Whew!! The auction is over!!

So, the auction is now over and I couldn't be happier. We raised about $10,000 and that goes a long way towards putting in the walking path we are working towards. The principal surprised us, Jenny and I, with a copy of the police report right in front of everyone last night. It was great fun. We have really fun auctions with entertainment and lots of laughs. Our principal is very punny!

I'm going into ribbon overdrive starting today and I'm going to whip these orders out. If you paid via PayPal, you'll get an e-mail from them when I ship your package. You can always e-mail me at pinkhedgehog@yahoo.com to check on the status of your particular order.

I have an inbox filled with e-mails, so if you've already mailed me, I'm working down the list.

One more story......

I thought you might all enjoy an anecdote to supplement my last post:

Friday night, my auction co-chair Jenny and I were at the school late......very late.......typing up the catalog with our committee. The catalog has to go to press Monday morning (tomorrow) at 10:00 AM in order to be ready for us to bind it on Wednesday evening.

Our committee started trickling out just before midnight. Two of our committe members stayed with us until 2:00 AM. Jenny and I were tweaking the catalog and our other members were putting finishing touches on advertising signs to put up on street corners.

After our friends left at 2, Jenny and I stayed another hour finishing the major parts of the catalog. We left the portable and locked up, unlocked the gate, drove through and locked it, then proceeded to drive around to the front of the school to let ourselves in the front door and set the alarm. When we got to the front of the school, driving my big, black Suburban complete with tinted windows, specialty rims and all; a nice menacing vehicle, not exactly housewife standard issue, we had a surprise waiting for us!

Apparently the police at the front door didn't think we looked harmless either. They turned on their flashing lights and blinded us with searchlights. I could just see Jenny and I sitting in the back of cop cars, while the police tried to track down the principal in the middle of the night to verify our story. Luckily, our vehicle looked menacing, but Jenny and I don't.

It took some explaining, but they finally believed us and let us go. We entered the school and set the alarm with no further problems. They were probably thinking that no sane person would be hanging around an elementary school at 3 in the morning. They were right......no sane person would do that!

It's been a super crazy couple of weeks around here. I posted a few posts ago about what's been going on. My hubby had surgery on the 11th, which happened to be my 3rd son's birthday. To top it off, that son and his older brother started in with the stomach flu that morning and passed it to my littlest one by that Friday. My hubby was doing pretty well by Friday, but I was in crunch mode for the auction by then, with only 2 weeks to go.

As if that weren't enough, my hubby came down with a different stomach flu and fever this past Tuesday and then passed it to me on my birthday, Thursday. I spent the whole afternoon and until 10:00 Friday morning delirious with fever. Not fun. By Friday morning, one more son was sick with it also. Arrrgh!

When I first posted these shares, I anticipated having all of the ribbons here at least 3 weeks ago. I didn't foresee the backorder problems I would have. If I had received the ribbon in a timely manner, the orders would all be cut and shipped by now. As it stands right now, I'm still waiting on the following:

~2 colors of solid grosgrain
~4 colors of polka-dot grosgrain
~1 color of gingham
~2 colors of 5/8" striped organdy

I finally had the shipment of solid grosgrain and 1/8" organdy arrive last week.

The biggest thing on my plate at the moment (besides being Mom of 4 boys) is an auction for our elementary school. The auction is this coming Friday, the 27th. I am co-chair of the auction and I knew I'd be insanely busy the last 2 weeks before the auction. Keep in mind, that this is also a volunteer position, not a regular job, just a one time thing. We're raising money this year to construct a walking path at the elementary school.

What I didn't expect was backorders that would put my ribbon deliveries landing at my house at the exact same time I'm crazy with the auction. I had hoped to have everything cut and shipped before the auction "crunch time" arrived. The auction takes months to prepare, but the last two weeks are always crazy. My co-chair and I worked 70 hours last week on auction related stuff and it will be about the same this week. I haven't had any complaints or anything from all of you who ordered, but I'm sure some of you are wondering where your ribbons are. I really appreciate all of your patience!

