Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Holiday shipping deadlines for handmade items

Below are the US Postal Service official holiday shipping deadlines, but when shopping for handmade items please remember that there are additional considerations. Many handmade items you buy online are Made To Order or Customized and the artisan will not even begin to make your item until after the order is placed. Many are swamped with orders this time of year and will make each and every one with their own hands. If you wish to have a fully Custom item made, the artisan will have to work closely with you and may have to purchase special materials and take extra time to work out the details of how to make something they do not normally make. Because this takes so much extra time, many artisans have already stopped taking custom requests for the holidays, but you can find a few who still will.

Contrary to popular belief, the US Postal Service does not guarantee their shipping times. They only provide an estimate of the most likely delivery window. Therefore, most online merchants can only guarantee how long it will take them to get your item in the mail, but cannot guarantee how long the postal service will take to get it to you. As happens every year, expect the USPS to be running late due to weather and other considerations. Ordering early is your best guarantee to insure delivery and avoid paying for expensive shipping upgrades.

Domestic

First Class Package Service: Dec 20

Priority Mail: Dec 21

Priority Mail Express: Dec 23
International

First Class International Package Service: Dec 1

Priority Mail International: Dec 1

Priority Mail Express International: Dec 8

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Get your pearls restrung now!



It is time to start thinking about what you will wear to those Christmas parties, winter weddings and New Year celebrations.  This is the time of year when people start checking their jewelry boxes and realize their pearls broke last year and need to be restrung immediately or that the Christmas bride might want to wear grandmother's pearls and they need to be refreshed. Often, I have husbands contact me who wish to surprise their wives by having their broken strands cleaned and restrung for Christmas.

This is the time of year when I'm inundated with rush requests for pearl cleaning and restringing. This also coincides with the time of year when the postal service is bogged down and mail service is the slowest. The sooner you contact me to make arrangements the better. I will not be taking new restringing requests between Dec 10, 2016 and Jan 1, 2017 in order to insure that everything in house is returned prior to Christmas and so I can enjoy my holidays as well.

Pearl Restringing Information
Get your pearls restrung now!


It is time to start thinking about what you will wear to those Christmas parties, winter weddings and New Year celebrations.  This is the time of year when people start checking their jewelry boxes and realize their pearls broke last year and need to be restrung immediately or that the Christmas bride might want to wear grandmother's pearls and they need to be refreshed. Often, I have husbands contact me who wish to surprise their wives by having their broken strands cleaned and restrung for Christmas.

This is the time of year when I'm inundated with rush requests for pearl cleaning and restringing. This also coincides with the time of year when the postal service is bogged down and mail service is the slowest. The sooner you contact me to make arrangements the better. I will not be taking new restringing requests between Dec 10, 2016 and Jan 1, 2017 in order to insure that everything in house is returned prior to Christmas and so I can enjoy my holidays as well.

Pearl Restringing Information