I’m so excited to introduce this new line of shadow jewelry to the LAMA shop! As a special Halloween treat to you, take 10% off any of these new pieces when you use the promo code “LAHHHMA” at checkout. Be sure and take advantage of this offer while it lasts! These pretty pieces will go back to full price once the clock strikes midnight on Sunday November 1st (PST). HAPPY HALLOWEEN! click here to view the new merchandise.

Over the weekend I got together with my neighbors to make some Sugar Skulls to celebrate Dia de los Muertos. Sugar skulls are traditionally made to commemorate deceased family members during the Dia de los Muertos celebration. Check out this site for some more sugar skull history. It was a process that took us two days to complete but it was tons of fun. Here’s what happened on the first night:

1. With our instructions in hand, we were ready to go. Click here for instructions.

2. The first step was to create the sugar skull mixture in a large bowl.

3. Next we had to fill the skull molds with the sugar mix.

4. Pressing the sugar mix firmly into the molds was essential.

5. The molds came in two parts, the skull tops and the skull bottoms.

6. After all of our skull tops and bottoms were done. We laid them out on large pieces of cardboard to start the 12 hour drying process.

Day 2

7. We took the dry sugar skulls out to the backyard for the “glueing” process.

8. That’s me glueing the sugar sugar skull tops and bottoms together with the sticky frosting we prepared.

9. Once the skulls were dry and ready for the best part (decorating!), we placed the color frosting we had made earlier in the day into ziplock bags. We cut tiny holes on the bag corners and used them as frosting dispensers.

10. That’s us concentrating VERY hard on decorating our skulls. It’s was a bit more difficult than we anticipated and I think we were in silent competition with one another to make the best skulls.

11. Here they are! The final product of all our labor. The sugar skulls are done!

12. It was quite a process but it was so much fun! We were all very proud of our sugar skulls.

13. My personal favorite. My neighbor made this one which he called, “The LAMA Skull.” Looks like LAMA blue to me!

14. This is my neighbor Ernesto eating the leftover frosting. I don’t recommend doing this. I think he seriously regretted it.

Afterward, we celebrated with several rounds of Guitar Hero. I was the band photographer for the evening. If you make it all the way through the entire two day process of making sugar skulls, I highly recommend blowing off some steam. HAPPY DIA DE LOS MUERTOS EVERYONE!!

I am the creator, founder, president, ceo, chairman, ambassador, etc. of the “I hate Mondays” club. Mondays are no fun. That’s why it was especially nice to find this morning that Apartment102 had such nice things to say about LAMA over the weekend. Thanks for the mention! I can deal with this particular Monday.

To check out Apartment102 and read the full post, click here.

Surfing the web last night, I came across the work of Bu, a talented illustrator and Fashion designer from Argentina. It didn’t take long for me to become a fan. Simply stunning! Enjoy…

Happy Friday everyone! Have a great weekend.

Based in Argentina, Les Croquants is just plain sweet. I know where I’ll be next time I head South. Mmmmmm…..

As much as I hate to admit it (because I sort of pride myself on being a workaholic), I have had a heck of a time getting back to business as usual. As much as I just want to be present again, my mind is still on vacation and it’s sort of stressing me out. Okay, it’s really stressing me out. This morning I resolved to stop fighting my mind’s desire to wander and decided to just go with it. How happy am I that I let my mind take me over to one of my favorite blogs and go to source of inspiration, SFgirlbybay. The photo and story below, by photographer Liz Steketee, were featured on Victoria’s weekly “Talking Pictures” post. I couldn’t resist sharing it here as I found it both incredibly charming and inspiring. In short, it made me want to get back to work. I hope it inspires you as well.

“this image is of my daughter emma, who has long dreamed of becoming an astronaut. when she was just 3 years old she announced to her father and me that she would soon be going to the moon. she shortly there after requested an astronaut costume and proceeded to wear it for the next year. this image to me is about the thrill of big dreams when you are a child, the belief that you can be anything without restrictions, without parameters. it also serves as a reminder to me to keep my dreams close. to pursue them as diligently as i did when i was a child. it is too easy to let dreams go when life pushes back on us. holding tight is harder than we imagine. i expect that in a few years down the road, i will be a passenger on my daughter’s rocket to the moon.”

Just because I can’t resist, here’s a sneak peak of a beautiful new line of jewelry coming to LAMA soon…

By designer Sol Maria Zwierzynski Sudak who’s jewelry is meant to “tell stories amongst their parts.” We can’t wait to show you the whole collection!

Yesterday was my first day back to LAMA after an epic two week vacation through Germany and Egypt (cool photos to be posted soon). It was amazing to get away for a while but I have to say I’m thrilled to be back! Going through my inbox yesterday, (speaking of epic), I came across an email with fantastic images of the Fiesta Del Papel going on in Portugal. Sadly I could not find a lot of information about this event but I think the photos say a whole lot. Oh, to see this in person! Amazing. Here are some of my favorite images:

To view all the images, click here to check out the full slide show.