As of this upcoming October, the Objects R US forum will have been in existance for 2 years! Two years of you wonderful people out there taking time to create objects from the stories I write. Time which you probably should be spending with your family.......but that is another story.

Originally, the Boss (Mary Lou) envisioned a forum (Objects) where you would make objects (without backgrounds) that others could use in other projects. If you needed a knife for one of your projects, there are plenty in the Jim Bowie display on the Objects Website. Use them, just remember the credit goes to the person who made the knife. That was the original concept of the forum. Over the years, I haven't said much if a background was added because I enjoyed watching you create objects and was happy for you when you succeeded! Besides, it gave me a creative outlet to get all those stories out of my head!

Recently, the mods have been throwing around a "new object concept" which they feel is perfectly suited for the Objects R Us Forum. Lets call it "Photo Object". Now, if you were to take a digital photo and "cut" something out of the photo (person, animal, thing??), you would have an object.

It wouldn't be an object you made yourself, but you did cut it out of a photo you owned (not copyrighted) and it is an object so like the old quandry...If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one around to hear it, does it make noise? Does an object, which you cut out of a photo and didn't make yourself with path tools, belong in the Objects R Us Forum?

Lets find out!

First, I am soliciting your opinions but I am not putting this in a yes or no poll. I want to hear whether this is something you would like to do in Objects R Us or not? If it is, how would you run it? Perhaps as a monthly challenge. This month, everyone goes out and takes a picture of a bird, load it onto your computer and "cut" the bird out of the photo and post it here? It was suggested we get a seperate webpage to post them on so people could have objects to use in their projects. I would be very receptive to having you chose what it is you would like to photograph and maybe have one of you guest mod that challenge, changing that person each month? Perhaps someone to "post" the objects on the website (ML will give us space) each month.

In the meantime, while you think about it and give me your opinion, I have a project for you to complete. I have provided you with a photo. It is a ceramic I painted years ago when I could still see things without bifocals. You are to "cut" the ceramic out of the photo and combine it with an object you made (or cut from a photo of your own) and post it here without a background. Perhaps that is how you would like to run this monthly challenge. Who knows? (If we were to include a background, that would make it really close to a WET and we don't want to step on Dez's toes).

We will be waiting on your opinion and I am going on vacation. Flying to Portland Oregon. While I'm gone, have fun, don't draw on the walls and if the Vikings get out of hand, tell ML!

Adele	Birgit	Cami
Candace	Marion	Melissa

Michael	Mary Lou	Paula
Sharon	Sheryl