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Thoughts and Musings on Jewelry and Life....
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! |