wetfish designs

Well, I got so caught up in Christmas yesterday that I forgot to post my "Stand Up and CARE!" Blog Party link....so click on the above preview and you can grab it. Personal use only and please don't share the link, send friends here to paty and download......

You will have until January 31st to use this coupon, so you can grab what you want now or wait until the end of January and get a whole lot more since I will be putting new stuff in my store after the holidays. This promotion will only be on sale until January 1, 2009. Then it is gone! So grab it now and get everything in my store and everything that will be put in my store during the month of January!

Gotta go get ready for another Christmas celebration with my husband's family, but I'll leave you with some photos of our Christmas---it was great :)

I can't believe it is Christmas Eve! And I actually just finished wrapping all the boys gifts and it isn't the middle of the night, either! My parents snuck them out of the house for a holiday lunch at Friendlys and I did a mad rush to get it all wrapped and hidden before they got back. Whew!!! Now I'm exhausted, not just from the wrapping but from keeping my three cats off the wrapping paper and the ribbon out of their mouths. My three cats, one of which is 13 years old and the other two are 5 and 6 years old, become kittens every holiday season when I pull out the ribbon and wrapping paper. The metallic tissue is their favorite, probably because it makes noise when they slide across the room on it! Oh the life with three cats and two boys....and of course my two dogs and husband. Never a dull moment, even when wrapping presents!

And here is my blog party freebie for today......click on the image to download and this is personal use only and please don't share the link, send others here to download and comment (yes, I'm taking comments again)...

And here is my Day 3 for my "Countdown to Christmas" celebration.....personal use only, too. Click on the image to download....

Gotta go back to Christmas prep, so enjoy the freeebies and I hope you are gearing up for a wonderful holiday!

Warmly,

Cyndi, Wetfish Designs

p.s. Don't forget my contest.....every fifth customers wins my "Vintage Box of CU Cheer" or the sale amount of $25 in free items from my store for purchasing this latest commercial use grab bag from me, "New Year New Stash" :

Check out this HUGE commerical use grab bag that contains NO HOLIDAY ITEMs here:

http://divinedigital.com/boutique/product.php?productid=9153&cat=0&page=1

Good luck if you try and win!

I have a new grab bag out today to help get ready for the new year, 2009! This is a non-holiday grab bag and it has six brand new products I'm sure you'll have fun using in your designs. It is a combination of layer styles, overlays, vintage elements and fun embellishments. For only $6 this is a steal, so pick it up before the clock strikes midnight on December 31st!!!

Okay, this is a first for me. I just had someone leave a comment on my blog this morning which was a bunch of quotes about gossip. This post was made anonymously. I deleted it. Why? Because it was ridiculous. This is my blog and I'll post what I want and delete what I want. This blog does not belong to the digi community but to me. If I want to discuss what a customer said to me, I'll do that. I didn't share the customers name. I didn't share anything beyond my frustration with people being inconsiderate and cruel when someone is in need or when someone lends a hand to someone who is in need. If you don't like my grab bag sale to help a friend, just don't buy it and if you don't like the idea of someone selling her store and sharing with consumers the reason why, don't buy her store and don't read about it.



Now the comment about the gossip quotes is back. Hi Jane! I'm going to leave them since you felt so strongly as to post them again. They are actually good quotes but they don't really apply to me as I was not gossiping. If I was gossiping I would have named names. The person whose comment on an invoice I was upset about was gossiping and even admitted as much when she indicated she has "yet to talk to another designer friend of mine who has seen this ad & thinks this isn't tacky." So the gossip quotes belong to her, not me. She discussed my friend's sale and financial situation with others. That is gossip.



But what really prompted me to post again is the last comment made by someone who chose to remain anonymous. Here you go, read it in bigger print---it is a rant worth larger print and color:



