Still recovering from The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend, it has been a hard week to try and get back into the swing of things. But an anglophile like me couldn’t miss out on such a historical occasion, even at thirty weeks pregnant...

Cranbrook street party with friends & family

The English weather - and South Eastern trains – might have decided not to play ball but, despite the heavy rain and never-ending train delays, Britishness prevailed and the Caradiaz team still managed to make it to London to soak up the atmosphere during some of the festivities, which then continued back home amongst barbecues and street parties.

Fab selection of patriotic cakes made by Cranbrook's 'baking queens'

Yes, exhausting as all of that partying was, Britannia certainly ruled last weekend so… bring on the London Olympics and, why not, the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in 2022!

As you know, at for Caradiaz we don’t do über-expensive, fine jewellery – my sister is actually the ‘Elizabeth Taylor’ in the family. But that doesn’t mean I cannot admire the beautiful Bulgaris, Cartiers, Chanels and Chopards of this world – who wouldn’t! So when a new book on Dior Jewellery was published last month, I made sure I put it in my Amazon shopping basket.

I am a huge fan of Victoire de Castellane, the talent behind Dior’s jewels, and this book is a beautiful 300-page compilation of some of her amazing designs. I particularly love Victoria’s oversized rings - sometimes a beautiful big ring is all you need to accessorise a specific look.

Pré Catelan Ring

Now you may be wondering how come we don’t do rings at for Caradiaz. But the fact that size does matter means that buying chunky rings online can be a really rather tricky experience. And it’s not only a question of whether the ring fits size-wise but whether it actually suits the hand that would wear it… So you’d really be better off trying it on before you buy, especially if you are treating yourself and we’re talking ‘Dior’ kind of money!

One of the common things people whinge about on Twitter is customer service – or rather the lack of it. But where there is smoke, there is fire.

Yesterday I took my cat to the vet for a periodic jab and was left speechless. Picture the scene: a reception counter with one receptionist on the phone; a second receptionist chatting casually to someone in the next room about re-arranging some files. Another phone starts to ring and, whilst I place my cat’s basket on the floor, the young lady chatting away looks my way yet decides to ignore both myself and the ringing phone.

The first receptionist – still engaged on a call – looks at me rather uncomfortably and I sense a mix of frustration and embarrassment at her colleague’s lack of action.

After a few minutes, the young receptionist finally decides to interrupt her chat and returns to the counter. The phone is still ringing but she continues to ignore it and says to me: ‘Yes, can I help you?’ to which I reply, admittedly with a condescending tone: ‘You may want to answer that phone’. But just then the phone stops ringing – who can blame the person at the other end for giving up, he or she must have lost the will to live…

From the incompetence shown by this girl, I assume she is the same person I spoke to a couple of days ago, when I rang to make the appointment and instead of a routine flee jab for my cat, she jotted down ‘annual vaccination’ on my cat’s record. So had I not checked with the vet before he put the needle in, my poor cat would have had an injection he doesn’t actually need until September – not sure what the health connotations would have been…

The near victim of a negligence

This vet practice must be run by very nice, understanding people – after all, this is the countryside – but this girl wouldn’t last two seconds at Caradiaz. With the amount of young people out there desperate to get a job, it really shouldn’t be too difficult to find someone that actually wants to work.

When I returned to the counter to pay my bill, the reception desk was unmanned, although the first receptionist came back swiftly with what was probably a very well-deserved cuff of tea – I would actually need something a lot stronger myself if I had to put up with such a useless sidekick at work.

Whilst my bill was being sorted, the phones started ringing again, at which point the young receptionist made a convenient disappearing act, despite the attempts of the first receptionist to get her to answer: "Rihanna, do you think you could answer that, please?"

But by then, Rihanna had long disappeared into a dark corridor – hopefully to never return but… I should be so lucky.

As you probably know by now if you are one of our regulars, at Caradiaz we love jewellery but not just any jewellery. We don’t do diamonds, pearls or ‘flimsy’ but are rather more interested in the unique and the unusual, the big, bold, ethnic-inspired necklaces, bracelets and earrings that not only have an individual story behind them but also make the wearer stand out of the crowd. That is what we are all about.

So when my husband, who was away on business, skyped me up from the middle of Africa last week asking whether I was interested in local hand-made beads I jumped off my chair with excitement.

The beads (and my husband!) are now on UK soil and are beautiful. From the pictures my husband took when shown around the factory, they may well be made using rudimentary tools and techniques (by our standards at least) but it’s all about tradition and passing on the skills and craftsmanship to the next generation.

A craftsman works the moulds

Mould being filled

One of the kilns where the beads are fired

Freshly made beads

Stringing the beads

The end result hits the factory's shop

And we are already working hard on the new collection that will feature these beads. Needless to say that it will be suitably African-inspired so watch this space...

Work in progress at Caradiaz

If you are a regular of the Caradiaz blog, you will know by know that I am a big fan of American fashion. I love the freshness, simple elegance and understated luxury of clothes by designers like Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Carolina Herrera, Michael Kors, Carlos Miele, Narciso Rodriguez, Tory Burch, St John, Eileen Fisher and so many others.

Unfortunately, not much of the American ‘fashion produce’ has been available online in the UK, other than through Net-à-porter, My-Wardrobe or Selfridges – but that was until now… Let me introduce you to shopbop.com.

I came across shopbop.com through my fashion bible – American Vogue – and the promise of free international delivery within three days or ordering certainly got my attention. So I clicked away and discover an Aladdin’s Cave of clothes and, more importantly, bags I have not seen online anywhere in the UK, let alone at American prices. For instance, I saw a beautiful pair of leopard print flats on the Tory Burch online shop (which unfortunately doesn’t delivery outside the USA) and when I called the London shop to see whether they had them in stock, I was shocked at the price difference – for exactly the same pair of shoes.

You may be thinking that, of course, everything coming from the US is subject to custom duties, hence the higher prices at this end. But having now placed an order with shopbop.com, I can confirm that I was not charged any custom duties on delivery – you have the choice of either paying shopbop.com an estimate, which they refund if not charged, or paying on delivery, which I chose. The fact that the parcel was marked ‘goods for personal use’ probably helped.

I did make a little mistake though and ordered the Tory Burch shoes in the wrong size. In my defence though, I placed the order around midnight and my brain wasn’t functioning. I did look at the size table to get the equivalent US shoe size but when I added the shoes to the shopping basket, I still clicked on ‘7’ (UK size) rather than 10 (US equivalent).

However, this mistake meant that I actually got to experience the whole shopping and after sales service of shopbop.com and, ladies and gentlemen, I cannot fault it. Not only did my order arrive within 3 days as promised but the returns procedure couldn’t be more straight forward. Following the instructions on the shopbop.com website, I arranged for DHL to come and collect the shoes the following day completely free of charge. The shoes arrived in the US on Friday of the same week and I received my refund confirmation the following Monday.

The rest of the items I received where just as beautiful – or even more! – than they looked on the website. I am totally in love with my Marc by Marc Jacobs oversized tote in military khaki and the Tory Burch card holder.

This was just a test order but, having passed such test with flying colours, I shall most definitely be buying from shopbop.com again - I actually have a rather big shopping bag at the ready for Santa to get take through the checkout this Christmas…