Paula Montgomery’s August Newsletter

On Friday, I had to make the difficult, but necessary, decision to put my sweet, sweet Olive Marie down. She was 17. Seventeen. I’m having great difficulty typing this newsletter and seeing these photos of her at the same time. She was a wonderful dog. A companion of the highest order. It was not unusual when Chuck and I would have dinner parties for someone to come over and whisper to me, “you know, I know I shouldn’t have a favorite, but I love Olive the best.” Of the 3 dogs she was the most unassuming. She always placed herself at the bottom of the pack, low girl on the totem pole. That was her comfort zone and it took me a while (and some paid behaviorist help) to honor that. Unlike Rhubarb who would take her stuffed toys and remove the stuffing within 5 minutes, Olive would just carry her “babies” around so gently. She never chewed anything she wasn’t supposed to except rubber stamps. When she was a puppy she would sneak up to Rubber Baby workroom, grab a stamp from one of the lower shelves and “tip toe” out. We would find her under the maple tree chewing on a small whirlipig or a reclining nerd stamp. That’s it. That was the entire “bad dog” story I can relay.

She had a million nicknames. (Don’t they all?). The most recent ones were “Swiss Miss Instant Cocoa”, “Sweetness-Girl”, “Butternut Squash” or just “Squash” for short, and “Missy Pants”. Older ones were “The Big-O” (until Enzo came along Olive was giant for a Basenji), “Squishy” and “O-Puppy-Nut”. When Rhubarb was alive I called them “Hootie and the Blowfish”. Olive was Hootie. I’m too verklempt right now to remember more but, trust me, there were a million more terms of endearment for my girl.

In recent years, Olive trained me to give her a cookie (dog biscuit) every day, precisely at noon. She would be sleeping, snoring, in a quasi-coma and would wake up at 11:59 and come find me. It never failed. Heaven help me if I was at the supermarket or gone at noon. You could just see how mad she was at me upon my return. “Where were you? Noon has come and gone and I’m starving here!” At dinner time she required and “amuse bouche”…that is to say, before she would begin eating her meal, I had to give her a cookie. In the morning, she got puffed wheat “croutons” on her food or else she wouldn’t eat it. I was very well trained and, essentially a sucker for that “smirky face” (another nickname given to her by my friend, Casey).

All I can hope is that she is with Rhubarb and Chuck now. The photos below show them together on the day we brought them home. They were the best of pals and inseparable. Thank you, Olive Marie, for being a light in my life and for giving me a reason to get up each morning.

Okay, enough of that. I can’t see through my tears to type….

Here’s a little update on my garden….hey, for a change, it’s all good!

So, remember in the last newsletter I relayed how the 18 valve handles never showed up. They still haven’t. However, Paypal sided with me and refunded the money! I immediately went back to that Etsy seller and bought 18 more! This time, I made it very clear, to put them in a BOX (doh! I didn’t mention that last time she mailed 4 pounds of metal she put them in a Flat Rate ENVELOPE and was completely shocked when they didn’t make it to CO. Whatever.) and insure them. They were here 2 days later.

Well, as you can see, they are installed and I adore them! I have purchased “S” hooks and will use the valves to attach tarps to cover my garden for the ubiquitous June hailstorm! Even though I’m a month due to starting this garden over, I’ve been eating fresh tomatoes for about a week now and I can see that pretty soon I will be buried in them! Insalata Caprese has been on my dinner menu every night, too. I have been known to bring my salt-grinder outside with me to the garden and pick one giant bad boy, wipe it on my shirt and devour it a-la Scarlett O’Hara and the carrot in “Gone with the Wind”! I have 4 varieties of basil (see bed in “aerial” photo of my garden, in lower right) and will get busy with pesto production very soon.

Jewelry sales have been excellent AGAIN this month! I have more and more repeat customers and that is the best feeling ever. Thank you to those of you who have ordered. I’m quite thankful and hope I can continue to do this for a long time. It makes me very happy, that I know for sure.

