Still Searching

Never did find a cartridge for my Xyron 1200 on Tuesday. It appears that the company has invested in cheaper, smaller machines and local distributors are carrying same. Sigh. I think I will have to buy my refill online. Haven't made up my mind, yet.

Last night I used the iPhotos I took at Pat and Tauna's wedding to make a tiny (3" square) photo album. Sure had fun doing that. :) Unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to upload photos here, yet, so am waiting for a response from the Help folks.

Today was a very looooong day at my store (uh, I own a large quilt store in Catonsville, Maryland) -- saw a fabric manufacturor's representative (Rep) from 10:30 a.m. until 3:30 pm. It's nice to see so many beautiful new fabric swatches for about two hours ... after that, it's real work to wade through them all and keep making decisions. whew! By the time we were done (including a nice break to eat pizza for lunch, courtesy of the rep) I was cross eyed and almost brain dead.

One of the things that arrived via UPS this afternoon was a set of quilt hanging racks we ordered a while back -- handmade by Amish carpenters in Bird In Hand, PA. Unfortunately, they did not send any wood screws to assemble the nice stand to hold all the hangers so I had to run off to the nearest Home Depot to get some.

***WARNING: RANT FOLLOWS***
I positively DESPISE those 'self checkout' aisles at stores. I like people, I enjoy talking to the checkout clerks as they are ringing up my purchases. When I first saw stores putting in 'self checkout' aisles, I thought -- 'aha, this is a way that the big boxes have figured out to lower their expenses. Are they going to take 10% off my total 'cause I'm saving them labor charges? No, of course not, Just wait, soon there will be no clerk lines.'

Sure enough, there were no human clerks at the Home Depot checkout aisles -- only self service.

I consider myself a truly pleasant person, laid back, reasonably kind and nice (one of my managers calls me 'Polly Anna' to my face:). Stupid machines had me cursing in under twenty seconds. grrr

If you are listening, corporate America, please give me a clerk back -- I'd rather see a real human being have a job than deal with stupid machines. (You don't want to know what I think about the ever-present computerized receptionist machines!)
*****END OF RANT***

Put me in such a grumpy mood it took me a half hour to cheer up after I got back to my store. Thursdays we are open late (until 8 pm) and a friend comes so we can sew together in the back. I always look forward to Thursday evenings. :) Tonight we also had a class in session (there are two classrooms in the back of my store) -- I enjoy darting in to admire the students' work. :) I was so off kilter from spending all my brains on ordering, I could only sew a couple of seams before I gave up. sigh. I am trying to sew up the Quest Quilt:

Our shop is one of 14 that host a Shop Hop in November (near Veteran's Day) every year. I have to assemble the quilt for this year's theme, Childhood Memories, so I can start advertising the Hop shortly by hanging the quilt (every shop gives one of the block patterns out during the Quest; if you visit all the shops, you get all the patterns for free). Of course, I can't just make a simple quilt -- block, block, block, with sashing between them -- I have to design my own setting for this quilt. What can I say, designing is what I do best. :) I've chosen some light bright fabrics for the setting, I think it will work nicely (will show it off, too, when it is done).

Thought I might do some art work tonight but I didn't get home until 10 pm -- with negative brain power. :P Oh, well, I'm off tomorrow; maybe then?

:) Linda