I hate to cover up Saturday’s post, but I hate to let the blog sit idle, too. I hope you will go read it if you haven’t already.

As usual, Funk & Weber Designs hosted a puzzle contest during The Needlework Show, Sept. 24-29.

And the winners are…

Camille, from Haslet, TX

Christina, from Morro Bay, CA

Both selected the Fall, In Pieces pattern as their prize.

The two-word answer to the puzzle was Fiction Sampler. Yeah, yeah. Thematic, I know. The fact that you know I have thematic tendencies gives you a leg up, don’t you think?

“Fiction Sampler” gives me a design idea. If it actually develops into something, you heard about it first, right here.

I hate to cover up Saturday’s post, but I hate to let the blog sit idle, too. I hope you will go read it if you haven’t already.

This is something I discovered earlier this month after I’d fallen off the blogging horse and before I’d climbed back on again. It’s such a cool thing, it hasn’t been forgotten in my tiny pea head or replaced by the next cool thing.

No, this isn’t the cool thing. I just now took this picture. September 30th, noonish. When it snowed eight days ago, I felt certain it would melt and Fall would return. I’m not certain this isn’t here to stay.

I learned this cool thing from mitali’s fire escape, which is the blog of Mitali Perkins, a children’s book author of life between cultures and readergirlz Diva. Got all that?

Here’s the cool thing:

Different cultures demonstrate emotions in different ways. For instance, Japanese culture focuses on eyes whereas North American culture focuses on mouths. Evidence for this can be found in emoticons–this is what I think is so cool.

In my neck of the digital world, happy and sad are demonstrated something like this:

: ) and : (

The mouth says it all. (I have to put the spaces in or WordPress changes my characters to yellow smiley/frowny faces. I hate it when the computer thinks it’s smarter than I am.)

In Japan, happy and sad are demonstrated like this:

(^_^) and (;_;)

See the happy eyes and sad, crying eyes? Here, the eyes say it all.

Mitali’s got a bigger reason for bringing this up. Me, I just think that tidbit is cool. Suddenly I’m interested in emoticons.

I hate to cover up Saturday’s post, but I hate to let the blog sit idle, too. I hope you will go read it if you haven’t already.

I recently had my first overdue library book. I don’t mean the first in the past year, or the first in the past ten years; I mean the first in my life.

You see, I’m a far piece (or is that fur piece?) from town. There simply is no such thing as a “quick trip to town.” I carefully plan trips to town and sign books out accordingly. From time to time, I rely on being able to renew books online. My system has worked flawlessly for years.

Until recently.

Another patron put a hold on one of the books I had signed out, and that meant I couldn’t renew it, online or otherwise. And that little heading that says “Your books on hold” on the bottom of my account page does NOT mean books in my stash that others have on hold; it means books that I’ve put a hold on and am waiting to receive. Oh. Huh.

Wouldn’t it be equally helpful to know which books I’m holding that others are waiting for?

So someone had a hold on one of my books, and I didn’t discover it until the day it was due. I had to be in town one week later, but not before then, so I had to choose: make a special trip to town ($20.00 in gas, $? in time, ? in carbon emissions), or suffer the consequences of an overdue book ($1.05 fine, frustration for the other patron, guilt, loss of a perfect personal record).

I chose to keep the book for an additional week. Gasp! Selfish? Perhaps.

A week later, I returned my other books and took the overdue one directly to the counter where I paid my fine, and the book was processed immediately for the next reader. And here’s the best part–the reason I’m telling you this story: I was permitted to leave a hand-stitched bookmark and written (anonymous) apology in the book for the patron I had kept waiting.

So there you have it. Another stitched bookmark was set free in the world, spreading embroidery joy randomly hither and yon.

What? Did I take a picture of it? Umm. No.

I hate to cover up yesterday’s post, but I hate to let the blog sit idle, too. I hope you will go read it if you haven’t already.

What’s on my nightstand? Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney.

I’ve been looking for this book at the library for a year-and-a-half, but it was always checked out. How thrilled I was to nab both this one and the second one, Rodrick Rules.

My online critique group will be discussing the first book when all members have finished reading it. After taking the Character Emotions class together, and discovering how much we gain by working together, we’ve decided to somewhat formally discuss and evaluate books together, too. We’re an online critique group and book club–yippee!

Greg Heffley (the Wimpy Kid) is a fifth grade boy concerned with his popularity, avoiding the awful Cheese Touch, protecting himself from his mean big brother, and staying out of trouble in general. Kinney knows fifth grade boys. In fact, the book is so authentic, I suspect in some ways (all the best possible ways, I mean) he still is one.

The book is a cross between a novel and a cartoon, wordier than a graphic novel, but endowed with more pictures than a chapter book. I think the format alone appeals to today’s kids who are accustomed to, and prefer, short bites of text and oodles of quick images. It’s a book you can literally race through, which seems to be a natural pace for kids.

The Wimpy Kid franchise began as a serial comic on Funbrain.com. Jeff Kinney was born in Maryland, just like me, so that means we’re best friends. Or, we would be, I’m sure, had I gone to the University of Maryland. Sigh.

What’s on my mp3 player? A Girl Named Zippy, by Haven Kimmel. That link goes to Kimmel’s blog. I’ve subscribed in Google Reader because what’s one more?

As you may recall, after reading Shelly’s chosen passages from Haven Kimmel’s second book of memoirs, my desire for immediate gratification tempted me to see what I could find on ListenAlaska by Haven Kimmel. I found A Girl Named Zippy, Kimmel’s first book of memoirs.

