Currently Loving: Classic Floating Pearl Necklace with Red Silk

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Aubin

There are few pieces of jewelry as classic as a simple pearl necklace and today’s guest post from our Vintage Style Council Member of the Month highlights Turtle Love Co.‘s modern twist on the classic, our Classic Floating Pearl Necklace with Red Silk.

Hey! I’m Laura from sweeter salt, a lifestyle blog where I yap all about affordable fashion, vintage, and healthy food. Since moving from New York to Portland four years ago my style has become undeniably influenced by Maine’s nautical culture, so when I saw Turtle Love Co’s Classic Floating Pearl Necklace with Red Silk I fell for its red and white charm.

I love layering, and mixing newer pieces with vintage. I would wear this necklace with a longer vintage gold chain (the one below is Chanel, which isn’t exactly in my budget, but you get the point). Since I also love pretending that I’m a sailor, I couldn’t resist pairing it with some cut-offs, stripes, and boat shoes. Yellow is my favorite color, so this cardigan is a must (especially with a little sea breeze in the air). Also, love me a vintage Dooney and Bourke.

So, if the opportunity presents itself to go yachting this summer, get a hold of this darling necklace, some sail wear, and possibly a glass of champagne, and hit the high seas!

Laura created a style board on Pinterest to go along with this post. If you would like to see the board, click here!

A great gift guide for the TLC bride

Posted on August 18, 2012 by Alicia

Matching the right person with the right piece of jewelry is a really fun part of my job at Turtle Love Co. since we have such a wide range of styles and prices. For the most part, I work with brides and grooms who want engagement rings and wedding bands that reflect their personalities and interests. But there is more to wedding jewelry than what adorns the fingers of the lucky bride and groom - more and more brides are looking to jewelry retailers for their oh so important bridesmaids gifts.

Necklaces and earrings are fantastic gifts to present your ‘maids with to thank them for being a part of your wedding day - plus they can wear the pieces to your event! TLC has a range of necklaces and earrings to match any wedding decor and, more specifically, any bride.

The Quirky Bride

Turtle Love Co. has necklaces with with fun personalities - like our dinosaur necklaces and nut necklaces! Available in Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Brontosaurus and Pistachio, Peanut and Almond respectively.

The Traditional Bride

Nothing says tradition, sophistication and elegance like a pearl necklace and earring set. Pictured above are the Single Pearl Drop Necklace, Pearl Drop Earrings, and the Classic Floating Pearl Necklace with Champagne Silk.

The Modern Bride

Bree Richey‘s simple, brushed silver floral pieces are perfect for your bridal party. The pearl accents add just a touch of tradition to the modern, organic look.

The Nostalgic/Whimsical Bride

These also work for the Steampunk Bride - vintage-inspired key and keyhole necklaces for those who love antiquity.

The Outdoor Bride

For the bride with an organic spirit. Full Moon Branch Earrings, Branching Necklace, and Branching Earrings - available in gold plated bronze or sterling silver.

There you have it! A little something for everyone. We have so many more bridesmaid gift ideas on the TLC site - check them all out!

Fancy Dress Friday: Farewell, Xander edition

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Aubin

Yesterday was a sad day at Turtle Love Co. because it was the last day of work for Xander, our awesome Smile Specialist and Product Pro. We wish her well and know she’ll be excellent at everything she does. To send her off in style, we all went bowling at Bayside Bowl in Portland and had a fun time trying to get the right spin on the ball (only a few of us managed to perfect the technique).

: Scenes from Xander’s goodbye party at Bayside Bowl

This past week was sort of an experimental one for the blog. We expanded beyond inspiration boards (although we did feature a style inspiration board about Bree Richey’s jewelry on Monday) and wrote about such varied topics as an auction this past week that included some unique pieces of jewelry owned by Elvis Presley and a new feature we’re trying out called “Drawn Together” that is about the sketches people do while planning their wedding. This week’s Drawn Together picture is from our TLC team member Aubin, who is getting married next Saturday and shared the drawing she’d done for her wedding announcements.

A vintage 1960s wedding photo from Turtle Love Co.’s collection

Another new feature introduced this past week involves vintage wedding photos paired with etiquette from the time when the picture was taken. Some of the vintage wedding photographs used are from Turtle Love Co.’s own collection of found photographs.

Our Elisabetta Vintage Diamond Engagement Ring (click the ring for more info)

In other vintage news, we have 12 new vintage engagement rings listed on our website! These antique engagement rings are the ones featured in our shoot at Little Ghost Vintage and are named after female fine artists throughout history.

