Still No Power & Customer Service Lesson

Day 5. Still no power. We are growing restless! Slowly power is being restored, but they are still saying it could be 14 days for some people. I will say that I am getting more sleep this week as when it’s dark in the house, you might as well go to bed. It’s nice to go to work just to have light, a/c and email and internet access.

We just heard there are some generators in stock at Lowe’s and my husband is in route to get one. Hopefully they will still be there when he arrives! I am crossing my fingers. The borrowed generator we have only holds about a gallon of gas and runs out in about 2 hours. Of course it’s Murphy’s Law that if we do purchase a generator then the power will come back on! I heard there was a utility truck in the neighborhood. First one we’ve seen since Sunday. I just dropped off 30 lbs of laundry at the laundromat. They weigh it to give you your price. For $23 they will wash the 30 lbs of dirty clothes, dry them and fold them for me, plus they are using their water, electricity and detergent. That seems like it’s a pretty good deal, whether you have power or not!

Switching gears for a moment, I had two good examples of customer service in the same day today. First one was at the laundromat. I had been in there maybe 3 years ago and dropped off a comforter to be washed. I recall the conversation because the lady working had a young daughter that liked art and we talked about that. I never expected her to remember me years later. She asked my name today and when I told her my last name she quickly looked up and said “You’ve been here before, and I know how to spell your name.” She remembered my last name as being German. Impressive. I told her I remembered her daughter, because back then I had planned to drop off some art supplies to encourage her to follow her creativity. I didn’t do it then, but now wish I had.

So in my 2nd occurrence today, I went to lunch at Famous Dave’s (BBQ). I had not been there in awhile and the waiter had waited on me at least 6 months ago, if not longer. I sat down, he pointed his finger at me and said “iced tea.” Yep. He remembered that or just got lucky, I thought. I had a notebook with me and a magazine today. He returned with my drink and said that someday he hoped he’d see me come in and not be studying for school. I told him I finally got my degree in April and my school days were over. And now I recall that I was taking a tough class when I was talking with him last, so I think it was almost a year ago when I was taking economics or something like that.

So the moral of the story is, remember your customers. Take mental notes. Remember their face, their name or something about them. It will pay off someday down the road. I was impressed that these two remembered me!

In the dark, literally

If you don’t hear from me for awhile it’s because we have no power and no phone service. There was a huge wind storm (remants of Hurricane Ike) in the Louisville area on Sunday with 75 mph winds. (Actually it was IN, KY and Ohio) Power lines are down and on Sunday there were 275,000 people in the Louisville area without power. I was in line at Walmart when the power went off. They are saying it could be up to two weeks before everyone has power again. Schools have been closed as over half of them do not have power. Traffic lights are out and it's been crazy on the streets with people not stopping, horns blowing, etc.

Sunday was okay because it was the first day without power and it was the weekend. It was daylight out and I managed to get a lot of paperwork done and filed away things that have been piling up. That day seemed productive. Yesterday I worked late. When I got home from work it was already dark in the house. There was nothing to do but go to bed. We did play cards with a flashlight on the kitchen table. As one coworker pointed out, this is a good time to bond with your family as there are no distractions like the internet, t.v., xbox, etc.

This is a rather humbling experience. It makes me realize how much we depend on power. Simple things like having ice in your soft drink or the electric garage door opener we take for granted. You can't find a bag of ice anywhere in town and generators are sold out. Right now we have a borrowed generator that will run for about 3 hours before running out of gas. It’s not practical to run it at night as someone could steal it. (I’ve heard reports of this happening). Plus at $4.15 a gallon it’s pretty expensive. As luck would have it, our freezer was packed with food. I have moved a lot of the frozen dinners to work, as we do have power here. And we threw out quite a bit of stuff we just can’t keep cold like ice cream, popsicles, etc. It takes some creativity to figure out how to feed the family with only a gas grill and trying not to open the refrigerator or freezer. Luckily we have a side burner so I can cook something outside. I do have access to an oven at work. So I think I will bake some things here at work and take them home, like frozen lasagna. Trying to get creative so we don’t have to eat fast food every night!

