It's my birthday!

So today I turned 34, but that's OK, because a few days ago I got carded buying alcohol. And the cashier was really surprised when she saw how old I was. So I'm OK with 34. I'm also feeling incredibly thankful. If you read my last post, you know about the whole Tonya Pendley scam thing. I'm still working very hard to gather evidence against her and file charges with the Attorney Generals, FBI, and Post Office. I made sure she couldn't pass any more checks through any of the branches of my bank today. They said they couldn't do anything to get my money back, but hopefully I can protect others from her. I'm trying to notify every place I can think of. The administration on ArtFire has blocked her IP address and warned all the artists with pending sales from her, so ArtFire artists should be safer now. Anyway, since this all started I have received a phenomenal amount of support from my fellow artists. Joanne, of PurpleLilyDesigns, was also hit by Tonya Pendley. She was kind enough to send me copies of evidence against her. Lisa of Accesorizmecrafty, started a Pass the Hat sale to raise money for me (tears of gratitude in my eyes). Gayle, of ArtisanGoodsbyGayle, submitted an article to Handmade News about what happened, and about artists helping artists. I got a preview, and it's a very well written piece. Pink Clouds and Angels bought an item from my studio (my Melting Snowman Pen) in order to help me out. Exquisite Studios just made a very nice donation as well (more tears of gratitude!). To each of you I say thank you, from the bottom of my heart. And to every single person who has offered their kind thoughts, sympathy, and suggestions, I thank you as well. You really have re-affirmed my belief in human kindness. I never expected any of this. I just wanted to warn everyone about this thief, so they wouldn't fall prey to her as I did. And thanks to those who donated and purchased items, the checks I just wrote for my bills won't bounce. No seriously, right before I got the notice in the mail about Tonya's bad check I mailed out all my bills (hey, I figured I had an extra $500 in my account). Now I can breathe a little easier thanks to the generosity of some truly wonderful people. I knew joining Artfire was a good move, but I had no idea how many wonderful people I would find there. Thank you for making this a very happy birthday for me. Mere words can't express the depth of my gratitude for all your kindness.
-Michelle of CreativeCritters

WARNING!!

My shop on ArtFire is called CreativeCritters and in May I made my biggest sale ever, 15 items for almost $500.00.  Great, right?  Maybe not.  After waiting for more than 2 weeks for the check to arrive I emailed Tonya Pendley of Jasper Alabama and suggested she may want to track the check down, in case it had gotten lost or stolen.  She said she'd just send me another one.  I did actually receive that check about a week later.  I deposited it right away and planned to ship the package once the check cleared, which happened a few days later (or so I thought).  So I happily ship the package, thinking all is well.  Today, more than a week after the check showed up in my account, I receive a notice from my bank stating that the check was written on a closed account and the money had been taken out of my account.  I was totally bummed out, of course, and posted on the ArtFire forums about what happened.  Some of the artists made some very good suggestions (contact the Attorney Generals for both her state and mine, and include all documentation possible), and I did a bit of research myself.  I discovered that Tonya Pendley has pulled this trick on more than one artist, and that she used to have an Etsy account.  How low can you possibly go- taking advantage of (and stealing from) fellow artists?!  So I'm printing up everything I can find against her and will mail it to the Attny. Generals, and possibly the FBI.   My mother said they may be interested, as this occurred in several different states and they've been taking internet fraud a lot more seriously.  I had to warn other artists about her though.  I may never see my items or the money again, but maybe I can keep this from happening to anyone else.  My husband also suggested that I post pictures of the items I sold, in case Tonya tried to sell them on eBay.  I do sign my work, but if someone tried, they could probably remove the signature.  Anyway, these are the items Tonya Pendley stole from me.

There's a miniature church sculpture, a log cabin sculpture, a Tudor style house sculpture, a scarecrow pen set, a Westie dog pin, a blue house sculpture, 2 Brussels Griffon dog pins, a knit stuffed cat in brown and cream, hearts in roses earrings, my World of Warcraft Tauren Hunter and his pet Lion, a red brick house sculpture, an orange and yellow striped knit cat, a brown and white knit dog, and a black and white knit cat.

Wow, looking at them all like this, makes me realize just how much this woman stole from me.  I worked really hard on these pieces, and I really liked each of them.  These represent 100's of hours of work.  I only hope I can get something out of this.  She certainly got FAR more than she deserved.

If anyone has additional information on this woman, please leave a comment for me, or contact me through my studio.  And to all artists out there- BE CAREFUL!  Because of this, I no longer accept checks.  It would be nice if I could just trust everyone, but unfortunately, the world doesn't work that way.

-Michelle of CreativeCritters