Apologies and Excuses

I know, I know. I’ve been MIA for more than a month with no warning or explanation. Again.

I’m sorry. I’ve been away, and though I continued to work, I never made it down the To Do list to this blog. Too many tasks above it.

I did, however, organize and participate in my first webinar, Best Photo Forward, Refining Photos of Fine Embroidery, which, while no longer available as a live event, will remain available as a video product. I need to update the listing on the Funk & Weber site to better convey that, but now you know.

And I have been working on a new puzzle book for Taku Graphics. It contains a bunch of sudoku puzzles, nine or ten of my own from-scratch word and logic puzzles, and all sorts of cool facts about Alaska. I’m hoping to have my part finished by Monday. Fingers crossed!

S4L Book Club – The Help

I totally dropped the S4L Book Club ball, but I also knew that several readers were behind, so maybe you’ve had a chance to catch up. We’ll begin discussing The Help on Tuesday, April 10th. I’m listening to the audio version—which I love, by the way—and didn’t listen at all while I was away, so I started over a few days ago. Different readers read different parts, and I adore the different voices. Kudos to the casting director.

2012 Bookmark Challenge

Yes, the Bookmark Challenge is upon us. Yay! I know several things are going on in various parts of the stitchy world, but I have few details. Stay tuned here for details of our blog collection and events.

Where has Jen been?

What do you say we make this a contest? I haven’t had a contest in ages, and I adore contests.

Based on the pictures below, can you guess where I’ve been? Write your answer in the comments. Be as specific as you can be, but every response earns an entry. In other words, you can guess “Earth” and earn an entry to the contest. And you’d be right to boot!

You have until midnight Monday, April 9th, Alaska time. The winner will be randomly selected from all entries and announced on Tuesday during Book Club. No, there’s no set time for Book Club. I mean I’ll announce the winner in that post.

Well, you can be sure this isn’t Alaska, right?

This is a red-footed booby. If a red-footed booby were to marry a blue-footed booby, do you suppose they’d have purple-footed offspring?

Kayaking, anyone?

This is a Laysan albatross chick. I saw my first albatrosses here! And red-footed boobies, for that matter.

Yes. That was as freaky as it looks. Exposure (i.e., cliff edges) makes me shaky. Don’t worry; I made it back.

So where do you think I’ve been?

Remember, every guess counts and there is a prize to be won!

. . . is About So Much More Than Bookmarks!

We, Funk & Weber Designs, are offering our Bookmarks 101: Simple, Smart, and Swanky Finishes class May 9 – June 5.

I developed this class to teach stitchers to make bookmarks from scratch so we can use all kinds of materials, fabric scraps, UFOs . . . pretty much anything. This satisfies my strong desire to waste not. Bits of fabric and fiber we might throw away can be used to craft beautiful and useful embroidered objects.

And not just bookmarks. These pieces that we make into bookmarks might also be gift tags, bag tags, key fobs, zipper pulls, pins, and all sorts of other things. The stitching, sewing, and wirework techniques we learn can be used to finish larger pieces you might otherwise frame or simply not know what to do with.

I just posted details on how Funk & Weber Designs online classes work. There are many ways and formats to host online classes. Ours is super-simple, so don’t worry if you’ve never taken one before. Besides, it’s a class—it’s about learning! And I’m there to help.

This is no croc.

It’s here. It’s really here.

What’s here?

Go there and find out.

Really.

Go now.