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Thoughts and Musings on Jewelry and Life....
February 19, 2010: I acknowledge that I have not updated this page in a while and I regret that as connecting with you is a rewarding part of owning my business. I have been distracted by a number of issues in my life, but feel the creativity building and the excitement growing for the new items arriving daily. I found some gorgeous smoky quartz in October that I have yet to work with. I also found another silver house in Bali to import from- and their designs are really sparking my imagination. Each day, the silver orders from overseas arrive and I plan to spend some quality time the next few weeks designing and building a spring collection. I haven't felt this much excitement for a new collection since Autumn 2008....I really am bursting with ideas....
With todays silver delivery from Indonesia, I have been able to restock twenty items unavailable since November. Take a look if something you have wanted has been missing.
The New Jersey weather has been sunny, but the snow is still incredibly deep and this girl is ready for it to melt and the grass to green. Spring will come...I just have to learn to be patient.
A special thank you to all of you that expressed condolences for my father's passing in December. It was a rough time for us here and we thank you all for your patience and kindness.
June 5, 2009: April showers brings May flowers...but what about June downpours??? I know the birds and bees and flowers and trees need the water, but I need a little sunshine...maybe the rain has been a good thing..it has kept me indoors and focused on the process of design- playing with form and color. I am excited by some of the ideas taking shape. I hope to have these new items up for sale the week of July 4th, but I never, never, never make my deadlines. It has been an unusually busy spring. Partly because I decided to dig up a 35 foot circle of lawn to create an herb and veggie garden. It is technically more like a colonial kitchen garden. Right now, my lovely little seedlings are soaking up that rain and growing, growing, growing. Zuchini, tomatoes, peas, and beets. YUMMY!
February 11, 2009: It is a beautiful day here in ol' NJ. Finally a break to the bleak, cold winter we have had. Time to open up the windows for an hour or two and air the place out!! And like my studio, I feel the website needs some fresh air too. Later this month, we will be having a closeout sale on a number of older collections. The saving should be pretty sweet- so watch your emails. I think I will be focusing on one of kind/ small run jewelry items for the majority of 2009. This allows us to effectively use some spare parts we have had around for a year or two and lets me explore color and texture and generally have a really fun time while I make jewelry. I loooove to create one of a kinds. With the economy looming like the grim reaper in the shadows, it is nice to find a way to be creative and cost effective. I hope you like what you see in the next few weeks.
We are also adding an Etsy.com storefront where we specialize in one of kinds with a strong bohemian vibe. These items will not be duplicates to the items on this storefront. We will also be unloading some of our orphan sterling silver findings in that shop as well. Interested in checking it out? go to betulablu.etsy.com Items should be posted soon.
May the promise of spring fill you with a little warmth and sunshine. Take Care! Be well!
October 1, 2008: Time really does fly... As you probably already know, the new fall items are up on the website. I hope you like what you see!
Let's face it....no one has money to burn anymore and many of us are financially strapped living paycheck to paycheck. I spent a lot of energy securing the best pricing on my sterling silver inventory for this collection and I designed items that are affordable and current. The new leather necklaces can change the look of pendants you may already own. A number of new earrings are in the $22.00 range. And I am offering sterlng silver necklaces for under $40. I have also been offering our previous customers and newsletter subscribers our best sale to date.
The idea being that a few bucks could update your old jewelry and give you a funkadelic new outlook.
My personal favorites are the celeste necklace and the peace fringe earrings. I am wearing a celeste necklace as I write. It feels like a good luck charm to me and hey, who doesn't need a little luck? Happy Autumn!
July 18, 2008: So, I know what you are wondering...
"Why the new website?"
The story starts a year or two ago when Network Solutions purchased my shopping cart provider Monster Commerce. "Nothing will change" they assured us and I naively believed. Flash Forward to this spring, Network Solutions has decided to no longer support the version of shopping cart that my site has been using. They proposed to "move" the store to their "robust" (I love this term, but I don't really understand its application to software) shopping cart platform. Again, I was assured that nothing would change. (bet you can guess how this story ends?) After the "test" version was created for my review, it was clear that many things would change. To their credit, Network Solutions provided great customer service for my questions and occasional verbal assaults. After speaking with a friend regarding my disapointment in the situation, she suggested making the change a positive instead of a negative, so we opted to "freshen up" and slip on a new look while the upgrade progress was taking place. I hope you like what you see and would welcome feedback on how the new site interfaces. Some things we may be able to change...other items perhaps not. Either way, we would love to know your thoughts.
