Thank you, we couldn't have done it without YOU!

We at Soul of the Rose Gifts wish to take this opportunity to thank each and every customer that purchased from us this year. Your purchases have allowed us to donate generously to each of the special causes that we support and a few new ones.

As many of you know we donate on the local, national and international level. We support the Women's Resource Center in North San Diego, Feeding America food banks and Doctors Without Borders. This year the giving was extra fun as we made our way to Toys R Us and loaded up with toys for the Toys for Tots Christmas toy drive! We felt that this year donated toys would be in high demand. Our community paper ran a story about the Marines collecting toys and their fears of a shortage. Thanks to YOU, our customers we were able to run right out and donate toys in addition to our continued support of our regular charitable causes. Toy shopping is a blast! We had a great time and we really could not have done it without each of you. Thank you all!

We wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa and a lovely winter solstice. Whatever holiday you celebrate, please know that you are appreciated by all of us at Soul of the Rose Gifts.

Free Shipping - How do you get it?

Yes, you know it's on! The Free Holiday Shipping at Soul of the Rose Gifts!

You need to know how to get it. If your order is $40.00 or over just enter the word "holidays" in the coupon field on the check out page and your order ships free!

Don't worry if you mess up and forget, you know I will adjust your order to reflect the free shipping - but the coupon thing is truly helpful from an administrative point.

Lets plan our shopping now, the last day to order for free shipping and delivery before Christmas is 12/16/09. So if you all click hereand begin selecting soulful and indulgent gifts you will have a hassel free holiday shopping experience and you won't have to fight for a parking space at the mall!

Pressed down, heaped up and over flowing...

I am hoping that you take time this Thanksgiving weekend to contemplate all that you have to be thankful for. I mean really do it. You can walk on the beach or lay in the grass and meditate, cook a fabulous meal for those you love, visit someone who has been ill, read a book to a little person. Really, you can do anything as long as you notice and tune into the action of what you are doing in the moment to feel it and be present. Just allowing yourself to be fully present in what you are doing can trigger the notion of all that you have to be grateful for. We miss it much of the time because we are so busy and we often focus on what is gone or what we lost or what we think we need.

For many people this has been a hard year filled with lots of challenges. If you are still here with us - there is a reason. Seize it.

Take a moment or two to consider how much you have. Whenever I think I might need more good in my life, I start with considering how much I already have. I imagine my cup of goodness so full, pressed down, heaped up and over flowing....

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

Tokyo Milk - New at Soul of the Rose Gifts!

We are very excited to bring you a brand new line of soft fragrances, lip gloss and beautifully wrapped soaps! Tokyo Milk has arrived just in time for gift giving season.

The Kiss Me Kits are absolutely sweet! Each gorgeous slide box contains a wonderful sheer glimmery gloss and a pack of sweet and spicy mints.

Petit Parfum Solide is a little slide box with a hint of tiny art. Each little solid perfume pot is packaged in a stunning hand glittered box with a collection of tiny note cards tucked inside. Hooray for tiny art!!

We have a cool selection of Marie Antoinette inspired Tokyo Milk items if that's your passion!

To say that the soaps are beautifully wrapped is an understatement. Hand glittered collage art at it's best here. Soft hues of pink and silver German glass glitter with vintage ephemera wrapped around french milled soap cakes - it just doesn't get better than this girls!

Tokyo Milk is fun, flirty and sweet – a true collector’s must have!

A little travel log - Cedros Design District - Solana Beach, CA

We got out and did some shopping just up the coast the other day. If you are in the San Diego area then you have got to check out Solana Beach. It is a sleeply little beach village between Encinitas and Del Mar. If you are going by train - it has it's own stop right there across the street from the Cedros Design District. THE place to shop for all things Cool!

One of my favorite places is SoLo, a very nice warehouse with lost of sophisitcated merchants selling everything from vintage religious iconic stuff to mid-century modern pieces and sprinkled with asian antiques and topped with hip childrens goodies. Pictured above is a sweet little bowl of ceramic blue birds - a total must have!

Religious iconic goodness - I would like to get more of that going at Soul of the Rose.

Mixture of vintage silver, asian statuary and bits of whatever!

