In case you didn't know....you can't win 'em all.

It's been a really long time (by my standards) in which I've have several hours of undisturbed time in which to, well, do anything.
So last night while Sean was at work I thought I'd surf the net. (there was NOTHING on TV last night)

I played on Pogo for a while. I FB'd and Pumpkin Patched. (yes, I just used Facebook and Pumpkin Patch as verbs - love it!)

I was going to sew some bags to post but my sister in law ordered a bag so I wanted to get that done for her and then my cousin ordered a custom bag so was waiting on confirmation of the details for that in order to get that started. These days I only have the energy (and time) to sew on weekends so I try to cram a lot of it in. June is just around the corner and I'd like to have a lot of bags to bring to the Relay for Life.

Anyhow, my fabric reserves, while still pretty healthy in some areas are lacking in others. There are some (like the pink, the blue stripes, and the florals) that I have a lot of but others (like the oh, so popular black checkers) that I only have enough left to make one bag.
I'm always on the lookout for more.

I decided to scan kijiji. I've been very lucky there, it's where I found my Fabric Angel.
I found an ad that someone was selling a pretty nice lot of upholstery weight material. The pictures of it were nice, solid colours (blues and reddish/pinkish/maroon)
So, as before, I took a chance and emailed the seller - explaining the situation - and asking for a donation. I provided them with a link to the Papa's Pride blog (proof that I'm not a whack job trying to pull a fast one)
In the past, I've always put - I understand if you'd rather not donate the fabric but I figure it never hurts to ask.

I got a reply this morning from the seller. He/she replied that they "already do TONS of charity work" [sic] so basically, thanks but no thanks.

Now again, obviously it's their choice, whatever. But here's what's bugging me.
They were only asking $20 for the whole lot. (yeah I know what you're thinking - it's only $20 - suck it up buttercup and just buy the damn stuff. I plan to because it looked really great but the fact of the matter is that despite my fabulous new job I'm still flat freakin' broke until at least Wednesday. We're still playing a bit of catch up because of Emily's day at the Eaton Centre, Connor's Birthday party and my brakes and rotors needing to be done.) And I can't email now and say, can you hang onto it until Wednesday and I'll buy it because then I do look like a whack job trying to pull a fast one. So I'll wait until Wednesday and if it's not sold THEN I'll email and say if you don't want to donate it fine - I'd like to buy it because it would be really helpful.

(deep breath)

But again - by donating it they only loose $20. No biggie. And again - it's their choice to not donate it but here's what bugs me...they didn't even look at the Papa's Pride Blog. I know this because I have a 'unique visit' counter and the map - I know when and where people are when they view the blog (plus Blogger has the nifty stats page)

This person didn't make a decision based on, oh I don't know, being adequately informed - he/she just didn't want to. That's what's bothering me. If it were something like "Hmmm, I've looked at this blog and I think this woman is doing something very interesting, however, we already do TONS of charity work so I think I'd rather still just sell my fabrics" then I could say "Okay, I tried, but at least it's only $20 (the cost of which is recovered on the sale of one bag) so I'll just buy it. "

I'm taking it personally (which I know it isn't but I still take it that way) because they didn't bother to look at the blog. They made a decision based solely on my email which leaves me feeling as though they think I'm the whack job trying to pull a fast one that I tried to convince them that I am not by sending them the link to the blog in the first place.

I realize this is my issue. Not everyone out there is like my Fabric Angel. Not everyone *gets* the value of what I'm doing. I know in my heart of hearts that this 'cause' is more important to me than to anyone else simply because it's what helps me deal with losing my Dad. I've been so blessed with people like my Fabric Angel who get it and the family, friends and random strangers who've placed the orders that keep me going - that keep me sewing - that keep me hoping that I'll sell a ton of bags, raise a ton of money before June and then start all over again in July.

Anyhow, I'm going to buy the fabric on Wednesday if it's still available. I think it they will make nice bags. And in the meantime - I'll keep working with what I have and have fun doing it.

And after I complete the orders in waiting we'll have broken the $300 mark. WOOHOO!