Thursday, March 29, 2012

Holiday!

Living in California we celebrate a holiday that only a few states celebrate. Tomorrow we celebrate Cesar Chavez day.

And that means I get a day off. Not every business celebrates it but government offices do so it's a light day in terms of traffic, etc.

I'm going to be spending the day designing and my original plan was to send my tablet off to be fixed but duh, the post office will be closed.

I'm already feeling like I'm having a Calgon Take Me Away moment...relaxation all day and then 2 additional days off! Hooray!

I feel free.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Thrifty

I have to send my Android Transformer 101 away to be fixed. The screen will not turn on. bah! I bought a box and was going to buy some bubble wrap.

Do you know how much bubble wrap costs? OMG, it was 20.00 for a box. Far more bubble wrap than I need to wrap a 10 inch tablet. So I'm walking around the party store to figure out what I can buy that won't cost me 20.00. Nothing. Those foam peanuts are 10.00 and I don't need that many peanuts either.

I spied a cart where one of the workers had been unpacking something and there were a bunch of plastic bags stuffed into a larger plastic bag.

A light bulb moment. I could use that discarded plastic as stuffing in the box and it wouldn't cost me a cent.

The clerk didn't bat an eyelash when I asked if I could have it. He said, "Absolutely you can have it...one man's trash is another man's treasure."

Well, I couldn't call it a treasure but he did save me 20.00 so he was the treasure really.

I feel very thrifty and smug with my multi-purposing ways.

Hooray for DIY people!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Reports made

Having your credit info stolen is a big pain in the butt. Spent the morning at the police station, the bank and trying to do it all without being too late to work.

No help for it as my bank doesn't open until 9 a.m. Totally bankers hours. The police station visit was a breeze, the woman behind the glass took my info, Zeroxed it and told me the report would be ready in 7 to 10 days. The bank didn't turn me down this time...since they already turned me down to do a fraud report on Saturday I took a different route. I told her I wanted to dispute the charge because it wasn't my charge. I told her the story, including how I knew it was older than 60 days but my rationale was if someone embezzled money from them 6 months ago but they only found out on Sat. would they only go after that person for the last 60 days of theft? And since this was an airline ticket it should be easy to find out exactly who sat in that seat. It probably helped that I had a police report number.

She agreed and I filled out the fraud reports. She notarized it and off I went to work.

I am crossing all my body parts that I get my money back...if and when I do I'll be so happy I could do a happy dance. Wish me luck that the agencies that should help me works hard to get my money back into my account!

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Hooray! A free drink!

Psych! Oh never mind...I got a birthday postcard from Starbucks giving me a free drink for my birthday. But it came today and my birthday was Feb. 8th and it says I need to use it by Feb 15th.

Now that's one way to save some money...send it out after the birthday!

It's been a day of disappointments. Yesterday I found an airline charge I didn't make. Unfortunately it's an old charge and my bank only deals with charges in the last 60 days. No, I didn't notice the charge at the time...during a 3 wk period I'd bought a Kindle and a android tablet AND returned the Kindle and had to recharge the Kindle (because I upgraded to the new version that came out a week after I purchased my Kindle) so I assume I didn't notice because my account was going up and down.

I don't get paper statements and my bank requires that I log in to see my statement. Which I don't do and may be the death of me that as long as my balance is in the green I'm not looking at them. I've decided to go back to paper because at least with paper it's in my hands and I always tear open that envelope. I don't really care at this moment that having them print my statement costs money. Having a passive statement cost ME money.

I have to file a police report and am disputing the charge with the airline but I have no idea if they'll do anything about it. There is added complexity since that VISA has been cancelled due to a different fraudulent charge that I DID catch. In that case my bank froze my account because someone charged 2 $90.00 transactions at Walmart and that's how I found out...I couldn't use my card to make a 30.00 purchase at the craft store.

I don't know why my bank didn't call me to verify an airline ticket. It's larger than $90.00 and way off my normal patterns for my card. They've called me before when I purchased a computer. I was happy they called me. Now I'm unhappy that they didn't call me on this charge.

So Monday I have to go to the police dept and file a report. Grrrrr. But it will be worth it if I can get my money back. Cross your fingers.

I'm just thinking I could really go for a drink right now...and not just a coffee drink.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Onward!

Well, I was a bust in that Spoonflower - Textile Design Center - Urban Sighting contest...didn't make the finalist list. Onward! But if you want to read/view my post about making the contest entry read it here.

I'm bowing out of a number of contests so I can focus on doing designs that I want to do as opposed to fitting things to a theme that is chosen by someone else: I'll be putting together a portfolio of coordinates to send out.

My focus is always on usable fabric, it's something I have to watch out for that I don't just do a graphic that works as a single view but something that works as a single view AND as something that flows on a yard of fabric.

I love my repeat on those trees, I love the diagonal and the vertical feel of the design. A reminder:

I'm going to change the color scheme and get rid of the photographic bark and use my own fill for that so it should have a different look to it and I'm also going to lighten it up quite a bit. The underlying design will not have a nature within an urban message to it...it will be more of a woodland message.

