Yes, it is very much a kiss of death in the small business industry to close for an entire season, especially when things starting to pick up and I have a renewed sense of creative mojo.

Well, then...where are we going?  Cambodia.

Why?  It’s important to me to take the time now to travel with my 2 teenagers to historically important places--to go back in time through history--this time, to learn about the Khmer Rouge, where Pol Pot, a despot, decided that all culture + traditions of Cambodia before his regime had to be disassembled + purged in order to create a new culture, into that which he deemed “best” for Cambodia (sound familiar?).  Within 4 years of their regime, the Khmer Rouge committed one of the largest genocide of their own citizens (approximately 2 million), and sent those deemed "enemies of the regime" or "intellectuals" to extreme forced labor camp or sentenced them to death.

While genocide is not happening in the USA (although masked ICE agents are aggressively splitting up families + inhumanely detaining + deporting people), my point is, devastating damage can be done to a country in just 4 years.  It's only been 6 months, and we have POTUS attacking our educational institutions and dictating what can + can't be taught in schools (as most of you may know, I am a big believer that universal education is the biggest investment a country can make, and history only makes sense when it's multi-dimentional--the good AND the bad--so that we can learn from our past mistakes as a country;  he wants any history that makes "America look bad" to be erased;  he is scrubbing any historical achievements of African Americans, women, and gender binary people from government websites;  he dismantled the LGBTQ Teen Suicide Helpline just because he doesn't believe they should exist (among teenage suicide, more than half affect LGBTQ youths);  and he is forcing all levels of educational institutions to end DEI Programs through threats of financial defunding (if you don't believe in DEI, that means you stand for the opposite:  a one-race, inequitable, exclusive society); and many more things that I feel are detrimental to our country.

Besides politics, general "meanness" toward each other (how we speak + act) has been normalized, and we see that on a quotidian bases, at the national level, which trickles down quickly to all levels of society:  I have been yelled at and openly discriminated due to my Asian ethnicity, more than I have ever been.  We have the National Secretary of Defense offending approximately 50% of our military (those who identify as BIPOC) when he said,"'Diversity is our strength,' is the dumbest phrase in military history."  My father, a Japanese American, who was forced with his entire family into an American Concentration Camp in the CA desert for 3.5 years, enlisted in the US Army as soon as he turned 18, and joined the US Military Intelligence as a Japanese Language Technician.  He was proud to have served in the US Army, and I was offended by Hegseth's comment.  Without diversity, we would lose almost half of our military, and with that, we would lose a lot of other skills, like language capabilities and cultural understanding.  POTUS is constantly hurling insults and name-calling those who oppose him.

I also find Executive Order 14253 offensive.  It asserts that POTUS is "revitalizing key cultural institutions and reversing the spread of divisive ideology" by:

• removing certain histories and ideologies from national parks, federal websites, etc, that are focused on DEI initiatives
• restoring statues that were "improperly removed or changed in the last five years" (ie Confederate statues that were removed from the South)
• dictating what is appropriate music, art, architecture to "Celebrate American Greatness" 

And let me point out, this Executive Order is entitled, "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," because this admin believes that diversity, equality, and inclusion of ALL American citizens is "corrosive"and a "factually baseless ideology aimed at diminishing American achievement."  I don't understand how their "erasing/deletion" of the American achievements made by American women, BIPOC Americans, and LGBTQ Americans = "restoring truth." Excuse me...whose truth?

This is all on the official White House website, and that is where I grabbed all these quotes above regarding this particular Executive Order.  What I find even more offensive, is that they posted (in print) this Executive Order at Camp Manzanar, the concentration camp that my dad was in, asking the public to turn in any wording, images, etc at the site that they think makes America look bad.

Concentration camps are bad.  Period. And it happened in the USA.

I could go on + on, and my kids keep telling me to stop doomscrolling.  Every time I hear about crazy things going on in our country and how that also affects us internationally, I double check the information because it sounds so insane, my first instinct is: "That can't be happening." And yet, here we are.

