Sparkle and Salmon {Favorites}

What do sparkle and salmon have to do with each other!??! Read on...
One thing that becomes more rare as time goes on (at least in my experience) is good customer service. Everyone (including myself a lot of times) has times where they seem to just being going through the motions and trying to do so as quickly as possible without giving their business OR the people that are doing business with them a second thought. But I have had TWO experiences this week where good customer service is making me want to go give more business to those places!

First, I got my rings cleaned. Oooooh how I love my rings. And I never take it off. You can tell because up until yesterday it was dull as dull can be, covered in the daily grime of every day life (and I'm pretty sure some sour cream when it got accidentally dunked in some one night). Since my hubby got my rings from Blue Nile online, there aren't any shops that I can take it to- and they wanted me to ship my rings (and pay for it) which would leave me ringless and sad for days. I didn't want to just go anywhere because I have heard of some shady things going on with diamond swaps at seedy places! But I decided to go to a local family owned business that my mom has been going to since about 1990. I walked in, talked to a sweet lady and told her that I needed the prongs checked and the rings cleaned. She did just that and in 5 minutes I had a beautiful sparkling new-feeling set of rings! The thing is, when I asked her how much I owed, she replied "Oh nothing!" Now, I realize it was 5 minutes and it's easy to clean. But I didn't get my ring from that place. I'd never even bought anything and she didn't know my mom had been going there. You can rest assured that I will be taking my business back to them in the future!

Pretty.shiny.sparkly.love.

Then, tonight I went to peruse Central Market (lovelovelove) and I wanted to get some fresh salmon to cook this weekend. At the seafood counter, I picked out the cheapest, best-looking salmon I saw and asked the seafood guy for help. He mentioned that I should really get the "New Zealand King Salmon" that was on sale and neeeevvveerr is...and I was like "well don't get me hooked on something I can't keep buying because it's expensive!" He proceeded to tell me that he was so sure I'd love it that he'd give me a pound but only charge me for .8 of a pound-- saving me 3$! Not only that, he proceeded to give me a simple recipe including a spice rub for the salmon. He asked me to come back and tell him if I like it, and you know what I think I will!

Beautiful weekend dinner!

My encouragement is to take the time to appreciate those who take that extra step for you and make sure to extend that grace to someone else. I know it's made me think about it and appreciate it so much!