Feeding the Stash

First, a stashbuster report:

I haven't bought any fat quarters in over two years. What I HAVE been buying is yardage, and for the B's: borders, backing, background,and binding. Here's my latest acquisitions:


This blue batik with daisies will be for the backing of a king size quilt. There's 12 yards here, and if there's enough left, after I've cut the backing, I plan on making a couple of king size pillowcases to match.


Of course, while I was shopping on eBay for backings, I just had to pick up a few more batiks. These are all three yard pieces, from Phillyfabrics, one of my favorite sellers.

That top one has more lavender in it than you can see from the photo. I plan to use it as lining. The green with lizards and the aqua with leaves are even cuter in person. Most of all, I think I like the sherbet colored one on the bottom - I may have to make another fabric shopping bag with it, so it gets out of the house. :D

Another Quilt Finished!

A couple of months ago, my guild had a UFO challenge - and it provided the impetus for me to finish the blue/purple pinwheels quilt you saw a few posts down, and this one, also, that I'm finally getting pix of up on my blog.

Fans of Bonnie Hunter will recognize it as her Carolina Crossroads mystery, with sashing. I've had this one as a completed top, tucked away with it's backing, for a long time, awaiting quilting. I didn't add a border. As you can see with it hanging on a fence, it's 72 inches square (six feet). That's a good size for a card table cover - a 4 foot square table with 2 feet of tablecloth drop on all sides. I suspect I'll use it mostly at the library, under displays of Christmas books.


Most importantly for me, as you'll see on the closeup picture below, it really allowed me to make a dent in all the Christmas fabrics I have somehow collected.


Mary S., in Missouri, did the all-over stipple for me, and did a great job, too. ;) I knew it didn't need anything intricate, as busy as the top was. And yes, those nine patches are made with 1½ strips, to finish at three inches. Even the backing is Christmas fabric.

Garden Update for Mid July

Have you been wondering about my little container garden? Here's the status. First, some tomatoes - The Better Boy and the Early Girl plant both have maybe 4 green tomatoes on them, a bit bigger than golf balls so far. I ate a ripe one tonight. Here's two from the Early Girl:


My Cherry tomato bush is producing one or two ripe ones per day, barely enough to keep me in snacks. I really like these things. This is two of the clusters on the bush.


Finally, my banana pepper plant has finally started doing something, LOOK! Two cute little banana peppers. I got a turkey cold cut sandwich at Subway just the other night, with banana peppers, and was wishing mine would grow... and it HAS! I have Peppers! :)


And the bush is full of little hard peppers that aren't even half an inch long yet, I'm so excited.

Winner and Reviews and Authors

First, the good news! Nessa, from NJ, won the muse from my random drawing over here. I have your snail mail addy, and she'll be on her way to you tomorrow. :)



Next, a little rant - regular readers of my blog will realize I don't do this often. ;) In fact, I can't remember any post yet, in years of blogging, where I've been even slightly negative.

As a "follower" Friday on Riding With The Top Down, I DID have a good time with the responses, some were pretty funny. But I'm disappointed too. Despite links to here, on the bottom of my post there, not ONE of the ten authors came over here to post. I don't mind if they didn't want a muse, pipe cleaner dolls aren't for everyone. But if I were an author and saw a post showcasing my most recent book released, I'd comment - even if only "Hi, glad to see you bought my book!" or... "Glad you bought my friend's book, hope you enjoy it!" Then I read This Post on authors relating to readers over on Editorialass.blogspot.com and it really made me think. So I'm gonna share.

You guys have seen the little Shelfari on the left sidebar there, filled with books *points to sidebar* and you know I sometimes review books here - being a librarian, I can't help it. With these three books I bought, I had been planning on doing what Mom taught, growing up ... If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. So I wasn't going to review any of the three books that are in the pictures below. But then I realized, they won't come over here to see it anyway, so why not be honest? I'm NOT giving them a mediocre review because they didn't come visit, either. I'm just going to tell about what made ME stop reading each book.

Granted, I don't read as much straight romance as I do other genres. I read more romantic suspense, mystery, etc. The two on the left WERE probably the first Harlequin/Silhouette paperbacks that I'd bought new, not at used book sales. Ever. I thought I'd give the Suspense and Nocturne lines a try. I read all genres, and mostly, I get my books from the library, on my card. And I have a time-tested way of sorting thru the multitude of books that I see.

