I decided it was time for some new glasses about a week ago. I have both astigmatism AND near-sigthedness.

Since I couldn't read street signs until it was almost too late to make the turn it's time I give in and get some glasses. Oh, I already own glasses - I just didn't bring them with me on this trip since I haven't worn them for a year or two.  My eyes just "weren't THAT bad" that I had to wear them to see well enough to drive or read and wearing them while working on the computer was out of the question since the bifocals forced me to tip my head back and look through the bottom half, causing a sore neck quickly and a headache shortly after the sore neck.

But now the street signs were getting unreadable and the last time I tried to read a map things didn't go so well either. Up until now I could just stretch things out to the full length of my arms and it worked fine. Lately though I noticed that THEY are making things with smaller letters so even reading at the end of my arms wasn't working.

Okay - I gave up and went in for glasses.  This time I went to Wal-Mart.  (The one here still has a fabric department so they're okay!)  Two things I noticed about buying glasses at Wal-Mart.  One was the price... the total was about HALF of what I paid last time at a big national chain vision place.  The other thing was the biggie though. I'll tell you about that in a minute. First, about the pricing... Their price included all the stuff I was used to adding on at the other places.  What stuff?

Sales person at National Store: "You want scratch-resistance?" 

Me:  "Seems like they wouild last longer with that."

Sales person at National Store: "It's only $89 extra per lens."

Me:  "Do some people get that added to just one lens, or does everyone do both?"

Sales person at National Store: "I've never had someone do just one lens."

Me:  "Then why the H _ _ _ do you price it as though that were a choice!"

Sales person at National Store: "I guess it sounds like less that way."

Me: "Yeah. I guess so. I know it's not your fault - just seems stupid to me!"

Sales person at National Store: "You work on a computer?"

Me: "Yes."

Sales person at National Store: "You might want the anti-glare coating."

Me:  "Probably. Let me guess... $89 per lens?"

Sales person at National Store: "Yes sir."

Me:  "What else might I want?"

Sales person at National Store: "Do you go outside much?"

Me:  "Tinting?"

Sales person at National Store: "Or Transitions Lenses."

Me:  "$89 per lens?"

Sales person at National Store: "Yes sir."

And on it goes until the $99 glasses they advertise cost you $500 with your 50% of coupon. Actually that's just $250 per lens if you want it to sound like less.  I was thinking of ordering them with distance vision and tinting on the left lens and closeup and anti-glare on the right lens.  I would tell them "I'll just close the eye I'm not using!" and see if they'd really make them that way. Seems to me that the FTC should investigate this bunch for their advertising practices.

What was different to me at Wal-Mart was that they included the anti-glare and anti-scratch in the prices of lenses they were selling instead of milking me $89 per eyeball. Just seemed less agravating.

The OTHER thing I noticed different was the biggie though. When I picked up the glasses at Wal-Mart they handed them to me and I put them on.  The other place?  They have to put them on my face for me.  As if I'm too stupid to put a pair of glasses on my own face correctly!  Look at this face! (See top right-side cartoon.)  Does it look like I'd have any problem finding my own ears!? There's a reason he drew them that size!

This is not intended as an advertisement for Wal-Mart.  They're doing okay without my endorsement.  But I did appreciate the experience of buying my glasses there. I went with a two pairs - one for reading books and the computer screen and the other pair for reading street signs and other useful stuff.  No bifocals this time. 

So this morning I put the computer glasses on and started working. Wow. Worked great. Right up to the point where I reached for my coffee cup... and missed.  Arghhh!

