H. Stern and Why We Love to Shop for Jewelry on Girls Getaways

One of our favorite things to shop for when we travel has always been and will always be jewelry. It's the best souvenir, because you'll have it forever and when you get compliments on a piece, you can say, "This old thing? I got it in Santorini, Santa Fe, Paris..."

So naturally it follows that one of our most treasured memories is touring and shopping at the H. Stern headquarters in Brazil several years back. In Brazil, you literally can't turn the corner without tripping over an H. Stern outpost, but the workshop in Rio de Janeiro is something else entirely. You learn about the history of the brand, the natural gem stones of Brazil and watch the jewelry makers in action. Then, you're set lose to sip cocktails and shop. Our little square necklace from the Rainbow collection bought at the H. Stern store in Rio is one of our prized possessions.

Fast forward a few years to last week. We were invited to a blogger breakfast at the H. Stern store. Despite our appreciation of H. Stern, we had never set foot in the New York City store before. It's near Rockefeller Center, so we had surrendered the store to tourists. That was a mistake.

We had forgotten the H. Stern heritage of using nature, movement and dance in the jewelry collections--and all at good value. No wonder that H. Stern is a celebrity favorite, including Rihanna who is wearing H. Stern rings, above. Similar to the folks working at the David Yurman Townhouse, everyone who works there was happy to help and let us try on all the pieces we wanted.

Diane Von Furstenberg fans that we are, we gravitated towards the DVF H. Stern collection. The Sultra Sport Watch is sexy, elegant and functional:

and we also love the Rock Crystal Bracelet from the DVF collection.

The next time you're in NYC shopping at Sak's or the original NYC H+M, be sure to stop by!

FTC Disclosure: I attended a press-only breakfast at the Townhouse, where I was gifted with a piece of H. Stern jewelry.

10 Best Summer Flip Flops

One thing we left off our summer guide: Flip flops! We're so grateful for Betty Confidential for picking the 10 Best Summer Flip Flops and doing the work for us. Our fave are these gladiator-style flips from Old Navy.

FEED bags by Lauren Bush

One of the activities I most look forward to when planning an overseas vacation is shopping! The feeling of finding exotic items like a scarf in the indigenous print, tribal jewelery, a wooden decorative mask or a beautiful embroidered blouse and bringing back a piece of the destination is exciting. Lauren Bush brings us a little piece of Guatemala with her FEED Guatemala bags created in partnership with UNICEF and Lord & Taylor.

The FEED Guatemala bags are handmade a nonprofit organization called Nest, that empowers women and female artists around the world. The Guatemalan Nest artisans are using their traditional Ikat fabrics to make these bags the colors and woven patterns which reflect the vibrant Guatemalan culture. In addition to empowering women, the bags generate funds to help UNICEF provide micronutrient supplements to Guatemalan children who are stricken by poverty.

Because of its exotic look, carrying this bag around town will make you look like you just got back from vacation and you will feel great about it knowing the lives of those women who helped to create it, is better off because of your purchase. The FEED Tote bag is available at Lord & Taylor for $39 and the pouch for $19 and FEED will donate $10.50 or $3.50 respectively to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF to help support UNICEF’s nutrition programs in Guatemala.

Contributed by The Stylester.

This review was based on a free sample.

Aviator Pillows

We have a new item to add to our collection of map-themed decor: these silk aviator pillows from Alex Jowett. Each pillow is unique and made out of old silk maps that his uncle, who was in the air force, used to navigate with during actual flights.

Available at Atelier6888.com.

The Standard Limited Edition Scarves

We're kinda hoping the spring scarf trend never goes out of style: We love our scarves for layering on rainy days, at night and on our plane rides. Here are three new ones to add to the collection: The Standard has commissioned three artists representing NY, L.A. and Miami to design limited edition silk-cashmere scarves. The artists, RoStarr (for NY-shown left), Thomas Campbell (for CA-shown right), José Parlá (for Miami), and  are each known for their graphic styles. Each scarf is

• Thescarf is 24.5” x 70” in size and is made of 50% Silk and 50% Cashmere
• The scarves have hand-rolled and hemmed edges, lightweight for the season.
• Think the scarf is too pretty to be worn? We agree! Frame it and hang it on your wall.

