Polly Villifies Staunch Professional

One of my cyber-contacts; the lovely Geri D from IBW started a thread entitled Rude Competition Winner On Late Late Show and of course this attracted my attention. I was rewarded with a link to a YouTube video of the said incident starring Mr Pat Kenny on Ireland's longest running chat show.

Like him or loathe him Pat was obviously taken aback by this lady's response to her good fortune and in my humble opinion was rather rude himself. As a professional entertainer one would hope that his professionalism would prevent him from reacting in such a petulant manner; after all it is possible that the lady was in a state of disbelief at receiving the call.

Perhaps it was all too much for her; and to be honest she did sound as though she might be of an age-group which mightn't be too pleased to receive such an invitation. I do however think that perhaps she could have been a little more gracious about not wanting to attend next weeks toy-show; though Mr Kenny could have prompted her. That way he would have saved face for them both while allowing another competition entrant to benefit by her refusal.

We all go through difficult times in our lives and yet we seem to forget this in the face of unexpected circumstances; whether good, bad or indifferent. When things are going hard for us we sometimes forget that other people mightn't be having much of a good time either and yet we automatically expect to be treated with respect and courtesy; while at times forgetting that the other person concerned is also worthy of such treatment.

It takes very little effort to at least try and be nice rather than indulge in selfish or spiteful behaviour. Mr Kenny's remark that he would save the tickets for someone who would appreciate the opportunity to go to the toy show wouldn't have been offensive had he not ripped up the tickets concerned and made unpleasant remarks to and about the lady on the other end of the phone.

Personally, I would not like to be in the shoes of either party concerned. The poor woman whose good fortune it was to be offered tickets to the toy-show and €10,000 will forever more be referred to as 'The Rude Woman Who Humiliated Pat Kenny On The Late, Late Show'. Mr Kenny on the other hand will weather the storm as always and his latest faux pas will no doubt be forgotten by all except the lady called Barbara who lives in Cork.

Surely it should be remembered that she did have a right to refuse part or even all of the prize being offered to her. Did she deserve to be treated with such disdain on national television; by supposedly seasoned professional who should have been able to rise above his obviously battered ego?

That; I'm afraid, is my two cents on the subject let's hope that this incident dies a death quickly and that Barbara enjoys spending her prize money! I, for one, offer her my hearty congratulations on her win. I would however; recommend that in future she refrains from entering televised competitions; lest she win another and finds herself being vilified once more...

Polly Pierce
Vinca Cards:- Handmade Wedding Stationary & Greeting Cards

Bright Lights For Polly

Swiss Chard Bright Lights
Originally uploaded by Botanical Interests

For more information on Swiss Chard, Bright Lights and load of other things that interest Polly Pierce of Vinca Cards - The Irish Hand-made Greeting Cards Company why not head over to Vinca's-In-Tha-Kitchen. In her latest post Polly exposes long-time cyber friend Jean on her path to self sufficiency...

By the way, this plant which resembles Rhubarb is a vegetable!

Take Care!

Polly Pierce
Maker of beautiful Hand-Made Greeting Cards & Wedding Stationary

Article Marketing For Polly

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time you will have noticed a couple of underlying themes; one of which is the need for me to make some money. At the rate I'm spending it, I need to replace it soon!!!

One way of making money on-line is to sign up for affiliate programmes. By this I mean that you join a programme which gives you the tools and a dedicated link to promote products supplied or provided by another company or person. One example of this is of course Lynette Chandler and

her Blogging Starter Pack; which is something I have subscribed to myself and am certain that it will provide me with very useful information. I just have to find the time to implement the steps she recommends so that I can start up my very own Wordpress affiliate blog.

Another affiliate programme that I signed up for is Alice Seba'a Internet Marketing Sweetie Course.

In this Alice teaches how to kill your competitors with Kindness! It's actually a great programme, I should know I have signed up for this and another couple of her e-courses. It's no wonder I don't have much time to spend on the house, is it?

My Tesco link is another example of affiliate marketing and so is my Amazon link, ie Polly's Peri-wrinkled Pages or Amazon Shop. Unfortunately, neither of these have been too successful and I am still waiting for my first cheque, however this isn't going to happen in either case until I have passed the £10.00/€10.00 mark! Still, it will happen. I am convinced as to the validity of this type of passive marketing/income and know several people for whom this has worked very well.

