business

Bad business!

This is the worst company I have ever ordered from online, and I shop online alot. I was drawn in by their oilcloth that I haven't seen anywhere else and these retro ice bags. They looked like a decent place, they have a good sounding name, everything felt OK. On 11/11/07 I placed a $60.00 order and paid through PayPal, they took my money immediately and then NOTHING. No confirmation email, no shipping email, backorder email, no "drop dead sucker, we took your money and ran" email, nothing. I called and emailed their bogus customer service daily and never spoke to a live person. My account showed that it was processing until 11/27/07 and then it switched to "shipped". I felt relieved for a second until I saw that there was no tracking number. I continued to call and email with no luck. Now I have filed a claim through PayPal. We will wait and see what happens. UGH,I just wanted my damn oilcloth!
In keeping with the business theme:
I was trying to tidy up around the tree (ha ha ha ha ha)and I found this

Julia means business! This just cracked me up for some reason.

More business...
My brand new machine is going back to the store today because it has decided to stop winding bobbins. Unbelievable! They had better give me a loaner or I will be back ranting about JoAnn Fabric's (or whomever it is that sells machines in the store)next.
Happy New Year's Eve Eve.

Things I forgot to say yesterday...

Look what my Bumble found-

The Advent thingy that I had lost and was so upset over a few weeks ago! Julia has been very happy to have it back. Notice all the cards around it...thanks to my kind friends(real life and blog) and family! Each one gave me a HUGE smile on my face when I received them.
Here's last night's accomplishment-

Julia refers to this as "the ultimate girl gift set" and she would know. I almost feel guilty about this gift because the fabric came from the remnant bin and cost less than $2.00, but it is totally cute and appropriate for the recipient.

How's everyone holding up?

I'm doing ok here. I have successfully avoided a major nervous breakdown, I think I will make it to Christmas with my normal about of sanity in tact!
This week has been all about 16 hour days of work, shop, cook, drive, sew. Notice I didn't say anything about cleaning or laundry, that's today.
Here's a sampling of the handmade gifts that I have finished this week.



We had an awesome holiday work party on Thursday. 27 of us went to Chef Silvia's house http://www.chefsilvia.com/ where we learned to prepared a 5 course meal together while drinking wine and exchanging gifts. It was so much fun until we got stuck in 2 hours of traffic on the way home. When I got home Gabby was waiting at the door for me with basketball bag in hand...

Ugh, she had a game. It was a very long day. Great picture of her, huh?
OK, get back to work!

A strange calmness...

...has settled over me. It may be residual effects from the snow day, I don't know.



This little scene from my village makes me happy, I love looking in this little window.
Last night I actually had the mental capacity and 1 hour to figure out the embroidery part of my machine.

This was my test, it's such a cool thing! I doubt that I will ever do much in the way of picture type embroidery but I love having the ability to personalize things. I already have a few jobs lined up!
Speaking of embroidery-
About a year ago Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitch asked for tea towel testers and I was lucky enough to get in on it. Unfortunately, one of the testers flaked out and kept the nearly finished towel and it never got sent back to Jenny. (Grrrrr)Fortunately, most of the original testers agreed to stitch another towel and send it to Jenny because she was very bummed out about it. As my luck would have it, it's my turn- right before Christmas!!! I got started on it last night, I'm keeping it simple and doing pretty much the same thing as last time.

I'll show you when it's done and after I sew some chenille rick rack on it :)

Why Martha?

Why would you trick me in to making these cookies?

I mean they are OK but I would never bother making them again. The dough tasted really yummy but the cookie...not so much. They just sounded so much better than they taste. Now I need to find another kind of cookie to make 12 dozen of by tomorrow night. Oh well.
Happier news:
We had a snow day today!!! Yippee!!! Aside from the wasted cookie time, I had a fantastic day. Just knowing that there was NO WHERE that I had to be all day and night was heaven. I cleaned the disaster that was my kitchen counter, I organized the disaster that was my sewing room spilling into our bedroom, I finished up a few gifts including this one for my sushi loving niece.

