Why I love Dealing with Small Businesses

Don't you just love small heart centred personal businesses?

I had a wee splurge a couple of months ago on some new bead rollers from the States but sadly my package just never arrived.

I emailed them and the next thing I know they have resent the items to me.  Isn't that fantastic?!  I'm not sure I would get the same level of service from a lot of the larger companies I deal with!

The thing is that this is a small business, so the loss of the original package probably hurt them more than it would a larger company too.

So I have a huge thank you to express to Donna Felkner of www.cgbeads.com - what a generous spirit she has.

I was so excited to finally receive my tools that I almost had palpitations when I was opening the package.  Now to get them dirty...

Of course I'll refuse delivery of the original package if it ever arrives so she gets them back.

But don't you wonder where they ended up?  Is there a huge building full of undelivered packages somewhere in the world?

This Week 14th July 2012

Pohara Beach in July!

Some weeks have their challenges, and others seem to sail through fairly unscathed.  This has been a relatively unscathed week - I've been toiling at my bench and finalized some pieces I'm rather proud of and have also had some lovely time to play and sort out my somewhat chaotic life!

 

1.  I had a day at home this week and moved my home office from a draughty corridor to a sunny spot in a window.  Why didn't I do this years ago?  It's so nice to "go" to my office rather than pass it every time I go to my bedroom, and it's just a so much nicer space all round.

2.  I always walk on the beach in the very early morning with a group of friends.  We rip up that beach like terriers and I'm puffing like a train by the time we get home.  My dear friend Tracey and I went for the other sort of walk during the beautiful sunny afternoon hours - it was truly  gorgeous!  There were little children playing (it's school holidays here), but it was so calm and peaceful - a real lift and a gift mid-week.

3.  It seems to have been a week for my old Dad.  He turned 86 last Sunday and we took him out for grown-ups afternoon tea (that means red wine and antipasto platter)  at Jellyfish Cafe in Mapua.  It was another of those glorious sunny winter's days...

4.  I had an oxygen bottle issue this week - my old regulators which have done 9 years of solid service - mostly outdoors - finally coughed and spluttered and needed a trip to the repairers. Now my Dad was an engineer and taught welding in his later years at Polytech and had accumulated an impressive and precious collection of antique welding equipment.  We've had a lot of it stored at our place and when the emergency struck (I WAS mid creative flow...) the Toy Boy rummaged around and found this lovely old regulator for me to use...

It works a treat and is actually much nicer to use than any other I have tried!  Gives and lovely clean, even flow - some of them pulse, some choke...My old one was pretty nice, but this old sweetie, though she doesn't look glamorous, certainly does a lovely job!

Do you know by now that I LOVE old things? I would generally rather re-use most things than buy new, so this totally reenforces all I think about old things and quality!

5.  Speaking of old things, in my clean up on my day at home, I found some old URBIS Design magazines from about 10 years ago, when I was studying interior design.  And, you know, good design is always good design!  Some of the technology advertising was a hoot - cutting edge cellphones with clumsy plug in cameras, mega expensive CD players, and some of it was still pretty sexist, surprisingly.  I'm still flicking through them and found these "medals" (brooches?) which were quite inspiring...

6.  And finally, one of my friends posted this picture on Facebook this morning - it's just so right on so many levels!

Winter tropical escape on a plate

So how was your week?  Did you stop to think about the good stuff?

 

The website sale continues - simply by using the code BUYBEADS in the box at the checkout you received 20% discount on anything on the site.  Sale ends 31st July.

Autumn Cleanup

There's something about domestic chores - they make me feel really settled sometimes.  When I'm in the mood, that is!  A friend of mind suggested that I post some pictures of the tools of my craft on Pinterest, so I played around with that thought for a while...  The trouble was, my bench was in such a shockingly messy state that I couldn't photograph any single thing with it like that!

Before

 So, reluctantly, it was time for a clean up.

I started by taking all the short ends of glass that need to be used up (did I tell you I never waste glass?) and sorting them out...there are all sorts of "treasures" in here from silvered ivory stringers, twisties, encased canes...

Then I took all the longer lengths and laid them out in another place...  There are THAT MANY??  REALLY?  I suppose I should sort these and use them up - sometimes I threaten myself with not allowing me to take a new rod till all of the old ones are used up..

.  

YEAH RIGHT!

Then I had all this clear space so I laid out the tools that were also in that same spot...

So, here we have them - this is what I use most of the time, though there are a couple in there that I hardly ever use, and there's a set of brass picks that aren't in this shot that I use all the time, too.

So then it was time for a cup of tea and a quick bead or two before I headed home.

and after....

I have to say that once I relaxed into it I quite enjoyed the process and now I feel quite super charged and ready to make another mess ;).

I need to find a new container for my hot tools, though...somehow the plastic box doesn't quite cut it.

Perhaps I should make a regular practice of taking photos of my work areas so I am forced to tidy up.

OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW!!!