With a multi-brand gallery in Los Altos, California, the sister-run brand, Sethi Couture, seemed like a perfect choice for kicking off this monthly feature. Pratima and Prerna Sethi draw on their family’s heritage in the industry, while also maintaining a forward-thinking mindset in their approach to business. With robust and busy family lives, which includes Prerna’s newborn, Pia, multiple custom projects in the works, the development of a new marketing campaign and in-store events, we feel so fortunate the dynamic duo dedicated so much time to sharing a glimpse into their daily lives. And we even got a mouthwatering recipe for Sweet Potato Tacos out of the project so…bonus!

Prerna Sethi:

5:45am: I rise early these days to the coo of our new little addition, Pia. She’s now 5 months old (sleeping through the night, thankfully!) and the morning begins with her breakfast and my cup of tea! Chai with ginger, black pepper, and milk has been my morning ritual since I was young. It’s that cup of comfort I look forward to every morning before getting ready and out the door! This time of year, I get a glimpse outside our window of the deer passing by.

7:30am: Today I’m heading to the San Francisco flower mart and meeting with Olya from our marketing team. We are planning an event for the holidays and ever since our favorite irreplaceable florist, Eryn, moved to Bend, Oregon, we’ve been picking our own florals! So we are doing some floral research, but I secretly will use any excuse to peruse the flower mart. It’s overwhelming but so refreshing seeing the fall blooms. We ended up staying too long and rush out to our next meeting.

9:00am: We head across town to see our jeweler. We have a few custom projects that I need to review the progress on and finalize the details before heading down to Los Altos to the gallery. We’ve been working on getting the height right on a star ruby cabochon ring with diamond briolette’s hanging from the bezel. It has to have the right height so the diamonds hang perfectly when worn. We’ve done a few waxes and are finally able to approve the new design. The original design we hand sketched before creating a cad to review with the client. We are happy with how far it’s come.

Today is an easy day, unlike some days where we have to go across town to our hand engraver to pick up our engraved P.S. Charms. We hop back on to the freeway head down the peninsula.

11:00am: Most mornings Pratima and I do an early 8am meeting before our team gets in over another cup of tea. It’s our sister thing! Today we are running late and get a cup of Moroccan tea from our neighbor at Café Nur. We are working on spring already and planning schedules for production and travel.

12:30pm: We decide to take a walk to finish up our meeting and go to our normal spot, Mikado Sushi, but the wait is long and so we skip it to get a quick bite from State Street Market! It’s the newest market in town inspired by foodies and they have the best pani puri stand from Ettan. The walk back is beautiful this time of year; all the warm hues from the fall foliage.

Pratima Sethi:

2:30pm: It’s Pratima taking over now! After lunch, I have very little time to select diamonds for our P.S. Charm multicolor diamond charms. We have to send them out for production today to make it in time for the special order! I keep thinking the Holidays are so far away and here we are about a month away. I’m leaving work early today for Amelie’s Girls Leadership board meeting and then dropping off Amelie [Pratima’s daughter] to club volleyball practice. So I have very little time to get the last few projects of the day completed. This month has been hectic with trunk shows too, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

After I pass these off to Connie, our production manager, we meet back with our team to finish up our Spring Lookbook. We’ll be looking at keeping some placeholders for the photography of the new pieces we are adding to our spring campaign. And we have to plan the next photoshoot with product and model shots. Last season we styled the product with spices to give some unexpected warmth to the set. We loved using cinnamon, turmeric, cayenne, and cardamom for some texture and color against the black diamonds.

4:00pm: I’m headed out to Colorado this weekend for a trunk show and have to merchandise the pieces for our Bring Your Own Bands Stacking Party.

6:00pm: Back at home prepping dinner while my husband, Amaury, picks up Amelie and Star from practice. Can’t wait to wind down and relax in the evening. That’s it for now!

Sweet Potato Tacos

Sweet Potato

• 1 large sweet potato baked – brush with olive oil, poke several holes in it using a fork, wrap in foil and bake for 25 min at 400 degree
• Leave the skin on as it is the most nutritious part
• Season with salt and pepper
• Dice into cubes

Black Beans

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Sautee 1 small yellow or white onion, finely chopped
• Add Fine sea salt, 2 teaspoons ground cumin, ¼ teaspoon sambar powder (an Indian mixture of spices typically used in South Indian dishes)
• Add 2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• Add ⅓ cup water
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• Simmer until some water evaporates
• Use a fork or masher to smooth out the beans

Avocado-Pepita Dip

• 2 avocados, pitted
• 1 cup lightly packed fresh cilantro (mostly leaves, some small stems are ok)
• ½ cup pepitas
• 1 small jalapeño, seeded and roughly chopped, or ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (go easy if sensitive to spice)
• 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons lime juice (about 1 medium lime) or 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
• 2 tablespoons water
• ½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• Blend all together

Everything Else

• 8 to 10 small corn tortillas
• Crumbled feta or shredded Mexican cheese
• Sour cream
• Chop half a Lettuce head
• Dice 2-3 Tomatoes