Well, we are back! We stayed in a resort in Kissimmee, just outside of Orlando. We had some great weather. One day was a little rainy in the morning (good day for shopping!) and Monday was a little cool, but that was perfect because that was the day we went to Universal Studios. Universal Studios was very crowded and the line-ups were very long, most of them about 1 1/2 hours. We thought we would be just missing March break, but, the Florida spring break actually started on Monday! I was fine with it, though. I was there for the kids and I expected it to be crowded and I expected long waits for the rides.
I did manage to make a few tags while I was away. My friend said "You don't have to make tags, you're on vacation!" And she was right, I didn't have to, but I wanted to. This is something I am doing because I enjoy it, not because it's a job. It was a bit of a challenge though, because I didn't take any supplies with me (I knew I would be doing some shopping while I was there!) I picked up a few things in Michaels in Buffalo before we went to the airport. I got some stamps, but no ink. I thought I would be able to grab something close to the resort, but Kissimmee is a lot bigger than I thought and we didn't get over to any craft stores until later in the week. I bought some little tags and some kids water based markers at Target and used those as my ink.
I lucked out the week I was away. Michaels had it lowest price of the year sale and the original prices were already cheaper than the same products here. So even with the dollar being as bad as it is right now, I still got a good haul! I also got to check out Hobby Lobby, for the first time. It was just a quick visit there, but I'd like to go again, sometime.
I picked up this Tim Holtz set before we got on the plane in Buffalo. It came with the stamps, an embossing folder and coordinating dies. I had bought some mini distress inks when I did this tag. I did not have my die cutting machine, so I fussy cut (which I am not very good at!) I had picked up some index cards to use as tags at the dollar store. I put the card in the embossing folder and stood on it and danced around a little bit and Voila! Coincidentally, these two tags work for the monochromatic challenge of this week at One Little Tag Craft Challenge on FB.
So, I am a little bit behind, but it won't take much to catch up. It was interesting doing these tags without all my supplies that I have at home. "Roughing it" for the week, lol. You need to be a little innovative. That would be a good challenge, to limit yourself to a minimal amount of supplies for the week and doing the most you can with what you have.
NOW FOR THE RANT!
This has nothing to do with art or tags. I am merely venting and totally understand if you are not interested in reading the rest of my post for today.
We drove down to Buffalo and flew with South West. We were taking a night flight that was supposed to depart ant around 9:30 pm. Our plane arrived on time to take us to Orlando, BUT, there was a flight to Fort Myers that had been delayed 4 hours and then was delayed again, so they gave them our plane and delayed us 3 1/2 hours! I understand that those people had been waiting quite a while and felt bad for them, but I don't understand how the brilliant powers that be, thought it would be better to inconvenience two planeloads of people. I really wouldn't have minded if it was a lot earlier, but this was a night flight and a 3 1/2 hour delay had a lot more impact. We had checked a few times to make sure we were on schedule before we went o the airport. They made this decision at the very last minute and we were stuck there until 12:45am. But the worst part was that we didn't end up arriving at our resort until
5:00 in the morning, so we pretty much lost a whole day. I will NEVER fly with SouthWest again! I would have understood if the delay was due to bad weather, or technical issues with our plane, but everything was fine and they just gave our plane away! So that is my rant, I got it off my chest. I know this was only one experience, but it left a bad taste in my mouth along with the attitudes of the staff that I spoke with at South West, who basically didn't really seem to care. Even if they didn't, good customer service would dictate that they at least pretend to! So, to anyone else using South West, I hope you have better luck than we did.
