Tuesday June 17th

Come, sit a spell. The heat wave has broken and the breeze is gentle this morning on my front porch. Iced tea? The official start of summer is only a heartbeat away but if you have kids at home you know it really begins when school gets out. How do you define the beginning of summer? The solstice? the heat? the day you suddenly realize that the year is half over, or is half-completed? What does summer mean for you?

Today is the day to announce the winners for the giveaway. I am happy to do so, with so many this names to pick this time! Again, I have used my unbiased Random Number Generator ~ 1) Thien Kim, 2) Merf, 3) Sue Walen, 4) Cathy Wegner, 5) Arlene - AlteredbyMe. Congratulations! Please email me with your mailing address and I'll send a book your way.

Thanks to everyone who entered. I didn't get as many comments/entries as I had hoped, but I do know that almost 2000 readers stopped by over the past week. I read blogs too and must admit I rarely comment. It's like reading a book or perhaps more appropriately, a magazine or newspaper...and how many of us write letters to the editor! I think blog writers want comments so that they know they're not talking to themselves, or in the case of some of the more deep, heartfelt posts, that what they say has meaning. I also think that different bloggers attract different types of people. I myself am quiet. Deep but quiet, and I think a lot of my readers are too.

Other bloggers are more chatty, some more lively, hence they get chatty & lively readers who are more likely to comment. And then there's the whole Blogger thing and how hard it is to comment on a Blogger blog. (Psst - Typepad is in my future.) It's all very interesting to me, this blog phenomenon. I love it. As someone who considers themselves a writer, it's the perfect venue for me to write in the little bit of time I can scrape together. The public forum makes me stop and take the time to actually write, something that, at this point in my life I probably wouldn't stop to do. And the very act of writing sometimes leads to some very good writing.

On Sunday I leave for Columbus, Ohio, about a 7 hr drive from here, for the Quilt Surface Design Symposium. I have had a lot of time to plan for this week-long retreat, something very much needed in my life. It's been a hard 6 months and a week of nothing but me time will be the perfect way to start off the next 6 months, which I hope will turn out to be the year I planned - lots of studio time. So anyway, in the middle of gathering my supplies for my class, I had the thought to create a journal just for this trip, and to record my new vision/thoughts/ideas in art & fabric. While looking for an old book cover that would be just the right size for such a journal, I came across this sweet red book, More Pictures to Grow Up With. Along the spine, it also said A Studio Book. Perfect! I dismantled the book, used the covers and title page and that bit of spine that said "studio book" to create my own STUDIO BOOK. Covered simply in slightly stained canvas, a spine of goldenrod linen screen-printed with gesso and filled with Fabriano Artistico waterolor pages that were gessoed and lightly tinted with the palest golden and blue, I now have a new journal for my journey. My teacher Els Van Baarle said that the focus of our week will be on "Journey". I am ready. I showed you last week the palette of colors I will be working with over the next few months. The colors excite me. I am excited, like a kid going to camp.

No giveaways this week, since I will be gone next week. I have one week at home after "camp" and then we are off to the beach for 2 weeks, so I guess there won't be any giveaways for a while. But I hope you will still stop by, enjoy the shade of the front porch, have a tall glass of iced tea. You're always welcome.