"Where have the Chinese take out boxes gone?"
We have changed our packaging to be more environmentally friendly.
We loved the idea of the Chinese take out box as it gave our customers something fun and different, but we have been having concern over the impact of our packaging. We can no longer justify these plastic boxes traveling from China to North Carolina and then up to us in NJ and then out into the country as orders were shipped. It seemed like a lot of oil was being wasted (in the plastic, in the shipping from China, and in the volume of space the boxes take in UPS and USPS trucks) to get a small pair of earrings to a customer. We also had nightmare visions of stacks of discarded plastic bins filling landfills across America (we should be so lucky to have so many orders as to make this vision a reality!)
We have spent close to a year looking at alternatives and finally deciding on a Blue Jewelry Box that is 100% recycled and USA made. It requires less energy to get to us, is bio-degradable and still offers an attractive and protective environment for shipping our jewelry. Some of you have already received these boxes and the feedback has been positive. The website changes were the perfect opportunity to initiate this packaging solution.
Another area where we are trying to minimize our impact is in paper use. We now use 100% recycled copy paper for all of our printing needs including invoices and return forms. This paper uses 43% less energy, 36% less greenhouse gas emissions, and 49% less water used.
We are a small company and our changes will assuredly not affect the price of oil...
Our goal is simply to provide the best service to our current customers while doing our small part to keep the planet swell for future Betula Blu customers.
On a personal note... my daughter has graduated from high school and is off to college in a few weeks. Big changes ahead for the both of us...
April 6, 2008: Yesterday I got may hands dirty in the garden for the first time this year raking out beds and pulling weeds. I can get very oblivious to all else around me as I focus on a small patch of ground. Tiny weeds were starting to come up as well as the persistent onion grass and clover. When do these seeds start to sprout? What is the wake up call as they lie under an inch or two of soil that makes them say "uh oh...I almost over slept...better get cracking on breaking this seed coat..."? What an amazing a thing a seed is...a tiny capsule full of tremendous energy. All it needs is warmth, a little dirt, a little water and POOF! it turns into a plant. And then after all that hardwork, I come by and say "oh no...not in my garden you don't".
Many pieces I designed for this spring center on greens, golds and browns, the colors of spring gardens in NJ. I think the small changes in these past few weeks in the plant world are the most inspiring. The small traces of green that start to emerge...the hardiest of bloomers appearing like brush strokes of vivid purple, yellow and white. Another inspiration was sunsets and their golden glow and that moment when day is edged out by night. My daughter is off to college this coming fall and I designed the "The Road Ahead" bracelet for her. The message of moving ahead into the world with confidence, drive and compassion corresponded to the street sign charms in a lyrical way. Lastly, I wanted to get back to my original beading style with some classic beaded chains. "Jersey Baby" and "Keani" are two of the four beaded chains offered.
I hope you like our spring offerings. We were late this year in getting these onto the website and as some of you know, we then managed to mess up the discount code. I think all has been corrected and refunds have been made. I apologize for this error and thank you for your patiencce and understanding.
I hope spring energizes you...
November 29, 2007: Wow! November is flying by. I can not believe that it is almost December. Time for me to get going on my Christmas shopping! While I will do some shopping at small gift stores, the majority of my shopping is accomplished on the internet. I can always find unique handmade crafts and art to suit my relatives and friends. To keep my credit history safe and to ensure I will have a smooth transaction, I follow these guidelines: 1.) Shop only sites that display a hacker-safe icon or another recognizable icon verifying security. 2.) If a phone number is not easily obtainable- do not buy. Why is the owner making it diffcult for anyone to reach them? What if there is a problem? 3.) During checkout, NEVER input a credit card number in a system that does not display a small locked padlock in the lower right hand corner on the credit card input page. That little padlock is the universal sign for security- no padlock showing? The site is not secure for credit transactions. Also, I never email my credit cards numbers. It is not safe to do so. These rules are my opinion and are not meant to be a guarantee of transactions that you may undertake with other parties. I hope all of your shopping is fun, affordable and easy. Enjoy the merry of the season.
November 16, 2007: I just sent out the November Customer and Newsletter Subscriber discount code and I just noticed a mistake in wording in the graphic. Ugh! I can look, look, look at the graphics and never see the mistakes until I press the "send" button. Then they pop off the page. Ah well...life is comprised of success and defeat...errors and corrections.
