My children are now 8 and 10 years old and it has been only in the last three years that I’ve even bothered to recognize how important it is to take care of myself and stay excited about how I look and how I feel everyday.  If you’ve read a little bit into my personal Rebekah Green Biography, you may remember that I ran my own construction company and real estate development firm for ten years.  Spending 7 days a week out on the construction site, being beaten down by the sun, wind, dirt and intense physical labor, I prided myself on how tough I was and how little attention I paid to my appearance.

I considered it a badge of honor to sport a physical scar here and there, and I never paid any attention to my hair, skin or anything else.  Everyday, my uniform consisted yellow steel-toed boots, a pair of men’s baggy jeans and a sweatshirt that hid any shape that I might have underneath.  I never wore jewelry, not even hippie green jewelry, and I certainly never wore make up.

I considered this a good and righteous life – working my butt off, raising two children as a single mom and fighting the good fight for all things green and environmentally responsible.  Somewhere along the line, I decided that any form of self-care was selfish and a waste of energy that my time would be better spent on someone else or some greater cause.  Believe me when I say it, I really did play out this unfortunate misinterpretation of being green / eco-conscious / socially responsible to the Nth degree.  So, I’m here to say with tremendous authority, I had it all wrong.

Even if you haven’t been running your own construction company while raising your little ones, chances are that you find one way or another to make the needs of everyone else around you far more important than your own.  You probably aren’t taking the time that you need to to be a little selfish … in the healthiest way possible.  This is what we seem to do as women and as mothers – become generally invisible, while we work our tails off, without regard to filling up our own wells.

Well, enough is enough!  I was really missing the boat all those years by not enjoying why we’re alive on this green planet in the first place!  We’re here to best the best that we can be, to be beautiful, to be vibrant, to be inspired and to radiate our inspiration to others by feeling whole and well taken care of!  If none of that is in place, then nothing genuinely positive and world-changing can take root.  No matter how selfless we are as mothers, if we can’t model self-love and healthy boundaries for our children, then they will never learn to be the best that they can be.

I sort of stepped backward into the fashion and 14K gold jewelry world by accident.  I began pursuing some projects in the Green Hollywood and progressive media arenas, and I had to learn how to present myself properly in that field.  It was a struggle for me at first, but soon I discovered how fantastic I felt when I looked better than I ever dreamed was possible for me.  I wish that I had found these powerful tools much sooner!

My lifelong passions for art, architecture and design quickly translated into a full-on passion for fashion.  Shortly after that, I developed a love of high quality gold jewelry.  As a business woman, I researched the industry and found a way to make a line of 14K gold earrings that uses only recycled gold and fair trade gemstones.  By manufacturing responsibly, I was finally able to combine all of my passions together and live a truly green lifestyle without any baggy jeans or steel-toed boots.

My sense of empowerment now came from a much deeper place, because it was in tune with my own femininity and my desire for expressing beauty in the world.  So, for all of those “self-less” moms out there, please take a page from my book and decide sooner than I did that being a little selfish and little stylish is actually one of the greatest gifts that you can give yourself, your children and the planet!

My number one priority with custom designing a line of solid 14K gold earrings was to create something that was intensely personal to its fashionable owner and at the same time had universal appeal to almost any woman.  This was a mighty big task that may seem almost impossible, but I genuinely think that I accomplished my goal and then some.

My designs in leverback drop earrings, stud earrings, hoop earrings, chandelier earrings and even kids earrings all have a simplicity which is very complementary to any brand of style while it is visually appealing to every woman that I’ve ever met.  Being intensely personal is very important to me, because I’m sure that you have a few items of clothing or accessories that are so perfect for you and have wedged themselves so deeply into your heart that you would just die if they got lost or damaged or just fell into tatters because of how much you want to wear them all the time.  That kind of relationship with your fashion means that the item has become intensely personal to you and represents who you are so well that it makes you even better for wearing it.  THAT kind of personal and precious design is my goal, and that is exactly how I feel about every earring in my collection.

