The Brooklyn-based jewelry designer is opening his second store in late May on Bleecker Street, home to designer boutiques, upscale eateries and specialty store chains.

Bittar unveiled his Broome Street flagship in March]]> Alexis Bittar is putting one more shopping destination on New York's downtown map.,cuff Links

The Brooklyn-based jewelry designer is opening his second store in late May on Bleecker Street, home to designer boutiques, upscale eateries and specialty store chains.

Bittar unveiled his Broome Street flagship in March 2004 and plans to open four more stores in the next five years in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and London. He may also add another New York location on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

The new, 350-square-foot space will feature Bittar's signature Lucite bangles in eye-popping colors and handcrafted pearl and gold vermeil pieces that have helped him achieve a cultlike status among the costume jewelry set. Having started out selling his collections on the streets of SoHo 20 years ago,rings, Bittar has grown into a designer whose jewelry wholesales in 600 stores worldwide, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom and Selfridges.

Like its other location, Bittar's new store fuses antique touches and modern objects. Victorian wallpaper mixes with industrial pieces that showcase the jewelry, as well as works of art. Cherry blossoms adorn one wall - the inspiration for which was taken from a scene from the 1959 film "North by Northwest." With a dark gray rug sweeping the floor and oak veneer cases lining the walls, the store will evoke a homey feeling as opposed to the austere aesthetic that Bittar feels is dominating today's retail climate. He claims the store is "one part bedroom, one part 1940s department store."

"I didn't want to mimic the same store identity that's been rolling out lately,tiffany bangles for sale," Bittar said. "It seems like everyone is doing the 'all-white Sheetrock' look and it's minimal to the point of boring. I want to keep the same fusion of antique and modern that my other store has, but in a different way."

Bittar's Broome Street store also juxtaposes the new with the old. The walls vary between stark Plexiglas and antique wallpaper. A lion-footed Victorian table dominates the center of the room.

"I want my customers to feel something special upon entering my stores, like they are stepping back in time," Bittar said.

According to sources outside of the company, his 13-year-old brand has estimated sales of about $25 million. Each year Bittar experiences double-digit growth and has just seen a record 30 percent sales increase from last spring into fall. He often collaborates with ready-to-wear designers, having done Michael Kors' bold necklaces, rings and bangles for the designer's spring show, as well as the bright, beaded pieces for Bryan Bradley's Tuleh spring collection.

"I enjoy straddling the bridge between costume jewelry and high fashion," Bittar said. "I think it's all about the high drama in jewelry today and about having an impact. On the sales end, we're feeding this insatiable need right now."

Tara Silberberg, owner of Brooklyn jewelry store The Clay Pot,Thanksgiving surprise gift, is known for featuring independent, under-the-radar brands. She has carried Alexis Bittar since he began wholesaling the line.

"Alexis has really grown in such interesting ways over the years," Silberberg said. "Part of it is the strong fashion direction he takes, but he always does basics and favorites, so it's a good combination that hits a wide age bracket. I recently sold one of his Lucite pins to a 90-year-old woman. He is so inventive and creates a big range for lots of people to enjoy. You've got the fashion girls and the grandmas. It's amazing to me."

Bittar is also at the fore of a costume jewelry moment that is extending from the runway to retail. Fashion houses such as Balenciaga and Lanvin are delving into the category in great numbers and with the threat of a recession looming, the fashion jewelry market is still thriving.

"I think especially when times get tough, people love this kind of jewelry,buy tiffany cuff Links," Silberberg said. "With the metal market so crazy, fine jewelry is outrageously expensive and it's going to definitely impact retailers this coming winter. So I sense that those in the midrange - if they can capture that and can have a customer for that - will do well. People are looking to not break the bank and still look good. And the runway backing is going to make a big difference."

Bittar doesn't seem to mind the increasing competition in the marketplace. He managed to bring his eccentric, colorful brand into the fray during a time when minimalism was a key trend and bright Lucite bangles were not exactly lauded.

"Costume jewelry is a cottage industry that has been growing heavily over the past five years," Bittar said. "I remember in the Nineties, buyers would ask, 'Is jewelry still happening?' But now, young girls are experiencing it for the first time and they love it. Older women want to know if it's OK to pile on that next bangle and it is right now."

Mr. Kashani is betting that affluent residents moving downtown will want to shop for the pricey yet casual clothes that he is selling - without leaving the neighborhood.

