questions and coffee (and thank-you).

Listening To: Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show

Line Obsession: I stare at it in my hands forever, just feeling its weight, looking at the lace where one white-out wing is starting to flake off. Then, once my hands are steadied, I open to the first page. It's a drawing of her face-- yellow hair; blue eyes; small, crooked smile. She's looking straight ahead. Birds fly across the background. She drew them blurry, to show movement, and across the top she wrote, Me on a Sunday Morning. - from p.38 of Hold Still by Nina LaCour, Dutton, 2009

Happy Monday, people! I hope your weekend was full of warm, breezy sunshine. And great music. And coffee. (Coffee is always awesome.) I rode around with my brother on Saturday and there was plenty of coffee and music. I kept hitting repeat on the song "Wagon Wheel" by O.C.M.S.* It was a perfect driving song and a perfect way to kick off spring. I didn't realize how much I missed the sunshine until it came back.

I'd planed to mostly use today's post to solicit your advice. Biscuit isn't thrilled with this idea. She has lodged herself between me and the computer as if to say, "Blog if you must. But I will be napping here too, thanks." Let me pause here to show you a picture. It might help your Monday morning flow more smoothly:

She's snuggling her toy dog, Max. The severe cuteness of this act nearly does me in.

Max is the only stuffed toy I've found that's durable enough to withstand The Biscuit. Weirder still, Max was a Happy Meal toy. Thank you McDonalds for doing what PetSmart and PetCo are unable to do ... provide a stuffed toy my dog can't rip to shreds. Some days Biscuit cuddles with Max. Some days she thrashes him around in her mouth trying to rip his head off. I think that's a pretty accurate picture of love.

Pressing on! I would love your input on some projects I'm sorting out. If you were here, I would make you coffee as a way of saying thanks and then we could go stand on the squishy part of the yard, jump up and down, and laugh about the noise it makes. (I have a life, I promise.) Here goes:

Question 1: What should I put on The Great Wall of Nothing?

I'm on a very tight budget at the moment (who isn't?) and, so, if I have a little bit of fun $ to spend, I usually don't spend it on home decor. I spend it on books or on my ongoing, lifelong goal to find jeans that make it look as though I actually have a rear. Also, I spend it in Starbucks. (Just trying to be honest.) But there's this one wall in my room that drives me crazy. It's too empty and it's the wall I see first thing when I wake up.

On one hand, I really like sparse. I don't want to clutter up the walls ... but the wall is so big it needs something. (Something that doesn't involve paint. Painting does not equal fun in my world). I thought about maybe putting a few shelves on the wall, but I don't know what I would put on those shelves. I already have a bookcase in the room. Though I need another one, I don't want it on that wall. The space between the bed and the wall is limited as it is. I thought about maybe putting a big piece of art there. I saw a cool idea online - where this girl stretched a piece of cool fabric over a canvas and put that on her wall. It looked great (and while I love to support other artists, I don't think I can afford original art at the moment - consider this a placeholder ; ). I'm stumped. Any decorating pros out there? Do you have any ideas? FYI: the walls are a pretty pale green color.

(Note, I wake up and look at this wall first thing in the morning. As I'm usually waking up from some bizarro dream, I would prefer the wall to be anti-crazy.)

Question 2: Do you ever visit author websites (not blogs, but actual sites)? And, when you do, what do you go there hoping to read?

I'm considering working toward the development of an actual website this summer, in addition to just this blog. I've done some research. Meaning: I stalk my favorite authors' websites all the time (don't tell them), so I have a good idea of some things I would want on there. But more than anything, I want to have a site that you would enjoy exploring. What are some of your favorite author sites (and what do you like about them)? Is there anything you find particularly annoying (generalize here - no actual examples necessary ;)? Anything you would like to read more of (like fun "extras")? How many pictures of Biscuit would be too many? ;) This blog will still have the same fodder as always and, for the foreseeable future, I'm pretty sure this blog is all I need. I would love your ideas for the future though.

Question 3: What happened to Amy** on Project Runway?

