A Day in the Life at Alx&Co.

Being a fine jewelry designer sounds like a dream job and in many ways, it really is. We get to work with clients on their most meaningful treasures, we exercise our creative brains every day, and we create beautiful pieces that bring complete joy to our clients. I realize that what we do is pretty rare, so I thought I would share with you a typical day in the life of being a small business owner and jewelry designer, here in Old Town…

6:30am: We wake up bright and early and get our seven year old son out of bed to prepare for school. We like to give ourselves plenty of time for breakfast and prepping for the day (it's amazing how distracted a seven year old can get when trying to accomplish the simplest of tasks!) Tim and Nolan leave about an hour later to walk to school with our perfect dog, Bill. We are extraordinarily lucky to live so near to school!

8:30am: After getting ready for the day, Tim and I walk to Alx&Co. We like to arrive early, before our time, so that we can get projects prepped, respond to emails, price out projects, and just generally get to work. Mornings are precious.

9:30am: Our team begins to arrive and we start delegating projects. We set up the showroom, vacuum, and prepare for the client appointments we have scheduled for the day. Once 10am hits, we start seeing clients.

10:30am: I meet with a client and her husband about a design we completed to explain some of the nuances and dimensions of the prospective piece. We talk through the differences between the three versions we sent, double-check the heirloom sapphires and diamonds we will be repurposing for the design, and she decides to move forward with one of the iterations and secures payment to get the ring into production. She is excited to see the completed piece - the original ring that we are redesigning belonged to her mother in law, and she and her husband are looking forward to paying tribute to her through this ring. The entire consultation takes about 1.5 hours.

12:00pm: While I was meeting with my client, Antra and Tim each met with their own clients for resizing and design appointments and to coordinate a pick-up of a completed project. I check in with them to see if they need anything, and then I spend the next hour pricing out custom projects, sending emails to clients, and preparing appraisals for our designs.

1:00pm: I meet with another client who is beginning the search for an engagement ring. We talk through their design goals, budget, and how our sourcing and design process works. We try on our Collection rings and I take notes on what she likes and wants to see in her custom ring. By the end of the appointment, I have a solid understanding of what she would like in her engagement ring design and he feels confident in moving forward with the sourcing and design process. He wants to keep an element of surprise to the proposal and ring, so she will not participate in the rest of the design process. We take a deposit to begin the sourcing and design and set up our diamond consultation appointment for the following week, at which he will select his center diamond. The entire consultation takes about 2 hours.

3:00pm: I use the half an hour I have here to input my notes from my meetings with my clients, check with Tim on a pending design he is working on, and squeeze in a few bites of lunch while standing up. Tim hands me a few projects for me to QA before calling them completed, and I set those aside for after my scheduled pick-up appointment.

3:30pm: I meet with one of my favorite repeat clients so that she can pick up another completed custom design project. She loves the completed earrings (and they are stunning) and we chat for a while about upcoming trips. Truly, one of the best parts of my job is seeing people's reactions to our finished work - it's always so rewarding!

4:00pm: I have about an hour and a half before my next appointment, so I use this time to catch up on administrative work, work on more appraisals, and do my QA review. I send back a couple of projects to the workshop that haven't met my standards and prepare the others to be picked up by the client. I plan childcare for our son for the next month and respond to an email from his teacher. Right as I'm finishing that, my next client arrives.

5:30pm: I take my last appointment of the day, this time with a client who would like to redesign a family ring into a wedding band. We will do a custom contoured design to perfectly fit against her engagement ring. I take my design notes and am relieved to hear that we have plenty of time before the March wedding. Perfectly contoured rings usually take some tweaking in the design and testing a resin mold for fit, so it's always helpful to have extra time for production. Well-made, well-designed pieces take time!

6:30pm: I wrap up with my clients by taking their deposit and add my notes to our design queue for Tim. By now, Tim has left to fetch Nolan from school and our workshop team has gone home, so Antra and I take down the showroom and chat about the day. She catches me up with her client meetings - another design appointment, a few pick-ups - and then we head home.

7:30pm: I get home in time to give my son a smooch goodnight and have a few minutes for leftover dinner from when he and Tim ate earlier. In an ideal world, I get to read to him before bed for about a half an hour. This is my favorite part of the day.

8:30pm: I spend the next two hours working, as does Tim. I put together our marketing plan, edit photos for our website, and pay invoices while keeping an eye on our finances. I run the business side of our shop while Tim works on more custom designs. It's a long day.

10:30pm: I wish I could say I get to bed earlier than this but it's not usually possible. I read for about a half an hour and try to turn off my mind. I am not a great sleeper so I keep a strict regimen of no phone in the bed, an eye mask, a humidifier, and a white noise fan. It works well... sometimes. Other, more anxious nights, I take a Tylenol PM :)

Every small business owner will tell you that the work never ends, and it truly doesn't. Tim and I work very long days because we care deeply about what we do, and because we have to – we're busy! Add to this the demands (and bliss) of parenting, and it's pretty exhausting. On this day, Tim took most of the parenting duties, and on other days I leave earlier to pick up our son and make dinner. We make it work, and we're lucky to have this lifestyle. Our appointment-only model allows us to complete the work of running a business, doing our own designs, and running a workshop. If you're curious to see our work in action, schedule an appointment today! We would love to meet you.

**All photos of rings are Alx&Co. designed and created**

RELATED: Street Style: Meet Tim Shaheen; Quiet Luxury: A Trend I Can Get Behind