Love is in the air

It's that time of year when 'lurve' is in the air and restaurants all over town (probably all over the world) are looking forward to upping their prices for that one special night - when most of us will be sitting indoors wishing we were out enjoying ourselves with the partner of our dreams and the rest will be arguing over the bill for dinner, or something far more trivial.

Meantime, to airline crew, 'love is in the air' isn't just a song by John Paul Young, but a rather appropriately named dating website. What fun - unlike the St Valentine's Day Massacre - a nasty gangland conflict in Chicago during the Prohibition Era in 1929 (and nothing to do with Ronald Reagan's first major film role in the 1937 feature, Love is in the Air).

Anyway, enough curious facts: I've decided to devote a few blogs to the universally celebrated institution that is Valentine's Day. I'd like to start by mentioning that ShopCurious is the perfect place to find a truly unique Valentine gift for the love of your life - in fact we've got some very romantic gift ideas in store for you over the next week or so.

To wet your appetite, here are a couple of items of jewellery that you might like to request as a special present for being so nice - or even to present to yourself for being so special:



These stylish vintage 1960s dangly clip on earrings are adorably cute and would work really well with any outfit from jeans to a jumpsuit to a little black cocktail number. They'd make an unusual gift too - and you can even create a little heart shape by putting them together as shown in this pic (ahhhh, how sweet!)





Or add a dash of romance to your life with this quirky-but-classic sterling silver lucky elephant charm necklace. It's incredibly wearable, yet also something of a collectors' item that will never cease to stun with its eclectic colour combination of beautiful semi-precious gemstones.




You might just decide to forget about the meal for two in future and invest in timeless and unique accessories instead.

Will you?

Bags of luck

One of the more light-hearted aspects of the Olympic Games is the choice of a mascot by the host nation. In Beijing, Han Meilin was charged with the onerous task of choosing an original mascot for the 2008 Summer Games and presumably having to please quite a few people with differing opinions ... It was eventually decided that, as it isn't possible for a single figure to represent China's intense and diversified culture, it's necessary to have no less than five mascots rolled into one. 'Fuwa' (or 'Friendlies') is a symbol that carries a message of friendship, peace and harmony and conveys blessings from China to children all over the world.


The mascot embodies the natural characteristics of four of China's most popular animals - the fish, the panda, the Tibetan antelope and the swallow, as well as the Olympic Flame. Each of the Fuwa has its own symbolic meaning and the abbreviations of their names combined sounds like a phrase meaning "Beijing welcomes you".


At ShopCurious, where we specialise in rather unique accessories, we've just got some stylish new faux snakeskin clutch bags and envelope bags with their own lucky charms in the form of carved Chinese jade buckles with hidden inner meaning, whether it be wealth (left) or longevity (right) - hopefully I haven't got these the wrong way around? There's even a bag with the symbol of two dragons (above left) - the very identity and essence of Asia itself. We've also a mother of pearl longevity pendant, for added good fortune.

So many symbols to choose from, so much potential luck - I'm just surprised the Beijing Olympic Commitee didn't choose eight Fuwa instead of five.
Are you?