I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it........

I'm about to lose control and I KNOW I like it! Being Blog of the Day has brought more of you to justaskjudy than I ever dreamed. And best of all, Michele (micheleagnew.com) has added me to her blogroll! Now I feel compelled to learn HTML, add a site meter, learn to post photos and all that technical stuff which has escaped me to this point. Well, maybe some day........or maybe I'll get my kids to do it for me. To all of you who read my blog today I say thanks very much and I do hope you'll return occasionally.

If you've read back in the archives, you know I am a wedding florist. I started this blog in the hopes of corresponding with and ultimately helping brides and their Moms with wedding questions. It has not worked out that way, and that is not a bad thing. But if you know someone who is planning a wedding and has a need for advice (or even just a shoulder to cry on) I'm available - so send them my way.

Initially, justaskjudy was meant to be a full-blown web-site (since the name of my business "Tickle Your Fancy.com" was already taken), and I paid to reserve that domain for about six years. I finally realized that it would probably never become a reality, so I stopped paying for the domain, and very shortly thereafter, I discovered blogs. It was meant to happen this way, no doubt. I try to go with the flow of life and this seemed very much a part of it.

Every English major in the universe fantasizes they will one day write the "Great American Novel", and I am no exception. The problem is I could never come up with a plot, a great story or believable characters. Maybe I was cut out to write a blog. Maybe I have found a way to be of help, of cheer, of reporting reality in such a way as to be meaningful to others. I surely hope so.

Since I know that at least one of you is going to wonder how I came up with the name for my business, I'll tell that before I stop for the night. Years ago my husband frequently suggested that I start a business; he thought a craft store might be good. I didn't agree, as they were starting to mushroom at that time, but I had no other ideas. One night I had a dream so vivid that I sat straight up in bed and said, "If I ever do start a business, I know what I will call it - "Tickle Your Fancy". My husband remarked that name sounded like a massage parlour, but I laughed it off because it is a name that can cover many types of endeavor. In the dream, I was the owner of a business with that name - but on awakening - I had no memory of what type business it was. About 3 years later, a restaurant opened here in Raleigh with that name and I was rather insulted, believing they had stolen my name (even though they didn't know it). Luckily for me, that restaurant closed down about a year later, and when I started my business, I had to have an attorney research the state records to see if they had incorporated. They had not - so I immediately got my business license in that name. Now, twenty-two years later, it is still viable, and I give thanks for that daily.