Giving Back A lot of this week's Bobbin-Buzz is about "Giving Back". We believe that "To whom much is given, much is expected" and we see over and over again people who live their lives that way. From the next story about the gifts going to our soldiers in Iraq to the remarkable legacy left by Danny Thomas at St Jude's, many people share what they have been given to make the lives of others better. I see this all the time in our hobby too. As I look through our photo galleries, often the projects pictured have a note saying "... made for my sister" or "... for our church" or "... a gift for my friend". Did you know we have a discussion forum just for Swaps & Charity? That IS the spirit that makes our community so wonderful. To all the "givers" out there - This issue is for you - Thanks!
"For Our Troops..." Hello everyone, My name is Peggy Doerr. I signed up with the group this week. What a great experience this is. I have posted a picture of a project I did for Christmas. It is of stockings (small 6") that I made to send to a group of military firemen in Iraq. Our son was there and I wanted his men to know that they are thought of here at home. Not all of these men get letters or packages. It is really sad. I have the address of the fire station over there in Balad, Iraq. I would like to send another box to the new group that is there. I have put together some videos and fresh beef jerky. If anyone would like to contribute, I thought that book marks would be something small they could keep in with their belongings. They are not allowed to have much. All clothing must be military issue. The book marks can be decorated but should not depict anything hostile. I was thinking of comments like "We believe in YOU" or "You have our Respect". I would love to hear from anyone interested. All ideas are welcome! Peggy Peggapoo@charter.net More info at... http://www.artisticthreadworks.com/members/viewimage.cfm?imgID=18326
Prize Drawings On April 30th 2007 We are doing two additional prize drawings on April 30th 2007 for ATW. Each week we give away something in the Bobbin-Buzz newsletter (3-month membership this week - see below) as well as giving away designs every week. We also give away memberships every month to three people that post photos in our photo gallery. What we are doing in April is an additional give-away. Here's the details... The "Bobbin-Buzz" drawing: We are giving away a Brother NX400-Q sewing machine. This is a computerized sewing and quilting machine. The list price on the machine is $1149 and we picked one up new at a really nice price so we're giving it away. Here's a picture of the machine... The "Bobbin-Buzz" drawing will be held on May 1st and everyone that is on the Bobbin-Buzz mailing list is automatically in the drawing. If you aren't on the Bobbin-Buzz email list yet, you can enter here @ http://www.artisticthreadworks.com/public/85.cfm The "Artistic ThreadWorks" drawing: We are giving away a a complete set of Robison-Anton threads. This is 452 mini-king spools of thread and the wall-mount racks to hold them all. The list price on this prize is a little over $2,000. The "ArtisticThreadWorks" drawing will also be held on May 1st and everyone that is a member of www.ArtisticThreadWorks.com automatically in the drawing. Here's a picture of the threads and racks... NOTE: The machine in the photo is NOT included! You can be in the drawing automatically by being a member here. Here's the page with info about joining ATW... http://www.artisticthreadworks.com/public/10.cfm You don't have to be a member to be in this drawing, you're just automatically in the drawing if you are a current member on April 30th 2007. To enter without being a member, send us a postcard letting us know you want to be in the drawing and we'll enter you manually. The postcard must be received at our office no later than April 29th 2007 and must include the words "ArtiticThreadWorks Drawing - April 2007" along with your name, address, phone number and email address to be eligible. Notes 1: Don't send multiple postcards. Only one entry per person. Don't send GIANT postcards, the number is drawn by computer - not based on the size of the card. If you are a current member of ArtisticThreadWorks on April 30th 2007, don't send a postcard - you will not be double-entered in the drawing. Notes 2: If you have won a prize from us before, you're still eligible to win in these drawings. If you're in a foreign country, you're still eligible to win UNLESS winning prizes in a free drawing is prohibitted in your country. Okay - there are always nitty-gritty details to these things thanks to the greatest government money can buy supplying us with all kinds of red tape, but this is the simplified version of the rules. For complete details, go here... http://www.artisticthreadworks.com/public/1627.cfm Again - to join ATW now... http://www.artisticthreadworks.com/public/10.cfm Good luck to everyone in the drawings!
