All For 80 Cents

My business website and my computers haven't been talking to each other for almost two years now. The host did an upgrade that has locked me out for product and pricing updates and it's been more than frustrating. But redoing my website from scratch also seems unfeasible - I have thousands of products on the site, each pictured and coded for sale. But, getting back to my story, my updates are stacked to the moon, and no, the prices aren't up-to-date. But that hasn't seemed to matter to the customers ordering from me - until yesterday.

Dark Sapphire is a unique color, never available in large quantity,
and almost completely unavailable nationwide. I'm sold
out of the 3mm and 4mm sizes and get asked for them regularly. 

Among the items I have on the website are Swarovski crystal beads in numerous colors and sizes. The price has changed, yes, it's gone up from $2.75 to $2.95 per package, but I do have a disclaimer that prices are subject to change at any time at the bottom of each page of the website. My customer ordered two packs each of two different colors, so her order was increased by a total of 80 cents. She was lucky to get one of the colors at all - it's no longer made, very rare, and I'm totally sold out of the two smaller sizes and get asked for them at least once a month. But ...

I order on-line all the time and sometimes there are price differences.
for a major difference, I would have raised a complaint too. But
for a 20 cent difference? It seems a bit over the top. 

She sent me a rather snitty e-mail demanding that I honor the website price (not going to happen) or cancel her order. I'm cancelling her order. I'll live without her under $12 order and sell the beads to someone else who won't have a snit over 80 cents. I mean really - 80 CENTS???? You could probably find that in your couch cushions or thrown into your car. But I'll cancel the order, get a refund on the postage from the Post Office, and go on with my life. She, on the other hand, will have difficulty finding that color available anywhere else. I wonder it she'll give up and try ordering from me again, or just change the color palette for her project instead.

I have one of these - bought it at the Bead & Button Show last
year. We finally got the base changed out on it and it's ready to go.
I want to play with my wheels! 

Today is my day off. I'm hoping to get some stone work done amidst the laundry. I also have to get some income tax paperwork completed and finish the final read-through of my SV story so that I can get that posted within a day. It's going to be a busy day, and I'm so ramped up to get going on it, I awakened at 2:50 am just psyched to get my day going. Since my alarm would have gone off within less than 30 minutes, I went ahead and started my day. One step ahead. I'm hoping that continues throughout the day and that I actually accomplish some stuff today. What a concept!

Happy Wednesday to all!

What A Weekend!

I volunteered as a pinch-hit author for My Slashy Valentine's fic gifting, and I ran a bit late. The archive was opened at 3:40 pm and I didn't get my story submitted until closer to 9:00 pm. But I got it in and the person I wrote it for was quite pleased with it. That's the important thing.

This is "Sliding House" located in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona. The
inhabitants built their cliff dwelling on a steep slope and the house
has been sliding toward the canyon floor for centuries. 

Life just barreled down like sliding down a steep slope. Saturdays have been easily paced days, but this past Saturday was a total ZOO at work - we were running from the moment the doors were unlocked until we finally locked them again at 5:00 pm. It was a Saturday like we used to have and it was glorious (except for the fact that Chickie didn't get to take a lunch break until 2:30 pm and I didn't get one at all). But it was fun to see so many creative people and help them choose the items that would make their project dreams a reality.

There's more than one way to slide down a slippery slope. Here, two boys are
about to try sliding down a dune in White Sands National Monument, New Mexico. One
is on a plastic disk heading head first, the other is seated on his plastic disc,
going feet first. The dunes are a special place and really wonderful to visit. 

It was a busy week for stories with one drabble, my Monthly challenge and the pinch-hit story all due, done and uploaded. I'll be trying to get things pushed out to my various archives within the next week. I suspect the easiest archive for my non-LJ readers will be at Faerie where I post as Erulisse. All of these stories were G or PG rated, so no fears for those of my friends who don't like reading my more esoteric work. Give me tonight to move things over there.

I would have to add Live Journal to this grouping, but I do get
distracted by FaceBook and YouTube all too often. 

Now it's time to get focused once again. I have a large database to put together for a customer, I'm sure I'll have a new drabble series beginning in a day or two, and I have a couple of past birthdays (oops) and a couple of upcoming birthdays (yippee) to design e-cards for. That'll be fun!

I haven't indulged in Lobsterfest for several years. We did yesterday, though.
Each of us had this - a Maine lobster tail, shrimp and lobster langostino on
linguini, Rock lobster tail with veggies, a salad, and we also had
lobster-stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer. It was just NUMMY! 

Sunday, DH and I spent a somewhat lazy day. We got the shelving back up that we had pulled away for the washer/dryer installation, had a lovely breakfast, I did a quick load of laundry, and then we went to Red Lobster for a post-Valentine's Day dinner of lobster, lobster, and more lobster. Oh happy me! It was scrumpdiddlyumptious! We ended the night by watching Saturday Night Live's 40th Anniversary which was great.

I couldn't stay up for the whole show, so I'll have to try and stream it
or catch it later on video, but the first two hours were excellent! 

So I hope all of you had as wonderful a weekend as I did. I'm already planning the week ahead, secure in the knowledge that the best laid plans will be destroyed quickly. But I have to try. Right? Have a great Monday!