Thank you for letting me vent my frustrations.  If you are as frustrated as I am, know that there are a lot of others like you who are upset and are doing what they can, however they can, in a way that they can, to fight against this tyranny.

This is all tangential information on why I’m taking my kids to Cambodia for their international volunteer service this summer.  I intend to have them study up on Pol Pot and “Year Zero." I’ll take them to other places as well, ie a visit to my mom in Japan, as well as a return trip to Phuket, since my kids loved it there and my husband has never been. We need a mental, emotional, and physical break from the craziness + chaos we feel in our own country.

I usually don't post my politics on my work social, but I feel like it needed to be said because all this hate + meanness in this "new normal" makes me anxious + depressed.  I'll resume focusing on happy thoughts.

Halloween has always been our family's fave.  Merv and I used to go all out for Halloween costumes before we had kids and we'd always be a duo:  "Like a Virgin" era Madonna, and the lead singer of Flock of Seagulls;  Sonny and Cher, the early years.  When Dylan came along, Merv was Dr. Evil, with Dylan in the Baby Bjorn as Mini Me.  At age 2, she won the Grand Prize for Best Costume at Chelsea Market NYC's Costume Contest--I sewed her a soft, stretchy and comfy outfit made out of spandex and shoulder pads, as The Spaceman from KISS.  She won a huge basket of goodies, and my kid was HOOKED.

I'll talk more in detail about the "costume design process" in another blog;  here, I wanted to really focus on WHY I put myself through one to two weeks of sleep deprivation to handcraft outfits that my kids might wear for 24 non-consecutive hours in a YEAR.  "But Janet," you say, "That's crazy!  Why sacrifice your time, energy, and self-care for such a short-lived dopamine fix for the kids?

To explain this, I want to talk about chocolate chip cookies for just a sec.  I love chocolate chip cookies.  Sometimes, you might want to spend just a few bucks at a deli around the corner for a small packet of Keebler cookies.  It does the job cheaply to immediately satisfy a sweets craving but it's "meh" in value:  it's mass produced by machines in a factory, and prepackaged to last for months.  Would you request that for your last meal on death row?  Most likely not.  But if someone you loved, respected, and/or admired, baked cookies just for you, with you in mind, how much more special is that?  They took the time to think about what you might like, found a recipe, got the ingredients, made substitutions for you if have any dietary restrictions, and then made the effort to make each cookie by hand, just because they wanted to see joy in your heart--those are the BEST cookies!  And as you're eating these specially made cookies, don't you think about the person who made them for you--with love in your heart?!

I don't bake cookies much anymore but making costumes for my kids has the same exact effect, both for my kids and for me: sure, I could probably find a pre-made, inexpensive costume on amazon and they'd still have fun trick or treating but it's not the same when you compare a "mass produced by a machine" costume to Halloween costumes made to order, custom fit, from scratch!  For our family, it's all about stretching our imagination to its limits--what CAN we make?

Every year, I see my kids put a lot of effort into coming up with creative costume ideas that they think no one else will have, and they also come up with ideas as to how I might be able to create it.  It's the whole process that we partake in together, all year round:  from listening to them discuss characters that they like/don't like and why, all the way to doing the fittings at the end and teaching them about how different materials and bindings could make or break your costume (literally!).  It can't just "look good," but it also has to be able to move with their bodies well (form AND function!), since they wear their costumes all day at the NYComicon and then all day at school for Halloween.  Throughout the process, I get to teach my kids about the magic of creativity and the beauty of handmade things--2 life lessons that I value, especially as a parent but also as an artist.

In this way, my kids get their one-of-a-kind, specially handmade costume of their dreams (that they'll remember forever!), and I get to see the joy in their hearts.  As a kid, my grandma used to always tell us, "I'd rather hang an artwork made by my grandkids than any Picasso!"  She taught me all kinds of crafts and we always gave each other handmade gifts;  I treasure everything she made, just for me.  Her handmade gifts are priceless to me.

