See this pretty lady? She is Jane and she is the woman with the amazing style who dresses Rachel Ray for her show and all her promotional events. I met her last week while I was in NY (freezing!) for Spring 09 market.

I had taken the red eye to NY a few days prior. I try to limit my time away from home, as it is hard for me to part with my family. I barely slept for the two days I was in NY - between working all day on my feet and going out at night with friends (I know, poor me!) I was tired! I woke up on the last day of show to freezing rain. I was supposed to go shopping for beads for our Spring line when I got a text from my sister. She had mentioned to Jane I was in town and she wanted me to come by the studio to meet her and Rachel. Turns out my hotel is 2 blocks away from the studio, so I weighed my options - running around in freezing rain in the hope of finding the beads I want, or walking only two blocks to The Rachel Ray studio to meet the two woman I have been working with for years. Hmm.... cold or guaranteed good food?

When I got the building I was really impressed. There were four floors of the building dedicated entirely to the show! All this for one woman! Crazy! It represents the American dream to me - with a lot of hard work; people can truly become anything they want!

I was a bit late as I got lost on the way, so by the time I got there Rachel was taping. I sat in the audience a bit and then went to hang out backstage. You cannot imagine all the amazing cooking instruments she has backstage. Shelves and shelves of really cute bowls, plates, cooking utensils. When I was there they had a promo from a chocolate company and everyone in the audience got a box as a present - not bad!

When taping was over they took me to her dressing room. She has a cute picture of her dog and her husband at her dressing table. She also has a whole drawer filled with Double Happiness Jewelry! Pretty flattering!

When I met her I was not surprised to find her just as warm and energetic as she seems on TV. Our meeting was short and sweet as she expressed her love of the jewelry and gratitude for our working together.

A few days later I got a signed photo of her in the mail! All in all a very cool experience. When I get back to the office I will scan it in and add it to this blog.

And about NY Market, the whole reason I was in NY - it was AMAZING! We have some cool new collections coming down, some with ancient glass as I alluded to in the past that just takes my breath away! Then we have a new Tide pool collection where we created gold tide pools that we fill with stones, we have a new Recycled Glass collection for the eco-conscious and an amazing lamp work collection made with beads from Indonesia, some of which are custom made for Double Happiness. The collection is on fire press-wise, so stay tuned to see pieces from all these collections in the next few months.