I like to have a photo at the top of a post. So here is the man of the day, getting his hair. All pinned on and ready to applique.

One of the great things about blogging and twitter is that it gives me a place to dump some of the ideas, thoughts, questions, conversations, etc… all that talking going on in my head. Actually, the reason I listen to audiobooks and podcasts is because they block all the chatter. They somehow tie up the verbal part of my brain and leave me able to concentrate on my work. Except when a podcast talks about something that gets me so excited that it makes all the chatter even louder! That happened with a recent Radiolab titled, Words.

I was enjoying the podcast, in spite of the annoying sound effects added all over the production. One section was about Shakespeare and words. A line was quoted from his poem, The Rape of Lucrece, where a letter writer describes words (ideas?) like “a press of people at a door”. I couldn’t believe it- that is exactly how I have, for years, described my visual image of the doll ideas I have in my head. And I can guarantee you that I never read that poem (or any, I am reluctant to admit) from Shakespeare. Of course, my “people” are closer to the literal meaning!

Anyway. Funny to think about. When I first decided to start this blog, I couldn’t think of a name. That could have been the end of it right there. My wise husband told me that any name would do- just try out the blogging thing and see how it goes.  He wrote Doll in the title spot. Six and a half years later, that is what it is. But, because it had been a stumbling block, I sometime think of other names I could have used. An early alternative idea was Straw into Gold– since I was using so much reclaimed materials in my work. If I’d waited for that idea, I would have started about 1 1/2 years later then I did! Another, Playing God, probably would have seriously limited my readership by offending loads of people. When I heard that Shakespeare line, I thought that it would be a great blog name… A Press of People at a Door. Pretty good really. Another idea, also inspired by some audio I listened to this week- Diary of a Former Child Underachiever. That one made me laugh. It is hard to believe at this point in my life that that was the word that pretty much defined me in childhood. Yes, I think I outgrew it.

Okay, enough of the yakkity- yak.