Halloween 2007: It is the start of the my favorite time of year... Yes, I am one of those people who love the whole Thanksgiving - Christmas hustle and bustle. While it can be stressful and lonely for many of us, it is also a time of outreach, of family, and of love. The gratitude of Thanksgiving, the grace of Christmas (and the other religious Holidays of the Season), and the introspection of the New Year are a powerful sequence that unite us as a family and as a citizen of the world. Good stuff!
I was shopping the other day and was apalled at the early Christmas displays and items in the larger retail stores. As a customer, I was irratated; but as a business woman, I could understand the stores desire to show their customers their wares early before other competition. For the reality is that even Betula Blu is working on Christmas matters (sale ideas, sale timing, gift packaging, shipping concerns, inventory, etc.) as early as August. The early preparation always pays off on the busy days of late November and early December when there is not enough time before the UPS pickup of the day.
But today is Halloween. Little children everywhere are getting giddy anticipating there candy haul. Here is wishing you a little of that euphoric glee.
September 30, 2007: It is a beautiful fall Sunday and I am finishing up a few last details in regard to the web fall items (including updating this page). What a relief to be done with the fall item upload! I finally have all the fall items catalogued, photographed and up on the website. I feel we have offered our best new group to date with items and pricing for every budget. I strived to provide style variation and bold colors. I hope you feel I suceeded!
Fall is all about introspection and change. Maybe it is caused by having the kids off to school... maybe it is the shorter days....Whatever the catalyst, it is always useful to reassess goals. It is the perfect time for us to take a good look in the mirror and see where we are on our journey to who we wish to be. Make adjustments as necessary. Hope for success. Change, whether desired or not, is a fact of life and our greatest challenge is balancing our core with our ever changing realationships to the world.
May balance and harmony be in abundance this autumn. Enjoy!
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E-mail Newsletter
& Discounts
Customer Feedback
Hi Brenda- I just got my order and I love everything! You're packaging and personal note are such a great touch- i will definitely spread the word about your jewlery...-thank you-
Kris S., Wisconsin
Just wanted you to know that I recieved my order today. Everything was beautiful and well worth the wait. I bought the Jazz necklace to use as a lanyard for my work badge and keys; its length and the weight of the silver made it the perfect choice for this purpose. Once again, I appreciate extra effort you made in straightening out the problem with my earlier order. You truely provide superior customer service!
Leslie B., Washington
YEAH1 I am so EXCITED!!! What beuatiful work to chose from.
Jamie G., Massachusetts
Just wanted to let you know how much my daughter loved her three bracelets- Crimson, Spice, and Tangled Up in Blue.
Fran S., California
Just wanted to let you know that my jewelry arrived yesterday and I love it!!! I have enjoyed all of my jewelry that I've gotten from you and have shared your website with several people who have commented on my jewelry. Thanks again and I'm sure I'll be ordering again soon!
Cheryl M., Virginia
The Water Bracelet and Azure Fez earrings arrived today. Very fast service. I love your jewelry, every piece I've purchased is a work of wearable art and good quality. I've recieved so many compliments on the Wind, Earth and Sky necklace. The best came from my husband who never notices anything! Cheers,
Rosemary A., North Carolina
Thanks Brenda - the anklet is fantastic - I love it!
Melissa T., New Jersey
OMG! Just received my order and I'm lovin it! After six years, I lost my white gold anklet and have searched 100s of sites looking for a replacement. Something different. Boy did I find the right place.
Amy D., Georgia
Just received and as usual the pieces are beautiful. Thanks so much and cannot wait to see new collection.
Susan C., New Jersey
I just received the pendant I ordered and was blown away by how fast it came, how beautifully packaged it was, and how exquisite the piece is. I am so glad that I found you by chance on the internet. Thank you.
Karen R., Florida
...have purchased before and I absolutely love the quality of your work. Keep those new designs coming!
Valerie C., Virginia
Wanted to let you know that the necklace and bracelet are beautiful- and fit great!!! Thanks for reducing the bracelet size.
Sue H., Colorado
I LOVE my earrings. Thank you.
Shira G., New York
Just note to thank you for your product, your quality and your service! My wife loved the necklace…just like she’s loved everything else you’ve made for her! Thanks again! You make shopping for my wife exceptionally easy!
John G., New Jersey
I just have to tell you that so far, I have purchased 2 necklaces, a bracelet, and one pair of earrings from your site and my girlfriend has absolutely loved each item. With customer service like this and a great selection, I will be sure to spread the word about your jewelry line and continue shopping at your site myself.
Rob C., Florida
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