I think I will tuck a free babysitting coupon in the oven mitt so they can go out for some sushi.
I hope you are all well and thanks for listening to me whine the other day :)

Ranting ahead...enter at your own risk

I am whiney, crabby, tired, over-worked, under-appreciated,in desperate need of a dye job and an eyebrow waxing.
My calendar sets me spiraling into a panic attack everytime I look at it.

I can only look at one day at a time or I may hyperventilate. This is my kid/school activity one, I have my planner in my purse that's even scarier...it's the mother of all calendars.
*shudder*
Here's where it's gonna get ugly, you may want to leave now, it's ok.
So, the reason I feel like a piece of crap is because:
1-I buy Christmas cards almost every year and never write them, address them or send them. And now because I fail at Christmas cards, I have been removed from almost everyone's Christmas card list. Serves me right. I used to love getting cards.
2-I lost my advent calendar thingy.
Julia is by far the sweetest and most sensitive of my daughters and she LOVES preparing for holidays. She started begging me to get started on it after Thanksgiving and I kept growling at her (from my calendar, no doubt) that I didn't have time yet. She very sweetly said that she understood "but could we at least do the advent calendar thingy on December 1st?" and she would be happy with that.
I lost the advent calendar thingy. I cry every time I think of this. I'm crying as I type this.
3-I missed my cat's yearly vet appointment in September and I haven't rescheduled.
4-Worse than that, is that I put off Sammy's doctor appointment after her scoliosis screening at school... and come to find out she has scoliosis, yep, a 17 degree curve going up her back. We have an appointment with an orthopaedic on Thursday. (It's on the calendar!)I suck.
5-My workload at my job is getting crazy, I'm becoming frazzled there too. It's review time, I'm not sure how that's going to go. I'm sure they would like it if I could work full time hours but HAVE YOU SEEN MY CALENDAR???????

OK, that has just scrached the surface. You guys aren't ready for any of the other layers, I'm not ready for any of the other layers!

Let's change the subject because I don't want anyone leaving here mopey. Has anyone ever done business with this company? http://www.ahmercantile.com/catalog/
I am getting a very bad feeling about an order I placed with them. They will not return my emails or or phone calls.

Thank you!

Look at what came to my door from Old School Acres this week:

Her name is Daisy. Here she is on the tree all by her self...for now

Thanks Laurie, I want to be just like you some day!!!
I also received a very nice surprise from an old Flickr pal

Thanks Leeanne! I can't believe how nice you are to me :)

Here is where I will end this post because it will only turn ugly. I am COMPLETELY overwhelmed and feeling like a terrible mom, wife, employee, neighbor, friend, daughter, citizen, pet owner... you name it, I suck at it.
I'm off to try to change some of it.
Have a great day.

Fear not.

Originally uploaded by cbcyr

I'm still here!
Today I am taking the day off from work to Christmas shop. No fake french accent, no Bumble, no fun.

*****update****
I wore my badge with pride today. I just got off the phone with the evil empire that is WalMart:
me: hi, I was there this morning and I'm pretty sure one of my bags didn't make it in my cart.
nasty customer service girl: uh huh
me: um, it had blah, blah, blah in it
nasty customer service girl:: yeah
me: do you have it?? (annoyed now)
nasty customer service girl: yeah
me:: good! Gee, you'd think when someone is paying $400 for an order the cashier would go that extra mile and make sure you have all your bags.
nasty customer service girl who is chatty now: well you'd think that if someone is paying $400 for an order they would make sure they have all their bags. (I just know her head was going side to side)
me: um, can I speak to your store manager?
nasty customer service girl: CLICK!
UGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! I went through a half hour of trying to reach this guy. At one point a young guy picked up the phone pretending to be the store manager. I asked what his name was and he said, "CSS". I screamed, "Your mother named you CSS??? That's your title not your name, kid!" I want to speak to the store manger NOWWWWWWWW!!
CSS told me that the manager was too busy working to speak to me.
Long story short...I finally got him and screamed at him for 8 minutes and I feel better. The bumble needs to go pick up my bag because I fear for my life now.