Another way of generating revenue is to submit articles for publication. This can prove quite lucrative in more ways than one; as your name becomes associated with articles published in a variety of places it lends more credibility to your name. In turn this should indicate that you are a reliable and trustworthy source and might even lead to increased sales in whichever area you are concentrating in.

My problem has always been what to write articles about. Sure I make Handmade Greeting Cards and Wedding Stationary; but who am I to profess to be an expert. Self confidence is an issue here! This morning I slept in; I woke up properly just before 10am and oh, it was so nice unlike last week when I wasn't feeling very well at all. The two boys are both unwell this week, so there were no school runs to get involved with and I could just take it nice and easy, just like this young lady!

photos courtesy of ©D.M.Williams Photography

With LB snoozing in my nice warm bed I sat down at the PC with some freshly brewed leaf tea and hot buttered toast with homemade raspberry jam. Heaven! Now all that was missing was the morning news and correspondence; this of course was the IBW Forum; which is never dull.

Six hours later, I have seven unopened letters behind me and a parcel from America which cost me €20.20 in customs charges. My tea is long drunk and the crumbs on the plate are calling out for company; it has indeed been an interesting morning largely due to a lady called Susan who introduced herself and her new website to the forum. So far I have contributed two 'articles' to the forum and now have a clear idea of where my niche lies; so thank you Susan!

In case anyone is wondering just what is so exciting about this I will briefly explain myself. Having breast fed two wonderful babies, who are now big strong boys who drive me insane from time to time I developed a keen interest in the topic of breastfeeding. As a student I was drawn towards Midwifery but decided against it in favour of Operating Theatres instead; in latter years I was privileged to attend many births - by Caesarian Section instead!

Unfortunately, since my return to Ireland my interest in helping other new mum's succeed at what should be easy; but often isn't has been thwarted by my lack of Midwifery qualifications. At a time when I needed support myself I attended La Leche League meetings in the physio department at the local hospital. Eventually my schedule became so gruelling that they had to stop!
Happily; despite my lack of physical activity, today has not been wasted, in fact it has been very productive indeed!

A cheery-bye for now! Polly Pierce

Hand-made Greeting Cards & Wedding Stationary

photos courtesy of ©D.M.Williams Photography

Polly's Treasured

My new blog Wedding Invitations By Vinca is just nicely getting off the ground and funnily enough I seem to be finding things related to whole area of weddings purely by coincidence. Yes coincidence!

As it pays to be aware of what is going on around me with regard to my interests, my greeting cards, wedding stationary, name, etc I run a Google alert on an on-going basis. This service is provided FOC and allows you to set up notifications when items of specific interest are published on the net. To date it has proven invaluable and has often given me ideas regarding subjects to blog about.

The other week I got another alert which was probably going to be one of the usual throw away references to someone or other's funeral. The second entry caught my eye and persuaded me to hang onto it. Just a couple of days ago I finally got around to opening and viewing the links; where I found some buried treasures.

© D M WilliamsPhotography2008

Once again this is of a Weddingly type nature, although DM Williams cover many different areas of photography with my favourite being a black and white image of pregnancy and the birth of this husband and wife team's twins last December.

For more on this talented couple's work head over to Wedding Invitations by Vinca. This is especially relevant for couples thinking of booking a wedding photographer on either side of the Atlantic.

Hope you enjoyed this photo as much as I did!



Polly Pierce
Vinca Cards Handmade Greeting Cards & Wedding Stationary

Polly Scams Hoaxers

Dear All!

Yet again it ismy sad responsibility to report that the scammer's are at it again. This time it's in the form of an innocent e-mail sent to my VINCA Cards e-mail address (vincacards at yahoo.co.uk - change at to @ to use this address) ...

Should you be unfortunate enough to receive something similar you may be tempted to explore; as I was. If you do, please be aware that I have Norton Internet Security which thankfully protected me from this obvious attempt at phishing and don't be tempted to enter any personal information.

If you are a valued customer of any banking institution and you receive a similar letter or e-mail, call into your local branch and tell them about your e-mail. Should there any confusion they will clear it up relatively quickly, but the one thing that they will never do is ask you to divulge details on line or over the phone.

Anyway, have a quick look below and see what you think. You might want to follow the link yourself; just to see what I'm on about, unfortunately you can't the link as it isn't live - I disabled it; just in case...

