salty and sweet.

what do you do with free afternoon when its pouring down rain?

how about homemade cheeze-its and chocolate truffles.  I think so.  especially when you just happen to have all the ingredients.

I saw these and that's all I needed.  they did not disappoint.  I love the idea of cheeze-it crackers, but dislike the weird aftertaste and film they leave in your mouth.  these crackers were super delicious, everything is better warm from the oven right?  plus I made them with whole wheat flour and added a little flaxseed.  

{recipe via}

next time I plan to make with Beechers flagship cheese, maybe a little rosemary...  I am definitely jumping on the homemade cracker band wagon.

next...tarragon merlot chocolate truffles and vanilla sea salt truffles, Giada got this right.  my friend made these and shared the other day, such a treat. 

I am really starting to love the addition of herbs to sweets and cocktails.  plus the fact that this recipe is super easy and I have tarragon sprouting up in my herb garden.  I'll admit, I only used half the tarragon asked for, I was a little chicken, not sure I would go all the way.  it brought a fresh light slightly complex taste to these truffles.  fantastic.

{recipe via}

for the sea salt truffels I used the same recipe and substituted the seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean for the tarragon, and doubled the sea salt.  delish.  

I might be convinced to try rosemary and vanilla bean truffles next time.  don't even get me started on how much I love rosemary lemonade thanks to twirl.  so maybe it would work?

I decided to pack some up and share with a friend.  

my littlest was quite intrigued, he and his brother devoured most of the crackers.  I did not share the truffles.

what a great afternoon!

happy friday.

best,

kirsty

what are you wearing with lkj?

in honor of what I wore weds {wiww} I'm cheating and using others rocking their Lucia K. style. more #myluciakstyle pics.

All dressed up on the town.

{haley on st. patty's in constance}

the cutest momma to be in simple style

{yummy mommy in Chloe back in a new summer version soon!}

please keep sharing your styling pictures with us!

{email us} easy!

{twitter} put @luciakjewelry or #myluciakstyle in your tweet.

{pinterest} add #myluciakstyle in the description of your pin.

{facebook} @luciakjewelry like us and tag us in your picture.

{instragram} add #myluciakstyle in the caption of your photo.

happy wednesday.

best,
kirsty

quick beauty boosts {eyebrow sugaring}

I feel like there are lots of little tricks/tips/routines that can boost the way we look and feel but don't have to break the bank or be completely unrealistic to adapt into our daily lives.  

well the obvious, of course - jewelry, a great pair of basic earrings will perk up even sweats, take focus away from bad hair days, help you stand taller, feel better, etc. etc. I could go on and on.

second, well groomed brows!  brows are the frame for your face, they give your eyes so much more definition and oompf.  this one goes a long way in my opinion with relatively little effort, time, or money.  I'm not talking skinny wimpy brows either, don't over do it.  this is a great guide for the hows, whats, and what nots of brow shaping, especially step 7.

do you already know this?  

if you do, there are a few camps you belong in right?... tweeze, wax, thread, or sugar {maybe others?}.  I'm in the tweeze camp, my one experience with waxing long ago went quite wrong, and I've always been fascinated by threading {have you ever watched it done, pretty amazing acrobat} but never have tried it.

then I heard of sugaring, which only sticks to hair and dead skin cells, not live skin.  so its much less irritating and bonus, it exfoliates.

recently I was able to check out Sugar Sugar, a sugaring and organic skin care boutique, and had my brows sugared for the first time by Alyssa.

{the walls at this place were painted the best shade of bluish gray, not dull at all though, I need to find out the name of this color.}

I learned that sugaring is sort of similar to waxing in technique, but it is molded to your skin and pulls with the grains of hair = little less painful and less chance of irritation and ingrown hairs, and the sugar substance is pleasantly warm, not hot.  just 3 ingredients - sugar, lemon juice, and water, are cooked to a taffy like consistency.  how fun is that?  there are no other chemicals or preservatives added to the mix.  apparently this dates back to the egyptians.

I stopped tweezing for a couple weeks prior, so sugaring could really grab the hairs.  here is my before and after shots.  can you tell the difference?  kind of hard with my self portraits to see how much cleaner/smoother the shape of my brow is now.  also, there was very little redness afterwards, I was quite surprised.  this will definitely save me time in my morning routine and help me to maintain the shape on my own quite easily.  they put this lovely lavender tonic on the sugared spots and away I went.  I will definitely go back again. 

now to finish it off the topic of eyebrows- these are the two items I swear by and LOVE in my makeup bag, the best eyebrow pencil, with a built in brush on one end and a smooth pencil in just the right shade on the other.  now that my brows are the right shape, they still need filled in and defined ever so slightly.

and the eyebrow highlighter, I really love this one, put it just under your eyebrow line, and in the corner of your eyes, and under your bottom eyelashes, blend.  bright eyed and ready for the day.  you will at least look like you got a full 8 hours even if you did not.  it rocks.  

there is a matte side and a shimmery side, depending on your mood.  

now go forth with groomed eyebrows and give sugaring a try if you are in the mood.

happy monday.  

best,

kirsty

#myluciakstyle

notice the new tab on the top of our blog "#myluciakstyle".  its sooooo fun to get pics of women wearing Lucia K. jewelry, I LOVE it!   seriously it is such a huge compliment to me when I see people wearing Lucia K.

so a friend of mine came up with a great way to share and #myluciaksyle was born.  

send your pics and tag them to be part of the party...facebook...twitter...blog...instagram oh my {details at the bottom of the post}.

here's a few, we will add more from our stash as we go.