New Video Release I've just finished production on a new video. It is called "Simple Sales With Your Own Website" and it covers the step-by-step process of setting up a simple and inexpensive website where you can sell your own product. How Simple? There are 4 steps involved in selling your own product online... Make the product you're going to sell and take pictures of it. Make a website using software that's no more difficult than a word processor. Make a way for customers to pay for their purchase. Make a way for potential customers to see your site. The video covers all 4 steps and runs about 1 hour. How long it takes you to do step #1 is up to you, but the remaining 3 steps should take you about 1 day! How Inexpensive? I built the site shown in this video for FREE! Zero cost for the tools to build the site shown in the video. Zero costs for hosting the site. Zero up-front costs for setting up the payment collection system. Zero up-front costs for automated delivery. Zero costs for advertising the product. Because the product being sold on the site I built is an "e-book", I even show how I set up an automated delivery system. That means the buyer gets the product delivered to them instantly and automatically. This delivery system costs a few pennies per sale but cost zero up-front and means zero work to deliver the product to the customer. This is basically like setting up a vending machine on the internet, adding an infinite supply of the product and then collecting the money every day. The only time it costs anything is when a product is SOLD and fees to pay for the financial transaction and the automated delivery are automatically deducted from the money collected. Zero out-of-pocket costs! The video is on CD and must be viewed on a computer with a CD-rom drive and software for playing flash video. If you don't have flash-player software, you can get it at this page for FREE... http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi Shipping will begin on April 10th, 2007. The cost for the video will be $49.95 normally. Get $10 off with the introductory price of $39.95 for the next couple weeks.  Buy the video here...  http://www.artisticthreadworks.com/products/item560.cfm
"Jumping Up And Down On The Bed?" Farryn was one of the 31 winners in last week's "I Wish I Had Known..." contest. Here's her post from inside the forum... I Can't Believe It! Thank you, thank you, thank you Larry and Holly!!! I never win anything and when I saw my name highlighted I went running down to my DH and was jumping on the bed I was so happy! LOL He thought I had lost my mind, but that's OK he should be used to me by now. After the past 6 months this has really picked me up, I have enjoyed every minute since I joined all of you and this is where I come on a daily basis just to check in and see what is going on. I do wish I would have found this site way back when I got my machine, I would have saved myself a lot of time and frustration of not knowing what in the world I was doing. Thank you again and congratulations to all the other winners. Farryn Farryn - I can just picture an adult (?) jumping up and down on the bed! How funny! Glad you were one of the winners. Have YOU Seen The "Wish I Had Known..." Contest Entries? There were over 450 entries and they were funny, informative, and poignant. Grab a cup of coffee and sit for a few minutes of reading. You'll get to know some of the ATW members as they tell you what they WISH they had known before they got started in this hobby... http://www.artisticthreadworks.com/public/images/Wish-I-Had-Known.pdf
Bobbin-Buzz Designs Help yourself to this weeks free design set "Bathtime Buddies". These are for everyone that is subscriber to Bobbin-Buzz, our free weekly newsletter! Download Bathtime Buddies Here! Have fun!
From Our Forums Q What is this "Embird" all about? I am trying to find out all about it. I can't find where to try the 30 day free trial. Anybody know if this is any good? -- vgplunkett A Personally I think it is more than good it is fantastic. Embird basic will allow you to convert, resize, split, merge, and a million other ways to edit designs. iconizer allows you to see designs in windows without opening your embroidery software. In other words you see a picture of the actual design instead of the little sewing machine with pes or dst on it. Font engine allows you to digitize TTF and Wingdings and dingbats into embroidery. In other words you can turn the fonts on your computer into digitized letters. Studio is a digitizing program and sfumato is photostitch. There also is a cross stitch module. And the great thing with Embird is you don't have to get it all at once. Most people start with Basic and iconizer. You might also consider 1 or 2 of the alphabets. You can use them like fontengine in that you can set size and density, make clocks, do multi-line text. You can download the 30 day trial and get all the details here. www.Embird.com But when you are ready to buy, go to Secretsof.com Its a few dollars less and you earn points towards future designs. HTH -- Terri There's a lot more to this discussion. Read the rest at... http://www.artisticthreadworks.com/members/forum/openthread.cfm?forum=1&ThreadID=27835#159334 Thanks Terri for your helpfulness over and over again. You are very appreciated. -- Larry
Weekly Prize Drawing Winner We are doing a weekly drawing for readers of Bobbin-Buzz. The prize is a 3 month membership to ArtisticThreaWorks. That's something anyone on our list can use! To be in the prize drawings - just be on our Bobbin-Buzz mailing list. If you're not on the list yet, you can sign up here! This week's winner drawn at random is... amkgottalive@yahoo.com The winner has 5 days to contact me via email and claim the prize. Send the email to Webmaster@ArtisticThreadWorks.com. Congratulations and good luck to everyone else in next weeks drawing!