We always stop at Bon Bon too. These pictures don't do it justice. Imagine Shabby Chic meets a "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane".

They manage to take a sometimes too sweet decor and set it just on it's edge where you think "That's a little spooky"

We finished up with a great lunch out and then went home for a nap....

My Gal Pal Megan - AKA Assistant Buyer

I hope every woman has a gal pal. I really hope they have one like Megan. Yes, by all means she helps me with the buying around here. She can walk down isles and isles of bad gift show merchandise as long as there is an occasional margarita on hand and yet she is sharp as a tack when I veer to close to matronly florals or last season’s has-beens. She is dead on for recognizing a strong trend that we had better follow up on. Buying for Soul of the Rose is just one aspect of my friendship with Megan. We have our daughters and their friendship in common. We are really compatible politically and we share the same fabulous sense of humor – if I say so myself. And though we share a similar sense of style, Megan, so caring, takes it upon herself to remind me of tiny fashion details: “now, you know you can’t wear wedges with those skinny jeans!” And she is always offering to help me with anything: “Perhaps I could walk the dog so you can update your blog!” (We have no dog.)

Megan is always on for an adventure, and she finds fun wherever she goes. She is my most trusted confidant, always loyal and always there for me. I wish you knew her; you would love to have her as your friend. She is creative like nobody’s business, from retail merchandising, to creating a retro cocktail lounge in your home – this is your girl!

Is it too early to begin preparing for the holidays?

I know the answer to this is no. As a gift retailer, I have been planning for and purchasing for Christmas since June. The warehouse is stocked and getting more stocked as I write. Each week I am searching our just a few more things to add the the mix. And, just as Thanksgiving ends I will place an order or two for things that will work for Valentines Day.

However, there is a whole sub-culture that you may not know about and that would be the Haunters, or at least that's what Nina calls the people that really plan out their home Halloween displays all year and work each year to perfect their Haunt. Nina definitely falls into that category and I sort of tag along. Each year I say the same thing, "You know, I am not going to buy anymore Halloween stuff Nina." I always end up with a few new things each year, not really sure how that happens - its spooky!

Nina starts her planning at the beginning of summer. She decides how the house will be laid out - every room gets decorated, completely over the top. We have about 7 staging areas that get really decked out. Each year our party gets larger. Martha Stewart, eat your heart out! Actually, this year I am hoping to perfect my menu. As I write this Nina rattles off a list of foods that glow under black light.

I think pre-planing for other holidays is important too. Thanksgiving is totally over simplified and an overlooked holiday in my estimation. I find it really gets defined by what is served up on the table. This leaves the whole holiday in the dust. For me Thanksgiving is more of a spiritual holiday than a feast. I spend a lot of time journaling and really meditating on what I am grateful for throughout November. I look forward to that time of year when I really reflect about how grateful I am for all that I have experienced. If you have never done this - November is a great month to begin a Gratitude Journal, then you can finish out the month really celebrating Thanksgiving.

We are doing all we can to get geared up around here for all the Fall/Winter Holidays right now. In the next posts I will give you sneak peeks at the new goodies from the shop.

New Office Accesories

Here are a few pictures of my new office accessories collection. This design is called "Script" and is a little European in style. These are hand-made items and each one is a little different, We have desk trays, clip boards and paperweights. These are very limited we only make a few of each design. I have more in the wings waiting to be born so to speak. If you like these check out the Soul of the Rose Office Accessories along with other designs.

I can't just use a regular clip board when checking in merchandise - I've got to have style with function!

This tray is perfect for letters and little "get-to" things on my desk.

I hope you like them - I loved making them.

I Stand Corrected in my View of Twitter

In light of the events unfolding right now in Iran I stand corrected in my previous assessment of Twitter as being a benign e-technological bit of frivolity. Certainly – its true importance has been born out.

Matt’s Mother and Sister are here visiting. His sister left Iran on Election Day. Their family is safe although there are a lot of demonstrations not far from their home near the city. We have had some calls earlier in the week but we fear the lines are down today. We have watched CNN’s coverage off and on all day today. It is very different getting this from their prospective.

Tonight we are off to a party to celebrate their visit with family – it will be a gathering of mixed emotions I am sure. This is Shani’s first visit to the States and already I love her. She is so wonderful, talented, funny, sweet and smart.

