If you have a story to add, please let us know...we'd be happy to hear about it!

• "Don't you dare!"  Is what one of our great customers told her husband when he joked that he was going to submit an "unsubscribe" request to take her off of our mailing list after she had emailed  him a gentle reminder for what she wanted for Valentine's Day....

  And she wasn't kidding...

• Please, be careful out there! 

We received a call from a woman frantically asking for directions to the Studio.  She and her daughter were in search of Candy Dots necklaces. 

As I said "Head up Patterson towards the Village Shopping Center..."  I heard this "$#&@! Oh, damn!  I just hit a pole"...

We love that you love the Candy Dots so much, but please let's not risk life and limb!

• At one of our recent shows a well-dressed young woman spent quite a bit of time looking at the line... After a while, she selected a pair of my Pearl Maggie Earrings.  They were perfect for her.

Interestingly, when I noticed the name on her check it was from a well-known Richmond family jeweler. 

Do you think she wears them to family events?

• On last spring's postcard mailing it said 'You're it....'  though (i hate to admit) many didn't quite get the "tag" part of it...

  Yet, this customer totally gets it.

  (phone ring)... ".Hello.. "Hi... I received an on u necklace as a gift...you know, it was in the pretty in pink, on u gift box.."  "Great, do you love it?"  "Are you kidding me... it's absolutely perfect...but there's a problem with it..."...

  "Why, what's wrong?"

  "Well, it doesn't have one of your on u tags on it...  I mean, I really need one..." 

  virgins...

• Hi, Donna.  Just wanted to say thank you for your help the other day with the
  3 in 1 necklace.  I love it and have been wearing it everyday.  I had no idea
  Bryan had ordered me a necklace when I came in that day.  We laughed and
  laughed that you sent a different one than the one he ordered.  Talk about
  knowing your customers!!

• I've got a secret. 

That's pretty much what one of our customers told her friend that she gave one of my Maggie Mae necklaces to.  The friend absolutely loved the necklace and wanted to get a little something extra for herself.  However, when she asked where she got it, our customer totally avoided  the subject.   So, the one friend bugged the other friend for nearly a month and a half...  Finally, after a long pause, she gave up and told her where she got it.  We had a new customer at the Studio the very next day!

• Part 1:  I'm not quite sure how to say this without being too bold or brash...yet it's something that I can't quite wait to tell you... 

We were very fortunate to have been asked to participate in a very slight way in quite a phenomenal charity event  here in Richmond- the Genworth Children's Advantage Classic - featuring  Andre Agassi, Stefanie, Graf, Lindsay Davenport and James Blake... 

All of the proceeds from the event flow directly to phenomenal programs that support worthy youth programs here in Richmond...which is the important part of the whole thing.

Yet with quite a bit of humility, and a whole lot of smiles, I'm happy say that we were able to present each Stefanie and Lindsay with a collection of on u jewelry...

Now, how cool is that?

• Part 2 :  One evening I was at Ukrops picking up a few things for dinner when my cell phone began to ring.  I looked to see that it was a "Private Number".  That's not quite so unusual, but when I answered the call to find that StefanieGraf was on the other end.  That was unusual! 

We had the nicest conversation.  She was truly genuine and appreciative of the items that I gave her at the Genworth Children's Advantage.  She loved the necklaces and mentioned how her children had worn them every single day since they received them 7 weeks ago.  She asked me lots of question which I hope I answered coherently... 

When I hung up the phone, one of my favorite customers was there by my side.  While I told her what had just happened - I swear we were jumping up and down screaming like little school girls!

• Voices from above.  Seems as though some of our junior crowd has received an edict from "above" (the daily intercom system from the main office).  It appears that the parochial dress code was being broken by wearing too many of our Candy Dots necklaces with a sterling silver or Swarovski crystal cross...

One, or two.  Okay.  Six, or seven...you're in trouble.

Didn't Madonna go to parochial school?

• Goodbye Girl.  To the kleptomaniac that swiped a batch of our stuff from one of our stores.  Bring it back.  Questions asked.

• "I'd like to order a couple of necklaces" she said.  I couldn't quite make out the accent, whether it was British or southern.  "How about a Maggie Mae and a Dots and a Amazonite Sweet P?."  Sure.  "Oh, I'm not done yet" she said.  "I'd also like..."  A whole bunch of necklaces later I couldn't wait to ask, "Where are you from."  "I'm from Virginia Beach, but I live in Australia now.  There's nothing like this there.  I can't wait to take these home as gifts!"  FedEx is a beautiful thing.

• This one really isn't a short story, but a wonderful note I recently received...I guess this is why I do what I do!

"I just bought a Maggie Mae and a longer necklace with a single stone.
These beautiful delicate necklaces look great together and I just wanted
to write to say that the craftsmanship is incredible and I get
compliments wherever I go."