It's enough of a gift for me to know that I made that happen using creativity and just my own two hands--using recycled cardboard, hot glue gun, fabric, EVA foam, paint, a lot of elbow grease, and an endless supply of love--but I must admit, it never gets old when people ask my kids, "who made your costume?" and my kids proudly say, "My mom and I made it together!" The most common response we get is, "BEST MOM EVER!"

Those 2 days are golden for large retail companies to buy + sell a lot of merchandise before the year's end, but what does "Cyber Monday" look like to a one-woman, "made to order" small online craft business? It's great in theory (ie, "Everyone loves a good sale, and when it's just one day, right after a big get together like Thanksgiving, it feels even more special because you're already in the mood to be generous to your loved ones, with the promise of "one day only," giving it a sense of urgency to boot!"), but since I make things to order to make it "just so" for the wearer, in reality, waiting until the very end of November to have a "Cyber Monday Sale," just to be in sync with other retailers, doesn't allow me the time to give all my work the attention and love that I like to give it. Cyber Monday is Nov 28 this year, and since I work according to my kids' school schedule, that gives me only 8 days of cranking out holiday orders before I have to close up shop so that I can plan my vacation with the kids, pack, do my own holiday shopping, etc. I'm trying to get out of the habit of procrastinating, but that's what I'm forced to do, if I go along with Cyber Monday. 

I've often gone against the grain in many ways since I was a kid, not following the rules if it didn't make any sense to me, as long as I wasn't hurting anyone else. I still get in trouble for it; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I don't believe in entitlement for the most part, but I hold steadfast to the idea that we are all entitled to our own happiness, wherever we can find it. 

This past year has been hard for me. I lost my grandmother last October, and due to COVID protocols, my family and I couldn't get our visas in time to see her before she passed away--the visa took 3 weeks to get to me here in NYC, with an additional week for my mom and sister in Hawaii. The idea that Obachan was all by herself at a hospital while in hospice care without us, still makes me cry. And then my cousin and his wife, who had wholeheartedly agreed to be my legal parents when I was little, if something had happened to my parents, they passed away in June, two weeks of each other, which is not surprising, since they were always together. I had just told them when I saw them in January, that I'd help them clean out their garage over the summer when I got back. "Why did I wait," I regretted. And then my dad went into hospice care soon after, and I flew home with my 2 kids in tow, the day after I got the call. We got to spend a few weeks with him, and he passed away this August, a week shy of his 95th birthday. I held his hand until his heart stopped beating. Unfathomable grief. 

Years ago, I framed one of the last bday cards my grandma wrote to me because I loved what she wrote: しあわせ は自分で 作るものです。がんばって 下さい。明日はきっといいことあるよ。It translates to: "Happiness is something that you create for yourself. Please do your best. I'm sure good things will happen tomorrow." I keep it at my desk, right in front of me, at eye level. It's always right there to remind me, just like happiness can be, if only I keep my gratitude in check. 

I write this not to fish for sympathy or pity, but because it's been on my mind all year, and I've only begun to decipher what that means to me, and what that might look like. Like so many others, especially as an Asian woman, I've spent so much of my life doing what I think I "should" or "ought" to do, but the reality is that I have the privilege of choosing what I "get" to do. My grandma was fearless, focused, gutsy, and ahead of her time. My dad grew up with immigrant farmer parents, lost everything when they were sent to the concentration camp at Manzanar, and yet when he got out, he didn't let that stop him and accomplished so many things during his life. They overcame obstacles so that the next generation didn't have to suffer and endure hardships like they did. I would be doing them a disservice if I didn't take advantage of this incredible gift. I "get" to do so many things, including creating a dream job for myself. Making things by hand brings me infinite joy. 

