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I finally finished this scarf from the cashmere/ silk yarn I bought at Tuesday Morning. It ended up being more of a scarfette, but that’s what I get for doing absolutely no figuring before starting. I can totally live with that.

For those of you who are knitters, I used a seed stitch. No brainer.

When it came time to weave in the ends, I couldn’t find my yarn needle. Story of my life since moving. I happened upon a craft shop when I was out and about. I didn’t know the word for yarn needle, though, and I realized when I began explaining that I must sound like I was looking for a knitting needle. I stopped to think a moment and then said, in German, “I knitted a scarf, and then…” here I pantomimed the hanging strings, then said, “Now I need to…” and pantomimed weaving in the threads.

The two shopkeepers burst into uproarious laughter, then offered me a yarn needle for free. I was pretty pleased with myself for not being afraid to look like an idiot. It’s all about getting my point across, right?

This scarf is so soft I’ve been wearing it a lot. Plus I love the color—-orange brightens up our gray weather. My daughter rubbed it against her face last night during story time.

When I read on Georgia’s blog that she was having an Autumn swap, I immediately went for it.  It’s been quite some time since I participated in a swap so I thought it would be lots of fun!  I wish I had taken photos of the package I had created for my recipient, Heather, (included recipe cards, a recipe, bat confetti I got in France, cookies, and a candle that “smelled” like October) but alas I dropped it off in the mail before I remembered to do so.

Georgia’s friend Chelsea got me in the swap and I was ever so thrilled to receive her package yesterday!  I haven’t had the best week (although certainly not the worst – not to worry!) and it was wonderful to get her generous gift in the mail.* The box contained so many fun and tasty things, including the wee stripe-y pumpkin you see above.  The caramel supply has dwindled, the recipes are saved for when cooler weather returns, the baking cups (below) and decor will be used probably this weekend.

Chelsea even gave me a little booklet of her beautiful autumnal photography!  Instead of trying to take a photo of it, you should check out her blog: Hearts & Scars.  Thank you again, Chelsea, you brightened  up my day!

And…Happy Halloween, everyone!

*I also found out yesterday that one of my dearest friends – and her newborn baby boy! – made it through the delivery,  both happy and healthy.

Just for the heck of it, I took pics of one of today’s snacks and lunch. Snack: Crunchy home-made cashew butter on a slice of honey, raisin & hazelnut bread next to a fruit medley consisting of apple, orange and banana segments, topped with blackberries and wild blueberries. Lunch: Lasagna with a side of seasoned and steamed [...]

Some photos from this morning. Below: Scrambled egg with smoked cheddar & and a few baby spinach leaves, tucked inside a corn tortilla; broiled tomato with same smoked cheddar; an orange. You’re welcome. Below: Orange Kitty (feral kitty who nests on our balcony) looking inside (Reflection is of Christmas red pepper lights, in case you’re wondering). Below: [...]

Can’t convince your little one that reading is worth their time?  I’d be willing to bet that they still think comics are cool and don’t even realize that when reading them, they are in fact READING.  I won’t “nerd out” on you and tell you that comics deserve every bit as much literary criticism as novels (you must admire my self control) and simply state that the pictures provide a very effective “carrot” for your reluctant reader.

Bitstrips is a site that allows users to make their own comic strips with customizable characters.  Customization… what a good idea, right?  Now, they’ve rolled out a kiddie version for schools called, well, Bitstrips for Schools. 

Bitstrips for Schools from Bitstrips on Vimeo.

By making their own comics, kids are empowered, and yes, tricked, into creating literature.

I must brag that I have been a Bitstripper since just after the site’s launch and have even had a comic featured on the “front page”.  You’ll see my lovely wife in a cameo in the second panel.

Below are my first contributions for the "8-bit & Beyond!" show by the Autumn Society. If you haven't played Castle Crashers yet, you really should! Specially if you own an Xbox 360. I'm not much of a modern gamer, but this game was an exception! This game is a mix of my SNES days with nice animations, great humor, and some good butt kicking action! The characters and art in the game are simple and genius! My hat goes off to Dan Paladin for creating such a wonderful game with his company, The Behemoth. Dan was also responsible for the popular Alien Hominid a few years back. There should be more people like Dan in the world making these kind of modern / old school gems! Anywho, here's my version of these awesome little butt kicking dudes. Finals will be 6"x8" on Wood, will post pics later in the week.

GUAYAPIZCO.BLOGSPOT.COM

Well, I can't get this little guy out of my head. So I had to put him on paper.

Tool: Artrage2
Merry Christmas everybody!!


**Tilen's shop ~tilen.etsy.com~tilen.dawanda.com**

Cartoon for the Dutch Nu.nl news website, about the Dutch public transport company Qbuzz. A spokesman of the company had mentioned that they wanted to express the 'Orange feeling' (related to the Dutch royal family and involving patriotism).

Although the cartoon's meaning is only fully understandable for Dutch viewers I thought to post it here because I am pleased with the 3D image.

More at Sevensheaven.nl

Bill Hicks made it fairly clear how easy it will be for us Marketing folk to enter into the kingdom of heaven, but to misquote another couple of humorous gents, there's some advertising that doesn't so much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards.

Honda seem to be pretty good at what they do, here, here and here, Sony have also done some lovely stuff recently, here, here and here, and to give you a final trilogy, Orange don't do too badly either, here, here and here. Cadbury's caused a lovely bubble of chat with this ad (and some strongly worded emails between members of my family), and H&M have created this year's Heat-sponsored Advert of Guilty Pleasure, with Tesco (typed with gritted teeth) taking the runner-up place.

Of course, the bad old days of marketing remain; I noticed at the sides of my local swimming pool ads for Bratz DVDs, which forced me to duck my head under water to hide the tears. As a grown-up, I'm fully aware of all the things that advertising, however repugnant, allows - if it weren't for those Bratz posters, my local pool may well be my local Tesco - but when you see how well some folk do it, it makes you wonder why everyone doesn't. Or maybe it makes you feel the opposite. Volkswagen's current oddly phrased ad (about buying a VW "even though it's second, or even third hand") makes my temperature rise, as does Lloyds TSB's "Wouldn't it be nice" press ads (although that's mainly because they keep cancelling and losing my cards, apparently at random, and their customer service has been second-to-most).

Some ads seem to have a beautiful idea behind them, but very little to do with the product; some ads seem to have the same idea at the same time as everyone else (did anyone else notice in the last 12 months, John West, Fish4 and Bacardi all had ads featuring men dressed as fish running a marathon?); and some ads serve no purpose at all (why use the world's most famous supermodel to advertise making yourself look better with paints and potions, and why advertise TVs on TV - either it looks rubbish so you don't want a new one, or it looks great so you don't need one; plus, not one of us could name the product for any ads for TVs bar the Bravia ads). Some are just horrible; some gets tonnes of publicity while still seeming a little derivative. Some ads make the world seem a better place.

Penguin has dabbled in both cinema and television advertising, with some nice plaudits (and some criticisms) for each. We try to do new things, here and here, to entertain readers as much as anything else - and after all, it's books we're pushing, lovely books, not oil, drugs or cigarettes. Do you care about another newspaper ad, however clever the line? Would you like to be told about new titles? If so, how? And if not - what are you doing on the Penguin blog?

Sam the Copywriter

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