This summer was a crazy one. First I apologize to my loyal readers for abandoning the blog. Especially after all of the exciting things that Glam New York has done this summer. Starting with our Helping Others Campaign, this campaign helped raise funds and awareness for the Burned Children Recovery Foundation and our donation of one of our necklaces to the auction of the Love Without Boundaries Foundation, raised over $60,000 for heart surgeries for orphans in China. We hope that our contribution and commitment to these types of cause would help save and change the life of a child. We encourage you too to make a difference in the life of somebody who needs it.

This summer we also had the great honor to participate at the Lingerie Americas Fashion Show. It was lots of fun!! Being back stage and helping the girls get dressed (it was probably more fun for my husband Filipe who was also back stage helping out, lol). The great sensation that our designs caused not only motivated us to keep producing creative, and unique pieces, but also to keep reaching out to different audiences. In September, we exhibited at couture fashion week. This was also a great experience and I was even asked to model for one of the shows when one of the girl became ill.


Overall it was a great season, now I’m looking forward to this Fall/Winter season during which we have planned many activities, benefits and promotions for our loyal customers. I look forward to hearing from you, the ones who care and love our designs and learning how we can always improve.

Thank you and don’t forget to check out our latest collection.
Gladys

Semiprecious Stones: Quartz

Quartz is one of the world's most common crustal minerals and goes by a bewildering array of different names. The most important distinction between types of quartz is that of macrocrystalline (individual crystals visible to the unaided eye) and the microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline varieties (aggregates of crystals visible only under high magnification). Chalcedony is a generic term for cryptocrystalline quartz. The cryptocrystalline varieties are either translucent or mostly opaque, while the transparent varieties tend to be macrocrystalline.
Although many of the varietal names historically arose from the colour of the mineral, current scientific naming schemes refer primarily to the microstructure of the mineral. Colour is a secondary identifier for the cryptocrystalline minerals, although it is a primary identifier for the macrocrystalline varieties. This does not always hold true.
Not all varieties of quartz are naturally occurring. Prasiolite, an olive coloured material, is produced by heat treatment; natural prasiolite has also been obeserved in Lower Silesia in Poland. Although citrine occurs naturally, the majority is the result of heat-treated amethyst. Carnelian is widely heat-treated to deepen its colour.


Because natural quartz is so often twinned, much quartz used in industry is synthesized. Large, flawless and untwinned crystals are produced in an autoclave via the hydrothermal process: emeralds are also synthesized in this fashion.
Quartz occurs in hydrothermal veins and pegmatites. Well-formed crystals may reach several metres in length and weigh hundreds of kilograms. These veins may bear precious metals such as gold or silver, and form the quartz ores sought in mining. Erosion of pegmatites may reveal expansive pockets of crystals, known as "cathedrals."
Quartz is a common constituent of granite, sandstone, limestone, and many other igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.
Tridymite and cristobalite are high temperature polymorphs of SiO2 which occur in high silica volcanic rocks. Lechatelierite is an amorphous silica glass SiO2 which is formed by lightning strikes in quartz sand.

Source: Wikipedia Encyclopedia

The story of a fire survivor

Imagine that you are eleven years old and one day after having survived a fire you wake up in the hospital with an excruciating pain all over your body that does not let you eat, sleep, all you feel is pain. As days go by the pain does not go away and all you see go away is the happy family that you once had. Even though your mom and dad are always next to you their love for each other is dying. They blame each other for what happened to you. To make things worst your brother and sister don’t see their parents anymore. They too have been affected by what happened. You cry and cry and all that you want to do is die.

After days of painful treatments, scraping scabs of your burned skin and lot morphine to stand the pain, just when things could not get worst, one day you see yourself in the mirror. You can’t recognize what you are seeing. All you see are painful and horrible scars that have disfigured your face and body. As you walk out of your room crying for help, people stare at you, and some are even afraid of you. At this moment you cry and cry and all you want to do is die.

This is the story of Michael T. Mathis, fire survivor and founder of the Burned Children Recovery Foundation (BCRF).

I wanted to invite you to participate in an auction sponsored by G.l.a.m. New York to benefit BCRF. The auction will take place online and will start May 6, 2006.

Please let all your friends know about the auction. If for some reason you cannot participate in the auction, please feel free to donate directly to BCRF. Every cent counts towards changing the life of a child.

For more information please visit http://www.burnchildrenrecovery.org/ and http://www.glamnyc.com/

Challenge Yourself: Get In Shape

This blog is dedicated to all of those people who want to be in great shape this summer. Self Magazine has come up with a three part challenge that will allow us to slim, get in shape, and get the energy we need in three months.

Part 1:

Do the following cardio workouts three times a week; Choose one cardio each time.

Workout 1: Get-moving routine

Warm up for five minutes at an easy pace. On a scale of intensity from 1 to 10 (where 1 is the energy it takes to lie on the couch and 10 is an all-out sprint), start at level 3 or 4, where you could also sing if you wanted to. Next, increase your effort to a point where you're breathing harder byt can still talk in complete sentences (level 5). Stay there for 20 minutes. Return to your warm-up pace for five minutes.

Calories Burned 103 (a walk) to 301 (a run) *
Make it Harder Add an incline of more resistance to your chosen cardio while maintaining the same level-5 pace.
Make it easier Split the workout into two separate 15-minute bouts: a 5-minute warm-up, then 10 minutes at level 5.

