Today was such a great day! I got to accomplish so many things on my “to-do” list….lots of grocery shopping plus I even got these cool magnet strips which I am going to paste on my workdesk to hold my pliers. I am so excited about the fact that this little magnet strip will make my life so much simpler when designing my pieces. I’ll take a picture and post it when I’ve finally attached the magnets and it’s all in working order 
Aukai and I got to have some fun bath time when we got home, he splashed and splashed and laughed and played. He loves to splash during his ‘au ‘au and he giggles unabashedly and it brings so much joy to my heart. I love how he is amused by the slightest things in life because it is all so new to him. He is truly a joy. He was my little helper while we shopped today and I pushed him along in the shopping cart. He wouldn’t sit facing me in the little child chair (you know the one with the seat facing the driver) so I stood him up in the cart with all the other groceries and he stood at the head of the cart blabbing in baby talk, saying hi to everyone in passing. It was sooo adorable!!
So then we came home and I got to go to Juliana’s yoga class with Lori and Sabrina (yay for carpooling!) while Marie and Gracie watched Aukai. Marie’s second daughter, Quinn, is one month older than Aukai and is just learning how to walk. Maybe Aukai got some pointers from Quinn… Yoga was so relaxing and I made some very positive wishes for my future and stretched my own personal body limits. I am really enjoying the headstands we do and am starting to get creative with my inversion, by doing splits and twists with my legs in the air!
So when I came home from yoga and I checked my email…I had the most interesting anonymous email from a jewelry customer of mine. She passed along a website which was almost an exact replica of mine, with a similar name, and uncanny resemblances to my jewelry designs. I could not believe it. She told me she just wanted to inform me that someone had copied me. At first I was incredibly frustrated and angry that someone had gone through my site so meticulously and copied so many things. I can’t even begin to explain the similarities between our sites. Even the triptych on the front page was done in Adobe Flash Player, with jewelry images and island landscapes. The fonts were the same. The pictures are taken exactly the same (on green leaves), and the pieces even have names. The bio is written exactly the same as mine but with a few different words. Like when you were told not to plagiarize a paper in highschool so you changed a few words here and there. And the designs were very similar styles to mine, with maybe a pearl here instead of there. And some of the pieces are even pieces from my collection 2 years ago which aren’t posted on my current site. And here’s the kicker folks, I know this woman. We are acquaintances through a mutual friend. And she is sweet and cute and friendly to me. So what am I to do? Do I get mad? Do I get angry? Do I send her nasty emails?
No. I have to sit back and be thankful that someone has so much faith in my business that they think they can copy me and be successful at it as well. She is essentially trying to live through me and it scares me and it boggles my mind… but I just have to live with it. And I’ll continue to evolve. And be original. And keep coming up with new designs. And be faithful to my customers. And grateful to them as well for sticking by my side. So thank you everyone for supporting me in my quest to design beautiful, unique handcrafted jewelry for the ambitious, exotic woman who does have a flair for fashion and chooses to express herself because we KNOW we are all beautiful women.
Aukai and Sophi at the beach
The girls and I sang and danced as if we were little girls OMG it was so much fun!! And now I’m exhausted and must get some rest. good night folks!
I’m finally starting a blog! I’d been thinking about doing it as a new year resolution, but got a bit of a late start. Better late than never! With two full time jobs ( jewelry designer and mommy) I hardly have time to journal my thoughts anymore. And since I’m always on the puter, it only makes sense to get with the digital world (even though I’ve been kicking and screaming the whole way) and journal through blogging. Sooo I’m finally doing it! I’m a blogger! This way I won’t feel out of touch with everyone and you all can get to know my deep dark secrets… Ha, as if!
