It's a setup!

Yesterday I spent countless hours working on another digitizing lesson.  It's a 44,400 stitch design which takes a little over an hour to sew out.  I carefully do precisely what the directions (which are vague at times) tell me to do.  They explain all the colors I am going to use including pink.  Nowhere in the step by step directions do they mention where to use the pink.  Hrmph!
I hoop the fabric using thicker stabilizer because of the stitch count.  The design starts sewing out very nice until things start to go bad.  Look at how the outline of the lettering went off registration after doing a great R and A.  
Then spaces show up between three of the rainbow arches.  I scratch my head and get a bit frustrated.   All of the sudden AHA pops up in my mind.  I remember seeing pictures at the end of the lesson where they showed these specific problems.  I didn't read that part because I was so careful to follow the directions to the letter.

I open the book and start reading the "if this happens" and immediately smell a rat.  First they say, "Don't sew this out 8 times looking for the best result to send to us".  Then comes the part which makes me think they set me up for these errors.  Not only do the pictures show these exact errors right down to which letters and arches would be affected but they say, "Before trying to correct these errors move on to Lesson 4 where we will be addressing push and pull compensation.  Then return to Lesson 3 and apply what you've learned if necessary".

Yep, I smell a rat.  On to Lesson 4 I go.

Visit...

Is this the next generation of computer geeks getting ready to take over the world?  I think we need to teach them how to break into the banking system first.  LOL!

I had a wonderful time visiting yesterday.  It was really great seeing you again Kelly.  It's been to darn many years.  I also enjoyed finally getting to meet my great niece and nephews.  It's nice to put personalities with faces.

I love this picture of Shannon and Kelly.  You two remind me of my kids.  You don't look alike yet there's something similar enough that says you're siblings.

When I left home I told myself I wanted my picture taken with the two of you, then I started visiting with everyone and completely forgot.

I love this picture of Will.  All that's missing is a straw going from the beer bottle to his mouth.  I should have photoshopped one in.  LOL!

This has got to be one of the best pictures of Dave I've seen in years.  I love it.  It shows how relaxed and happy he was.  Coooool..

Easy day....

Well, I didn't get much done yesterday except 5 Zoobies and lots of paperwork. I was hoping to spend the afternoon in the closet but just didn't make it.  I picked up Nuttie at the vet at 2 and took in the  two Zoobies I'd sold the day before.  I got a call from the Vet's office to throw a bunch in the car because they wanted to see them.  I sold 5 more.  Since I'll be delivering them at 9 this morning, I spent the afternoon when I got home personalizing them.

I'm out of several and need to order them when I'm done with this.  Zoobie has come out with more designs.  I'm going to add the Grey Wolf to my inventory.  It looks really cute.

This morning I'll be going to the Great Mall with Sarah for some shopping.  I can't remember when I'd been there last.  I think it was when D and I renewed our vows for our 25th anniversary and Heather and I were looking for dresses.  That would be almost 11 years ago.  Gosh how time passes quickly. 

Okie dokie...that's it for this morning.  Time to get some PAW's stuff done then off to the Vet, Bank, Wally World, then meet Sarah and head to the Great Mall. 

Oh my!

Oh my.....there must be something wrong with my new battery charger.  I think it messed up my camera.  I thought I'd post a picture of the embroidery I put on Nana's shirt.  Would you look at that....it looks like someone used the spiral blur function in Photoshop to hide the design.  Hmmmmm...it's a complete mystery to me.  Oh well, it's the thought that counts.  Trust me Nana, it's a cool design.

Isn't this odd?  The pictures of the name tags came out clear.  They don't do the tags justice though.  The contrast between the gold lettering outline and the lettering itself is much more prominent in person.

These coffin tags look awkward but are evenly balanced in person.  All the patches have nice crisp edges but for some reason they look a little out of sorts in the pictures.  I really need to play more with the camera settings so the pictures of embroidered items comes out nicer.  I think I also need to set up a picture taking area where the light is always the same so I can have consistency with the photos.

Well, the bear is at the vet this morning.  She went in for teeth cleaning and to have her heart checked.  She's also blowing these gross snot rockets out of her nose all the time.  They stink and are disgusting.  I just talked to Dr. C and she says on quick examination there is a quirky tooth that could be infected which is causing the snot rockets.  I sure hope so because I'm really getting tired of being hit by flying wet stuff.

