When I started creating patterns for download, I had the impression that EVERYONE was on Flickr.  Boy was I wrong.

Over 3500 free downloads have been, well, downloaded since the new system went up November 11th.  Thirty-five.  Hundred.  In a month. Wow.

It's been three whole years since I shyly and reluctantly started a craft blog.  Oh, yes, it's true.  I was totally uncomfortable with the whole thing.

The free download for Week 2 of my 3-year blogaversary is Supercute Sea Creatures.  I love these little guys so much.  They are super-easy to make, which means that you can make tons of them to experiment with all sorts of color combinations.

Well, I was wrong about Safari not working for us here at home.  It's just that the url I was pasting from the email source code had some weird characters in it.  Once I figured that out, everything worked fine.

Also, the people having issues aren't always the same people ... meaning, most Mac people seem to be having a no trouble downloading the PDFs.  Sometimes it's Safari users.  Sometimes Firefox.  Sometimes it's PC users.  Oy!  The headache of everyone having a completely uniquely set-up computers and browsers is maddening.  It's almost impossible to troubleshoot.  And 100% not-fun. :)

I've added some extra instructions to the free downloads email to help people figure out if there's a way to make it work for them.  I've been getting less "help me" emails, so maybe the clearer instructions are helping.  In the meantime, don't dispair if it doesn't work for you.  Just send me an email and I'll help you.

Monday I will post the new download.  I can't wait!  Yay!

I'm so excited about the overwhelmingly positive response I'm getting to the free downloads page.  You guys are the best! :)

Most people are having no problems with the free downloads, but it looks like there are some people who are.  It seems to be Safari users on the Mac (or, when I tested here at home, on the PC ... but who, would use Safari on a PC unless you're a web programmer who tests stuff?).  

I need your help troubleshooting this issue:

- If you are having difficulty getting the free download PDFs to display in your broswer and you ARE NOT using Safari ... let me know.

- If you use Safari and it worked for you ... let me know.

- If you use Safari and it didn't work for you, please request a new download email and go to the links in a different browser (like Firefox, it's free) and let me know if the different browser worked for you.

Thanks to everyone who has already given me feedback and everyone who takes the time to help me troubleshoot the problem!

Part of the reason I only posted once last week, in addition to our router dying, is that Andrew and I were working on a free downloads page!  Yay!

In our family, the meal planning falls to Andrew.  Even though he doesn't really like doing it, he has a great system of planning them out.  To lighten the burden a little, I decided to make a cute template for him:

First Column: Meal
You'll notice that there are no days of the week.  We plan our meals, but we like to spontaneously eat out a couple times a week.  Leaving off the week day names gives us that kind of flexibility.  Our eating out is also the reason there are only six meals on the sheet.  Well, that, and the fact that seven would be too squished.

Second Column: Need
Here we list the items we need to buy for that meal.  Usually it's fresh vegetables, but it can also be stuff that we've run out of.  Being able to see what we need for the next several meals helps us plan our shopping so we don't end up walking to the produce store every night right before dinner.

Third Column: Notes
The note might be about the meal we're making, such as, "remember the corn" (which I seem to forget to make on rice pilaf night) or the note might be a reminder to take the steak out of the freezer and defrost it for the next night's meal.

I had so much fun drawing all the ridiculous little illustrations.  If I had to pick a favorite, it'd be the top view of the TV dinner on the TV tray.  I can't remember the last time I ate one, but I always thought they were *so* awesome when I was growing up.  Holy smokes, I just realized I remember when they came with FOIL over the meal, not plastic.  I'm getting so old.

If you'd like to use it yourself, it's available on my free downloads page.