I had Cameron, my webmaster, add a “Wish List” feature to my website this month! You’ll see it at the top, on the right, when you’re in the shop.

You’ll see a little genie lamp on each product page with an “+ to Wish List” link. All you need to do is click that link. The next page you will see will have a place for you to put in your initials and your phone number and any notes about the item you want (ie. “HONEY, I WANT THIS FOR MY BIRTHDAY!!!! NOT A VACUUM CLEANER. HINT HINT!”). Click the little “next” button and you will see what is in your Wish List! You can easily give your loved ones your Wish List by just telling them your code – mine is PM9702279794 for example – or they can search for it and buy for you without you even knowing about it! After all, Christmas is coming!

He also added a “search” field so if you’re looking for a certain gemstone or theme you can find what you’re looking for more easily. Say you have a friend who loves fleur de lis’ (Shanna!!!!), then you could just type that in the search field and everything I have currently for sale with a fleur de lis would come up! Or, if your birthstone is sapphire, etc.

Go try out the Wish List!

And, remember….have you been seeing these crazy little bit-mappy boxes everywhere lately? I have. I have an iPhone and downloaded an app called Scan to be able to read them. I know they have many versions out there for any smartphone. Anywho….they are called “QR Codes” which stands for Quick Response. I did a little research and…I made my very own QR code! Here it is. If you use your smartphone app to scan this little gibberish square it will take you to a secret place on my website with a very special coupon code which will change EACH MONTH! I’ve already posted it on facebook and had someone use it right away! So fun, right? Go see what the QR Code coupon is for August!

For August, in honor of the summer vacation I didn’t get to take, I offer the following necklace at 20% off!

It is a BRAND NEW OFFERING and is called “Eiffel Tower Locket Repurposed Vintage Necklace”! and it is 20% off for August or, well, until it’s sold since it’s one-of-a-kind! I just made this and listed it last week so it’s brand new to my site.

I’ve also made the monthly special include FREE U.S. SHIPPING!

I don’t know about you but I couldn’t swing a trip to Paris this summer so I made this necklace instead. It really is a stunner and with both silver and gold components you can wear it with anything!

It all started with that locket. Sigh. A souvenir of “La Tour Eiffel” this locket is in incredible condition. The clasp works perfectly and all the little photos inside are in pristine condition. I see versions of this locket all the time but rarely see them in this condition. Six little black and white photographs of Paris landmarks are accordion-folded inside this amazing little silver locket. (The back of the locket has a floral design and room for engraving, too!)

The locket hangs an incredible (INCREDIBLE), vintage, French, steel-cut and gold button. It’s exquisite and set the whole silver and gold color scheme for the entire piece. I also used smaller, silver-toned, French, steel-cut buttons, 2 Eiffel Tower components from 2 vintage, Paris souvenir bracelets on the “chain”. In between are wire-wrapped groupings of gold-filled stardust beads, vintage Swarovski crystal balls, faceted gemstone beads and more.

On the way to the clasp are 2 different vintage gold watch chains. The clasp is a fish hook that grabs a repurposed, vintage, rhinestone circle brooch. Dangling off the back is the fob for one of the souvenir bracelets, another charm from a vintage, souvenir bracelet (Eiffel Tower on one side, Arc de Triomphe on the other) and a beautiful gold-toned button with a mother of pearl top and a French steel-cut rivet in the center.

This necklace is a conversation piece and will dress up your plain white t-shirt, your little black dress or your oversized turtleneck.

The length from top of clasp to bottom of locket is approx. 14″.

This necklace is normally $400 but through the month of August it is 20% off, making it $320 – a savings of $80! You must enter the code: AOUT (French for August) when you’re checking out on my site and you will see the $80.00 deducted from your total if you have this necklace in your cart and FREE shipping, too, if it’s going to an address in the United States!

Remember, all my jewelry is one-of-a-kind. There is only one of this necklace! Go get it!

