: : Rue St. Divine : :

As of this morning

2009-09-16T08:32:00.002-05:00

...Rue St. Divine is no more. We're shutting it down, folks; this blog will remain up so folks can reach us if they need repairs or have questions.

We still do repairs and chainmail customization. If you need assistance, please don't hesitate to leave a comment to this entry.

Sterling Silver & Real Gold

2008-09-22T10:39:00.004-05:00

Many of you have contacted us asking about our earring findings and their metallic composition. Here's the scoop - our earrings are generally made with either silver-toned or silver-plated findings. HOWEVER: we were recently able to obtain sterling silver findings and 12-carat gold findings.

UPDATE: we have added links in the product entries that will help you purchase the jewelry with sterling silver or 12-carat gold findings. The links will jump you to a new page where you can select the item you want but with the new findings. So, if you were one of the several folks who contacted us, we've listened and delivered! Happy Shopping! :D

--Rue

We are LIVE!

2008-09-17T16:34:00.001-05:00

Rue St. Divine is up and running! Go check it out! :D

http://www.ruestdivine.com

THE NEWS FINALLY

2008-09-16T20:46:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow, after 12noon, go check out http://www.ruestdivine.com - we will be up and live and running and willing! We're so excited! We've finally got everything sorted out. We look forward to hearing from peeps!

UPDATE

2008-09-03T10:39:00.003-05:00

Due to Hurricane Gustav, we've not been able to work on uploading the store. There have been serious power outages and flooding in Monroe, where we live, and we've no Internet connection at the house. We hope to have the site up and running by this afternoon, now that we have Internet again, but we'll have to wait and see.

We moved to Louisiana five years ago, in 2003, so we were here for Katrina and Rita. We didn't see much action from those hurricanes, other than the influx of evacuees into town. The Fant-Ewing Coliseum at the University of Louisiana at Monroe was used as a special needs shelter then, and it is now. During Katrina and Rita, the University itself took in almost 1,000 students so they could graduate on time. Monroe also has two other big shelters, so there were a fair amount of evacuees in town, some of whom stayed. We were in Jackson, MS, over the weekend, so I couldn't say how the evacuee numbers this time compare to those last time.

But I know this: we've seen a lot more action from Gustav. A LOT more action - power outages, flooding, gators, snakes. It's been raining since Saturday, so I understand, and it's barely let up. We've gotten almost 7 inches of rain in the last day and half, which has caused a lot of problems. Not only does a river run through Monroe, between Monroe and West Monroe (the Ouachita River), Monroe is surrounded by swamp. And the whole state is either at or below sea level! So a little rain can do a hell of a lot of damage.

Yet, we're lucky - as a state, and as individuals, we are lucky. This hurricane has not been nearly as catastrophic as Katrina and Rita were. But it's done its damage, and now we must assess.

Keep checking back - hopefully we'll be online today, at www.ruestdivine.com. You can email us at ruestdivine@yahoo.com if you have questions!

NEWS NEWS NEWS SOME MORE

2008-08-28T16:07:00.002-05:00

Due to PayPal, Internet connectivity issues, and the Labor Day weekend, Rue St. Divine will NOT be up on Friday, August 29. Look for us on Tuesday, September 2! We'll have twice as much stuff, and all the PayPal services will be ready to go! We appreciate your patience!

NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS - DELAYED!

2008-08-26T10:56:00.002-05:00

Due to unforeseen circumstances, i.e., PayPal taking longer to set us up than we thought, Rue St. Divine will NOT be up today. Look for it to be up and running on Friday, August 29. Our PayPal issues should be sorted out by then.

So you know where we are: most of the inventory is now on the site (which is not going to be published until we're live with PayPal). I slowed down putting it on when I realized that we wouldn't be able to go live until Friday. But there's still a lot of stuff on there! The site itself is ready to go, though.

We will be offering chains and cords for sale as well. We don't sell our pendants with chains or cords, but you'll be able to add one to your order, at a reasonable price (all of our materials are reasonably priced and affordable, so no surprise on the chain).

