Creative Slump

I think I'm having the digitizer's version of "writers block" lately. First, I have a tough time trying to come up with ideas for new designs. Then when I think I have something, I fool around with it for a while, and cannot seem to get it to materialize the way I am envisioning it. I have a pile of unfinished work set aside, because I finally became so frustrated with the designs. They weren't coming out as I wanted, or simply didn't seem 'good enough' when I finished one or two items of a set. I'm probably being too hard on myself, but I cannot put a set on the site unless I feel good about the way it turned out.

I've always enjoyed creating designs for others, so if you have some special design you would love to see, let me know! Or if there is even a certain style of design you're looking for. Send me your "wishlist" and I'll see what I can do!

Vote for your favorite Alphabet!

As you've likely already noticed, voting has been enabled again. So take a moment & vote for your choice for the next free daily alphabet! Voting is restricted to one vote per person, let's make it fair for everyone!

Thanks for visiting FerretLady Designs!

Voting had to be removed

Hi folks,

Sorry to say, but the voting had to be removed for now. Although there were some safeguards in the poll script to prevent duplicate votes by the same person, it didn't have the most stringent duplicate-vote protection possible. I didn't think it was too important - I thought most people would vote once (maybe twice) and then let everyone else have their vote, and leave it at that.

Anyway, upon checking the poll logs, I found that there were 4 or 5 people who were voting over & over & over & over... One person had 262 votes in a row just this evening alone , another 195 non-stop votes. Youch, I imagine they had stiff fingers after clicking that many times! That obviously is not fair to everyone else, for a few people to try to "force" the vote to go to their choice. A few duplicate votes could be overlooked, but 200+??? I know, it never stated not to vote more than once, but come on, I think common sense would tell you that voting over 200 times non-stop in a row is not the right thing to do.

I'm going to try to find another poll script with tighter security measures against multiple votes, and when I get one, I'll put it up on the site. Sorry for the inconvenience! I'll simply select another alphabet at random this time around, but maybe by next week, voting will be back in place.

Check your email....

(Happy ending to the tale - the customer had me confused with another designer - she DID get her order from me after all! Yay! I still do hate providers filtering mail though....)

Email woes again. Having a digital product can have it's conveniences - no packing up parcels, running to the post office, filling out customs forms for overseas deliveries, etc. But it can certainly have it's own set of problems as well.

I heard from a customer this morning, that she had not received her order. Upon research, it appears that the email account she used either blocked my emails, flagged them as 'spam' or some other such thing - anyway, she apparently never received ANY of the emails that were sent to her. (Order email, follow-up email, and a later free gift email)

I heard from her today (from the same email address) - wrote back to her promptly, and it seems as if she still isn't getting my messages. I've sent emails to her from several different accounts, in hopes that *one* of them would get through - but it doesn't look too promising at this point. So, I'm stuck at this point - I've got a customer who didn't get their order, I cannot get in touch with her since her email address doesn't appear to receive my emails no matter what I do, so now what?

Moral of the story --- when dealing with ANY site that offers download-able products, *please* make sure that you can receive email from them! FerretLady Designs does have an Instant Download system in place now, but for custom orders, inquiries, etc, you still may have need to receive an email from me. Please be sure that

ferret - at - mybargainstuff.com and

mbsauctions - at - gmail.com

are whitelisted/allowed in your email program!

Many providers these days take it upon themselves to decide for you what you should & shouldn't receive - (a practice I personally despise - I'll set up my OWN spam filters, thank you very much... I'm adult enough to make my own decisions about what I do & do not want to receive, I don't need someone holding my hand & telling me what's good for me... ) Letting someone else decide what is & isn't "spam" will almost always end up causing some "good" email to get sucked into the twilight zone in the process.

I guess it's just my age - but I get very cantankerous when someone else tries to make decisions for me, even if it's something as "minor" as deciding which emails I should & should not receive.... that attitude was fine when I was a child who didn't know better - but I've been an adult for more years than I care to reveal (grin) so durn it, I'm old enough to deal with spam as I see fit, thank you - I don't need some provider playing "protective mama" for me.