A Poem to Welcome August….”August” by: Dorothy Parker

When my eyes are weeds, And my lips are petals, spinning, Down the wind that has beginning

Where the crumpled beaches start, In a fringe of salty reeds;

When my arms are elder-bushes, And the rangy lilac pushes

Upward, upward through my heart;

Summer, do your worst! Light your tinsel moon, and call on Your performing stars to fall on Headlong through your paper sky;

Nevermore shall I be cursed By a flushed and amorous slattern, With her dusty laces’ pattern Trailing as she straggles by

Every Monday, I upload a short (about a minute) video slideshow to YouTube. It features 5 of my pieces. I also post this on Facebook and tweet it out to Twitter! Click the image of the slideshow to see the one I posted recently!

My blog -”...mostly coherent ramblings from a girl who likes pretty things. And old things. And sparkly things. And pretty, sparkly, old things. And cheese.” is up and I’m trying to post something every day or so. On Mondays (well, that’s the plan so far), I will be changing quotes from 3 of my favorite quote books. These little quotes are on the left side of my blog. Check back on Tuesdays to see the new quote.

Taxi Driver Wisdom has quotes from conversations with New York City cab drivers. Sometimes they are poignant, sometimes hysterical, sometimes philosophical.

On the rhythm of life: “The traffic – it slows, it speeds up again for no reason sometimes.”

Beauty Parlor Wisdom has quotes from conversations with stylists, barbers, manicurists, waxers, etc. Again, philosophers, all of them.

On Virility: “Good news is…woman with moustache have bigger orgasm.”

Don’ts for Wives has tips from the early 20th century that offer advise on achieving marital bliss. We’ve come a long way, Baby.

“Don’t spend half the morning in bed because there is ‘nothing to get up for’.The day is not long enough for all the things you might do if you liked.”

Well, I had all these grandiose plans to have regular weekly features on Tuesday’s, Wednesday’s and Thursday’s for my blog as a way of forcing me to blog. It’s not working for me. So, I will try to be more diligent but I won’t promise to schedule certain topics on certain days. My life is just too busy! But, here was/is the plan of sorts….

Here are some teasers from recent posts:

“Look What I Got – Treasures from the Denver Antique Show!”

On the 15th I attended an antique show in Denver and was way (WAAAAAYYYYY) too successful with my finds. For whatever reason, this show was filled with vintage jewelry and now that I’m more seasoned about pricing and, more importantly, what pieces I really love to work with, I am a bit (ha!) more discerning. Here are photos of my booty! The prize find of the day, in terms of uniqueness, NOT in terms of getting a great deal, is the French….(read more)

From Kit Room to Jewelry Studio (Part 2)

So, my new jewelry studio is “done” for now. I still have to find some stuff to hang up and hang up the stuff I do have ready. I’m in no hurry for that stuff. I know what I want to do but, for now, every dollar I make goes back into buying stuff so I can make more jewelry! It’s a vicious cycle. In my last blog post, “From Kit Club Room to Jewelry Studio (part 1)”, I was ready to lay the flooring for the first third of the room. Since both doors empty to that part I wanted something more durable and easier to clean than carpet. I choose industrial rubber tile with a raised disc pattern. It’s easy …(read more)

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Just to tease you…the 20% off product for TODAY is…I’m Like a Bird, I’ll Only Fly

Away, Necklace! It is regularly $175.00 but with the special facebook coupon it will be $140 AND FREE U.S. SHIPPING! But, because I’m very mean, you will have to go “like” me on facebook to see the coupon code for today. Remember, I will (try) to do this every single weekday!

After you “like” me, just click the link “suggest to friends” or post it on your wall and ask people to “like” me. Thank you so much for your time and I do hope you will go check out my new venture!

Paula Montgomery – On (re)Purpose

One-of-a-kind, handmade jewelry using vintage components

“Every piece comes with a story”

1331 W. Mountain Ave. Fort Collins CO 80521-2303