Rain Damage?? Menlo Park This Weekend

     This weekend I'll be in Menlo Park for the three day sidewalk art show.
My booth is on the south corner of Santa Cruz Ave. and Chestnut, in front of a bank, and I can never remember which bank! I think it is a Wells Fargo?

      I keep my glass kiln on the deck of my studio, so it doesn't overheat my small studio in the summer. I did a small kiln-load of glass last week, and the next morning it rained (which is a pretty unusual event these days for California) and I didn't have my kiln covered.  I am a little afraid to turn it on to see if there was any damage, but I am thinking of doing one kiln load for Menlo this weekend.  If you don't see any new glass, you'll know it didn't work!

The Rest of the Story

In my previous post, I ended with overcharging a customer about $4400, around that amount anyhow. Of course, she was a new customer so I was extrememly worried that she thought this was malicious, so I emailed her like crazy, and found her phone number on the internet, then called her like crazy.
When I finally connected with her, she was so kind and gracious. Amazing!

But here is the rest of the story.....
It was bad timing for the overcharge on her credit card, since she was heading to Washington D.C. for a week of fun. Bad timing for her as well, since it was the week of the federal government shutdown.
She called her senator about visiting the White House, but of course that was shut down as well. Several days into her trip, she received a phone call from her senator, Sam Farr I think it was ( oh those brain cells) who offered her and her friend a private tour of the White House.
She said it was incredible, a small group of people with the Senator, and something very few people have ever experienced. No other tourists were around, so they got to see much more, unobstructed on their almost private tour.
I really thought Sam Farr needed a shout out for this. What a memory! A much better memory for her than a $4400 overcharge on a credit car!!

I'm not proud of this...

I make quite a few mistakes in my work. Sometimes there is an extra bead where there shouldn't be. Sometimes, I forget to put the clasp on. Once in a while, I get to a show to discover that I left the really IMPORTANT piece at home. And this is the really short list of possible mistakes.

I don't like it when I make a mistake with the money, but I will always remember the time at a show I ran to the nearest thrift store, and was so happy to find this neato calculator for $3! I used it all through the show. Batteries must have come with it.

A few days after the show I got the first call. A mistake on the addition on the charge. OOPS. This happens sometimes. But the second call made me investigate, and it seems the calculator was in the thrift for a good reason. I don't remember how many charges were off by a few dollars, but I was able to contact most people. It always amazes me how really nice people can be.

Then, last year, I ran a woman's charge card after the show, and I failed to notice that her $42.78 earrings became $4,278. 00 earrings. I got a notice from the credit card company I think..this was a year ago, so my memory doesn't serve.

She was on her way to Washington DC for a  week, and the credit card that I almost maxed out was meant to finance her trip.
Big Big OMG.
I will have to finish this later. Sorry,but this is too long for one post.

I have spent an abnormal amount of time this morning fighting with photographs of my work. I would really like to whine about this, but I need t get OVER it, and get to work making fun jewelry.
But since I spent that time, I will post these less than gorgeous photos here. The work is new, and the color relationships between the stones and the glass beads are really wonderful. But the photos don't do them justice.
Listen to me. I know I am right about this.