"There are a lot of condos going up, bringing in people who ]]> IN A SPACE DOWNTOWN On Cortlandt Street that last housed a messenger service, Khan Kashani just opened a women's clothing boutique specializing in expensive designer labels.

Mr. Kashani is betting that affluent residents moving downtown will want to shop for the pricey yet casual clothes that he is selling - without leaving the neighborhood.

"There are a lot of condos going up, bringing in people who want luxury," he says.

Lured by Wall Street's high-earning professionals and a growing number of affluent residents, upscale retailers, from BMW to Thomas Pink and Hickey Freeman, have opened locations downtown.

Basics, too

THOUGH THE STORES are welcome additions,key rings, there is a downside to their arrival:Their presence is driving up rents and driving out long-time independent merchants - a transformation that isn't seen as a good thing by residents, who also desire supermarkets and dry cleaners.

Thanks to a wave of condominium conversions, about 46,000 people now live downtown - almost 20,000 more than in 2002 and up from 31,000 in 2003.

The newcomers who are being enticed by those units are exactly the type of wealthy consumers targeted by prestigious retailers.

Median household income in the neighborhood surged to $162,pendants,700 last year, compared with $111,000 in 2004, according to the Alliance for Downtown New York.

Ground-floor rents are rising dramatically as the area attracts more retail. Sites on Broadway, Wall Street and Broad Street are leasing for $200 a square foot, up from about $85 in 2002.

Exclusive merchants that have migrated to the area, which include leather goods designer Hermes and men's clothier Canali,tiffany earrings for sale, are more than willing to pay the freight required to be in the heart of the world's financial capital.

Many of them have set up shop in grand old bank buildings. Tiffany, which moved into the former Trust Co. of America building at 37 Wall this fall, said the recent influx of residents was the draw.

"That area has always been a very important business hub, but now with all these conversions, you've got this real community," says Beth Canavan, an executive vice president at Tiffany.

Though status retailers are a sign of the area's vitality, residents also need basic goods and services, some of which used to be supplied by independents that can no longer afford the rents.

"The mom-and-pop stores - the little jeweler, the little discount variety store,thanksgiving day celebration, the non-national food retailers, the delis, the nondescript stores - [they] are being replaced," says Faith Hope Consolo, head of the retail division at Prudential Douglas Elliman.

More to come

OVERALL, there are about 1,200 shops and restaurants downtown, including fixtures like department store Century 21, on Cortlandt Street, and electronics emporium J&R Music and Computer World, on Park Row.

More retail is on the way.

The Fulton Street Transit Center,shop for tiffany cuff Links, which is slated to be completed late this year or early in 2009, will offer 20,000 square feet.

The eventual build-out of the World Trade Center complex will provide another 490,000 square feet of space for retail activity - about 60,000 more than the original WTC.

And unlike that shopping space, which was largely underground to capture consumers commuting by subway, much of the space that will come on-line over the next few years will be at ground level or above.

Casual-wear retailer J.Crew Group Inc. opened its first accessories boutique last month in New York and soon will release its third accessories catalog. Accessories last year a]]> Clothing retailers are expanding their collections of belts,discount tiffany bracelets, bangles and bags in hopes these high-margin accessories will boost slumping sales.

Casual-wear retailer J.Crew Group Inc. opened its first accessories boutique last month in New York and soon will release its third accessories catalog. Accessories last year accounted for about $165 million, or 12% of its sales, almost double the amount in 2004.

Gap Inc. launched the first accessories-only branch of Banana Republic, called Edition, in May. And Henri Bendel,tiffany cuff Links sale, part of the Limited Brands Inc. portfolio, is expanding its offerings this summer with six new, 2,000-square-foot accessories stores. The new outlets come as Bendel said it would discontinue apparel sales at its flagship store on New York's Fifth Avenue.

Retailers said jewelry, belts and scarves remain impulse-purchases that don't require a lot of budgeting, unlike a new wardrobe. "It's a little bit of a candy moment," says Jenna Lyons, J.Crew's creative director. "You don't have to try it on. You can just take it to the cash register."

Jewelry and bags can yield as much as double the 40% profit margins of apparel,tiffany rings sale, though both vary greatly. The goods take up less space and have more of a timeless appeal, which helps retailers avoid the types of costly markdowns that have hurt results this year. Ed Bucciarelli, chief executive of Limited's Henri Bendel unit, describes the category as "season-less . . . which obviously speaks to the profit."