I will be finished with the auction this Friday evening and after that I'll be in overtime ribbon mode. Hopefully by then, I'll have the backorders all here and I can just cut and ship with incredible speed! Yay!! I'll cut and ship by order of payment. If you have ordered something that is listed as backordered above, I'll ship everything else to you and ship those shares as the backorders are shipped to me.

One more note. I do have lots of orders of brads packed and ready to go. I just need to address those. I'll get them addressed today and dropped at the PO tomorrow morning. Thanks again everyone for being so patient! These ribbons and brads are worth the wait!

Ordering More Brads!!

I have had a lot of requests for brads, so I'm going to place another order. I will have both regular and neutral add-ons available.

What shares do I have left?

That's the question of the day. I have all of my ribbon shares left. If I run out, I'll order more. In any case, you may have to wait up to a month for your ribbons depending on what you order and where your spot is in the spool. Rest assured your ribbon will be on it's way as soon as possible. I've had nothing but happy stampers in my shares!

To see more details about my various shares, look at my older posts. Each share has it's own post.

I'll count and post later in the week when I know how many shares of brads I have remaining.

I'm also taking reservations for my special eyelet share. I'm having eyelets custom colored in all of our favorite colors including neutrals. I also have an older post about that.

What a crazy week!

Boy, this was a crazy week at our house!

Wednesday was my 3rd son's 11th birthday. To top it off, it was also the day of my hubby's surgery. There was no other day we could do it on, but it's really made this month crazy. And, as if that weren't enough, my 2nd son and 3rd son woke up vomiting that morning. Sheesh!

So, the surgery went well. They were having to rebuild his nose using cartilage from his ear. He'd had a broken nose years before and two surgeries, resulting in him not being able to breathe through his nose. He's doing well and is supposed to be back to normal within a week or so. Yay!

Despite all of that, I managed to get about 30 packages sent this week. Some of you will be receiving your brads and ribbons any day. I'm still waiting on some backorders, but I'm shipping what I have received. That ribbon winder is amazing!

Shipping and Delivery Updates

I have finally received the shipment of gingham......of course missing one backordered color. I think I would fall over if any of my shipments contained all of the colors I ordered.

I'm still waiting for 3 colors of polka dot grosgrain to arrive.

Meanwhile, I have received and counted 2 orders of brads, plus the neutral add-on options. I am working on packaging and addressing those tonight and they will go out first thing in the morning. In some cases, they will be coming with ribbons as well.

I have all of the organdy and polka dot organdy on hand, so those are being cut and shipped in order of payment received, as best I can. I also have grosgrain on hand....except of course 1 backordered color. That should arrive this week, though. I'm sending out dozens of boxes on Thursday with my carrier, plus more on Saturday. I'm devoting the entire day Thursday to cutting and packaging.

I'll post a picture of the gingham and polka-dot grosgrain when I get a chance in the next couple of days.

OK, back to addressing brads! :o)

Watch May 1st for 3 new shares!

Latest Updates!!

What is this?? It's my new ribbon winder that my hubby made for me. It's the result of both of us brainstorming and his engineering skills. It can wind 10 pieces of ribbon at a time, up to 1-inch in width. It's sort of funny looking, but it gets the job done! I pre-cut one piece of any given ribbon to a 5 yard length and then wind it onto the contraption along with 10 others of the same style of ribbon. This cuts my cutting time by an amazing amount. He's working on a couple more tweaks to make it even faster.

Shipping updates:

• brads~~The first batch is counted and I hope to address and ship those tomorrow
• gingham~~Still waiting on delivery
• polka dot grosgrain~~Waiting for 4 backordered colors
• solid organdy~~here and waiting to be cut (cutting 3/8" currently)
  
• grosgrain and supplemental grosgrain~~waiting for shipment
• polka dot organdy~~here and waiting to be cut
• striped organdy~~here, some cut, but waiting for 2 backordered colors in 5/8"

Be assured I'm cutting and packaging as quickly as I can. I'm shipping in order of when I received your payment. For checks/money orders, I wait for them to clear before sending the goodies. I expect the first batch of ribbons to ship out tomorrow. If you ordered only 3/8" striped organdy, and have paid, your ribbons should go out in the first batch.

I'm busy cutting ribbons and have a few orders ready to go. I'm still missing