Isn’t embroidery floss pretty? Such an array of colors. I had to run to Michael’s yesterday to get some more shades of green for my sampler.  I’m glad these colors look right, since the one light that wasn’t working at Michael’s was directly above the embroidery floss. At 35¢ each, I threw in a few more colors. You can’t beat the price. Seriously – what can you buy for 35¢ nowadays?

I stitched quite a bit more last night. The wonderful thing about these samplers is the chance to learn new stitches. Last night, I learned the feather stitch, the bullion knot and the coral knot – all while watching baseball. (Try as I might, I can never get the colors right in these photos. They are much more vivid.)

I’ve also been in a major nesting phase – sorting, organizing and dumping. Does this happen to you in the fall? I feel compelled to get everything in order. I’m also getting the urge to paint some pieces of furniture – one or two dark pieces in the bedroom as well as the kitchen table. And, after several months of inactivity, the dollhouse is calling to me. As the days get shorter and colder, I will once more tackle the renovation of my dollhouse.

Leaves are changing color rather quickly around here. Every day I see big changes. Our sugar maple is always the first to change color and the first to drop its leaves. I wonder just how much color we will have this year. It has rained quite a bit in the last month or so, but the first part of the summer was incredibly dry and that can affect how much fall color there is.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts about blogging and why we blog. I so enjoyed reading every comment. It sounds is if it struck a chord with many of you.

I’ve spoken about there being room for all types of bloggers out there. But I have one more thing to say about blogging that has to do with basic good manners. House/cottage, nesting, crafting, creative blogs are, by their nature, more cozy and welcoming than are political blogs, for example. I spoke of those bloggers who get hundreds of comments and never return the favor. I realize that keeping up with hundreds of comments on each post is impossible. We’re all busy and sometimes it takes a while before we can return the visit. But when several comments are made over a long period of time and no effort is made to respond, whether by email or a visit to the commenter’s blog, well, that sticks in my craw. It’s rude and there is no room for that.  I know it has happened to all of you. It certainly has happened to me. Those are the blogs I stop visiting.

So here’s my suggestion: If your blog has become so impossibly big that you can no longer take the time to communicate with your readers who are, after all, the reason you have become so popular, then perhaps you should rethink things. Because you might have lost the heart and soul of what made your blog so attractive to begin with.

Okay. That’s all on blogging, at least for a while. I will now descend from my soapbox.