Every day, at morning break, I'll pick from the carts of books-waiting-to-be-shelved. The book I pick gets a ten to fifteen minute read as I drink my diet soda. I read fast, usually thru the first chapter, sometimes more. At least 20 to 30 pages. If, at the end of break, the author has caught me up in the characters and story, to where I want to keep reading and find out what happens, then I'll stick in a bookmark, and leave it on the break room table to read with lunch. If I'm not interested, it goes right back on the cart with the other returns and new, but not bestselling books. After my 30 minute lunch read, the book goes through another quality check ... do I put it on the cart, or leave it on the table for further reading on my afternoon break, or put it on my library card?

This gives me three categories:

Uggh. Fifteen minutes of this was enough. Not my style, and I won't recommend it either. Probably only about 10% of the books I pick up. We have good book selectors in purchasing, and it shows.

Hmmm. This is only okay. After 45 minutes of reading, I might recommend this to readers who like this genre. I may or may not finish it, on my breaks. Probably about 60% of the books I pick up and audition.

Good! The books that I didn't want to put down. Characters I care about, enough conflict to keep me interested, so I'll check it out and take it home. I read a LOT, so 30% of the books I pick up, I probably take home.

Now back to the three in the pictures below - I'm still not finished reading any of them. For books I have at home, that's very unusual. The library didn't own them, but if I HAD picked them off the cart to look at, they wouldn't have come home with me. All three are that Hmmm category. Books that are okay for others, just not for me.

Kylie Brant, Terms of Attraction: For a tough, smart, sharpshooting sniper of a female character, Ava made too many dumb decisions. I stopped reading the first time after page 63, when Ava locks her door, goes to bed, then slowwwwly, groggily wakes up to find the main male character holding her down. She gets one good slug at him till he pins her. It's her BOSS. He climbed across, from his balcony to her balcony, to get in her room.

Sorry, but - no. I put the book down. You wake me from a sound sleep by breaking into my room and climbing on top of me in my bed, then think I'd still be working for you the next day? Even if you're the sexiest thing on the planet, that kind of behavior would be a deal breaker for me. I picked it back up later. I'd bought it, I should finish the book, right? I got to page 93 when this time, she wakes from a sound sleep, but is immediately fully alert, puts on her bulletproof vest,and is running down the hall with her gun in less than ten seconds. Barefoot. In a sexy camisole.

Bah. She should be smart enough to sleep in a bit more than that, after what happened the night before, especially! And plz, girl, take half a sec. to slide your feet into some shoes as you're putting on the vest. I put the book down again, and have yet to pick it back up. Now I know that the first book in the series has just won some awards, so I might have to finish it. Maybe the ending is better?

Michele Hauf, The Highwayman: I thought I was going to like this one, a main character who shapeshifts into a cat. You ALL know I am a cat person. But the character has only shifted a few times so far. First time is when she sees this guy who's been following her ... she becomes the cat, leaves her place by way of the cat door, walks across the street to his car, then, at his invitation, joins him inside his car and shifts back. But her clothes don't shift with her, so she's sitting there in only his coat. Why didn't she stay human, and dressed? I couldn't find any motivation for her shifting in the first place. She does do some nicely catlike behaviors, rubbing on things, curling up to sleep, hating to swim, the kitty characterization is good - but in general, the book is entirely too easy to put down, and even after two weeks, I still haven't cared to finish it. Maybe someday I will.

Lois Greiman, Unscrewed: Not sure what it is about this one I don't like either. A couple of my degrees are in counseling/psychology, so again, I thought I'd get into this, with the main character as a psychologist. But so far, she doesn't seem to really care much about the clients, she's too stupidly obsessing about this sexy cop/detective she's met in the previous book. She somehow strikes me as too old to be that dithery about her date with him, she's not in high school, after all. He knocks on the door to pick her up, instead of letting him in, saying... "Hey, c'mon in, I'm almost ready, have a seat." like a normal person, she goes all hyper. If she's a counselor/therapist, she should be a bit more together than that. So I quit reading this one too, and haven't picked it back up, instead, moving on to other books.

Does Blogging Sell Books?

Does Blogging Sell Books? Well, it certainly worked on me. And don't even ask why a librarian goes and buys books!


