New Beads on eBay . . .

Here's my latest set of beads, up on eBay right now. Thankfully, I managed to get this set listed without any glitches, and it showed up immediately. I hope to have a set of beads to offer you fairly shortly which will be for sale through the website. Depending on whether I have enough time up my sleeve today, they will be ready tomorrow or else maybe Saturday (remembering that Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays I work a full 7.5 hours each day in my medical transcription job and won't get any time after today to work on beads until at least Friday afternoon). Have a good week.

Some Sort of World Record . . .

Further to my blog entry from yesterday . . . this must be some sort of world record, even for eBay. It took 25 hours for my auction to show in the Lampwork category ... 25 hours!! I woke up this morning, fully expecting it would finally be showing, but nope. The only way I could even find the auction (apart from looking in My eBay), was to either click on the link from my blog or website, type "2cats" in the Search box, or else click on "View Seller's Other Items" from one of the other two auctions I had running. I was absolutely livid.

So for the first time ever, I decided to try the Live Help option on eBay. After sitting there for over 10 minutes waiting for a representative to answer me (all the while being told "You are next in the queue - expected waiting time is 6 seconds"), a representative finally asked me what the problem was. After carefully explaining the situation, I'm told to wait . . . after another 10 minutes, she comes back to tell me that the listing is on eBay, and all I have to do is enter the Item Number and the auction will load. *sigh*. I already knew that, however, that's not much use to anyone who happens to be browsing the Lampwork category - they are still not going to find my auction unless they happen to know the item number, and of course, how could they possibly know the item number if the damn auction isn't showing up in the first place?

*Sigh*. So after much to-ing and fro-ing, and pretty much getting nowhere with Live Help, (they were going to continually deny it wasn't showing - after all, they would gladly take an extra US$2.75 off me if I cancelled the original auction and re-listed it), I said "thanks for your time" (which was far from the mark of what I actually wanted to say to her) I exited Live Help, absolutely seething. Eventually, as I said above, after 25 hours the auction finally showed up. Where it actually was for those 25 hours, I have no idea.

Unbelievable.

And speaking of beads, I will have a new set to offer you tomorrow. That is, of course, assuming I can actually get this set to show up on eBay.

eBay + Professional = Oxymoron

Sigh... how much do I detest eBay? Let me count the ways . . .

I listed the set of beads you see in the picture 3½ hours ago, and yet there is still absolutely no sign of it anywhere on eBay. Not in the "Newly Listed" section, not when I search by "Highest First", not when I visit one of my other auctions and click on the "View Seller's Other Items" link, nor even when I type 2cats into the "Search" box - all the latter option does is show the two auctions that have been running for almost a week. What exactly am I paying outrageously ridiculous high listing and final value fees to these morons for?

Why the hell can't eBay get their act together? I have a theory as to why they do this, and I'm sure they would totally disagree with me on this, but hear me out. This has been happening on and off for many other lampworkers in the past six months (and I hazard a guess that it's not restricted to the "Lampwork" category either), and I know of at least 3 other beadmakers who, after finding out their auction is not showing up, have cancelled the listing and relisted it again. Sounds like a smart idea, right? Yes, it's a smart idea if you like paying double listing fees - you can be sure that eBay are not going to refund the cost of the original listing. So what this all basically boils down to is that eBay are making double the profit on listing fees.

So now I have 2 options:

a) Cancel the auction and relist it, effectively meaning I pay double listing fees.

or

b) Sit around with my finger up my butt, hoping that eventually the listing may actually appear before the 7 day auction is finished.

I hate eBay.

Things That Go Crash In The Day . . .

I had the weirdest thing happen today. As I was sitting here in my office busily typing away in my medical transcription job, I heard the sound of smashing glass right behind me - both the cats (who I'm sure were in the kitchen, adjacent to my office) raced up the hallway in sheer terror, my Mum came rushing out of the living room shouting "What was that?", and I just about needed a change of underwear (okay, so that's probably a little too much information). I turned around to find the bottom panel of glass in one of the sliding doors that lead out to our back porch had smashed ... and I mean smashed.

