PotW 6/27/12

Hi Everyone!

In honor of the upcoming Fourth of July holiday, commemorating our nation's independence, I present to you, the Constitution of the United States of America.

Many of us can recite the Preamble...we had to memorize it in school.  Many of us can rattle off certain articles from the Bill of Rights and cite which Amendments relate to particular important topics.

Few people ever read the whole thing.  Everyone should do so. 

A little refresher on how our government was intended to operate might be good for each of us to keep in mind as we hear get ready to head to the polls in November.  

And then...check out the Piece of the Week, just in time for the Fourth of July, with a special price.  Patriotic and Made in the USA.  Order yours and I'll ship/deliver them asap.

http://www.twowillowsjewelry.com

Until next week--

Kim

Here's the link to the full text--

http://www.usconstitution.net/const.txt

PotW 6/20/12

Hi Everyone!

Can you believe that it is the summer solstice already?  Summer officially arrives at 7:23 tonight, and this evening will be the shortest of the year, giving us over 15 hours of daylight today/tomorrow.  But take a step outside today and you would swear that summer has already settled in here---it's a toasty, humid 88, heading well into the 90's for the next couple of days.  Insta-summer.  Welcome to Maine.

The summer solstice was a time of ritual significance in early civilizations.  Early people planned planting, harvesting, and many other activities according to the phases of the moon and the lunar calendar. Within these rituals they used gemstones to which they had attached special importance. One such stone was Smoky Quartz, the National Gem of Scotland.

Smoky quartz is one of the rare brown gemstones.  It can range in color from pale gray-brown to dark, almost black-brown. It was popular with many ancient civilizations, and for a time was thought to be solidified water or ice.  Because of this connection to water, smoky quartz has been used in rainmaking ceremonies in parts of the Pacific, especially among the indigenous people of Australia and New Guinea. Smoky quartz was a favorite stone of the Druids, and was thought to be lucky for foresters and gardeners, making it an important stone for summer solstice celebrations.

Because smoky quartz was easy to cut as a gem and could be shaped for both ornamental and practical purposes, smoky quartz artifacts have been found around the world.  Native Americans used smoky quartz to magnify the power of the sun and start fire from wood chips. In China it was used to make small bottles for medicines.  The Romans used smoky quartz to make ring seals, and other civilizations carved it to make impressions in clay, for decorative items and to make stone tablets with a written record of events.  In Egypt, smoky quartz was turned into beads, scarabs and other decorative jewelry.

This week's design features Smoky Quartz.  I saw these stones a while ago (can't remember where, exactly), and had to buy them because of their unique shape AND the way they are drilled.  They are truly some of the more unique smoky quartz beads I have seen anywhere. That's all I'm going to tell you...head to the website for a photo and details!

http://www.twowillowsjewelry.com

Until next week-

Kim

PS--I have silver in stock for stamped cuffs right now, but it's been going fast.  If you have been thinking about ordering a cuff and it is at all time-sensitive, please order early.

PotW 6/13/12

Hi Everyone!

I have written before about the history of Mother's Day.  In brief, Mother's Day came about as a result of the peace and reconcilliation campaigns of the post- Civil War era, when mother's of both Union and Confederate soldiers came together out of desire to heal a divided nation.  It veered toward the more commercialized holiday we now know in 1908, when the Wanamaker department store in Philadelphia sponsored a service dedicated to mothers in its auditorium.  A mere year later in 1909, 45 states were observing a "Mother's Day" holiday, and in 1914 it was declared a national holiday by President Woodrow Wilson.