LOGO

Dear Valued Customer, During our regular update and verification of the?????? Internet Banking Service, we could not verify your current information. Either your information has been changed or incomplete, as a result your access to use our services has been limited. To restore your online banking access, kindly update your information. You can update your online banking details by following the link below. Click here to update your account Thank you for banking with ?????? Customer Service

To be honest, the copy writing of this letter is poor, plus I don't have an account with the bank concerned. (I have removed any references/logo's to avoid infringing any copyright laws which may be applicable)

Out of interest I did click on the link and was transported to this sign in page, which looks pretty good. It even has a thing on how to protect yourself from Internet crime!

Just as I read this, Norton kicked in and saved the day; see below...

Please do not hesitate to act; in an effort to stamp this type of crime out. If you are 'the winner of a prize' one of the first things they usually do is ask you not to publicize your good fortune.

Do just the opposite and SHOUT it from the roof tops:

1. Tell everyone you know about it
2. Blog about it!
3. Report it to the relevant authorities.
4. Write to your local newspaper.
5. Do not keep it to yourself! You might just save someone less fortunate than yourselves from being had...

That's all from me tonight, so it's over and out from

Polly Peirce
your local cyber-vigilante and
Purveyor of fine Hand-made Irish Greeting Cards & Wedding Stationary

ps The screen shots are courtesy of TechSmith's Camtasia Studio 3

A Series of Unfortunate Events - Final Chapter (Death Match Takes Place...)

Did you hear the one about the woman who purchased a brand spanking new top of the range dishwasher and then couldn’t use it because the fittings were different? Well, you have now! That’s me; I am the heroine in the final chapter of ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’.

Last Friday, I filled in a few of the blanks regarding the adventures of the family Peirce and their multiple disasters over the course of a week. Today, I propose to close the book on this episode of our lives; in the hope that we can get on in a trouble free manner from now on and well into the future.

Going back to the dishwasher; it is now plumbed into the space where my washing machine has always been, thus avoiding problems caused by the anti-flood system and its ginormous fittings. Seeing as it doesn’t have to pass through the carefully manufactured hole in the mass concrete wall dividing the kitchen from what we fondly call the ‘Scullery’, this is no longer a problem.

With the new dishwasher installed and working perfectly, my two bitches decided that they would embark upon yet another of their ferocious fights, right behind my back in the confined space of the scullery. I had been trying to re-programme the water softener, in the hopes of having even shinier glass ware. This task was abandoned rather suddenly as the girls snarled their way into the back of my legs and almost sent me flying.

What followed was ten minutes of terrified intervention between the objects of my affections and myself. I could and probably should stand back when these things happen and allow them to take their course. I don’t because I can’t. I take my chances and hope that I don’t get bitten; so far I have been lucky. Neither I nor my two bitches have suffered too greatly from their hormonally charged sparring matches; but it is exhausting physically and emotionally for us all.

Next evening the matter of the washing machine was tackled. For the best part of last week I was sans washing machine. The plumbing wasn’t long enough to traverse the famous whole in the wall; a matter of mere inches prevented the installation of the machine in its new position.

First evening DG took himself off to B&Q in search of extension pipes and found just what he was looking for. It was only when he went to fit them that he realised the real problem was the discharge pipe. The following evening he made a return visit to that great bastion of DIY and luckily found just what he was looking for; an extending discharge pipe for an automatic washing machine.

Evenings came and went; largely unsuccessfully. Appliances were pulled out; blocking the thoroughfare between the kitchen and the rest of the house, bits of pipe were cut off, water leaking everywhere and generally interfering with the smooth running of the household. Enough was enough! On Friday evening I demanded peace and quiet, without any excitement or water leakages…

While all of the above has been going on, it has actually been advantageous in some ways. Thankfully the washing was up to date, so this hasn't been too much of a worry and BJK looked after the boy's school uniforms for me. As a result the wedding stationary for my friend is coming along quite nicely.

I have been able to spend quite a bit of time out in my studio and/or on the computer; working on the wording. I've settled on of six informal layouts, four for the wedding itself and a couple for the evening reception.

I'm really concentrating on the design aspect of it now. Being very much aware of how people's taste varies, I have determined to offer a selection of modern & traditional designs which will hopefully suit everyone.