Each scarf is $225 and available at The Standard hotels and online.

Straw Bags

We spent last summer on the hunt for the perfect straw bag, to no avail. We couldn't find any bags that fit the bill of being stylish and functional. This upcoming season, looks like the challenge will be to pick just one!

We're partial to the Tory Burch Slouchy Straw Tote--Gold trim will always get us!

The Prada Straw and Leather Shopper is no slouch either, with fringed trim and a stylish rosette.

For a dash of color, there's the Kate Spade Foley Beach Benedictia.

Leave it to Jimmy Choo to make raffia look naughty in the Bazli raffia and leather tote.

For a bargain, try the Croft and Barrow ZigZag bag, available at Kohl's.

Microbartering 101

One of our favorite things about our girls' trip is shopping. It's especially fun when you're in the Caribbean or somewhere with local crafts. If you don't have a trip planned to anywhere exotic, Buildanest.com brings the artisans to you. The site even does it one step better: the group provides interest-free financing to women in third world countries so they can purchase supplies, space at a bazaar and other items they need to start their own business. The proceeds from their items sold on the site, go to help the next generation of women.

The above lace rainbow tote is from Guatemala and retails for $60.

Palm Pixi Review: Comparison with Blackberry and iPhone

We've been testing the Palm Pixi since the beginning of the year.  Normally, we use a Blackberry which works well for our purposes: email, web surfing, occasional web publishing, twitter, and facebook.

The Palm Pixi is more user friendly and mimics the behavior of the iPhone.  Here are some of our findings:

Our favorite feature is that the Pixi works great as a multi-tasker: you can talk, text, and surf the web at the same time.   A real life scenario might be you're talking to someone and need a phone number to a restaurant so you pull up the browser and search for the number; or you're in the middle of sending a tweet and someone calls.  You don't have to shut down one application to use another, in fact you can have several open at once.

The Pixi has an MP3 player that's compatible with iTunes so we downloaded our music and even our playlists to the phone.  We haven't had a problem running down the battery while listening to tunes either, so the battery life is good.

Conversations are listed by the person not the date, making it easier to track an ongoing "discussion."

The Pixi has buttons and a touch screen (our Blackberries have only buttons, iPhones only have a touchscreen).  We use the buttons when we're texting or writing emails and use the touch screens when we're moving between screens or browsing the web.

The Pixi has a good camera with a flash.  We can upload pictures to twitter and facebook or send them in an email.

Lastly, the Pixi is smaller and sleeker than the Blackberry or the iPhone and much lighter than a Blackberry.   The Pixi's keyboard may be too small for a man's big fingers; but it works well in our hands.

All together, it's been a good multi-tasking phone, so much so that we've extended our first month of promotional use and have added it to our phone plan.  The Palm Pixi is available at Sprint for $99 after rebate and service agreement.

This review was based on a sample phone provided gratis to The Jet Set Girls.

Animal Inspired Jewelry

Animal Jewelry by Jet Set Girls featuring Tarina Tarantino jewelry

At Bazaar at the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles the other night, the oh-so-chic waitress was sporting a sexy pair of peacock feather earrings. We were inspired to see what other animal jewelry we could find.

Items in this set:
Tuleste Market Owl Pendant Necklace - Gold and navy, $115
: : T A R I N A T A R A N T I N O : :, $88
Favorite Things Necklace - Anthropologie.com, $48
fredflare.com | peacock feather earrings, $9.99
Asymmetrical Free Bird Necklace, $18

Net-A-Porter Win a Wardrobe contest

To celebrate its one millionth order, Net-A-Porter is giving away a $40,000 shopping spree. For those who aren't good with math, that equals about 60 pairs of Christian Louboutins! The contest runs through February 11. On your mark, get set, go!