Well isn't it enough that I pay such high TAXES for these incompetant people to sit on welfare? Why should I dish out more of my hard earned money to these selfish people who rather than stop doing what they know isn't working(going to school while children starve)they just stick their hand out to all and everyone in anonymous web land, I bet not one cent of these so called charity gifts are being accounted to the welfare dept. Their are serious people in real need and people like you designers who don't register your fund raising schemes or acts of charity are just jokes ripping off the wonderful giving and loving digi community like myself and all the real giving charitable women in this world! Who put our money/time/effort into real legitimate and registered charity functions!So she put all her store on sale, many designers do the exact same thing for many different reasons, but I've yet to see one designer do it in such a tactless way as this, I'm sitting here reading that ad thinking sell your bloody computer, your cell phone and all your other crap before crying poor to me or just put "sale" without all the emotional crap on your product listing!I think your airing a private comment about a customer on your blog is "TACKY" and don't look now but you have turned this blog into a "smack blog"!! LOL I wonder what the anonymous comment you deleted said?! I bet it was the only real truthful thing said on this post!Royanna are you a responsible business owner? how you handled this situation is inappropriate. How dare you berate a customer in this way! I'd not be surprised that you have passed her name around to everyone in your store and forum, touting yourself as the most charitable woman around and how dare anyone question your motives on this "cause" after all haven't you had the best month in sales since using this "cause" to your financial and mutual benefit! Why don't you put your money where your mouth is and donate to this Laura all your month's taking and not just give lip service to it but show us some real receipts of you doing it? How much have you raised for her and how much has she taken in sales, real charity funraisers have this information available to the public, this so called "charity" case is a joke and illegal!Yes, there are laws to protect the everyday charitable person from being taken advantage of in this way and many real and more worthwhile fundraisers to participate in!Please display how much income this "charity case" is actually getting from all her various sources, redundancies from leaving job, Husbands income, welfare income, partnership for Devine's ownership shared income, church handouts and welfare and then allow us grownups the decision on whether she is really a worthy cause or not! Heck I bet she has more disposal income than the magority of your customers who spend at your store!I appaud that designer for having the courage to tell you what alot of your customers were thinking anyway!


To this comment and anonymous person, I say:


1. I only deleted one comment and it has now been reposted and will stay that way since there is a name attached to it. Perhaps you should consider putting your name next to your convictions and opinions since you seem to have some pretty strong opinions about me.
2. This is not a smack blog. If you or anyone else continues to post comments in an effort to spew nastiness, I'll just disable comments or delete them. This blog is not a forum for people to anonymously post opinons, whether I agree with those opinions or not. Go find a real smack blog if that is what you want to do.
3. My friend, who I chose to help with a donation of my sales from a grab bag, is not a welfare recipient. So she isn't cheating anyone and no one is hiding any sales from the welfare department. And this isn't a scam or scheme to pull the wool over the digi community's eyes. For goodness sake, this is a $6 grab bag!!! Seriously now, to say that"fund raising schemes or acts of charity are just jokes ripping off the wonderful giving and loving digi community like myself and all the real giving charitable women in this world!" is just too much for me. If you were a truly charitable and giving woman you wouldn't be posting such nasty things THAT ARE NOT TRUE about my friend. You have made her out to seem like a scheming woman on welfare ready to take money raised by me or herself just so she can go to a spa or shop at Nordstroms. She is trying to put food on the table, heat her home and put a few gifts under the tree for her children. There is nothing illegal going on here. There is no scheme. It is people like you who go and post things that aren't true that make people question the sincerity of others when they do something that is decent and honest or ask for help because they really need it. Shame on you!
4. Why are you asking Royanna (correct way to spell her name by the way) on my blog? This isn't Royanna's blog and she didn't ask me to post anything or sell anything to help out our mutual friend. She, like me, is a bit dumbfounded at how cruel so many people can be when someone is in need.
5. Quote from you: "I'd not be surprised that you have passed her name around to everyone in your store and forum, touting yourself as the most charitable woman around and how dare anyone question your motives on this "cause" after all haven't you had the best month in sales since using this "cause" to your financial and mutual benefit! Why don't you put your money where your mouth is and donate to this Laura all your month's taking and not just give lip service to it but show us some real receipts of you doing it?" I didn't share this customers name with anyone other than those who received a copy of the invoice on which she made her comment. That would be me, since she used a gift coupon in my store, Laura whose store she purchased despite having said she didn't agree with the whole idea behind the sale (hypocrisy perhaps?) and the store owners, Laura and Royanna. I passed around her name to NO ONE. I did not visit any forums or smack blogs and say "hey, guess what so and so said to me." That is not my style. Those fellow designers and customers who know me know that I am not like that and I would never do such a thing. Posting about it---about my frustration with the situation in general about lack of charity and compassion in the world today---on my blog is how I dealt with it. That is my style. And just so you know, I have just about donated all this month's sales to Laura as the products in that grab bag were what I planned on putting in my store this month. This has been my worst month for sales to date because I gave up my sales for a friend. So actually I consider it my best month in sales because she needed the money more than I did and the amount that I was able to raise for Laura is her business and my business, not yours. And if you think I'm going to share invoices to prove to you or anyone else how much I have raised for her with my grab bag sales, think again.
6. It is "Divine" Digital, not "Devine" Digital. Learn how to spell.



For those customers that came here for a freebie, I apologize for the drama. And if you are of the same opinion as this poster is, I really don't need or want to hear about it. The holidays are supposed to be a time of giving and caring and I feel like I am defending myself for being charged with the horrific crime of kindness and compassion.


