Family Break

I am back after a brief hiatus from blogging. I had a really good excuse to take a break.

My girl flew in from Connecticut for a few days! This year she got her turn on the tire swing, since the area is now "poison ivy free". We were pretty chill this visit. No huge plans. Just hanging out together.

We took a drive out to the Town Creek Indian Mound in Mt. Gilead, NC and learned a little history about native american life in North Carolina. 

The historical site depends mostly on state funding for operations and maintenance. Sadly, the information building and some of the exhibits are looking tired and worn. 

Danielle and I still enjoyed our visit. We had a picnic lunch on the grounds before heading out to Pinehurst to do a little shopping.

Jeff wheeled out the smoker on Sunday and barbecued some tasty ribs. We had a great feast which included sweet potato salad, caprese salad, and grilled figs with goat cheese.

and did I mention wine?

Sadly, on Monday, I had to drive Danielle back to the airport. Saying good bye is so very hard. The only thing that takes the sting off of it, is that we head north in August and we will have a few days together again.

Prior to the girl's arrival, I worked furiously to finish a whole mess of pigs. In between the piggy banks, there were couple of carved vases... because I can't live on pigs alone. 

Yesterday was spent sanding pots and loading the kiln for a bisque firing. Once that's done, we will glaze and load her up again. Vacation is officially over.

empty promises

I really don't like to write negative posts. I feel like it only gives more fuel to bad energy. To put a positive spin on this I feel I might save another artist some disappointment and frustration.

Many of you know that Lark is publishing another 500 Teapots book. All of the books in this series are treasures. Jeff has been fortunate to be in a few these books in the past. He wanted to submit a couple of teapots for this new publication. The only problem was that his photos were slides. Prior to leaving for Korea we found a company in Raleigh, NC that converts slides to digital images. He called them and asked if they could meet his deadline of April 20th. They said absolutely. He didn't even want a CD, they could FTP him the images to make the process quicker. We packed the slides and mailed them via priority mail that very day. The next day they confirmed they had the slides. On April 20th (the deadline for the book) they said they would e-mail him a link to the files before the end of the day. At 4:30ish he called and no one answered the phone. He left a message saying he needed the file and to please e-mail it.
NO RESPONSE
Jeff missed the deadline for the book.

He went to Korea and never heard a word from the company. They also didn't send a disk with the images or return his original slides while he was away.

When he got back he called them. They said the order was marked complete and they didn't know why he never got his files or his slides back. They would mail them that day.

Two weeks passed. Jeff paid for the job with Paypal so he file a complaint. The next day he got his original slides and a disc with the images... more than 6 WEEKS LATER!

Of course now we discover this company has screwed over many, many, people. They have something like 28 complaints against them on the Better Business Bureau website.

If you need to have slides transferred to digital images DO NOT USE DiscountDigitalArt in Raleigh, NC... they totally suck.

... that's my rant for the day and hopefully for the rest of this year.

Good luck to all who were able to submit an entry for the book!