EMERALDS are a girl's best friend. . .

Um, shouldn't that be diamonds? Normally, yes, but we've got emeralds on the brain at robertachiarella.com, thanks to our favorite star, Angelina. Take a look at Us Weekly- they used our mini Angie Earrings in the 'trend watch' and I couldn't be more proud. These beauties deserve all the praise they can get, perfect size, not too heavy, super-best quality Swarovski elements, what more can a girl want?

Of course we've got them in a slightly larger size, the Angie Earrings which are now available at a super special price at our site, robertachiarella.com thanks to our PROMO CODE. These are a customer favorite for their brilliant emerald green color and the quality of the stones. Here in Manhattan our workshop has boxes and boxes waiting for shipment, we're working today (Saturday) to get the deliveries out as quickly as possible so you can enjoy them right away.

Made with
Swarovski elements

I love emeralds because they're my birth stone. Maybe it's just another marketing ploy but the concept of birth stone endures, perhaps to guide out-of-town relatives when they want to send you a gift. Throughout history they are prized for their beauty and their medicinal purposes. Aristotle believed “An emerald hung from the neck or worn in a ring will prevent the falling sickness (epilepsy)". Ancient Egyptians believed the emerald stood for fertility and rebirth, and in Rome, the Emperor Nero supposedly watched gladiator fights through a large transparent emerald as he found the color to be calming. Maybe it was calming to him, but I am excited when I get a chance to put on emerald jewelry as it usually means we're going out somewhere special! The Angie earrings hang just right and sparkle beautifully in even low light.

If you can't get enough, don't forget we have an emerald ring, conveniently called Angie's Ring, that is also available at a nice discount with our promo code. This ring, and many others are in stock and ready to ship. We'll be shipping and shipping (always free shipping when you spend $75 or more) because we've got extra help in the studio thanks to the popularity of the Golden Globe Collection. We were honored, once again, to show our jewelry on TV as part of the 'Golden Globe looks for less' segment on the Today Show. You've got to have the Starlight Clip, seen here (our version) on the Red Carpet! Have a look and choose a few for yourself or a friend. Quality, affordable jewelry is always in style. Ciao!

The August place to be!

In our family, that means SARATOGA! The race track is probably one of the prettiest in the country, and both women and men are expected to dress up for the races, so it's my kind of place.

The women even wear hats, not that you'd see me in one! Years ago it was only open for August, some of the richest people in the world had a mansion somewhere nearby in upstate New York so as to attend the Whitney stakes and get out of overheated Manhattan for the month.

Now, the track is open almost 2 months, and the town is lively and filled with restaurants and fun things to do. There are art galleries, and lots of little boutiques, and I even bought a pair of earrings! It's hard to even think about jewelry when the buy one, get one free has been doing so well- we even added 2 more weeks thanks to the great response. One person was stocking up and bought 6 items and got 6 free 'pony balls' for her hair (or perhaps her friends hair as well).

We saw real ponies at the track, or tracks as there is also a harness race track in Saratoga that now has (Yippee!) slot machines and gaming. For me, it's a family tradition to go to the harness race track and have dinner at the track-side restaurant. Unlike regular horse racing, harness racing is unpredictable and my betting strategy is to bet on the cutest horse!

Then, after dinner, it's off to play for a while and then go to the racetrack again the next day. At Saratoga, they walk the horses in a beautiful park and you can see them up close, then watch the jockey get on and go off to race. Sometimes, if the horse is really jumpy or nervous I figure they are in a hurry to get back to the stables so that's the horse who will win. I know, not much of a strategy, butit works once in a while.

Mom and Roberta at Lake George

So, if you are in the mood for a little get-away, check out this beautiful town, and the nearby attractions like Lake George. We've been coming here since we were kids, here's a picture to prove it!

The lake is beautiful, the water fresh and cold. Considering all the heat in New York, a break from the weather does wonders. Please don't think I've stopped shipping, after the fantastic response to all our new friends on the "O" list, the Oprah customers are enjoying their purchase, and there is still a (small) backlog for some colors.