Best,
Cyndi


There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life -- happiness, freedom, and peace of mind -- are always attained by giving them to someone else.
~Peyton Conway March

Here is the link to the full set of texture overlays that go with yesterday's CU freebie:


http://divinedigital.com/boutique/product.php?productid=9102&cat=0&page=






And here is the new set I put together last night and managed to preview this morning while my kids were in preschool..... "Down & Dirty Texture Overlays Set 3"







And here is another CU freebie that goes with "Down & Dirty Set 3".....enjoy!

I want to end this blog post with a little note about charity. Charity to me is something that is very personal and very important. Charity can be a kind word to someone who is upset or down, and charity can also be a donation made to an organization, cause or friend in need. Recently I started selling my "Santa's Vintage CU Sack" to help out my friend, Laura. Today I was shocked beyond belief when a fellow designer told me via an invoice comment box that "Operation Save Christmas" was "tacky" and that other designers in the digi design community also felt the same way. So my act of charity, to help a friend who is in financial need with a brand new baby and who lost her job just before her baby was born, has now become "tacky" in the eyes of my designer peers. How sad. How terribly sad. Not for me---believe me, I've been called worse than "tacky" and I can take it. But to leave nasty comments in the checkout process so the designer behind "Operation Save Christmas" can read them, well that is just over the top in my book.

Where has the goodness in the world gone? Don't people realize that if someone is so hard up that they are selling their store and all their designs at a ridiculously low price to try and get through the holidays with a roof over their head and a few gifts under the tree for their three young chhildren they deserve a little compassion and sensitivity? Tacky isn't a word I believe belongs in charity. There is no tackiness in helping others, especially a friend in need. Tacky is an adjective for the fashion industry, furniture, etc. It isn't, in my humble opinion, an adjective that should even be in the same sentence as charity.

Yes, a lot of people are going through tough economic times right now. Some go through them silently without a word to anyone and others need help and let it be known. To do so is not tacky and to help someone is not tacky, either.

So to those designers that are here to download yet another CU freebie from me, I ask that you remember that kindness, compasssion, empathy and sincerity are all words that go in tandem with charity for me. Not tacky. Never tacky. No act of charity can ever be called tacky. And if you don't agree with that, and you are one of the designers on one of those smack blogs or bulletin boards talking about how tacky this is or that is in terms of helping someone via a sale, well that is your opinion and your are entitled to it. But have a little "tact" and don't leave nasty comments on the invoices so the designer in need reads them. What purpose does that serve other than to be cruel? Cruel at Christmas....is that the new theme in the digi world?

And now I am going to step off my soap box and part with some of my favorite quotes on charity and tackiness, to help educate those who need a little lesson:



Tacky


I wouldn't say I invented tacky, but I definitely brought it to its present high popularity.
~Bette Midler


Not that I give a hoot about jewelry. Diamonds, yes. But it's tacky to wear diamonds before you're forty... ~Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1958, spoken by the character Holly Golightly


I think everybody likes to be remembered. I haven't heard anyone say it's tacky, it's more like, 'Hey, this is now available.' People have welcomed it.
~Kate Heller


After Elvis died, there were so many licensing deals signed that led to a lot of very tacky stuff.
~Scott Williams


Charity

We can do no great things, only small things with great love. ~Mother Teresa


I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do. ~Edward Everett Hale


If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one. ~Mother Teresa


The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit. ~Nelson Henderson


While earning your daily bread, be sure you share a slice with those less fortunate.
~Quoted in P.S. I Love You, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.


Charity sees the need, not the cause. ~German Proverb


We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. ~Winston Churchill


The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?" ~Martin Luther King, Jr.


Sometime in your life, hope that you might see one starved man, the look on his face when the bread finally arrives. Hope that you might have baked it or bought or even kneaded it yourself. For that look on his face, for your meeting his eyes across a piece of bread, you might be willing to lose a lot, or suffer a lot, or die a little, even. ~Daniel Berrigan


It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference. ~Tom Brokaw


Find a need and fill it. ~Ruth Stafford Peale

Get ready for Divine Digital's December Charity Event, "Stand Up & CARE! - THE GIRL EFFECT"


CARE.org has a project going right now called "The Girl Effect" which poses the question that if we just made an investment in ONE girl - we could make a difference! We are doing a kit in tandem with the GIRL EFFECT PROJECT for CARE.org







Divine Charity EVENT Thread:

http://www.divinedigital.com/forums/...play.php?f=617

Check out the events for CARE, including the blog party and charity mega kit!