And sales are still growing. Women's accessory sales by units for the three months ended April 30 were up 2% from a year earlier, according to market-research firm NPD Group. Women's jewelry-item sales were up 5%,tiffany bracelets clearance, and men's and women's watches and sunglasses were up 11% and 5%, respectively. By contrast, women's apparel sales in units were down about 5.6%.

There are signs shoppers are willing to spend. More than a third of respondents in a Shopping Habits Survey conducted by Shop It To Me, an online personal shopping service, said they were "still splurging" on shoes, and nearly a quarter said the same of handbags. Just 15% of the 940 respondents said they were still splurging on work clothing.

For shoppers such as Julie Chang, a new necklace or a handbag can provide an easy -- and less expensive -- outfit update. Ms. Chang, a 30-year-old senior developer for an online educational services company in California, recently bought a double-strand confetti necklace from J.Crew for $98 because of its versatility.

"You can't wear dresses too often, or people will notice,thanksgiving money clips," says Ms. Chang. "But you can take a necklace and wear it on many different outfits."

J.Crew jewelry, which launched in just 13 stores about two years ago, "is becoming a business totally unto itself," Millard Drexler, chairman and chief executive, said in a May conference call on the New York company's fiscal first-quarter results.

J.Crew opened a separate space for its accessories in its SoHo store in New York. Elsewhere, the jewelry is interspersed with the clothing to help shoppers envision entire outfits and add "an immediate approachability" to the pieces, says Ms. Lyons.

Before the recession, so-called aspirational purchases by shoppers spending above their income level drove sales at high-end retailers, according to Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst with NPD Group. The economic downturn has halted that trend. "Luxury isn't going to get that midlevel consumer back anytime soon," Mr. Cohen said.

Henri Bendel's Mr. Bucciarelli describes the pricing strategy at its outlets as "prestige, not luxury." Its new, smaller outposts will carry everything from bangles to flip-flops, all with the Bendel logo or iconic brown-and-white stripes.

What may have been surprising is that when Sweet and Hoffs recorded a project together as Sid 'n' Susie (Sweet's given first name is Sidney) in 2006, it was an album of 15 covers of iconic 1960s songs such as Bob Dylan's "It's All Ov]]> It doesn't seem surprising that 1990s alt-rocker Matthew Sweet and 1980s pop icon Susanna Hoffs, who fronted the popular girl group The Bangles, should have similar musical tastes or even seize an opportunity to work together.

What may have been surprising is that when Sweet and Hoffs recorded a project together as Sid 'n' Susie (Sweet's given first name is Sidney) in 2006, it was an album of 15 covers of iconic 1960s songs such as Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," The Mamas and the Papas' "Monday, Monday" and The Bee Gees' "Run to Me."

Even more surprising may be that the disc,discount tiffany jewelry, "Under the Covers, Vol. 1," not only cracked Billboard's Top 200 album chart, but persuaded record label Shout! Factory to have the duo release a second volume in July -- this one of 16 hits from 1970s, including The Raspberries' "Go All The Way," Rod Stewart's "Maggie May" and Carly Simon's "You're So Vain."

But the biggest surprise may be that Sweet says both things were surprises to him, as well.

Sweet, who in the early 1990s hit the top of the Alternative Songs chart with "Sick of Myself" and "Girlfriend," says it was Shout! Factory's idea for the duo to record covers when they proposed working together. And that the label decided to name it "Vol. 1."

"What I thought was, 'Let's write songs together and I'll produce the record, but it'll be a Sue record. I never wanted to hear myself," Sweet says, laughing, in a phone call this week from New York, where he and Hoffs were on a tour that Sunday brings them to Sellersville Theater 1894.

But he says label executives "really wanted us to do something that was a little more novelty-esque, I think. And we were sort of like a little bit, 'Ehhh, do we want to do that?' But in the end, we felt like it was a good place to do something,discount tiffany, that it would be fun to just be able to do it in my house; it'd be kinda low pressure."

Sweet, 45, says he and Hoffs, 50, met in the early '90s and worked together occasionally, including a stint in a band called Ming Tea that actor Mike Myers, a mutual friend, created for his "Austin Powers" movies. Hoff's husband, Jay Roach, directed the films.

