i am particularly fond of the first strand....have eyed them many times myself.
i love the 2nd strand's pearls but the design isn't my style....but those pearls!
it is hard to wrong with catherine. i too am novice. you will much here. but for freshwater original design pearl strands, thus far in my experience catherine would be very hard to beat. besides, she's a joy to work with! she restrung a strand onto powerpro for me [yes, i had to ask what powerpro is] and i know for another poster in this forum that she combined two strands into one.
I'm with MoZo here, CC is a pleasure to deal with and her offerings are lovely. I am thoroughly enjoying my large pond slime pearls purchased last month.
Beautiful choices, I am usually not fond of peachy pinks pearls but the colours of your first strand is stronger than the usual peach pinks.
I love the colour of the second one too. Lovely purchases.
I loved the colours on both the strands: I thought the spacers in the second were just a bit whimsical and would look good with a casual, romantic look (I try not to look older than my thirty years on the planet )
I really want some big fat golden south sea pearls, double strand. But those sure don't come cheap!