JEWELER WHO HAND CRAFTS GLASS BEADS AND MAKES HER WORK AT HOME CAN DESIGN SOMETHING SPECIAL AT WORKABLE PRICES: She Saved the Day
By Diana L. Chapman

You can imagine how I am feeling.

This weekend, my whole family will celebrate my mother’s 80th birthday. My two sisters and cousin have been working on a sit-down dinner bash for months. They invited 75 people thinking 50 would come, but everyone responded they would be there.

My husband is going. My son is going. My in-laws and their children will be there.

The one person missing will be me. It’s not that I don’t want to go; it’s that I’m not well enough to travel any quick-turn around trip. These days, a lunch outing causes so much fatigue that I fall into bed for hours. (I have multiple sclerosis which makes me feel like I have mono everyday).

Feeling crushed, I wanted something so special for my mom, something lasting and something that wasn’t going to break the bank since my bank is already broken. Then I remembered Mike Walker, the guy who is organizing a giant Christmas rush of care packages to our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, telling me his wife made jewelry.

Going to her website: http://www.shirleyscrystal.com/, what I saw looked promising – starting with tiny roses, made from silver and gold-filled metal, beautiful crystals in many shapes and hues and the fact that each piece was hand crafted and individually designed.

Meeting up with Shirley, we sorted through her many homemade inspirations (she actually melts and makes glass beads at her home) I saw piece after piece that were beautiful, but didn’t quite fit what was needed. One that caught my eye was a clear pink crystal, encased in a silver border trimmed with a heart on top. It was stunning.

I loved it; but the trouble was: pink is not my mom’s color, she wears gold, not silver, and it didn’t have the rose I wanted to represent my father since he gave her roses. So I asked: "Could you make something similar?"

The answer was yes.

This is what we settled on: a topaz-colored gemstone to represent her birthday, a heart to represent my family and a rose tucked in the middle as a symbol of my father, who died about 12 years ago. Within two days, I was able to bring it home and proudly show it to my husband, Jim, and Ryan. They both thought it was the perfect gift to represent me since I cannot be there in person.

The price: $64.40. Had I gone to the store and spent $300, I couldn’t have found something that means so much symbolically. So it’s true, I am sad that I can’t go.
But being able to put together such a special gift, makes it somewhat easier. Thank you Shirley for saving the day for the one kid who can't go to celebrate her mother's big birthday!

UPDATE ON THE CUPCAKE QUEEN OF SAN PEDRO; LET SUCCESS STORIES KEEP ON POURING IN WITH STUDENT WRITINGS ON THESE SPECIALIZED TREATS; At LEAST ONE LOCAL EATERY, NOSH, WILL CARRY ROSE'S CUPCAKES SOON! Yessssssssssss!

By Diana L. Chapman

Cupcake Queen Update:

I love success stories – especially the kind where you think your life is marching one way and then the road suddenly veers in another direction.

This is what happened to my long-lost friend, Rose Cigliano, who works full time as a nurse, but began to miss terribly those cozy days she spent baking cookies, cupcakes and other treats with her Italian grandmother. So, she started baking.

And baking. And baking. With thousands of cupcakes made, and thousands sold, Rose officially soon hopes to have – Cuppacakes – sold at local restaurants – especially after she took 600 of her gourmet babies, such as red velvet topped with cream cheese icing, pumpkin with cream cheese frosting and chocolate with purple butter cream frosting – to a carnival in Manhattan Beach. All 31 dozen sold in 5 hours “with nothing to spare.”

“We sold out completely,” Rose explained, who added that her sister and neice came to help for one hour, but couldn’t leave because Rose was so busy. “People were begging me to open a store.”

Her cupcakes will soon be sold at Nosh in downtown San Pedro.

Right now, you can order her made-from-scratch cupcakes—pumpkin, chocolate, anisette and many more --- at http://www.italiancuppacakes.com/. Orders for the pumpkin cupcakes are already rolling in for Thanksgiving. A cupcake fad quickly is spreading like frosting across the nation -- especially with the opening of Sprinkles, a homemade cupcake bakery which opened several stores, including one in Hollywood where people stand in line to purchase them.

Why has the popularity increased? According to Rose, it stems from cupcakes reminding people of their childhood days. Within a week and if all goes well, the Nosh eatery will start carrying her cupcakes for ordering downtown San Pedro at 617 S. Centre Street.

“They are delicious and lovely and I’m thrilled to help that business move along,” said Nosh Owner Susan McKenna, a long-time foodie, who jointly owned the Corner Store, before she started Nosh. Being artistic with food is one of Susan’s many talents and she’s planning to add more food “artisans’ to her menu which ranges from specialty quiches to bread pudding.

Now, Cuppacakes will be sold there individually, and Nosh will help take larger orders.

Recently Rose donated her cupcakes to a writing class at the Boys and Girls Club and the kids were asked to write about them: Two high school students wrote the following:

“This cupcake reminds me about my youth, my childhood that was full of excitement and bliss,” wrote Brian, 17.

Armando, 15, wrote: “The cupcake has sprinkles that look like stars on the sand and the cookie atop looks like the moon. The cupcake is like a mountain in Big Bear and people are going down from the mountain with snowboards and skis. Cupcakes just make people joyful and happy. The people that make the cupcakes have a love for it. They put all their (soul) inside of it to make it taste so good.”

That is certainly true of Rose and her cupcakes; the best review I can give you is that the students inhaled her cupcakes in a few seconds flat.