My first reaction, after making sure the cats were safely locked in the bedroom so as not to escape through the hole left by the broken panel of glass (remembering our cats are strictly indoor cats), was trying to figure out just how in hell the window had actually broken. The first thing I noticed on turning around to look at the door just after the smash was that Toby, our Labrador, was standing outside the door looking in at me.. at this stage, I thought perhaps he had run into it - he has a tendency to grab his chew toys and play on the porch with them, and I figured he must have been playing a little rough and smashed into the glass. The other thought that crossed my mind was perhaps a bird had flown into the window - which wouldn't be the first time, as we've had a number of birds fly into the window - only last month one poor little guy broke his neck when he hit the door, and Mum and I buried him in the front garden. However, as the glass panel is on the bottom of the door, the chances that a bird had done this were highly unlikely.

So.. after the initial shock wore off, and the cats were safely tucked away, I went to the door to assess the damage, still believing that Toby was the prime suspect. However, upon surveying the damage, I was shocked to find that all but a few pieces of glass were actually on the outside of the house. Now, I'm no CSI, but logic would dictate that if Toby had indeed been the culprit, the majority of the glass should have been inside the house, and this simply wasn't the case. To further back up that logic, when the glazier arrived this afternoon to fit the new piece of glass, he was adamant that whatever broke the window had to have been inside the house.

This is all very strange. Mum is holding to the theory that the cats must have been rough housing near the door, and with Patch being quite a large cat, he's banged into the glass and broken it, however, I'm almost 100% positive the cats were in the kitchen when this occurred and not in the office with me. DH Russ was at work. Toby was outside on the porch. Mum was in the living room, and I was sitting here at my desk, nowhere near the window. So.. with that being the case.. what the heck broke the window?

Oh well. At least our house insurance covered the cost of the replacement glass - just as well, since it cost $362.00 - and that's $362.00 that DH Russ & I really couldn't afford at the moment. As to what caused the window to break .. I have not a clue.

It's all very freaky.

More eBay Beads . . .

A sneak peek at my latest set up on eBay. Hope you like them!

Not really a great deal to chat about. I've been busily typing away in my day job, and although tomorrow is the Anzac Day public holiday, unfortunately, I don't get the day off. Not that that's anything new. After being self-employed for over 10 years, I can barely remember what it's like to receive paid public holidays or vacations. That's the one thing I miss about working for someone else.. but, like most everything else in life, there's trade offs . . .

I won't get any studio time now until at least Friday, so, no new beads from me now until at least Saturday, or possibly even Sunday. I still haven't drawn the winner of this month's Freebie Beads either.. I'm running way behind (as usual), but I promise I'll get around to it shortly.

Anyway, for my Aussie friends who are having tomorrow off work, hope you have a nice day. For others, like myself, who will be working... try and have a good day!

Latest Beads on eBay . . .

Just a flying visit to showcase my latest lampwork auction on eBay. I'm really happy with how these turned out - not quite so happy with the photos, since I couldn't capture the true shade of lilac no matter what I tried. Oh well, hopefully you'll get a feel for how pretty these beads are. Anyway, I am planning on spending a few hours in the studio today and with any luck, there should be another set ready to go in a few days' time.

A Welcome Sight . . .

A photo of our back porch, taken just a few minutes ago. It's been raining on and off here pretty much all day. I had almost forgotten what rain looks like. After almost 10 years of drought, the whole country is suffering. Here in Victoria, we're now in Stage 3A water restrictions - so that means no watering the garden, no washing cars and people who install pools are no longer allowed to fill them. Food prices are tipped to double within the next few months - even wine is set to rise due to the poor crop yields. The farmers have approximately 40 days left before the government imposes irrigation restrictions on their water. We live in the driest continent on the planet, and droughts are something that are more or less a part of living in Australia - but in all my 38 years, I've never seen things this bad. It's really frightening. The small amount of rain we're seeing today is nowhere near enough - and I can almost guarantee you it's not going to do much by way of filling the dams.

