Who Do We Do It For?

Shortly before Christmas, a regular customer walked in wearing the coolest muffler I'd ever seen. It was a true, Tom Baker-Dr. Who job, with multicoloured stripes of various colours, the result, she said, of using up lots of small bits of yarn. She'd knitted it herself! I told her how gorgeous it was, and exacted a promise that, when I made the time, she would teach me to knit. I've been wanting to learn forever.

Yesterday, she came to the shop again, and draped it over my neck. And hugged me. "It gave you so much pleasure," she said, simply. That's not the first time it happened. That honour goes to a rose that had been cleverly wrapped and shaped into a rose and fastened to a pin. When I remarked how clever and pretty it was, that customer did the same. She unpinned it from her blouse and pinned it on mine.

Our shop is ailing. I cannot truly see us hanging on much longer, as much as it grieves me to say it. The Hubs and I built it from scratch from the floorboards up, and we had two amazing years. Now, we cannot pay the bills, and I think we know it's inevitable. People are giving us great ideas, and we will try, but I have to face facts that in a couple or three months, I will go from Teddy the owner of the Victoria, to plain old Teddy. I'll have to hope I can get a job, and so can the Hubs. It's more difficult for men. His ego is tied up with the job more than mine.

And I think of all the lovely customers who have supported us faithfully. They come regularly. They give me gifts and Christmas pressies. They love what we do. There's just not enough of them.

I am very glad Droxy picked me up and brought me to your doorstep. You guys really are one of the few positive things going on in my life. Please excuse me for being so mauldlin. The last thing I want is for this to become a pity party. I just writing what's going on. I'll be okay. I've been down before, and I'll be okay. I just want to know we've done everything we could to keep it going. I'll be wracked with guilt every time I wear that muffler if I don't.

It's Official - Banned Forever!

Yes, I'm very aggravated. Okay, I'm ticked off and furious. I received a message from dA today,

<i>Since you committed a severe violation of our terms of service the penalty for this was the banning of your deviantART account and your removal from the deviantART community since we cannot tolerate this sort of content being submitted to our galleries.</i>

Bloody hell, even I don't leave out THAT many commas. I'm not really upset about losing the privileges. Heck, I'm not even that heartbroken about losing my favourites (well, I am. I had the most beautiful Snape collection you've ever seen). but I am ticked off that I still had 23 of a 24 month premium membership with them.

I'm just so frustrated. I wrote them back, if only to give vent to my sense of outrage, but I know it will fall on deaf ears.

Don't trust dA, folks. They are the most limp-wristed, hypocritical, uptight arseholes I've ever come across, and that's saying something.

I don't even know why I'm that upset. I'm much better off here surrounded by my friends, but my pocketbook is angry, and I really did have some beautiful Snape favs. More fool me.