Welcome Summer!

It's here- Memorial Day weekend! The unofficial beginning of summer has finally arrived and that's a good thing. After the winter of 2010-2011 with monumental snow and bone-crushing cold, I almost didn't remember what shorts and flip-flops looked like, so the thought of lounging around in summer attire is nice.

We'll be enjoying New York City, where it's Fleet Week, our wonderful military men and women come into town in their planes, on their boats and get a taste of New York City hospitality. You'll see New Yorkers walk right up to soldiers, marines and shake their hands, pat them on the back, because we all appreciate what these young men and women do. The United States is protected and defended by a volunteer army, our own citizens, our own families have patriotic (and brave) individuals who volunteer. It makes me proud, and gives me a good reason to go to our local treasure, the Douglaston-Little Neck Memorial Day Parade. The weather should be good and it's a great way to appreciate all our armed forces do for us by honoring our troops, especially those who died in wars.

Summer, Memorial Day, the end of May and the Solstice, we don't need much of a reason to have a big sale, so we've got a great selection of jewels at an incredible 60% off the original price for the weekend.  Go out and buy a nice summer dress or top and plan to wear it in style with the La Strada Bib Necklace. It'll probably never be more affordable, and has been featured in magazines and on TV. If you like a simple and elegant piece for your hair, check out the pave hair stick which I just love. This one's a close out and when the last one is sold, that's it. We get so many orders for weddings, the hair stick is just the right accessory.



La Strada Necklace



No weddings? Still need an excuse to get some jewelry, hmm. Well, it was graduation day for lots of students, and New York City schools will graduate their high-schoolers in just a couple of weeks. Here at the jewelry studio, we've had our own little graduation too. I participate in internship programs with FIT in New York and have been so lucky to get wonderful students who come in and learn and work, learn and work with us. Going to college isn't easy, and internships are part of getting that edge, the experience of being in a real business doing what you went to college for, fashion!

Thanks, Abie Angelillo and Candice Roselli, their help has been amazing and I hope you've learned a thing or two as well. Candice excelled in adobe photo shop and will take her skills to her new career once she's come down to earth after she graduates. She should get off to a good start, with a professional resume and some direction we enjoyed providing. 

It is a way to give back and that's why I support FIT and it's programs. I was privileged to talk to the Direct and Interactive Marketing Club, where students really want to listen and learn. It's a pleasure to share my experiences in buliding a business from a dream (and a severence package) and work for yourself. There is no better way to create jobs than to join the workforce in private enterprise and start a business. If you take that risk you will get rewarded many times over. You make your future, no unions, no guarantee of a pension but plenty of excitement and lots of happiness if you get it right and find success. Our interns learned this every day, and our customers know it too- they deal with me, the owner, with our great staff, they buy from a first-class website or in a high-end store or boutique. It is the American Dream, made possible by our constitution and the service of our troops. Happy Summer! Ciao.

Where's the FASHION, where's the STYLE?

It's right here in the big apple! When you're designing and producing jewelry, you've got to know who is wearing what, and there is no better way to see what is in style all around the world than to stroll the streets of Manhattan.

The city is never prettier than it is on a friday evening, the weather just right, and people are all in a relaxed mood. New York City is an amazing tourist destination, and it really inspires me. There's no need to journey to Paris or Berlin, just walk the streets that the tourists tend to visit. Want to see what's popular in Brazil- head over to "little brazil" on 46th street in Manhattan and see what the women of brazil are wearing right in your own back yard.
See my Greenwich Village Slideshow

I had to run some errands and decided to pick up some food for dinner. Yes, in a city with a million restaurants I do cook dinner at home, at least once in a while. In Greenwich Village, you'll find plenty of "old italian stores" that still make suasage in the back, and import cheese from Italy you can't get in a supermarket anywhere. I love Faicco's and remember when we had a latticini on our own block in Queens. This storefront might look familiar, it's been in lots of movies and TV shows, but I go for the sausage and the rice balls. On the way back, you can buy some pickles right on the sidewalk, now tell me where else you'll see this?

I took my little camera and had my iphone too, so I could snap discrete photos of women on the street who were wearing jewelry that I thought was interesting. It's so nice to see a group of french women on the street, waiting for their tour bus, and check out what they've got on. Of course, not everybody likes being photographed, so I have to be careful. The New Yorkers don't mind, and unlike the people in some foreign lands who ask for money after you've taken their picture, our people smile and pose for you!

Every now and then, I'll see an earring from robertachiarella.com, and that always is a treat! There was an elegant lady on the corner of Bleeker Street today who seemed to be wearing my Brava Bib Statement Necklace, but the traffic light changed and she disappeared before I could cross the street.

Then I saw this artist, and he was quite involved in his work to see me and my camera. He might be the last of the Greenwich Village street artists. When we were kids, there were summer weekends devoted to art festivals on these streets, with countless artists showing their stuff. My father, who was a painter and sculptor, would take us and walk the streets till we were exhausted.

He'd always buy a painting or two, and if it was an amateur artist, he'd put it on HIS easel when we got home and set about 'improving' the painting.  We've got a couple hanging on the walls to this day, dad was never satisfied with the improvements, and was constantly re-painting a shadow or the color of the sky on his acquisitions. They don't have these festivals any more, and it's too bad. I guess if they had one for digital pics I could enter the shots I've posted here, so tourists could take home a bit of Roberta's Manhattan. Ciao!