It was pretty much touch and go there for awhile, but I’m happy to report that I survived the kid’s long weekend. On Friday they fought a lot and I thought that if this was what I was going to be in for for the weekend I was going to be in some serious trouble. But their behaviour seemed to improve over the past few days so I was able to survive after all. I love the children dearly, but hate, hate when they have too many days off. But the vacation is over, they are back in school and I have the house to myself once again. So all is right in Kim land once again.

Unless you live under a rock, I’m sure you are all aware that this coming weekend is Easter. What that means at my house is that I have the family home for the next four days. So today is my last day of peace and quiet for a little while. So… what that means for me is that I have a pile of work that I need to get done before I have the family home for a few days.

I need to finish up the housework I started and I have a pretty big article writing job that needs to be complete as well. Since the subject matter of these articles in on teflon hose and I’m not really knowledgeable on this subject I need peace and quiet to do a lot of research. But I think I can get this all done today and then be able to enjoy the long weekend with my family.

As many of you may be aware of, I do a lot of crafts. Well one of the crafts that I do that I haven’t been able to do for a while is plastic canvas. I really don’t have any good patterns so I just haven’t made anything. Well I found a few great patterns on the Internet but not having a printer, I was unable to print them off. Until now! Last night my husband and I hooked up a new wireless printer so now I can print off as many plastic canvas patterns as I want to. So later on today I will be busy printing off patterns and getting back into my plastic canvas crafting hobby.

After 10 years of being a waitress, I think I’ve finally gotten fed up with being a waitress. This past weekend at work was extremely horrible. We had a bunch of soccer teams come in and the customers were probably the rudest customers that I’ve ever had the *pleasure* of waiting on. I was ready to tell quite a few of them off but because I need to keep the job for now I just had to take all their crap and not say a word. But I don’t think I can do that for much longer. Maybe I should check out some medical assistance programs and get myself a new profession. I really am a people person but trust me when I say this, these particular customers really did try my patience.

Normally I look forward to the weekends, but not this weekend. This weekend it looks like I’m going to have to be working on my computer all weekend and that just doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun to me. Normally I try to have all my work done before the weekend arrives so I can just take the time off and spend it with the family. But this week was seriously messed up and I didn’t get a whole lot of work done this past week. So I have to make up for it this weekend. Thankfully this doesn’t happen very often. Oh well, when the paycheck arrives I guess I’ll be happy that I worked the weekend.

Buying Wholesale Instead of Retail Diamonds

Wholesale diamonds are typically sold to diamond merchants for sale to the general public. However, you can get near to wholesale prices by shopping online versus shopping at a diamond jewelry brick-and-mortar store. The trick is to find a reputable online diamond merchant who cuts costs not by lowering the quality of the diamond, but by reducing their overhead costs. By saving money on staff, warehousing, and inventory they can pass the savings directly to the consumer – often beating prices at the regular jewelry stores.

What to Look for in an Online Merchant

Not all online diamond merchants are alike. You need to pick one that provides the best information on their diamonds, with careful grading using the 4 C’s (clarity, carat, color, and cut). You want to get a third party certification on the diamond quality that you buy to make sure that what you get is what you ordered. The diamond can be sent to some third party appraiser that will evaluate the stone before you purchase it. If you decide you like the stone, by paying you can have the stone sent to you directly. You want to avoid sites that may be pawning off artificially-created diamonds as the real thing by calling them names that confuse the public, like simulated diamond. Do not just go on price, make sure you are getting a genuine diamond and that the quality is as it was represented online.

Get an Even Better Discount

If you decide to pay cash an online merchant can give you a 2 to 3% discount on top of the already bargain basement prices. They would end up having to pay that percentage to the credit card company anyways if you used a credit card. However, many people do prefer to use their credit cards as the cards come with many consumer protections.