New Links

I added a couple of new links to the sidebar. The first and most important one is a link to the website for Firestorm of Dragons, the anthology which will contain my first published story. The list of authors on the site is currently incomplete (I'm one of the missing), but my short story is mentioned. The listing is also available on Amazon, though Amazon says it won't be available until June 1, while the website says it's coming out in mid-May. I hope the latter date is correct so I can bring copies to WisCon. There's already a book review available here, and it's a good one. It's going to be so exciting to see this book in print.

The second link I added is to the website for the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, or SPOGG. The site is actually pretty sparse at the moment, though the blog contains listings of bad grammar in action (so it can be corrected, of course). Still, it's important to promote good grammar, so I figure it's worth doing my part to spread the word.

The Ransom Note Birthday Card

In an effort to save some money, I'm trying to make my own greeting cards. I'm getting tired of spending $3 or $4 per card, especially when I may need several cards for one holiday. I don't have much experience with paper handling, although Eugene and I did make some things, such as our programs and rehearsal dinner invitations, for our wedding. I still wish we could have used some of the cool invitations from Paper Source, but that would have been too much and too stressful givn the size of our wedding. But we are going to make the inviations for Alex's first birthday party, and I'm also planning to make birthday cards for some of my friends. I already ordered some of the supplies I need from Paper Source.

Yesterday, while I was at Target, I checked out their craft section, as they have some cardmaking supplies. I saw they had letter stamps and inkpads, so I thought those might come in handy. Since one of my co-workers has a birthday tomorrow, I decided to try making a birthday card for her. I wanted to put "Happy Birthday, Name" on the front of the card and "From All of Us" on the inside, using silver ink from an inkpad. I've never used stamps and inkpads before, so I wound up overinking the stamps, and the extra ink wound up on the card. Even though I used a ruler, the letters wound up unevenly spaced and not lined up properly. Eugene joked that it looks more like a ransom note than a birthday card. I'm still going to give it to my co-worker, but I'm a little embarrassed about passing it around for my other co-workers to sign. We'll see if I go ahead and do it anyway. I just hope Alex's invites turn out better!