Re: Jury Duty

I received this message from my son in law today and want to pass it on to my viewers in the USA.  It's regarding JURY DUTY.    Pass this on to your grown children and anyone else you can think  of. This has been verified by the FBI (their link is also included below). Please pass this on to everyone in your e-mail address book. It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call. Most of us take those summonses for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty that a new and ominous kind of fraud has surfaced.

The caller claims to be a jury duty coordinator. If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the Scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant. Give out any of this information and bingo; your identity was just stolen.

The fraud has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma, Illinois, and Colorado, AZ, OR and more. This (swindle) is particularly insidious because they use intimidation over the phone to try to bully people into giving information by pretending they are with the court system.


The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alertson their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud.


Check it out here:

http://www.fbi.gov/page2/june06/jury_scams060206.htm>



And here:



http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp>

the kardlady

Can you guess what this is?

Take a good look at this image and then guess what it is. . . . . .

The past few weeks my spouse and I have been cleaning out his 2 story garage - the upper level has been an easy place to stash leftover stuff  for the past 20 years or so.  I didn't know we had accumulated so much  stuff -  some very usable items which we no longer have a need for.  My daughter encouraged us  to take it to a "flea market" this weekend - she did the arranging and setting - we came after breakfast just to see how it was going.

Now I haven't been to a flea market for years and this was a very  large one - there was more than 200 tables set up and you wouldn't believe the variety of "stuff" for sale!   Just what we needed - more stuff!  I had no intentions of purchasing anything, but on a table close to ours stood this item that intrigued me.  It was a beautiful basket  -  24" longx15 wide - the width is kind of oval shaped and there was an adjustable  carrying strap toward the top!  I couldn't conceive what it was for or if it held anything.  The basket itself was unusual, but lovely  - and the price was only $5.  When I lifted it I knew there was something inside, so I opened it and there was a full bottle of champagne inside - the owner told me  there was something on the other side also - and  under the blue lid there was 2 delicate  champagne glasses - this was  a  party  waiting to happen!  What an unusual day and what an unusual find - add a few napkins and some cheese . . . -  I bought it!  It will  make a lovely gift for someone!                                             

the kardlady

Happy Mothers Day

This is one of my latest creations-  a teacup Mothers Day card.  It doesn't open like other Kalico Kards,  - the wire steam images are for  adding a gift card  to her favorite shop, and after Mothers Day she can use it to display pictures of her kids or grandkids on her fridge (there's a magnet  glued onto the back. 

I also created a bookmark Mothers Day card - the bookmark is removeable and there is a message inside the card: "One special rose for one special Mother!"  A kind of generic but sweet message appropriate for your sister, daughter, grandmother, or friend as well as your mom!  The teacup card is listed at www.kalicokards.com and the bookmark card is available also if you'll email me at greetings@kalicokards.com

Thought maybe you'd like to see the aphgan I made recently  for my nieces wedding shower - I finished it in just 20 hours, including the rosebuds and leaves, which were added after it was completed.  I used 3 strands of a soft white  knitting worsted held together and a large size Q crochet hook.  It is all done in double crochet with a slight pattern around the outside of the white and then trimmed in deep red and olive - the same colors as the rosebuds and leaves.  May and June are the months for weddings and showers - I have two weddings coming up, but I think I'll just give a gift card or money!

the kardlady

Time is like a roll of toilet paper . . . .

the closer you get to the end - the faster it goes!"   Whoever made this statement knew what they were talking about!  My last post was in February and here we are near the end of April and I'm just guessing that wherever toilet paper goes, that's where my time went - down the hole!  I closed my website in January to room up space, time and  resources but it didn't happen as I thought !