So for the first time ever, I say "Goodbye Cyber Monday--you don't bring me joy!" I'd much rather pace myself, so why not a whole month long, 20% off everything, including new items and fundraiser items(!), to allow clients to pace themselves, too, instead of waiting until the very last moment? 

Hello Black Cyber November!

I just put the online boutique in Vacay Mode today (June 30, 2022). I'll be back in NYC + will reopen for just a week, from July 20 - 27, mostly to focus on the 51inc Sample Sale Fundraiser for Womankind, and then back in Vacay Mode from July 28 - Aug 23. 

Please follow me on Instagram (@janetjewelrynyc) and FB (@janetjewelry) for our random "MasGar" summer shenanigans! I'll also post new jewelry items that I've been working on. 

Have a wonderful summer! janet

When my parents got married in 1967, my dad was just starting his first new business venture, so my parents' wedding bands were simple 14KG bands because my mom insisted that she'd rather my dad save his money to invest in the company than to buy her a fancy ring ("You can . They had the same plain wedding bands for decades, but sometime in the 2000s(?), my dad tripped, and he badly sprained his ring finger, with the band still on it. It swelled up so much and so fast, that he went to the ER because it was getting worse every minute, and he couldn't take the ring off, which was then cutting off the circulation in his finger, making everything, worse.

The hospital told him that they could not (or would not? I can't remember that detail at this point) cut the ring off his finger, but told him that that is what he needed to do, first and foremost. So my dad went home, and being the resourceful "I have a lot of power tools in my garage" guy, decided that he could maneuver a tiny electric saw under his swollen finger and cut it off himself.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT HE WAS THINKING, AND FOR ANYONE READING THIS, DO NOT ATTEMPT THAT ON YOUR OWN! EVER!

So many things could have gone wrong at this point, but the gods were in his favor that day, and he was able to use his electric saw with just one hand, to cut his wedding band off his other hand, without hurting himself in the process. Thank goodness, he is right-handed.

In any case, his finger healed, but his wedding band had an uneven cut from the electric blade, and after the ring sat on his dresser for another decade, he had also gained some weight, making the ring too small to wear.

As many of you know, I don't do jewelry repairs unless it's one of my own designs, and I also don't usually work with gold, but I made an exception for my dad when he told me that he'd like to be able to wear his original wedding band again.

For reasons unknown, this is the only photo I have of my dad's ring repair. If you look on the left side of the photo, you'll see what looks like a pink square. It's actually pink wax. I accounted for metal shrinkage, and I handmade an "extension" of the band, an exact replica of the band (plain band with a very minimalist "diamond cut" groove that went around the center of the band. I then cast that piece in 14KYG, and soldered it seamlessly into the old band, sanded, and finished it back into a high gloss. You can't tell in this grainy photo, but even in person, you really couldn't tell that there was a "fake piece" that was made separately, and then soldered into place.

Where did I learn to do this? When I was in high school, I took silversmithing for 2 semesters, and I fell in love with it! I was in that sweltering jewelry lab by myself for hours. For my final piece, I made this cast sterling silver bracelet that my instructor told me "couldn't be done," but I was determined! I created it entirely in wax, flat, and then when I was done hand-building the scalloped design by using layers upon layers of melted wax, deposited from the tip of a dental tool over a flame (this took me several months), my instructor, Mr. Jenkins, taught me how to bend it into this cuff shape by warming it up in a cup of warm water, and then delicately bending the wax into this shape, little by little. It was so thin and brittle, that this part caused me major anxiety, but I got it done! (Again, more reasons why Mr. Jenkins originally told me that my design was a bad idea and I probably wouldn't be able to see it through to the end).

For the jewelry casting classes at Punahou, not only did we learn to do wax work, but we also made our own plaster molds so that we could cast it into precious metals ourselves. It was a two-person job to handle the old-school, manual, centrifugal casting machine. One person puts their plaster mold in place on this spinning contraption, winds it up many times, and holds on to it, while someone else gets a huge torch and melts the metal in the center. Once the metal melts to a liquid form, the "winder" lets go, and the unwinding manual machine starts to spin really, really fast, sending hot, molten metal from the center, toward the outside of the casting machine and straight into your mold.

