All that glitters...

...may be gold. Or silver. Platinum, diamond, pearl, even? Certainly all and more were glittering, glistening, and shining their little hearts out at the re-opening of the V&A's jewellery gallery, which I went to Friday night with jewelophile friend Margot.

The galleries are impressively done, albeit a bit overwhelming, and frankly less bling than I was expecting. The Crown Jewels these are not -- instead the visitor is presented with an historic march from some of the earliest known adornments (including those darn Etruscans) through to the most modern of pieces, looking more like works of art than something you could (or would) actually wear.

The panel after panel crowded with samples perhaps got just a little samey to all but the true aficianado (how many signet rings can you look at? Really, the ones from the 1600s didn't look that different from ones from the 1800s, at least to my philistine eye.) I think I would've preferred examples of 'the best' of this, or 'most distinctive' of that -- which they did have in some cases, highlighted in the centre of the galleries. And I did learn a few things -- such as what a "chatelaine" is. I knew the word to mean mistress of a large house / estate / castle. Turns out it also was a chain women wore in the days before pockets & purses, on which would hang tools for the house -- keys, scissors, a watch, etc. A Swiss Army belt. Ish.

I was also impressed by the gemstone colour wheel at the end of the exhibit -- ranging from diamonds to pearls, the wheel swirled together jewels in every imaginable colour. I can never decide if saphires or emeralds are my favourite... sigh -- I guess I'll have to take both.

There were also a few multimedia aspects -- the most amazing of which was a touch screen computer where you could design your own ring. My efforts weren't too fantastic, as I ran out of time, but I was hugely impressed by the instant 3D nature of the design -- you could rotate, resize, recolour, cut, etc, your jewels and ring onscreen and see your creation from every angle. Pretty cool.

Next on the exhibition schedule -- Psycho Buildings. Or should I see Skin & Bones -- about fashion and architecture? Aaah -- too many choices.

Sunday evening again

And time for my normal refrain -- where *has* the weekend gone?!

I can tell you where some of it went -- my monthly V&A afternoon. After talking about it for yeeeears, I've finally started volunteering at my favourite London museum. It's not the most taxing of jobs, sitting there as I do at the membership desk. Mostly a lot of 'Bathroom? Just down those stairs.' and 'You can get back to the Tube a couple of ways...' But I do sign up a few new members each time, and I enjoy chatting to the visitors who stop by (perhaps a little too much. I'm sure the visitor from St Petersburg, FL, today simply wanted to know if the central hall chandelier was a Chihuly, not a discourse on the glassblower's recent UK exhibits, but hey - she started it).

And I especially enjoy getting there a little before my shift to check out the latest exhibitions, even if I only get a quick glimpse. And today was particularly fun -- a visit to the newly opened Story of the Supremes exhibit, courtesy of the Mary Wells collection. Unlike the recent Couture exhibit, which was vast, but mostly dress after dress, with relatively little context, the Supremes show packs in not only a variety of stage outfits from various incarnations of the group but also a plethora of contextual background panels, covering Motown, the civil rights movement, growth of girl groups, general Americana... phew! A bit much to take in in my whirlwind 20 minutes -- I was mostly looking at the sequins -- but I look forward to going back.

I also restrained myself in the gift shop, though I quite liked the Love Child t-shirt for some reason. And I realised my CD collection is remarkably -- and sadly -- bereft of any classic girl-group sound, but held off addressing that lack with the Best of Supremes double album. One item that did make me laugh, however, was the serving bowl, made from a real live gen-yoo-ine LP record (don't see many of those any more). The laugh came from the price -- £25!! Man, I gotta get me some of that action. I remembered reading about how easy these are to make on Web-Goddess, (who herself credits Get Crafty) -- and now I see them for sale for £25??!

M... is for the many things she gave me...

Happy (American) Mother's Day, Mom. Rather than a card, I thought I'd celebrate in proper Mother's Day 2.0 style, with this blog post -- I couldn't say it better myself.



Now, imagine this with 3 children (and, er, 2 of them female)



Happy Mother's Day to a Mom I can laugh with -- thanks for the years of smile lines I've got -- every one of them is worth it!

366 days later

Happy anniversary to my husband – 1 year on, and just getting better and better.

I’d write more, but I’m afraid it would descend into schmaltzy Hallmark quality... or worse still, be sub-Apprentice, and we can’t have that.

I just wish we could invite everyone back for another party! At least that would give me an excuse to update the website...

Puzzle time again...

Two weeks in a row - (pause to give myself a little pat on the back. Pause again to take it back when I remember NPR received 3,000 entries last week - one of the larger numbers, so suppose it was a pretty easy one...)

Let's see how many right answers they get this time - Alright, Mr deShortz... I'm ready for my phone call...

And the question is:

"Insert a long E sound after the first letter of "bond" and phonetically you get "be-ond." Insert a long E sound after the first letter of "renter" and you get "re-enter." Name something found in outer space. Insert a long E sound after the first letter, and you'll name a resident of a major American city. What are the words?"

Answers to NPR Puzzle by 3pm Thursday as usual... Or below. Though I make no promises of calling anyone to play puzzle on air Sunday morning -- you'll have a slightly better chance of that with NPR...