Workout 2 Fat-fighter Combo

Warm up for five minutes at an easy pace, working up to a level 5. Bump it up to level 7 for the next three minutes; your sentences should start to get choppy. Return to an I-can-sing level-4 pace for a minute and a half. That's one set. Alternate until you've done five faster/slower sets (about 22 minutes). Continue at your easy level-4 pace for two and half more minutes to cool down.

Calories burned 130 (a walk) to 317 (a run)
Make it harder Extend your faster intervals and reduce the slower ones by 30 seconds each week.
Make it easier Make both intervals two minutes each extending the final slower one to four minutes.

Workout 3 Fast Calorie Burner

Warm up for five minutes at an easy pace, gradually increasing your intensity to level 5. Then do a fast-paced 30-second interval at level 8 (this is a hard effort, where you have no desire to talk). Recover at level 5 for one minute alternate between the faster and slower intervals for a total of 21 minutes-that's 14 sets. Then continue at your level-5 pace for four more minutes to cool down.

Calories burned 130 (a walk) to 333 (a run)
Make it harder Add 10 seconds to your fast-paced intervals and reduce the recovery time by that amount each week.
Make it easier Take two minutes to recover, reducing the number of hard/easy sets to eight.


*Calories vary by Activity; calculations based on a 135-pound woman.

We can do it!!! For more information about this challenge visit Self Magazine.



Visit us again to check out the other parts of this fabulous workout.

Beautiful: Skin Basics

Tips on "getting gorgeous" is another topic that I wanted to share with my readers.
The first thing that all of us, women AND men, should do is find out our skin type. Just follow the five steps below:

Wash and Dry your face and leave it unmoisturized for three hours. Press a single piece of tissue or blotting paper to your face and remove it.

You have:

Normal Skin If no oil comes off on the paper and your face doesn't feel tight or flaky.

Dry Skin If your skin feels dry, tight or flaky and no oil appears on the paper.

Oily Skin If oil comes off of your nose, forehead and cheeks.

Combination Skin If there's oil on your nose and forehead ( the areas of the face with the most oil glands) but not your cheeks.

Sensitive Skin If your skin tends to be tight and blotchy and reacts to new skin-care products by becoming red, inflamed or itchy .

Now that you know your skin type follow the necessary skin care regimens that I will show in our next "Beautiful" section. In the meanwhile, see how you can look if you take good care of your skin:

20s Christina Ricci

30s Rosalyn Sanchez

40s Elizabeth Hurley

50s Candice Bergen

This section is based on the book "Getting Gorgeous" by Instyle Magazine.

Semiprecious Stones: Agate

Here is a picture of our beautiful Pink and Purple Agate necklace:

I want to use this blog to teach readers a little bit about the materials that we use while making our necklaces. As you may know we mainly use semiprecious stones. Today, I want to talk about one of my favorite, Agate or as I usually call it Agatha (don't ask me why). As I was doing some research about the stone I found very interesting information about this stone.

Did you know that Agate is the most creatively striped stone by nature.Each individual agate forms by filling a cavity in host rock. As a result, agate often is found as a round nodule, with concentric bands like the rings of a tree trunk. The bands sometimes look like eyes, sometimes fanciful scallops, or even a landscape with dendrite trees.

As the Gemstone Organization states "Agate was highly valued as a talisman or amulet in ancient times. It was said to quench thirst and protect from fevers. Persian magicians used agate to divert storms. A famous collection of two to four thousand agate bowls which was accumulated by Mithradates, king of Pontus, shows the enthusiasm with which agate was regarded. Agate bowls were also popular in the Byzantine Empire. Collecting agate bowls became common among European royalty during the Renaissance and many museums in Europe, including the Louvre, have spectacular examples.The mining of agate in the Nahe River valley in Germany which was already documented in 1497 gave rise to the cutting center of Idar-Oberstein, Germany. Originally, the river was used to power the grinding wheels. When the Nahe agate deposit was exhausted in the nineteenth century, Idar cutters started to develop the agate deposits of Brazil, which also sparked exploration and discovery of Brazil's rich deposits of amethyst, citrine, tourmaline, topaz, and other gemstones.Although the small town of Idar-Oberstein is still known for the finest agate carving in the world, today Idar imports a huge range of other gem materials from around the world for cutting and carving in Germany and Asia. Cameo master carvers and modern lapidary artists flourish along with rough dealers who scour the world for the latest gem discoveries for export. And the entire industry sprung from the taste for agate bowls and ornaments during the Renaissance! Maybe agate is also a powerful talisman for success in international trade! "

Here are two of our two of our Green Agate necklace:

Exotic Destinations

THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

As part of our slogan: Exotic, Beautiful, Elegant, I wanted to share with you the beauty of our exotic destination of the week, The Dominican Republic. If you are asking yourself why I chose this country to be our first location? Well, I am from the Dominican Republic and I love my culture. Here is a very cool Merengue video.

I am sure that many of you have heard of the country's beautiful beaches, but this land has many other things to offer. The Dominican Republic, homeland of Oscar de la Renta, Sammy Sosa is also known for the warmth of its people.

The country's population is of almost nine million people. Although the country has long been viewed primarily as an exporter of sugar, coffee, and tobacco, in recent years the service sector has overtaken agriculture as the economy's largest employer, due to growth in tourism and free trade zones. Among the most popular touristic areas are Punta Cana, Samana, La Romana, y Puerto Plata.

If you are ever planning on visiting the country and have any questions or need any suggestions, I'll be more than glad to help you.

Park Santo Domingo

Aren't they cute?