get your NEWS here!

New york is a newspaper town, but the number has dwindled over the years. We used to have many, many more papers years ago, and they published multiple editions each day, all packed in giant bundles and thrown out the doors of speeding trucks in the general direction of the newsstand. Thankfully, with no blackberry and no ipod, your eyes were generally open and you could get out of the way, lest a 40 pound bundle of papers knock you over.

We read a lot of papers cause we didn't have blogs then, and you had your morning papers like the Wall St. Journal, NY Times and the Daily News, and your afternoon papers like the Post. My father sent me out for the Racing Form, a daily newspaper about horses. There was even a news stand for foreign papers near Bryant Park, you could get a paper from paris the same day. It seemed amazing at the time!

 We had the New York Sun, the Daily Mirror and others. The newsstands around Grand Central Terminal had lots of papers to sell, and they employed newspaper "boys" of all ages who stood there yelling at the top of their lungs to get you to buy their paper.

The folks who sold the Daily News would shout at you in their inimitable New York accents what sounds like: Get ya NOOOS HEAH!    DAILEEEE NOOOS!   I think the paper cost a dime back then, and they didn't have a single page in color. So fast forward to the Daily News of today, in full color, the valentine's guide. And look at what they are showing in the guide, our cuff and ring!
I was surprised and thrilled, it was unexpected to say the least. Sometimes you have to really work to get some press, and sometimes you don't! Either way, we've got 'em in stock and ready to ship, in case your valentine would like a bauble or two. Ciao!

SyFy in Manhattan, microsoft style

There comes a time in every girls life when you've got to upgrade the computer. At robertachiarella.com we've got a bunch of them, with our wireless this and that, a few blackberry's, laptops and a macbook pro. 

Some of our computers are pretty old and won't allow us to run the UPS shipping program we use to make sure our jewelry gets to your house on time. So, it's upgrade time in the office. I got myself the biggest, fastest, coolest looking shiny black machine HP had to offer, stuffed with memory and windows 7 "64 bits", which (I am told) is the way to go.

The programs open faster than I can figure out how to use them, which is a lot better than watching the little hourglass on the screen.
  Of course, you don't just plug it in and go! We had to make all new network connections, and copy all the files from the server that has had Windows 2000 since 2000! Then, you test the whole thing to make sure we're good to go.
It's fun using windows 7, in some ways they have outdone the mac operating system, it's so easy a dog can use it (that's the assistant webmaster in the photo) once you master the learning curve.

And that wasn't easy- trying to learn a new computer this week. Our golden globes work paid off with a great photo shoot in Us Magazine, and some pretty good press. It's amazing that our designs were such good matches for the beautiful (and expensive) diamonds and emeralds that we saw on the red carpet last week. Penelope Cruz and Meryl Streep were pictured wearing some great looking outfits, with earrings that were hard to tell apart from ones at http://www.robertachiarella.com/. Penelope wore earrings similar to "j's jewel earrings" that we feature on our internet store,

Meryl Streep wore an earring nearly identical to a piece we are just introducing, so guess what we called it? Meryl's earring, of course and I'm sure you'll love it. Sales have been great, we're packing and shipping like crazy. One of our brides-to-be used our bridal party discount to outfit her bridesmaids in the J's Jewel earrings, they are certainly elegant enough for a wedding.

You had to cheer for Monique, she had the real things, actual roberta chiarella "unforgettable teardrop earrings" that retail for $98 on our site. I had so much fun working with her on her movie, Precious, and to see her wear my earrings was a real thrill. And we've done a lot of TV watching, renting movies, and reading books thanks to old man winter hitting New York yet again.

It's cold out there, too cold to spend much time outside. Maybe it's just as well, I can work on some new designs and play with my new computer. If I can get the I tunes playlists back, my new internet experience will be complete. Ciao!

The Golden Globes

It's a perfect night to watch TV after we had the most dreary, rainy day I can think of. Every New Yorker is secretly thinking "at least it's not snowing" but it was positively yucky out today.

My only trip outside was to go the grocery store to get our provisions for the evening.Tonight, I'm going to be camping out on the living room floor, pencil and paper at the ready, to see who wears what at the Golden Globe Awards.
Already it seems some actresses are wearing jewelry that is familiar to girls who frequent robertachiarella.com.

Look at Sandra Bullock, those earrings look awfully familiar. Last year, we had so many pieces that resembled what stars wore to the awards that the jewelry was used on the Today Show and in some magazine spreads about how us regular folks could get a superstar look without paying Tiffany's prices.

I hope to be able to do the same tonight, and am taking notes, checking the stock room and I have our factory on call (that would be exciting, wouldn't it!) to make those golden-globe-look pieces that we'll see tonight. Enjoy the show! Ciao.

Brrrrrrrr!

Our blog and website are hot, but not much else is here in the big apple. It's been a cold snap that is affecting the whole country, and we saw TV clips of the poor farmers working night and day to keep their oranges from freezing down in Florida. Here in Manhattan, you need your warmest clothes and your hat, scarf and gloves to keep warm, the wind howls through the streets and tries to blow you over.

I usually take this as a message from the powers above to stay indoors, and so my house is cleaner, my closet is organized and our jewelry inventory is ahead of schedule. I am glad we schedule the inventory this time of year, if it was in the summer, we'd be griping that we had to stay indoors counting the jewels when it was so nice outside. Speaking of inventory, when we count, people save!

Our january sale is in progress, and the best way to reduce the number of pieces to count is to have a sale and move them out from my studio to your home! I took a peek behing a large plastic box and found a bunch of glacier cz rings we thought had sold out, they went into the sale section right away.


So, to that lady who called before christmas asking if we had the purple ones in stock and I said I thought I did but couldn't find them, here they are!

