Diamond Diva Online

I can't believe this!!!

I'm so excited! My good friend, Paul Chaney, who built this blog for me last year, has once again become my champion! Sir Paul read about our recent unpleasantness and asked all good blogger buddies to help out as well. Paul is the GRAND HIGH POO-BAH of the blogging world. His site is http://www.radiantmarketinggroup.com/. Pretty heady stuff for a little guy from Tupelo. Kinda like that other fellow from Tupelo, what was his name? Oh yeah, Elvis Presley, maybe you've heard of him, too.

Paul also writes for http://www.allbusiness.com/blog/WhyBlog/3964/003833.html Now, if you are in business or thinking about going into business.....this is your site. AllBusiness.com has a comprehensive library of sample business forms and agreements. Thousands of pages of small business information and advice. Compare prices and features on hundreds of thousands of business products and services. Industry background and links to hundreds of thousands of companies. You heard me...don't make me call your mama...click on his site and become enlightened.

Paul Chaney is one stop shopping for everything you need in the blog business world, including a good listener. I can't begin to share all the trials and tickles we went through putting my site together. Then of course, he went on to the World Blog Olympics and became famous while I stayed behind and burnt down the store! I don't know how I could have gotten through this without having the blog to post to. I needed a "one time a day" way to keep my clients up to date, but most of all I used it as a way to help myself. Putting the events of the day in writing helped me to keep a good perspective, which in turn, keeps happy customers. Nobody likes a gloomy Gus, but they all want "Just the facts, Ma'm".

Thanks to Paul and his blog blizz, I'm hearing from so many important people like Eric Searing at http://www.biz-story.com/ . He, too, has a site full of success stories, entrepreneur insights, software, and other small business resources. Please take the time to check it out. I mean it....check it out, NOW!

So many good times are happening. Stay tuned for details!

Patti

Scarlett O'Hara..my mentor

Two of my favorite sayings are "I shan't think about that today, I'll think about that tomorrow." and "After all....tomorrow will be another day."

You can't begin to know how comforting these have been in the last four weeks. I had to forgo my big 50th celebration that had been in the works for years. Well, at least I was able to have my cake and eat it too, even if it was being served next to a 40 yard dumpster! No one seemed to mind.

The hectic times after the fire are fading into the numbing sadness of loss. My poor building looks like "Tara" after the war sequence. It is so odd. The roof is gone, the building is stripped and naked, but the sun is still shining and life goes on around me. I must find the courage to continue making jewelry and happy things for my loyal clients to open on Christmas morning. My friends Floy and Bill Hawkins came and put up a Christmas tree in our temporary "Tara" next door. It has all red and gold ornaments on it. I understand it belonged to Floy's mom who left it up all year long. It's amazing how much calm it brings just to look at it. Next to it is the stocking tree I had ordered before the fire to hang our stockings on. The color are so vibrant against the backdrop of our yellow and red building. I call it my shocking stockings! There are other holiday decorations scattered around for fun and some for damage control to cover up holes and other ills inflicted on our counters and desks during the fire. But it just isn't the same as in Christmas Past.

I suppose everyone is entitled to sad day once in a while, but I promise, this is the only one. In the quiet reflection of the sunlight on my building, I allowed myself this moment.

After all....tomorrow is another day. I'll think about moving on, tomorrow.

Patti

Countdown to Christmas

Can you believe there are only 27 shopping days left until Christmas? It seem liked a lot last week and now....well, get those shopping shoes on! Of course you can always shop online with us 24 hours a day on EBAY.

The address is www.stores.ebay.com/Tupelo-Jewelry-and-Gifts.

If you see somehting you like just order online or call me 844-2427 and we'll hold it for you. We will have much more coming online this week now that we have the "brick and mortar" store up and running again. Ok, so it's crawling, not running, but hey...we're back!

I know you are anxious to have updates on our progress... Friday, David and the Classic Restoration crew came and took the building apart. I mean really apart. Take a look.

(Double click the photo to enlarge it.)

Look Ma...no roof! My poor little building had more damage that we realized. It burned all around the perimeter.

In case you don't recognize it, this is the front door to the showroom. I can't begin to tell you how many layers of flooring and walls we had. The building has been a restaurant and jewelry stores since the late 1950's.

It has been raining all night. (Stephen took these photos Sunday afternoon.) I'm sure it will look lovely this morning and of course, I'll keep you posted.

Come to see us!

Much love

Patti

Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day!