Back to my point: so when I cast this bracelet, because parts of the wax were so brittle and thin, the very end piece didn't come out--the metal couldn't flow all the way to the very edge. It missing gap was so obvious, that I couldn't really "hide" it or sand it down (it was missing in the shape of a V, so the bracelet end looked like a forked snake's tongue), so Mr. Jenkins told me to account for some shrinkage, but to make a "fake piece" to fit exactly into that missing V spot. Once I made the wax and cast that missing piece in sterling, I soldered it into place, and I might add, for my extra effort on the piece "that couldn't be done," I ended up with an A+! I still love this piece + wear it often. I originally gave it to my mom for her birthday, but years later, she gave it back to me and told me that I should keep it and wear it myself because it was the first piece of jewelry that I ever cast.

I can tell that there's a "fake piece" there, but in the same way as my dad's ring, I don't think anyone else would notice, unless I pointed it out. In fact, for me, it's kind of cool knowing that I have the patience to do this kind of work--to be able to fix things that have significant sentimental value to someone, knowing that it actually takes more skill + patience to fix it than to make something similar from scratch. Handcrafted jewelry is an organic, sometimes imperfect process, and when an issue comes up, it is up to the designer to come up with creative solutions, and that's what I like about it. It makes a piece unique + adds character! It really IS special, and totally unlike any other. Furthermore, both silver and gold are softer metals, which means that when a piece is worn daily for decades--because it is loved--it will eventually "look" very loved, too, with imperfections + battle scars that will accumulate as it accompanies you on your adventures. And that is exciting: it is a sign of a life well spent. 

As many of you know, I spend my summers in Japan + Hawaii to see my family, which means that I shut down my business for almost 2 months, right in the middle of the year! It's a kiss of death for most small businesses to be that self-indulgent, but I do my best to maneuver around it because as much as I love my job, my kids will only be minors for a short period of time (when I get to fully be the boss of them!) and it's important for me that my kids spend time with my family in Hawaii.

So, the countdown begins. I will be putting my online store in vacation mode on SATURDAY, JULY 3, 2021 at midnight EST!

***For my HAWAII PEEPS: If you have any jewelry orders or 51inc orders you want me to bring with me to Hawaii for pickup, please place your orders ASAP with a note in the COMMENT section at Checkout that you want me to bring it with me, and if you want a refund on the S&H, OR you can also DONATE your S&H to Womankind (the non-profit I'm doing the 51inc Fundraiser for)! I have one empty suitcase going to Hawaii (which I will fill with local snacks on the way home!) for any JanetJewelry + 51inc orders!!! I will be on Oahu on 7/8/21.

JULY + AUGUST: THE ONLINE STORE WILL BE IN VACAY MODE because I can't do my work without my work shop! I'll put the entire store in vacay mode, which means you may peruse the site, but you will not be able to make any purchases. If you want to order a "one-of-a-kind" piece (they're first come, first served) while the store is in vacay mode, please email me, and I'll put a temporary hold on the item and will contact you before the store goes live upon my return.

RE-OPENING: late AUGUST? I will post more details closer to the date, but both my kids start school on 9/9/21, so I will definitely be back at work before then! My plan right now is to reopen the store by the end of August.

I recently bought a lot of Japanese craft books to inspire me, like resin making, traditional Japanese basket weaving techniques, and even macrame, so stay tuned for craftacular summer shenanigans on my social!

Thank you to all the essential workers, healthcare workers, delivery people, grocery store clerks—everyone who is out there for the rest of us, as I recognize, sheltering in place is a privilege. Everyone, please be safe, healthy, and take care of each other. From a distance, of course. This is the kanji “Ai,” meaning love. It’s a work in progress, like we are now.

