Volume 2 ~ Issue 11                                                                  November, 2009

Here's a picture of the November Pattern of the Month, for those of you who can't access the group files. I have no idea why, but we still have members who can't get to the group files. I have tried until I'm blue in the face to get that issue resolved, but it seems to be forever with us.

I have to share some news I received a couple of weeks ago with you. Those of you who love size 15/0 seed beads and really joined the POMC because of my designs for 15/0 beads may have been wondering what's going on and why I never (or hardly ever) make patterns for 15/0s anymore. Truth is, I've been having some trouble with my eyes for a while and when I went to the ophthalmologist the other day, he told me why. I am starting to develop cataracts, so that's why my eyes aren't as sharp as they used to be . . . and why I have been shying away from the 15/0s lately. I thought it was just because I had gotten lazy, but the little guys (the 15s) are starting to give me a lot more trouble than I even imagined they could. I really miss them, too!

The Dr. told me my eyes aren't as bad as they have to be before insurance will kick in and pay for the surgery. Of course, I don't have insurance, so I wasn't overly comforted by that fact, but it does mean I have a way to go before I will either have to find a new livelihood or manage to pinch pennies hard enough to pay for the surgery. In the meantime, I am taking all kinds of eye vitamins and trying not to stress my eyes (or myself) too much so that the cataracts won't develop too fast. So I promise to try to sneak in a pattern or two with 15/0s as often as I can. Please try not to be too disappointed with me!

To reiterate the news from my regular Beaded Legends Newsletter, if you renew your POMC Membership for 2010 before the end of November (yes, I know that's early), you get BOTH 2010 and 2011 for the price of ONE YEAR! This is an excellent offer, not just because it's half price for you, but because you get 26 patterns for the price of 13 (actually, for about the regular price of four or five patterns!). Some of you are new to the group and may not know that membership runs from January to December each year, no matter when you join. In other words, everyone who has a one year membership for 2009 will expire in December, 2009, even if you joined only last month.

What that means is that you will have until January 15th to download all the patterns for 2009. When I upload the first pattern for 2010 on or around January 15th, 2010, I will remove all the 2009 patterns and we will start fresh for 2010. That's also when I clear out all the members of the group who haven't signed on for another year. This keeps things simple (for me at least) in that I don't have to worry about people who come in late in the year not getting all their patterns for the year. The first patterns for the year remain in our group files until the end of the year, so everyone gets the same number of patterns, no matter when they joined.

So there's also another provision to the November special (in celebration of my November birthday). If you don't know that you want to be in the group for 2 more years you can elect to pay for the year of 2010 and take the 2008 POMC pattern collection (see picture below) instead of the extra year. That way, you still get 26 patterns. You can let me know if that is the option you choose and I will send you a free download of the pattern collection in lieu of putting you on a two-year subscription.

What else? Oh, I am working on finding out how to set up a members only area on the website so that you can sign in on the website and pick up your patterns each month and we can stop worrying about whether Yahoo will let you access your member files or not. I hope to get that under way (IF I can figure it out) at least by early in 2010. Maybe that way we can have better access to the member files and no one will be left out! If you have missed any or all of the 2009 patterns please let me know and I will email them to you individually as attachments.

LIKE TO READ??? Check out our October releases at Gypsy Shadow Publishing!