I was cleaning the living room earlier today and I finally piled up all the designs I bought from eBay during December... the pile was about 30 centimeters high (and as it consists of booklets and leaflets you can imagine how many patterns there are...) and it doesn't include those Wentzler's I bought for Linda and few frog booklets I sent to US.

I need to list them, which doesn't sound like a very enjoyable task, and then I need to find a place for them from my craft shelf... which will be yet another achievement, but the main thing is: loads of beautiful stash and it is all mine!

Never say "never"

I have proved this true once again: you remember how much I hate vacuum cleaners?

You do? Great.

What if I tell you that I have one nowadays?

While I was still looking for a job I was watching Home Shopping Network one day and saw one product which raised my interest for three reasons: it doesn't have dust bag (if that is the word) so no need to run in stores to look for replacements (you know how much fun that is...), it has a HEPA filter and it filters the "sucktion product" through water which should catch most dust particles on their way (in a regular hoover smallest parts go through the whole system and it's bad for an asthmatic person).
Well, after thinking of it for few days I got it.

As surprised as I am it actually is a pleasant product to use (no dust smell when hoovering and no coughing), it works like a charm and it reveals amazing things about the lifeform called "cat hair".
You can sweep the floor twice and still you have two egg-sized furballs in the water container when you have hoovered living room floor.

I am afraid that this thing may make me clean more often (well, Mr. Wonderful has that affect too: he is NEAT)...

It is a serious illness, folks...

... and it is called teresawentzleritis.

Cure? Who needs a cure?!

Exchange goodies and belated birthday gift ^^

I actually received Cathy's exchange some time ago, but it has been insane at work so it took this long for me to post pictures for you to admire...

Cathy stitched me gorgeous pinkeep using a design on my wishlist and she made it even more perfect as the colours match the pinkeep I received in Here's to Ewe!
She also added some lovely goodies so I was really pampered to bits!

Thank you Cathy!

With stitching friends you can have your birthday more than once every year

For aforementioned reason I haven't blogged about belated birthday gift I got from Leena either...

Leena stitched me cute little Halloweeny ornaments and sent me magazine where the designs are from and skein of Pomme de Pin hand-dyed, which is completely new brand to me (the colour is much better in person, flash just does things to colours) and looks absolutely yummy.

Thank you Leena!

Life in general

There has been annoyance and good things in my life lately, but just to end this entry with positive things a little rant:

I sold some stuff at local auction site in last month and one of the winners has been a nuisance... I sent her win to her about three weeks ago and accidentally found out that she had complaints about the postages (which she accepted and paid when requested) - her claim is that she paid more than the postage was (she should try eBay some day: that is SO common). Accidentally because she had left, excuse my French, paranoia filled rant in my feedback (and of course she gave me negative) without trying to contact me in ANY way before that (she knew my email, of course). Of course I got annoyed and left her negative feedback in return just because she obviously is not a good customer even though she paid quickly... after this she started to harass me in quite threatening way and sent me an SMS threatening to come behind my door (she lives on the other side of the country...) if I don't answer to her call right now...
I sent her courteously chilly SMS that she should read her email and that I do not answer to personal calls while I am at work (it's very common for people to be at work around 8:30 in the morning).

At the moment I am intentionally communicating slowly with her through email trying to help her to see the plain stupidity of her claim: if she had contacted me right after she got the item and asked me for a refund I would have said yes without thinking twice, but after coping with her ignorance, plain stupidity, harassment and obvious lack of sense of reality I am not very fond of the idea. Eventually I may refund her as a charitable action (if her finances depend on those three euros she needs charity!), but she will never get the other things she wants from me: positive feedback. Why would I give to her? She's real pain in my behind and I don't want that anyone else has to suffer from her...

On brighter side of things: I have lately begun to receive my purchases from eBay so I have had lovely stash filled days and pile of new and new/ used stuff waiting for to be blogged about.