I’m going to keep posting positive things I’m doing from/at home to keep my kids’ spirits up, because the more positive they feel, the better their bodies can keep their immune systems up during a pandemic like now. When I see others doing something positive, fun and unusual, it inspires me to think creatively, too. That is what I hope I can provide with my random DIYs and goofy date nite Thursdays, as we shelter in place.

But I just want to leave a note here, please know it is ok to not feel 100% positive 100% of the time. This, right now, is unprecedented for our generation, and we all have different coping mechanisms, and mine happens to be, “keep productive.” My husband’s is, “make everyone laugh.” So it looks on social like we’re having a blast and being super productive, but the honest truth is, like everyone else, some days are harder than others, and I, too, have had days when I just dig into a massive piece of cake while binge watching not-kid-friendly shows on Netflix, while hiding from my kids. My friends are starting to lose their jobs one by one; my healthcare friends are having to reuse their PPE; my dad is 93 and I worry every time my sister has to take him to the doctor’s when certain essential appts are due. It’s difficult to not go down that rabbit hole (and I’ve done that, too)—but that said, I know I’m in a lucky place compared to many. If you need help, reach out to a loved one, or call a helpline. If you’re in an abusive relationship during shelter in place, try to find a safe place and time to call a helpline for more information, or help in finding safe options that may be available to you. We may be in social distancing mode, but you are not alone.

"Womankind works with survivors of gender-based violence to rise above trauma and build a path to healing."

With your help, JanetJewelry will be raising $16,000+ for Womankind, a non-profit organization that helps survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual assault. I've designed a special piece for Womankind, and am donating 100% of the profits (in entirety!). And of that $16,000+ we will raise collectively, 87% will go DIRECTLY TO SERVICES THAT HELP SURVIVORS. Through their 3 community centers (Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan), 2 shelters, and a 24/7 crisis helpline in English, Spanish, and 18+ Asian languages, they provide award winning services to survivors and their children.

Together, we can do this—you can help to make a big difference! For more information about Womankind, the services they provide, to donate directly to their organization, or to volunteer your time and skills to this non-profit organization, check out any of these links (rollover to see links), or click here for their homepage: www.iamwomankind.org

The Idea behind the Design + Fundraiser:

I am proud to be on the Board of Directors of this non-profit organization! I’ve always admired their work and supported them from the sidelines when I could, but it was only after the past election that I felt compelled to step up and proactively help my community. When I was first approached by the Executive Director of Womankind if I’d consider doing a jewelry fundraiser (we had just rebranded from the "New York Asian Women’s Center" to “Womankind"), he asked me to think about it not just as a fundraiser, but as a public awareness campaign. What does Womankind mean? How can we define it? How can others wearing the piece define it? What would it mean to the people wearing the piece? Sure, it has to do with showing support for our cause, as well as raising funds, but it is more than that—it’s Woman+Kind, and “being kind to women” meant something significant to him as the Executive Director of this organization, and he asked if I could think about how to create a piece that combined the “woman” symbol with a heart in the middle to represent “kindness." As soon as he said it, I knew exactly what the piece would look like—how it wouldn’t hang from a bail, but it would be a strong symbol in the middle, supporting the chain (as opposed to being supported BY the chain), and this piece was created.

I made the original prototype out of wax, cast it in sterling, played with the shape, and once I was happy with the finished piece, made a mold to have 200 pieces cast in NYC, all in sterling silver. In order to be able to raise as much as possible per piece for Womankind, instead of hiring an outside company to produce the pieces, I’m donating ALL my design and production time (all pieces are made by me in my jewelry studio), as well as my production costs for this piece. For each piece sold, $80+, 100% of all profits, will be going directly to Womankind. $80+ x 200 units = $16,000+. We can do this!

