My mother's birthday is in July and she recently moved to Seattle for a new start. She also returned to her maiden name—Stacey. I had already decided to get her a piece of jewelry to commemorate her new beginning, so Saturday evening I sat myself down in front of my computer with some wine and a mission. I started on Etsy. I ended on Etsy, at Kapcity, just moments later, when I saw this bracelet. Perfect, right?
This is Kapcity's "S is for. . ." bangle bracelet. If you click on the title of this blog entry, it will take you to Kapcity's online store. Go ahead, do it right now. I dare you! But then come back and read more, please. Kapcity is Kristen. She is 25 and lives in New York City. She is a graphic designer by day. She blogs, and on that blog, her masthead depicts her with a bowl of strawberry ice cream in her lap.
I have to add this brief caveat to explain why I now know all these things about the artist behind the bracelet. There are pros and cons to mixing shopping and wine. Mostly, I think, it's a good mix. I think malls should have bars. Really. I think we'd see fewer turtlenecks and a lot more vinyl in the boardrooms and bedrooms across America. As a matter of fact, if there were bars in malls, Eddie Bauer wouldn't last the month. Wine makes me a decisive and adventurous shopper. If you ever see me in a color other than brown, blue or black, you'll know there are a couple tannins responsible.
The con is that it becomes much harder to remain cyber-savvy after even half a glass of wine. At least for me. As much as this post makes me sound like a lush, I seldom drink. When I saw that bracelet I got so excited and filled out the order form so quickly, that I couldn't remember if I'd paid, or left a note. And I couldn't tell if I was actually sending them successfully even when I did write them. The result—a couple hundred drafts of the same note in her inbox, all from Saturday night, and then a few hundred more on Sunday morning when I really couldn't remember if I'd left a note. Ironically, ALL of them said, NO RUSH. It's possible that I was sending somewhat of a mixed message. After all, reminding someone a few hundred times to ship something, whilst telling them NO RUSH, could be confusing. Anyway, she did get the note, at least one of them. I had asked her to ship it to my mom in Seattle rather than to me. I also, boldly asked her to include a quick note:
Dear Ms. S,
Hope you find something fun for the S to stand for on your Special day.
On Sunday night, I got a note back from Kristen (Just ONE—apparently she's done this sort of thing before—maybe it was beginners luck.) She was APOLOGIZING to ME for not getting back sooner—on a SUNDAY!!! She also told me she had lots of nice cards and one that would be perfect for my mom's birthday that she would include in the package. She would have gotten back sooner, she said, but she had been at the beach. The nerve. On a SUNDAY.
Really, she was great. She didn't even mention my 1500 messages that had crashed her system and cost her any number of sales.
If you need a gift, something special for someone who appreciates the unique, go see Kristen at Kapcity. I realize this sounds like an ad, and you should know that, though I now feel we are old friends, Kristen has no idea that I am writing this. The truth is, for Midwesterners, giving a gift that was made in New York City, by an artist, in her apartment, while eating ice cream, between trips to the beach, well, you can't get more chic or bohemian than that. Actually, for Midwesterners, giving a gift that is not a Target gift card is exotic.
If you like words, and letters, and design, these are perfect. As long as I'm shamelessly telling you all what to do and what to buy, why stop there? I would LOVE her 'question mark' bracelet, seen below. If you're shopping for me today, which I can only assume you all are, you can ask Kristen to ship it directly to me. She'll include a card, too! And, like I told her, NO RUSH.
Seriously, thanks Kristen. Sorry for all the notes. Happy Birthday, Mom. I was just kidding about the wine. I never drink and dial-up. That would be wreckless.
2 comments:
I don't knwo where you live but mall bars are a fine and skeezy tradidiotn in these parts. Mall bars...where to go when you're underage!
I just read scotiamade's post and did some good, hard thinking about the bars and malls concept. And then, I was like, hell yeah, we DO have that! We don't have 'bars,' but we do have liquor dispensing 'restaurants' in our malls. I'm apparantly sharp as a tack. Thanks for the nudge Scotiamade (whose Etsy shop is also awesome). Look out Edie Bauer. Miss Ive is about to go FABULOUS!!!
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