Another long night but at least I got my sofa....

So I called this morning at the butt crack of dawn when they opened about my lonely sofa.....here's how it went...

THEM: Select Express & Logistics, how can I help you?

ME: Yes, I had a half delivery last night and my sofa is supposed to be delivered this evening between 5 pm and 9 pm. I want to be sure that I am first on the delivery schedule.

THEM: Yes, we have you here for 5pm to 9pm window for delivery.

ME: I'm I first on the list? because if not we need to get that done somehow.

THEM: Yes, you are listed first

ME: Great thanks!

FAST FORWARD TO THE 5:15 phone call......I call them

THEM: Select Express & Logistics, how can I help you?

ME: Yes, when I called this morning they told me I was first for delivery this evening and I was expecting them here at 5pm, are they on their way?

THEM: You are first for delivery and they should be there between 6 pm and 6:30 pm

ME: 6 pm is first for delivery?!?!?!

THEM: Yes, someone will be contacting you to let you know they are on there way

ME: This is crazy. Thanks.

FAST FORWARD TO 6:15 -they call me

THEM: Select Express & Logistics this is Mike. I wanted to let you know that they are filling up the truck with gas and are only 15 miles away. They should be there very soon.

ME: Great! (Thinks to self, I can still make SNB)

FAST FORWARD AGAIN TO 7:20 - I call them again!

THEM: Select Express & Logistics, how can I help you?

ME: How long does it take for them to get gas? I thought I was going to be over and done with this and on my way to my meeting this evening. What is going on?

THEM: They had to wait for the owner of the truck to bring them money so they can get gas.
(Thinks to self, are you freakin kidding me!)

ME: Well how much longer? I am missing my meeting.

THEM: They should be there very soon...Did you really want to go to a meeting?
(YES, YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT KIND OF MEETING IT IS AND I DID WANT TO GO!!!!!)

THEY ARRIVED AT 7:46!!!!!!!!! So I was a bit over ready for bed by that point and missed SNB because of these guys. I was supposed to be first this evening however I was last again and I know that because I had to sign for the sofa and there were 5 other people who had already signed this evening. This is an independent company used by IKEA to deliver to you. And though almost every one I spoke with was very nice, I am still going to call IKEA and speak with them about how un-happy I was with this company.

But I have my sofa now :)

I'm pretty sure that I order both a loveseat and a sofa.....

I love my loveseat, of course I would like to also love my sofa. Where oh where can it be? Well, I'll tell you what they told me...."We didn't have room on the truck for both." WTF!?!?!? They were supposed to be here on July 3rd, sofa didn't make it to the warehouse. Then they were supposed to be here on the 10th, sofa was there but they had to get the loveseat from the store. They finally got together for delivery. Ok set up delivery for between 5pm-9pm for them to show up at 8:55pm!!! WITHOUT MY SOFA!!!! So now that I have wasted an entire night waiting I get to do it all over again tomorrow night, what fun! I am not going to miss SNB on account of these guys. I'm going to call in the morning and ensure that I am first for delivery tomorrow night!

But the loveseat is really nice!

It's Elmo's World and we are just living in it

Elmo, Elmo, Elmo. More fame and fortune then we will ever see. This little red ball of fuzz has stolen the hearts of children (and some adults) all over the world. But we were just concerned about our corner of it this weekend when we attended an Elmo themed birthday party for our favorite toddler, Alex. Alex turned two, the perfect Elmo age. He just about explodes when he sees him on TV, books, pictures or anywhere else he may happen to be marketed. So the Elmo theme was a no brainer for his mom, Kathy.

Inspired by famed sweatshop worker mom, Kathy wanted to try her hand at making and decorating her very own Elmo cake for said Elmo themed party. This was Kathy's first attempt at cake decorating. She did an excellent job, the sweatshop workers are very proud of her and had to tell you all about it.
She used the Wilton's Elmo cake pan and the Wilton's red icing coloring. She said that was the trickiest part, getting Elmo to be the right color red. Too little coloring he is pink too much it looks like Elmo didn't use his sun block. Here he is.............shortly before we cut him up and eat him....yummy Elmo!
What a great job!!! It is hard to believe that this was her first attempt at the fine school of cake decorating. However, she will tell you she had a good coach....sweatshop worker mom. But she did it all on her own and what a fine job indeed. We just hope that she keeps it up (her egg less chocolate cake was so yummy) so we don't have to wait until Alex's 3rd birthday until we see another cool creation.

As promised some finished projects!

The CEO has spoken. We are off and running and getting a really solid start for the craft show.