Tomorrow Nuttie goes in and has her teeth cleaned and will get caught up on shots.  Next Wednesday, Nisie will go in and have her teeth cleaned, catch up on her shots and her anal glands removed.

I had the option of having all three dogs done on the same day but decided to spread them out.  That way I'll have three days of at least one dog being goofy and dopy when they get home.  I think they're hilarious when they're acting drunk.  Yep, I'm a bit weird.

S put me onto a great site. It's called Pandora.  I love it.  It's a music website aimed at the iPhone but is great on the computer.  You personalize it for yourself.  You put in an artist, for example Garth Brooks and it'll play music from similar artists for you.  You can delete a song to never play again, you can hit a button to skip that song but it won't be removed from your play list or you can just let it do it's thing and play continuously.  

I did notice when I put in Garth Brooks I got only male country singers.  When I put in Reba, I got music from both male and female country artists.  It's suppose to be advertisement free but this morning I got an ad that lasted about 6 seconds.  I can live with that.

It's like a better version of iTunes.  They'll decide which songs to play for you and you can make multiple playlists.  Yesterday I was in a country music mood.  Today I'm in an oldies mood.

Check it out at pandora.com and see if you like it.

Tough morning....

It's been a tough morning.  I refused to get up with the fog so stayed in bed until 7:45 reading.  Then I got up, fed and watered the dogs, started my bath, made the bed, brushed my teeth, hopped on top of the bed and read until my bath was ready.  Soaked in the tub about 1/2 hour, got up, dried and curled my hair stumbled to the kitchen and made a P&J or brunch.  Now I'm hanging around the computer fnartin' around.

I cleaned the Mac's desktop....oh the pain I endured moving the multitude of folders to the files they belonged in.  I think I sprained a finger.  LOL!  I can actually see the desktop picture now.  I'll have to post it. It's cool.  It's D & S in their overalls after parachuting out of a perfectly functional airplane.  My mind just doesn't understand the thrill of plummeting toward the earth at breakneck speeds.  See....I not only don't get it, I actually had to look up how to spell plummeting.

Check out these goofy pictures.  I took these a few months back when the dogs were still on Iams.  They're now on BilJack.  I love the stuff. You feed them less and their coats are healthy and shiny.  BilJack doesn't have all the additives and chemicals like the other brands.

Anyway, I keep the dog food in the laundry closet in a large container.  I'd just dumped the contents in the bin then left the room before discarding the bag.  I came back not 90 seconds later and here was Nuttie up to her butt in the bag. Nisie wasn't the least bit happy.  She had her hair standing up and was trying to intimidate Nuttie into getting out of the bag.

I coaxed Nuttie out of the bag and was working on getting her out of the laundry room when Nisie shot into the bag.  You can see her hair standing on end here.  She wasn't as willing as Nuttie.  I had to grab her by the tail and pull her out..  Yes...I learned my lesson and now discard the bag before even leaving the room.

Today is my make up dentist appointment I missed last week because D didn't leave me keys to the truck.  Which by the way, he's made an additional set and it's safely in my purse.  They're attached to my key ring with my red house key and red light.  There's no pretending they're his keys now.  My momma didn't raise no dummy!

I'm just doing my biannual teeth cleaning so it's no big deal.  Happily, I don't get cavities as an adult.  I didn't get many as a kid but they are practically non existent as an adult.  Now I'm at the stage where we're slowly replacing the old silver fillings as they wear out.  I don't mind because they're replaced with porcelain so are the same color as my teeth.  

Unfortunately what I do experience as I age, is my teeth get fine cracks.  That's where crowns come in.  So I figure the youth of America keep the dentist busy with fillings and the seniors of America keep them busy with crowns.  LOL!

I think I'll mess around a bit longer then go in and start packing up for the next few days at mom's house.  I need to make a last minute list of things to take so I don't forget anything.  I've got some shipments coming in tomorrow I forgot about.  I need to send emails to some customers telling them I'm pushing their jobs to the middle of next week.  They're repeat customers and really nice so I don't foresee any problems.

I'm signing off until sometime next week.  I'll be looking forward to reading your blogs and catching up on what you've all been doing when I get back.  So keep posting!

Customer Negotiations....

So I have this customer who wants me to put this design on a picnic blanket for her.  It's a gift for the coach.  This is a sample on scrap material I always embroider out first.

I double and triple check the name spelling (because this looks odd to me) and yep, I've spelled it right.  I finish up the job, ship the blanket to her and she sends me an email that says, "You spelled the coach's name wrong.

