Friendship and Fly Fishing??

Yesterday, I had the chance to finally meet, Heather Johnson, who is my favorite book blogger and, lucky me, she happens to live close by...

There are thousands of book blogs to read and, rather than get sucked into a whole new genre of blogs, I just follow Heather's...I trust her judgment; she gives great reviews and I found the 1% Well-Read Challenge through her.

One of the things I admire most about Heather, is how she has become somewhat of a local celebrity in the "book blog" world. Because of her quality blogging, she has been invited to participate and chair on various speaker panels at the Baltimore Book Fair, as well as lend her opinion to various publishers and authors. The current formula for promoting books is in flux...and the internet, blogs and electronic media are really changing the old-fashioned book review and bookstore approach to advertising new releases. Because of this, many authors are approaching book clubs and/or book bloggers directly to read their books and write reviews; hoping to better target audiences and spread interest by "word of mouth". And Heather is right there on the receiving end of many of those offers. She's as exciting to me in the book blog world as many of you are in the needle arts world. So, it was just a thrill to get to meet her at last and share lunch together.

You can see Heather's book blog here and don't miss her Book Club's Blog, Storie Delle Sorelle, here.

Now, it just so happens that the place where we had lunch was right next store to Bass Pro Shops...so I had to go. I had to go back in to the fly fishing section and see what I could find in threads. The last time I went I really didn't have time to absorb all the threads because I spent so much time with the feathers. Here's what I found...

Rayon variegated chenille for bug and butterfly bodies...$2.79/pkg.


Some black goose biot feathers ($1.99). Many of you asked what the crest was made from on my bird for my March BJP. It was this feather, the goose biot...it doesn't look like much in the package, but when you spread it apart...


It begins to look like the fin of marlin or the back of a hedgehog etc...

Also, they have tons of Estaz ($2.49-$3.29) which is a sparkly chenille that I often have a hard time finding in my LNS -- and they had it in many different sizes...


They had many more bright nylon threads and mylar threads which I stored in my memory banks for the future...but I couldn't resist the colors of these two wires ($1.99)...

I liked the size of the spool...the wire that I purchased to make my bird's nest last month came in such a huge quantity that I don't think I'll use it all in my whole life...but aren't these pretty?


Seems like I'm attracted to the same materials as fish...

I'm sure that means something very profound...

P.S. The pics yesterday were of my Dad and my sister. Forgot to mention that...