i hate ups

i sent a package to san francisco in december. usps told me i'd missed the cutoff time (3:30 pm) to get it there the next day, so i went to the ups store. i paid $54 to ship it guaranteed overnight with $1,000 of insurance. the package had about $3,000 of jewelry inside. i tracked it online as it arrived in san diego that night. and then didn't leave until the following night. the package arrived at 10:00 the next morning. about 19 hours late, and barely in time for the show which was the whole reason for this overnighting business. i'd also express mailed (with usps) a package to boston with $2,500 of insurance for about $19. that package arrived a day before the one in san francisco.

i meant to call ups to get some sort of refund on the shipping, but it was december, and i was busy, and the receipt just got lost in the shuffle. while cleaning off my desk yesterday, i rediscovered it, and called the ups store today. i told her the story, and she said, "it's been 8 months! there's nothing we can do." i said i'm not sure why it matters that it's been 8 months- it was still a guaranteed service, and it was still late.

i asked for ups' phone number, and the woman who answered said, very annoyed, "that was 8 months ago! you would have had to call within 15 days. it says it on our website. i can't do anything about it now." well, ups, while your life is shipping, mine is not. i said that policy was written in very tiny print on my receipt from the ups store, buried within a ton of other rules and regulations, and it was not clearly stated. and that that rule seemed to be designed so people would not ever get refunds because of that very small window of opportunity to complain. she said she didn't understand what i was talking about.

well ups, if shipping is your life, perhaps making sure packages arrive on time is a good idea.

otherwise, you should work on your customer service.


ps: the package in the picture was obviously not the one i was referring to (note the $4.60 postage), but a lovely friend, Aik, over at 'friends and family' did a product review and interview with me, and that picture is one she took. read all about it over there!

listen to your mother...or scarlet's mother, instead.

a family friend of ours, jaime, writes a very sweet blog called "500 pieces of prudent advice for my baby daughter." she has an adorable baby named scarlet who will have quite the collection of motherly advice when she's old enough to read. how wonderful for them to have their blog posted on ohdeedoh today!

if you haven't read it start to finish, do so now. you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll yell, "i know!" at your computer monitor. a few of my personal favorites:

#28 Splurge on fresh flowers once a week.

#34 Good lighting is the key to decorating a cozy home.

#59 Drink Tea!

a masterpiece, of sorts.

yay for spending hours lining up rows of earrings just for this blog.

you can't see them all there, but there are 64 pairs in that lineup.

that setup was ridiculous, but looked so cool.

i found some new favorite color pairings laying these out.

citrine and smokey quartz- so modern, who knew?

i've been working on the above order for my favorite customer in japan for about 3 months now, and it's finally finished. now, i wasn't working all day everyday by any means. but the grand total was 84 necklaces, and 64 pairs of earrings. the necklaces were actually much simpler than the earrings. 64 earrings= 128 spiral wrapped stones, and 640 tiny headpins. my thumb and forefinger were a little sore for a few days. you can't really use a thimble while making jewelry.

jurassic park peonies

i bought some unopened peonies at trader joe's two days ago.

by that night, one flower had opened up completely and was about the size of my head.

one by one, the others have followed suit.

we thought we might put a stop-motion camera on one as it opened, but i have no idea how to do that, so i hope you like these macro shots instead.

i had an idea in my mind of what peonies looked like, and it's certainly not like this. however, they are very beautiful and have received rave reviews from everyone.

i only spend money on very important things...

here are the beautiful pillows i bought yesterday:

don't ask how much they cost.

an americana adventure into tv land

so a few weeks ago, i dragged max and ashley along to meet kate gosselin from jon and kate plus 8. she was doing a book signing in glendale at the americana, a beautiful outdoor mall conveniently located about two hours away. max and i drove all the way from san diego bright and early to get there on time. when i called two days before to see how early i should be there to get in line, the barnes & noble employee told me, "well, she is a bestselling author, so we recommend getting here 30 minutes to an hour early." i'd just watched a news clip of a signing she did in michigan, or minnesota, or montana where 1500 people showed up to one of her signings. i originally thought i might have to camp out for a good spot, so an hour sounded perfect to me.

the main reason i was going was because i love j&k+8. i also decided it would be such a great idea to make jewelry for kate and her daughters. they always zoom in on kate's face during the interviews, and her jewelry is clearly visible. i made kate an anna vi necklace:
and peyton earrings:
i made mady and cara matching madeline necklaces with a blue sapphire, similar to this:

and hannah, leah, and alexis paisley necklaces with a blue sapphire, kind of like this:
because with kids, you know, you can't give them different colors, or they'll fight over them. i know this because i'm an expert on children. i wrapped them all in a single take out box with teal ribbon, similar to this:i enclosed a note (which i would write in barnes and nobel 10 minutes before getting to the front of the line, making it extra thoughtful) and put everything in a kate spade bag. my prized striped kate spade bag. it's the small things, really.