Anyway, apart from the drought.. what else to chat about? Tomorrow I will definitely have a new set of beads to offer you on eBay. I'm really excited about this set - the colour combination I had in my head worked out perfectly, so I can hardly wait to open the kiln tomorrow morning. DH Russ & I are heading out with our friends Yvonne & Farid for an Indian feast. Since we're back on our low carb way of eating, DH Russ & I will have to avoid the rice, but that's okay.. there'll be plenty of other things to eat.

Well, I'm now off to have a catnap.. I didn't sleep very well last night - I've been suffering with terrible headaches for the past 2 nights, and this morning I woke up feeling nauseous as well - that still hasn't subsided, so I'm hoping that a short snooze may help alleviate things before we head out to dinner. Catch you tomorrow.

Eye Candy . . .

Thought I'd share a photo with you of a few of the custom ordered beads I've been working on. Pretty, huh?

Thank God the weekend is almost here. I've had just about as much medical typing as I can tolerate for one week, and am itching to make beads. After I finish work today, I plan on spending a few hours in the studio, putting together a new set of beads for eBay. I have a colour scheme in mind I've been wanting to try for a few weeks, so I really want to see how they go. Not sure if the beads will be ready tomorrow, but if not, then most definitely Sunday.

Gotta go. Have a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by!

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining . . .

Major computer problems prevented me from doing my medical transcription work yesterday, however, the upside to that was that I spent the day in my studio putting the finishing touches on the custom orders I was working on. So that means on Friday, when I finish work at 12.30 pm, I can head straight into the studio and start working on a set of beads for eBay. Make sure to stop by Saturday to see them. If all goes well, I may even have 2 sets to offer you by early next week. Good news!

And speaking of my medical transcription job, it's time for me to start work. Have a great day, and I'll check in again soon.

Ponderings . . .

Do you ever wonder if anyone famous has visited your blog or website? I was pondering that thought today as I was working in the studio. I have no idea what made me think of that, maybe it has something to do with wishful thinking. Not that it really matters, I guess, whether or not they actually read my blog, but it would certainly be fantastic if they dropped by my website or eBay auctions and actually purchased something. I guess the conundrum then arises in that one part of you would so love to brag to everyone you came across, "Oh, xxxx (insert famous person's name) purchased my beads/jewellery", but in reality, you would probably have to maintain confidentiality. Oh well, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to have to worry about being in that situation any time soon, but hey.. like I said, it was just a thought . . .

And to totally change the subject . . . my poor Labrador, Toby, has some sort of skin infection and/or allergy. It all started about 4 weeks ago when DH Russ & I noticed him frantically scratching under his chin. In the past, he developed a reaction to his collar, but after an injection from the vet, a 2 week course of antihistamines and liberally applying some sort of steroid cream to the affected area, it cleared up. This time however it reached the stage where he was scratching himself so much that he had actually broken the skin and the poor guy was bleeding.

So, we took him to the vet again last week, and after numerous blood tests, we're still not really sure what's causing the itch. The vet seems to think it's a combination of an infection and an allergy and he's now on a 3 week course of antibiotics to hopefully help clear it. Unfortunately, so far, the tablets don't appear to be doing all that much - and the scratching has moved to his rump, top of his head, and even to his paws. The poor baby is scratching himself silly and I'm actually quite worried about him. He's spending most of the time in the house at the moment, as whenever we let him outside, he seems to spend the majority of his time rubbing up against shrubs to scratch himself. One shrub in particular was a favourite, so yesterday DH Russ pulled the whole shrub out of the ground in an effort to stop him. That fixed the problem for a little while, until we caught him digging a hole near our back porch to get at a piece of wire so he could scratch his neck on that. When he's in the house, he doesn't seem to scratch as much - just sleeps more or less peacefully on his bed.

Which is now leading me to suspect that the allergy theory is closest to the truth - what I'm finding particularly disturbing about this is that a few years ago, our next door neighbour's dog developed a similar allergy, and it reached the stage where it was that bad they had to have him put down. I'm hoping and praying that whatever it is that Toby's picked up clears fairly soon - because I don't even want to have to consider putting him down.

