A Review of Lisa’s Urban Nostalgia, aka My Friend’s Jewelry

In one of those “Things Friends Never do to Friends” activities, we have today’s post.  Might I just start with “If you happen to have written a guest post on this site and are a friend of mine name ‘Lisa’, please quit reading this post.”  Now that we got rid of Lisa, let’s talk about Lisa behind her back.

Lisa and I met through blogging.  She’s been a great help to me as I’ve gotten my blog up and running.  In fact, Lisa introduced me to Blog Frog, where I met a lot of new friends!  We met over at Networked Blogs on Facebook.  If I remember correctly, Lisa was looking for followers and people to confirm her as the author of her blog (Lisa’s Urban Nostalgia), and I hopped on over to check things out.  The blog was discussing destroying books, so I decided to skip the posts about Lisa’s sacrilegious activities and check out this thing called Etsy.  I was in love with Lisa’s craft.  If I forgot her sacrilegious activities of destroying antique books, I could see the art.

A few months later, the piece I had my eyes on for my grandmother’s Christmas present was still there.  (My grandma doesn’t read the blog because she lives where the only internet connection is via dial-up, and my grandmother’s computer has decided to misplace the driver for the dialup modem.  So, we’re safe to discuss Grandma’s Christmas present.)  Why this was still on the Etsy site is beyond me!

Beautiful, huh?  And I’m not that great at taking pictures of jewelry.

As for how extremely long it took my purchase to reach me, I can’t blame Lisa.  After all, Lisa had a root canal on Friday, worked all day Sunday, got my order when she got home that night, and sent the purchase out on Monday.  Now, I have been informed that transporters do not exist.  (I saw “Star Trek” and I am convinced that transporters should exist.  They make life easier.)  It means Lisa was kinda forced to send my purchase via mail.  Okay, I get it.  Things take time to go across the country.  But I still think I should have gotten the jewelry the moment I hit the order button.  Not a few days later.  Gesh!

After three very long days my jewelry arrived from Lisa.  (Did I mention post offices are not open on Sunday?  Gesh, why aren’t they open 24/7?)  So, the order was sent Monday and arrived on Wednesday.)  My husband and had just come down from Silver City to jewelry in the mail.  I was thrilled until I opened the envelope.  (Opening the envelope was a party in itself!  See what was inside?)

First, I had a minor issue.  It was gift wrapped.  When was the last time you got gift wrapped jewelry in the mail?  The pieces looked beautiful in the paper, but I still wanted to see the actual pieces.  Years of opening my presents early and rewrapping them came in handy.  A few small tugs here and a little pull there freed the jewelry from the lovely wrapping job.

That’s when I realized I love the piece!  Normally not a problem, unless you happen to be planning on giving the piece away.

I should probably show y’all the piece.  Readers of this blog will know Lisa’s Western work.  (Also referred to as “I’m guest blogging and need to blend in to the scenery.”  If you don’t, read the guest post and leave lots of comments for our friendly artist. http://wp.me/pZDWT-3k)

This lovely necklace is a beautiful bird picture.

Ah, but it is hiding a secret.  For this bird has a letter on its back!  The necklace is made from an old Scrabble tile.  What a unique idea!

Not only is there a beautiful bird on a Scrabble tile, he has friends.  Two friends.

These lovely earrings happen to also be Scrabble tiles.

Cool, huh?  But there is more.

I also bought a ring for someone’s Christmas present.  (Said person will remain nameless until 25 December 2010.)  Here I ran in to another issue.  I am in love with the ring.  This ring is perfect.  It is a filigree ring and you can adjust the size.  This is great for me and my siblings.  We’re all sticks, and have problems finding rings that fit.  I can’t tell you how many times I found a ring I like only to find out it won’t fit even my thumb.  But, this ring does!

Doesn’t that look lovely?  Don’t you want one?  Go to Lisa’s Urban Nostalgia by lisasurbannostalgia on Etsy to buy your very own unique ring.  Or a couple.

But there is more.  Silly me saw three packages and went “ring, necklace and earrings. Check.”  That was, until I started peeking to see what they looked like.  That’s when I saw this.

Back to my order.  Nope, don’t remember ordering earrings.  Hum, weird.  That’s when Lisa told me she had sent me a thank you gift.  Yippee!  These are beautiful, too.  And free!

I did mention Lisa did all of this by hand, right?  Oh, I forgot that part?  Lisa creates all of her pieces by hand.  So, now that you are all drooling, go off and purchase lots of jewelry from Lisa.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/lisasurbannostalgia Don’t forget to come back here and leave a comment about what you bought!  If you don’t see the perfect item, Lisa does special orders.  I’m sure y’all will enjoy Lisa’s craft as much as I do.

Oh, and Lisa has a great blog about her jewelry.  Once you get past the whole sacrilegious destroying off books (http://lisasurbannostalgia.blogspot.com/2010/08/back-to-begining.html), I think the rest of the blog is well worth reading.  And I will admit that what happened to the books (http://lisasurbannostalgia.blogspot.com/2010/08/paper-bead-creations.html) turned out pretty cool.

Legalish Jargon: I’m not a paid endorser.  I paid full price for the jewelry reviewed in today’s post.  This review is my true opinion and I have not been forced to give a better review than I felt was deserved.  (Shockingly, it is hard to influence my review when Lisa wasn’t informed of this review.)  Pretty much, if you are the FTC, I am not knowingly breaking any laws.

Oh, and Lisa, the correct reaction is to be thrilled.  But, I’m still gonna duck to make sure you don’t hit me with anything.

-Amanda Nicole

PS: Lisa is doing her first blog giveaway!  It’s a great Halloween bracelet that is handcrafted.  Deadline to enter is the 13th of October.  Head on over to check out the prized Halloween bracelet and enter to win. http://lisasurbannostalgia.blogspot.com/2010/10/halloween-give-away.html