Early Spring?

Isn't it ironic? We are just 6 days away from the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the olympic torch is getting closer and closer to my house (coming by on Thursday at noon... the kids are excited!), the city center is buzzing with tourists, journalists and policemen (lots of them!), I am receiving emails from my friends in France telling me that they are stuck in the snow and I say : snow? what snow???

Yes, here in Vancouver, it's SPRING!


As you can see, the lilac tree in front of my house is already budding... The weather and temperature have been really mild lately and we haven't seen any snowflakes since December : ) What sucks for the Vancouver Olympic Committee is actually great for me as I hate snow and I am always much happier when I have flowers around me...

So here's a new version of my "Papillon" bracelets to celebrate an early Spring : this one features a purple felt butterfly with a pink and copper lampwork glass bead, purple crazy lace agate coin beads mounted on an elastic and finished with a burgundy picot satin ribbon.

And here's a nice bouquet of felt flower brooches that I bought from one of my favorite Etsy sellers : Vaivanat. I absolutely adore these flower brooches and I could have them in all the colors of the rainbow! I actually bought another two but I intend to give them as presents to some of my friends so I don't want to show them here ; )

Vaiva is from Lithuania and she is the sweetest Etsy seller I have "met" so far.... You can visit her shop at : www.vaivanat.etsy.com

(but be careful, these flower brooches are addictive!).

More love...

I told you last weekend that it was my older son's birthday (the party went smoothly, the boys really had a blast at laser tag!) but this weekend, my husband and I are celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary.... Incroyable!!! Eleven years!?!? It seems long and short at the same time : long because it's crazy to think that 11 years went by without us noticing, and short because it feels like we've been together forever...

Anyway, as promised last week, here are a few of my newer, sexier and REDer creations to celebrate life and love :

A new version of my "Première" necklace from the Fall, now with a bright red carved cinnabar butterfly, white rabbit jade, onyx and Japanese tensha beads. I kept the original "opera" length - 26.5 inches.


Obviously, this bracelet is NOT red but I find it very sexy : it's called "Mélodie nocturne" and is composed of black onyx, crystal, Murano style lampwork glass and silver rosebuds...


One of my very first designs is back in the shop : "Carmen", my flamenco-inspired lariat necklace, is now featuring a red felt poppy with a French metal button, red glass beads, black and sparkly Czech glass seed beads and two lovely silver tassels.


And last but not least, here's "Carnaval rouge", a bracelet with red, purple and orange Italian resin beads and one copper-coated resin bead mounted on an elastic and finished with a trio of ribbons... This one is guaranteed to make you smile all day long : )

Have a lovely weekend!

With love...

While I am getting ready to spend my Saturday afternoon with a bunch of 9-year-old boys who are going to chase each other in the dark with laser guns (that's called "laser tag" and it's apparently really cool...!?) for my older son's birthday, my head is full of red hearts and flowers as everybody on Etsy is thinking about Valentine's Day...

Red is one of my favorite colors! I love red because it's warm, it's bright and cheerful, full of life and possibilities... it's also very elegant, powerful, sexy, mysterious... Rouge... Oh, I love it!!! It's definitely a color that inspires me...

So, for now, here's a sample of my cute-bright-and-cheerful collection of jewelry for little girls *Mini Olala* and I'll show you later the feminine-elegant-mysterious part of my collection for women...


"Bouquet de coquelicots", a necklace with red felt flowers, lovely glass beads and green frosted Czech glass beads


"Bouquet de douceur", a necklace with ivory cream felt flowers, mother of pearl beads and cherry red frosted Czech glass beads


And something new in the shop, some earrings called "Petites fleurs" with cute cherry red enamel daisy charms on Bali silver earstuds... I am personnally really fond of these : )

You'll find my Mini Olala shop there : www.MiniOlala.etsy.com

Fresh beginnings...

Happy New Year 2010 to all of you!!!

So, that's it, we're starting a new year... and a new decade! I hope this year (and the next ones) is going to be fun, exciting, rewarding, surprising, fulfilling and inspiring for all of us...

So far, I have been inspired a lot : I want to repaint my house, change some furniture, take a pottery class, register for yoga class, take a trip to Hawaii and ... make more jewelry! But to be honest, apart from a few pieces of jewelry, I don't think I'll do half of this, at least, not in January!

Here are a few of my "fresh" creations :

"Fleurs des bois", a necklace composed of bayong wood twisted beads, topaz Swarovski crystals and a bouquet of green and purple felt flowers.

"Papillons du jour", earrings with light amethyst Swarovski crystal butterflies, olivine green Swarovski crystals and copper chains.

Bracelet "Rendez-vous à Hyde Park" with tiger ebony wood squares, olivine Swarovski crystals and a lovely green and purple Liberty of London ribbon.

Festival of Lights

I remember that the first year I spent Christmas in Canada, I was amazed at discovering how much people loved to decorate their houses and front yards with Christmas lights! Entire houses shining with hundreds of lights, front yards visited by inflatable Santas and flashing reindeers... Even if it's not always of the best taste, it is fun and quite magical!

In Vancouver, every year for Christmas, the beautiful Van Dusen botanical garden transforms into a world of sugar plum fairies and ginger bread men during the "Festival of Lights" :


Blue trees and pink flowers in the middle of winter...

One of the many magical sights at the "Festival of Lights"...

After some hot chocolate and a bag of sweet and salty popcorn (it's good, I tried!), my two "angels" were becoming quite silly...

One Thousand and One Nights...

Phew... I'm done! I am officially on holidays : I'm done with my marking, my craft fairs, my Christmas shopping... and I even hosted a home birthday party for my "baby" who turned 5 last weekend! Let me pat myself on the back : )

As a few of my friends have been suggesting it for a while, I have decided to create a *Olala* design Fan Page on Facebook! I am really proud of myself because I am usually a bit scared of anything too "technical" (you should see me with my cellphone... I still don't know how to text!?!)

Anyway, here it is :



My first announcement was to give the new address of Eclektica art gallery which is now located in Yaletown, a chic and hip neighborhood in Vancouver. The gallery carries a few of my pieces, for example, these sets I made with the holidays in mind :



"Mille et une nuits" necklace - Moroccan silk beads, Swarovski crystal baroque pendant, pewter beads.

The matching earrings...

Elegant and colorful, these necklaces will make any lady shine for "One Thousand and One nights"...

Eclektica art gallery
The Empress Galleria #112 - 1118 Homer Street, Vancouver

Christmas madness...

Holiday cards by Rubypress (Etsy)

I don't know about you but I am NOT in the mood for Christmas yet!

First of all, I can't believe we are in December when yesterday we were in September.... weren't we? And, quite frankly, I am way too busy at the moment to even think about Christmas! Actually, I have to force myself to think about it : I am trying to list new items in my Etsy shop almost every day because I know that by the end of the weekend, people are not going to buy Christmas presents anymore due to shipping...

So here is a bit of inspiration that I have listed in my shop recently :

"Fleurs du soir", a bracelet composed of red carved cinnabar, plum jasper and jet black Swarovski crystals

Here's "Fleurs du soir" with my new ring by Spark, a designer I met at the Fab Fair. Check out her cool jewelry at : www.spark-girl.com


And here is my latest Treasury, "So chic!", that made the Front Page yesterday : )

Now, if you excuse me, I have to get ready for the TWO Christmas Markets I have registered for this weekend (what was I thinking about?....)