After meeting one of the ten authors, I started following this blog:

Riding With the Top Down

Lately, I've been reading their chat about their latest releases. Some of the little blurbs they wrote sounded interesting, so I copied their names and titles down and went off to WalMart to see what I could find. The picture above shows what I was able to score. ;) My book budget was thankful I couldn't find books from all ten of them!

I've been invited to be guest blogger over there for 'Follower Friday' tomorrow. And I've also decided to have a drawing. ONE person who posts over there *points to link to RWTTD above* and ONE person who posts over here will get a little pipe-cleaner muse that you see posed on the books in the picture.

Commenting on any post, even from way down the page, or from my archives, over here will count, I have all responses e-mailed to me. ONLY responses on my 'Follower Friday' post will count over there. Otherwise I might miss you. ;) I'll use a random number generator to choose the winners.

What good is a pipe cleaner muse? Inspiration! Works for quilting, writing, and anything else creative you may be doing.

How to use a Muse

First, take your muse down from her perch. (I have my two green ones hanging from the ceiling fan chain, where the cats can see them, but not abscond with them.)
Second, put on some music, and dance around the room with the muse. This serves a dual purpose - gets some blood flowing to your brain, and entertains any pets or family you may have.
Third, contort her little arms and legs, place her carefully on a backdrop and go get the digital camera to take a picture.
Fourth, rescue the muse from the cat. Lie and reassure the muse that the cat was only licking her chops and she was not in imminent danger of being eaten. Take the cat off the cushy backdrop. Use some masking tape to dehair the area. Re-pose the muse. Take the picture.
Fifth, go get a salad. Put some protein on top of the vegetables. Cheese, HB egg, tofu, tuna, ham, chicken... pick one. Oh, heck, dump them all on. The combo of vitamins and protein are good for the brain. Finish your meal with some chocolate.
Sixth, NOW you're ready to go back to whatever creative project you were stuck on. And since, if you're like me, you'd completely forgotten where you were, you'll be able to get a fresh start. Worked well, didn't it? :)

Tote and Fabric Letters for Header

Here's some other things I've been working on lately - a tote bag that folds up into a purse sized roll. There's a neat tutorial here, but it has a pocket that turns inside out over the bag. I changed the pocket just a little by adding velcro and leaving the last inch not sewn, so that mine becomes a roll instead:


It unfolds into exactly the same size as the plastic bags you get at most stores, in fact, you use a plastic bag as a pattern.


I've also been working on letters spelling my screen name, for a header for my blog. Inspiration from Tonya, of course, and the incredible header she has on HER blog. ;)


I was working on this at the quilting retreat, and also had my Seminole strips out to finish too - I'd done the larger version, but had about 20 inches more to do on the smaller size. The quilter sitting next to me thought I was making the Seminole strip for border around my ForestJane header... so now I may just have to do that.


It looks big in the picture, compared to the name, but the strip is only two inches wide, while the blog header above is about 20 x 14, without borders. Guess it'll be a wall hanging when I'm done. I was thinking back, and realized that I've been ForestJane online now for over fourteen years. Gosh, I'm getting old!

June Retreat

Back from the quilt guild's board retreat, and finally all caught up on my sleep too. ;) Here's the progress on couple of the projects I took to do.

This was started from a block of the month. I won the drawing, but I'd only gotten six of these blocks. So I connected them with sashing and made this center that I posted about last June. I still didn't like the quilt, though, and it had languished in a grocery bag ever since. Here it is after yesterday:


I did take out and replace one half square triangle that was too 'off' to suit me. Finally, this weekend, I decided to round out the shapes on the edges, by connecting them with border fabric, then I added a solid border fabric row. Now I like it much better. Maybe this week, I'll scrounge some backing fabric for it and get it quilted. A little one like this, I ought to be able to do myself, right?

And here's the status on the row quilt the guild is doing as block of the month this year. This weekend, I made the 80 half square triangles needed to go in the blocks of that friendship star row going across the top. The friendship star row will be row six of ten.


I went on and connected the star row to the houses and trees row, and then I really liked the looks of putting row one under the houses. I think I'm going to wait and connect the other rows later, though.

In other news, I'm enjoying my tomatoes - made a wonderfully sloppy sandwich today, with turkey deli meat and 4 big slices of homegrown tomato on it. Was so messy and drippy I had to change my shirt when I got done eating, but the flavor was so worth it. :)

I've about eaten the last of the Spring crop of snow peas, but early September, I plan on putting in a crop for Fall.

