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August’s caption contest winners
I suck at multi-tasking. Which is unfortunate because my job pretty much IS multi-tasking. In the last two days I completed the final designs for my (exciting) January line and began work on my (at least as, if not more exciting) May line. I placed the final purchase orders for new designs for January. I reviewed inventory and placed last minute orders for product we need for this year. I worked on sales projections for our 2012 budget. I started writing copy for our January catalog. And I began work on a new book (!!!). Really, I love my job! This is just my roundabout way of saying: I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I know it has been forever since I posted.
Thank goodness caption-contest-winner-day rolled around to get me back in gear.
July caption contest winners
What does one do when one is all alone in the desert and one’s internet connection is down? First, I go for a long walk. But the internet has been down for a really, really long time, so I’ve taken the opportunity to cut and paste and scan NINE of my favorite caption submissions from July. When, if ever, the internet is back up, I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
The winner, offering incontrovertible proof that we create our own realities, is Ellen Mcdonald:
Congratulations, Ellen!
(Before I share my other July favorites I want to disclose that I tweaked a caption here and there. Nothing much… a word here, an ellipsis there… and no disrespect intended to the writers. I believe I was born to be an editor; I just can’t help myself.)
Desert Flowers
We’ve had a ton of rain lately, so the desert is blooming madly, and my house is full of flowers. I love it.
I love it, but I know it won’t last.
But now I know what to do when the wild profusion of blooms is past!
On Sunday, Nathan and I had lunch at the Santa Fe home of our friends Arian, Godfried, Iza, and Jan. Great company, great food… and a great new idea! Arian had told me about the “flat flowers”, created by Dutch artist Suseela Gorter, that she had recently imported. On Sunday I finally got to see them in real life, and they are fabulous!
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My windows will soon be full of them… and all my friends will be enjoying them as well. They also are – or soon will be – available in greeting card size. It’s the only way I know of that you can send a bouquet for $5.95 plus stamp. Check out Arian’s website and fill your home with flowers!
http://madebyoots.com/flatflowers.html
Vintage Style Examiner Interview
I may just have to admit that I’ll never be a real blogger. Real bloggers blog. I, on the other hand, come up with dumb excuses like “I’m trying to finish up the new designs for our January 2011 release.” The upside is that I may actually make deadline this time around. A small miracle.
And if truth be told, I haven’t been working on the line every single second of every single day. It has been darned hot here, so I’ve been pretty much forced to go to the lake every evening to swim. Poor me. But it’s cooling off now… and the line is almost done… so soon I will get back to blogging. Meanwhile, here’s an interview you might enjoy. It’s two months old (I kept forgetting to share it) so our exciting new releases as mentioned in the interview will be old news to you:
Poor choices
Interestingly enough, most poor choices seem to involve alcohol. Hmmm…
I know I said that the prize would go to the person whose poor choice amused us the most… but can I change that? The whole office voted unanimously – through their tears – to award the prize to Mandy for her wonderful story about the “poor choice” (or series of poor choices) that created her loving family. As Chan in customer service said “She wins. She wins hands down. She wins twice if it’s possible.” We’re suckers for happy endings. Joy Bailey put it perfectly: perhaps there are no poor choices.
Girls Behaving Badly
I recently heard from a brand new fan.
Jackie became a fan when her mother brought home a magnet they both thought was perfect for Jackie’s best friend, and now Jackie wants to decorate her dorm room at Yale with all things Anne Taintor! “So” I asked Jackie “what was the magnet?” I was delighted with her choice!
I first heard “poor choices” used in this context by a good friend (who shall remain nameless), the mother of three teenagers. I love “poor choices”!!! It is my understanding that it covers pretty much anything from ordering a coke and French fries for lunch to sneaking out at two in the morning on a sub-zero night to go drinking with boys. Such a useful euphemism! I wish we had had it when my daughter was a teenager.
I’m certain none of you have ever made any truly poor choices, but I’ll bet you know someone who has. Maybe she/he skipped the nutritious breakfasts Mom so lovingly prepared? Stayed out past curfew on purpose? Hotwired Dad’s car and drove it to Mexico? Smuggled Quaaludes from Barbados?
Picnic Time
Choosing a winner for June’s caption contest was no picnic! This was the funniest batch of submissions yet… so funny, in fact, that I’m considering running the monthly caption contest beyond our anniversary year. Why would I deprive myself of all this fun?
So… once again I simply could not make up my mind. I narrowed it down to six finalists, then I read them over and over and kept careful records of which made me laugh the most on each read-through.
It was a tie.
I love the succinctness of co-winner Ava Woodward’s caption:
A biting commentary on our culture AND funny: can’t beat that. I thought about changing it to “where’s the toy in this #%&@*!!!!! happy meal?” but I decided that Ava’s “stupid” was infinitely better.
And who says men aren’t as funny as women? Well, usually I do… but not in this case. If my husband played golf I’d send him a card with co-winner Marc Bouchard’s caption every week:
And the finalists! As I said, it was very difficult to eliminate any of these wonderful captions, but I thought that having six co-winners would be overdoing the indecisive thing a bit.
I love June. I hate computers.
Especially new ones. I took a zillion pictures of my gorgeous June garden, or our beautiful June sunsets, and of the bluebirds nesting on my front portal… but I can’t figure out how to load them onto my new #%&@*!!!!! computer. So I hope you won’t mind a few pictures of the same scene a couple years earlier. The flowers are bigger this year, but the bluebird looks just about the same.
At Long Last Luggage Tags
Our fabulous new luggage tags are in stock at last! Just in time for your summer vacation.
I think this is our best collection yet! Check them out:
Happy Father’s Day
This is my Dad when he was young and handsome, sitting on the front steps with, from left to right, me, my brother Rick, and my sister Liz.
My Dad did not believe in Father’s Day – or Mother’s Day. He said they were fake holidays invented by the merchants to sell more stuff. As a merchant myself, I have to wonder “what’s wrong with that?” Dad and I did not agree on everything.
This is my first Father’s Day since I lost my father, and I have been thinking about him more than usual, and shedding just a few more tears than usual.