we got our starbucks oatmeal and lattes and hit the road. i called when we were about 20 minutes away to ask, "are there a lot of people are in line for the book signing?" the same employee from two days ago said very seriously, "yes, there are about 30 people in line currently." oh-kay. they told us we each needed to buy a book to get a wristband to get in line on the third floor. i was paying for two books when ashley showed up, so we threw another on the tab. wristbands with the letter "d" put us securely next to the art books. the barnes and noble book club members were up front, followed by the b's, c's, d's, and so on. there were no a's. it will forever remain a mystery why. as more b&n club members showed up with strollers, we got shoved back further and further in line until we were next to cooking.

none too thrilled with our place in line, i decided to take action. i went down two escalators and right to the front of the wristband line. "how many club member wristbands are left?" (they limited those to 75, initially) "there are four left," the nice wristbander told me. there were separate lines for books and wristbands, and about 10 people in the wristband line (technically ahead of me, since i just cut to the front). "i need three of those, but by the time i go pay for a membership, they'll probably be gone, right?" "i'll take them to the register for you, you can go get in line up there." perfect! since i'd already spend something like $60 on books, it was only another $15 or so for a membership at this point. a membership that would save me anywhere from 15% to 20% on books i should be buying for half the price on amazon, but a more important 15 to 20 minutes in line. oh, well. pr expenses.

i returned to ashley and max with the new wristbands in hand. we found an employee and showed them to him. he pointed to where we were to stand in line (behind the club members, in front of the b's). we stood to the side of the line, not wanting to shove our way in, but the people behind us were audibly upset about this perceived injustice. "the d's are back there! this is for b's!" he told them we had member wristbands in our hands, and the woman next to us told us to rip the d's off quickly before a riot broke out. we did as we were told, fearing for our lives. people are very protective of their right to meet kate gosselin. a woman in front of us had been there since 6:30am. good job. we got there at noon, and you'll get to meet her 30 seconds before us. another woman who arrived at 7 was back by the cooking books. you get here at 7, but decide not to spring for a membership? too much of a commitment.

the line wrapped around the entire third floor, and there was a buzz. there were e! cameras there, but i fast forwarded through e! news for a few days following, and no coverage of the event. finally, kate arrived with an entourage, and stay-at-home moms and local fans of the show cheered. we were told that we could bring a camera, but kate would not be posing for pictures. i brought my huge tourist camera, and taught ashley how to use it. the lighting was pretty bad, and i ended up with a bunch of pictures of a blurry max reading a book. we'll call it "soft focus."


we got to the front of the line about 15 minutes later, and a woman a few people up posed with kate, who leaned in and smiled. score! i needed documentation of the event for this very blog. i went up to the table, which was about 12 feet in front of the line, and i said, "hi, kate!" she furiously scribbled her name across all three books (conveniently opened to the correct page by someone with a very important job) and said, "hello, how are you?" "i'm good. i made some jewelry for you and your girls," and i pushed the kate spade bag across the table to her. "wow, thanks," she said, looking surprised. i pointed back to ashley, and said, "my friend is taking a picture of your hair for a client." she said, "it's not the first time, and it won't be the last," and kind of laughed. i almost forgot to pose, but at the last second, i looked back at ashley, leaned in and smiled a shaky smile (i'm so bad with celebrity encounters- even barely celebrities freak me out). "thank you, we love your show," i said as we left.


that is the story of how i met kate gosselin. hopefully she will take kindly to my jewelry and they will all wear it on some magazine cover. or at least to church.

i feel like this is turning into self-promotion...

which, it is, but it was supposed to be like an inside look at my life, or something. you know, beyond the jewelry. that sounds like a backstage tour. an incredibly exciting backstage tour. i promise i'll try harder!

which brings us to, a giveaway!!


the lovely australian blog, polka dot bride, agreed to do a giveaway of my jewelry for their fabulous readers. how nice of them! polka dot bride is a great wedding resource, with photo galleries of actual weddings (in blogland, i believe they're called "real weddings"), and drink recipes. they're even part of the top 100 aussie blogs. now, i read a few aussie blogs, and they are pretty great, i must say.

so, everyone out there, go enter to win! and i will make you $75 worth of fabulous jewelry if you are chosen. i think it's worth 2 minutes of your time. don't you?