People have really enjoyed the RC2 Brava Bib Necklace, and the Dolcetti necklace is an unbelievable hit, we've just received another shipment from the factory and these are already mostly spoken for. Necklaces are big this summer, so we added some more to the "get one free" part of the website. I keep looking at the Millifiore and the La Luna Necklaces and think, WOW these are good buys!

One of the fun things we do at

robertachiarella.com is play with the selection of free gifts, adding things daily or giving people a special treat, at either 'under $25' or as the free gift you can't go wrong. Our postage meter is on it's second ink cartridge, the packages are flying out the door, and it's 6:00 so time to go out to eat.

 There's a great mexican 'super trendy' restaurant called 'dos caminos' and my brother is waiting so I can't be late. Ciao!

Brrrrrrrr!

Our blog and website are hot, but not much else is here in the big apple. It's been a cold snap that is affecting the whole country, and we saw TV clips of the poor farmers working night and day to keep their oranges from freezing down in Florida. Here in Manhattan, you need your warmest clothes and your hat, scarf and gloves to keep warm, the wind howls through the streets and tries to blow you over.

I usually take this as a message from the powers above to stay indoors, and so my house is cleaner, my closet is organized and our jewelry inventory is ahead of schedule. I am glad we schedule the inventory this time of year, if it was in the summer, we'd be griping that we had to stay indoors counting the jewels when it was so nice outside. Speaking of inventory, when we count, people save!

Our january sale is in progress, and the best way to reduce the number of pieces to count is to have a sale and move them out from my studio to your home! I took a peek behing a large plastic box and found a bunch of glacier cz rings we thought had sold out, they went into the sale section right away.


So, to that lady who called before christmas asking if we had the purple ones in stock and I said I thought I did but couldn't find them, here they are!

And to the customer who wanted to know when the bean earrings would go on sale so she could have a 'spare pair', now's your chance, they are reduced to $25 for the sale.

I've also put the fried egg necklace on sale for because I accidentally ordered extra, our boo-boo is a bonanza for anyone who wants a fantastic piece made of tiger eye glass beads, natural shell with a dramatic center, now only $25 for our sale.

We hope that you've been watching your morning TV, our favorite editor Jill Martin has been busy as usual with her fashion segments, and has been wearing some of my favorite earrings as well as using roberta chiarella jewelry for her makeovers and 'ambushes' that make the Today show fun to watch. I got a DVD from the Wendy Williams show where I introduced Wendy, and we watched it today, I was amazed at the audience reaction when Wendy said every member of the audience would get a pair of my earrings.

The studio lights are bright and there are loudspeakers right in front of you, so you can't really see the crowd when you are on stage. I appreciate Wendy's staff for sending this to me, I watched it 4 or 5 times until my brother made me take it out. Happy birthday, BRIAN!!!   Ciao!

My life in color(s)

Walking around Manhattan this time of year, it seems like everything is dull and gray. The sky is gray, the tree trunks are brown, and people are all wearing what seems like the same outfit: a dark coat, snow boots and various hats, scarves and gloves in muted dark tones. The picture is dull, dull, dull. Sure, every once in a while I see a bright pink ski jacket or a pair of colorful Ugg boots, but for the most part the colors of the season are muted and drab.

Color experts (yes, there are color experts and they consult to marketing firms and fashion designers) know that our color choices are influenced by the economy. When things are rough, americans get colorful! We like to buy brightly colored things in a down economy, its a form of retail therapy. Unconventional colors typically cost more, our researchers note that during bad economic times consumers spend less for everyday necessities but are likely to spend more for something "different" in order to feel better.

Retail analysts believe that people are willing to pay more for things that look special, in order to give themselves a psychological boost and allow people to feel some pride of ownership.

For instance, even though cars are not selling well right now, general motors has introduced new colors (bright blues and orange "solar flare") in the hope of sparking some demand. Kitchen appliance makers have jazzed up their lines, and showrooms tout today's kitchen with bright green appliances. I don't know about this part, they might be setting us up for buyers remorse. I did a lot of cooking on an avocado colored stove that my mom bought in the '70's, and trust me, a green stove does not age well. But, if you compare the date of the range's arrival to the dow jones average, it shows retail therapy was just as popular back then as a cure for the recession blues. Who says history doesn't repeat itself, take a look at these appliances from LG. I'm not going to rush out and redecorate my kitchen with these, but colorful clothes and jewels are another story!

