Finally, I found the Baffin store and within 15 minutes walked out with a new pair of boots.

Baffin Snogoose boot $89.99 at Zappos

My impulse purchase was influenced by the brand’s use of the word “extreme” – as in extreme weather – and pictures of people in the arctic wearing the boots.

On the walk back to my hotel, I saw this pair of Gravis boots, and I immediately regretted buying the less attractive Baffin boots.

Gravis Camelia boot $89 at Zappos

But after three days of wearing the boots for 16+ hours a day, I could not be happier with the Baffin boots! Granted, they aren’t as cute as the Gravis boots, but they are the most functional snow boots I could have imagined. The black is rather nondescript anyway. While other people walk around the snow, slush, and puddles, I walk right through everything in my path. My feet are always dry and incredibly warm. The boots are very comfortable too. The only shortcoming is the weight of each boot – they are rather heavy.

The best part is that I feel very surefooted when walking on icy street. My two Sundance goals were to see James Franco (done) and to not fall and break a bone. I feel that the Baffin boots were integral to the latter, but I did wish I was wearing cuter boots when I saw James Franco!

“Q by Pasquale” is an all-glass shoe collection designed by Pasquale Fabrizio, aka  the ‘Cobbler to the Stars‘.

Excerpted from the attached copy of the release, for those of you who don’t have a pair of reading glasses handy:

The world’s first collection of shoes made of glass will be debuted at a champagne reception on January 29, 2010 (in Los Angeles) ….to a select group of media, celebrities, designers, and stylists.

The shoes are wearable works of art featuring handcrafted soles, embellishments of Murano Glass and 24-carat gold beading.

I know the press release mentions ‘celebrities’, but what shoe-lover would even notice a celeb nearby with the promise of such fabulous shoes vying for their attention?

My camera trigger-finger is twitching just thinking about it.  A glass shoe?  I’m intrigued and terrified all at once. I would probably be too afraid to wear them since I have an unfortunate tendency to impact into solid objects over the daily course of walking from point A to point B. But, oh, how tempting all the same.

This is yet another occasion to regret my lack of physical proximity to any of the major fashion hubs (I’m pretty sure Seattle and Portland aren’t near the top of that list).

Here are a few of my favorite shoes currently at Mary Jane’s:

Frye Maxine Shortie for $285 at Mary Jane’s (or $287.95 at Endless and $298 at Zappos)

Pink Studio Allyson Flat for $79 at Mary Jane’s

Jeffrey Campbell Pepper Booty for $155 at Mary Jane’s

But for those who live in colder climates and can’t wear these Valentine sandals out,  you haven’t been left out in the cold. There are plenty of other Valentine Day accessories for you, not the least of which are the Love Scarf and Valentine’s Day tote.

This exclusive new collection comes beautifully crafted and incororates a wealth of extraordinary features. Classic re-interpretations include the Bicycle jacket, the Driving jacket and the Barbour Tokito shirt jacket, and the attention to detail on these pieces is truly awesome.

This exclusive brand was more or less a 100% sell out everywhere it was stocked during its inaugural Autumn/Winter 2009 season, and we are delighted to announce that our partners at BAGGA MENSWEAR are proud stockists and have just taken delivery of the brand new collection.

This is classic Barbour with a contemporary twist from Tokihito and has attracted worldwide interest, be amongst the first in the UK to sport this hottest of new brands by viewing the full range.

Well, our ‘Designer Clothing Shops Spring 2010 Style Guide’ aims to give you an insight into what to wear this season to make sure you are bang on target for a stylish Summer.

Be Seen in Brights

Think ‘Bright Lights Big City’ standing out from the crowd in bold, bright colours is the order of the day for Spring 2010. Pinks, Greens, Sky Blues and Reds rule the roost this season.

Shop Brights Here

Preppy

Whether you are a High School Jock or an East Hampton Squire grab some Chinos and make the Cheerleaders swoon. The 1950s Preppy look is back.

Shop Preppy Here

Riviera Look

Southern French flair, head down to St Tropez with us to find the best in cool Riviera style.

Shop the Riviera Look Here

80s Casual Sportswear

Time to revisit your youth boys with grown up Sportswear, the 80s Casuals look is back big style so fill your boots with old favourites such as Robe di Kappa, Lyle and Scott, Stone Island and Ralph Lauren.

Shop 80s Casual Here

Tailored Style

From the Boardroom to the Bar, the Tailored look will score you style points wherever you go this Spring.

Shop Tailored Here

Accessorize

Go for the ‘Off Duty Bond’ look and top off any outfit with an impressive watch and classic shades.

Shop Accessories Here

And there you have it! We hope you have found some inspiration for the new season and started to stock that wardrobe with some of the hottest looks around this year. Once again our good friends at My-Wardrobe have come up with some winning designer solutions and we thank them immensely for that, and we can confirm that the service you will receive from them is second to none.

Visit My-Wardrobe here today for lots more designer inspiration, and please pass on the Spring 2010 Designer Style Guide to your friends via the Social Network buttons below.

Much of this work I had previously started but not resolved – some over a year ago! So I made an effort to go back to the pieces lurking around my bench and finally got them completed and ready to put into production.

This ironwork pattern pendant is a smaller, redesigned version of theironwork pendant I have been making for some time. It is based on an antique ironwork pattern and has been intricately cut out of sterling silver.

The pendant is 1.6cm (0.63″) tall and wide and is suspended on a blackened sterling silver chain with handmade findings.

These ixora flower pieces were inspired by the gorgeous bunches of ixora flowers in vibrant yellows and oranges that I saw in the lush tropical gardens of Bali.

The flowers are made in a metal called shibuchi. This is a Japanese alloy of 75% copper and 25% silver. Its colour varies from an golden-pink through to a light copper colour, depending much it has oxidised, meaning the colour of the pieces will vary over time as you wear them – and can of course be quickly cleaned of tarnish in silver dip to get back to the original colouring.

The ixora flowers pendant features five flowers suspended from a narrow oval of sterling silver so they hang in a cluster which changes depending on how the flowers fall. The pendant is on my favourite simple sterling silver chain with handmade findings.

The ixora flower earrings feature one flower per earring suspended from handmade sterling silver ear wires. They will swing as you move.

I’ve also added two new pairs of cufflinks to my jewellery for men range. The above damask cufflinks feature my favourite damask-style pattern. The pattern has been blackened and then the piece has been tumbled to polish the entire cufflinks, but also to give the pattern a gunmetal grey type finish.

The other pair I’ve added have a very 1960s looking circles pattern on them. Visit my jewellery for men section (also in my Australian shop) to see more.

There is more handmade jewellery already listed and more yet still to come. For now you can check out everything that’s new in myhandmade jewelry shop (prices in US$, delivery everywhere) or myhandmade jewellery shop (prices in AU$, delivery to Australia and NZ).

But for now here is a sneak peek of some of the new jewellery pieces.

The new range is inspired by the nature all around me – both in my large and mostly English-style garden as well as in the beautiful wilderness of the national park which is almost on my doorstep.

The new designs feature plants such as banksias, poppies, mock-orange, coral heath, guinea flowers, wattle and more.

These are just some of the new jewellery pieces, mostly in a semi-completed state. I completed more of the range today and will keep working on it tomorrow.

Then there is all the photography and listing to do, but I hope to have the new range in my jewellery shop in the next week or so. Keep your eyes peeled!

Until then here are some more ’sneak peek’ photos I took today.