The tiger lilies are doing great this summer, that's the only flower I have growing now. Here's a couple of shots from the bed of lilies I have growing along my carport:


Some of the lilies look like two flowers nested in each other, some three... and the one below looks almost like there's four petals stacked up:

Square Dance Quilt Finished

I finally finished this quilt, with a center inspired by Martha Thompson's Square Dance book. If you look back on my blog in 2007, you can see some of the design process I went through.


Here's a closeup of it - you can possibly see the purple and blue fabric have the same pattern, just different colorways. I used many of the same fabrics from the inner pinwheels for the bigger pinwheels in the middle pieced border. This one ended up double bed sized.


Surprisingly, this quilt has been one of the most searched quilts in my blog - the book is more than 15 years old, out of print, and people are looking for instructions. I've received multiple e-mail requests for help. I actually e-mailed the publisher, and they say they have no plans to re-issue the book.

Navy Band Mid-South Quintet

Here's one of the things I look forward to every summer -- a visit from the Navy Band to the libraries I work at. I usually invite them to come out and play during our summer reading club activities. They always play a mix of music, from marches to patriotic, to jazz and classical. The songs most well received were the 'William Tell Overture' and the 'Pink Panther' but, I think the kids enjoyed them all! Some pix I took at the event:










I especially like the fact that the guys take the time to explain what the name of their instrument is, play a few bars so the kids can hear what they sound like. It's nice to expose these little ones to live music - and some styles they don't hear every day.

Rainbows and Tomatoes

We had quite a storm come thru Memphis this past weekend. I was without power for two days, and there are some 30,000 folks in the city who still don't have any. I took these photos immediately after the storm:


It was just before the sun went down, and there were still some pretty dark clouds in the sky. It was a lot prettier in person, really. ;)


And here's what I picked tonight from my little container garden:


I was going to save the snow peas to have in my salad, but *blushes* I crunched them raw while I was uploading the photos. Five to seven snowpeas each night seems to be my average, so it takes 3 to 4 days of resisting the temptation to gobble them up fresh in order to be able to save enough to cook. I just ate that reddest cherry tomato too... lol The other red one on the right, from the early girl plant, WILL make it to the salad tonight. :) The two bigger ones in the back, still orange, are from the better boy plant.

Wordzzle Saturday 66

This Week's Ten Word Challenge was: swashbuckler, heads-up, dry martini, recovery, jungle gym, whiskers, bathing suit, spade, circular reasoning, abrasive

I had decided I didn't want the whiskers to belong to a cat, and didn't want any one-eyed sword-fighting pirates or anyone drinking the dry martini. ;) For the Wordzzle guidelines, and the words for next Saturday (if you wanted to try it yourself) go on over to Raven's blog. Thanks for hosting this Raven, it's been fun!



My fifteen year old son, Scott, came backing around the corner into the living room from the kitchen, brandishing a butter knife like a swashbuckler, and wearing nothing but his bathing suit. Rowf, our golden retriever, pranced right behind him, with his favorite throwing stick (the wooden handle from an old backpacking spade) in his mouth. I watched quietly from my recliner, realizing neither of the two knew I was observing their silliness.

I also knew that if I didn't stop the horseplay, something would probably end up broken, but in a weird kind of circular reasoning I was too glad to see his goofiness to want to put a stop to it. These last two years, my son's behavior had changed from a happy-go-lucky kid into an abrasive, mouthy teen. Having a conversation with him was like playing tag on a twisted jungle gym. If I were climbing up, then he'd be maneuvering away from me down the other side.

Now, with a 15 year old's bravado, he was dancing with his reflection in the sliding glass door, holding an empty cocktail glass from the bar in his hand. He tilted his head and admiringly stroked the four whiskers that had recently sprouted from his chin. I figured I'd better give him a heads-up before he did anything to embarrass himself further.

"Scott," I said quietly, getting up from my chair, "What are you doing?"
He jumped, spun around, and dropped the cocktail glass, narrowly missing the dog, but making a quick recovery.
"Nothing, Mom, I promise, there was nothing in it!"
"Why were you holding an empty martini glass?"
"Um... because it was a dry martini?
I laughed and gave him a quick hug while he was caught off-guard. Wonders never cease, he hugged me back.