I'll be posting a picture of the most recent commission I've received. I made a shell necklace for a co-worker, and another co-worker fell in love with it, so I'm making another. I'll be posting pics of the first co-worker wearing it (we're shooting it Thursday), and pics of the necklace itself after I finish making it for the second co-worker.

We're working hard, folks, to get this thing going. We appreciate your patience.

NEWS NEWS NEWS AGAIN - UPDATE

2008-08-21T10:36:00.004-05:00

RUE ST. DIVINE WILL BE OPENING TUESDAY, AUGUST 26!

Look for it to be up and running Tuesday! We are very excited, and we hope you guys are, too! But we've had some operator failures (i.e., me underestimating my ability to upload and manage web design) and some PayPal failure (problems getting it set up). But we will prevail and have it up tomorrow!

The jewelry will be divided into three sections: the regular Rue stuff, which is the stuff I make specifically for Rue St. Divine; the Grab Bag, which is stuff I experiment with and may or may not add to the Rue section, depending on how well it does; and the Reclaimed section, which is jewelry made from vintage and antique stuff that's busted and I've re-purposed.

If you have questions before then, you can reach me at ruestdivine at ruestidivine dot com! Feel free to email me!

So....this is it...

2008-08-12T11:05:00.003-05:00

...this is the final post in Rue St. Divine that will *not* be related to the business Rue St. Divine. I have created another blog for the type of blogging I did in this journal. The new journal is This Orpheus Soul. It is open and ready for reading. The inaugural post is already up.

Those of you who read this blog: I do hope you keep reading the new blog. Nothing is going to change in the timbre of my posts - only the name and layout have changed. And I hope you will keep reading this one, too - I am going to try to keep it as interesting and relevant to the business as possible, but that doesn't mean it has to be boring (or ugly). If you have posted a link to Rue St. Divine on your page or blog, please keep it up - it'll be a great way to attract customers, and the Captain and I would deeply appreciate it.

Anyway, that's all for this post, and for this blog being deeply personal and expressive. It will now be a new creature, a new bud on a new tree, representative of following a dream.

NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS

2008-08-11T13:48:00.003-05:00

This blog will be changing soon. Very soon the Captain and I will be opening an online jewelry store named Rue St. Divine, and I plan to attach this blog to the store and post store news, trends, etc. I will soon be setting up another blogger blog to pour out my Orpheus soul, and when I get it set up, I'll post a link here. I hope the store will open this week - I just need to get a little more stock made, we need to photograph the stock, and then I'll need to plug the pics and product descriptions into the website, which is pretty much done but for that, and we'll be ready.

Nothing much else is going on, other than working to get the store up and running. I've been working and working, on work, and on the store. I've been slowed down by sinus migraines - indeed, one kept me home last week, since it was blinding and horrible. They've taught me to be more diligent about taking my Allegra. Between weeding reference books and the thunderstorms we've had lately, I need all the help I can get controlling the sinus problems.

I spent some time with one of my best friends over the weekend - Sarah. We've been best peeps...lawks, since, like, sophomore year. '94-'95. More than a decade. She's my oldest friend; we've been through a lot together, good and bad - car wrecks, cancer, Russia, Europe, boyfriends, my mom, high school, tumors, pregnancy, weddings...man, loads. Anyway, I know she's not exactly happy with her life right now, and I'm sorry for that. I hope I can be of more service to her in the coming time. I have promised to try to make her life a little...more about finding and maintaining herself, and less about being serving so many others and never taking care of herself emotionally and spiritually and intellectually. It's not that serving others is bad - but when you subvert your own needs and desires and beliefs because it maintains the peace, but it means sacrificing your self in the process, especially with very little return, you're bound to end up unhappy and resentful of your life.

*sigh* Anyway, that's all from me, for now. Soon, the new blogger will be up and running, and I'll post the link here, and this will become the blog for the store. We'll keep our fingers crossed that it'll be this week!