The New Haven Register wrote an article about #JewelsForHope

We woke up with a happy surprise this morning! The New Haven Register wrote another article about us! We're just so so grateful! This is our 3rd time in the NHR!!! :)

Happy Dance <3

Big thanks to Jean from the register. She is such a sweet woman and she wrote this wonderful piece on us! Be sure to check it out HERE!

Big #Sales on our Facebook!

We're starting our sales early for the MTV Movie Awards Gift Lounge!

Be sure to stop over to our Facebook Page from TODAY until Sunday for some amazing deals!

MTV Movie Awards Gift Lounge, This Friday!

The MTV Movie Awards Gift Lounge is this Friday and Saturday! We are so excited about it that I cannot even describe it!

100 Celebs to receive our leather cord bracelets... HAPPY DANCE. We have 100 Swarovski Crystal Bracelets in the Swag Bags, as well as some Mens and Women's Bracelets on display at the event for those amazing celebs to pose with them!

During the Event, both Friday and Saturday (June 1st and June 2nd) be sure to hop on over to our Facebook Page. We are going to be doing great sales both days, only for our Facebook Fans.

Hope to see you all there!

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day Everyone!

We hope everyone has a fantastic day and hope you all had a great weekend!

On Holidays like Memorial Day, I really try and not go on my websites a ton.. I feel it's all about family. I will be having a nice family cookout today! Love the family bonding time- when we all can just be together and have a nice day.

xoxo
Stevie

Jewels for @TeamLovelys - Look Great & #Donate

We are happy to announce that we have been working with Team Lovelys... Jennifer Love Hewitt's Official Fan Club. Sara, who runs the fan club, is such a sweetie and has been a big supporter of Jewels For Hope for some time now. We worked together and came up with a great line of products that will donate a portion of the profits to The Audrey Hepburn's Children's Fund.

Here is the line we created on our site... Hope you Love them!

Meredith Vieira and Jewels For Hope!

We were so happy to participate in a great event to benefit The National MS Society yesterday at The Regency Hyatt in Greenwich, CT.

Jewels For Hope added MS to our list of organizations we donate to recently, so this was a great event that we were thrilled to be a part of!

At this event, the main speaker was Meredith Vieira and her husband Richard Cohen. Richard has MS and Meredith has been a big supporter and advocate for The National MS Society.

When we found out Meredith was going to be at this event, we made a special bracelet for both her and Richard. We were so lucky to give the bracelets to them - and they LOVED them! They both wore the bracelets throughout the whole event.

Here are some photos of myself and my mother with Meredith... She was just so sweet and posed with us a chatted a bit. She has such a warmth to her and is so down to earth. It was an absolute pleasure meeting her!

If you look verrrrrry closely in the picture with me- on her wrist behind the earring stand, you can see the orange bracelet--- this is the one we gave her!. We actually made friends with the photographer of the day (she was so nice!) and once she has the photos ready she'll send them to us --- don't worry, I'll give you her website then too- in case your in need of a great, nice photographer in the CT area :)

This event was so great and I hope everyone was able to raise a ton of money for The National MS Society. All of the workers are this event were just amazing and so sweet! I am so happy we participated in this- we met a ton of great people and donated to a great cause!

We are having a great Facebook #Sale

Hi Everyone!

We're having a really fun Facebook Sale right now. For the next couple of weeks we will be posting a ton of items on our Facebook page at a discount before we post anything on our website!

Check out our Facebook Page for these fun sales!

Look Great & #Donate: Caroline's Room & @MyFrangiPangi

I believe people come into your lives for a reason.

We were lucky enough to get a ton of press this past year for our participation in The Oscars Gift Lounge through The Artisan Group. During this time, we met Jocelyn Maminta of WTNH News Channel 8. She came to our house to interview us for one of the press segments we were lucky enough to do for WTNH this year and we really connected with Jocelyn.

Jocelyn and her husband Gary started Caroline's Room.

Coming from their website.......
Caroline's Room:

The mission of Caroline’s Room is to ease the trauma of families with children in neonatal intensive care. We do this through:

• Providing a safe haven where families meet in privacy with caregivers to plot strategies and deal with outcomes;
• Raising public awareness of the risks of babies born too soon and the needs of their families; and
• Collaborating with a range of partners to achieve our vision.

Caroline's Room is a great organization and now have locations across the country:

Current Caroline's Rooms

Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut

Covenant Medical Center, Lubbock, Texas

University Medical Center at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas

Odessa Regional Hospital, Odessa, Texas

Connecticut Children's Medical Center, Hartford, Connecticut

Carilion Clinic Children's Hospital, Roanoke, Virginia

Tampa General Hospital, Tampa, Florida

SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri

St. Vincent Women's Hospital, Indianapolis, Indiana

We think it is great to have a special room for families with children in the NICU for them to get the privacy they need to just sit and think or talk with the doctors. 