If you were to try on any piece in my collection, you would feel, like I feel, that they enhance your natural beauty uniqueness by being so delicate, vibrant and golden.  They make your eyes sparkle every time, no matter which pair you have on.  Take the example of the pair that I am wearing in these pictures.  This is the Solstice Celebration 14K Gold Chandelier Earring.  It has a sister earring which is called the Grand Solstice Celebration Chandelier, but whereas the Grand Solstice are perfect for grand events, the Single Solstice is amazing for both a dress or jeans.

The Solstice Celebration chandelier earrings have so much character and so much design appeal that their delicate curves and beautiful nuances will perfectly accent a well-put-together, yet still breezy and casual outfit.  They are so lovely that they will draw attention to you wherever you go, and they will effortlessly complete your look with a rich finish.  If you visit my main website to purchase them, I’d love your photos of ways that you made them work with most of your wardrobe too!

On the other hand, natural gemstones are cut slightly differently.  Their geological properties don’t allow for them to be cut in such angular ways, so instead of getting sharp and brilliant, you get round and fluid … yet still extremely brilliant!  They have facets which reflect the light, but they are more on the surface of the stone and not cut into the interior.  A feeling of fluidity is the essence that they offer.  They are relaxing to wear and to gaze upon.  The kind of personal statement that wearing a gemstone makes is one more of inner peace and contentment than of “look at me, I sparkle everywhere”.  They offer an almost inward-circulating flow of energy.   Choosing a pair of 14K gold gemstone drop earrings feels like a gift to yourself.

The leverback citrine color fits my personality just perfectly.  To me, yellow is sweet and subtle.  The citrine stones in this setting look amazing against their golden backdrop of the leverback basket.  For me, this style and coloring look pretty awesome against my blond hair, and they make me feel as bright and warm as the sun.  My favorite ensemble to wear them with is my vibrant yellow sun dress with delicate yellow flowers sewn onto the bust.  The golden earrings with their radiant natural citrine stones finish it off to perfection.  They offer not too much sparkle and not too little … like Goldilocks said, they’re Juuuuust Right!

So, when it came time to ask her whether she was ready to join the big girl ranks and get her ears pierced, I was excited to hear her answer.  I’ve raised my kids in such a way that I try to give them as much self-reliance as is appropriate for each of their stages that they go through.  So, when it’s time to give them full reign over making certain decisions for themselves, I trust them whole-heartedly and support them completely.

When my daughter, Lavender, turned 8 years old, it seemed like a good time to offer her the decision of whether she wanted to pierce her ears.  Her best friend, Aurora, had actually just pierced her ears so the timing was great, and of course, Lavender wanted to be just like her best friend.  Making this right of passage at 8 years old seemed like a great time for her to take further ownership of her little body and decide how she wanted to care for it.

The day of getting her ears pierced ended up turning into more of a run-around than we had hoped for.  The area that we live in didn’t seem to have any Claire’s boutiques nearby.  But after driving around for a while and finally just googling the issue until we found a solution, we ended up at the Beverly Center in West Hollywood where they did, indeed, have a Claire’s.

She was such a good sport.  I know that millions of little girls do this everyday, and it’s really not THAT big of a deal, but I love using these unique moments to witness how my kids will react to anxiety and give them tools for how to cope with it in a positive fashion – pun intended.  Knowing how to handle oneself in small, yet challenging situations can often translate into building tools for how to handle the bigger and more challenging circumstances that inevitably come up later in their lives.

When we got there, Lavender was pretty unsure of what to expect.  After signing off on all of the paperwork and watching the attendants place the dots on her ears, the moment of having the pair of Claire’s ear piercing girls standing over her, with their ear piercing guns pointed at her head, was kind of intense for all of us.  But I could see Lavender calming herself down as much as possible, staying still and trying to take deep breaths to stay relaxed just before they pulled their triggers.