Please if you can, pray for the highest good to prevail for Iran’s people. If you do not pray perhaps you can meditate on that. It is so very important.

A few of the goodies I have been making!

It took me a lot longer to upload all my new products than I thought it would. I began designing and creating these items in March and it has taken until now for me to get them on the site but here they are. I have a collection of pendants that are little works of art. Some of the designs are collage work under crystals and some are on bamboo tiles. I have a lot more that I am working on but this is the first batch. Check out the Soul of the Rose Jewelry Designs on the site for each individual design and for prices.

Revolutionary Collection

I made these little black and red crystal charm pendants and Nina and I decided they reminded us of the musical Les Miserables so I named each pendant after one of the female characters in the musical - how funny! We thought it was coincidental that Fantine should have a black ribbon because she just gets one song and dies at the beginning of the musical. If you don’t know this musical then the humor is totally lost but I hope you still like this collection!

Tweet?

Ok here goes – I am getting old. I don’t want to Tweet. I don’t want to be hyper-connected to my friends and I don’t wish that on my friends from me. No offence but I don’t want to know that Tiffany is walking the dog, hell, I don’t even want to know that Ashton Krutcher is washing his face or falling asleep watching a movie. Wow, that really sounds old – but I think he likes old chicks anyway.

Twitter, how much can we take? I’ll be honest, it is all I can do to run the web boutique, manage my other job, try to create goodies for the store, check in on Facebook and upload a blog post in between life. And can I just say that all of this activity has helped tremendously with excuses for why I don’t have time to cook dinner! But I really think I draw the line at Twitter. What sort of things would I Tweet anyway???

Just ate 5 cookies!

Am watching Godfather for the 1 millionth time.

Am cleaning cat barf yet again

It is not that my life is not interesting to me, I just don’t think that what can be said in a tweet can be that interesting to others. Ok some things could be great tweets I admit:

Just won Nobel Peace Prize!

Have finally lost those 100 lbs I was worried about

So that is what an orgasm is!

Now that would be interesting stuff, but until I can produce a stream of these types of riveting tweets consistently I am not going to sign up for twitter. And that is my final word – for now.

One Hundred Wishes...

What a sweet name… I wanted to tell you about a fun little online shop that I recently bought from. One Hundred Wishes has ribbons, trims, charms and candy! What a great product mix this is! Andrea Singarella is the proprietor and she packaged my pretty velvet and silk ribbons – the softest ever, with such care. I think her site would be a great place to shop for gifts for your crafty friends.

Who doesn’t like velvet, silk and satin ribbon? Who can not think of fun things to do with intriguing little brass charms, vintage buttons and other millinery finery? And candy? Well, who doesn’t like candy – I don’t want to know them! She also has cards, paper trims – all sorts of fun things to stir the creativity.

I think a box filled with such precious goodies would make a wonderful gift. Your items will arrive professionally packaged with care and thought to detail. I was impressed and that is not easily done. Many of you may already be customers of One Hundred Wishes, I had wanted to buy and finally found just what I was looking for to complement a few projects I was working on. I think it is so important for us to support small unique businesses especially during these times. So if you are looking for something different, creative and sweet visit One Hundred Wishes.

Tales from the couch...

So when I am sick – and I am still sick if you can believe that, I end up doing a lot of couch time. I have had more than my share of daytime TV. Here is what I can report on daytime TV: Americans most be having some serious problems with acne and erectile dysfunction because Proactive acne skin care, Viagra and Enzite ads run continuously like a video loop 24-7! Also, as it has been winter, there are lots of Snugie ads, a ridiculous product in my opinion! My other profound observation is that we as a people must be taking a lot of medications that produce unbelievable side affects. Some of the medication ads - I don’t even know what they are for - but the side effects may cause unbelievably horrible conditions that I think you may be better off just not taking that medication and suffer with your ailment. And why is America all of a sudden having such a love affair with Probiotics? Could it be all the cheeseburgers piling up?? Well as you can see I have had waaaay to much TV time.

