Best of My Arm Candy in 2013

I came to realize how much I love my mother’s jewelry, C.B. Herrera Designs, more and more. In actuality, she started it 5 years ago to placate my love for bangles, “gangarias,” as we Cubans call any and all kind of costume jewelry, and anything I fancied in accessories. It’s been great. At first, I was super hype and committed to blowing up her jewelry line and placing her in all the style magazines and in over 500 stores nationwide. But then Flanboyant Eats (my food and travel blog) and my private chef business took off, and as you can imagine, I put all my energy into that.

As this year started shaping into a wildly successful one with TV appearances just about everywhere, being hired to do on air work for a wine brands, my excitement for my mother’s jewelry was reignited. And so with the love affair and borderline addiction I have with Pinterest, I started obsessing with this notion of  having a party of pretty arm jewelry — otherwise known as “arm candy” and swag — stacks and stack of brackets, bangles, and your watch. I realized how much I love bows (whew knew?!), leather, studs,  lots of simply crystal stretch bracelets, mixing media, and vintage intermixed with modern pieces.

I quickly got hip to the attractive and super easy way to accessorize beyond a  stack of ring and my two tone Marc Jacobs watch, which makes it everywhere. And then it hit me: Have my mother start making jewelry again, but this time with a more streamlined look and purpose. I’m certain the arm candy (and if you’re in Instagram, then you know you can find thousands of looks by searching #armcandy and many derivatives of that) trend explains the abundance of new bracelet designers, some of which I’m in love with.

I love stacking, playing around with combinations, sometimes going light, others going way overboard where I looked at a picture later and wondered ‘what in the world!’ — but all with a lot of fun and definitely inviting a great conversation among both chicas and the fellas.

2013 was particularly fun in exploring how I love to stack and have arm candy parties. These are some of my faves as shared in Instagram. There are still so many I never shared and pieces I never shared b/c there they were too dear to my heart that sharing publicly wasn’t necessary. Sometimes, some things just need to stay between you and the gifter 😉

I hope you love my stacks and I’d love to see some of yours!

Wearing:
Rose gold and silver two tone MJ watch via Nordstrom; Rose gold and gray rubber MJ watch via Neiman Marcus; Vintage Seiko watch, gifted; BCBG watch via Loehmann’s; Cocktail rings by Lucky Brand; Ghandi bracelet by my mother’s jewelry line; All the crystal stretch bracelets and rings by my mom’s jewelry line; Chain bracelet c/o L. George Designs; Silver bangles c/o IB Designs in St. Croix; Sterling vintage bangles from Mexico; String-y bracelets gifted; Variety of others.

Eat well, love unapologetically, pray with true intention, and take care of yourself.

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