The most expensive lady yet......#33!

A week or so ago, a wonderful lady from Portugal, Ana, contacted me to do a fabric portrait of her dear friend from Brazil.  She and I discussed price, as is normal, and she asked that I send it registered so that she could track it with a number it once it was finished.  She said she'd pay the extra postage.  In all my ladies, and sending quilts all over the world, I have never had this request, so I was flabbergasted when I got to the post office and was informed that the package had to be in a brown box, or wrapped in brown paper, or brown tape in order to go registered.  E-gads...............what?  I buy boxes specifically to ship my "ladies" and they're white!  I write the address with a Sharpie so that it is permanent, and will not run, and I tape with clear tape over it so that it has no way to get lost.  (At least so far nothing has gotten lost.......knock on wood!  lol)  So.......now I'm standing there in the post office with a line behind me, wondering what to do. So the clerk informs me that I can send it EXPRESS and the white box will be fine and a number will be assigned.............so I'm happy as a clam until I hear the price...............$45.45.  (And this is for something that normally would be sent for about $15 BEFORE the rates went up this week.)  So I look behind me, see all the people staring at me to hurry up and agree to the exorbitant cost.

So when I got home, I immediately e-mailed Ana and tell her of my plight (and ignorance of the brown wrapping) and she (such a sweetie that she is) Paypal-ed me the extra $30.45.  The only good thing is that the package would arrive in 3-5 business days.  So we wait!  And we wait!  And we wait some more!  Now, it's well over a week and finally Ana hears that it made it to Lisbon ..........BUT.........it is hung up in customs.  (And the number that we were supposed to use to track it, only went as far as the US border!!!????  Hello!!!)  E-gads.....what's next?  So, poor Ana, contacts customs so that they don't wreck the quilt (since I pack it in such a way not to crease it), and we are both worried to death! Finally I hear from Ana that she has the quilt, but that customs demanded an additional 23% cost besides the cost I declared on the custom form even though I told them it was a gift.  This costs Ana approximately an additional $20 USD.  By now she is just ready to get the darn thing home, I'm sure!

So..........please let me introduce, Lady #33 (who has seen herself, but doesn't have it in hand yet), the lovely Silmara:







You can see her work on her blog:  http://quilters-studio.blogspot.com.br

I did get a picture of Maria with herself from last time that she wanted me to show you:



So that's it for today!  I wanted to mention that if you have questions about me doing a portrait of you or friend, please contact me through my e-mail address on my side bar, and not by your comments.  Many of you have no-reply blogger addresses and I can't get back to you.  I go into your blog, but you have no e-mail address listed either and I don't want you to think I am ignoring you.  More on costs next time.  I am working on #34 and #35 now and they are international.  I haven't mailed since the costs went up last week, so I'll let you know what I find out.  Until then, have a super weekend!