One Way Ticket to Buenos Aires

A One Way Ticket to Buenos Aires 

I am a displaced New York City girl, I lived there for twenty five years and it is in me on a cellular level.  Life circumstance has taken me thirty minutes outside of the city and I am in culture shock. Still. I have been here eight years and I still cannot believe this is my life. I live in a small town in a state of disconnect. 

People mistakenly think that NYC is a cold place. On the contrary, it was my small town. I felt part of every minute of the day, in any neighborhood, in any group of strangers, in every situation. I felt alive every second that I lived there. I was madly in love with the city. Connected on a cellular level.

 I have been to  almost every "big" city in this country and the feeling is not the same. Not even close. Paris has it, London, not so much. I have not been to too many large cities around the world but there is one that I love learning about, and visit in my dreams and this is Buenos Aires. I cannot get enough Buenos Aires! I have to get there even if I  have to go alone. 

 
A few other things I am passionate about: Like most, I love the beach. It is really about the water, not laying in the sand. Also, I  am crazy for the history of European Architecture. Our country's architecture is, in comparison, very young and pale in character to that of Europe's. 

Buenos Aires is a city on a beach with some of the most lovely, old architecture I have seen, (in books, anyway). It seems like another city where the energy carries you through the day, floating a few inches above the ground. It seems like just being there makes you feel   automatically cooler than you ever  really could be. It reminds me of New York, but with a beach, and really old  beautiful buildings with fantastic history.  In other words, it is dreamy. Now, Buenos Aires does not have a pretty history. It has survived some horrific periods in time. But to me, in my dreams, I am there and it is perfect. I am madly in love with the city.

 

Me, in my dreams.

Thank you for reading, 

                                                  Norah

Danizabeth and Ghosts of the Midwest

 I am an original New York City girl. I combed the Urban Heartland from tip to tip and side to side for twenty five years. Always looking up, it is a miracle I was never mugged. New York City has lost so much of its seediness since I first arrived. Most people are thrilled with this. Me, I miss the ghosts. Call me nostalgic, but something about a boarded up building moves my insides. I think about who had lived there and wonder how this once vibrant home to hundreds had become slated for demolition. Why did the city stop loving it? I would walk along the shores of the Mighty Hudson and see the once needed steel piers collapsed in the murky waters, barnacles creeping up the sides. From age and disuse, the I-beams would shift and sink and lean into every odd geometric composition and I would stop and wonder, when did the city stop needing this?  Ghosts.

One of the first shops I found and “hearted” on Etsy.com is the art photography collection, Danizabeth. I was instantly drawn to her photographs of  a different type of ghost. Ghosts I have never really seen in person. But in looking at the photographs, I felt the photographer’s sense of sad nostalgia. This spoke to me and her work ached my heart.

 I have gone back to view these images countless times and today, I have the pleasure of sharing some of these photos with you. Danielle, of Danizabeth shares stories similar to my NYC ghost stories, only hers take place in the heartland of  Illinois. Drawn to a salvage yard, this life-long creator of art found a new medium and muse in a day.

Danielle is moved by images of yesteryear, frozen in time, in the present day. Her images are shot in natural light, and without fancy effects. They transport you to a seemingly easier time, a more innocent time when the days did not move by so quickly. Danielle captures beauty in unexpected places and things.

Danizabeth has been open and selling on Etsy for two years and is having a 15% off sale in celebration of this milestone. You can also contact Danielle about having prints made on canvas, or in other sizes. Find out more and follow this fantastic art photographer on her blog. You can also follow and support her on Facebook and Twitter.

I cannot wait to see what she does next. I look forward to seeing how she brings out the character of her next muse.

Thank you for reading,

Norah

A Besteam Feature

 The Best :

The Boosting Etsy Shops Team's goal is to provide marketing support for each others' Etsy shops by writing WEEKLY features on our blogs. For those that have them, we encourage use of Twitter Accounts and Facebook Fanpages to further this goal. Our team also shows support by offering free advertising for each other. We are a very dynamic, active group and we are now accepting new members!

March Birthstone

From the light blue of the sky to the deep blue of the sea, aquamarines shine over an extraordinarily beautiful range of mainly light blue colours. Aquamarine is a fascinatingly beautiful gemstone. It is loved for its fine blue shades which can complement almost any skin or eye color.

 

Its light blue arouses feelings of sympathy, trust, harmony and friendship. Good feelings. Feelings which are based on mutuality and which prove their worth in lasting relationships. 

The blue of aquamarine is a divine, eternal colour, because it is the colour of the sky. However, aquamarine blue is also the colour of water with its life-giving force. And aquamarine really does seem to have captured the lucid blue of the oceans. No wonder, when you consider that according to the saga it originated in the treasure chest of fabulous mermaids, and has, since ancient times, been regarded as the sailors' lucky stone.

Its name is derived from the Latin 'aqua' (water) and 'mare' (sea). It is said that its strengths are developed to their best advantage when it is placed in water which is bathed in sunlight. However, it is surely better still to wear aquamarine, since according to the old traditions this promises a happy marriage and is said to bring the woman who wears it joy and wealth into the bargain. An ideal gem, not only for loving and married couples.

Aquamarine is one of our most popular and best-known gemstones, and distinguishes itself by many good qualities. It is almost as popular as the classics: ruby, sapphire and emerald. In fact it is related to the emerald, both belonging to the beryl family. The colour of aquamarine, however, is usually more even than that of the emerald. Much more often than its famous green cousin, aquamarine is almost entirely free of inclusions. Aquamarine has good hardness (7.5 to 8 on the Mohs scale) and a wonderful shine. That hardness makes it very tough and protects it to a large extent from scratches. 

Iron is the substance which gives aquamarine its colour, a colour which ranges from an almost indiscernible pale blue to a strong sea-blue. The more intense the colour of an aquamarine, the more value is put on it. Some aquamarines have a light, greenish shimmer; that too is a typical feature. However, it is a pure, clear blue that continues to epitomise the aquamarine, because it brings out so well the immaculate transparency and magnificent shine of this gemstone.

For more gemstone info. I always turn to www.gemstone.org