January Entry Thread

[earlene]

I am going to be bald from tearing my hair out. WHY WHY WHY can I not link to those two pictures?????? I tried the address you gave me, Earlene. I copied your pic to my PInterest page and tried that link in two way and nothing. I'm ready to throw my computer.

Don't tear your hair out! And don't throw your computer! It's not that big a deal, newbie. I'd be more concerned with Kittish & SunRiseArts' entries.

Here are pics reduced in size to 700 pixels wide (max), and and compressed to a smaller file size. Scout's honor that no other changes have been made.

View attachment 28411 View attachment 28412 View attachment 28413 View attachment 28414 View attachment 28415

Looks good to me, DeeAnna. That probably is it. If they upload, we will all have learned a valuable lesson.

Now if only Kittish would come along and help out with her entry photo.

newbie, I just opened an account with SurveyMonkey so I could try and learn to troubleshoot this issue at least a little bit.

So far (and I am not claiming to have full understanding of how it works, by any means) I did find that I could upload the links using the photos DeeAnna included in her last post on page 2 of this thread with the missing photos for 3 of us. It took me three tries to get it to work, but they showed with preview on the final try. Something about the 'constraints' changed automatically the third time and maybe that had something to do with it. Then I created url to look at the resulting survery and they were definitely there.

 

[newbie]

DeeAnna and Earlene save the day!!!!

I wasn't certain if SunRise's met criteria as I read Galaxy's rules. I talked to SunRise about it. I took the rules to mean that the heart swirl had to be free form within the soap and it looks like she made the heart shape with a mold. I had to make an executive decision on someone else's challenge without their input and so I will also take the heat for it. SunRise is well put-together and has great perspective; she was okay with it and feels there are much more important things in the world to be upset about, if she were to be upset about it. If I mis-read or misinterpreted Galaxy's rules, I apologize and I am open to being challenged.

 

[dibbles]

I wasn't certain if SunRise's met criteria as I read Galaxy's rules. I talked to SunRise about it. I took the rules to mean that the heart swirl had to be free form within the soap and it looks like she made the heart shape with a mold. I had to make an executive decision on someone else's challenge without their input and so I will also take the heat for it. SunRise is well put-together and has great perspective; she was okay with it and feels there are much more important things in the world to be upset about, if she were to be upset about it. If I mis-read or misinterpreted Galaxy's rules, I apologize and I am open to being challenged.

newbie, you are in a tricky position. FWIW, I read the rules the same way, and I'm glad SunRise is okay with your decision. I agree with her thinking - there are way more important things to worry about. After all, the spirit of the challenges is to have fun and had you made a different decision that would have been okay too. Thank you for stepping in.

 

[DeeAnna]

I respect your decision, Newbie. I'm not stirring the pot or making any challenge. I just thought SunRise's soap may have simply been overlooked in the confusion.

 

[newbie]

I did not take anything as being pot-stirring or challenging, just for clarity. I didn't announce my decision to not include SunRise's entry because it felt too public and I was hoping people wouldn't notice. Since you did, I owned up to what I decided. We all give her the kudos she deserves for a cool soap, and that ultimately is what our goal is, for everyone. It's a friendly competition and even when enforcing rules, we try to keep it friendly and clear.

 

[earlene]

Excellent work, newbie! I do not envy you having to deal with this right now with all the various issues that arose, making it so much more complicated that usual.

I will still wait on voting though, in hopes that Kittish's entry photo appears. This is one of those times, one wishes folks posted their FB links or something. But you don't see mine, either, so.....

 

[scard]

Newbie I think you need the old head banging emoticon back. I hope you still have your hair.

 

[earlene]

newbie! I think SaltedFig saved the day! See her post (link) on page 13 on the January Challenge thread. I dug a little more deeply and agree with her that this was her entry photo.

 

[newbie]

I think we will all just have to acknowledge that this month's voting is skewed, warped, inaccurate but still just for fun. I added Kittish's picture but some votes have been cast without her entry. Shall we just proceed on and take the results with a grain of salt? We may have to because I don't think I have it in me to wipe the current one and re-do it. The challenges are far more about pushing yourself to try something new and letting us all see than it is about "winning", which I put in quotes because you don't actually win anything.

Please don't make me.

 

[SaltedFig]

Newbie, no obligation intended.

voted

 

[earlene]

I bow to your wishes, newbie. I will go ahead and vote now. Thank you for working so well on this. I hope it did not wear you out and that your hair remains intact!

 

[newbie]

God, I love you guys. I still have hair but it is grayer. I still have had no word from Galaxy, which is most concerning.

 

[isha]

Hope galaxy is alright....

 

[Primrose]

You've done a great job newbie, under some difficult circumstances for sure. As you say the challenge is about so much more than who wins and I'm happy to go ahead with whatever they smell yummy

Oh my gosh sorry two conversations at once. Ignore the smells yummy bit ahaha

 

[DeeAnna]

I do challenges to have fun with fellow soapers, to learn something new, and get out of my rut a little bit. Whatever seems fair to you, Newbie, is plenty good with me.

I hope Galaxy is okay. I'm worried!

 

[SaltedFig]

Has anyone heard from Galaxy?

 

[Soapprentice]

I’m in with it Newbie.. I learned a new technique and got to see some amazing creations, i’m good with that.. whatever works! I’m very worried about Galaxy and Soapmaker145... have any of u got in contact with her recently?

 

[amd]

I’m in with it Newbie.. I learned a new technique and got to see some amazing creations, i’m good with that.. whatever works! I’m very worried about Galaxy and Soapmaker145... have any of u got in contact with her recently?

Agreed! I really like this technique and the results I got from it. I plan on doing it again with BB's Jade FO. My amethyst bars aren't even fully cured yet and I've already sold all of them.

Galaxy has been in my thoughts, I checked her profile again and she's still been MIA since the end of January. Hopefully we will hear something very soon.

 

[newbie]

I have had no word at all from Galaxy, I'm afraid to say. Feeling rather helpless about what to do.

All votes are in. I recused myself from voting since I put together the survey and had access to the results. I wasn't certain if or how I would announce results given the issues with loading pictures and Kittish's late addition. If there had been anything other than very clear results, I was going to defer doing any placements beyond what was obvious to me. However, the results are unequivocal to me and I feel confident they would be to anyone else.

Therefore:

First place, by one vote, goes to Dibbles.
A very close Second place belongs to AMD.
Third place was captured by Primrose.

Congrats to you three, to everyone who entered, and to everyone who tried the technique even once!

Thank you to everyone for putting up with the rather untidy process of the survey this month.

 

[newbie]

Whew! I just talked to Galaxy and she is okay. Hallelujah!!! Life got crazy on her, as it will on occasion. She said she would hop on and post sometime today. I told her we were just worried about her so if she wasn't able to post, that was fine as long as we knew she was alive and well.