Painting a Peony and Meeting Coni

Hi there, Stamplings!

I hope your week is going great! It's almost the weekend! I've had a fun and busy week meeting a lovely bloggie friend and having belated birthday lunches! Yes, that's right, this year I'm celebrating for the whole month of July! 

Earlier this week I got painty with pastels and a peony.

I really loved working with this NBUS peony from The Ton! I heat-embossed it with platinum e/p and used my lightest Ziggies and an aqua brush to watercolor the background, flower, and leaves. If the color went on too strong, I dabbed it with a tissue like a lady.

Here you have it from the other angle which shows the melty shiny goodness of the platinum.

The butterfly was die-cut from a piece of SU watercolor DSP. It was highlighted with pearls and I used a white pen to dotify the flower petals.

Challenges

• Addicted to Stamps and More: Anything goes.
• CAS Watercolour Card Challenge: Butterfly.
• Stamp Ink Paper: Fabulous florals.
• The Ton July Challenge: Mood Board.

Meeting Coni!

Yesterday my friend Coni (aka Conil) of Which Craft? came to the Playhouse to meet me! Here we are at lunch:

She is just as much fun and just as lovely and kind as I imagined her to be from her blog and our emails! I had the waitress take our photo because I couldn't get the timer to work on my camera for a picture of the two of us in front of the Playhouse. 

But just to prove she was really there:

My camera kept recording videos of us when I set the timer. It was only later in the day that I realized it was operator error. I was pushing the red record button instead of the photo button. No wonder it was recording! What a dipweed I am!

I know you're karacking up reading that, Coni! Thanks for making the drive and making my day! It was a pleasure to meet you!!

~~~

Shop Smart

So what happened was I've been really good this year at limiting my new purchases, in spite of all the new and enticing stamp companies that have sprung up. Occasionally, however, I'll look for something on Amazon and then I'll look for something else and because they woo me with the free shipping and because everyone knows everything is cheaper on Amazon, I'll place an order. They make it too easy.

Normally you don't get an invoice in the box with your Amazon order, but for this particular order of three dies, I received a package directly from the third-party stamp company. And they enclosed an invoice showing the Amazon price I had paid. 

Well, being a nosy an investigative sort of person, I then went to the company's website to see how much the order would have cost if I had ordered it directly from them and paid the shipping fee of $6.00. I was feeling smug, you see, as one would.

Imagine my shock to find out that even paying the shipping fee, I would have paid TEN DOLLARS LESS if I had ordered directly from the company, rather than from Amazon!

That'll teach me to assume that Amazon gives you the best deal (didn't they used to do that?) and not taking the time to look at the small print about who was fulfilling the order and going there first to see what the cost was for the product direct from them.

I know, I know, caveat emptor and it's my own dang fault, but I still feel like I was skunked. I mean, these dies came from a very small company, so the owner must have thought, "Here's another fool!" 😞

Please be smarter and more alert than I was. The world can use more lerts!

~~~

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As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower!  Please let me know you came by so I can be sure to return the flavor!

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