On my last flight to NYC I discovered a new reality show that I am slightly obsessed with! Its called Mob Wives, and it follows the lives of woman who are either children of famous mobsters, or married to famous mobsters in the New Jersey, Brooklyn, and Staten Island region. The show chronicles their lives, their relationships with their family, and relationships with their friends. It is drama on 3″ stilettos with a staten island accent and it is fabulous!!!!

I just received this image today of Carla Facciolo – one of the Mob Wives posing for a photo shoot in Double Happiness Spring 2012 jewelry and could not be happier!

Mob Wives is on VH1 and is something you have to see at least once!

One of my favorite pieces from Holiday 2011 is the Sadie necklace pictured above. Its elegant, edgy and easy to wear. Right now its on OpenSky.com at an amazing price -but I think there is only 24 hours left of the sale.

The back of the necklace has 2″ of adjustability, so I like to wear two of these necklaces layered for a bit of kick.

Enjoy the image and Happy Holidays!

I just got some images from a store that we work with called Petite Coquette. They carry modern as well as vintage jewelry and they are based in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

We met the store owner and buyer, Alana at an accessoires market in NYC and fell in love with her immediately. She was professional, knowledgable and very easy to work with.

She just sent us these pics of the store and I wanted to share – if anyone has any plans to visit the Dominican Republic and they have a hankering for new piece of Double Happiness Jewelry – well, this is the place to go!

I am thrilled to be a part of an exciting new form of online retailing. Opensky.com (created by the man who started About.com ) is an interesting form of retailing using well known and credible curators to endorse product.

We are working with actress/model/humanitarian Patricia Valasquez who is offering our lightweight Kat earrings ( not yet in stores, Holiday 2011 collection ) online at a ridiculously low price!

The Kat earrings were one of the first designs created from our new hammered metal collection and honestly have been worn by me almost every day since I made them. They are lightweight – go with everything and I feel pretty when I wear them.

Dont miss this chance to buy these earrings at this price.

For the last 10 years I have been indirectly involved in an amazing and important organization. Its called BOYS TO MEN.org and its a mentoring organization for boys who are either fatherless, or who lack a strong male role model in their lives.

A few stats: 32% of young boys today are growing up without fathers
85% of young boys in prison grew up in fatherless homes

I have seen so many young boys go through this program with amazing, soul inspiring results. I have seen the life of a young boy who blamed himself for his fathers suicide, learn he was not to blame and unload the pain he had been carrying for years. I have seen boys who were destined to become drug addicts or join a gang become good, smart, and responsible.

The organization provides after school activities, mentor training, adventure weekends as well as site based trainings at places like the Polinski Center for foster kids or Gateway High School for kids who have been kicked out of their regular high school.

My husband made a commitment to surf 100 waves to raise money for this organization. I made a commitment to help him make his goal of $1000.

If you want a world full of good men, please help me – CLICK the link below to learn more.

http://100wavechallenge.dojiggy.com/stephaniewells

thanks

I have spent the last two days at home with my two children. My son is on summer break and I wanted to hang out with him and my daughter before the school year starts up again. We were in NYC two weeks ago for market ( in a few weeks I will have some images from my Holiday 2011 collection – I think you will LOVE it!! I know Anthropologie, Nordstrom, Free People among others all want it!)
and my assistant just got back from Dallas market where we sold well, and it just seems like the perfect time to take a small break and play with the family.

So I am two days into it. I love my kids, don’t get me wrong, but its WAY harder to stay home with the two of them then it is going to work every day. First off, my son is into dressing himself these days – that means I will inevitably find his entire wardrobe on the floor as he pulled it all out looking for the “perfect” batman shirt to wear. And my little girl is crawling now – like a GI Joe soldier, all elbows and crouched low – and she is hitting strides of 25 mph! I cant turn by back on her for one second before she has launched her body across the room in search of the cats food.

That said, although the life of a stay home mom is focused and exhausting, it is also filled with thousands of moments of bliss and love. When my little girl looks up at me and sighs a sigh of happiness, I am not sure I can feel any happier. Or when my little boy is entertaining my little girl and they are both cracking up with each other – I am not sure I can feel more love or pride.

