My silly plastic figurine, bought years ago because she looked a lot like me (combination of her haircut and vintage coat), came out to party on my birthday a full year ago. That's my cocktail on the table with her, not hers!

If you’re a book lover, perhaps you’ve admired a bookplate or two in your time. I certainly have. These little paper stickers that identify the owner of a book have a long and honorable history, and many a great artist/designer has turned a hand to this medium, if only for friends. (There are some lovely and really interesting books about these, by the way. Insert a plug here for your local public library, where you should be able to find them.)

In any case, my graphic-designer husband has started designing some of these, with what I consider great success. Most recently, he surprised me with my own personalized bookplate for my birthday. Continue reading →

I’m thinking about introducing a semi-regular series called “Spam Poetry,” with spam comments I have received that are so ridiculous or effusive — well, really just so outrageous in any way — that I feel compelled to share. Here’s the first. It made the “poetry” cut because the language strung together is so beautifully nonsensical.

Let me know if you think I should keep this up. And please feel free to submit your own favorite spam — from your own blog comments, from email, from social media, from anywhere — in the comments. Please do keep it clean, though — this is a family joint!

“To grow improved,
previously catch what forces you to grow regressed.
each person features personal lacks. To remove them,
we all are to find out them.
since your considerations are fixed on past, you are not able to budge.”