I just added Google Friend Connect, so you can sign in and add me to your list if you’re so inclined. —->
Don’t worry, you can sign in with no picture if you don’t want anyone seeing that you actually read and follow my blog. 😉
Perfect timing – tvp giveaway!
What a great coincidence. I just checked out The Vintage Pearl’s blog, and they’re having a giveaway today! You are some very lucky people that I found it, because you can enter too. 🙂 Just go to the post here: http://thevintagepearl.blogspot.com/2011/05/calligraphy-giveaway.html and follow their directions to leave a comment.
That calligraphy font would have been PERFECT for my D necklace. Drat! Oh well, if I win I could just get another one, or even better, maybe one of the dainty drops. Head on over to tvp – now!
My necklace arrived!
I ordered a necklace a few weeks ago to replace the one R gave me right after D was born. It was really cute – he actually got matching ones for me and D, so she can wear hers when she gets older. The one he gave me is a 4 leaf clover with a tiny little diamond in the middle, where the leaves of the clover are peridots, since that’s D’s birthstone. I absolutely love it, but the original chain broke months ago, and the one with which I replaced it has gotten all stretched out from daily wear and D tugging on it so that it’s now much longer than I like. Why not just get a new chain again? Because I found an awesome necklace that I’m very excited about and I have deemed as a suitable replacement. I told R I felt kind of guilty not wearing the one he got me when I first took it off, and he said I was being silly. He said it’s a good thing that I finally took it off to wear others since I have so many nicer necklaces than that one, and he liked the new one I ordered as well. Ok good; I definitely didn’t want him to think I didn’t like my original D one because it was the sweetest gesture ever from a new daddy and that little necklace will always be special to me. I’m just weird and sentimental like that.
Ok, ok, get on with it – the new necklace, please… I found it on The Vintage Pearl (button over there —->), and it is wonderful. They do amazing work, and I’ve seen their pieces showcased on other blogs and in the press. My sister-in-law actually ordered R’s mom a grandmother’s bracelet from them for Mother’s Day this year. It turned out beautifully – it has a charm with each of the grandkids’ names on it, all in different shapes, and a birthstone crystal for each. So I knew their products were high-quality. If you go to their site, I ordered a “dainty names” necklace, and then customized it to have the name stamped around the edge of the circle instead of across the middle. Et voila!
I just love it. I chose an 18″ sterling ball chain to go with it, but I think I may order a 16″ too to see which one I like better. I kind of like the shorter look and feel. But overall – it’s fantastic! D’s name looks like it was just meant to be on this perfect little charm around my neck. And I’m a big fan of the silver colors over golds. Almost all of my jewelry is white gold, so I much prefer that hue over yellow gold (this necklace is silver though, not gold).
Check out tvp – you won’t be disappointed!
I guess honesty really is the best policy
Last week I took a couple rings into a local jeweler to have them rhodium plated again, as the white gold was fading to yellow. Then I got an amazing ring for a combo anniversary/birthday present from R, so we took that in to the same jeweler to have appraised. He bought it online, so we just wanted to make sure it was genuine and he wasn’t getting ripped off with a piece of glass costume jewelry. I decided to have them appraise my wedding band while they were at it, since it was one of the rings I’d dropped off to have plated and we never did receive an appraisal from the store at which we originally bought it. So in all they had a nice little chunk of business from me – 3 rhodium platings and 2 appraisals.
When I picked them up at the end of last week they just gave me one lump sum total, which I assumed covered everything. I didn’t pay much attention in the store, because I was just more anxious to get the rings back and see if my new one was real or not. When I left, however, I started thinking that the amount they charged me was much lower than I was expecting. Like $225 lower. Hmm, did they forget something? I checked my receipt when I got home, and sure enough, it only had the 2 appraisals on it.
Now I’ll admit, usually when I get a bank error in my favor I run with it – how often do you get stuff for free? Um, never. But this one nagged at me. That was a lot of money for them to just not charge. R said maybe they threw in the platings since we were having the appraisals done too, but I said no way, that’s too much to just be gratis. By this time the jeweler was closed, so I would have to go back the next day if I was going to say something. What to do, what to do?
The following morning I almost forgot all about it. Funny how sleeping on something can really diminish the “severity”, if you will. But I still felt really guilty not fessing up about such a large error. So I went back to the jeweler that afternoon on my way to my pedicure (which was awesome, btw! complimentary mimosa and second glass of champagne has that effect on me) and told them that I didn’t think they had charged me for any of the rhodium plating for the rings I had in with them earlier in the week. The saleswoman actually remembered me and thanked me very much for my honesty. She then went into the back to discuss with her coworkers while I browsed through the cases and made a mental wish list. 🙂
When she came back out she had a new receipt with her, and my charge was another $100 (the first charge was only $100 – $50 for each of the 2 appraisals). Ok, still less than I was expecting originally, but I’ll take it this time. They knew I had 3 rings in to be plated, but this new receipt only showed a charge for one, so I chalked it up to them appreciating my honesty and giving me a break on the total amount this time around.
