It's a million little things:

Given that I post nothing for thirteen days and then emerge with thoughts that only I am likely to relate to, I feel I owe you more, oh excellent blog friends. So it is more that I bring you, a whole selection of more.

Point the first: my sister Andrea is now blogging! For me, this is on a level of delirium to which I might compare earth-shattering things of such calibre as, 1) "Oh, didn't I tell you? Harper Lee is coming to dinner tonight and she wants to talk to you about her secret second novel which no one thought she wrote but which she actually did and it's every bit as good as To Kill A Mockingbird"; 2) "News flash: Willy Wonka stepped out of storybooks and into the real world in order to create a Magnum icecream which not only is not disgustingly bad for you like the ones you know and love on only rare occasions, but is actually positively good for you and therefore you should consume one a week or possibly even one a day"; or 3) "Congratulations, Danielle, you have won a competition which you never even knew you entered and suddenly the entire contents of one Kikki-K store SHALL BE YOURS." So basically I'm excited that Andrea is blogging. Also, she somehow thinks of herself as not a writer but she's obviously delusional because even though she only has one post (and an About page) up so far, they're both excellent. And this completes the trifecta of immediate female family members blogging: my Mum, my middle sister Andrea, and my littlest sister, Lauren. Cool beans? Very.

Point the second: since my so-called not-a-writer-not-a-blogger sister who now is blogging (and thus writing) has an About page on her blog, I am overcome with the sudden need to create such a thing for myself. But is there anything more awkward than writing a blog introduction? Okay, yes, falling over while rollerskating and clutching the shirt-front of a teenage boy whom you don't know in order to save yourself from certain death is definitely more awkward than writing a blog introduction, but still. So I am trying to think of a less awkward but certainly still silly and yet hopefully slightly intelligent way to do said About page, and since I can't just outright copy my sister's format, I'm thinking of going for a Q&A style thing. The only catch -- I need some Q's before I can fill in some A's. So hit me with your best -- and even your most random -- questions for my About page, and I will attempt to use them to talk about myself in that mildly humorous yet endearingly self-deprecating voice which we all somehow want to emulate for our blogs. I should probably state that in a less tongue-in-cheek way: Ask me questions, please? I will love you forever and send you imaginary cupcakes.

After a break for April, I'm doing the photo-a-day project for May. I won't be posting my daily pictures here except for the occasional one, but you can see them at my tumblr under the hashtag #photoadaymay. I'm loving being back in the challenge of taking a picture in response to a word prompt every day. It's a great and yet manageable little creative project.

While we're talking blogs and photography challenges, I have to tell you that my lovely friend Abbie has just started blogging, too! Her pictures are serene and feminine -- actually, that's a perfect representation of Abbie -- and I love the URL she has chosen. Very appropriate!

Over at the Walker Books Walk-A-Book blog, there's an excellent article on why kids in the internet age still need to be exposed to good old-fashioned paper books. It's called iKids Need Books, Too.

Meanwhile Louise Cusack, a writing tutor and mentor I've been privileged to learn from, is exploring the world of publishing in a series of blog posts. Her recent post, Doing The Work, is an excellent, excellent reminder not to plan for harvest when we haven't even done the ploughing. Also, she references Ira Glass's brilliant creative advice which is always a winner.

And this post is a month old, but it's a discussion which will never go out of date. Pete Peterson discusses the value of creating habitually. It's a good read.