Buyer Beware

My husband has bought many a thing from watching infomercials late at night... a portable convection oven, knives, saws... and who knows what else! I have to admit that I secretly judge him thinking he fell for scams... but I can no longer judge. I have been scammed. A few months back I was searching for something random on google and came across an article that looked like it could have the answers. Now I've run into this before, but didn't realize until too late, but this article had words that were highlighted in blue that you could click on making it appear that if you were unsure on terminology you could click the highlighted word and it would provide you with a pop up window of the definition or explanation. Anyway, I clicked one of these words and it took me to a random blog. I thought "hmmm this is weird, it must have been a bad link" but it wasn't a bad link. These links are on purpose, and I've run into them since this incident and realised their true intention, advertising. Either way though the blog caught my attention and I read on to hear about how this girl used an acai berry supplement along with another cleansing supplement and lost lots of weight. Now I don't usually fall for this sort of thing, but because it was on a blog it appeared as though it was real person saying this actually worked. There were even comments from her friends! So I thought, hey, sounds interesting, I'll see if I can find free samples too! So upon lots of searching I finally found some free samples that I could sign up for. Of course I was careful and read everything they provided making sure I understood how the program worked as far as canceling and such, but of course they don't give all the information do they?! I knew I was taking a big risk, and I even had a mini panic after I gave them my credit card number and officially ordered their free trial supplements, but I couldn't go back so I waited for it in the mail and tried the magical combination for two weeks and then stopped cause it didn't do a darn thing. So I called each of the companies and told them I wanted to cancel thinking that their free trial meant that I got the pills for free and just didn't order for the next month. Nope, I had to ship the unused pills back to them on my own dime otherwise they would charge me the outrageous fee of $60 for the bottle! So, I grumbled my way to the post office, sent them back their lame non-magic pills and thought it was over. Until of course I saw my credit card statement. At first they were not refunding me the money for the bottle of pills and I started to panic because I hadn't wanted to pay the extra money to have the package tracked and I thought they were gonna scam me by saying they never got it, but today I looked at my bill again and discovered that while they did FINALLY refund me my money for the pills, there were some new charges. Some "membership" fees that were vague and non-descript. So I copied and pasted the charge description into a google search and found a thread that was totally dedicated to this membership fee and the scam it was running. Apparently when you sign up for Acaiburn (the company I got the free trial offer from) they sign you up for these other companies memberships and publishings. So now I had to call three other companies to cancel these memberships and user fees that I didn't even get anything for! And of course they hire sweet little 16 year old girls who you feel bad yelling at so you keep your cool. Needless to say I did not get any money back, but apparently I'm all canceled on my "insider secrets" and "weightloss membership clubs" ARG! Who are these people? Who do they think they are?! Why do we let people be so dishonest like this and knowingly scam people out of their hard earned money? I've learned my lesson, but why is it that we live in a world where this lesson has to be learned? I hate it when people say "if there is a God how can he let so many bad things happen?" well here's some news for you, WE are the ones who make the bad things happens, so maybe, just maybe we should stop putting up with it.

All that from a measly online scam.

So. Lessons learned. Don't sign up for AcaiBurn. Don't click on what you think is a definition link in random internet articles, and don't let evil people ruin your day, or the world we decent people are trying to create.

The Joy of Recreating

I love it when I get an original idea and I just can't wait to try it out. I quickly become obsessed with the NEED to buy supplies or dig through old stuff I have in order to make it happen. Dan has seen this first hand and I think he gets a little afraid of my obsessions sometimes. Sometimes though, I have a hard time taking an original idea and continuing to improve it and transform it. I'm afraid to buy a house that was built in the 1970's cause I won't have any idea how to make it look cool rather than old and outdated. But today I was looking at my website on Etsy and searching other peoples sites and I had a revelation. I had been struggling with my craft because I felt like all the different pieces didn't have a common thread, but something clicked today and my juices started to flow and I'm hoping that eventually my work will start to look like it came from the same person! So here I go to the sewing machine to see if I can turn my original ideas into something even more cohesive, even more united.... even MORE original.

What would you do with one third of your life back?

My husband has this new ipod touch. Sometimes I think he loves it more than he loves me... and why wouldn't he? I can't play hilarious youtube clips on my belly and I don't make food like you find on thisiswhyyourfat.com. Nope, I just have the same old stories, the same old information, and can't seem to download information like I once could. But recently Dan informed me during one of his ipod searching sessions that he just read that the average person spends one third of their life on the Internet! I couldn't believe it! One third?! If I'm spending one third of my entire life on the Internet that means that only two thirds is left over for living, and if you subtract sleeping, grooming, cleaning, driving, working, and doing all the other menial tasks we don't enjoy, how much is left for the fun stuff? The stuff I imagine I would do if I wasn't at work. I know we all do it. While working we can think of 101 things we would rather be doing, but as soon as we get through our front door all of those wonderful ideas seem to run out our ears onto the floor never to be found again and all we can think to do is check our email or facebook, or watch TV. So I can't help but think, when I'm 87 and getting ready to quietly slip away into new life will I be thinking "gosh, I sure am glad I invested all that time into looking up Britney Spears new look, and all those hours of aimlessly searching the Internet have really paid off"... You know, I think I'd rather have different thoughts. Maybe memories of things I actually did instead of reading about other people doing...
In reality my Internet time might not decrease so much, but I would like to think I would be more aware of the hours mindlessly slipping by, and that maybe, just maybe I would actually write down my awesome "I would rather be doing this than working" ideas and laminate them and maybe post them on my fridge so next time, I choose to go out and live a little rather than sit by and watch.

My first posting... a little about me.

I make baby items and sell them on etsy and I don't even have a child! Well not yet anyway, but don't lose faith in me yet! I did grow up in a family of six kids and I was the second oldest, first girl, so I've been around babies and kids my whole life.
My idea for Practical Baby stemmed from one idea I had for a leak proof picnic blanket matched with my frustrating ability to become completely obsessed with an idea once presented. That idea was that my husband and I would start trying to have a baby sometime this year. Once the seed was planted I simply went insane reading everything I could about all the things I would need to buy for a baby. I read up on what to expect when pregnant, the first year, and all the must have baby gadgets and I still wasn't satisfied. Then I had the idea that I really could make a lot of the things that a baby needs on my own. Then I combined the idea for my leak proof picnic blanket with my obsession with babies and got the practical play mat idea. As a substitute teacher that wasn't working too much I decided I would try my hand at creating my baby product ideas and see if I could sell them. So that's how I got here!
Check me out at http://www.practicalbaby.etsy.com/

Sadly the practical play mats are no longer available for the U.S due to the CPSIA restrictions, but I've got an order for some new fabric in so they will be back soon! I mean really, what's Practical Baby without the practical play mat?