Of Queendoms and Castles in My Needlework World

I have been toiling in what I call Mail Jail for the better part of a month now. Mail Jail is the process of mailing out orders from my once-a-year E-Week Sale.

I am almost finished; I am down to the last dozen orders and then I have to repair all my mistakes. I should imagine it will take me till the end of the week after Thanksgiving and I will be able to fold up my Mail Jail tent and transition into Life After E-Week Mail Jail.

This morning I established an important date on my website: January 15, 2011. It is the date by which everyone must report any errors in their orders. After January 15 I will not make any corrections.

Why am I being so strict about the date this year? Because MacSoph and I have a daunting winter and spring ahead: we have to build a new castle for Queendom Website and then we have to move. Remember what moving and remodeling are like? I believe that moving and remodeling are two of life's most stressful activities, and I am not sure that our e-move won't be almost as stressful.

A new castle for Queendom Website. Stress aside, I am looking forward to a new look and a new program. For a long time now (more than a year) the kids who teach me at the Apple Store have been telling me that Queendom Website has outgrown iWeb and I need to move, so they don't see the demise of iWeb as a tragedy for me.

Still it is a daunting task and I am properly timid and apprehensive about the road ahead.

How will MacSoph and I soothe our nerves? MacSoph can sing now (at a late date I discovered iTunes) and I am hoping she will sing to me while I stitch. My great temptation of course is to stitch a castle as a commemoration of Queendom Website's move.
Hmmm, a castle. Not a bad idea. We'll see.

For now, it is important that my followers help by checking their E-Week orders and making sure they have everything. For details see my postings in Mail Jail on Queendom Website: www.GayAnnRogers.com and click on Mail Jail on the yellow navigation bar. Remember, January 15 is but a little over 2 months away. And maybe by then Adobe will have my prograph out of beta. Maybe.

Gay Ann

Today is the Final Day of E-Week Annex, so I am looking ahead

It's the last day of E-Week Annex, the part of E-Week where Kate's Corner sells the supplies for the designs I've sold at E-Week this year.

It's the last day of Annex and therefore the last day of E-Week 2011. Kate will be in Mail Jail for some time to come, for that matter so will I. I think it will be a month more before I settle all mistakes etc., but I have made a great start, and whew! Queendom Website will at least in part return to normal.

I always look at the end of E-Week as the beginning of the new year on Queendom Website. That's how it feels, and I am looking forward now. People have already started asking me, could I bring back this or bring back that next year at E-Week, when am I going to sell something else, what will the new mystery be like, etc. etc. Well, I don't know the answers to any of these questions yet. It's in the future, that's what I know. I don't have to decide right now.

Top of the list this year is moving. Remember, Queendom Website has to move into its new castle and I have to start construction very soon. Indeed I have a busy year on Queendom Website, constructing a new home for us.

My target day to move is in June. It will take several days to move, or so the Apple kids tell me. I want to be all ensconced in the new castle by the Summer Solstice so that we can have a 'longest day of the year' party to celebrate the move. And if it all happens well, there will be a couple of surprises along the way.

We'll see how it goes.
meanwhile, farewell to E-Week Annex this afternoon, farewell to E-Week itself, and a big thank you to Kate for doing all of Kate's Corner this year.

Gay Ann

My Mailing List for Needlepoint Designs

Isn't it always the way it happens: E-Week hasn't been closed for 2 weeks yet and this morning I received a number of emails asking please could people buy my patterns.

The answer for now is 'no, my sale is closed'. Why don't I open it again? Because right now I am maxed out, I can't handle any more orders.

The best I can offer is to add people to my Mailing List for future sales. If someone is on my mailing list, she hears from me only 3 or 4 times a year, right before or during a sale of my needlepoint patterns.

So, for example, the next time someone will hear from me is in February when I traditionally sell needlepoint hearts right around Valentine's Day. The next time after that will be probably in April, May or June when I have promised a new geometric mystery (similar to Mystery with a Little Bit of Glitz, Glittering Diamonds and Mystery in a Corner).

This June will be a big time for me: I will transfer to a new website on or near the Summer Solstice, as Mobile Me, my current server, goes out of existence and iWeb starts to fade. It will also mark the fourth anniversary of Queendom Website (my website) and I was thinking of having a small celebratory sale then.

In the summer I will teach my Elizabeth 1, a Portrait, in the summer, and then it will be time again for E-Week 2012.

If you are on my mailing list, you will hear from me about each of these events. Otherwise I will be silent and not clog your inbox.

If you would like to be on my mailing list, write to me at GARRogers@earthlink.net.

Gay Ann