That’s all for now from the fabulous team at Turtle Love Co.! We hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Drawn together: Aubin and Joel’s wedding announcement

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Aubin

My wedding is less than 10 days away and as you’d expect I’ve been running around trying to get everything organized, including our wedding announcement design. Since I began working at Turtle Love Co. I’ve seen more than my fair share of gorgeous designs for wedding invitations and announcements and that in some ways has been a bit of a creative block for me because when everything looks appealing it’s next to impossible to narrow it all down and choose the elements I want to use. What I ended up doing was using none of the things I had seen before and instead built the announcement around this drawing that I made using my fiance Joel’s Wacom tablet:

Aubin and Joel’s wedding announcement drawing (by Aubin)

I love the simple, caricature look of this drawing. Although I misrepresented our heights (in the real world he’s about half a foot taller than I am if not more) our personalities are captured perfectly! For two people who are pretty cartoon-like I think it fits much better than any more polished design I could have created.

Do you have a wedding related drawing that you’d like to share on our blog? email aubin {at} turtleloveco {dot} com for more info.

Vintage wedding photos: found 1960s wedding picture and etiquette from Emily Post

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Aubin

It’s a well known fact that Turtle Love Co. has a great collection of vintage engagement rings, but did you know that we also have a growing collection of vintage wedding photographs in our office? The pictures are rescued from places like flea markets and yard sales and are given a home at TLC headquarters. Most of the photographs don’t have names or dates written on them but are too interesting not to share. For your enjoyment I’ve included a selection from the 1970 edition of Emily Post’s Pocket Book of Etiquette to go along with this found, unmarked photograph of a 1960s wedding.


: A vintage 1960s wedding photo from Turtle Love Co.’s collection

Emily Post on buying wedding rings: “Shortly before the wedding, it is important that the bride go with the groom when he buys the wedding ring. Since she may not intend to take it off-ever-she should be allowed to choose the style she prefers. No ring is in better taste than the plain band of yellow or white gold or platinum…If the bridegroom wishes to have ring, the bride usually buys a plain gold band to match hers but a little wider.”

One of the antique engagement rings we currently have on our site from the 1960s is this vintage diamond engagement ring with a palladium setting. The engagement ring features a .50ct European-cut diamond that is showcased in a square palladium setting on a sculpted 14k yellow gold band. To learn more about this ring, click the picture below:

Vintage Diamond Engagement Ring with Palladium Setting, circa 1960

Elvis Presley’s rings being auctioned today in Memphis, TN

Posted on August 14, 2012 by Aubin

At Turtle Love Co. we appreciate jewelry with a different kind of design and there are few men in recent memory who had a collection of jewelry as different as the rings owned by Elvis Presley. Today in Memphis there is an auction taking place less than ten miles away from Elvis Presley’s famous Graceland Mansion that features many rare and interesting items from the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, including some unique pieces of his jewelry.

Elvis Presley's ring featuring a gold coin and diamonds

One of the pieces of Elvis’s jewelry up for auction, a pinky ring built around an antique gold coin surrounded by diamonds in a 14K gold setting (picture from Heritage Auctions)

At the auction, which is being billed as the “2012 Ultimate Elvis Auction II,” is this 14K gold pinky ring featuring a circle of tiny diamonds and an antique gold coin worn by Elvis in the documentary Elvis: That’s the Way it Is. The ring has a starting bid price of $17,500 but is expected to go for as much as $42,000.

The most interesting thing about the rings for sale is the particular stones and unique designs that Elvis favored. According to Elvis’s friend Charlie Hodge, who is selling one of the rings given to him by The King, Presley was fond of turquoise jewelry and at one point had between 10 and 12 rings featuring the stone.

Elvis Presley’s gold, diamond, and black sapphire ring (picture from Heritage Auctions)

The rings also show some insight into Presley’s personality. One of the rings, a large, intricate 14K gold piece that looks similar to a tree top with small diamonds and black star sapphires as apples scattered through the gold branches, was gifted by Elvis to his friend Alan Fortas who explained that ”Elvis believed the wearing of sapphire jewelry was supposed to signify generosity, good manners, wisdom, and noble thoughts.”

Priscilla Presley showing off her diamond ring in 1967

Elvis and Priscilla’s wedding rings:

Elvis’s second wedding band from his 1967 marriage to his wife Priscilla (the first ring having been lost shortly after the wedding) was auctioned in 2006 for $90,000. The wedding band, chosen by Priscilla, is a platinum setting with baguette cut and round cut diamonds. The ring Elvis chose for Priscilla is equally impressive and has a three carat diamond at its center with a surround of 20 smaller diamonds.