But, great things last: first of all I have two whole days off starting tomorrow!
Secondly I have been praised today by our area manager and SALO (our branch's quality control/ improvement and work effectivity program) trainer, which feels good for several reasons. ^^

But now I must run: I just got an email from Mr. Wonderful. ^^

Actually I am alive and well, but...

... lately I have just spent all my days at work or sleeping and have barely had energy to do anything in addition of working because of the anaphylaxis and the cortisone treatment.
Luckily the symptoms have vanished (mostly, at least) and I have noticed an interesting additional benefit of high dose of cortisone: my leg hairs haven't been growing since I started the medication.

Admittedly I know that I am just asking for trouble by working this much and sacrificing my days off when I am asked to come to work: my plan is to actually have next two days off I have in the end of coming week - I need to as I am planning to get influenza vaccination and I may get slight cold from it and it's better that I am off when the side effects strike.
But, on the other hand I know why I am so willing to be the one who saves the day by coming to work when needed: it's not that much about the money, but about not having to be at home when Mr. Wonderful is not here as more or less surprisingly I find it quite confusing not to have him here close to me at all times.

What makes it even more difficult is that because of the news he received when he arrived back to Europe we won't probably see before I go there (hopefully in the beginning of January) as at the moment he just simply can't take that time off. (Which makes the situation probably even more stressfull for both of us as we miss each other and I know that he would need me there more than usual at this moment. If we could spend some time together he would have a possibility to forget about his stress for a minute, relax a bit and concentrate on finer things of life: us.)
So, it's easier for me to spend my days working as I can distract myself and concentrate on customers and my duties - and of course being paid for it is an additional bonus (it pays my newly found eBay addiction (which probably is partially caused by missing Mr. W. - though admittedly I have been justifying postages and bid on things I might sell on a local auction site ($1 leaflets/ booklets will very likely pay themselves back through there) and some items for couple of friends)).

But, as we always remind each other: there will be a day when this phase passes and we are together on daily basis. And that day is worth waiting for.

And something completely diferent...

I have lost my eBay seller virginity and placed few mags on sale just out of curiosity:

• CS 165; Margaret Sherry's "12 Days of Christmas", part I
• CS 166; Margaret Sherry's "12 Days of Christmas", part II
• CS 167; Margaret Sherry's "12 Days of Christmas", part III

More stitchy content coming to a blog near you one of these days... hopefully tomorrow.

eBay, the source of all evil - and wonderful new stash!

My Noah's Ark arrived last week in pristine condition from the seller and about two days after that I received some more Out-Of-Print Teresa Wentzlers from another eBay seller - two of three designs are such I wasn't even aware of!

Those formerly-unbeknownst-to-me designs were "Peaceable Kingdom" and "Diamonds in Squares" (not OOP, but I have never seen it anywhere), "Treetop Sampler" wasn't that high on my wish list, but as the same seller who had PK and DiS had it I bid for it and got it (I think that is called "justifying the postages").

Choking

Well, I still have some of it, but it's getting easier to cope with - it only happens about once a day and I don't need the bronchodilator to release my larynx anymore. (Though I also suspect that some bad news Mr. Wonderful told me today may have affected negatively to my condition (nothing to do with us, in theory (it will probably affect to our plans for the future though), but the da**ed global financial crisis), but knowing how devastated he is at this moment I am not telling him that, he has enough on his mind already.)

OOPitis i.e. how I ended up shopping at eBay

I was chatting with Linda today and she happened to mention Teresa Wentzler's "Noah's Ark" and how she would love to have it some day even it is OOP (Out Of Print). I recalled adoring that same design in someone's blog and thought that I would like to find the design.
Well, just after we had ended our little gossip moment I decided to google the design, just out of curiosity, and found this as Buy Now.

I think I don't even need to ask you to guess did I buy it or not.

I also found this link through Google and I think many of us TW addicts will find it useful: Teresa Wentzler Design List