If a tree falls in the yard…

…and no one is home to hear it fall, does it still make a sound? I don’t actually know. All I can say is that

1. I’m glad it didn’t fall two days earlier when we were under it picking berries, and
2. I’m glad I decided to skip berry-picking last night and run out to buy the ever-important Pop Tarts and red thread (not to be used together).

We came home last night from our shopping trip to find that this tree had fallen in the back yard and then rolled down the hill as far as it could go. More pictures here, if you are interested.

Now, I have to say I am completely underwhelmed by the response to my Lisa Pavelka DVD giveaway. Did I make it sound really bad? I didn’t mean to. I suppose calling it a “glorified infomercial” does imply negative feelings. Poor choice of words, perhaps. I only meant to say that the low price tag can be explained by the product placement. The projects themselves are still pretty interesting, and a value for the money. Being that I am so generous of spirit (or, actually, because the guys who are going to do the drawing for me aren’t home at the moment ) I’m going to give you a little extra time to drop by that post, say hello, and get your name in the running.

I’ve got one more thing on my mind today. Book recommendations. As a small, independent bookseller, I struggle with presenting my recommendations for books I don’t sell. I’ve been so enthusiastic lately about some of the sewing books I’m reading, and a couple of cookbooks that are long-time favorites, and I want to provide links for you to learn about them and maybe pick up a copy for yourself. BUT. Where do I link to? Amazon is the logical choice, but frankly, they are my biggest competition in the polymer clay book world. Do I really want to send you over there? Not particularly. But at the same time, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t buy my non-clay books from them fairly frequently. So, it’s a dilemma. I don’t want to send any business to the evil empire, but I really want to provide links. Ideally, I’d make friends with another small, independent bookseller who carries these titles, but that hasn’t happened. I have toyed with the idea of selling these few favorite titles myself, but there are a couple of things holding me back:

1. I don’t have an established relationship with the publishers, and generally you don’t get much of a discount anyway buying a small handful of copies of a single title.
2. I wouldn’t want to confuse my customers by sticking cookbooks in among the clay books in my store.

I’ve got two possible ways to get around #2, but #1 is a sticky point. If anybody can recommend a good small book store that sells sewing and cooking titles, let me know. If they have my favorite books, I’ll link to them until I get it all figured out.

[edited to add: I found a way, and the books are now available at Polka Dot Creations]

Lisa