Behind the Scenes @ Work

[CarolinaCutie]

From when I worked in jewelry:
- In my experience, ALWAYS buy the service plan when it comes to a nice piece of jewelry. When you buy the service plan, ALWAYS follow the terms of the agreement (usually coming in and having it cleaned and checked every so often). If you do this, the store will usually pay for anything that goes wrong... which can include replacing missing stones, prong retipping, new rhodium plating, all kinds of expensive things. But if you don't buy the service plan, or if you miss your inspection dates, and your big 1 carat stone pops out of its setting... we could care less if it's over 90 days. And you will be mad when you have to replace that big sucker on your own dime.

- We sell jewelry cleaner in a box, but what we use in our store's sonic cleaner is one part Mr. Clean, one part water. Use a toothbrush to get it really clean and don't forget to go behind the setting. People who don't take their rings off much have some really funky and gross stuff back there.

-Don't put your silver in regular cleaner though... use toothpaste for that or a cleaner for silver jewelry.

And from what I do now:
- Dollar store pregnancy tests are not accurate. If you want an accurate test, you need to buy the expensive kind in the store or you need to go to the doctor's office. (that may seem like common sense to some of you, but you never know...)
- You can be still getting some form of period every month and still be pregnant. You can still be pregnant and have a negative urine test. These are things that usually run in someone's family, so if you think you might be pregnant but you're still menstruating or you are still getting negatives at home, ask your mom or other family members who've been pregnant before. Sometimes you need a blood test or an ultrasound to confirm.