Just some photos from our trip to the alpaca farm. The herd had just been sheared, but the woman at the store could not sell any, she did not know the prices.
Gawd…that tells you what kind of week I have been having. Alpacas..not llamas. At least I got the camelid family.
I made a purchase from someone who has a web store and advertises on multiple fiber lists on a regular basis. It was a big Super Bowl Sunday sale and I splurged. The purchase was over $150 and I paid with American Express via PayPal. Well, here it is almost two months later, and I have gotten is a lot of excuses (after I initiated contact with the seller first) and no merchandise. I am so frustrated.
First she said she was sick, then she said she was busy, then she said a major portion of what I paid for was on backorder, then she told me that she mailed it and it was returned because I supplied a bad or incomplete address. Which is hard to believe, because I never have trouble with my mail and I am a long time verified PayPal user, plus I emailed her my address AGAIN when she mentioned it. I don’t have my merchandise and I am getting more and more angry about it. I want my stuff or a full refund. Plain and simple. I sent her an email that said just that, but there has been no response.
I just emailed her again to tell her if she did not respond to me soon I would be forced to file a complaint with PayPal, American Express and the list moderator. I have never even left negative feedback on ebay…this is so crazy. I have never had such a bad experience. I mean this is so far beyond the stinky, nasty fleece with the cigarette butts in it.
I just don’t know what to do next. I am soooooooo frustrated.
Addendum:
The seller finally contact me and says it is ALL MY FAULT. She wants me to pay for shipping…even though she has not contacted me or done anything …and she had the unmitigated gall to write this:
“Yes I intend to fill your order as soon as you send the money to have it reshipped. Failure on your part to provide a correct address on your part does NOT constitute an emergency on my part.”
I could just vomit.
Okay, it is ready to mail to the coordinator ahead of schedule…and here I thought I needed an extension. I can only lace up two sides, so the instructor can look inside and at the back of my work. So one of the tassels is attached with a safety pin and so is the thread for completing the lacing.
I did not like the work I did in watercolor class last night. So I did a small watercolor of a paint brush that I liked much better. It is my largest “wash” brush. I only have two more weeks of class and I have only just begun to understand how watercolor moves across the paper. We did learn about using salt and alcohol for special effects in class. I also mixed some colors that I really liked, but over all, I hated my main painting.
Next, I have to work on an autograph quilt block. After that, I can start another linen ATC! Well, I might have to work on the ATC on the road, since it is a more portable project than the Crazy Quilt block.
Tomorrow I head down the Gulf Coast for work…to train at one of the hospitals down there. I am sort of counting down the days, but I have three separate trips to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, plus retraining at the State Department of Health and the Office of Insurance before I go. It sure is a lot to pack into just a few weeks.
Oh….I just got an email from my friend and former coworker, Amy. She gave birth to twin boys! They were several weeks premature, but are over two pounds and look well developed for their size. She swears they are not Katrina babies. 
I finished my Casalguidi doodle cloth and finished it as an ATC. I did have to roll over another row of hemstitching to make it fit into a trading card sleeve, but it worked out just fine. So it went from this:
To this:
I also finished all of the surface embroidery on my Casalguidi and Lavender Group Correspondence Course, and even finished all of the hemstitching on the back of the sachet. Today I will finish the hemstitching on the front side. I should be able to post a photo soon.
The Spring Issue of CQMagOnline is posted! Now, I can get back to stitching. It was a lot of work, but it really was worth it. It is always a labor of love. I get a little nuts sometimes, because it seems like so much work for so little reward. I think it will be better when I don’t have a regular day job, so I don’t have to give up so many nights and weekends to get it ready for publication.
Ben dropped me off at Lisa’s after lunch, then we went by Joy’s (our local needlework shop) where I spent more money than I should have buying a new set of Miniature Punch Needles. Now, I am not sure why I needed another set, because I have three different needlepunches…including some that are adjustable. It is a sickness, the projects are just so cute. The biggest challenge to using them is holding them the right way. I just love needlepunch projects, some of them are just so wonderful looking. I will have to do some needlepunch for a couple of my Fiber Artist Trading Cards and share pictures here. I did write an article that appears on the RibbonSmyth website, as well as my own.
Then we went by Hobby Lobby. I bought several purse clasps, just because they were on clearance. I don’t have any particular projects planned, I just could not pass on the bargain. I really went there to get artist’s canvas for my upcoming oil painting class, because it was on sale. I also picked up some more brushes. I have to keep my watercolor and oil brushes separate. Like I needed “another” hobby for which I needed to buy supplies.
I helped Lisa pick out the correct linen for the Casalguidi project, since Hobby Lobby has all of their counted work fabrics on sale for 50% off. Most of their supply was wiped out by the big sale. I did a little of the damage, but there must be a lot of stitchers in town that I don’t know about. They really did have some wonderful sales going on this week and it showed. The place was packed and even the manager was working a cash register. I saw my friend Johnnie Glen ahead of me in line and gave her my spare coupon.
