In My Hole

You remember Friday's cautionary tale? Yeah, well it got worse. The customer who received their mask without paying for the shipping costs still has yet to reply to a single message. I am not shocked, but that is not the worse part. The worse part is the other customer that asked for expedited shipping for a Halloween mask and was a pleasure to work with had her package 'improperly routed' and it's delivery rescheduled for Tuesday. So I spent Friday in yet another ball of stress calling UPS and writing messages to the customer hoping they wouldn't want to yell at me. The customer was blissfully understanding relieving a bit of the stress in the evening, but I still have to wait until the mask actually arrives to contact UPS again to get a refund and to see if the customer just wants to send it back or keep it. Again, the moral of the story, no more expedited shipping and I should probably add that you should never just 'trust' anyone when money is involved.

Sales dried right up too. I haven't had one since the aforementioned drama. This has put me in one of those 'crawl into a hole and stay there' moods. It wasn't until that small window between taking my Mom to lunch for her birthday and taking the kids trick-or-treating that I felt any desire to be creative again. During my last supply order I picked up some clearance beads. They're gray cats eye teardrops and I really wanted to do something with them and the gray thread. While everyone else is getting their winter white holiday stuff put together, I thought I'd do a winter gray one. There was a time when I switched to white snowflakes for the season, but that was the time before there were a dozen other tatters selling them on etsy. My contribution to this cause is no longer needed, so I will put my own dark little spin on it with a little dark gray.

I did get a few small pieces put together in the traditional, making it up as I go along, method. I did not however bother to take any pictures, so you will have to wait until tomorrow to see what it is that I've done or at least until I get some pictures and list them in the shop later today. I also think that it's time to work on some more gift-able pieces, though honestly I generally fail at knowing what people might want and I end up making a dozen sets that sit until I give up and donate them to someone. This will not stop me from trying yet again though, the holiday season has already thrown up everywhere and time will soon be running out yet again. If there is one thing I learned from years in retail, it's that forth quarter is everything. You fail then and the whole year is a loss. I know, I'm terribly upbeat this morning. Here's to a better week, a nice fall day and no drama.