Windy Focus Photo Blog

I'm running up to the deadline in MSV. I'm almost done, but not quite. I suspect I'll be uploading tonight and be one of the very last to upload, but I keep telling myself it'll be OK. I'll make it. I'm just having difficulty herding my elves into the straight plot line, using whatever means necessary to keep them from meandering around the sides. While I'm sitting here thinking about what I should be writing, the wind is going a bit crazy. It's going to really pull our temps down today. Ick! But wind tells me that I should photo blog today and use wind as the focus. So while I argue with stubborn elves or pull myself away from the latest JD Robb book, here are pictures of that which can't be seen to entertain you. Wind!

We don't usually have the chance to see what turbulence wind farms
can cause, but this shot is an ocean shot. This is the wind farm
west of Denmark called Horns Rev. The turbulence shows in the water
vapor from the ocean. 

I really love this picture. The lighting, the implication of
the storm to come. This is called "Wind" by RAHDS on
Deviant Art. 

In the framework of the previous picture, here is a fantasy wallpaper
called "Wind". I love the lazy swirls in the sky and the warm tone of
the colors. It might not be Earth, but it's a pretty nice looking place to be. 

Here's a great B/W piece by Adrian Sommeling, photographer. Here he
has put himself in the lead with his son barely hanging on in the
windstorm. It's a lovely and detailed piece. 

This is called "Inside the Wind" and I love the colors of the
horizon being echoed in her hair and lessened in the clouds
above. It's nicely balanced and the tumbling leaves really
give it the additional sense of movement. 

And, as a reminder that wind doesn't need to be harsh and heave-handed,
here we have a dandelion with its seeds blowing out into the world
borne on the breath of the wind. 

So there you have it - pics of wind for a windy and cold day. I need to get back to writing my MSV so I wish all of you a wonderful Saturday, a joy-filled Valentine's Day, and a great weekend.

Valentine's Day, Slashy Santa/Valentine & Future Projects

Valentine's Day was very pleasant. I had a lovely note from a friend on the Secret Valentine Admirer post and a truly lovely story written for me on the Slashy Santa board. My husband got off from work early and picked up dinner fixings making a lovely dinner for us featuring Chicken Kiev, rice and green beans almondine with chocolate chip cookies for dessert. It was a very pleasant evening topped off by Project Runway with Bette Midler, The Divine Miss M, as a guest judge. All in all, it was a delightful evening.

Bette Midler - always beautiful and classic. I adore her!

As mentioned above, the Slashy Santa archive is now open for reading and 31 stories were submitted for Slashy Valentine. I wrote my story for Olorime and was so delighted with the assignment since I have spoken with her on and off for several years on the boards. Unfortunately she ended up pulling out of the group and has dropped out of sight. If you happen to read my story, please give me feedback. I feel it is one of my more edgy pieces and is borderline NSFW, but I only wrote as the characters insisted and I was pleased with the direction of the tale. Reviews and feedback would be very appreciated.

Not everyone can access the SS Archive, but eventually I'll put the story onto my  AO3 archive.

I am half-way through the first major edit of my latest o-fic story. I want to send it to a couple of friends this weekend for a quick read-through, and have it submitted to the publisher for their consideration no later than Friday of next week, sooner if possible. As always, I have no guarantees, but a rejection notice will be one more for the scrapbook and won't stop submissions in the future.

One of the locations in CB's story is a cemetery.  What fun! I love wandering old graveyards...

I'll be without a challenge deadline when I finish this story so I can go back and continue working on my novel for a while until the next challenge is announced, as well as work on my illustrations for CB. That's my next high priority item. I've pretty much determined what I want to illustrate and got the images collected. Now it's time to settle down and put pen to paper. Actually, that sounds like so much fun!

Whew!

So - Today is Christmas Eve and I have a shortened work day - closing the shop at 4:00 pm instead of 6:00 pm. I'm grateful for small favors. I finished my holiday gifts for friends with a couple of e-gift cards for two friends who have electronic readers. They'll like those so all is good. I have absolutely NOTHING for my DH, nor does he for me. The dollars and the ability/desire to shop just wasn't there. So we'll have a very nice meal tomorrow because I'll cook a rib roast for dinner and we have veggies and noodles to go with, but there won't be anything under the tree - actually, to be precise, there is no tree either. BUT I'll have a day off tomorrow and I really, really need that.

Christmas trees are one of the best things about

this holiday. Looking at the twinkling lights and the

variety of ornaments just makes me happy.

My Yule Fic has been turned in. I accepted knowing that I only needed to write 1500 words. It ended up closer to 7000, but really not bad, and the characters actually behaved themselves and allowed the story to come together well. I'm happy with it and hope that my recipient will also be. The story will be released at the end of the year so I'll find out then.

My Slashy Valentine assignment will be quite

interesting. I'll be walking some unfamiliar roads to

make this one happen, but I think I see the way to

go and the journey will be eye opening.

And I got my Slashy Valentine assignment yesterday also. Oy! But, I like a challenge and already see where and how I want to go with this. It's going to be edgy, I don't see any other way to succeed in the request as assigned. So...the Oy! may well turn into a My! and it has the possibility of being one of my better pieces. Time to double-check the rules again - LOL.

Doesn't every kid wish that Santa Claus was their personal

friend? And how many kids have stayed up late to see his sleigh

and reindeer silhouetted against the moon? I have always loved

this illustration.

To all of you who celebrate Christmas, have a very Merry one and please take this opportunity to pray, once more, for Peace - share cookies, share hugs, share peace. *HUGS* to all of you.