Important Things Afoot!

Hey! Did I mention one of the Most Important Things To Happen To Me in my last post? No? Maybe? You're not sure?

Lemme check my notes, brb...

Ah, no. I didn't. To be honest, I'm only slightly surprised, considering all the things that are happening all at once and not just all over my house. I mean, there's a lot going on here, but it's nothing compared to the pandemic, which has been... oh, let's just not go there, m'kay?

Anyway, I was fiddling about with the pile o' crap on my desk (also known as Manuscript Notes, bills that may or may not have been paid, Important Documents that I have no idea what to do with at the moment but I'll figure it out, cancelled checks, cords to things, an old mp3 player (is "old mp3 player" a redundancy? Am I sounding a little scattered to you?), an amulet sent by a dear friend that needs to be re-secured to the top corner of my monitor, a rubber ducky, and a treasure trove of sticky note pads in various sizes)... dammit, where was I... Oh, yeah, fiddling about...

I came across a couple of letters that changed my life.

No, seriously! I kid you not. See, it started when I emailed someone who works for one of my all-time favorite magazines, RubberStampMadness. Folks, I am a stamper. Back in my AOL days, I was part of a very active group called RubberStamp Enthusiasts (and I have that group to thank for helping me remember how to spell enthusiasts). I even had my own business (with my own designs, catalog and everything!) I was in deep, folks, real deep.

Then shit happened. A lot of shit and the stamps and my business kind of fell to the wayside. Actually, they got stuffed into the garage when we moved and I couldn't find them, so I gave up. It was sad, I missed them, I missed stamping, I missed a lot of things about that craft.

But I had children to raise, a job to do, a marriage to attempt to salvage (I failed on that count, but it's for the best, believe me) and then other stuff. However, every time I went to the craft store, I gravitated towards the stamp section, fawning and drooling over the rubber images, papers, inks, and ALL THOSE AMAZING TOOLS!!! (most of which I already had, but couldn't get to because "buried in the garage" is kind of a death sentence for stuff like that).

When I moved to the coast, I took a few stamps with me, but the majority of them, the ones I finally found when I cleared out the garage, a.k.a. the tomb, were donated to a group of new stampers. It was a lot of stamps and the memories that were attached to them. I was ok with my decision, simply because moving to the coast meant I would be taking care of my elderly parents and my hat shop.

One Yule, Tammie gave me a subscription to RubberStampMadness and holy moly, folks, it all came flooding back. I took the next opportunity and pulled the small collection of stamps and supplies out of storage, cleaned them up and fell in love again. There was stamping! Then we hit the craft store and there were more stamps!

Then! THEN!!! We discovered a delightful surprise! Just a few minutes from our house was an honest-to-goodness stamp store! With stamps, and papers, and tools! Everything! The beast was awake and hungry for rubberstamps!

Now that you're up to speed, I'll continue with my story of The Important Thing. I sent a LONG message to the admin of the RSM facebook page, kind of explaining things and gushing my love for the magazine and how good it felt to be back in the rubber room again.

She sent it to the editor of the magazine and folks, THEY PUBLISHED ALL THREE COLUMNS OF MY LETTER!!!

But that wasn't the best part. I got a letter in the mail from the editor ASKING ME IF I'D LIKE TO WRITE FOR THE MAGAZINE!!!

I said I'd think about it.

Then I ran around the room, shrieking and waving the letter. I emailed the editor and said, YES!!!

The best part was I got my assignment almost right away, and when that was finished, I got another one. The magazine is published quarterly, and right now I have a piece in the summer issue (under the Spotlight column) and in the fall I have the Card Shoppe feature. I'm so excited.

Go ahead and get you a copy! If we ever meet face to face, I'll even sign it for you. Yeah! Just try to stop me! :)