When buying jewellery for Caradiaz, I tend to go for unusual pieces that have some kind of 'stylistic' connection with an ancient culture.

I find all ancient cultures simply fascinating, although I'm particularly drawn towards Ancient Egypt and Ancient China. So it's probably no surprise that we have pieces like the Aida, Amarna, Tiye and Qin necklaces on our website.

You may have also guessed that I didn't miss the exhibitions on the Terracotta Warriors (British Museum) and Tutankhamun (The O2).

Tutankhamun was a bit disappointing, although they had some gorgeous ancient jewellery on display. But, with or without jewellery, I enjoyed the Warriors more. It was really impressive to be able to get so close to the statues and see the differences in the costumes, faces, etc. Mind you, my friend and fellow internet entrepreneur, Sophie Garrett, (who runs www.yours2share.com) came with me and my husband to see it and wasn't so impressed. But she has actually seen the real thing in China, so I guess she had a very good point....

A little anecdote before I go. I bumped (quite literally) into the now retired Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani at the Warriors exhibition. He was unconspicuously walking about amongst tourist and other visitors at first but, after a while, his dark orange tan and artificial-looking hair gave him away, particularly amongst a group of Italian student girls who tried to capture Mr. Garavani and one of his (rather) young male companions with their mobile phones.

Hello again,

Although our main business is jewellery, I have a weakness for handbags - apparently a very common thing amongst us, ladies...

You might have noticed that at we have introduced a few summery-looking bags on the Caradiaz website but it will be a while before we go into it more seriously, so to all bag lovers out there, please bear with us.

Anecdotally, I was on a train to London this morning heading to a meeting with a potential new French jewellery designer when I spotted the most beautiful Moroccan leather tote carried by a petite Asian girl. The bag was simply to die for but it was far too big for the girl and, unless she carried it over her shoulder, she dragged it on the floor rather badly - something she appeared to have done quite often, judging from the heavy scratching on the bottom of the bag.

I thought it was a real shame. The bag didn't look cheap and to have such a lovely piece of craftsmanship treated so carelessly was hard to watch...