For my jewelry line, we're looking at fashion trends for summer right now, as magazines have started planning their photo shoots for their summer issues. And, guess what, there is a lot of demand for brighter colors, the experts know we'll be looking for things that look exciting and fresh. I was asked to show some jewelry for a summer photo shoot where the model will carry new coach handbags, in their newest colors- teal and purple. Of course, our jewelry line for summer will complement colors like these. Color research is really interesting stuff, and very necessary when you want to sell things to shell-shocked consumers. We're not going to offer avocado crystals, but pink, turquoise and red jewelry is being designed right now. We've got some great, stimulating colors on deck for summer so we can do our part to make people feel better in a down economy.

Designers know they have to give consumers an added incentive to cross over the hesitation line and spend some money. And wearing some bright colors might actually be fun. I'm actually looking forward to this, as I was one of those people who wore only black outfits when the economy was flying, back then bright colored clothes didn't interest me too much. But, my new camera is pink! Hmmm. Maybe these researchers are on to something. Ciao.

nobody knows her identity, but I know her stylists

Who wants to read another blog about the financial crisis, or watch our politicians carrying on, it's so depressing. We are all lucky to live in a country that has the resources, although mismanaged, to help us in a crisis. I hope and pray that is what will happen, these folks in high finance and in washington got us all into quite a mess, and they should do their jobs and approve plans to get us out.
And while they are doing that, we are anxiously awaiting the on-air shot of my necklace on the gossip girl.
It's a real drama, and I was not a big fan the first season, but this year I have to say I am sort-of into it, sometimes for the story and other times just for the scenery. I live where Serena van der Woodsen lives, and when we sit around watching the show, we love that Serena and her friends go where we go every day.

Of course, I've yet to see Serena, Nate Archibald or Dan Humphrey have lunch here! My father took us to hot dog stands for lunch when we were kids, told mom we dined at "joe's outdoor gardens". We can guess, as we listen to the omniscient yet unseen "Gossip Girl" (voiced by Kristen Bell) where they dine, but who knows, it's television. All I know is these folks all live for gossip and scandal, and in this neighborhood it really could be absolutey true.

The upper east side of manhattan is a mixture of new york's 'old money' families and their trust fund kids, and the rest of us, working families and professional people, gay straight and whatever. It's the part of town where 'the city never sleeps'. As you walk from the river towards fifth avenue, you get into the territory of the social register crowd, and the multi-multi millionaires. I'm not sure where our characters would live in real life, people like Dan and Jenny Humphrey probably live on my middle class block, but who knows, it's television. We have to figure that Serena, Eric and Blair live towards fifth avenue, where the grand old 'pre-war' apartment houses are filled with social register families whose ancestors go back to the mayflower.
New York was dutch before it was english, so to make the main character a "van der Woodsen" tells us this is old money indeed.

And it is certainly not a long shot for me to picture these characters running up and down these streets using their credit cards liberally in this neighborhood, as the fashion, shopping and partying is of the highest caliber. Of course, in real life you have to go downtown to find manhattan's trendiest hot spots, on TV it looks like the clubs are on the next block, but it isn't so! The nightlife in new york is amazing for sure, bars and clubs are open till 4 am, then there are the after-hours joints. But, the real hot spots are likely to be found in Vanessa's brooklyn neighborhood, an hour's subway ride away (it is quicker in a limo, though) but hey, this is television! At least the show is really shot here and not on a set in hollywood or toronto.

To get a better idea of their world, we walked around trying to find out from which balcony might come the gossip girl's blog, and tried to picture which store will be the source of the soon-to-be-notorious roberta chiarella jewelry.

In real life, the show's stylists went and purchased the jewelry at Henri Bendel, of course when we found out what it was for, a slightly deeper relationship developed.

We took this picture cause this was "Big's" church on sex in the city- is this a great neighborhood or what! When I spot my necklace on television, I'll let you know. BTW, if you want one, you can find it on my website. ciao!