Style inspiration: jewelry by Bree Richey

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Aubin

It’s easy to be drawn in by the flawless luster of a pearl or the soft inviting look of silver, but the true charm of Bree Richey‘s jewelry lies not in its materials but in its design. Richey’s earrings and necklaces fit the style of elegant and fiercely modern icons like Audrey Hepburn and her simple, fresh take on familiar forms means that her pieces would also fit the style of a unique woman like Audrey Toutou’s character Amelie. Click here to see the style board on Turtle Love Co.’s Pinterest page that pays tribute to the modern and romantic feel of Richey’s jewelry.

Fancy Dress Friday: gold branches, dinosaurs, and Little Ghosts edition

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Aubin

This week has been decidedly different, full of vintage rings, dinosaur necklaces, and gold branch jewelry. We’ve also been enjoying having our new team member Emily with us for the entire week. This is her first Fancy Dress Friday photo with us, the first of many!

The two Currently Loving posts from the past week, by Emily from Tales for Karina Marie and Ashley from Sweet William, offered a fresh take on styling two of our necklaces. Ashley paired Jivita Harris-Casey’s Branching Necklace with Michele Scholnick’s Gold Branches Ring for a pin board dedicated to the style of the type of girl who gets her fashion cues from nature. Emily, on the other hand, used her own modern style to incorporate our Triceratops Dinosaur Necklace into an outfit for the early fall.

Gold-Plated Bronze Branching Necklace by Jivita Harris-Casey

Our most recent “Turtle Love Co. on location” adventure was a trip to the local Portland store Little Ghost Vintage. While there, we were joined by our Vintage Style Council Member of the Month Laura of sweeter salt for a vintage engagement ring photo shoot. We photographed 11 of our antique engagement rings using props from the store like ceramic figurines, purses, and vintage hats! Laura wrote a blog post about the shoot (as well as her thoughts about being our VSC Member of the Month) that you can read here. Below is a picture of Laura modeling our Lucia Vintage Diamond Engagement Ring. You can see the rest of the photos in our “Turtle Love Co. on location” blog post here.

Laura modeling our Lucia Vintage Diamond Engagement Ring

That’s all for now! Do you have any exciting plans for the weekend?

Currently Loving: Branching Necklace and Gold Branches Ring

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Aubin

Today’s Currently Loving post is a double feature in that it features two similarly themed pieces of jewelry from two of our designers. For her style board, Ashley from Sweet William chose the Branching Necklace by Jivita Harris-Casey and Gold Branches Ring by Michele Scholnick.

Ashley chose the pieces because “they are beautiful everyday pieces that can be worn on their own or layered with other necklaces or rings to create a more laid-back, bohemian feel.”

Gold-plated bronze Branching Necklace by Jivita Harris-Casey

The style board built around these two arboreal accessories is meant to reflect the style of a certain type of woman. “The ring is so romantic that it can even be something as special as an engagement ring for that right kind of girl…She is a lover of nature and all things inspired from it,” Ashley explains, “Her style is so easy and sometimes simple, but worn in such a romantic, free-spirited kind of way. It gives such a happy, positive feeling that would make any day better.”

If you want to see the images Ashley chose to accompany our Branching Necklace and Gold Branches Ring, click here!

Currently Loving: Turtle Love Co. Dinosaur Necklaces

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Aubin

Today’s “Currently Loving” guest post is from Emily of Tales for Karina Marie and highlights one of our dinosaur necklaces:

Hello all my little Turtle Love Co. Blog readers! My name is Emily, and I blog over at Tales for Karina Marie. I’ve become a pretty big admirer of Turtle Love Co. since I was recently introduced to it, and was asked to put together an outfit from inspiration using one of their pieces of jewelry. Since I’m a full-time working lady in the fashion industry, it’s important that I look my best everyday. The most amazing thing about my office is that basically anything goes! You can wear jeans, shorts, whatever! You can choose to go super casual one day, and decide to dress to the tens on another day. During the summer, I tend to dress more on the casual side, but since fall is just around the corner, I decided to spruce things up a bit.

Emily's Turtle Love Co inspired outfit post featuring our Triceratops Dinosaur Necklace

1. Turtle Love Co.’s Triceratops Dinosaur Necklace
2. Blouse from ModCloth
3. Trousers from J. Crew
4. Shoes from LuLu’s

My favorite pieces right now at Turtle Love Co. are definitely the dinosaur pendants. I grew up with an older brother who wanted to be a paleontologist until he was about 18, so I have a secret love for dinosaurs myself.

Please stop by and say hello anytime! The blogging world has been such a blessing to me, and the most amazing thing about it is making new friends!