unique la

this saturday, my mom and i went to unique la, a neat show at the california mart downtown with a bunch of crafty local designers. we saw stacey winters, who makes (and photographs, cause she's a photographer!) the following stuff:

and her bluebird print is the cover art for a new book!

and kelly robinson, who is a friend of a friend, and had this neat booth setup:

she also has a cupcake and event planning business, where she does amazing stuff like this:

so much talent! we bought a few things for each other's stockings, and i could have spent thousands pretty easily. we had a lot of fun, and maybe next year i'll have a booth of my own!

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!

I'm feeling pink

Paper Source, the fun company where I work, is introducing new colors this year (woo hoo!). Currently, we offer about 30 solid colors, including two pinks and four purples. A single new color introduction carries along with it about 10,000 pounds of paper. PS uses every scrap of paper they print, which means the edges get turned into business cards and tiny envelopes. This also means that they have to be pretty darn sure a color will be popular with the masses before they go printing a bunch. Up first- fuchsia (I really thought it was fuschia):

What a lovely color choice. People seem to be surprised about my affinity for pink, but I really do love it. Now, I wouldn't paint my room this above color, but i definitely have some jewelry storage boxes in the hue. I would, however, very gladly take this room:

The Eames rocking chair isn't absolutely necessary for me at this time, but i just love how warm and cozy the mixed colors and patterns feel. This is actually the living room of Nicole, from Making it Lovely. She even included a cradle, creating a sweet space for the whole family.


Anyway, upon seeing these pictures last night at 1am, I immediately wanted to re-do my entire living room. I once tried to paint a tiny room in our apartment (that at one point was going to house Max's captain's bed) pink, and the boys revolted. They could care less what else I do, just no pink walls! This coming from the boys who wear pink ties and painted-on jeans. When all was said and done and blue, Max said, "yeah, pink would've looked better."

And last, ranunculas, because, who doesn't love those?