Current Mood : Snarky
Spent on Embroidery : $8.99 for six Disney fonts
My fun with telemarketers continues. Answered the phone with our business name, caller repeated it, said he wanted to discuss our Yellow Pages ad renewal. I told him we didn't have a Yellow Pages ad and we couldn't afford one at this time. He hung up on me without another word. Scam. A real salesperson wouldn't take ‘we're busted' as an answer, and perhaps may have extended a tad of courtesy to a potential new client. Strikes me as the same ‘this is not a bill, but if you pay it, you agree to pay us eleven more monthly installments for an ad you don't get until next year' crap we used to get in the mail. I wonder if I'd agreed to ‘renew' our non-existent ad what kind of BS I would have committed us to ?
When postal rates go up, everyone complains. Not me. I maybe use a book of stamps all year, and if it keeps this kind of misleading garbage from confusing people, it's fine with me ! One of the reasons we let the non-Yellow Pages ad we did have lapse is 1) we didn't get much of a response, and what we did get was looking for us to paint an entire house interior for $250., supplies included, and 2) we got so many solicits from other classified ad companies, it was difficult to figure out which one we actually owed money to - and how to cancel when our contract was up. Every bit of mail from all five (yes, five !) companies looked the same, so if I wasn't paying attention, it would have been easy to obligate us to all five phone books at around $100./month for a year each. It's ridiculous.
In better news, I finally got a set of Disney-style embroidery fonts for what I wanted to pay. I'd have much rather gotten them as instant downloads rather than a mailed CD, but it was $9. for the CD set and $13. for the download - and the CD set came in six sizes, with capitals, lower case, and some punctuation in five. The quarter-inch size is capitals and punctuation only - it's too small for lower case. Download was only good for two. I have no idea why I'm getting more for less money, and in a fashion that costs the seller money, but I got what I wanted, I just have to wait a week or so for it to arrive.
And, after washing and line-drying Dearest Son's bedding - the whole Cars set, bedspread and all - and sewing a missing button off Beloved Hubby's pants, I decided to sew a bit for fun. So I did the Barbie appliqué shown today. The white bobbin thread showed a lot, so next time I'm out, I'm gonna snag some black bobbin thread and use them both accordingly. I think the fabric I used for this one was simply too thin.
Touched it up a bit with one of the fine-point Sharpies Beloved got for me, then cut it close to the stitches. This one was gonna be a fridge magnet ! Broke out the iron and used Stitch Witchery to attach it to some Peltex - a stiff yet washable backing often used for fabric bowls - and Super-Glued a magnet to the back. Our fridge is gonna get pretty crowded at this rate ! I'll probably sew it again on a t-shirt, as my little 50th Anniversary nod. Maybe center the ‘Barbie' signature a bit better on the next one. The masking tape to hold the appliqué fabric worked, but I didn't have it very tight. It's all part of the learning process...
There's a site that has fridge magnets, all ‘in the hoop'. And it is pretty complicated. Adhesive sprays, several different stabilizers, on and on. I kinda prefer my iron-on Peltex, even if it does mean using the iron. Added bonus - with my simple technique, a little bit of a few cheap supplies go a long way, it's probably faster since you're not hooping five or six different fabrics and stabilizers, cheaper ‘cause you're not cutting away a lot of scrap too small to save or reuse, and darn near anything can be a fridge magnet. Or a brooch. Or can be attached to a card or enclosed in a letter. Or...
And, if you decide later that you want a magnet, that's fine. You don't have to sit down and say ‘make a magnet this time', you can always decide later. I like flexibility, and the ability to defer how to use what you made until you're ready. Or at least until it's done and ‘speaks' to you.