But when and how did Father's Day come about? (excerpted from History.com)

The campaign to celebrate the nation’s fathers did not meet with the same enthusiasm as a celebration for mothers--perhaps because, as one florist explained, “fathers haven’t the same sentimental appeal that mothers have.” On July 5, 1908, a West Virginia church sponsored the nation’s first event explicitly in honor of fathers, a Sunday sermon in memory of the 362 men who had died in the previous December’s explosions at the Fairmont Coal Company mines in Monongah, but it was a one-time commemoration and not an annual holiday. The next year, a Spokane, Washington woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, one of six children raised by a widower, tried to establish an official equivalent to Mother’s Day for male parents. She went to local churches, the YMCA, shopkeepers and government officials to drum up support for her idea, and she was successful: Washington State celebrated the nation’s first statewide Father’s Day on July 19, 1910.
   
Slowly, the holiday spread. In 1916, President Wilson honored the day by using telegraph signals to unfurl a flag in Spokane when he pressed a button in Washington, D.C. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge urged state governments to observe Father’s Day. However, many men continued to disdain the day. As one historian writes, they “scoffed at the holiday’s sentimental attempts to domesticate manliness with flowers and gift-giving, or they derided the proliferation of such holidays as a commercial gimmick to sell more products--often paid for by the father himself.”

During the 1920s and 1930s, a movement arose to scrap Mother’s Day and Father’s Day altogether in favor of a single holiday, Parents’ Day. Every year on Mother’s Day, pro-Parents’ Day groups rallied in New York City’s Central Park--a public reminder, said Parents’ Day activist and radio performer Robert Spere, “that both parents should be loved and respected together.” Paradoxically, however, the Depression derailed this effort to combine and de-commercialize the holidays. Struggling retailers and advertisers redoubled their efforts to make Father’s Day a “second Christmas” for men, promoting goods such as neckties, hats, socks, pipes and tobacco, golf clubs and other sporting goods, and greeting cards. When World War II began, advertisers began to argue that celebrating Father’s Day was a way to honor American troops and support the war effort. By the end of the war, Father’s Day may not have been a federal holiday, but it was a national institution.

In 1972, in the middle of a hard-fought presidential re-election campaign, Richard Nixon signed a proclamation making Father’s Day a federal holiday at last, 58 years after the first official Mother's Day.  Today, economists estimate that Americans spend more than $1 billion each year on Father’s Day gifts.  (No count has been kept of how many ties and soaps-on-a-rope that represents)

So--for some unique (like Dad), personalized (because he deserves it) and utilitarian (because Dads are practical) gift ideas, check out the website:http://www.twowillowsjewelry.com

Until next week--Spoil Dad a little, even if he says he doesn't want you to!

Kim

POTW 6/6/12

Happy Birthday, Caroline!!!

And Hello to Everyone Else!

My little niece turns 4 today.  She is a one-of-a-kind beauty and I am looking forward to seeing her grow up.  She has a unique mix of really good looks (eyelashes that most of you on this distribution would KILL for...no exaggeration), intelligence, a sense of humor and a spunky personality.

I may be just a tiny bit biased.  I kinda think she's the bomb.  Even (especially) after babysitting her for 4 days recently.

Caroline's more of a girly-girl than I usually can relate to.  I've always been glad I had a boy baby.  Every time I went into a friend's house that was full of Barbie palaces and other pink, plastic stuff my skin started to crawl.  Give me Legos, Tonka trucks, Brio trains and remote control cars.  Ask me to play "Princess" or "tea party" and I am looking for the door.  "Check, please!"

But Caroline is hard to resist.  She bats those eyelashes, pulls a pout, raises an eyebrow that tells me she knows exactly what she is doing and...plays the puppet master.  Auntie in the role of puppet.  Smiling.  Having tea at a tiny table under a huge pink canopy.  What could be better?  Call it personal growth.

So, now I am back from Seattle and organized enough and out of the weeds and can present you with a new design for this Piece of the Week and what do I make?  Something with some of Caroline's favorite colors!  One of a kind stones (just like her).  Hey--it's her birthday, she deserves a special shout out.

Check out photos of the items on the website (yup, it's a set, because my little niece likes 'ensembles' when she plays dress-up). http://www.twowillowsjewelry.com

Until next week--

celebrate the one-of-a-kind people in your life!

Love you, Miss C!!

Auntie Kimma