News, news, news.

As many of you may might happen to know, I'm married to the owner of Cascade Yacht Works, a boatbuilding firm with a distinguished and lenghy history in the realm of fiberglass boats.

Boats are my life. Boating is gravy. Living aboard is... or was... oxygen. Walking down the dock is literally a relief. Boats whispering in the wind is magic to me.

In any event, last weekend my husband, good friend Michelle, and I participated in the Commercial Fishermen's Festival in Astoria. We had a great time, talking boats and jewelry. It rained quite a bit, which was frustrating. At the same time there are people who don't get chased away by weather, because they have to live through it. Maintaining the ship for the good of all, no matter the weather. The people who work on the water battle risk, every day. Idyllic situations can turn risky every day. And I suppose that feeds into why I appreciate being on the water, because it has the only thing She promises, is Nothing. Folks who would brave that, and support their family... that's someone to look up to, more than a baseball player or a rockstar with outrageous clothing choices.

In other news, it hasn't been widely publicized, but it catches my eye when it does... the price of silver tends to follow the priceof gold. When gold goes up, it usually means other precious metals are going to do the same thing. In fact, the price of silver has quadrupled in the last couple of years. See this article: http://www.mint.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/MNT-SILVER-R2.swf

What this means to anyone reading here, is that the jewelry I am selling is an investment. You can get any old silver-plated junk made in a sweatshop in some foreign country, stuff that isn't made with love, with cheap or fake stones. Getting sterling silver, that's more of a financial outlay, but don't you dare toss it out, ever. You can recycle it, have it remade into something else, any number of things. What this means is that silver is a perfectly good gift, from grandparents, from parents, from boyfriends, from friends, for any occasion, or no occasion at all. It will last--even with little to no maintenance, years down the road, you can polish it up, good as new, and wear it again.

Gotta scram, but hopefully many new things will be going up on Etsy soon.