'll all get to see what we put together, but there are going to be a lot of great pieces on display at this affair,

 and you can bet I'll be whipping up a few that will give us commoners the royal look you'll see in London next week. We'll post up the jewelry for you the minute the royal family steps in front of the cameras, so you can get the look you want with Roberta Chiarella quality and prices that will make the royal jewelers faint. Ciao!

It's a wrap! Merry Christmas to everyone

The holiday shopping season is drawing to a close and we watched frenzied last-minute shoppers running all around the city today, buying a gift here, some goodies there, all in preparation for Christmas.

Our family members are all off on holiday adventures, others are gathering for Christmas dinner. The traditional gift of the fruit basket arrived today, so we're trying out some tasty pears and apples right now.

Greetings from Mr. Spock!

Holidays are a combination of rituals and customs and festivities, and for this season we get to top it all off with gifts. Tokens of appreciation for being a great friend, a smart child, a thoughtful neighbor or co-worker or even a mailman who brings your letters when you are home and holds them when you are away.

We've given tributes to the staff at our apartment house, thanking the doorman, the porters, the folks who shovel the snow and fix little things, and we rewarded our staff with presents and dinners. As always, I made sure our customers got a little something extra too, by cutting prices, using lighter packaging so shipping could be cheaper, and making some jewels that look like they cost far more than they really do. 

Boomer relaxes on the couch

We took every order, included free gifts to our long-time customers, and gave lots of discounts and promotions. I'm happy to say that lots of folks were happy with our jewelry and ordered like crazy. I really thank each and every customer and appreciate your business. I tried to visit our retail store, Henri Bendel a few times to wait on customers and thank them in person, because it helps me design better things for you when I can chat and see what people like and what they desire.

At home, we've decorated my brothers house with zillions of ornaments, trinkets and lights, while our faithful doggies Chicklet and Boomer looked on in amusement.

My brother Joe celebrated the season with a christmas toy he bought for himself, a 1969 Chevy Corvair. Yes, it's an old car but if it makes you smile, then why not! I can't wait for a ride in it, maybe we'll drive around the neighborhood and look at some of New Yorks super-duper christmas houses, where the owners put up enough lights to make it look like Times Square.

So, we're ready. Our last 'rush' package went out the door, but orders are still coming in for New Year's eve so we'll be back to work packing soon. We've handed off our giant red bag of jewels to Santa, who flew by earlier today, because even elves can't make jewelry the way we do at robertachiarella.com. And Yes, Virginia, there IS a santa claus. Here's proof, from a letter in the New York Sun from 1897. Ciao and Merry Christmas everyone!


Click to make it bigger!