Adorable coaster sets, don't worry cat lovers you will be represented soon.
The countdown to Christmas calendar.........as of today there are 173 days to go. The calendar allows you to count from 30 days out.
A better picture of my turtle.....thanks to my SIL for letting me use her wonderful light box!
I have gotten a few more books and I have a basic idea of what I want to make. Now I just have to get modivated to work.

I've been very busy.......The first half of 2008, a long and sad story PART 2 - The front of the house and rock beds

If you re-call in the begining of the story there was a cement fairy that turned out to be an evil cement troll. This is that part of the story..........

A few years ago the pretty plastic canvaser and her sweatshop workers decided that they wanted some nice curb appeal. So they worked very hard on turning the front of the house into a fabulous rock bed.

This was a fabulous addition to the front of the house. Unfortunatly there were some ugly sidewalks creeping around (You can see the ugly blocks and bricks in the above picture towards the right side) So when the evil leakage occured in the basement/livingroom the sweatshop workers felt it was time for some outside help. They found the cement fairy. The cement fairy came and fixed (so we thought) the uglyness and evil leakage.

Looks nice but.............you missed a few spots...........

Crack in the side of the front porch.

More importantly, the trouth created by not finishing the job. Thus allowing the evil rain water to collect and leak into the basement/livingroom causing scattered belongings, heartache and dispare.
After TWO months of calling the evil trolls almost every day and leaving message after message after message (yes I said TWO months) Finally (after threating legal action) they came and finished the job. So then the sweatshop workers went to work restoring the fabulous front yard and rock garden.



Much better curb appeal.
So that is the end of our long sad story. At least it has a happy ending. With hope and luck the second half of the year will be devoted more towards crafting and preparing for the craft show in November.

As always, thanks for reading and sitting threw the goofyness that is my blog.


***NEXT POST will contain some actual finished plastic canvas****

I've been very busy.......The first half of 2008, a long and sad story PART 1 - The Basement

Once upon a time a pretty plastic canvaser had a beautiful basement/living room.

The pretty plastic canvaser when not working on plastic canvas worked very hard on making this basement/living room beautiful.

One day (Feb 2008) the evil rain fell and flooded the beautiful basement/living room. Belongings were scattered about and life disrupted. But the pretty plastic canvaser found a cement fairy to come and fix the evil leakage. All was well for a short time. But the pretty plastic canvaser soon discovered that the cement fairy was not a fairy at all but more like an evil troll. The evil cement troll caused more horrible leakage by not doing the job they were hired for. (Story and pictures coming in a future installment of "I've been very busy.......The first half of 2008, a long and sad story") So once again life (April 2008)was disrupted and belongings scattered about. This was very sad. The beautiful basement was devistated and so was the pretty plastic canvaser.

The drain we had to put in to avoid any future water problems.Had to rip up the floor we worked so hard on putting down.Why might you ask? Well the evil leakage, once banished, leaves behind a secret weapon that will kill!

BLACK MOLD!!!

Slowly the pretty plastic canvaser started to regain some hope. She looked at this as a opportunity to reinvent her beautiful basement/living. To turn it into something that brings her more happiness and peace then before. So the pretty plastic canvaser began to sheetrock.

And paint.

And organize her basement/livingroom.

And lay new flooring. That we hope will never see the evil leakage or BLACK MOLD!

So things are moving along. And a glimpse of organization and order is upon us.

Soon we will have couches and begin to have craft night again.

The pretty plastic canvaser is very happy with the way her new and improved basement/livingroom turned out. Though the story has a little more ways to go. Such as basemolding and the replacement of the bar and curio cabinet. But for now she is very pleased.

You've got serious thrill issues dude... awesome!

So it's not like I don't have 5 large patterns lying all over my bedroom that need to be cut out and it's not like I have 10 football helmets that I need to prepped for my sweat shop and it's not like I don't have a basement to re-do and it's not like I have about a zillion other things to do but......I just fell in love with this little guy, Righteous! Righteous!

We found him wandering around the Wal-mart craft area to our surprise. "Oh, I saw the whole thing, dude! First, you were like, whoa! And then we were like, WHOA! And then you were like, whoa." This is my first experience with the "globes". This Quick Count kit came with pattern, plastic, yarn and eyes. It was sold as a paperweight but I chose not to fill him with anything. The yarn was Needleloft and I have to say that I will never use that stuff again. It has the worse texture and I felt difficult to work with. It took me a total of about 6 hours to complete. The pattern said to glue the shell and head to the body but I stitched it together. I don't like gluing unless I have to, like his eyes.

So of course this new purchase lead me to search for others like him.....I won a pattern book this morning on ebay so there will be others coming soon. Now give me some fin, nogin dude!!!!