Situations like this poor customer's order - and the fact that apparently her email provider is over-zealous in blocking emails - just make my stand on "do-it-yourself spam filtering" that much stronger. She can't get the product she ordered, or any of my emails, because for some unknown reason, her provider has apparently decided she should not receive emails from me.

Bah.......

Updates on Free Daily Design rotations

You may have already noticed that you can now vote for the next free alphabet - if you haven't already voted, please do so! At the moment, it's a close call between the Chopin Script and the Ladybug Alphabet - much too close for me to know which one will be next! I'll check the votes this evening and your choice will be the next daily free alphabet!

Update 4pm - whew, y'all are keeping me on my toes with this vote! I thought I might be able to go ahead & get the new alpha lined up this afternoon & have it ready to go - but it is SUCH a close race that I won't know which is the winner til this evening! LOL!!! One moment, Chopin Script has the most votes - a little while later when I check again, Ladybug has the most! Keep up the voting -- I'll have to cut off the votes sometime this evening so I can get the new one in place, but there's still some hours left to go, so vote for your favorite!

I'm going to start rotating the Daily Freebies on a more regular schedule. I will try to set things up so that every week, one new series starts. The alphabets seem to be the most popular daily downloads, so I will stick to the current routine, of having at least 2 different alphabets going at all times, and other slots will be filled in with other designs.

The poll box will remain in place, so that you can always vote for the upcoming new alphabet & your choice will be the one I'll go with!

Thanks for visiting FerretLady Designs! As always, your feedback is valued so feel free to leave any comments here, or to email me at any time!

Congratulations to our latest Free Set winners!!!

Congratulations to "M" and "D" who both won their choice of any free set yesterday! Normally, only one person can win at a time, but their entries came in SO close to one another, that I couldn't penalize the second person for being app. 45 seconds later than the first!!!

What? How do you win a free set? you're asking.... (Sly grin) Well, I'm not going to spell it out in details & tell you everything but I'll give you a few sneaky clues.... up to now, I haven't even mentioned it at all & simply given free sets away to those who won - but here are some clues:

a) What kind of little critter do you think FerretLady really loves? (that one should be easy!!)

b) These little creatures love to run around & hide, and are always on the go, moving from one place to another (when they're not sleeping!! LOL!)

c) Sometimes, they hide away & sleep for long hours - so they're not *always* around to be seen - but when they ARE up & about, you might find them just about anywhere!!! (In other words, the 'winning thing' is not *always* on the site, it's entirely random when it is & isn't available.... hey, I can only give away so many sets for free.....that's a large reason why I didn't even mention this before - it is random, only available sometimes & I know some people will likely get irked at me that it isn't possible to win a free set every day... again, I give daily/weekly freebies already - it is possible to get almost every single design on the site for free - so I can only do the "Free Sets" sporadically as a way to reward those who look around the site a little bit, I can't give away free sets each & every day....

LOL, by now, either you're curious & have some ideas of how to win ---- or you're furious at me for not just coming right out & telling you in plain english*exactly* what to do! Hopefully, most of you are just curious & will have some fun with this!

Don't forget all the 'other' freebies!

Hi everyone!

I hope you all have had a great week! I just wanted to remind you - don't forget to grab all the other freebies that are on the site! You know about the Daily Freebies on the front page, but every single set on the site has a free sample download also -- AND these rotate weekly, so over time you can end up getting all the designs for free!

The weekly rotation is set for midnight Monday night/Tuesday morning - so starting each Tuesday, you can get a new letter or design from each of the sets! Of course, I greatly appreciate those who have purchased sets from me - but if you can't buy, this is just another way to get the designs as freebies. It might take a while to get through the entire set, but if you're patient, you'll eventually be able to get them all!

Thanks for visiting FerretLady Designs!!

Individual Letters available for purchase

You can now buy individual letters to complete your alphabet collections!

On the "Single Designs" section of the site, you can choose a 'bundle' of four, six, or eight letters - mix and match from any of the alphabets to get the letters you need.