I still  have a shop on Etsy under the same url: www.kalicokards.com - that also  requires my  attention if I want to succeed.  I'm concluding that the problem is  "changing hats"  - I have too many roles to fill and am doing none of them any justice!  I love creating Kalico Kards and have no problem getting to it on a somewhat regular basis, then I  lock myself in for the space and time to sell them at  craft fairs on a  particular day and  I just need to show up,  and the rest is history!   Online it's different!  I have to be a psychic webmaster, photographer, writer of descriptions and tags - a  marketer and   creator.  My customers don't have faces, just names and email boxes and how they find my website amongst the millions of other card websites is a mystery!  It takes so much time and energy to find out how to do it "right" - one gets  frustrated and discouraged even before they  get started!  I've hung in there for seven years - longer than most! 

I would like to have a catalog of my more than 150 different card designs online so I can refer past customers to them and if need be, print a colored catalog with just a thumbnail and the message inside the card to distribute to those who are not computer smart or do not have a computer.  If you have any suggestions, I would appreciate hearing from you - email me at greetings@kalicokards.com 

Thank you for your time
the kardlady

Glad to be back!

It's been a while since my last post - time is still  flying by, and I have so  much to share,  I don't know where to begin!

I no longer have my own  Kalico Kards website, but I still have an Etsy  shop using the same address: www.kalicokards.com .  There are fewer cards posted there presently,  but I am hopeful I will have lots more time to create and post new ones now.  I love Etsy - the shop owners are such nice people and Etsy has so much to offer ! 

The holidays are behind me, as well as the 2012 craft shows.  This past year was a successful  year for  Kalico Kards -  I added a variety of scarves to my  craft shows which increased my sales-  so I started making them earlier this year - and  just may add a few of them to my Etsy shop later in the fall!

2012 started off with a plan to move from our present home of 35 years to a place that required less energy and upkeep.  We wound up the year postponing the move - we'd  accumulated too  much stuff over our 55 years of marriage and must size down first, then  try again!

2013 has just begun and the February  vacation plans we looked forward to have been daunted by the fact  that there are bigger things to prepare for than a brief holiday in the sun!   More on this later!

the kardlady

 

How to stop time from flying!

It's a mystery how life seems to answer the simplest questions for us.  Some weeks  back ( it was probably months)  I wrote a blog about how fast time was flying.  Since then I've heard from others with the same thoughts - so I'm not the only one that was  experiencing it!     Someone suggested that life is like a roll of toilet paper - the closer you get to the end, the faster it seems to go!  It's  a thought - although true or not it  doesn't slow down time  just knowing this!

Over the weekend however, I did discover how you can slow down time - lock your keys in the car!  After 3 hours waiting on AAA to come to our rescue I brilliantly deducted that this is how one can slow down time!

Remember - take your keys out of the ignition  before you do anything else - like combing your hair, or checking to see if you have enough money to pay for the pizza, even  before caling home to say you'll be a little late!   It was the longest 3 hours I've spent in an age!

the kardlady

Life can be very disappointing at times!

After 6 years online I've decided to give up my Kalico Kard website and just maintain my Etsy site!   It's not been an easy decision - I've just gone through my catalog and re sized every card in it - all 270 of them!  My choice has been considered for many months.  I've been  paying for a website that  is just eating away at my bank  account, and it's not what I planned for  6 years ago!

Etsy charges a few cents per item and does the advertising of its shops for you -  and for now that sounds like a plan!  Recently I checked the many links I thought I had, and found most of them were dead links - connected to nothing or  to something I didn't choose!  That was the the final straw.  A few faithful topsites were still operating, but most of my links have taken other options, perhaps like the one I am about to take!

I've lost my faith in the  world wide web - and will probably opt for just selling locally as I did before www.kalicokards.com was established in '06.  I can honestly say it's been an experience - whether good and bad, I have learned a lot!  As for this blog - only time will tell.  I've had 12 followers since it started  and 5000 readers, but it's not done much good as far as sales are concerned.

At this point in my life, it's not as bad as it would seem for others  younger than me.  I still have 6-10 shows locally, and 3 shops that are working for me and have made many friends online, and learned many lessons I wouldn't have experienced otherwise!   I tend to be a "pollyanna" when it comes to living - one who has "pie in the sky" ideas about things - and I'll tell you: I'm not about to change  at this late date!  I still think believing is seeing!  

the kardlady