Tackling The Mountain Of Jewelry

Before getting into the activities for the week, I wanted to give an update on my failed cookie order. The company did e-mail me back after the holiday weekend but did not offer any resolution. All they said was they would send a message to their baking department, but that they felt the baking department could not do anything to improve things. This made me mad as I felt this was a stupid answer. Of course it is not the fault of the baking department, it is the company that is charging premium prices and sending out stale cookies. Their website says that they stand behind their products which they did not do. I am planning to call my credit card company to see if there is any recourse.

By the way, two of my credit cards are with Capital One - one for business and one for personal expenses. I have had nothing but a wonderful experience with Capital One's customer service and they keep great communication with me to be sure my transactions are correct and there is no fraud involved. Both cards have cash back programs and I charge so much, especially for business that the rewards rack up quickly. I have it set up so when the reward balance reaches $100, the money automatically goes towards my current balance. Also, on a regular basis I receive an e-mail with my credit score with an explanation of why the score changed and I can look at my credit report at any time, all complimentary. I could not recommend Capital One more highly and I hope they will have my back with this dispute. As far as the cookie company goes, maybe the cookies are good if you are able to purchase them directly at their store in Pennsylvania but either way I definitely do not recommend shopping with them.

I am determined to get the garage back in order, Kuochun's car has been out on the driveway too long and I always feel better when things are in their proper place. I feel like I made real progress this past week. Instead of looking at an item and pushing it aside to deal with later, I dealt with it - even if it meant going to another room or another floor to get what I needed to get that piece taken care of. This is good advice to apply to any organizing project or to keep things organized. It is way more efficient to handle an item once than over and over again.

At the same time, I have been retagging jewelry with the new, very easy to read Brother P-Touch labels for earrings, pins and pendants and dumbbells for necklaces and bracelets. I spent time on both costume and silver jewelry and actually completed the retagging of the newer costume jewelry. I put together a case of these pieces which will be introduced at our Palatine sale next week, above is a photo. Many of these pieces including the Heidi Daus watches will be introduced to the jewelry caravan for the first time.

I also put together a new case of final clearance priced sterling jewelry which will be 75% off original prices. This case will be on display at our Des Plaines continuation sale next weekend. There was no room for the caravan at the first sale but the team reorganized, pulled out new items to sell and we ended up with some room this go-around. We are starting at 50% off on the household items Friday and will discount more as the days go on.

The garage is looking better already, I just need to put some items back in the shed and move the jewelry on tables over and there will be room for Kuochun's car. Mother has been pricing the Oak Park consignment jewelry like crazy, she is about 90% through the project. Thankfully it has been popular so far but I definitely need to allow space to store all of the consignment jewelry. I have not had this much in years!

The next step will then be to get all of the medium size cases filled, each one with a different theme. As far as new jewelry, themes will be sterling Tucson Gem Show finds from around the world, Tibet statement pieces and interesting costume jewelry. I have tons of vintage sterling estate jewelry (not from our estates) and there is enough to put two cases each of Mexican and other origins into circulation. Even though many of my vintage costume jewelry babies have left the nest this summer, I still have plenty of signed and unsigned pieces remaining to keep one case of each filled for a long time to come. Backstock will be organized so as items sell, replenishment will be easy. When this groundwork is set, it will be so much easier to keep the jewelry caravan fresh and new each week and it will be great preparation for the fall pop-up sale. Then I will be able to work on polishing and pricing the sterling jewelry I have been curating all year. It will be a happy day when this is all caught up!

Once the items I am keeping are under control, I will then be able to document the items that are going to Scottsdale. Unless I get a pod of some sort, I am sure any mover is going to want to know what I want moved so they know what size truck to send! I heard gas prices are down a bit so hopefully that will help with moving costs. The newly upholstered sectional sofa, vintage desk and headboard and 3 big bar chairs will head West along with the two IKEA glass and metal display cabinets, if the mover thinks they can safely make the trip. I will also plan to send my darling garden table and tabletop display which were both powdercoated a gunmetal color, along with the Western-style jewelry case and our two original wooden jewelry cases. All of these pieces paired with the two clothing racks I found online will make for a great setup in the garage in Scottsdale and lighten my load here as well. I am really looking forward to getting everything where it is supposed to be!

Because this is not my full-time job, things seem to go at a snail's pace sometimes. I truly appreciate all of you who have continued to follow us since we opened our first store back in 2006. Our "baby" is turning sweet 16 in October and we will pull out all the stops at our pop-up sale October 6-9. Details to follow these next three months!