But it was around 2005, when Hoffs invited him to participate with The Bangles in a benefit show, that Sweet says he told Hoffs he loved her voice and suggested they do a project together.

"We just thought it would be fun to just do something," he says. "It would be low-pressure because we could do it at my house and at our own speed and," he says with a laugh, "inexpensively."

Sweet says he and Hoffs simply started thinking about songs they liked, and that quickly focused on the '60s as they bounced ideas off each other.

"One of us would call up [the other] and go, 'What if we tried to do this?' " Sweet says. "As long as the other one was like, 'Yeah, OK,' then we'd try to do it."

Sweet says he wasn't bowed by the fact that some of the songs were iconic, from some of the biggest names in music.

"We really didn't do it to try to be cool and we never really worried about what cynical people would think about what we did," he says,Atlas charm bracelet, laughing. "If we started thinking like, 'Will we be cool like Robert Plant and Alison Kraus , we probably would never have done it."

Instead, Sweet says, he and Hoffs saw well-known songs as a challenge: "Like, 'What if we did a song by Yes? That would be awesome.' " He says Hoff was concerned only that the songs be done well.

Sweet says the duo tended to be more true to the original songs than most cover projects,tiffany money clips on sale, "but we have such a definite sound of our voices and kind of how we approach it that we felt that it worked."

In fact, Hoffs and Sweet even used the original artists on some songs.

"When we recorded the Yes song ['I've Seen All Good People'], which was one of the earlier things we did for it ... we just had this wild-haired idea," Sweet says. "We were like, 'Oh my god, [guitarist]Steve Howe was just so amazing, what are we going to do for those leads?' And we're like, 'What if we could get him?' And we kind of tracked him down and he was willing to do it.

"And again, it's like kids having fun,thanksgiving cuff Links," he says, laughing. "Not for any reason but because we thought it'd be cool."

Getting guitarist Lindsey Buckingham for Fleetwood Mac's "Second Hand News" was easier. "We know him from a ways back, both of us, and also one of Sue's kids goes to school with Lindsey's son," Sweet says. "He was at Sue's birthday party last January and she's like" -- his voice lowers to a whisper -- "Ask him about playing on it."

The process gave Sweet and Hoffs "huge amounts of songs" -- almost 40 for the second album alone -- that were winnowed basically by how well the performance turned out, Sweet says. But the '70s album had the extra complication of representing a decade of widely varying musical styles, he says.

"We tried to cover a lot of different kinds of music," he says, but styles such as the late-'70s early punk/new wave of The Buzzcocks and The Ramones didn't seem to fit with classic rock. "We did covers of them but they didn't really seem right," he says. "They kind of weren't in their best light." So the duo released 10 extra tracks on a Deluxe Edition.

Wrangling over what to include even pushed the newer disc's deadline, he says. Record executives "were tired of waiting. We didn't really have that much time to sort of make our harder decisions."

So will Sweet and Hoffs make the obvious third disc: 1980 covers?

"We would like to do it, but it really comes down to whether, I suppose, Shout! Factory feels they can make some money from doing it," he says.

At their shows, Sweet and Hoffs play not only the covers but songs from Sweet's solo career, as well as ones by Hoffs and The Bangles, he says.

He's working with The Bangles on a new disc for release by late spring, and the group is taking on more of a "girl-group/garage-rock group" sound.

He says he's also working on a solo disc to follow his 2008 "Sunshine Lies," on which Hoffs sang on the title track, and hopes to release it next year.

"It seems if I can get out and play more it's easier to sort of keep it alive," he says.

Henneke's lifelong involvement with TU began when the Central High School graduate enrolled as a freshman in 1931. He joined the faculty in 1936,rings, b]]> No one person is more closely associated with the University of Tulsa -- or more honorably so -- than Ben Graf Henneke.,earrings

Henneke's lifelong involvement with TU began when the Central High School graduate enrolled as a freshman in 1931. He joined the faculty in 1936,rings, became academic vice president in 1952 and the university's president in 1958 at the age of 43. After retiring as president in 1967,tiffany keys, Henneke taught 12 more years in the classroom and was named president emeritus in 1982.

Along the way he wrote the TU fight song,shop for tiffany rings, as a student, and was instrumental in founding the school's radio station, KWGS.

