Shock at the Post Office

Well, my little ducks are now flapping their wings across the Pacific Ocean on their way to Canada. I got a shock at the Post Office today – I understood I could insure my parcels so that they’re ‘trackable’, and it costs an extra $7.50 to do that … today, though, I find that Canada is one of the very few countries (along with Germany) that you can’t insurance parcels to … the only option for tracking purposes is to send it as a courier parcel … for $43.00 aaaarghhhh!!!!!!! I wish I’d been told that earlier, as we could have jiggled the mailing list somehow so I was posting either to the USA or UK, as they’re both insurance option countries … bl**dy hell, is all I can say – definitely takes the shine off the RR in a way, as I’ll potentially be up for almost $150 in postage throughout the RR postings {{picture forlorn face here LOL}}. I’m looking at other options, to see if it’s worthwhile for a friend in the USA to receive them, then forward on over the border … but time will tell whether that’s an option or not. Today, however, my little ducks are winging their way over the pond uninsured and definitely not in a courier bag … I figure if they go missing, it’s just my work that’s been lost – I wouldn’t dare do that with someone else’s masterpiece, though …

Mum also has a parcel of DMC on its way to her, seeing as she’s now officially addicted to stitching Christmas ornaments … I told her to make a list of colours she needed for her entire wishlist, and I’ve managed to fill her request with about 60-70 skeins of DMC from my stash – that should keep her out of trouble for a while!! 😀

Now because I have no stitching to present, here are the last three SBQ’s (oops, didn’t realise I was so far behind – story of my life where blogging’s concerned just lately!!) …

14 June – Today’s SBQ was suggested by Angela and is:

“How many cross stitch books do you own and how often do you use them?”

If we’re just specifying “cross stitch” books, I have a few that have been bought in various bookstore sales, but I don’t honestly use them at all, as they’re too simplistic. I do have quite a large number of embroidery books, some of which I drool over regularly, and some I’ll eventually make a project out of … one day 😉 I regularly use some of the books that have stitch instructions, eg A-Z of Embroidery Stitches etc … there are waaaay too many to list here, though …

21 June – Today’s SBQ was suggested by Vash and is:

“Have you ever used a magnifying glass while stitching? If so, did you find it helpful?”

Nope, not yet – I haven’t had a great deal of difficulty to see while stitching yet, although my best stitching tool is my daylight lamp. The small desktop version one I have has a magnifying glass on top of it, but I don’t use it.

29 June – Today’s SBQ was suggested by Cheryl and is:

“What do you do with your charts once you’ve stitched them? Do you keep them or dispose of them? If you keep them, do you organize them in a way that is different from the way you keep your unstitched charts?”

I used to have a separate folder for “stitched” charts, so they were quick to lay my hands on if anyone asked for details from them, or I decided to put them up for trade/give away … now everything is just lumped in together.