I tell her I guarantee against my errors but not customer errors.  She tells me she verified the spelling in the phone conversation we had.  I said, "No....we verified we were doing Coach Lindsy on one blanket and replacing the second one with your last name".    I had her send me an email before embroidering to verify the spelling of the coach.  

Long story short, she said I didn't...I send her a copy of my request along with the email she sent with the name spelled incorrect.  She says it's not her fault because she sent the email from her phone and it dropped the e out of the name.  I offer her a new blanket at cost and the embroidery free.  She still wants more.  I told her it wasn't my error but to save the relationship I'll do a patch (applique) for $10 but won't guarantee how it turns out.  I also explained, the $10 fee didn't even cover the cost of thread because it was more than 13,000 stitches.

She agreed to the applique patch and brings the blanket to me.  I'd already worked the new spelling and design into a patch and sewed out a sample so when she got here she could see it.

She loved it, we changed the coach's name to white thread and took off for an hour with her kids (she lives in Fremont) so I could do the task.   Considering I was embroidering over the old design, the patch turned out pretty darn nice. The actual blanket had less puckering then the sample above shows.  I was talking sweetly to my machine because it really wasn't happy sewing over so many layers of thread.  Like a trooper it pulled through.

I always have a phone customer send me an email with the correct spelling so I can avoid situations like this.  Luckily, this is the first time I've run into such a problem.  I did some work for this customer last summer and she was nice to work with and loved what I did.  She'll have more work for me next month because they have all new soccer uniforms that need personalizing.  I felt it was in my best interest to bend over backwards more than I normally would but wasn't about to give her a new blanket and sustain a big loss.

Having D around really helped because I was getting angry she was trying to throw the error in my lap.  I'd storm into the office and  vent my frustration then he'd calm me down so I could think straight.   I was frustrated that she just wouldn't say, "I'm so sorry I messed up."  Instead of the various you did or didn't do this or that.

When I gave her the completed blanket with the applique patch, she apologized for the mistake and gave me $15 instead of the $10 I was charging her.  We agreed this was just a bump in the road and would both move on and be more careful in the future. 

It was an all's well that ends well but sure took patience and creativity to come to that conclusion.  I was glad to eat the cost of set up time to make a past customer happy.

Canine Family Pictures

For some unknown reason, I just can't bring myself to post on the blog without pictures. So....since I still haven't found the charger for the camera, here are some of my favorite pictures of the Branson/Ward canine clan.

Of course, it all started with the big R. I'm thinking it was his amorous adventure with Nuttie that threw out his back. That sounds so much better than "he jumped off the couch", "he was playing and turned wrong"....you get my drift. It sounds so much better to say, "He was all over this beautiful doxie and boom, his back went out".

It's hard to believe that Nuttie is the mom of this beautiful little black bundle of joy who (can't seem to keep her ear going the right direction). Nisie is bigger than Nuttie and might also be a little larger than her dad. I didn't think to measure them when I had them together a few months back.

Here are the boys. It's not very often I get a picture of them. So this is rare indeed. Coco is in the front and is a little darker than the picture shows. Cole is jet black like Nisie but has a larger and longer nose. When he was a pup, I accused him of being jewish or English because he had this large hump in the middle of it. Somewhere along the line, it smoothed out and he grew into it.

This picture just makes me laugh. Cole likes to sit by the window and watch people go by. The way he sits just cracks me up. Look at that little Buddha belly. Isn't it hilarious?

I think I'm lucky because I get to see the pups Nuttie and Ringo created. I just didn't have the heart to sell them to strangers. I don't know how people could do that.

You spend all night helping deliver them. You spend the next month or so on the couch watching over them and making sure the littlest one gets fed. How can you possibly let them go to strangers? Yep, I'd make a lousy breeder.

The gene pool is a confusing little crap shoot. Breed a black long hair Dapple with a short hair Piebald and not a spot on any of the pups. Although Cole has this fuzzy little tuft of hair on his head that screams Ringo. LOL!

I seem to have two ways of working on large projects. The first is I stick with it until its done not taking breaks or eating and working late into the night. Or, I start it, after an hour or two I don't see much improvement so I quit and go waste the rest of the day.

Hope you enjoyed the family pics. They made me smile and put me in an upbeat mood. I think I'll head out for a P&J sandwich and slowly tackle a project or two or three. LOL!