I spent most of the afternoon stitching with Lisa. I got all the surface embroidery on my Casalguidi ATC done, but I have not done the hemstitching yet. I got the flower petals and bars across the Casalguidi stitch on my actual project. I will definitely be finished long before the revised deadline. I am very happy with my work so far, well, okay I could have done a little better on my detached buttonhole. It could be neater.
All in all, it was a lovely day, despite getting another upset stomach.
I missed a week of Watercolor Class, but I was back there today. I did two paintings. I was really just feeling my way around, but I am learning by doing. Obviously the theme for the day was florals! There is an irony that I did draw a very similar vase when I took the drawing class and never finished it.
As for the counted work, I am completely finished with Lesson 2 and headed on to lesson 3 on the Casalguidi and Lavender GCC!
I spent the day at the Jim Buck Ross Ag Museum with the Chimneyville Weavers and Spinners Guild. Since lots of people had their wheels out, I left mine in the back seat of my car and decided to work on my Casalguidi project until I ran out of perle cotton. I has almost gotten back to the place where I was Friday before I found a counting mistake and had to frog my most of my work. Lisa worked on Step One of the Crewel Master Craftsman program. Karin spun some of her fabulous dyed roving. It was so fun to watch her roving turn into such beautiful yarn!
After I put away my Casalguidi I decided to move on to something else. I had a pound of washed New Zealand Romney with me, so I combed it out to get it ready to spin. It is such beautiful wool that it was worth the damage I did to the knuckle of my left index finger. I sat up in a giant rocker the whole day. I looked a little like a Lily Tomlin sketch.
When I took Lisa home, we stopped by Joy’s needlework shop, where I picked up another ball of cotton and skein of floss. I went back to the Ag Museum, settled back into the giant rocker to stitch, and noticed yet another counting mistake! I had to frog back much of the work I had done that morning. I whined and moaned, but it was just one of those things. I really have trouble with counted work, I always have. There is no margin for error and it is easy to get off track with those tiny threads in 32 count linen.
Lisa decided that counted work is my Kryptonite. I think she is right. I just always seem to have more trouble with counting than with surface work. I am too compulsive to leave a mistake and mistakes are just so obvious in counted work.
I went back up the hospital to sit with Lisa this morning and I was able to take her home! She had to send her husband off the doctor, because he has been sick as a dog this while time. Of course that was the time they decided it was okay for her to leave. So I got to take her home and spend some time with her and the doggies. She says she feels much better than she has in a long time, so the surgery must have been a big success. Even her blood pressure is down without any medication. This is wonderful news!
I am working on my Group Correspondence Course Casalguidi and Lavender and using 32 count linen. It has been a challenge to say the least. I would have been better advised to do it on the 28 count. I even stopped by my local needlework shop to pick up some 28 ct linen in a slightly different color. Several people are asking for an extension now, so maybe I will be able to finish it in time. There is a Casalguidi pattern in Issue 41 of Inspirations Magazine and several people in CyberStitchers are talking about doing it as a group project.
Speaking of Inspirations, I plan to take classes with Susan O’Connor again this year! I am so excited at the prospect. It means a trip to Dallas to see my friends and stay with the wonderful Shay, plus great classes.
Okay, I knew Lily Chin would be wonderful, but she was even more wonderful than I imagined. She was a great teacher and she had personality plus. It was a lovely weekend. She asked for my card, but of course I did not have one on me, so I had to write my contact information on an index card. It was very flattering, even if nothing comes of it.
I bought a lot of supplies when I was Natchez NeedleArts. Ann Tillman has a great shop. In addition to the yarn store, she has an extremely well stocked needlework shop. She has all kinds of threads, books, notions and ground fabrics in addition to painted canvases and tapestry wool. I emailed the shop last week to ask them to pull all of the Medici colors that I will need for the upcoming Fantasy Remembered Group Correspondence Course and they were waiting for me when I got there. I also bought a yard of linen twill for crewel in white and some in off white, plus half a yard of ecru congress cloth.
Oh yeah, I also got some other linen to try drawn thread/Ruskin lace techniques. Cynthia left me some of her project directions from class proposals she was working on before her mother became so ill. I wanted to make sure I was well prepared for Catherine Jordan’s “The Perfect Forrest” class before I take it. All the talking back and forth had a wonderful net result, because she will be teaching basic drawn work on linen at the May Mississippi NeedleArts meeting. Everyone in the group seemed to be very excited about it.
Oh, and the best news of all, I submitted my letter of resignation on Friday! I did not want to announce it until I knew that my boss was back from Florida and had a chance to read the letter. They require professional salaried employees to give thirty days notices, so I will still have a full time job for a month, but the deed is done. Actually, I was already off this week, so that we could have a mini-vacation in Natchez, then I can sit with Lisa in the hospital while she has her cardiac procedure.
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