Something that I also love about Jocelyn and Gary is that they actually have another company that also donates to Caroline's Room. They created Frangi Pangi... pantyhose designed for every woman, every color, every size. We all know I love donating- and the fact that they have this company and it donates to their fine organization makes me love FrangiPangi even more. Don't you love it when you see companies donating?

Well, if you have the time, check out both Caroline's Room and Frangi Pangi! Look Great & Donate!

#Enter to #Win #Handmade #Jewelry @PopCosmo

Wow, this week is great for giveaways!

Enter to win some of our bracelets from PopCosmo!

They are giving away some PopCosmo Bracelets (we made them special for them!!) and a "Sister Bracelet" to the bracelet we designed for Khloe Kardashian!

PopCosmo, is a great teen trends online publication- you can read my previous post about them here!

Look Great & #Donate: @WeStopHate

We Stop Hate.

Three simple words, such a great incredibly strong meaning.

Jewels For Hope donates to this awesome organization- and it's one of our favorites. We Stop Hate helps stop bullying among teens and promotes strong self-esteem.

We were so happy to find this organization. My mother and I have always, always hated bullying. I know, myself personally, grew up being "different" from the "normal" teens. (What is normal, right?) Well... I think especially now, bullying has gone into overdrive for some reason and it has to end. Everyone is perfect in their own special way- and bullying should just stop. Period.

We Stop Hate was started by a brave, inspirational 17 year old girl, Emily Anne. The fact that this organization  was started by a teenager really (sorry for being redundant) is inspiring. My mother has actually emailed back and forth with Emily Anne about us donating to We Stop Hate- she is so sweet! We sent her one of our bracelets, and a nice surprise in return- she sent us one of her rubber We Stop Hate bands.

This organization really means a lot to us. I can't believe what kids are like now-a-days (I'm only 25, but still). Knowing what I went through in High School and then watching my 2 younger sisters go through highschool (at different times) makes my mind spin hearing what happens. People really are cruel to one another for no reason. We must Stop the Hate.

If you have some time today- check out this organization. I would suggest Liking them on Facebook or Following them on Twitter too-- they always post great quotes, pictures, everything really.

Stop the hate <3

$130 #Giveaway to win an #MTV Movie Awards #SwagBag Bracelet

As you know, (maybe?) The MTV Movie Awards Gift Lounge hosted by GBK Productions will be held on June 1st (just a short ways away!). Our bracelets will be on display at The Artisan Group's exhibit and 100 celebs will each receive one of our special Swarovski Crystal Bracelets each color-coded to an organization we support.

*Happy Dance*

We are so excited about this event, that we wanted to get you amazing followers just as excited... and we thought a Giveaway would be a great way! What do you think?

We are giving away a custom MTV Movie Awards Swag Bag Bracelet to one lucky winner (US Only, sorry folks-- but I promise, there will be another chance for to win one of these in Simply Stacie's giveaway during Still Blonde After All These Years' Fall Fashionista Event in October!).

Once the winner is chosen I will email them directly and we can discuss color options for your bracelet. You can do your favorite color, favorite charity, birthstone.. whatever you want!

Here are some of the bracelets we shipped off to California for this amazing Gift Lounge!

So, you want to win?

Below is the Rafflecopter form to enter. US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Look Great & Donate: Hospice

I decided I want to tell you a bit about all the different causes Jewels For Hope supports. I think I want to do a different post for each cause- each cause we donate to is so important to us. We get requests weekly to help support different causes.. I wish we could help everyone- but we would get too confused LOL. Right now, we donate to 15 organizations.

For my first post about our causes, I decided to write about Hospice; our very first cause we started donating to.

For those of you who do not know what Hospice is, here is a little blurb I took from their site:

The Connecticut Hospice addresses physical, spiritual, social, and emotional needs of patients with advanced irreversible illness, and their families. Such care is provided regardless of diagnosis and as long as the Hospice level of care is needed by the patients.

We had Hospice nurses in and out of our home for almost a year. My mom took care of my grandmother for about 10 years. My grandmother had Parkinson's Disease and dementia. Towards the end of my grandmother's life, she lived in our living room, in a hospital bed. 

Hospice is amazing.

Plain and simple. The nurses at Hospice do things that I know I would never, ever be able to do.... changing bandages, taking care of sores, etc....watching them with my grandmother we were so grateful they were there. 

When my mother was taking care of my grandmother during this time, she started making jewelry. Jewels For Hope came about when the Hospice nurses wanted to buy some of the designs my mother was creating. Of course she said absolutely not - and just gave it to them. Again... can't stress this enough... they did so much that we couldn't do- the jewelry was a Thank You for us.

But my mother started thinking.....

Why not make jewelry and give a portion of the profits to Hospice. To continuously give back. 