It’s funny, because the whole time I was debating what to do on this one in my head, I kept returning to the thought that if D were in this same scenario, what would I want her to do? Tell the truth. Then how could I possibly do anything but that? So you see my friends, the moral of the story is true – honesty is the best policy. And who knows, it may just get you out of $125 in jewelry charges. 😉
Oh, and that amazing ring mentioned above? It was real all right. Yahoo!! Here it is, and R ended up getting it for an absolute steal based on the appraised value. Please excuse my gross-looking hand. For some reason it appears to have missed the memo that I only turned 32 this week and decided to age to about 80 years old instead.
When I’m tired, personal hygiene is the first thing to go
Sounds gross, I know, but it’s true. And I don’t mean like I don’t put on deodorant or change my underwear for weeks at a time or anything like that, but when I’m really tired, simple toiletry tasks just annoy me.
Take, for example, today. I was bone tired and not feeling that great all day, so by the time I picked up D, had her first parent teacher conference (yes, in daycare! silly, but it was actually pretty cute. don’t worry, she’s never been sent to the principal’s office 😉 ), and got home after work, the last thing I really felt like doing was getting in the shower. However, I didn’t shower yesterday, so today I was due. Ever since D was born I’ve adopted a one-day-on, one-day-off showering routine. Sorry, I know some of you super cleanies are thinking, “Oh my god, she doesn’t bathe daily? That’s disgusting!” But when D was a newborn, getting a shower in every other day was a victory. And if I don’t workout and get all sweaty in a particular day, I really don’t get that dirty or stinky. And since my good heavy sweat-inducing workouts have been few and far between since that glorious day last August (i’m working on that, i promise!), I’ve just continued my every-other-day schedule. As far as I see it, why waste time and resources showering if I don’t really need to?
However, if I try to go more than a day in between showers, my hair starts to look like I’ve been working next to a deep fryer too long. I can sometimes stretch it to 2 days, but then I need to start getting creative with the hairdo so as not to look like a total greaser, and that’s the absolute most even I can stand. That usually happens when a weekend is involved, too. I try not to subject my coworkers to such atrocities.
Another one that I can get lazy about is brushing my teeth before bed. I’m really pretty good about oral care, so again, if this happens it’s usually on the weekend – we often watch movies on weekend nights, during which I have a tendency to fall asleep, so when I wake up to stumble into bed the last thing I feel like doing is waking up more to clean my teeth. It all depends on which I want less – to brush and floss, or wake up with little furry coats on my teeth. Honestly, sometimes my teeth just seem cold and get to wear the little coats. And hey, they haven’t fallen out yet.
Washing my face before bed? Another thing that starts to take on “chore” status for me sometimes. I never skip this entirely though, because my skin is oily so it needs to be cleansed in some fashion. If I haven’t worn makeup that day, I might just use a facial cleansing cloth or a cotton pad with toner instead of a full-on washing. And those also tend to be weekend days. Hmm… maybe it’s just weekends when I get hygienically lazy.
So now that I’ve revealed some more of my dirty little secrets (ha! get it? dirty? i’m hilarious), I totally won’t be offended if everyone goes running for the exits in horror. I promise, though, I’m really not that revolting – I did take a shower today, after all. 🙂
Thank you
I just read a post on another blog about someone’s personal struggles, and it made me utterly thankful for everything in my life. I mean, I’m always thankful for what I have and try to never take it for granted, but this post just struck a deep chord with me for some reason and spurred me to action.
Thank you for my health
Thank you for my family, especially the wonder that is my husband R
Thank you for my friends
Thank you for my home
Thank you for my job (no matter how many times I may curse it)
Thank you for my relative lack of indebtedness (save the mortgage on that home)
Thank you for all of you who have found and read this little blog of mine
Thank you for my happiness, which is pretty much the sum total of everything listed here
Thank you most especially for this:
Who am I thanking above? I’m not really sure. But damn, am I one lucky girl.
Why
Do you think I can read your mind?
I can’t, so it’s not fair for you to get mad at me when you get an answer you don’t like because you thought I was going to say something different because you thought I knew exactly what you wanted or how you felt but I didn’t because as I’ve told you before I can’t read your mind.
The.end.