I debated over the best way to do this -- I would have liked to have offered single-letter purchase, but didn't really see a good way to do it. I really don't think I should charge more than 50cents per letter, based on the price of the entire alphabet set. Transaction fees on a single purchase, though, are app. 45 cents - so that makes it impossible to do a 50cent item. So.. it was suggested that I sell letters for $1 each. Hmmmm... possible, but it still seems as if it's a bit silly to ask you to spend a dollar, just so I end up with 55cents. (And NO, I am not complaining about paypal fees at all - that's just a part of doing business & it's much MUCH cheaper than what it cost in the "old days" to accept credit cards - it just doesn't work too well on ultra-low-priced items...)

So..... I ended up trying it this way. You still get the letters for 50cents each, but without handing a full half of your money over to someone else. I hope this is a "happy compromise" for everyone!

A Must-See site for great clipart!

I run into many sites that I like, and now & then, one really stands out & "WOWS" me over....

If you're looking for great clip-art, for digitizing, for printing elements for your scrapbook or whatever else, you *must* check out the artwork of Judy Howell at:

J & B Howell Creative Expressions

She has a whole page chock-full of free samples you can download, to see what her art is like, and her subscription price is amazing -- only $4.99 a month for full access to her archives of years worth of artwork, or $19.99 for six months! I just stumbled across her site this morning, and needless to say, I'm subscribed now! I like her variety & plan to use some of her images for doing some new designs!

If you see a specific picture you would like to see digitized, just let me know!

I'm aware of the 'popular' sites - like Clipartopolis, JD Clipart, etc - and their work is great - but so many digitizers get their art from those sites already, I didn't want to have a ton of 'duplicate' designs on my site, that you already see at dozens of other sites. (And at this point, I can't really afford to buy 'exclusive' sets...)

(As with any artist/designer/etc, be sure to read & follow her terms of use if you grab any of her pictures. Very generous terms - you can basically use the art to create whatever you like, for both personal & commercial use - you just cannot re-sell/re-distribute/etc the actual artwork itself ) Many clipart sources either ask a higher price to start with and some ask an additional fee for commercial usage - so I truly appreciate her generous terms of use along with the fantastic price!



Have a great day, everyone!

- Nickie

Springtime Pals set is on the way!

I'm sorry I'm so slow about getting new sets up!

Anyway, here's a screenshot of one design from a set I'm finishing up.... these were based on a cute set of clipart called "Springtime Pals", from Judy/Sew Creative, over at www.stitchartcafe.com

There are a couple variations of the bunny, a couple chicks, some butterflies, flowers & I'm going to add in a few pieces of my own to finish out the set. I've got most of the designs done, I just need to do some more test stitching to make sure they're all A-OK, and then they'll be online for you!

I usually try to do other things besides "cute" designs - since there are SO many "cutesy" designs out there already - but I liked this little bunny when I saw him & wanted to do him! I'll probably have some 'cute' stuff on the site, but I'll try to have the majority of designs along the lines of those that are already online now.

Quilt Block Mega-Set is Available!!!

Finally!!! The Quilt Block Mega-Set is now online & available for purchase!

The set contains ** 1200 ** designs! Nope, that's not a typo, it is 1200!

There are similarities, of course, there are a good many different design elements, and they are combined this-way, that-way, the-other-way, to give as many variations & versatility as possible!
Most are 'designs', but there are a good number of 'pictorial' blocks as well - the blocks that have simple pictures on them - teddy bears, a few with cats, roses, rocking horses, and so forth.

You can see the set's page at Quilt Block Mega-Set

The set is priced at $25.00 And you can have the collection mailed to you on CD at no additional cost whatsoever! That's right - no charge for the CD, and free shipping too! (free shipping applies only within the continental US - if you're overseas, sorry I will have to charge shipping!)

The CD contains multiple formats, also thumbnail images of all the blocks (200x200 pixel size images) CD's are professionally printed - we don't use stick-on labels that can end up coming off or wearing out. You get your choice of a regular CD-sized "jewelcase" or if you prefer, you can have your collection in a larger "dvd-style" case with full cover printing. (the same type of case that a dvd movie comes in)

Of course, if you don't want to wait on the postal service to deliver your collection, you CAN get it via email, the same as any of my other sets! Just be sure your provider allows for large file attachments, as this is a very big collection!

