Have a wonderful weekend.

Source

Are you doing anything fun this weekend?  I am planning to do some spring cleaning around the house and also unpack my luggage from my Florida trip. I am also going to start reading a new book, The Hunger Games. I am looking forward to it. Hope you have a weekend!

Easter Gifts for Children at A Cup of Sparkle

Children's gift for Easter, Handmade Easter Egg Earrings

A Cup of Sparkle is offering more colors than ever for Easter. Put on these adorable Easter earrings for kids or adults on Easter Sunday. Birds nests earrings now comes in cherry red and robins blue pearls as well as white freshwater pearls. These cute Easter egg earrings makes great gifts for kids, and adults for Easter and they are perfect for springtime!

Handmade Easter Jewelry

For A Cup of Sparkle blog readers, use Coupon Code: EASTER2012  to take advantage of free shipping anywhere in United States. 

Looking for more Easter gift ideas, visit A Cup of Sparkle handmade jewelry and accessories shop to see more of the colorful birds nest Easter jewelry.

Happy Birthday to my puppy: ASLAN!!!

Today is my puppy, Aslan's birthday! He is 2 years old now. My husband and I  am hosting a small dinner party at our house tonight. I am baking a birthday cake for the occasion today... He is unfortunately not getting a slice because sugar is involved in my recipe. Don't feel bad for him though... He has been getting special dog treats since early morning.

This is him... His mommy, Lucy, his brothers and sisters are below. These are some of my favorite photos. He is quite a spoiled one and we love him!

 Do you have a pet? If so, do you ever celebrate their birthday?

More about the colorful towns of Cinque Terre, Italy

If you are a travel savvy and especially a Pinterest user, you probably have seen this photo.
Am I right?

I did before my trip to Italy and Google'd the place right away; I told my husband that we have to go to this place. And, we visited there in January! I wanted to share my photos from the place and tell you more about it today.  

Let's start with some photos from my perspective...

Riomaggiore

Cinque Terre means Five Lands... From all the places I visited in Europe nowhere else has the lure of Mediterranean as Cinque Terre. Below is a map of the place to give you a better understanding of the geography. The place is famous with its white wine, colorful stone houses sitting on rock cliffs and its worlwide known coastal hiking.

A photograph of the actual map in one of the towns in Cinque Terre

One of the major things that attracted me to the place was the fact that the cars are not allowed into the towns. The villages connect only with trails, paths, boats or a train. 

 Here is a photo of the train that runs between the towns. It is very convenient to go from the main town La Spezia - where we stayed in to the 5 villages with the train.

Train of Cinque Terre

And the hikes... Unfortunately due to the last year's weather storm, most of all the hikes were closed in the area while I visited Cinque Terre. Even the last village was entirely closed for everyone. So sad... The only trail we went on was called 'Via Dell' Amore' or 'Trail of Love'. You will know why love is associated with the name of this trail after being on it. It is absolutely fantastic - only if you are not afraid of heights! The metal sculpture below; a women and a men kissing is the symbol of the trail, surrounded with love locks visitors put on the metal barriers, rocks,dry bushes and cactus.

How romantic this sculpture is, looking over the blue waters?

 Finally, I wanted to share some of the other artsy things I have captured in Cinque Terre.

Art Stroll in Cinque Terre

I hope you enjoyed today's travel destination. I wanted to write so much more about the town but; the post got already too long. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the place. I am happy to pass you any information I have about this lovely place.

 Looking forward to see you next time in my next traveling post to Marseille, France!

NEW Coral Jewelry in A Cup of Sparkle shop!

Colorblock Coral Necklace

Coral Bouquet Necklace

Salmon Coral and Green Necklace

Chunky Gold Bracelet

New Handmade Jewelry Packaging Tutorial

Remember my previous jewelry bags tutorial? As the spring and summer times are approaching, I wanted to use a lighter material for my shop's jewelry packaging rather than felt. While I was visiting my mom in Turkey this winter,  my mom, my aunt and I designed and made these new jewelry bags for A Cup of Sparkle customers.

When we went to the fabric store, I couldn't decide on the color of the fabric... All the colors looked so great! So; I picked variety of colors: red, black, white, yellow, pink and green. The fabric is very shiny, smooth and pretty!

My mom made the bags using her sewing machine and we made tiny flowers to embellish the bags. We used a cheap yo-yo maker tool I bought from Joann's to make these flowers. We used leftover fabric scraps in the house.

Making these flowers are really fun and simple. Below is my mom demonstrating how to make the flowers for you:

Last, we added tiny red sparkling gems on top of the flowers and a matching ribbon. It was a bit of hard work to make each bag but; they turned out so beautiful.

Aren't they look cute?

Now, all of the A Cup of Sparkle jewelry and accessories comes in these colorful jewelry bags. I am extra excited to place my handmade products in these special packaging for Mothers Day presents. I hope you will all enjoy them as much we enjoyed making them.
Special thanks for my mom on this project. She spent 2 full days to sew the bags. THANK YOU MOM!

How to avoid chain twists?

Does this ever happen to you? I don't really have a count on how many hours I spent dealing with jammed necklaces until I learned this trick... I thought I will share this with you to save some time to you all so you will have more time to do your make-up before leaving the house :)

 Here is the simple trick:
Always and always close the clasp on your chain. Whether you hang your necklaces or store them in a jewelry bag or a box, it is very important that you close the clasp before you store them. That should hopefully save you some trouble.

This method works most of the time. Moreover,  there is something else I learned recently on how to store necklaces when you travel: Straw Method
Simply thread your necklace through a straw and close the clasp.

          ... Hope these small tricks will save you some time.

Nautical Jewelry - Sailing under the moonlight

I love the Nautical themed jewelry trend going on this year. It looks like it will be one of the most Nautical popular looks this summer. Anchor necklaces, seahorse pendants, ocean blue gemstone earring and more... all inspired by beautiful seas.

Nautical Sail boat necklace by A Cup of Sparkle

I love blue waters and it always sounds so romantic and peaceful to think about sailing at night under the full moon light. That is where my inspiration comes for this distinctive nautical design. Sailboat charm necklace incorporates a sail boat and a full moon behind it made of circle shaped mother of pearl It is definitely a very unique piece that is great for everyday wear. This sail boat necklace is available in my Etsy shop.

Aqua Blue Earrings

You can see more of the nautical 2012 collection by A Cup of Sparkle here. I combined some of them for you. The collection is mostly composed of simple and lightweight pieces designed for daytime and evening. I am happy to share my jewelry designs with you which reflects my fashion for blue waters and sandy beaches. Thank you for visiting! 

Nautical Jewelry