The Goals of the Design/Fundraiser:

My first goal, is that this necklace will become a reminder, every single day, to "be kind to women"—to yourself, and to others. Being a woman means different things to different people, but to be genuinely mindful about how we define that for ourselves, and to hold ourselves accountable to those beliefs; to acknowledge and have an appreciation for where we’ve been as women in the past, where we are now, and what we can achieve, collectively, for a better future. It sounds daunting, but it’s also really exciting! I have a daughter and I often think about how my actions and words will affect her and her future, and I want her to be proud of who she is, no matter what anyone else tells her she “should” or “could” be, based on her gender and/or race. I also have a son, and I often think about my responsibility to raise him so that he will regard and respect women as equals. There is no shame in being a woman, being feminine, or being anything that has been "relegated" to "a woman's place," because there is also strength in being female, too--we can reclaim and redefine it for ourselves!

My other big hope for this piece, is that every single person wearing this piece takes the time (if they haven’t done so already!) to educate themselves about domestic violence, human trafficking, and/or sexual assault—on a local, national, or global level—and can use this piece as a conversation starter to help bring awareness to these issues that affect so many, so deeply, in our communities: “In the United States, an average of 20 people are physically abused by intimate partners every minute. This equates to more than 10 million abuse victims annually” (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence). Think about that. That is just one statistic about domestic violence in the USA. Many more are affected by gender based violence, and more by human trafficking.

What can you do after this?

If you still want to do more than the above, you can click here to donate more money directly to Womankind; if you are part of a large corporation and would like to talk to us about becoming a major sponsor, click here to contact us about our gala, scheduled for Nov 1, 2017, on the Intrepid(!); if you’re in NYC and are interested in volunteering your time and energy to Womankind, click here for our volunteer page. If you're not in NYC, google whatever social causes speak to your heart + your zip code, and find an organization in your community.  See where you can make a difference!  My son's karate teacher (Shihan Michelle at Karate Do Ken Wa Kan--they are also lending a hand to Womankind!) has a quote in her email signature that I've come to love:  "Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth"--Muhammad Ali.  I wholeheartedly agree.

Together, we can make a a huge impact!

Click here to go directly to the Fundraiser Jewelry Necklace page

In our current "ADHD theater" world, we fill up every "spare minute" of our day with stuff, most likely on our smartphones--with social media, games, photos sharing, texts, online shopping, "useful lifestyle apps" (like recipe, diet, or workout apps), videos, news--and then synching our mobile phones with our laptops and friends/co-workers/family via google chat/docs, Whatsapp, or Evernote, to make sure that we are "connected," anytime, anywhere, with everyone and everything.  It makes us feel efficient and productive, making us masters at multi-tasking.  We feel modern, evolved, tech savvy and totally awesome.  But really.... Are we?

I've never been a good multi-tasker, and I thought I just lacked that particular skill set, or maybe I needed "just one more magical app" to help me. Studies show time and again that we aren't meant to multi-task, and yet we put it on a pedestal--we fill up our schedule with stuff, we fill up our homes with stuff, and we fill up our to-do lists with stuff.  Somewhere, somehow, someone convinced us that "more" was "better."  But for whom?  

It's easy to point the finger at other people, so of course, I did!  I used to give the hubs grief:  "How do you function when you're doing stuff on your laptop, while listening to music on the overhead speakers, with the two football games going on in the background on the tv splitscreen?  I can't deal with all your NOISE!"  I thought I was pretty good at not multi-tasking, but when I did my MBSR homework on the first week (we had to pay attention to consciously doing only one thing at one time) I realized that I am guilty of multitasking, too!  I was in the habit of reading my morning newspaper while I ate breakfast.  I turned on the tv to catch up on my DVR when I'm cooking dinner or folding laundry. I caught up with personal emails when I drank coffee.  I realized, that I do a lot of stuff on autopilot, too.