You can even get the set emailed to you initially and still get the CD mailed to you as well, all for the one price - again, there is NO extra cost whatsoever for the CD (unless you live outside the US, then you only pay the actual postage cost to your country)

And lastly --- if you previously purchased the Baby Quilt Block set, and would like this set as well, you can deduct your prior purchase from the cost of this set, since all 63 of the Baby Blocks are included in this mega-set. So, if you already bought the Baby Blocks, you can get this collection for only $19.00

Seeking Knowledgable AOL user

Good afternoon,

I need to find one of you who is on AOL, who is downloading the daily freebies without problems.

Some AOL users continue to get "old" cached copies of the website - I've seen server-calls to files from a WEEK ago or more! Obviously, those files are no longer there, so the user gets an error. Once their browser finally *does* update & does display the actual website, by then they've missed a whole block of files.

I spent about 10 hours or more researching this (and was shocked to find how many other website owners in a variety of fields are having the same type of problems with AOL) and EVERYTHING that can be done on my end has been done. Between the initial default settings in AOL's browser, the download accelerator that they use, and the way that AOL itself handles caching, there is a large part of this that is totally out of my control - it is a combination of individual browser settings, the 'accelerator' and the AOL cache servers.

I do know that some AOL users ARE downloading the daily files OK, so if one of you would be willing to lend a hand, I would greatly appreciate it. I have offered to help folks, to no avail; perhaps they would listen to another AOL user.

I would like to set up a "Help" page for AOL users, that shows in detail the settings they should use in their browser, how to empty their cache, etc -- whatever it is that makes it work for you other AOL'ers who don't have problems! Although I DO have several different versions of Internet Explorer (strictly for testing), I know that AOL's version of IE has some customization done to it.

So, if anyone would be willing to spend a little time in email with me, giving me some info specific to AOL's version of IE, I would greatly appreciate it & will make it worth your time.

LOL - but the problem still remains - if they are only seeing a "stored snapshot" of the website, even if I put up a Help page, they won't see it, because it won't be there on the "stored" copy that they are seeing! It's a catch-22 that I can't win...... but I'd still like to get a page up & eventually, the cached copies will expire & *someday* the current page will load for them & hopefully they'll see the Help file.

Thanks!

Why 'mybargainstuff' for FerretLady Designs?

LOL, I've had a few people ask me, why my domain is 'mybargainstuff.com' when the business is FerretLady Designs. Well, there is a handful of reasons behind that -- but I will also mention upfront that I have registered "FerretLadyDesigns.com" and plan on migrating the site over onto it's own domain in the near future.


I've owned 'MyBargainStuff.com' for some years now. It's been through several incarnations - originally, it was a simple storefront, selling a variety of goods. It served as a community site for a couponers/bargain-hunters group that I was involved in for some time.... and most recently, it had been an ill-fated attempt at an auction/marketplace site for crafters. Then it was more or less dormant for a while..... I kept renewing it, even when it was 'dead space', thinking I'd eventually do *something* with it.

I guess you could say there was a small element of uncertainty & possibly even insecurity, when I put my very first set-for-sale online. (That was the Valentine Conversation Hearts) Would anyone buy them? Were they "good enough", that anyone would want them at all, even if I gave away freebies?? At the time, I had no idea where things would end up going, so I was "chicken, and decided to go ahead and use the existing domain name that I already had, that was sitting there on my server doing nothing - rather than setting up a new domain.

Well, it's been a whirlwind of a 6 weeks now, and I thank each & every one of you from the bottom of my heart for making FerretLady Designs take off as quickly as it has! It's totally amazing to me!

So, that's why it's "mybargainstuff.com" right now. It will become FerretLadyDesigns.com sometime in the near future, but no worries of losing track of me - whenever I do get the new domain moved over onto my server & get everything set up, I'll set 'mybargainstuff.com' to automatically re-direct to the new name, so you'll still get to the site just fine!

It will probably be at least a couple more weeks before I get into doing all that. I really want to concentrate on getting more designs available on the site first, and get more freebie series set up & going. I do apologize for being so slow on getting new designs up for you! But hopefully I can get a lot more online for you much quicker now!