Tomorrow's gonna be another day! The day after Thanksgiving, that is! I hope that we'll be able to take care of all our friends coming by to say hello and pick out a special gift for their "someone special". Several folks have mentioned how nice the article in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal was. I thought so too, here it is.....remember to double click on the image to make it bigger.

Patti

WE ARE OPEN AGAIN!!!!

We are open again! Ok, so it is at about one quarter of the usual space and stuff we usually do, but we are here and in one piece! I'm sorry I haven't posted sooner, but we were working like little trojans to make the wooden horse (ok so it's a tire store!) look appealing.

Here is our sweet Leslie picking up the inventory at the end of our first full day open. Leslie is JoAnn's daughter (also Tim May's daughter). She grew up at Way-Fil and begin working part time in the 10th grade. Currently she is working on her Master's at Jackson State, but she is willing to work with us once again during Christmas to help out!

My temporary world! I have started doing appraisals, insurance replacement quotes and all my office work out of this space! I'm very grateful to have it, too. Now, if I could just stop blowing breakers with all my electronic equipment! I knew that I was back in business again when the restoration company brought me the photo of Krispy Kritter for my desk. She turned 16 (yep sixteen!) years old last Wednesday.

New look on an old building! Tires and jewelry make a great gifts for Christmas...don't you agree?

We will be happy to work with you on a ring and tire rotation anytime! Really...a FLAT out deal!!!

Please come to see us on the day after Thanksgiving for some of the hottest deals in town! We are "smoking"!!!!

Actually, we got too much inventory in the store and MUST move it to a secure location at your house....so come on down, let's WHEEL and DEAL!

Happy Thanksgiving

Patti, Lynne, JoAnn, Leslie and Alice

Thank goodness it's Friday!

As we get ready for the Thanksgiving holidays, I want to personally thank all of you for your support and loyalty over the past two weeks. You've been so kind to call or email and volunteer to help in any way and we really have appreciated it.

You've been following the progress of our temporary home and I wanted to let you know and see how well it is coming along. Here is the end of the day on Thursday as I closed up. (Double click on photos for larger images.)

The acoustic carpet made the room sound better and feel warmer this morning with the temperature in the 30's, it was most welcome! If you look back a few blogs ago, you can see this same view as chaos erupted while installing the carpet and coverings!

I walked across the room and shot this from the front door. The counters we rescued are stained, warped and have holes in them, but with some duct tape and wire, I think this will work for a few months. Unfortunately, they won't fit together like they used to because we lost several counters to heavy fire damage.

It's an odd feeling for me to see the counters like this. Even though it was in 1996 when we remodeled and installed these custom made counters, they were still new to me. Just as the hot water heater I installed in 1984. Up till then we had cold water in the building, no microwave, basic counters, no heat in the bathroom and limited space. That's why I feel like I've stepped back 20 years. I was much younger and stronger then. I have survived the widening of West Main Street (Highway 6 project) during a holiday season, the market crash of 1987, six foreign exchange students, a divorce, remarriage, two stepchildren, an assortment of employees, a devestating illness and now this fire.

I have always loved my job. Never really saw it as a job, more of a calling. I enjoy taking your ideas and memories and making something come alive for you. I loved being a secret partner in your birthday, anniversary and holiday gifts. Every Christmas morning since 1979 has been one of "did they like what we picked out?", not for my family, but our clients. Thankfully, it was rare when something didn't quite work out, but with an exchange all was well. I have so many wonderful christmas stories. I'll share a few over the next few days with you.

Much love

Patti

Gold at an all time high!

I got a notice today from www.kitco.com that gold had reached an all time high and wanted to share it with you.....

Gold price surges to 18-year high

There has been a further step up in the price of gold with the precious metal hitting its highest level in 18 years. An ounce of gold has been as high as $US487.70 on the futures market. Commodities head at Tricom Futures, Jonathan Barrett, says there has been a range of factors at work. "Basically we're seeing more talk on central bank activity - central banks looking to actually buy gold," he said. "We're also seeing production deficits. Once again the supply of metal which is needed for fabrication for jewellery for instance, we're seeing that the physical buyers are still entering the market because the don't have enough of it.  "And I guess we're also seeing more of that investment demand via concerns particularly for inflation in the US."  Traders are starting to talk about $US500 as being a target. At 8am AEDT, the yellow metal had fallen back a touch to $484.95.

When I first came to Way-Fil in 1979, gold was on the rise to an all time shocker of $800.00 in January of 1980. Since then I've watched it go up and down. I hope that it won't go to $500.00 this year as it would drive up the cost of repairs and custom work even further. If you want to sell you scrap or old gold here's a great website to visit..

http://www.garfieldrefining.com

I highly recomment these folks, they've been a great help to me for many years. I'll be sifting through the ruins of the fire to see if anything can be salvaged and smelted!