We are fortunate that our water heater is gas, so we do have hot water. I am counting my blessings about that. Taking a hot shower is our only luxury at this time. Our clothes are wrinkled and my hair is wet when I come to work, but at least we can take a hot shower!

We are trying to save the koi in our pond. Without the filter flowing, they will be deprived of oxygen and they will die. (Another benefit of having the generator.) We stopped feeding them to cut down on the ammonia that will form in the pond from waste. And we put fresh water in the pond to give them more oxygen. Right now we just have the pond filter running and the refrigerator, just a few hours at a time.

For those of you that have power, count your blessings!! Hopefully we’ll be back up and running soon. In the meantime, I need to find a place to do laundry!

Stretching Myself Creatively

This was another recent project for a friend of mine. She needed a birthday gift for her neighbor who had a really nice new ring with a shell like finish to it. My friend wanted to have something designed to compliment that ring. I sent her some shell bead images to see what might work. She selected a pink shell from Artbeads that was described as "freeform." (i.e. no two pieces are the same shape or size)

This seemed like it could be a challenge as I am used to beads being pretty uniform. The shell beads were lovely but needed to be assembled like a puzzle. And what would I put with them? The photo below shows some of my ideas which I again asked people which they liked. And like before with the bronze and ivory pearl bracelets, I always got a different answer from each person I asked.



The sample on the top row had roundish ivory fresh water pearls, the center piece has flat purple fresh water pearls and the bottom piece uses stick pearls, one of my favorite beads ever.

My friend selected the version with the stick pearls and here is the finished piece. The light pink color looks so pretty when held up to your wrist. I sprinkled some sand out of the sand dollar for the last image!

Happy Saturday - Bingo, We Have a Winner

There was a bead show in town today. I usually travel to the show in Cincinnati once a year and have not been to the Louisville show, as there are fewer vendors. I had a busy schedule today, so I alloted myself an hour thinking I'd be in and out. Wrong. Two hours and 15 minutes later, I was standing in line for one last purchase and realized I didn't have time to wait. I returned those items to their respective bins and had to leave for my next stop, a nursing home.

I had to visit my grandmother and get there before bingo started at 2:30. Bingo is very much antipated each weekend and grandma doesn't like to miss it! We had a nice visit and I showed her all the goodies I bought at the bead show. She loved the agate pendants, the black cat beads, the amethyst "sticks" and the dichroic glass pendant I found. I was surprised she went for the cat beads as she doesn't like cats. I told her they would be cute for Halloween so I am making those into earrings for her.

I went to the activity center with her where everyone was assembling for bingo. She showed off the beads to everyone at her bingo table and called others over to see. She is my #1 fan, so proud of me for my creativity! Everyone commented that I must get it from my grandma as she is very creative too. The activity director came over to see and mentioned a little show that they set up once a year during Nursing Home Appreciation Week. Local vendors come in and set up booths for the visitors, staff and residents of the nursing home. She told me there is no cost, which seemed very generous. I gave her my card and told her I would be interested and that I would also have a door prize or two to give away that day.

Here's what I am thinking of doing. I want to offer different tier pricing. Instead of taking my earrings that are $20, I want to offer a line that is affordable for the residents, say in the $10 - $15 range. They don't have the date set yet (it's next year) but if it's close to a holiday, like Easter, I can make holiday themed items. To me it's not about making money for this event, it's seeing the smiles on their faces. Jewelry makes women smile, no matter what age they are! I have entertained the notion of teaching them to bead, but I am afraid it would be difficult with most of the beads that I have (too small to see, pick up etc.)

Even though I have signed up for three holiday shows in October, November and December, I am rather excited about spending the day with my grandmother and her friends and giving something back to the place that takes care of her. This visit made for a very happy Saturday.