The good news is that in between coughing, nausea, hacking and snorting I managed to work on quite a few craft projects and I will be starting to take photos and preparing to upload them on to the site this weekend. I have wanted to create more original hand-made items and, well, you can only lie around the couch for so long as you recuperate. So be sure to check back soon I will post some pictures of the new goodies very soon. Stay healthy!

Whatever you do, do not get this cold flu thing…

I have been away for all sorts of reasons lately – just busy I guess wearing myself down so that when the virus came along I was rightly acceptable to it. All I can tell you is wash your hands a lot. Take your vitamins and get the required amount of rest.

I am sure I picked this up at the wonderful Indian wedding we attended with some 500 people in attendance this last weekend. I think that is a good guess because my husband has it too. The wedding was really beautiful and the first Indian wedding I had ever been to. I really loved all the beautiful saris that were so colorful! The food was wonderful and everyone was happy and warm and inviting. However we shook hands with everyone just about so there you have it!

So I am going home to bed because my fingernails hurt and the hair on my head hurts. Why or why when you get a virus do these strange aches and pains come on? Who knew that my left forearm could hurt so much for absolutely no good reason? Well, that is about all the complaining form me for one day.

Stay healthy!

This I Know...

So the news has been pretty grim lately. This morning as I read about the collapse of Iceland amid financial turmoil I begin to think to myself just where does Soul of the Rose fit in here. There is no doubt about it this is a time to watch your spending, to pare down and do away with the superfluous things. But this is what I know. People will always want to give gifts. People will always find a way to give something. Sometimes we give extravagantly sometimes we give more simply, but we will always give, it is the enduring nature of people. At Soul of the Rose we really focus on that premise – that giving is a way of life and that there is always enough to share and to spare.

This year I will be focusing on offering unique gifts, special, affordable little luxuries that you can take pride in sending to your friends and family. After all just because we may be economizing, does not mean that we forgo the quality of the gifts we give. I will focus on providing top notch service no matter the size of the order. Did you know that every order is packed with a free gift that contains something sweet to smell, something sweet to eat and something sweet to think about all wrapped up in a pretty pink bag? In addition we hand write every gift card and sign them for you so that your gift has the personal feel that you would want it to have. Soul of the Rose Gifts will continue to be diligent in the support of our local, national and international charities as they need it now more than ever.

I feel confident that where we fit in the big scheme of things is that we are a giving source providing not only soulful and indulgent gifts and through our customers purchases we have enough to share and to spare for others in need.

Positive Thoughts for a New Year

I bet a lot of people are entering this New Year with trepidation. It certainly sounds scary if you listen to the news. I hope the new President is brave, if it were me I might have been tempted to say “You know, I change my mind, it’s not really the job I signed on for now.” But leaders don’t do that.

We had a particularly hard holiday season in our family this year as we lost our beloved Uncle Jim. The only bright spot there was the recognition that I am better for having known such a loving and caring man. And his wife and children are all so wonderful. I wish them peace.

So along with holiday parties we had funerals and wakes. That is the roller coaster of life. Our close knit family probably had too much time spent with some and not enough time spent with others. It is always interesting when we get together – this year proved to be no different. I love each and every person in my big family.

At the beginning of 2009 I learned that sometimes when you love someone you just have to let them go. I learned that sometimes fighting to hold on to someone is not always the right thing to do. It felt like I had been reaching down the edge of a tall cliff just barley catching hold of this long loved person’s hand and it just became too hard to hold on any longer. Letting go and watching them fall never entered my mind, it was my natural reflex to stretch out my hand and try to pull them up. I learned that it may be presumptuous to think that everyone wants to be caught and hoisted up. There is some guilt with letting go. But I have learned that sometimes it is freeing to both people when you let go.

So, where are the positive thoughts you may ask?

Through the highs and lows of the coming year

I wish each of you health, happiness and love.

I wish each of you the inspiration to find a way to give of your self in a way that is unique to you.

I wish each of you abundance and the recognition of your abundance and so I wish you all gratitude.

I wish you all peace and the ability to find peace of mind no matter the circumstance.

I wish you creativity in the face of adversity and the joy of that flowing expression.

I wish you calm quiet reflection and the strength to greet the lessons that will be learned.

I wish you the bravery to create a life that is rich, full and overflowing with the stuff that makes you wish your days would never end.

Here is to 2009, may it be a great year!