Stalker Attitude

When I started reading blogs I was fascinated by the idea that people throw their lives out there for the world to see and wondered how they did so without feeling completely exposed. When you blog you're giving little pieces of yourself away to perfect strangers. You open yourself to hurtful, snide remarks and ridicule. You can't control what people are going to say or think about you and you can't make people be nice.

When I started my own blog, I was all too aware of how mean the world can be, but I wanted a way to share the things I have made and am making, because I am proud of them. I was very hesitant to really be myself. I'm never going to be a consistent blogger. It's really not who I am. I'm an inconsistent individual. Yes, flighty is a damn good word to describe me. I have a short attention span on the best of days, but I find myself being very consistent about one thing. Checking for comments. I live for the darn things. Once I post I check my email every 15 minutes to see if I have any, then if I do, I actually change websites to read them directly on the blog instead of in my inbox. It's a dorky thing to do, but I discovered something on this blog thing we do. It's really not about the blogger. It's about throwing out an idea, a finished object, a vacation photo or 2 and seeing how others react to it. Yes, we put our lives on the internet, but it's in exchange for the little snippets we get back when someone leaves a comment. We find new people to connect with, new blogs to read, new lives to explore with new ideas. It's about discovering a whole new community of people who couldn't be more different and still have so much in common.

I smile everytime I find a new-to-me blog that I really enjoy and there in the comments is a familiar "face." Maybe it's just because Steph, Ryan, Margene, Claudia, Norma and the others are every-freakin-where, but I think we've just got a really good thing going. With that being said, I made a post on Monday about the contest and as usual was waiting oh so not patiently for comments and was a little thrown by them. Then I went back and really read the post. I think I owe some folks a serious apology! I did not mean for that post to sound like a whiney bitch and that's exactly what it sounds like. "Oh my gosh nobody loves me and nobody will play with me and I will just go play by myself screw you guys I'm going home and stop touching my crayons." What was that all about?? I was seriously not upset by the lack of participation and it really was my own fault for dropping the ball on it. Then yesterday, the actual last day of the month I got a submission for the contest. And it's brilliant! What kind of moron sets a due date for a contest on the next-to-the-last day of the month? So yes, my dear, dear Stalkees, we have contest winners. Dear Stalkee Christina sent in a plethora of buttons to use and I think I'll throw them all on. I hate not using any of them since she worked hard on them. Besides, I like them all. So grab a button! You know the drill about saving it on your own server blah blah bandwidth blah.










So Christina wins 2 skeins of the sock yarn of her choice from Knit Picks and a Stalkee mug. Which means it's a damn good thing we had a merchandise entry or she'd be getting a nice blank mug and some crayons.

The entry for the merchandise came from Michelle, who is obviously very talented. She went in a direction I hadn't even thought of and executed it brilliantly. Now I have to decide if I want to use the lines version, the color version or just use both and have a choice. I like having choices. So Michelle, you are the winner of a Stalkee gear T-shirt with your design on it, a set of 8 stitchmarkers made by me with your choice of colors, and a shopping spree of up to $35 at KnitPicks. I have your email addy (muahahaha) so I'll let ya know how I have it set up and get ya taken care of. You might wanna head over and start some window shopping. :^D So without further ado, my Dear Stalkees, the winning (ok only but it still rules) submission(s)!





Sheer brilliance! So what do you guys think? Way to go you two!! Big stalker hug to the both of you.

Hope everyone has a great day!