New Designs Released This Week At ArtisticThreadWorks... See ALL this week's new sets here! And this months Member Bonus Set... 'Peekers of the Month' Here's a picture of ONE of this weeks new sets... See ALL the new sets here!
Hancock Fabrics I went to my Hancocks, Just the other day. I asked them what was happening, They said, "They are taking it away." I don't understand it. I can't believe my eyes. They are getting rid of the fabric, Much to my surprise. They have taken it out of Walmart. Hancocks is closing down. Joann's is shrinking it. I can't move to another town. So I got a plan together. I went right to work. I started hording fabric. You'd think I'd gone berserk! I stocked every cupboard, And hid it behind every door. I filled up some boxes, And even hid it under the floor. Come Fall, I will bury it, Deep inside the ground. By Springtime I hope to see, My stash growing all around! Emma Whittington 3/24/07
Hancock Fabrics Files Bankruptcy See more on their website at... http://www.hkfch11.com Many large businesses that file for bankruptcy consolidate stores and remain open while working through their financial troubles. I think Hancock's will do the same thing and will emerge from their bankruptcy with a smaller chain in a few months. Meanwhile, if you have a Hancock's nearby pick up some bargains if you can. They can use the cash and you might get some great deals. Just be sure you KNOW what's a bargain and what can be bought cheaper somewhere else when you go shopping -- but I'm guessing you already know that!
One Minute Of Hope There is no place on Earth like St Judes Children's Research Hospital. Here's an excerpt from their website... We are a beacon of light in a parent's darkest night. We are where some of today's most gifted researchers are able to do more science, more quickly. Where doctors across the world send their toughest cases and most vulnerable patients. Where no one pays for treatment beyond what is covered by insurance, and those without insurance are never asked to pay. We've built America's 3rd-largest health-care charity, with a model that keeps the costs down and the funds flowing, so the science never stops. We were the first to show that acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common form of childhood cancer, is curable, and that with current treatment, 5-year survival rate is more than 90 percent in these children. We've recently pioneered a unique procedure allowing children to receive a life-saving bone marrow transplant from a parent without an exact marrow match. We are home to the team currently pioneering the development of a new, multi-envelop HIV vaccine designed to combat all the natural strains of the virus, and the only pediatric health facility in the world to build our own on-site facility to manufacture highly specialized life-saving drugs. Visit http://www.stjude.org to learn more. $833 Per Minute It costs about $1.2 million per day to operate the St Jude's Hospital. I used my calculator to figure out that $1.2 million per day works out to $833 every minute! That money is all raised through private donations. You may have heard of Hancock's "Quilt Of Dreams" program already, but if you haven't, here's an article that explains what it's all about. And here's a photo of Hancock's delivering a check for $1.1 million in 2003 to St Jude's... Given Hancock's current financial situation, I don't know if they will be able to continue with their "Quilt Of Dreams" program. I sure hope so, but that might be out of the question. "While I can't do everything, I can do SOMETHING" Holly and I are a "mom and pop" business, operating a website in the embroidery niche. We can't pick up this million dollar ball and run with it the way Hancock's did. But one thing I've learned to say is... "I can't do everything, but I can do SOMETHING!" We have joined St Jude's "Partners In Hope" program, donating $19 every month to support their ongoing research and patient care. We normally don't tell anyone when we donate money, but in this case, I'm telling you for a purpose. We are looking for 43 more people to do the same thing. Please -- if $19 a month is not possible in your budget, we certainly understand and ask you NOT to do this.   We've been there.  And if it would put any kind of strain on you to do this, then please don't. There are plenty of other ways you can help out and you can bet we'll tell you about those opportunities when they come up. But if this is something that you'd like to do, and if $19 a month isn't going to hurt you at all, then I would ask you to join us. Why 43 more people? Together, that would be 44 people x $19 a month or $836 per month. That would be 1 minute of St Jude's operating costs every month. "I can't do everything, but I can do SOMETHING!" If you choose to become a "Partner In Hope", use the St Jude's website to set up an ongoing monthly contribution. Don't send the money to us or to our company address. We don't want to touch it. Just use St Jude's secure online donation page here... https://shop.stjude.org/GiftCatalog/express-donation.do?&frequency_selected=1 After you do this, please email Holly and let her know that you have joined us in this. We won't publish your name or enter you in any prize drawings or anything like that. This is private between you and us. We'd just like to know if together we can make up 1 minute of hope. Holly's email address is holly@ArtisticThreadWorks.com   I'll let you all know as soon as we reach this goal. Thank you. -- Larry