And to the customer who wanted to know when the bean earrings would go on sale so she could have a 'spare pair', now's your chance, they are reduced to $25 for the sale.

I've also put the fried egg necklace on sale for because I accidentally ordered extra, our boo-boo is a bonanza for anyone who wants a fantastic piece made of tiger eye glass beads, natural shell with a dramatic center, now only $25 for our sale.

We hope that you've been watching your morning TV, our favorite editor Jill Martin has been busy as usual with her fashion segments, and has been wearing some of my favorite earrings as well as using roberta chiarella jewelry for her makeovers and 'ambushes' that make the Today show fun to watch. I got a DVD from the Wendy Williams show where I introduced Wendy, and we watched it today, I was amazed at the audience reaction when Wendy said every member of the audience would get a pair of my earrings.

The studio lights are bright and there are loudspeakers right in front of you, so you can't really see the crowd when you are on stage. I appreciate Wendy's staff for sending this to me, I watched it 4 or 5 times until my brother made me take it out. Happy birthday, BRIAN!!!   Ciao!

bye, bye, 2009!

Wow, the year is just about over. Can you imagine we are going into 2010. Do you remember 10 years ago we were staring at out (tube) monitors, wondering if our computers were going to blow up or shut down for "Y2K"?  It didn't happen, and now we have way more stuff to stay connected. This little blog, facebook, our robertachiarella.com website, all a product of the broadband era. I can't say I miss paying all my bills with my checkbook, and mailing letters to my friends, twitter and webcams are more fun.

So, as we get ready for a new year, I just OK'd some new jewelry designs and sent the last signed contract of 2009 to our jewelry factory in Providence, RI. Yes, there are still factories in the US, and ours is really special, where third-generation jewelry-makers fashion our products with care. I also just made the last changes to our website for 2009, as the christmas gift-box special is history and we got some great end-of-the-year press. Take a look at InStyle Weddings, they have an annual feature "the best of the web" and picked me to be in it. It's nice to be recognized, and we get a lot of referrals from loyal customers, as well as beauty editors and fashion designers across the country.

It's been a great TV year, too- Wendy Williams wears my jewelry a lot, and it was so much fun to go on her show and introduce her a few weeks ago. To all the folks in the audience who received a free pair of earrings I made just for the show, I got your comments and really appreciate your kind remarks. (I did have a problem posting the comments, somehow the computer erased a bunch of them, sorry) We have been so honored to be featured so frequently on the today show, they are always asking for high-quality, affordable jewelry to use in their fashion segments, and it is great fun working with them. Jill Martin (fashion for dummies) is an emmy-award winner, and is so fantastic to be able to supply her with lots of jewelry for her today show segments.

There have been so many milestones in 2009- we had a contest on the website that had thousands (and thousands and thousands) of entries, the winners all loved their prizes and we had fun working with our partners to offer the prizes. I showed a new collection made for HSN, and it was an amazing success, selling out and getting great reviews. Being on HDTV at the HSN studio was a first for me, and I still remember the makeup they used! I hope to continue the relationship, and expand the jewelry line to offer people the more affordable things that we all love, along with our wedding line, which is more intricate, beautifully crafted with swarovski crystallized elements and is just much prettier than the photos can show. When we have bridal parties come to our studio, the first thing they say is how much shinier, how brilliant the stones are, so until we get 3-D computer monitors, just take my word for it, the stuff sparkles!

I wish you all the best for a happy new year, we'll celebrate it in New York City by watching the ball drop from our living room TV- times square is for the truly brave, or people from very cold climates! To all our dear readers, Happy New Year!  Ciao.

Sleighbells are ringing in New York City

I love New York at Christmastime! So many tourists, enjoying all the wonderful decorations, the lights, the attractions and the shopping! I took some time last evening to get some of my shopping done, and made my way down fifth avenue, where the store displays at Saks and Lord & Taylor are legendary.

Every year they seem to get more and more interesting, and the people strolling and shopping just love them. Of course, you have to push your way through sometimes, but I was able to buy a few gifts and then took a walk through Bryant Park with my camera, trying out some available light photography.

They've put up a temporary winter playground, complete with outdoor fireplaces which were all in use by folks having a drink and some snacks.  Every year they set up a shopping village, with all kinds of handcrafted items, and lots of glassware, winter wear and neat holiday items. And there's an Ice Palace Bar! 

I saw a TV show about finland or norway, where they build a bar out of blocks of ice, and people wait on line to get in, the place was lit in blue and although the guests had to be freezing, they looked like they were having a great time. Bryant Park built a more melt-proof structure adjacent to the ice skating rink, complete with a balcony overlooking the ice, and a giant heater over each table.

Unbelievably, it was not there a month ago, it's put up for the holidays and disappears after new years! Only in New York.

I finished up by walking through Rockefeller Center, the christmas tree is New York's most famous, and the crowds so thick you can barely move. I love it, though, because it is so festive, and it's free! I stopped for a moment and a couple asked me to take their photo, I put my package down on the ledge and obliged them, and then went on my way. A few minutes later, while I was admiring the swarovski star on top of the tree, I noticed the same couple running towards me to give me the bundle I'd forgotten! My faith in angels renewed, I continued on my merry way to Henri Bendel's to check out the Roberta Chiarella jewelry counter, making sure it's fully replenished for that last minute rush.

Even though the economy is not great, people are shopping, and we're doing our part, putting lots of items on sale and offering gift wrap and other specials for our customers. The Angie Earrings have been doing so well, we've reordered from the factory and have plenty in stock.

We'll pack and ship like crazy, to make sure everyone gets their gifts on time. We want everyone to have their present christmas morning, it's a promise I made to Santa!  Ciao.