Then, POOF it was over … and her ears were pierced!  But as is to be expected, that’s right when the red hot stinging sensation throbbed into her earlobes.  She sucked in her little cheeks until her face looked like a tiny blond-haired fish.  I knew that this was her way of coping with the stinging discomfort that hit her at that second.  I reminded her to keep breathing and I showered her with praise for being so brave.  I was so proud of how she dealt with the situation, and she definitely looked so very cute with the brand new earrings!  I wasn’t expecting for the children’s earrings that she chose to look nearly as good as they did on her, but it made me that much more excited to share with her all of the other children’s earrings styles that I have in my green jewelry collection.

About a month ago, I crossed paths with my photographer friend Elijah Star.  As a favor, he took some shots of Lavender now that she’s made it through the healing process after the ear piercing.  Lavender chose to wear the Blue Belly Spiders from the Rebekah Green Jewelry collection that day.  Since all of my children’s earrings are made of 100% 14 Karat recycled gold, not only can I offer my daughter the highest quality pure gold earrings, but I can rest easy knowing that the earrings are also nickel-free and hypoallergenic for her delicate little ears.

Making this right of passage together was such a great experience for both of us, and although piercing a child’s ears is a completely personal experience for every family, we both got more out of the day than we were expecting.  We wish you the best with your green fashion right of passage as well!

That all changed when I created my 14K Gold Hoop Earrings with Rebekah’s Flower.  I had the idea for this earring for quite a while, but it took me some time to put the right elements together to make it just perfect.  I was originally inspired by another pair of hoop earrings that I saw at some point during my travels.  They were hoops with several flowers fixed to them, but the flowers were made out of mother of pearl.  Although I thought that they were pretty, they also seemed too busy for my taste, and I felt that the use of mother of pearl made them almost tacky as opposed to elegant.

So, by editing the idea down and going with a single solid gold, hand-cast flower on the forward face of my 14K recycled gold hoop earrings, I struck … well, gold!  When my first prototype was completed, and I tried them on, I feel in love!  They were so right for me, and they were exactly what I needed to elevate the experience of wearing hoop earrings to an entirely new level.  This design took a simple, yet sassy gold hoop earring into the realm of being classic, refined, elegant and showstopping.

I find that I can wear them with all of my finer ensembles and still feel regal and free-spirited, and not just sassy and free-spirited.  Check out some of the outfits that I wore them with recently.  You’ll see that they work especially well when your hair is pulled back and your make up is really fresh and clean.

Then if you fall in love with the flower all by itself … you can even buy it in the stud earrings section on my Rebekah Green Jewelry website.  It’s so precious and sweet all by itself too!  Either way, have fun with your fashion and enjoy how much thought and intention I’ve put into this collection, just for you!

The event was all about “girl power” and it was a themed community event sponsored by NextAid and international fitness and self-esteem program KidTribe. They preform all over the world and had just been at the White House the week before with Justin Beiber.  Their aim is to raise awareness of the plight of young girls in developing countries, where pregnancy is the largest killer of girls ages 15-19.

The event took place in a fantastic location and was very kid-friendly as well as eco-friendly. They had set up booth after booth of arts and crafts in which the children could participate. They offered t-shirt decorating, mask making, face painting and jewelry designing galore. And in the center of the studio lot complex was a large open space where KidTribe emceed a massive hula hooping experience for the kids.

So, after my daughter had finished making a lovely ensemble of pipe cleaner rings and bracelets and diamond necklaces and gold earrings using shiny gold-toned wire and iridescent beads, she was off to hula hoop for the next hour. Past that point, I could hardly pry her away from the festivities once everything came to a close.

What was so fitting about it being a Green Hollywood-type of event was that the lot that it was held at Jim Henson Studios at La Brea and Sunset. So, every child’s little green friend, Kermit the Frog, was joining us for the whole affair. He was leaping right out of the side of one of the buildings as a one-story tall permanent muppet fixture in the courtyard entrance.

While we were eating organic foods provided by a local catering company and having a blast exercising, making new friends and crafting our little jewelry designing hearts out, we were also helping to raise money and awareness for our young sisters in Africa to help make a significant difference in the quality of their lives. It was a privilege to attend the very well-organized event, and it was also proof positive that Kermit was in fact wrong this whole time, because … It really is easy being green!