I'm happy that I'm changing it up! Onward!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Urban Sightings Design Contest Entry

The urban contest asks that we choose a photo or two (provided by the Textile Design group) to use as a base for a urban renewal with this as the guiding prompt: "This exhibition is to celebrate the art that can be found in everyday surroundings and the daily transition of the neighborhood landscape during this large construction project."

My quandry is showing viewers what I am trying to convey: Here is my description for the urban contest: "Each new day brings renewal.  The texture of peeling paint gives character to the background shadows.  Growing trees leaf out and incorporate the old with the new. Merging urban renewal with new life, new changing scenery. 

Shadows - peeling paint
Leaves - yarn from the bike. "

In trying to convey what the prompt means to me I come up with this design that says what I want it to say...but I don't think it translates in such a small format for viewing purposes.  Judges (I assume) will view the initial round using a FQ view and I'm hoping to convince SF to use a larger view for more detailed viewing.  The design will translate in fabric form as the trees are actually about 6 inches tall. 

3 repeats is almost impossible to show the detail to show which recognizable elements I used for the Urban contest.  See the next graphic for detail. 

This shows the detail of the peeling paint as the tree shadows.  I really wanted the peeling paint to look like bark so it incorporates the living trees with the ever-changing urban changes using paint as a way to renew. The leaves use the yarn from the bike photo and because of it being very small it's difficult to see even in this single view. Check out the giant detail in the next image. 




The mottled leaves are mottled using the yarn that is wrapped around the bike frame.  It you scroll thru the bunches of leaves you can see the yarn better in some places than others.


The leaf detail
The contest is so open-ended that there is a huge array of designs.  As I put this together I wondered if the focus would be on urban,  nature,  redevelopment,  art, quilting,  etc.  I choose to focus on how an urban setting can perfectly merge with a natural park setting.  You can choose to see this design as dawn or dusk, in winter or summer, as sun-lit or shadow-focused.  

Good luck to all who entered!  

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Motorola Razr Maxx out of stock

How many times in 10 days can you buy Verizon phone?  Well, I can do it 3 times.

Called Verizon to find out if the phone was in stock and available. The CSR said yes. Cool. Went to the store to buy. Cool.  I'll get it in 2 days. Cool.

Not cool when 5 days later I didn't have it. Called Verizon they said they had 15,000 in warehouses in my state. Cool. Cancelled my store order, ordered directly from Verizon who said they'd pay for overnight shipping and I'd get it in 2 days before 3 p.m. (I ordered late in the evening). Got billed for it as the store still had my money I originally paid.  Cool.

Oddly the next day I got an email saying my (original order which was cancelled) was being delivered to the store on Friday.

Friday 2:57 p.m. 2 days later. No phone. Not cool. Called Verizon who said it had not shipped. That they were on backorder and my order would not ship til the 16th.  NOOOOOOO, not cool.  That the phone had been on backorder since before my order on March 1st. and they'd never updated their list to show it was not available but on backorder.

Verizon called the store where my original order was delivered earlier that day and they agreed to hold it for me. Verizon cancelled my order with them and I'd go to the store to repurchase the phone for the 3rd time.

Finally at 5:30 I got my phone.  I was totally happy to get it (and it's a fabulous phone) but I can't actually believe that the entire customer service and indirect stores had no electronic word that the phones were on backorder when the inventory showed 15,000 in the 4 California warehouses.  Hmmmm, think maybe they're creating buzz to show how well that phone is selling?  It certainly crossed my mind.

So now I'm updating everything (there has got to be a better way to transfer apps/passwords between old and new phones!).  Right now I'm so enamored with my phone that I could do a little happy dance.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Hooray for Toile Top 10 winners!

Always nice to come in the Top 10 for the weekly Spoonflower design contest.  My toile came in at 9th place and here is a detail of the printed fabric on Kona cotton.

A detail of my toile

To see the whole design click here.  There you can see it in a full repeat and read about the buildings and elements I put into the design.  And you can buy it too! 


Sunday, March 4, 2012

Robots are fun, quirky things to draw.  There were so many ways I could have taken this.  I wanted to go steampunk but ended up doing something quite a bit different.  Here is it:


A cheery group of bots!

To see the actual fabric at my storefront go here to Spoonflower.

Irked

I'm irked over the price of gas; I just paid 67.00 for 14 gallons of gas.  gulp.

I also just decided I'm cutting my latte drinking habit down.  I'm fat and it's all because I drink so much whole milk all day long.  Let's see if I can cut it in half so I can cut that in half later. I'm irked that I can't seem to drink 2% so I must cold turkey it.

My hibiscus is not cut down and I don't dare try to cut it down myself.  The last time I trimmed a small tree I broke my nose.  I'm not doing that again. See? You can teach an old dog a new trick.  I'm irked that the branches block the laundry room door.

I'm irked because my new phone that I ordered Thurs is not here.  The Verizon people told me it would come the next day or maybe Sat.  Not here and it's Sunday.

I should take a chill pill.