This is not a genre that I often read, but I find myself wishing it were still blueberry season so that I had a solid excuse to hang out in the sun, listening to stories. I went to Kimmel searching for fresh, funny, evocative description, and I found it.

Part of the attraction is a strong cast of characters. I always wonder if wildly interesting characters like the ones in this supposedly true account are genuinely interesting in Real Life, or if the author has made them interesting by selecting and highlighting (coloring?) a few details about the person that are moderately interesting. Is it the people themselves or the writer’s skill that makes the characters so darn compelling?

I have always felt that my boringly happy normal upbringing has put me at a disadvantage as a writer. My life story would bore my own mother. My father wasn’t the kind of man to borrow a zillion coon dogs and a raccoon for a diabolically planned cacophonous night after a neighbor complained about our two dogs barking. My father was far too civil and considerate, i.e. boring. (Sorry, Dad.)

If this is not true, if my boringly happy normal upbringing is not to blame for my inability to write wildly interesting memoirs, then, well, what does that mean?

I’m not going there out loud.

The point here is that Haven Kimmel, whether by her wildly interesting upbringing or her wildly fresh and insightful writing has crafted a wildly fun read (listen) in A Girl Named Zippy.

I think I’ll go pick cranberries.

I can’t believe it. The Senate passed their version of the Orphan Works bill (S 2913). The bill was hotlined, which means:

A “hotline” is an informal term for a request to members of the Senate to agree to allow a bill or resolution to be approved by the Senate without debate or amendment. A measure that is “hotlined” is recorded in the Congressional Record as a being agreed to by unanimous consent (UC). (Some hotlines can include amendments but limit debate and discussion and do not require individual votes on the amendment or the underlying bill).

A bill is hotlined at the discretion of the Majority Leader in consultation with the Minority Leader. The leader’s office contacts each Senate office with a message on a special alert line called “the hotline” that provides information on what bill or bills the leader is seeking to pass through unanimous consent. If an office has an objection to the bill being hotlined, they are asked to call the leader’s office and state that they would like to object to the bill being passed by unanimous consent. In practice, instead of requiring explicit unanimous consent to pass a bill, the hotline process only requires a lack of dissent.

In the spirit of the bill, the source of that info will remain conspicuously absent.

So, while our Senators are all swamped with the current economic crisis, someone or two people decide this is a good time to push this baby through.

Readers, I beg you, go here and send a message to your Representatives to oppose the Orphan Works bill. It’s as easy as filling in your contact info.

Congress is working this weekend, so don’t wait until Monday.

You can see me or us out and about here:

The Needlework Show is open and can be perused by anyone. It is, however, a wholesale trade show, so only registered retailers can place orders. This show is a great place to browse gazillions of needlework patterns and products, and there are lots of door prizes and–oh, yes!–a Funk & Weber Designs puzzle contest. If you discover things you’d like, the participating shop list can help you locate a retailer that will be happy to provide it for you.

I have an article on sugar, a puzzle, and several activities in the holiday issue of Kid Zone magazine. This magazine contains no advertising to tempt, dishearten, or warp young readers. I like that.

This is the second batch of projects that I submitted to “fill holes” in the magazine’s editorial calendar. I am not currently committed to do more for them, but that could change.

This is the issue my two barrette patterns would be in if they were going to be in the Today’s Creative homearts magazine, but, alas, they are not. They are, however, on the Web site.

I really like this magazine for the wide variety of projects it offers, both in complexity and technique. I’ll be submitting more projects.

I use Google Alerts to learn where my products are being shown or discussed. My first Alert was for the phrase “Clueless in Alaska.” I wanted to see where my book popped up.

Oh, look–there it is! (Now I’ll get an e-mail about this.)

I’m going to cancel that Alert because most of what I’m getting now are things like this.

Last week, Martha Stewart did a show on the Art of Blogging. It included facts, tips, and a Best Of. (Can you believe there are 7.4 million active blogs? And I only subscribe to a million of them.)

In conjunction with that, she’s holding a blog contest. Bloggers were invited to post comments on her blog, describing our blogs, and she will feature several on her blog. (How many times can you say “blog” in one sentence? A few years ago, it wasn’t even a word.)

So I commented.

How cool would it be for Martha to feature our Needle and Thread: Stitching for Literacy Bookmark Challenge?

Come on–what’s the point of dreaming small?

You know what else I dream of? Yeah, lots of things, but right now in this instant, I dream of becoming a professional blogger. Yes indeedy, there are people who are paid to blog. Anyone know where I sign up?

September 22, 2008. I woke up to this:

That is not frost; it’s snow. It’s going to melt, but still…

I’ve been picking up and putting down the blog reigns for several days now.

I took big blog plans with me to the TNNA Fall Needlecraft Market last weekend (and earlier this week), but apparently the airlines lost that bag. My camera went along to St. Louis, but solely for R & R; it did not a shred of work. That’s right, not one blurry picture.

A couple of days ago, I started to relate the trade show experience, and you would have thought it was some sort of graduate dissertation. Total snoozer. Not at all representative of the activity of a show. I pitched it and went to bed.

If you want to know about the show, visit Inside Number Twenty. Monique has several posts on the show (you’ll have to scroll), complete with pictures.

In my defense–or is this offense?–Monique was not exhibiting. She was free to roam about, look, touch, drool. I never left my room. (It didn’t cross my mind to have Monique tend my room for a bit. Du-uh.) I will say it was a good show, though I’m not a fan of the hotel venue. I prefer convention center shows where I can see my neighbors and they can more easily watch my booth when I want or need to be elsewhere.

So, I give up on catching up; I’m just going to pick up from here. That’s right, I’m diving in.

Ah, it feels good!