• We've all heard about "re-gifting".  It's become a common day occurrence. Yet this is something a little bit beyond...  A wonderful young lady arrived at the Studio and asked, ever so preciously, if she could exchange the necklace she had received as a birthday gift for something a little bit different. It wasn't "quite her style", she said...  "Not a problem" I recalled saying....  We undid the original on u bow-tied ribbon box,  intact with the original wrappings.  To my surprise, something completely different was revealed...an  on u "knock-off"!!! (oh, it's become quite prevalent, I assure you...).  I was taken aback. Then, when  I told her that it wasn't one of my pieces...she was too....  I can't tell you who the giver was...  We simply trashed the copycat piece (or should I say, garbage-disposaled it)... and started over from scratch....  She left looking fab...

• I knew there was a reason why I went into the Studio on the Monday after doing three days at Daisy Days followed by another full day at Art in the Square in Williamsburg....

At about 10 that Monday morning a St. Bridget's Mom of a 3rd grader burst into the Studio to tell me that her daughter was terribly upset because she had been to a party on Saturday afternoon and that "all of those girls" were wearing "one of those necklaces" by "Mrs. Silvestri!".   "I want one too, Mom", I think is what the little girl said to her Mom...or maybe it was more like "Why don't I have one, Mom?:  It didn't take more than a minute to figure out that it was a Colored Dots Necklace with a tiny little Swarovski cross that the  little one was itching for.

Wind ahead to 3 that afternoon, I looked up to find the cutest little girl with the biggest (and I mean "biggest") smile that you could ever imagine, standing in my doorway gleaming at me...She said curtly, "Mrs. Silvestri, thank you so much for my necklace....I just love it!"  Her Mom followed, in tow, to pick out some more goodies for the little one...

I knew there was a reason I went to the Studio on Monday....

• You've spent days preparing to speak in front of esteemed colleagues and associates.  Spending an insurmountable of time getting all of your notes in order; all of your words just right.  The big day arrives...the presentation is perfect... Everything went just the way you planned.... Then you ask "May I answer any questions about the topics we just covered?"  A calm falls upon the room, then from the darkness of the auditorium a voice calls out...."Yes, Doctor, could you please tell me where did you get your necklace?".

• A long time customer rushed into the Studio waving a check saying..."I asked my company to make out my Christmas bonus check out to "On U" because I didn't want to spend a single penny of it anywhere else!".    Now that's customer loyalty!

• When it's your birthday, you pretty much know what you really want...

One day while doing a show, a shopper stopped by my booth and fell in love with my line.  Then and there, she decided that what she really wanted my jewelry  for  her birthday present.  Ironically, within a day or two, her hubby was recommended by one of his clients to buy my jewelry as  a gift for his wife's upcoming  birthday.

As the big day drew near, he came into the Studio and bought her some wonderful pieces.  I'm thrilled to say that she was really happy with her gifts, but there was something in particular that really caught her eye, so she stopped by the Studio to make a swap.

We started talking about how I started my line and I showed her some of my original hand-sewn button bracelets that I had created back in the early 90's when we lived in Pennsylvania.  She mentioned that she had an old button bracelet that she had gotten from a store in Delaware.  And that she just loved it so much that she wore it until a bunch of the buttons fell off...

Well, when she went home and found the bracelet in her stash of jewelry, she noticed an "on u, Newtown, PA" tag hand-sewn into the back of the bracelet!  She quickly brought it back to the Studio to show me...  I've got to tell you, it was like meeting up with a long, lost friend!

It's one of my original designs and likely one of my first creations... It me makes wonder if anybody else has one of my old button bracelet creations tucked in a drawer or jewelry box out there?  If you do, please let me know...I'd love to see it !!!

• We answered a call from a woman with a distinct British accent who told us that while she was on holiday in France all of her things were stolen from her hotel room... including her Princess Lola Necklace and a number of other on u necklaces and bracelets!

She felt lost without them because she loved them so much and pretty much wore them everywhere.  She even sent us a picture of herself wearing her Princess Lola so that could make her a new one as close as possible to the original...  We felt quite bad about her trauma, and we're more than happy to help her to replace them...

The funniest thing that she told us?   "I'm sure some French lady is enjoying every piece!"

• Okay.  We all try to plan our vacations around great things...whether it be sunshine, food, surf, snow, foreign destinations, or whatever.  We're happy to report that we know of this really fab family that planned their beach trip based on one of our shows...  Now how cool is that? 

  Perhaps we'll open a new category... 'Show Girls!' (LOL)!!!

• One customer's husband thanked us for saving him a bunch.  He had just bought his wife a diamond tennis bracelet for Mother's Day.  However, she told him that what she really wanted was one of our Princess Lola necklaces...! 

• A while back we made broaches. When one of our customers was out clubbing, someone stole the broach right off of her jacket.. and they left the jacket!