Well, that’s an excellent question … it really is!

Before I became a green jewelry designer I probably would have had no idea how to answer that question. I have, indeed, been involved in a wide range of green businesses, eco-friendly initiatives and forward thinking enterprises, but stumbling onto the profession of a sustainable jewelry designer was not exactly planned. It came by way of my job as a green consultant to different businesses and industries which were seeking to be greener corporate citizens.

One of my clients was a gold jewelry manufacturer. During the process of educating myself about the gold jewelry industry, I discovered that becoming a green jeweler wasn’t quite as impossible as I first presumed it might be. The key to solving that puzzle was all about from where the gold jeweler was sourcing their materials. In fact, this one critically important distinction made all the difference in the world when it came to creating truly beautiful jewelry as well as truly sustainable jewelry.

As I worked for this company, I became entranced by the way that their 14K gold earrings looked on my ears and how the high-caliber look worked for my style. It changed how I saw myself, and that ended up changing my life in the process. I decided that now that I had figured out how to consult this company toward being a sustainable manufacturer of green jewelry, I wanted to use my passion for design and beauty to become a green jewelry designer, myself!

Sourcing my materials from fair trade and recycled gold sources was priority one, of course. I had already learned the truth that by making that one choice alone, I would be avoiding every single issue that pleagues the precious metal mining industry around the world, such as: the displacement of indigenous people, the spread of HIV through the horrendous conditions that miners and nearby villagers live in, the rampant use of child labor, the funding of political conflicts, the toxic mining technique of cyanide heap leaching, the mercury poisoning, the water contamination, the annihilation of entire mountain ranges, and the list goes on and on and on ….

Just by choosing to buy my 14K gold from a certified recycled gold supplier like http://www.hooverandstrong.com, I can make my vote for a healthy and peaceful earth … And by buying your next pair of gorgeous 14k gold earrings from my website, you will be doing the same thing too!

If you’re interested in learning more about the realities of dirty gold mining, please visit the No Dirty Gold website. (http://www.nodirtygold.org)

Okay, here’s another scenario.  Let’s say your husband surprises you one night and has gotten a babysitter to watch the kids for the evening.  He’s even bought a dress for you that he’d been keeping secret until this very unexpected occasion.  You’ve never seen the dress before and you’ve never had the chance to match accessories to it either.  What could you possibly pull from your jewelry box that work with absolutely anything you paired it with?

And last scenario, it’s a Sunday morning.  You decide to get up bright and early and make it to your yoga class at the gym.  After the gym, you want to go shopping at the mall and will be wearing your favorite skinny jeans and an easy white t-shirt.  If you wanted to pick one pair of earrings to make you look extra cute, but not too fussy for a yoga class and still work perfectly with your jeans and t-shirt in the afternoon, which pair would you choose?

What if there was a SINGLE pair of earrings that could work brilliantly in every one of those scenarios?  Something that is effortless and practical as much as it is precious and even a little bit glamorous.  Well, if you don’t have an answer for that question … I do.  They are a pair of my 14K gold leverback drop earrings.  They are the most amazingly versitile pieces of jewelry that I’ve ever owned.  And now you can too!  Give any one of them a shot.  I offer the leverback drop style with round fair trade gemstones as well as round and princess cut cubic zirconia.  I highly recommend the cubic zirconia pairs as the best option for matching every single thing that you own.  They look identical to diamonds, but cost about 100 times less.

And just to give you an added pop of feel-goodness to your purchase, my 14K yellow gold is sourced from 100% recycled sources.  So, you aren’t contributing to any new and devastatingly destructive mining of precious metals from the earth!  So, give them a shot and be as blown away as I’ve been about how versatile and beautiful they really are!

The desire that we have to feel fabulous and look glamorous is quite simply in our DNA, and I think that this truth is a wonderful and healthy thing.