Garden Update for Beginning of June

I'm baaaack. ;) and wow, am I glad to have internet at home again. On the right in the picture below, my new modem. Now to catch you up with my garden! This is my first little crop. One tomato (between ping pong ball and tennis ball size) and eleven snow peas, on top of that snack sized baggie there. I'm really trying to save them till I have enough to stir fry, but it's hard! I like them raw too.


Here's the tomatoes still on the vine, another Early Girl just starting to get orange. The Better Boy tomatoes are in the foreground, but I think they have some growing to do still.


And here's the status of the crookneck squash. The kitty litter trick has worked, and no more gobbled blooms.


Last, my snow peas. I almost wish I'd planted more of these, instead of just 20 plants, they're really delectable. I've eaten only four of them, so far. But the package directions say they don't do too well in the heat of the summer. Instead, I'll wait till August and put in a new crop for fall.



Anyone out there know when the squash blooms open? I'm worried that with fewer bees, I'm going to have more of a crop if I go pollinate with a q-tip. But every time I've been out there, the blooms are twisted shut. Healthy looking, but closed.

Wordzzle Saturday

I'm trying the Wordzzle challenge from Raven's blog again. :)

The words for this week's ten word challenge: parasite, meals on wheels, crows, it's my fault, everything but the kitchen sink, on sale, patriotism, the love of my life, library card, common sense

I never wanted to be a parasite on society, but here I am, one tired, dependent old lady. I don't get out anymore, so the high points of my day are visits from people society pays to come. Our mailman arrives before noon, with his circulars, junk mail and bills. The bookmobile, every Tuesday, enticing us with a bus full of large print to check out with our moth-eaten library cards. At least it isn’t just me. Every day, the three of us old widow-women are waiting outside on our front porches, like crows in a row on the telephone wire, wrapped up in our sweaters against the nip in the autumn air. You’d think we’d have the common sense to wait inside where it's warm, but no, we’ve become slaves to our routines. Each of us has our quirks.

I pick up my binoculars and turn to the left. Ellen’s front porch looks like it holds everything but the kitchen sink. She often has carloads of tourists stop and ask if things hanging there are on sale. Wind chimes and mobiles dangle from every crosspiece or beam. She finished one made of old silverware yesterday, and now tiny pickle forks clank dissonantly against the butter knives and spoons. Ellen doesn’t like my binoculars, she says I am a nosy old spy. I wave, but she doesn’t wave back.

As loud as I can, I call over to Mildred, next door on the right. She's a little deaf, but too vain for hearing aids. “New flag, Millie?” Her husband was a Navy veteran, and she kept both her flagpole and her patriotism, even though he's gone. Today she glares and turns her back to me. I had the love of my life a full ten years longer than she had her husband, and she resents me for it. Not that it’s my fault, you understand. I hadn’t held my Larry’s hand as we walked past her porch to make her jealous, but because those last few years, cataracts made him feel more secure if he held on to me when we shuffled round the block. This morning, I shrug my shoulders at her rebuff, because I know in ten minutes, she’ll forget. Millie doesn't remember things so good anymore.

Here comes the Meals on Wheels volunteer, driving her van around the corner, loaded with those pre-packaged dinners. She had the gall to try to get us to eat our meals together, once, but Millie and Ellen refused. I drag my walker closer, and smile. I like the Meals on Wheels lady. She talks to me.

Silflay hraka, u embleer rah!

I have good garden news and bad garden news... :)

The good news first, I have snowpeas! Now I have to decide how long to leave them there before I pick them. How much bigger or thicker should I let these get, anyone know?


The bad news... I must have a wild rabbit. The quote in the title is from Watership Down, by Richard Adams, and if you haven't read the book, you can either go get a copy or google the phrase. Just realize, even if it's a book about fluffy rabbits, it's an adult book. Silflay hraka is not a nice thing to say to a rabbit. :(

I came home from my quilt guild meeting Tuesday night and went out to check on my garden. It was dark, but I have a motion activated floodlight outside my back door, so there was plenty of light to see by. And I saw blooms! Yellow squash flowers. I promised myself that I'd wake up earlier Wed. morning, come out and take a picture to blog by.