She was my favorite early on. I thought it was The Year of the Amy. Then she made the Big Bird pants. Remember those? When she sewed all the panels of fabric together in such a way that they brought to mind 1.) Big Bird and 2.) roof shingles? That was unique.

Don't get me wrong: I love a girl who pushes herself, and tries something she knows might not succeed, simply because she's following her heart. (I respect that in any person.) (And sadly, I have extensive experience in this area.) Still. Those pants ... wow. I did not understand the pants. Granted, I'm no fashionista. I would wear jeans everyday of my life if I could. I don't even like wearing shoes (unless they happen to be the hot pink ones pictured above). So sometimes, especially when the designers delve into avant-garde, I just sit there and nod and pretend I know what looks good. I thought maybe the pants were just beyond my scope of understanding.

And yet, even the judges weren't feeling the feather pantaloons. Tim was hopeful, but skeptical. I think he was secretly rooting for Amy too. Amy landed in the bottom two that week, but stayed. And I thought - whew. Moving on to greatness!

Then she made the hair-bowl-dress. Did you see that? Heidi said it was like a cat in a baby sling. (Heidi has some zingers this season, no?)

It was worse than the pants. But still, Amy stayed. I thought - yay! We are past this phase of weird!

Despite all the crazy tangents, I remember Amy at the start of this season. Amy is incredible. My favorite Amy creation never made the top three, but it should have. The week the designers had to get material from the hardware store to make their designs. And Amy made a dress completely out of sandpaper!!

I think it's gorgeous. After that, she hit a stride. It's like every dress she made looked more incredible than the last. Then came the pants. And the hair-bowl-dress.

Then she did the shiny belted bridesmaid dress with leggings. I think it was the least of the past three mishaps, but it wasn't my thing either. And apparently it didn't float the bedazzled boat of the judges. I think it was right for Amy to go, but I'm still sad. I am sad because 1.) my ego is wounded. I've successfully predicted the winner of this show, very early on, for the past two seasons. Streak = broken. And 2.) I think she's way talented and so unique. At least she was trying something different. I especially wish she had been there this past week, when the designers got to create their own textiles. (Rant: how the heck did Emilio's dress win?!) Amy would have excelled at that.

So now I'm for Jonothan, even though I'm pretty sure Seth Aaron will win. Jonothan is sort of an underdog. He over-designs a smidge. He landed in the bottom two last week. Still. I think there's incredible potential there. I like watching people in process. Watching Jonothan figure out the kind of designer he wants to be is more interesting to me than watching Seth tailor snazzy leather jackets every week.

I would like to see Mia in the finale too, but I'm pretty sure it will be Mila. The judges seem to be wackadoodle about Mila. The dress she made from the hardware store? Kind of looked like a Halloween costume to me. Like "Sexy Stormtrooper" or something. So I'm rooting for Jonothan now, especially since Anthony is gone. Anthony was a doll. He made me laugh so much this season.

In closing today, I don't have a question, just a sentimental statement of fact: you're a fabulous group of people. Looking back over some old entries, I realized March 24th was the first anniversary of the day I started this blog. When I started posting here a year ago, I never dreamed this would become such a sweet little community. I had no idea I would look forward to writing here the way I do. I definitely think I would feel like I had honest-to-goodness friends on here. I love reading your comments so much: you make me laugh and you encourage me. You say the smartest things. I so enjoy clicking through to your blogs too, and discovering new books, new music, new people. New stories. Your stories are fantastic. Thanks for making me feel so at home here in Blogworld. Thanks so much for reading along and being part of all the crazy. I hope you always feel welcome here. If you want to see how all this bloggy mess got started, click here for the very first entry. Otherwise, *group hug!*. I can't wait to see what this next year brings with it.

Hope your Monday is manic; in a blue-grassy, sun-shiny, coffee-drinking kind of way.

* Did you know Bob Dylan wrote Wagon Wheel?! I didn't, until this weekend. My brother amazes me with his endless pool of music trivia. And sarcastic remarks.

** Now I have the lyrics of that Switchfoot song stuck in my head. "My thoughts return to Amy/ and the fire she's begun/ she came when we were freezing/ she left us burning up."