Wow - nice to know that there are people out there that are so threatened by anybody else being even just remotely succeesful on Ebay that they report posts that DON'T violate Ebay's community content policy, knowing full well that Ebay will automatically pull it without checking.

Please note that the community policy DOES state that it is a violation to be:

Misusing the violation reporting function to maliciously or frivolously report content as not in compliance with eBay policy.

Unfortunately, there is no system in place to prevent another Ebay member from doing this to the posts you make within your own blog here on Ebay.  So, if I want to cause havic for my competition, I can just anonymously go and report their posts as violating the community content policy, even if I know full well it doesn't, and Ebay will just pull them, no looking into it, no questions asked. 

I find this very discouraging, as I'm working hard to get a business established, not for luxury items or to keep up with the Jones - my family needs the extra income just to help keep food on the table.

For those of you out there that have nothing better to do than to try to ruin other people's acheivements on Ebay, does it make you feel good somehow to do this to another person? Do you get some kind of thrill being malicious to your fellow human beings?

A good quote that describes people like you:

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he would never be found out.    
                                                                                                          -Thomas Macauley

I believe in running a business with integrity, so I'm not going around wasting my time & others reporting on people falsely. But to those of you out there that do this, I'll end my rant with this truth that you should keep in mind "What goes around, comes around".

I hope everybody has been enjoying a little time off this winter. As for me, I've been using the "downtime" from homeschooling to work a bit more on the online business.

Made the change to my ebay id - it's now wee-designs-auctions - and have started putting in a "nickname" into my auction titiles - WeDsns

Still can't figure out what I'm doing wrong with my wee-designs.com website, as it's still not uploading properly, but I've put the Tea & A Cup of Crochet site up now at www.teacupofcrochet.com  DH made a beautiful header for me - think I'll have to incorporate it into some of my auctions in the future, but the site still needs some tweaking, like making the header fit better, getting some articles uploaded, & other minor fixes but overall I'm happy with how it is turning out.

Reflecting back over the year, I've discovered a few things about myself - through some knitting & crochet UFO's (for the unacquainted, that stands for UnFinished Objects). 

I have this friend who is a shepherd named L**** (name deleted to protect the innocent). He's this massive guy, real rugged type, and he wanted me to make him something for him from the wool from his own sheep.  I agreed to this endeavor much too soon. A hint for all you crafters, make sure you know what you are getting into first! After I said yes, he brought the wool by and told me that he wanted me to make him a cardigan sweater.

The wool was in a box big enough to hold a dishwashing machine, and when I pulled the first skein out, I saw that the wool was of a super bulky weight - just as thick as my pinky.  All the skeins were dark brown, it wasn't washed much (had a lot of straw in it still) and loosely spun - really just a step above roving.  The task looked daunting, but I'm not one to break my word, so I took his measurements, made my swatch & started at it.

My second mistake was to not look for a pattern before I started the sweater - I figured I had enough experience behind me (having knit for over 20 years), that I could figure things out well enough. Wrong! I made the back piece, then realized that I had no idea how I was going to make the sleeves set into it.  Thankfully, this problem was solved when I came across an old Buffalo Wool pattern book for Cowichan Indian styled sweaters at our town's craft shop.

However, this project came at the worst possible time. It was at the beginning of the year when I started it, so it was in the middle of our 20 below snowy Canadian winter. You'd think that would be the best time - so did I. Just as I had made good time with the right front side, I discovered I was pregnant - the wool just all of a sudden seemed to smell really bad & I became naseous & dizzy.  I couldn't get near the sweater project for another 4 months, putting the time into May.  I got as far as making both front pieces when the hot weather hit and I had the other problem of feeling too hot all of the time. Needless to say, I had to put off the sweater again until our littleguy was born & I was well rested.  As we were back into the full swing of homeschooling again by this time, work on the sweater kept taking a place on the back burner.

So the sweater that I should have finished in about 2-3 months took nearly a year to complete. What did I learn? Why it is called a sweater (LOL), and how much I dislike knitting big bulky items. I then had this epiphany that all the projects that have ended up as UFOs in my closet all had the same things in common - they were either large afghans made in one piece (as opposed to squares that are later assembled), adult clothing, or had only one color throughout. L****'s sweater had every element in it that I hated to work with - so I didn't enjoy making it very much.  Despite this, I managed to get it finished, and it turned out well too.  There was even one part that I enjoyed, which was designing my own toggle buttons that I had my DH cut from elk antlers.

Normally I'm a typical undisciplined procrastinator at the best of times, so when I finished this project, I was so elated that I made a resolution not to start any new items until I finished the ones already waiting in the closet.  I'm happy to say that I'm off to a good start - I just finished a poncho for my oldest DD within the last 2 weeks - that I started 3 years ago. She was so happy to finally get it that she wore it all day & even to bed with her!

Make somebody smile this upcoming year - finish at least one UFO that you can still give to the recipient it was intended for (if it's still appropriate, otherwise you can donate it to a charity).

All the best for a Happy New Year!
Shari

I haven't written in a while, due to some upstanding citizens who took it upon themselves to climb onto our roof on Halloween & take away our satellite dish.  I guess they figured we were rich and they were robbing us to give to the poor - what they didn't know that it wasn't for tv use, but for our internet connection and that once they dismantled it, it would completely lose it's value - and we gross under $20K a year, so we certainly aren't wealthy. 

Thanks for all of your kind words of congradulations!

Contrary to popular belief, I'm not a patient person by nature. Instead, my children have taught me patience over the years - that is one of many blessings they have given me :)

I've now posted Nathan's first picture on my About Me page - he's not as red looking now, so I'll have to post an update of him (& a more recent family photo) in a week or two.

Announcing the birth of our sixth child (and fourth boy):

Nathan James Tombs

8lbs 4 oz and 20.1 inches

Sept 30/2007

We are all very happy to have him home & I'm just slowly easing my way back into the Ebay biz - this delivery went a lot rougher than past ones, so I'm still feeling a bit "owie". As a result, I won't be converting any vintage patterns for at least another two weeks, and the Tea & A Cup of Crochet e-zine will be put on hold for a while., but I'll be listing all my current digital patterns in stock and take the vacation settings off my ebay store.

I'll be posting a picture of my sweet lil' fellow on my About Me page soon :)