As president he launched an era of campus expansion and improvement and sowed the academic seeds that have made TU one of the nation's most respected small universities. Perhaps as important, as president he was unfailingly accessible to students, and beloved by them.

In retirement, Henneke exercised his interests in the theater,thanksgiving key rings, local history and what may have been his second love, behind TU -- writing. He was a frequent contributor to the Tulsa World's Readers Forum column, among other venues.

Ben Henneke was, in every aspect of the term, a gentleman and a scholar. He died last week at the age of 95. He will be missed.

Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess continues his geeksploitation streak with a story about a teen scifi writer (Michael Angarano) whose novel gets plagiarized by his hero, smarmy author Ronald Chevalier (Jemaine Clement). The episodic comedy mixes a couple good laughs with familiar gross-out gags.

"That was so much fun," appreciative second-grader Kemesha Moore said at the show's conclusion.

The Perfect Gentlemen -- Dan Jordan, Tim Reeder,]]> It took just under 45 minutes for the Perfect Gentlemen quartet to zip through 100 years of music during a recent special performance for students from Sierra Madre Elementary School.

"That was so much fun," appreciative second-grader Kemesha Moore said at the show's conclusion.

The Perfect Gentlemen -- Dan Jordan, Tim Reeder,Charm bracelet, Jim Campbell and Phil Gold -- belong to the Los Angeles Music Center's "Music Center On Tour" educational program.

The quartet, all former Disneyland employees, formed 12 years ago and regularly performs at schools throughout the San Gabriel Valley, Jordan said.

They revise and tweak their repertoire, depending on the ages of the students, he said.

Sierra Madre Elementary teacher Lisa Martinez said the school's five second-grade classrooms held a drawing to determine who would get to see the performance at the Sierra Madre Playhouse last week.

"All the teachers put our names in a hat -- and we won," she said.

The quartet introduced 44 second-graders to different styles of music while teaching them a little about melody,buy tiffany rings, pitch, harmony and rhythm. There were also frequent costume changes, some student participation, and plenty of zany jokes tossed into its show.

The group sang as a barbershop quartet to illustrate the music of the early 1900s, discussed the vaudeville era, then sailed through the blues, doo-wop,tiffany Pendants for sale, surf music, disco,key rings, techno and, finally, rap music. They used skits to introduce each musical genre.

For the surf music era, the quartet donned brightly-colored Hawaiian shirts; shaggy wigs went on when the group celebrated disco music. Reeder told the students that in all musical forms, the key elements are "music, pitch, melody and rhythm."

There was one final lesson:

"Always make music a part of your life,pendants," said Reeder.

caroline.an@sgvn.com

(626) 578-6300, Ext. 4494

Well, you are not, in fact, alone. There are at least two men who have "forsaken all other full-time or part-time employment" to musically immerse themselves -- top hats, kazoos and all -- into a bygone era,rings, and they'll take the stage a]]> EVER FIND THE 21st century a drag and wish for a time when suspenders, polite conversation and hot jazz were all the rage?

Well, you are not, in fact, alone. There are at least two men who have "forsaken all other full-time or part-time employment" to musically immerse themselves -- top hats, kazoos and all -- into a bygone era,rings, and they'll take the stage at 6 p.m. tonight at Black Bear Burritos on Pleasant Street.

The Two Man Gentlemen Band is a rare talent -- a jubilant concoction of ragtime, jazz, country and the occasional double entendre. The duo, made up of big city men (New York City,thanksgiving bangles, to be exact) Andy Bean (banjo) and Fuller Condon (bass), just recently opened three nights for Bob Dylan and made a trip across the pond to England in May. Both opportunities are a long leap from the "Hurricane [W.Va.] barn parties" the group has been used to playing, said Bean.

Together for three years, The Gentlemen have released four albums. The latest of which, "Drip Dryin', " is the group's most laidback to date -- with songs about minivans, rabbit meat and highend alcoholic beverages,buy tiffany rings, referred to simply as "Fancy Beer." And in case you're curious, the songs -- which manage to make you chuckle while appreciating what fine musicians these guys are -- are based, at least to some degree, on real-life experiences, or as Bean so aptly phrases it, "ripped from the headlines, like 'Law and Order.' "

The banjo player -- the more gregarious of the duo -- said he wrote the title track "Drip Dryin' " while in his shower when he couldn't find a towel, and says he did once own a pet rabbit, though thankfully he didn't eat it, as is depicted in "The Rabbit Foot Stomp."

