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!! :D

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.