Lately, I've been practicing mindfulness meditation, and "becoming friends" with my thoughts--noticing how much my mind wanders during my daily 15 min meditations, and practicing how to bring it back to the moment, in a non-judgemental way. I'm trying to do only one thing at a time.  It was totally hard at first to give it up!  I wanted to listen to music;  I wanted to "save time";  I wanted to do SOMETHING as I ate my meals. But after 8 weeks of practicing doing less, I saw that I was definitely noticing more!  I felt more focused and energized, I was more patient (according to my husband and kids), I had greater appreciation for what I was doing (personally and professionally), and I was slowly getting better at "choosing" what I wanted to do with intention, and learning to say "no" to the things that didn't matter.  

So...I was thinking about this mishap (below).  If you follow me on instagram, you might have seen that all my silicone molds melted and were destroyed last year, and since I stored all my molds by item categories (like "rings", "pendants," etc.), the melted silicone also destroyed all my rubber molds, too.

Don't worry--I'm not closing up shop!  

I was upset and disappointed that 200+ original molds were gone (20 years worth of work!) but I do also keep all the original prototypes in a separate box, which means, if I really wanted to make another mold, I could.  I think the "old me" would have freaked out and cried and thought about the incessant "what ifs," but now, I think, "It happened, what do I want to do here and now?  I have choices!"  

I've been ruminating on where I want to go with JanetJewelry.  After much thought, I've decided that I'd really like to focus on getting back to the silversmithing--that is what I love doing most, and what I feel differentiates my jewelry from other jewelers, so I will be doing less beadwork with semi-precious stones, pearls, and glass.  That's why most of my inventory of these items, is now is on Clearance!  I'll still work with semi-precious stones here and there, but I want to get back to doing more wax work and limited edition special items.  

In the process of streamlining and decluttering my life, I'm doing the same to the studio!  

Clearance items are first come, first served, and while supplies last! Enjoy the jewelry and the savings!!!

It's been a while since I've made new designs, I totally admit it.... Where have I been?  To be honest, it's taken me a year and a half (until now!) to get over doing emergency renovations to my NYC apartment, which doubles as my home jewelry studio!  While my family and I took a summer vacation for two months in 2015 to Japan and Hawaii, our next door neighbor had a leaky air conditioner which sloped into our space, and since our place was closed off, curtains drawn, and really humid while we were gone for the summer, we came back to 1000 sq ft of water damage--warped wooden floors, and mold that grew up to 6.5' high! 

It took two months to pack up what we could, throw away what needed to be thrown out, and donated whatever we couldn't hold on to, while I moved our family upstairs into the kitchen and living room. Yes, my kids got new trundle beds in the kitchen, and I told them to pretend it was summer camp! Just thankful we had space upstairs.  I knew my hours devoted to playing Tetris during college would someday come in handy!

The contractor came in after that to do the demolition and mold remediation, and then we waited another two months for all the supplies to get here. We decided not to chance it with wood again, and opted for "fake wood" porcelain tiles (I love my new tiles!).  Then, the day before the construction was supposed to begin, our entire building, which used to be a printing press factory built in 1905, had a water main break and we had even more water damage! The damage had spread to 1500 sq ft total.  We had to wait another month for more demolition, more decontamination (it was all the water from our building, including raw sewage!), and more materials to come in.

Once they got started on the work, it went really quickly, but it has taken us until now to unpack all our things and to put things back where they belong.  I'm just really glad it's done and the kids are no longer sleeping in my kitchen!

Thankfully, the jewelry studio is upstairs and unharmed!  

This past year was quite...something.  Sometimes it was overwhelming, sometimes I was so upset by it all (esp dealing with the insurance companies!), some days I was just so frustrated about my house being upside down (I didn't know where anything was!) because my home is my sanctuary.  But at the end of the day, I had to take a few deep breaths to remind myself that the kids are safe, our house can be repaired, and I have so many other things in life to be grateful about.  

And I'm ready to get back to work! First order of business:  we are going to clean house with a massive sale!