Must wait and see!!!

Patti

Danger in the Jewelry stores!

Normallly one expects the jewelry business to be a happy and fun place. Most of the time, it is. I should say, that it is the illusion we create for our normal clients. For the criminal clients, we stay prepared with training and updates from the Jewelers Sercurity Alliance website http://www.jewelerssecurity.org. If you are in law enforcement or the jewelry industry you need to check this site at least once a week. For me, it's everyday, just to stay alert. Here's a post to let you in on our daily ritual.

CUSTOMER RETURNS WITH GUN AND ACCOMPLICE

At 2:00 p.m. a well-groomed male suspect pretended to shop and then told the owner that he would be back. At 4:30 p.m. the suspect returned and asked to see a particular diamond. When the owner reached for a tweezers, the suspect put a gun to the owner’s stomach and said he was going to kill him. The suspect forced the owner into a back restroom, and the suspect was then joined by an accomplice. When a FedEx delivery employee arrived just before 5:00 p.m., he also was forced to the back room, and was tied up along with the owner. The suspects then left with a large quantity of jewelry merchandise. The suspects are described as black males. Suspect #1 is about 38-years-old, wearing black pants, a long sleeved shirt and a hat. Suspect #2 is 25-years-old, wearing black pants, a black shirt or jacket with a white stripe, a hat and white shoes. The suspects were reportedly using a grey Mercedes or Cadillac.

Bel Air, MD – November 14, 2005

Scary, isn't it. The Fed Ex employee was an innocent victim. Robbers don't care. Jewelers stay vigilant for this kind of crime and I'm sure Fed Ex employees are trained as well, you just don't want to think about it happening to you and the delivery person or customer you have become friends with over the years.

Patti

Is this Tuesday?

By 8:30am, I knew this was going to be a busy day. Classic restoration had already dropped off some work area furniture, like my bench and some equipment. JoAnn and Alice were scrubbing floors, ASI was there to install the phones, Robert and the Tupelo Flash Carpet Crew were preparing the floor and walls (I'll explain later!) for carpet. Comcast came to install the cable for tv and computers.

Cable, Carpet and Chaos! Notice the brown paneling and concrete floors. Hardly the palace a diva deserves, but one must be brave in sad times...Since we are in the tire store and this room is long, it is also loud. Stephen decided on an acoustical carpet on the walls which makes the room cozy and a lot quieter.

(This is how it looked when we "moved in". What was I thinking????)

Can even my beloved Stephen turn this long lean raceway into a jewelry store? Keeping in mind that we will only be there a few months, he chose a carpet pattern that can be dressed up for us and still look "manly" when we leave. (See it in the photo above?)

Here is the ever lovely, Lynne, doing what she does so well. Talking and assuring clients that we will return. Notice that she is working next to a stack of tires and somebody's boat! She's a real trooper!

This is JoAnn and her husband, Danny. They are making the trek back from our temporary location to the store to let in yet another adjuster!

(I have no idea how I would have survived this without Lynne, JoAnn and Alice!)

I finally found a good use for those tacky stick on the window letters I bought about fifteen years ago! Notice how nicely the red and yellow letters match Mac's building!

And one last look at the chaos of the day around 4:30 as a loud thunderstorm and tornado sirens pierce the pounding rumble of the tire store. I just love this place..really I do. I'm so grateful not to be far from my store while she's being rebuilt. I'm also very blessed to have friends and insurance. (Thanks again, Dennis Hall, my insurance agent.)

And of course...my beloved, Stephen.

Much love

Patti

Monday morning and all's well!

Good Morning!

We all worked so hard last week getting permits for this and that, ordering carpet and paint and picking out what we can actually use in the temporary location. We worked on having aa restful weekend so that we could "hit the ground running" on Monday and so we did. Here are some photos I took at the restoration center.

This is the laser welder after cleaning. It looks ok on the outside, but there is damage to it's delicate insides. See the soot on Linda's finger!

This is what remains of my work bench. It's water soaked and buckled out, but I will try to use it until we get back in our own building! After all this bench and I have been together since 1978!

My wonderful computerized engraving machine after cleaning. I can't tell how much water and smoke damage there is to the accordion top, but maybe with a LOT of work....nahhhhh.

That's all the news tonight. We are exhausted and running on sheer willpower to return to our clients. Thank you all for support and promises to "come see us" when we get open again. Even thought we will only be at half mast, it will be good to be back!

Patti