Back from Puyullap with a couple of wonderful Goodwill store finds! I have so much stuff still in boxes with no place to put them, so I'd been looking for anything display'ish to hang on the wall. I've had the most fun this week painting my new treasures and digging in boxes for "decorations".




The purple one was was partially painted white, and had the most horrible big wooden bows at the top and bottom. I knocked off the bows and replaced them with a couple of cheap wooden medallions from Michael's that I painted teal and rubbed with burnt umber. The blue one was (I think) a headboard for a single waterbed. The pic is kinda small to see much, but there are two of my newer bowls on the top shelf.

Linda

A couple of weeks ago I accidently deleted the FTP address on the server where I keep my web code. Uh-oh. Not a Good Thing. Well, I finally got it sorted out this afternoon and happily went about uploading some new designs. Not to be content with that, I thought I do just a *bit* of housekeeping on the site. Big Mistake. Here it is, 2:30 in the morning, and I *think* I've fixed all the major bugs. I suspect there are a few cosmetic issues -- like that whimsical "View Shopping Cart" button that seems to have a mind of it's own, and shows up haphazardly on some pages, rather that neatly at the bottom of the page...where it's INTENDED TO BE :-( -- but the worst is now OK. Please let me know if you spot anything glaringly bad.
I'll have all new stuff at Puyallup this weekend. Hope to see some of you there.
I made a bunch of felted bowls on the last roadtrip. Will try to post some soon.

Linda

I've gotten very behind in my blog, yet again. I've been on the road. Since Belize, I've back and forth to San Jose between shows in Akron, Ohio, and Hampton, Virginia, and a side trip to see family in Fresno -- all with limited access to the Internet. Along the way, my luggage was lost THREE times! That makes four times in the last month, counting the disasterous trip to Holland, and I'm really getting a bit nervous about my next flying show. I'm very glad that I'm driving to Puyullap next weekend. FYI, when Southwest loses your luggage and you pick it up instead of having it delivered, they'll give you a $50 voucher. I got two vouchers on the Hampton trip, and had used a free ticket voucher to get there, so if I ignore the stress worrying about product in time for the show (it got there in time) I *did* come out ahead. So I guess I need to put on my big girl panties and stop whining. Yeah, like that's going to happen, LOL.
I've been so happy to be home this week. It's given me time to do some of the puttering around the house that has been ignored the last month. We made another attack on the woodpile, which is slowly decreasing. Cosmos got his teeth cleaned -- at least the dogs have dental care. I hauled out all the clothing that had spots and stains, and ran it all through a black dye bath. Good news is that the painted Blue Fish designs are not effected by the dye (a test for you, Teresa!). I got back to playing with my chatskies around the house. This is a wonderful little cupboard that MaryKay found at a Goodwill store, yet she managed to gift it to lucky me. Right now it holds some of my "Frida" stuff and some little dolls from Belize. The cloth party cat at the bottom is by Olive Rose. I bought it (I think) at Art Unraveled last year at Mary Kay's insistance, and I'm glad that she did every time I look at it.




Linda

For those of you that haven't discovered Crazy Aunt Purl, you REALLY need to visit her blog at www.crazyauntpurl.com (sorry the link isn't working) and read her April 24 post on forgetting attachments. This one reminded me of a time that upper management sent an email to the hordes of unwashed employees announcing a pot-luck Christmas party (THEY had a party in a San Fran penthouse and THEY all got cases of Dom Perignon AND bonuses, but WE had to bring a dish), so I forwarded it with a snippy email asking if we, the unwashed, were each getting a Christmas bonus frozen turkey (no lie, they'd passed out coupons for frozen turkeys the previous year), and I accidentally sent it back to the upper management suit. They didn't bother to reply LOL. Anyway, CAP's posts are little pearls of humor that never fail to bring a smile or two. I wish I could write even a bit as well as her, but I also wish I was 25, thin and rich, and ya'll know those haven't happened, so I'm not holding my breath re: any growth in writing skills. Anyway, I like to save her posts for times that I'm stranded in airports, and guess what, that's where I am. again. I've been on the road since last Saturday, and am in the middle of a three-week odyssey. I started from Spokane to San Jose, then Belize (yup, BELIZE!) to do some GPS training, then back to San Jose for my own GPs training, and now on the way to Akron.
The Belize part was SO kewl, and even better 'cause I got PAID for it. I spent three days in a Mennonite community training them to use GPS equipment to make maps. It was a wonderful experience, and I'm grateful for the opportunity -- much more fun that the usual training gig. Pics will have to wait until I get home.
So back to the present. Somewhere in the Midwest a drop of rain has fallen, and my flight to Cleveland this afternoon has been cancelled. Instead of getting to Akron in time for a bit of set-up, I'll be hauling my sorry ass into the Akron Motel 6 around midnight. Do I feel sorry for myself? Damn right!