Thanks again for visiting, you all are the greatest!!!

New Alphabet Set -- Bullion Rose - Full alpha set

A brand-new alphabet set posted today -- Bullion Rose alphabet. This is a complete alphabet set with both upper and lower case letters. There is also a second set of lower-case letters included that do not have the roses on them, so you can make your words fancy, with all decorated letters, or just use a decorated capital followed by 'unadorned' lower-case letters. Or, the upper case letters by themselves make lovely monograms!

As always, this set is on sale for a limited time to start with. Get all 78 designs for just $5.00

This alpha will also be the next Daily Free Alphabet as soon as the Elegant Star alpha finishes up.

Hope you like it & thanks for visiting!

- Nickie aka FerretLady

Website Re-Vamp

Whew... well, I've got most of the website re-vamped. Daily rotation scripts have been completely re-done also. The daily freebies and their accompanying images all have unique filenames from one day to the next - hopefully this will eliminate some of the browser caching problems that some visitors have had. It has been so frustrating to see folks having problems - I know the letters have been correct on the site each day - yet some poor people just haven't been able to get them, because their browser simply would not load the most current information!

Hopefully, the new scripts / unique filenames will solve those problems!

I still need to re-do a lot of my graphics, as they don't work too well in the new site - but I didn't want to delay getting the basic site in place any longer.

I'd be thrilled to hear any comments you might have about the "new" site! Just click the comments button below this post & let me know what you think!

Quilt Block Mega-Set is in the works!

Freebies from the upcoming Quilt Block set are already online & I'm glad to see folks downloading them! This is going to be a HUGE set! I just can't seem to call it quits with this set! LOL! I've got all these different elements that can combine together in different ways, so of course, I've got to try out as many combinations as possible! Every time I think, 'whew... that's enough!' - I don't want to quit & leave some 'parts' unused!

The complete set will likely be 300-400 designs in all, possibly more. Some are quite similar to one another, just slight variations - but I think there will be a lot of room for variety & diversity in putting different blocks together in your projects! I hope you have fun with them - I know I'm having fun doing the blocks! (Postcript -- I just checked my folders & I already have over 600 blocks! Yikes! So the complete set will probably be close to 1000!!!)

Because of the sheer size of the complete set, it will be offered on CD for purchase along with online copy. The complete set will be on sale for $25 once it's completed - no additional charge for having it put on a CD, other than the mailing cost.

And since there will be so many blocks in the set, this will be one set in which not *every* single design will end up being a freebie - it would take all year to offer them all as freebies! But I will continue the freebie series of quilt blocks for at least a couple weeks, so you can collect a good number of them as freebies.

Well, enough 'break-time chit-chat' for me - I'm getting back to work! (Yep, I'm a night-owl & tend to do most of my work at night!) Thanks again, everyone, for your support & for visiting mybargainstuff!!!

Free Machine Embroidery Designs Feb 12

As of Feb 11, these are the free machine embroidery designs available at MyBargainStuff



Be sure to collect them all!!! A new set, Quilt Block Motifs, will be starting tomorrow.

One Month Old!

It's hard to believe that MyBargainStuff has been online for a month now! What an exciting month it's been! To be totally factual, the domain, mybargainstuff.com, was online previously - but was used for other purposes. MyBargainStuff as it is today, focused on machine embroidery designs, will be exactly one month old on Feb 13th.

Before I go on, I would like to thank each & every one of you for visiting! Thank you to my customers who have purchased designs, and thank you to everyone who has been visiting the site, many of you on a daily basis! I genuinely appreciate your support! I honestly hope you have enjoyed the designs & I will do my best to keep adding more designs as quickly as possible - sets at an affordable price, and of course, lots of freebies!!!

Remember - you can end up collecting all our machine embroidery designs if you watch all the freebie slots carefully! Every design in every set *will* be put up as a freebie at some time! Some are daily freebies, and others will rotate randomly every few days or so. Some are obvious, right there at the top of the page - others are in various locations throughout the page.

Thank you again for visiting MyBargainStuff - it is exciting to see the number of daily visitors slowly growing! Be sure to tell your friends about us & keep coming back for more freebies!