Two new virtual places to get together.

What a wonderful year this will be.

Today I received two invitations that will keep me connected, in a virtual way, with people who love this art form as much as I do. What a wonderful way to start the year. Friends invited me to join Rug Hooking Daily and The Welcome Mat. You can check them out at "The Welcome Mat" and "Rug Hooking Daily" .

Like facebook, these are sites where people can come together, chat, visit (in a virtual sense), exchange pictures and share ideas. Unlike facebook, which I don't visit that much, I think these will become a part of my day - whenever possible.

Maybe it’s because I love rug hooking so very much and it is so much a part of my life. Maybe it is because I know many of the members already. And, like me, many of them belong to both, which just shows how happy we are to commune with one another. If we can’t be together in person, then this is the next best thing.

Logistically, many of us are miles apart – in different cities, provinces, regions – even different countries. And that is the biggest gift that the internet has given to us - an ability to communicate across the miles in an instant, cost-effective way.(I know some people are romantic about hand written letters and hearing a person’s voice on the phone, but I guess I am just too much of a chatterbox and who uses those options sparingly.)

Thanks to the internet, we are more in touch with one another than ever. We have email. We have blogs. And now we have these social sites which will keep fuelling our creativity and satisfying our desire to get together. And allow us the engage in our love of “show and tell”.

Especially in the winter months, it’s much harder to be physically together. How much snow shovelling have you been doing lately? There aren’t as many schools and hook-ins (remember our upcoming one in February), so this is a welcome ray of sunshine on these overcast days.

I hope many of you will take the time to join these sites. There is lots to see and do and you can be as active or as passive as suits your purpose. But isn’t it grand to have the option? Astounding to think that all of this has happened in the blink of an eye.

As another new year unfolds, I am reminded of just how quickly technology is changing things. It seems like just a minute ago we were wringing our collective hands about Y2K……