Relax Sara, the postman came today and brought me a package from Hong Kong, one package containing two gifts.

Aha
looks like only 2 to go then! Who wants to lay the odds on the Canada one being last to arrive?

Well I am impressed! I thought South African mail had to be the worst in the world but Sue received her mail from me in less time than from Ren. Needless to say Jillians (to my knowledge) has still not arrived. Probably hanging on some postal workers Christmas tree as we speak.

Definitely a bouquet today.

Back in October a stationery company which I had previously dealt with sent me an email advertising some fantastic bargains. One of the items was 500 envelopes for just £5 plus postage. As I make so many cards I thought this sounded excellent to ordered 500 plus some other great bargains they had on offer.

The order arrived timely and I was very pleased with the service that I received. I used a few envelopes then one person to whom I had sent a card commented that the envelope had split up the side and she was lucky not to have lost the card. When I examined an envelope I discovered that too had a small slit, then another, and another. I did use a few more sticking the side with sticky tape but mostly I didn't use them. Then I thought I would open another packet of them and throw away the dodgy pack, except that was also faulty. Then today I selected a pack from the centre of the box, yes, it split too.

I sent a polite email to the company saying that I realised they were cheap but they really ought to be fit for the purpose and that the postage cost to return them would exceed what I had paid for them and asked for their comments.

A short time later I received an email in return apologising and saying there is no point in returning them but they would send me 1000 envelopes in compensation! Then on top of that they have marked my account to give me 10% off my next order.

Now I call that service, service with a smile. I will most certainly use the company again, the quality of previous items bought from them has been very high.

A lot of businesses could do with a lesson from that one, Sue. Mistakes happen and things can go wrong and if they rectify it it with a smile then I'm more than happy to use them again. It's the ones that try to blame everyone else and try to get out of fixing the problems that won't get my business again.

A couple weeks ago I found some perfect stamps for me - a couple of windmills and barbed wire, sounds boring but it's perfect for what I want. I bought them online and when the postage notice came it had the correct address but incorrect country LOL They are bending over backwards to fix it and have resent the package and said to keep the other one if it does turn up.

What I was going to suggest to them, before I received their generous offer, was to return them to them in March as they are in Sheffield which is where my daughter lives.

Now I am going to have to find some way to use almost 500 faulty envelopes, it is only 80gsm so I am not sure how good they will be for stamping on, they are pale grey.

Rip them up and make paper?

Interesting thought.

Looks quite interesting! There's millions of sites here's just a couple I found:

(video) http://www.metacafe.com/watch/820961/how_to_recycle_paper_homemade_letter_paper/

(tutorial)
http://montessoribyhand.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-to-make-recycled-paper.html

Excellent but a bit messy, my house is a big enough mess already without all that.

Yes it is a bit messy .. messy like a six year old would like? Yes, yes.
Guess who is making paper when she can work out how to make a screen?

Thanks for the idea Sue!