{Andrea from skinnypurse wearing Faye Knotted Chain and Faye 3 Strand Necklaces}

{The Faye Necklaces}

{Kimbra celebrating her birthday in Estelle, cheers!}

{Faye Knotted Ball Necklace out on the town in San Fran}

{Faye Knotted Chain in San Fran}

 {Tag Vintage Bracelet smartly layered}

{Monica ready for the office, and spring, in Caroline and pink}

please keep sharing your styling pictures with us!

{email us} easy!

{twitter} put @luciakjewelry or #myluciakstyle in your tweet.

{pinterest} add #myluciakstyle in the description of your pin.

{facebook} @luciakjewelry like us and tag us in your picture.

{instragram} add #myluciakstyle in the caption of your photo.

phew.  any other forms of social media I have forgotten??

happy wednesday.

best,

Kirsty

the onesie project {diy applique}

a couple of months ago, one of my best friends, {and some of the momma-to-be's fantastic family} threw a baby shower for our other best friend.  it is her first baby, and a girl, so of course we had so much fun planning this one!

we decided to let everyone decorate onesies for the sweet baby girl, I was nervous how it would be received, but it was a hit.  seriously it was so much fun!  because we weren't sure how people would feel about getting their creative juices flowing on the spot, we did some pre-work that I think helped everyone to participate and enjoy themselves.

first, we sent a a little note along with the invitation, so people could be thinking ahead of what they might like to do, some guests came with inside jokes or sentimental memories they wanted to share.

kelly {and we recruited her designer sister} went to the fabric store ahead of time and found lots of cute-get-your-creative-juices-flowing fabric and ironed the back of them with seal-a-seam webbing.

do you know this stuff?  it is awesome!  this way guests could just cut out their design, iron it to the onesie, and it was finished.  then hung as decor for the shower {added bonus} = instant gratification, and no post-work for us, this also kept the mess down by not using any fabric paint.  we did have a fabric pen to write who it was made by on the tag.

finally, we made a design/inspiration board to help spark guest's creativity.  between pinterest and the web, there are so many great ideas, like this one, this one, and this one.  we really just built off of so many great ideas already out there.

we bought plain onesies in size 0-12months {however, I just went to a shower last week where they did similar but with lots of colorful different onesies, think next time I will do that}.  while guests mingled and ate, they were able to create.

grandma-to-be's masterpiece, her daughter persistently asked "why" as a child...

and we hung them on display during the shower

daddy-to-be is an avid bike rider

hopefully before sweet Fiona {yes she is already two weeks old! and isn't that the CUTEST name} turns 1, I will post pictures of this baby shower and share more.  it was such a blessing for us to shower this wonderful momma and help her prep for the journey into this crazy beautiful season.

happy monday.

best,

Kirsty

they were my mom's.

I don't have a lot of items that belonged to my mom from her younger years.  between her ocd need for a clean house and the few times we moved, her motto was definitely out with the old and in with the new-to-us.

my grandma and my aunt, her mom and sister, are great for stories of my mom's childhood.  but "the younger years" of her being a wife, and a mom of two young children, that I couldn't relate to as a college student so never bothered to ask, knowledge of that time, is what I long to ask her now.  so much about that daily life of hers, the silly mom questions that only she would really know the answer, or at least the answers I so wish to hear, are missed.  so I cling to the few items I have.

her wedding ring.  I wear it most days, I have her hands, and sometimes I look down and I see her hands.  I know that memory.

a pair of old levi cut-offs, pretty dang close to daisy dukes, so they don't get a lot of wear.  obviously post baby weight was not her issue.

a fun vintage seventies looking scarf, that I wear far too often to style my unwashed hair.

a pair of broken earrings.

these earrings hang in a clear bag on my inspiration board in my work area.  my mom has been gone for 11 years tomorrow, and long before Lkj came to be, I have been designing and creating jewelry.  yet these earrings still remain unwearable.  I have tried a couple of times to finish them, but nothing seems right, not how I want them to be.  they intimidate me.  and the possibility of losing one while wearing them is unbearable, yet I wear her wedding ring daily.  grief is strange like that.

still, they hang on my board as a sign of Hope, that I will get there, and possibly even wear them one day.  and a sign of her Strength and Legacy that is inside of me, and they are a part of me, of my story.  so for now, I just look at them and wonder about the woman, wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, who once wore them.

and I ache for her.

thanks for letting me share,
kirsty

new favorite white t {styled}

this is my new favorite white t-shirt.

the fabric is fantastic - it is super soft with a nice silky smooth sheen to it.

the shape is great - a wide "v" neck {always flattering}, a little long with a nice band at the bottom {giving it versatility to wear with all jean styles}, and the sleeves are a very flattering width/length too.  

I'm excited about this find because when I don't need to "dress-up," I tend to wear a white t-shirt and some sort of jeans a lot, and then I add in some great jewelry to mix it up.  its quick. its easy. its classic and still looks put together when life is always rushing you somewhere, or asking you to stop and build trains on the floor... 

here are four ways I'm wearing my new t...

with simple layers and big bracelets.

{bracelet. necklace. the tassle necklace is one that i haven't added to the site yet, still in development...}

this necklace gives more drama without bulk and weight, which works well for me.

{necklace. earrings}

its still COLD here, ugh!  so lighter "spring" scarves are helpful to me, with my fave navy necklace peeking out from under.

{scarf - old from H&M. necklace}

my St Patty's outfit, not screaming green but still no pinches!  and my take on a pot of gold.

{earrings. necklace. bracelets. sweater - zara}

Happy Wednesday. 

{it is Weds right?!}

Best,

Kirsty