Wed. morning, bright and early, I went out with my camera and the two blooms were nothing but a few confetti size shredded yellow bits around a bloomless stalk. I'd been raided.


I didn't plant my squash to be some rabbit's flayrah. My solution was to go inside, scoop up about a gallon of well-used kitty litter, and sprinkle it around the outside of the wading pool. Now, two days later, I have new blooms, and so far, they haven't been nibbled. Fortunately, with two indoor cats, I'll never have a lack of rank-smelling kitty litter, but how long do you think that'll continue to ward them off before they realize it's all stink and no cat? Anyone else have any good solutions?

Squash, Tomatoes, and Sugar Queen

It's been raining a LOT here in Memphis, over this Memorial Day weekend - and when it's not pouring, it's looking like it's about to. My veggies are loving it though! The squash plants don't have many leaves, but there's whole thickets of buds about to emerge. I can't wait till they bloom.


And here's my cherry tomato bush, clusters of little tomatoes all beaded with drips from the rain:


And since indoors is a good place to be when it's pouring, I'm glad I've got some good books to read. Here's Toby snuggling with one of the better ones I've read this week, Sarah Addison Allen's second book, Sugar Queen. Think he's trying to tell me he's ready for a little sugar?


Sugar Queen has some original ideas, one of which I can't tell you without giving a book spoiler. My favorite device is that one of the main characters has a book problem. Whenever she needs a book, the perfect one appears. Books follow her. Even when she doesn't want them to. Some short quotes:

For a while ... she thought her great-grandparents were surprising her with books. She'd find them on her bed, in her closet, in her favorite hideouts.... Books on games or novels of adventure when she was bored. Books about growing up as she got older. But when her great-grandparents confronted her about all the books ... she realized they weren't the ones doing it.
She accepted it from then on. Books liked her. Books wanted to look after her.

As the novel starts, Chloe had broken up with her boyfriend, Jake. Now she's being stalked by a couple of self help books on relationships, that she does NOT want to read:

She stomped to the bathroom to take a shower. Books never appeared in the bathroom. Like cats, they hated water. She stood under the spray until the water turned cold. Just when she thought she had washed all thoughts of Jake out of her mind, at least enough to sleep, she opened the bathroom door and found the books, stacked neatly one on top of the other on the floor in front of her.

"If I see you again tonight, I'm putting you both in the toilet," she said as she stepped over them and went to the bed to set her alarm.

When she turned around again, they were gone.

I truly enjoyed this one, as well as the first novel from Sarah Addison Allen, Garden Spells. If you read either one of her books on my recommendation, or if you've already read them,let me know!

Scrappy Quilts for Finn and Michelle

My blogging friend Finn's been posting about Frugal Friday, then she got an e-mail from Michelle who also blogs about making 'Kitchen Sink' quilts from what we have at hand, and using the odd bits and perhaps recycled fabric. A quote from Finn's blog on the left:



"... to encourage all of us all to think frugally and show the long standing tradition of using what you have in any ways that you can, whenever you can.

I'd love to see a wonderful showcase of quilts across America showing our scrappy nature and ability to combine unusual fabrics to encourage fun and frugal creativity."

So these little thumbnails are all pix of my scrappy quilts - many of them made from donated fabric, some of them from block of the month and swaps. The four above, from around 2005, when I first got a good digital camera. These below, from 2006.




I use this one with floral fabrics the most, it lives on my couch and collects kitty-fur, then gets very frequently washed. It doesn't match the living room, doesn't match anything in the house, but used up lots of 2½ inch strips!

These next four are from 2007. Can you tell I got into paper-piecing half-square triangles in a big way? None of these were bought specifically for a quilt, all entirely from stash. I just have a STABLE. (Stash Totally Above and Beyond Life Expectancy.)



I'm finally getting the two above quilted. My ability to get tops pieced far outstrips my ability to send them off, then pay for the longarmer to quilt them.

The two below are already quilted, and given away for a Christmas present. On the left, king sized quilt that used up almost all my scraps and FQ's of blues and beiges - on the right, a pillow to match (and there were also two pillow shams) that used up even the tiny remnants.





And *sighs* not posting the not-scrappy quilts, limiting myself to 4 things per year, I'm only up to 2007. Finn, you'll have to wait for another post for more scrappy Memorial Day weekend showcase! This has been fun, thanks for the idea, Finn and Michelle. :)