napkins and towels and monograms

I've been on a bit of a kick lately with monograms... Even before these monogrammed napkins, 

I ordered these monogrammed napkins!

And these towels, both with a raised monogram...

My sister-in-law has a similar raised monogram in blue...

And I've ordered even more... (another post coming for sure!)

Went crazy with monograms for Hillary's new apartment...

So here's a funny story... NOT. 

This summer, for my birthday, I used gift cards for a much needed set of new towels and sheets, both with monograms. 

I got online to use my Neiman Marcus gift cards and ordered beautiful sheets with our monogram and beautiful towels with our monogram... After the napkin research and ordering mentioned above, I was well-equipped for monogram ordering... one would think. 

Except when the packages arrived, I opened the sheets first - loved! Then came the towels - loved. Except the monogram said JMC instead of JVC... a bit of a problem. Obviously I didn't order towels with a last name initial of M... except I did. I would swear on a stack of bibles a million times that I didn't, but there they were with the receipt that printed out directly from my order online. 

Thanks to this disastrous mistake, I can tell you the following with great confidence:

• Crying on the phone for two days to Neiman Marcus about a monogram mistake does not alter the situation in any way.

• No matter how hard you try to imagine that an M looks a lot like a V, an M doesn't look like a V.

I strive to be a problem solver in situations like these... I looked in my contacts to find friends with the initials JMC. (I don't have any..) I called a local monogram shop to see if they could rip out the existing monogram and then re-monogram the correct letters. (No, they don't do that..) 

Then a miracle happened. A friend at the gym (thank you JJ) suggested I try a different monogram shop in town. A wonderful monogram shop, Austin's Embroidery. They could not have been nicer or more accommodating on the phone. They could not have been nicer or more accommodating in person. I love and appreciate Austin's Embroidery more than I can express. If you need something monogrammed, go to Austin's! If you need a gift, go to Austin's! If you order the wrong monogram, for heaven's sake, go to Austin's Embroidery! New towels with wrong monogram ripped out and new monogram...

Nightmare over!