"We wanted to make a feel-good party record," he said. "[Historically] the lyrics were just for fun. We like to embrace that tradition."

As for the duo's 1920s sensibilities, Bean assures it's not just for show. He and Condon met in college at Columbia, proceeded to join a number of garden-variety rock bands and eventually broke off to do their own thing.

"We both listened to old records,cheap tiffany cuff Links, and when we went to write songs of our own, they came out sounding like this,tiffany bangle," he said. "Lots of bands try to make themselves sound like bands 40 years ago, we just go back a little further."

And if you get the chance to check The Gentlemen out tonight (you should) and note their garb -- which you can get a taste of on page 2-C -- be aware, there are no jeans and T-shirts awaiting these two when the show is over. "We've been doing it for so long," Bean said. "They're the only clothes we own. Right now I'm wearing a shirt and suspenders, and very nice trousers. You know the advent of shorts is fairly recent. Any man with dignity used to wear pants. We try to capture that spirit."

LINDSEY FLEMING is a Lifestyles writer/copy editor. E-mail lfleming@dominionpost.com.

Following the fortunes of four lovers, thre]]> Cambridge American Stage Tour (CAST),thanksgiving key rings, the University of Cambridge's student theatre company, will perform a modern-dress version of Shakespeare's comedy "Two Gentlemen of Verona" at Coastal Carolina University at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 22 in Wheelwright Auditorium.

Following the fortunes of four lovers, three outlaws, two clowns and one dog,tiffany key ring, the play is a witty discourse on the themes of youth and immaturity, loyalty and betrayal.

CAST is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a 12-stop tour along the East coast. The production is directed by Tom Attenborough, an English literature graduate of Trinity College, and co-produced by James Baggaley and Tim Checkley.

"Two Gentlemen of Verona" is set in Italy and begins with the journey of two friends,thanksgiving bangles, Proteus and Valentine. When Valentine leaves Verona to take his place at the court of the Duke of Milan, he falls in love with the duke's daughter, Silvia. With urging from his father, Proteus eventually leaves Verona as well and is forced to say goodbye to his love, Julia. However, when he arrives in Milan,cheap tiffany bangles, he too instantly falls in love with Silvia.

Suddenly an unbreakable friendship and four people's happiness is threatened by the course of young love heading in all the wrong directions.

Special performance admission ranges from $10 to $15 depending on seat choice; teens (ages 11 to 17), seniors,cheap tiffany jewellery, alumni and Osher Lifelong Learners get a $5 discount; children ages 10 and under are $5 with ticket but must be accompanied by an adult. Coastal Carolina University and Horry Georgetown Technical College (HGTC) students, one ticket for $5 per valid ID; Coastal Carolina University and HGTC faculty and staff, two tickets for $5 per valid ID.

Tickets may be picked up from Wheelwright Box Office (843-349-2502) Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., or prior to the performance.For more information please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.

And, frankly, it did seem a little loopy to convert the red horse barn behind his house on Ninevah Road into a factory for Kentucky Gentlemen Cigars Co. And that six-week trip he took to the Dominican Republic, where he stayed in a 300-square-foot house on]]> People have been known to call Allen Mobley crazy. "I've been called a lot worse," he said, throwing back his head, his long ponytail dipping down his back, to laugh a full-throated crazy-man laugh.

And, frankly, it did seem a little loopy to convert the red horse barn behind his house on Ninevah Road into a factory for Kentucky Gentlemen Cigars Co. And that six-week trip he took to the Dominican Republic, where he stayed in a 300-square-foot house on the side of a mountain, to learn how to hand-roll cigars. Well, crazy,tiffany cuff Links sale, some say. (His wife, Carol, came back after two weeks. "I'd had enough," she said.)

And the idea that, soon, his hand-rolled, Kentucky Proud cigars will be packaged with a designer-label cognac launched by rapper Chris "Ludacris" Bridges last month in Bordeaux, France -- well, you get the picture.

"Allen is a very unique person, and he comes up with some wild ideas," said John Cook, Kentucky Gentlemen Cigars' director of sales and marketing. The Moonshine cigar, which is blended with a kiss of white lightning? "I thought, 'Oh, my gosh,tiffany bracelets sale, what are you doing?' " Cook said.

