The Gilded Peach in Key West

C O L O R T I L E Pendants NOW on Etsy! Plus PRIDEFEST street fair this weekend!

Hell all! I have just updated  the Etsy site with about a dozen of my new C O L O R T I L E pendants, which I have been making for few months now but took me forever to have enough to get up on the website, because they sell so quickly! So please check them out. There will be more soon, but right now I am busy making lots of Key West-themed Pride jewelry for Pridefest 2009, which is going on right now in Key West. I will have a booth at the street fair on Friday and Saturday, so if you're in Key West please stop by and bring me a drink! Cause its gonna be HOT!!

Swim Around Key West 2009-Successfully Completed!

To see pics of my team's participation in the 33rd Annual Swim Around Key West, go HERE. And now its time to get back to focusing on jewelry!

The Swim Around Key West

Well, folks, this is the last day before I brave the waters and try my luck at the 33rd Annual Swim Around Key West! This is an open-water swim that goes the 12.5 miles around the island of Key West, and somehow I got talked into being on a team. Now, I am not completely suicidal, I will not be doing the full 12.5, I am participating as the final leg of a relay (TEAM WAHOO!), but I am definitely still a little put off by my 4.2 mile portion. They are calling for thunderstorms, so say a prayer they will hold off! So wish me luck, and hopefully I will be posting tales of victory (or at least completion!) tomorrow!!

20% off all jewelry in the Key West store this SATURDAY ONLY!

Spring Fever sale!

This Saturday only, all jewelry in the Gilded Peach will be 20% off!
So come on by between 11 and 6 for some deal and steals, and maybe even some treats!
Beautify yourself just in time for some much needed Spring weather!

**discount does not apply to jewelry totes or body bling**

Back to Work

Well, now that the anticlimax of Hurricane Ike has passed, I suppose I should get back to opening this store, right? I mean, one can only sit around and drink so many white wine spritzers, watch so many episodes of 30 Rock, and play so many rounds of a drastically outdated version of Outburst. One must get back to work. Even though the tourists aren't allowed back until Friday, and I was supposed to open on the 7th. I feel like I am never going to be open.
     But I got the workshop set up, so I can finally start making the product i will need to fill this ginourmous space. I am excited about that. I guess I will start doing that now.

Everything is all right here......

Hey everyone. I stayed, and its fine. Thus far. Ike looks to hit tonight or tomorrow, and be nothing more than a big storm for Key West. In the meantime, its been a dead dead dead town, and clearly my opening has been postponed. Playing backgammon and drinking wine. Life is okay. Sitting and waiting.

All is Well In Key West

Fay has passed, and everyone survived. Very anti-climactic, really. Not that I am complaining. Now let's just hope she passes Miami in time for me to fly out of there tonight.

Drowned. Rat.

So.....this "Fay" person is on her way to Key West, I hear. She causes flights to be canceled and tourists to be evacuated. She causes the local newscasters to show up in the streets and start interviewing locals about their "storm terror". And she causes me to be really, really, really.....bored.
      I haven't been down here too long, I don't know a ton of people, I am living by myself, my store isn't open yet. I don't have a whole hell of a lot to do, aside from getting my business up and running, but most of the tasks involved in that aren't really feasible during a tropical storm/hurricane. Especially when one's main (read:only) mode of transportation is a bicycle.
      So this morning, during a break in the rain, I decide I am going to try and race over to the store space and gather a bunch of raw inventory, so that, until the power goes out, I can maybe be somewhat productive and make some jewelry. Oh, and I also wanted to find my raincoat amongst the boxes. So I hop on the old bike and pedal over to the GP in the light drizzle.
    I pack my tacklebox full of chain, stones, wires, and tools, put it in my bike basket, put on my raincoat, and put my bag over my shoulder. Precisely the second I lock the door to my store, the heavens open up, and it is a torrential downpour. I set off in the direction of home, thinking, "I can do this. It's five blocks."

   Oh my god, I felt like I was riding in the tour de france. I mean, due to the level of difficulty, not the breathtaking scenery. The raincoat might as well have been a ziplock baggie i held against my forehead, for all the good it did. my face and eyes were beaten by the driving rain. The wind made it nearly impossible to move forward. I kept repeating out loud, "almost there, almost there," while pounding on my pedals in my flip-flops, which were squelching water. It was clearly a dramatic 8 minutes.
    When I reached the apartment, I figured, since I was already soaked to the bone, I might as well pull all the patio furniture into the pool house, so it wouldn't end up in Cuba tomorrow. That made me feel productive. Now I guess I will go make some jewelry, since I fought so hard for it. coming soon: the Fay collection.