Holiday Trunk Show

TrunkShow

I know, I know, I know! I’ve been ghost for a minute. I haven’t forgotten you, but I’ve been busy preparing for my upcoming trunk show. It’s my 1st show in the Big Apple and it’s a been a true labor of love! I’ve gone through so many emotions while putting this show together and my biggest fear is that no one will show up. That I’ll be all alone, just me and my pieces.

In reality, I know that’s not the case, but it’s hanging over my head. I mean, this could really be a full time job for me. I could spend 24/7 preparing and still not be ready. I have more pieces I’d like to make, displays to buy and I’ve yet to put price tags on anything. Ok, so my house is clean…that’s a start!

So, If you’re in the Tri-State area, stop on by and take a look. This could be the Holiday Shopping Experience you’ve been waiting to… well, experience!

See you Saturday!

Ice Ice Baby!!

As I sit here seriously procrastinating packing for my weekend trip to Iceland I’m slammed with the reality and goals of this trip. Yes, I plan on receiving every single spa service at the Blue Lagoon Spa and even better I plan on sipping Cosmos at the Ice Bar. However, what I’m most excited about is the opportunity to possibly meet and learn from some local Icelandic artisans.

This is the new goal moving forward. I’m trying to marry my passion for travel with my passion for jewelry. How do I plan on doing this? Well, it’s simple, by toting my trusty Flip Camera coupled with a killer personality, I will hone in on what makes each country special in terms of jewelry. When possible I will interview local artisans and with fingers crossed I hope to sit side by side with some and create locally specialized pieces.

So, I’m still sitting here with not a thing packed and I’m giddy with excitement! I can’t wait to explore Iceland’s rugged and beautiful landscape. I’m dying to go whale watching along with tasting local cuisine.

It’s a short trip, simply three days, but filled to the brim with exciting activities. Come on back next week to view pics and video from my trip. I promise it will be worth the wait!

New!!! Online Jewelry Making Courses!!

Have you ever wanted to know how to make simple, yet stylish jewelry? Have you ever spent hours looking for the “perfect” piece only to come up disappointed and empty handed? Are you looking for a hobby that you can wear? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, be on the lookout for my online classes starting in Fall 2012.

This is where you’ll find information about classes being taught, currently, and in the future. If you are interested in a class, please check the information in the above link for the course schedule.

A great benefit to online classes is the fact that you will have the course materials at your fingertips 24/7 for the duration of the class. So if the class is three weeks long, you have three weeks to access and utilize all course materials when it’s convieniant for you.

Classes are taught using a combination of pre-recorded video, discussion, PDF files, live chat and more!

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Teaching Overseas

Ever since venturing overseas to teach, I’ve been bombarded with this single epic question: how can I do it too? The information I’m about to give only applies to teaching overseas and more importantly it’s only useful if you have a teaching degree from an accredited university as well as being state certified. I don’t know how to go about teaching English as I taught in American and International schools in the primary grades.

If you’re serious and meet the above requirements, the next step is to register with a recruiting company. The earlier the better. I registered late and hustled to get all of my information collected and sent off. Don’t be like me. The early bird does catch the worm. It also allows schools to review your files and possibly contact you before the job fair starts. That’s how I landed my job in Beijing. I knew someone, who knew someone and I flew to Beijing and never had to go to a job fair. If this will be your first time teaching overseas, then you will most likely have to go to a job fair.

Check out this link for the Recruiting Fair Schedule.

As you can see there are many recruiting fairs held around the world. Some of the recruiting agencies require an up front fee and some only require you to pay a fee if you accept a position with a school. At the end of the day, the ones featured in the link are highly reputable. Google the recruiting agencies and decide which one you’d like to stick with. That too will make your life easier.

And there you have it. Now you know everything there is to landing a teaching job overseas. Happy hunting!!

Travel Mojo

I like to think that I’m a unique combination of Samantha Brown and … well, me! My love of travel and fashion were struggling to coexist in my life and I was just, simply, struggling. For a long time I lost my travel mojo and just stayed home. My last international trip was to Dhaka and Abu Dhabi and I very quickly decided that Dhaka was hell on earth. Ok, not exactly a fair assessment but I know myself well enough to know that a trip is not going well when I ask my hosts to keep me full of Pimms, which only made things worse because I thought it was juice. Really delicious juice. However, Dhaka is a post in and of itself. I’ll save that for a later date.

So, my travel mojo was ghost and my couch was my best friend. Enter stage left; my life and its passions. I was voluntarily unemployed with a long list of possible objectives. Having just returned from living in Beijing for four years I kinda knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to travel and make jewelry. I wanted to be the next (female) David Yurman, and thought that simply living in New York would magically make my dreams come true. Well, I don’t need to tell you how that went. It just went left. Badly. I did make lovely pieces of jewelry, but they collected dust in my apartment. Can we stay stuck? Everyone who saw my pieces encouraged me to step my game up. Fear can be, unfortunately, a powerful motivator. It goes both ways and for me it kept me rooted right where I was.

Fast forward a year, because, let’s face it, that’s how long it can take to grab fear by the shoulder and toss it out of your life. I woke up and realized that I’m ready to do this! Hence this blog, my new online jewelry making course, a new business website and getting my travel mojo back! In one week I booked trips to Iceland, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi and Alexandria, Egypt. I joined Nomadness Travel Tribe. Which, if I’m truly honest with myself, has been one of the biggest networking motivators in my journey. And what I knew was this, at one point I managed to merge my love of traveling and teaching by teaching overseas in Abu Dhabi and Beijing. So, I knew that I could marry travel and jewelry. Call me Samantha Brown, Anthony Bourdain or just call me Kamara Afi because it’s about to be on and poppin’!

So, there you have it, my empire is being built, one brick at a time! I hope you join me for the ride!