Just recently a co-worker turned me on to a mommy blog called Dooce.com She has done a style blog and used one of our rings
( image above). I had heard about her but had not looked at her blog until last week. One word – LOVE. She is a mother of two, and she obviously loves her children, but she is also human. She reminds us that even though we don’t always have the time, its important to do things that make us as moms feel beautiful. Like purchase better fitting bras, or wear amazing jewelry ( hint, hint ).
Her writing is hilarious and if we lived in the same town I would force her to be my best friend.

So, this blog is a toast to mommy hood! For all the sacrifices, and all the rewards.

I love three day weekends. Two day weekends never seem like enough time to get to the relaxation part of the weekend. Saturdays are a bit of recovery from the week that passed. Sundays are getting ready for the week ahead. Living in the past, living for the future – where is the moment?

That is why I loved this weekend.

Every Memorial Day, our neighborhood hosts a parade. A real down home, do it yourself parade filled with kids and businesses from the neighborhood in costumes, dancing or on home made floats, parading down the street making everyone they see feel good. The parade lasts about 1 hour. We invite friends to come by pre-parade for our Memorial Day Pancake Party, in which Jared, my husband, makes delicious, sweet, decadent custom pancakes for all our guests. Real butter + real cream =really delectable! ( Thank you Heather Herndon for sending the pancake mix!!!)

Tomorrow I leave for Dallas. I love that territory, love my stores there and am looking forward to seeing them all again. It was a great three day weekend, spending time with friends and family. I am a little bit sad to be leaving my family for a few days but really excited to see whats been going on in Texas, the land of good people, queso, and great style!

Peace.

I just got back last week from NYC. We had a Fall 2011 market, showing our line to buyers like Anthropologie, Neiman Marcus, Free People, some Japanese Department stores and a ton of small specialty boutiques. Our Fall season is one of my best in years – I literally want almost everything from this collection. Its not always the case that I get every piece of jewelry I want – this is a business, and it would not be profitable if I threw all my systems into supporting my jewelry obsession, but this season is truly hard to resist.

 

I was joking that the only thing that would get in the way of an amazing success this season would be another terrorist attack or a fire. I am no longer going to joke out loud, for day 1 of market I woke to find we killed Osama. Day 3 of market, at 9am as I was going to get a cup of coffee, I heard a bunch of yelling coming from the area of the mens restrooms and in a second saw a ton of expensively dressed women in very high heels running as fast as they could towards the doors. There was a fire in the Pier where we were having our market. Really? I mean, really?

So , all the vendors and the few customers who were there that early were evacuated – first to the rain outside and then later to Pier 92 where they were showing ready-to-wear. We spent all day wandering around, hoping to be let back in so we could continue business – no such luck!

The good news is, we already had an amazing show and our customers are calling in orders – AND nobody was hurt, no product was destroyed – so in the end, the issues that really matter – were all fine.

But, believe you me – this is the last time I am going to joke around like that – the one time I did it before, I predicted the Mexico City earthquake in the 1980′s, while my family and I were on vacation there. These lips are sealed!

I was asked to be a judge for a runway event last month in San Diego. The event was a fundraiser for an organization called The Princess Project and they work to promote self-confidence and individual beauty by providing free prom dresses and accessories to high school girls who cannot otherwise afford them.

 

The event took place downtown at a club called Quality Social. The perimeter of the club was lined with amazing items for the silent auction – items like a spa day, or a day at the Padres, or some fabulous DH jewelry! In the center of the club there were 12 up-and-coming designers from the local fashion school who were given the task of designing a prom dress in under one hour. My job was to go around, talk with them about their inspiration, and work with three other judges to decide a winner.

It was tough, as all the designers were talented. In addition to talent, I was looking for someone who understood clearly what the goal was. The goal was to create a prom dress – there were some designers who made amazing dresses, but not really appropriate for prom or their ultimate audience. In the end, one winner was chosen, and all the dresses were donated to the organization for some lucky girls to wear to prom!

Its heart breaking to think of all the challenges people are facing today in the US and worldwide. This economy is terrible and people are struggling for food, shelter, the little things that we have taken for granted. It was a true honor to work with this organization who recognizes the impact something like a prom can have on the self esteem of little girls. Something as simple as a prom dress can help boost these girls into productive, strong, empowered women. For more information go to: www.princessproject.org.