We always say- out of all the causes we donate-- Hospice is the cause that really can help the most people. When you think about it, most people will end up on Hospice at some point in their life. These caregivers really are exceptional - I can't say enough. I feel like I'm being so repetitive about how great Hospice is, but I can't help it. Until you see them work first hand... then you may be saying the same things as me. 

For anyone reading this, if Hospice has touched your life in anyway, my heart goes out to you. I know how difficult it is to see a loved one go through this or if you have gone through it for that matter... It's hard to see, hard to deal with, but hopefully you also have had the amazing caregivers from Hospice to make it a little easier on you.

We gifted the #amazing @KhloeKardashian

We were lucky enough to gift Khloe Kardashian. Oh, we just love her in this house. My sisters are completely obsessed with The Kardashians so when my mother and I got this opportunity to give Khloe some jewels, mys sisters felt we really "made it" with this. That this is our big break (oh, we hope so! LOL).

The Artisan Group put together a fab bag for Khloe filled with special handcrafted items! I am so thrilled to have our items in this bag. I really hope Khloe loves them!!

Here is what we gifted Khloe. Keep your eyes peeled to see if you catch the gorgeous lady sporting this bracelet or earrings!

Click here to look at the great Pintrest Board full of goodies for Khloe Kardashian!

#Coupon Code! Look Great & #Donate

SALE!

We are having a great sale on our site! We are offering 15% off and Free Shipping on everything on our site!

All you have to do is enter the code Great15 during checkout and you're all set!

#MTV Movie Awards Event Guide!

In my post yesterday I showed you the fabulous (or at least I think fabulous) designs we created for The MTV Movie Awards Gift Lounge on June 1st & 2nd! Well, now you can see some more amazing handmade designs here in this Event Guide.

The Artisan Group gives everyone who comes into the gift lounge one of these event guides. It shows everyone who is gifting through The Artisan Group for this event. I love looking through it. There is so many amazing creations in this book. I want one of everything haha. Hopefully the celebs will feel the same way!

MTV Movie Awards Gift Lounge- Prep!

We are so excited that our products will be featured in The 2012 MTV Movie Awards Gift Lounge, hosted by GBK Productions on June 1st and June 2nd!!

We are doing this gift lounge again, through The Artisan Group (<-- if you are a handmade artist, check them out! Seriously, best group ever. So nice, so helpful, and the founder, Valerie, is superwoman).

My mother and I had to make 110 items. 100 items for Celebs (squeal) and 10 items for Press Gifts.

We decided to do some funky Swarovski Crystal Leather Cord Bracelets.

All of our bracelets are color-coded to one of the 15 organizations we support. Yes, we are up to 15 now haha. We just keep finding more and more organizations we really want to help out. I think we're stopping at 15... but then again, we said before we were stopping at 10. 

These bracelets took us so long to do. We made each one (with love) along with packaging them into cute boxes, designing business cards to include, designing labels, and creating a card with information about which charity the bracelet is color-coded to. 

Here are some great shots of some of the bracelets we sent off (yes, they are already in California, waiting for the gift lounge on June 1st!)

How do they look? I hope everyone likes them!

Wild Hearts Photography Photo Shoot!

We have been involved in quite a bit of photo shoots over the past couple of months. We are so happy to be included in these great events!

This photo shoot I'm about to show you is from Wild Hearts Photography. Stacey, the owner/photographer, did an AMAZING shoot. We just love these photos and think they are super duper cute.

What do you think!!!!!

You should also check out Wild Hearts Photography's Facebook Page. It tells you all the designers in this amazing shoot- because I know if I had a daughter, these cute tutu's would be something I would buy in a heartbeat!

Jewels For Hope placed #39 in StartupNation's Leading Mom's in Business Competition!

Happy to announce that Jewels For Hope was recently named one of the winners of The 2012 Leading Moms in Business by StartupNation!

WooHoo!

There were 350,000 Votes casted during this competition. Over 400 companies, maybe more, entered. They choose the top 200 businesses and we were among them. I am proud to say, we made it to NUMBER 39!

Yep, we placed #39 in the compettion!

We are so happy to have made it into the Top 50 companies. This just made our day, really!

My mother works so hard for this company, she deserves greatness. I know I say that all the time, but it's true. My mother does so much for so many people, I just want Jewels For Hope to be a well known name, for her. She deserves some glitz and glamour (and some sales LOL) so it would be great.

We always say, we just want to pay our bills and donate. We don't need to be rich, just enough for our bills and to continue to donate. And placing #39 in this competition is just a great motivation that one day we will be exactly where we need to be with J4H. Staying positive, being happy, and creating jewelry... That's us!

And I feel like I have babbled on and on about this.. so I will end it here LOL. A super duper HUGE Thank You to everyone who voted for us! It means so much to us <3 xoxo