500 smackeroos--that is, blog posts! Wow! Just count 'em!!

This is my 500th  blog entry.  It took a smidge over 4 years and lots of soul-searching.  I just counted on my fingers (that's an inside joke since I am known for my mental math skills) and I've been selling needlepoint since 1977 (I think--it may be 1976--shoot me if I'm wrong!!).  Now, I don't want anyone to believe that longevity in an activity connotes expertise.  We all know people who've been doing something for what seems like centuries and they are still dumb as posts and their needlepoint is incredibly bumpy.

I was fortunate to have a marvelous mentor, Trubey Walker, one of the first owners of Needle Nicely. Trubey has a marvelous sense of color that few can claim.  She also has a wonderful memory for design.  So what better person to be your tutor in such a sensory business?  Admittedly, she isn't the best at bookwork or balancing her checkbook, but her design concepts and use of color are superb. And it is always a delight to stitch one of her needlepoint canvases, because she paints for the stitcher.  Her flowers and shells painted on needlepoint canvas cannot be equaled by any  needlepoint artist.

When it comes to blogging, I've had more than one mentor.  The first was Judy Harper (go with God, Judy--we miss  you); then there was Anne Stradal of the Cape Stitcher (who is always there for me). Jane of Chilly Hollow has been a wonderful confidante and adviser.  There are many more who offer encouragement and advice such as Ann of Stitching Foolishness and Anna (a pseudonym) of Stitch Bitch.  I knew Ann 35 years ago in Blowing Rock, NC; and  Anna and I share a birth day (though not a birth year, for which Anna should be grateful since I think it is a 25 years or so difference).  In my experience, blogdom is a very sharing and generous world. Thank goodness!

 For everyone who blogs and wonders if anyone is out there reading what you are writing---the answer is a resounding YES!  Too many blog-readers are lurkers, so bloggers need to be self-motivators.  It is sad to say that the majority of commentors on blog entries are themselves bloggers. So maybe the entire world should be writing blogs so everyone will be commenting? What a concept!!  Whatever, I have definitely caught the blogging bug and now even my husband realizes that "tonight is a blogging night".  I don't want to say that he is a slow learner, but it has taken him almost 4 years to realize I was glued to the computer every Wednesday and Saturday night.  You gotta love 'em!!  So I'll be here blogging this Saturday and many more weeks to come.  I hope you'll join me, and even more earnestly I hope that you will feel a connection to what I have said and feel the urge to COMMENT.  Go on, do it!!  I'll revel in whatever you say because you did it!!  Thanks for everything.