Image sourced from a rustic stitched-fabric hanging at the Cabin Fever craft show, Frederick, Maryland

---

I met a woman at the show named Ellen Pearl who makes tabletops. Heavy, small, bumpy tabletops with tiles, stones, porcelain, and things. She'll have a website in a couple weeks, she said, at http://www.plumstuff.com.

We talked a little bit - mostly about living an artful life in the face of making a living, and not sinking to the level of mean people. I asked if there was one book she'd recommend on any subject, and she said Letters To A Young Poet, by Rilke.