It's a great challenge; but it is just what I needed to get me right back into the middle of what I had originally planned to do; which is to make handmade greeting cards to sell, after all, I've got to pay for the dishwasher somehow, haven't I?

…Sunday afternoon: In the space of roughly thirty-five minutes DG removed the back of the washing machine, replaced the original hose with the B&Q extending version, put it all back together again and hey presto! Normal service is resumed…

I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy making cards...! LOL!

Take care!

Polly Px

Wanted: Housekeeper in Rural Location

One of the joys of having a condition which renders me as not well is; that with the aid of medication to control the symptoms, I can honestly say that I have never been so happy.


For example BB; who was the victim of a freak accident on Monday, is at home with me this week. We mightn't be together all the time, we are within earshot of one another, should my presence be needed. In the past I used to hide my maternal anxieties under the armoured layer called a nurses uniform.


In these situations I was powerless; forced to surrender my nearest and dearest to my childminder/surrogate granny and pretend that everything was okay, when clearly it was anything but. That said, I couldn't commend Ellen more highly, if I tried. There could never, ever be anyone else quite like her; she truly is a wonderful person whose love and care nurtured my two boys like none other.


When I lost my usual income; ten months ago, life changed dramatically. All of a sudden, having previously delegated the daily care of BB & LB for the first twelve & nine years of their young lives; I became a full time mother! Oh boy; what a shock!

Being used to collecting the two boys at 6pm (on the dot!?); I found it difficult to adjust to missing those three hours. That short time gave me the opportunity to pretend I was Supermum; whisking around the house; like a dervish, putting right the things which I had neglected during the rest of the day.

Every now and again I used to cook for the madding crowds; rather Ellen would cater for the boys and BJK for me. In those days I was a most ungrateful child; I often used to complain in silence; occasionally out loud, about the menu, the committment of time, running to schedule, etc.

The cross examination that accompanied each wolfed meal was resented; leading to uneasy silences and evasive answers. As she regularly pulled teeth, BJK despaired of me; I was simply lacking sufficient energy to relive each day, for the sake of conversation.

I was irritated when the meal was late;it meant I would be late to collect the boys. In stark contrast to this BJK was somehow supposed to know on which days I would be late and cater accordingly; with grace!It was a losing battle for both of us; justified entirely by the fact that she needed someone to cater for; the obvious advantages for myself were blithely ignored.

Since then things have changed dramatically for us all. I will never forget the conversation with Ellen; her worst fears confirmed. So traumatised was she; that it took all of two to three hours before she was able to comprehend the fact that she was "loosing my boys."

The following day tearful conversations occurred; BJK moderating. We both expressed our regrets and heartfelt thanks. Without Ellen; I would not have achieved a half of what I have done over these past ten years. Come to mention it, the same should be said of BJK. Both of these amazing women have been mentors, and tormentors in turn; their support kept me sane.

These days my life has taken on some direction; I am in charge of what happens in my life. Others mightn't necessarily approve of things I have done; however, each will admit that I am managing superbly well.

Investments of time and money have been made and while it is early days yet, their support is guaranteed, regardless of who is taking the helm. I somehow squeeze into five and a half hours more household responsibility than I have ever faced.

As a housekeeper, I am hopeless. Hopeless maybe; happy definately. One of my dearest wishes for the future has always been to employ a lady; to keep house for me. No doubt it is one of those unrealistic frivolities; akin to the long awaited dishwasher. After its arrival in 2000; it stood in obeisance for years; awaiting an occasional load. It was little more than a white elephant; that is, until recently...

By happy coincidence, DG arrived at my door shortly before my income dried up. His long awaited introduction to the household; as a full time member, was unfortunately spoiled by the accompanying six and a half black bags FULL of dirty washing...!

Being not so young, but very much in love, I gritted my teeth and got on with it. I am still getting on with it and the loads of washing are slowly getting on with it too. Quite how I am supposed to catch up with all that needs to be done as well as be a full time 'wife' and mother, diy enthusiast, head gardener, chef extraordinaire and especially talented maker of greeting cards I do not know.

What I do know is that at the present time I would willingly open my arms, heart and home to anyone wishing to solve my inadequacy as a housekeeper, thus affording me the freedom to concentrate on my new career in making handmade greeting cards for sale to the public...