It's nearly done me in to keep my posts in chronological order this month.
And there are some very good reasons.
On December 22, Dear Reader and friend, Annski, had planned to spend a quiet hour or two visiting over a cup of coffee.
Having a million or so things going at once, as I always do during December, I wasn't quite at the 'set a spell' stage when she arrived.
I had the last three or four sheets of sugar cookies going in and out of the oven.
When Annski arrived that day and was ushered into the kitchen, she found herself (quite unexpectedly) smack in the middle of another family tradition.
Decorating sugar cookies around here is usually more like a party than a kitchen task.
We've had as many as three sessions a season; involving more shoots, adopted shoots, friends of shoots, etc, than I can count.
This year I was all by myself.
Until Annski arrived for coffee and made the mistake of telling me she'd never decorated sugar cookies.
Well, we had to fix that, for sure.
She seemed to enjoy the whole process and, because we don't stick to traditional Christmas-themed cookie cutters, she showed me just a bit of what it's like when an artist approaches a project like this.
She turned the little moon-shaped cookies into citrus slices:
I just loved that.
I got Mrs. Gingerbreadman all puckered up for a kiss from the mister:
(If Me Darlin' Mither saw that ripped hemline on her dress, she wouldn't let her out of the house until she'd stitched that up.)
In the end we had several platters of colorful cookies ready to serve.
But now I need to tell you the rest of the story.
After I got the cookies out of the oven, and before I made the icing and got all the sprinkles out, I really did sit down with Annski to have that promised cup of coffee.
And I'll bet I wasn't two sips in before she started handing me gifts.
The tag on the first package was addressed to 'Naomi', and inside was this perfect little coin purse.
It's in my favorite color scheme, the fabric looks like a Zentangle, and (my goodness) it even has a zipper.
Now, I was just getting over being handed a gift that had been so beautifully handcrafted when Annski handed me another package.
It was addressed to 'Gwen'.
Inside was this:
I lost my breath, my bearings, and my wits for awhile after I opened it.
Isn't it something?
As I began to turn the pages, Annski informed me that all of the contents had come directly from this blog.
She had copied the post wherein I described how I go about drawing my inchies, and she'd put it on the first two pages of the book.
She'd copied the inchies for every month and given them each their own two-page spread.
Here is April - I circled the inchie for the day I first had lunch with my new Dear Reader/friend, Annski.
Remember all the 'Gwinchies' I posted while I was on vacation in August?
She included them in the book, too.
While I was looking - with mouth agape, I'm afraid - at this page, Annski told me something.
She said, "I was working on this book, and wondering what I was going to do about cover design. Then I got to the Gwinchies and realized you'd already taken care of that for me."
Oh.
My.
Goodness.
What attention to detail!
What an incredible gift!
I felt like I was holding a dream in my hands.
But...
Annski lied.
She probably didn't mean to.
But, it isn't true that every word in the book came directly from this blog.
In fact, my favorite words in this book are the ones that didn't.
I could never come up with a more perfect subtitle/description of what my whole inchie journal is about if I were to spend the remainder of my days trying.
And I don't think I can ever express my gratitude for that, or for this book, in a catalog of any size.
There are times when words just won't do.