I’ve studied human psychology for a very long time.  My desire to know as much as I can about the human condition stems from my desire to create and live my best life possible and then share the information with others.  I’m fascinated by the human mind, and I’ve loved exploring the layers of how our mental and emotional perceptions form our physical and concrete realities.  This exploration is often a process of discovering what separates “fantasy” from “reality”, and the conclusion that I’ve come to, today, is something that I never expected to find.

I’ve come to understand that “reality” actually IS a fantasy.  Everything that we consider to be a hard and fast “reality” is simply a combination of what we – as individuals – and we – as a collective community – decide are the beliefs, rules and tenets by which we will live.  We do this in hopes of creating a reality which is peaceful, respectful of others and conducive to building a better life for ourselves and our families.  But we can clearly see on the news everyday that there are others in this world who are living in an altogether different “reality” than we do.

This is because our consciousness – and the choices that we make based on our consciousness – is endlessly mutable and ever-changing.  We can choose to wake up and make different choices every single day in order to affect different results in our lives.  Some of our biggest dreams and intentions for manifesting greatness in our lives or the lives of others may take a few years or even a few decades to come into full bloom, but making our fantasies become reality in smaller, yet equally as important ways, is immediately within our grasp.

This is where tapping into our DNA and our deep desire to experience ourselves as the kings and queens that we truly are comes into play.  We have the ability to wake up and decide that we are worthy of treating ourselves in the most loving and nurturing ways in order to live from our highest potential.  Choosing beauty, self-care and joy is a paradigm-shifting action that can change the world right in this very moment!

Try taking a page from your childhood and remember the sweet prince or princess who already lives inside of you.  Feeling glamorous, rich and adored is a state of mind … so nurture it!  When you decide that taking care of yourself is your first priority, you’ll know that you deserve nothing less than the best.  Your idea of a fairytale-like “fantasy” will eventually become your reality, because you are living and choosing it from within.  You will carry yourself differently and you will affect those around you in a positive and reality-affirming way, as well.

We are all connected, no matter how you analyze it.  And as each one of us chooses grace and greatness for ourselves, we get one step closer to creating the Utopia that we can envision for the entire planet.  So, if you’re ready to reclaim your throne, you’ll need the right jewels, right?  How about ones made with consciousness and intention in order to help you manifest your dreams and enjoy yourself the process.  My best suggestion?  Try these on for size: my 14K gold chandelier earrings, named the Cherry Tree Triple Mandalas.  They are literally worth their weight in gold and truly fit for a queen!

I wish everyone could try them on, because once you do you just feel like the most glamorous and fabulous version of yourself and you never want to take them off.  The comment that I get most often from customers about this pair of earrings is that when people hold them in their hands, the earrings don’t feel like breakable costume jewelry or like chintzy gold jewelry.  Instead, what you get with this amazingly-handcrafted sustainable jewelry is a real weightiness and a highly-durable construction.

The earrings are rich and heavy with 100% solid 14K gold.  Nothing in my line is ever “gold-plated”.  Everything is 100% solid gold.  My design advantage to having the earrings hand-cast with this kind of weight is that they hang perfectly from your ear.  They don’t get tangled on themselves or tangled in your hair, they just hang vertically and swing slightly with pure elegance.

In today’s market, you may know that gold is at an absolute premium and that many people are actually buying gold as the safest way to protect their net worth.  Well, I’m not going to stretch and say that you could buy my entire collection and protect your children’s trust, but I will say that with earrings like these, you are absolutely getting your money’s worth.

Not only are they incredibly beautiful and attract attention everywhere they go (I guarantee this, as it happens to me every single time I wear them), and not only are they crafted with the right intention because they’re sustainable jewelry made from recycled materials, but they also hold their value!  Unlike almost any other piece of fashion that you would ever buy, my 14K gold chandelier earrings are truly worth their weight in gold!

So, go ahead and treat yourself … or treat your mother or your wife!  Even if you consider this a fashion splurge, now you know that you’re making it from a very intelligent and eco-responsible position!