But just like many seemingly zany ideas, Mobley's might just work.

Mobley, his wife and a small crew churn out 7,000 cigars a month. Mobley says, within a year, that number could easily rise to 12,000. He predicts the company could produce as many as 1 million cigars "from right here."

"Here" would be the red barn, formerly home to the family horse, Lady, who still sometimes sticks her head through the window in search of an apple.

A picture of a smiling, bikini-clad bombshell, Brooke Burns, adorns one wall, kitty-corner from pictures of various Mobley ancestors standing in their tobacco fields, sensibly dressed. There are antique tobacco baskets on the wall, the spear Mobley used in the fields as a boy, a pale gray leather chair and ornate metal ashtray that used to be his grandfather's perch in the tobacco warehouse he owned. Amid the homage to heritage, there are Dallas Cowboys hangings and an array of liquors and whiskey barrels along the walls.

All this a backdrop to the small space, roughly the size of a mid-size open-plan living room, where cigars are rolled, blends are created, cedar boxes are assembled and the store is open most weekdays.

So how did this come to be?

Mobley, 63, had long roots in Kentucky tobacco fields but, as a young man, he "couldn't get out of here fast enough," he says.

He worked as a contractor in Florida, had his business blown away by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, owned a bar in Las Vegas for a time, ended up in California,tiffany necklaces on sale, again working as a contractor, met Carol, 25 years his junior, and fell in love. They moved back home to Kentucky after the birth of their 10-year-old twins, Cody and Setera, so they could raise them on a little plot of their own non-coastal land. It is also home to five dogs, seven cats and Lady the horse.

Originally, Mobley's plan was to start a winery. But, inspired by the thousands of dollars he and his buddies spend on cigars during an annual saltwater fishing trip, he decided to do try that business instead.

That was about five years ago. And while things have moved ahead at a pretty good clip, he takes pains to point out that while "this all sounds like it's easy, it hasn't been."

He has been stopped twice by airport police who have relieved him of the Cuban tobacco seeds he was trying to bring into the country. (He eventually got his seeds -- embargoed by the federal government when coming directly from Cuba but allowable in other ways -- by mailing them to himself from the Dominican Republic.) It can be a challenge to find the South American leaves that he needs to make his products, and Kentucky traditionalists have not easily embraced growing a variety of tobacco suited for cigars.

Plus, because he is one of the few producers of hand-rolled cigars in the country and the only one he knows of in the state, "if you run into a problem, it may take you six to eight months to get to a resolution," he says.

But Mobley is undeterred. The secret, he said, is all in the blending of just the right tobacco with just the right flavors. The tobacco leaves are aged in bourbon barrels, which, he said, leeches out the toxins and adds just the hint of bourbon flavor. He creates more blends that don't work than those that do. His wife will occasionally pipe up with something like "that smells horrible, we can't do that" and he knows he must stop.

His secret weapon is a squirt bottle he uses to spray the main liquid ingredient, usually of the alcoholic type, into his mouth. The misting replicates the kiss of flavor you'd get when you inhaled an infused cigar. "It just covers the whole palette," he said. And if you are in the shop/factory, he's happy to give you a squirt to show what he means.

In the past year,tiffany watche, Kentucky Gentlemen Cigars, complete with a photo of their tobacco decorated Christmas tree, was featured in the Tobacconist, the official publication of the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association. The company also had its mint julep cigar favorably reviewed in Smoke magazine.

And then there is the Ludacris deal, brokered during a weeklong stay by Cook and Mobley in Miami negotiating with the makers of Conjure cognac. A specially blended, cognac-inspired, hand-rolled cigar will be sold in specially designed gift boxes that will include a bottle of the cognac, shot glasses, a cigar cutter and cigars. The rapper, who owns a restaurant in Atlanta, will hawk it online.

"It's been an adventure," Mobley said, with a grin.

Wife Carol, who has worked with him in the shop daily since the beginning,tiffany on sale, has the look of a woman who could stand for fewer thrills. Earlier during a recent visit she could be heard on the phone saying of her husband of more than a decade: "I don't know when you are going to stop assuming he tells me what he is supposed to tell me." But she smiles when she talks about his manic genius and his gift for ideas. Sometimes, she knows by experience, you've just got to hang on for a while.

She says, "I didn't really start to believe it was going to work until about a year ago."