Hope to see some of you tomorrow in Akron. I'll be the one asleep under the table.
Linda

Philly airport at 5 dark-thirty am Monday morning on my way back home from Allentown.

What sort of sadistic BASTARD would design an airport concourse with non-sequential gate numbers?!?! Really, you can see here than gates 2 and 11 are across from each other. Gate 9 is on down the direction I'm facing....but swear to GAWD, gates 8 and 10 are way, WAAAY behind me.

Linda

Good News, fellow Coasters! The luggage with my booth arrived last night -- just in time for this morning's flight to PA for the Allentown show. Yee-haw! I am full of confidence that I've had enough bad luck, and it shall be smooth sailing for at least a week or too. Many thanks for all your well wishes these past days. It's the dark early hours, and I've already gotten successfully to the Seattle airport, and even better, my next leg to Chicago on American Airlines has not been cancelled....AND I have clean clothes!! I be stylin' now! LOL

Linda

Finally I can upload the pic of the Holland tin and breakfast chocolate.

Just so ya all know that the week wasn't always a whiney mess, here's are some pics from our last day in Holland. Angela, the show coordinator always makes a special day for the English and American vendors. This year was a tour of a wooden shoe factory -- not a new slick, automated factory, but small family-run business in the country. We got to see the entire process, and then pick a pair to decorate ourselves. The day ended with a ride in a horse-drawn wagon, and picnic by a river.

Well, here I am in Zeist, and my luggage is (no shit) in ITALY! Seems that the Queen showed up last week and opened a new Terminal 5 at Heathrow, and no luggage through there has been seen since. Everyone in Europe knew about this, and it's been an extensive source of TV comic routines. Unfortunately, US travellers were not informed, So I'm still wearing the outfit I started in last Thursday. The lovely (if I say so myself, which I DO) bowls pictured previously were gifts for friends, and are also now in Italy, along with a carton of ciggies and a few other presents. I'm told that all mis-routed luggage was sent by train to Italy because they have the best automated luggage management system. Yeah, right. It will be interesting to see what the Italians return to me.

Besides the missing clothing and presents, the luggage also contained a lot of stamp re-stock, all the new designs, sample boards, and the GD'ed cover sheets. The Curse of the Missing Cover Sheets lives on, and once again we were frantically begging paper and stamp pads to make some cover sheets. Thanks to Heidi and Doris, we made covers for about 1/2 the images, and salvaged the show, so I didn't lose money....and I got to spend a wonderful weekend with old friends, as well as made some new friends. Marion loaned me a T-shirt, and another lovely lady donated another shirt to the Cause. And another lady gave me a BEAUTIFUL Nederlands tin filled with toiletries and a pair of socks. Soon I'll forget how upset I was about the missing sample boards and cover sheets, but I'll always remember these generous women and their kind efforts to improve my day. It surely worked.

Also on the Bright Side is the Hollander breakfast, which includs personal-sized boxes of chocolate flakes, which are to be sprinkled on buttered bread. Gotta love a country that starts their day with guilt-free chocolate!! For me, I just rip the top off and chug it down LOL.

I can't get the pics to upload tonight, so they'll have to wait until I get home.

-Linda

I'm leaving in a few hours for the stamp show in Zeist, Holland. I won't be back until the middle of next week, and then leaving for the Allentown, PA show, so don't know when I'll be able to post again.
Remember that chocolate is for breakfast, drive fast, and color outside the lines :-)
Here are a few of my latest felting attempts.



Linda

I spent most of yesterday stranded at O'Hare airport. Finished my book, ran out of yarn, and played with the revolving toilet seats, so there was nothing left to do but photograph these way kewl socks that my BF, Mary Kay, gifted me.