I'm so glad I don't have children - I'm bad enough with the animals, so I can't even imagine how traumatic these sorts of situations must be for those of you with children who are ill. Knowing there's nothing you can really do is the hardest part. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that whatever is causing this problem sorts itself out soon.

And speaking of Toby, it's time for his dinner - I also better check on dinner for us humans too. Catch you next time.

A Cat's Life . . .

I know I posted a similar photo of Patch a few weeks ago, but I caught him laying on his back again yesterday and couldn't resist taking another photo of him. For a cat that's literally scared of his own shadow, he seems to spend an awful lot of his time sleeping with his belly exposed.

Well, I'm finished my typing job for the day, so I'm heading into the studio to work on the last custom order. If I manage to finish it today, then hopefully I might have a new set to offer you on eBay next Saturday. If not, then I figure Sunday will be the first opportunity I have to list a new set. In the meantime, I hope you have a great week, and thanks for checking in.

Late Night Shenanigans . . .

Here's a photo I took of the 4 of us last night at Farid & Yvonne's house. We returned there after the 21st birthday party for a nightcap, and ended up staying until after 2.00 am, so I'm paying the price today for not getting to bed until late. If you know me, you'll know I'm not a night owl by any stretch of the imagination - and Farid & Yvonne can vouch for that - not long after this photo was taken, I actually fell asleep on their kitchen table! That's nothing unusual for me - I'm sure they could tell you of many instances where I've been sitting there chatting away with them, and then the next minute, I'm dozing away on their lounge. I have to admit though, that falling asleep on the kitchen table is a new one, even for me. LOL.


I really like this photo of the 4 of us - it's a nice photo of Farid, Russ & Yvonne, and a fantastic one of me, since I'm hiding (my favourite photo of myself will always be one where you can't see me .. I'll never get used to having my photo taken). The other thing you might notice is the difference in the amount of clothing I'm wearing compared to Yvonne - it was actually quite a warm night last night in Melbourne, but I'm always cold, and I love my leather jacket. Oh.. and in case you're wondering why Yvonne & I are standing in such an odd position ... the camera was set on the delayed timer and sitting on top of their bird cage, so we all had to squeeze in close together to get the shot.


Well, time for me to have a shower and finish working on a custom order. Thanks for stopping by.

It's always such a pain ...

To get ready to go out, that is. DH Russ and I, and our friends, Farid & Yvonne are off to the 21st birthday of a mutual friend's daughter (Jayde) this evening. It's being held in the function room of a local restaurant - the restaurant is actually owned by Jayde's parents (and that idiotic ex-best friend of mine, Vi Quach - and I promise I won't bore you to tears with the details of our falling out again.)

I'm one of those people that dreads going to social functions. Not that I don't usually enjoy myself once I'm there. It's just the whole "what am I going to wear?" debacle that seems to ensue every time I have to go out that I loathe. And as I get older, the less inclined I seem to be to want to socialise. Working from home doesn't help - nowadays, I spend so little time out of the house, that the thought of socialising with a whole room full of people and making idle chit chat is about as appealing an idea as bungee jumping. Oh well, this too shall pass . . .

I spent most of the day in my studio, working on a custom order. I can almost guarantee you that I'm not going to have any new auctions now until at least weekend - and perhaps even longer than that. I had hoped to finish the custom orders I'm working on this weekend, but because the weather here is still insanely warm for autumn, my oxygen concentrator is playing up big time, and slowing the process down considerably.

Well, I might go have a snooze before I have to think about going through my wardrobe. Just the mere thought of having to try on clothes is making me tired. Have a good night.

A change is as good as a holiday ...

Or so they say. I'd actually prefer the holiday, but heck, that's what happens when you don't have any money.

Anyhoo, I've been meaning to move my blog to another location for eons, and as I had a spare few minutes this morning before I head into the studio, I figured now was as good a time as any to move my blog to Blogspot. If you really want to read the posts from my old blog, just scroll down to the "Ancient History" heading on the side of the screen and click on the "My old blog on Bravenet" link.

Well, that's probably all out of me for the moment. Hope you have a great weekend.