And I am also contemplating a return visit to the bead show tomorrow!

It's Good to Have Choices

I love creating jewelry for people, especially when there is a special occasion or a special person to celebrate.

My friend recently needed a bridal shower gift for an out of town friend. She found a design she liked online and sent me the picture. It had bronze and ivory round pearls which I did not have on hand, but she said the shape was not important. So we improvised with beautiful Swarovski asymetrical pearls, Swarovski crystal and freshwater pearls. I used bronze, powdered almond and white pearls for the three versions. I used Colorado topaz, golden shadow and clear crystals. I made three different versions, because everyone likes having choices, right? I then took a quick survey asking people which they preferred. And I learned something interesting in the process. Even though the design and style of the bracelets were very similar, everyone had a different selection as their favorite!


This shows the three ideas before any were finished.


This is the bracelet that my friend selected with powdered almond pearls and golden shadow crystals. (this was option B)



This bronze and topaz bracelet will be listed at my esty shop later this week. (this was option A)



And last but not least, this was option C with the white and powdered almond pearls and the clear crystals. I will also list this at etsy soon.

So, do you have a favorite? :)

Earringpalooza

Last night we watched Pan's Labyrinth. I bought the movie when it came out on DVD and have not had the opportunity to watch it. My husband is not a big fan of subtitled movies but agreed to watch. It was rather violent at times but I liked the fairy tale story. I am sure next time, my husband gets to pick the movie.

Before the movie, I set aside some time last night and created some earrings as I needed a birthday present, and besides that, I just needed to make something!

Here are a few things I created...it was a rather productive evening!

blue dichroic glass

pink candy striped furnace glass


purple crazy lace agate

peridot Swarovski crystal

sterling silver fleur de lis

mother of pearl and golden shadow crystals

blue lampwork (a pierced version this time)

What I Am Reading

I love to read! The problem is finding (MAKING) the time to do so. I have way too many magazines stacked around the house and it stresses me out thinking of all that is there to be read. Right now I am 3 days behind on reading the daily paper and have a hard time throwing it out before I've read it. But I always catch up eventually.

During our Gatlinburg vacation in the spring I tried to started to read The Kite Runner and I also have the follow up book, A Thousand Splendid Suns. I didn't get too far with the Kite Runner. The movie has already been made based on the book, and it's on video. And I still have not finished the book. I tried again when we went to AZ. I have read and re-read the first 2 chapters so many times I am not sure when I will go back to it.

So I was reading a women's local newspaper and I saw that there was a new book called Peony in Love by Lisa See. One of my favorite books of all time called Snow Flower and the Secret Fan was written by Lisa See, so I had to check out Peony in Love from the library. This book is set in 17th Century China. It tells the story of a lovesick 16 year old girl being forced into an arranged marriage with someone she has never seen. She gets caught up in reliving a story from a tragic opera, ends up starving herself and just before her wedding day, dies from a broken heart. This happens in the beginning of the book which surprised me. The character was well developed and central to the book, then dies. What is next, I wondered? Well, I have not finished the book yet, but the rest of the story is about her ghost/spirit being unable to find peace as certain rituals for her funeral and afterlife were not followed properly. For years as a "hungry ghost" she watches over the man she loves and then manipulates the girl he marries many years later.

I've always been fascinated with stories of women in China's culture, from the geishas and concubines, to the ritual of feet binding, embroidery work, etc. In this particular book, women are not allowed to be seen by men before marriage, are not encouraged to read or learn, are ashamed if they give birth to a girl, etc. It's all so different and fascinating to read about. I also really enjoyed Memoirs of a Geisha, so I am seeing a theme here!

I plan to finish the book this evening. It's one that you want to race through the book to finish, then you are sad because it's over. If you are looking for a good, memorable, haunting read, check out either of these two books mentioned from Lisa See. And let me know what you think!