by any other name would smell as sweet"
I'm afraid I have to disagree with the Bard on this one. A name, especially a name one chooses for herself, is an extension of the person herself. A name may be simply a label, but it is a label carefully selected to evoke certain images, ideas, or actions.
My name, Mainely stitching, was chosen after a lot of thoughtful deliberation. I was trying to be a little bit witty, and I'm a total sucker for puns. I wanted to create a bond with my name choice - something that would unite the home of my heart (Maine) with my enthusiasm for cross stitching while leaving room for the other issues that matter so much to me (my kids, charitable endeavors, my occassional soapbox rant). I double checked to make sure this name choice wasn't stepping on anyone else's toes. I read other blogs and followed rings and did a little bit of homework before making the final name choice for this virtual home of mine. And then I set about making this a truly unique place that reflects me and my interests. I've registered my blog name in various places (Google me) and had a professional make-over and gone about trying to get my name out so people would read me and I'd meet new people and make new friends.
So it's really driving me crazy that another blogger out there who just started up has simply ignored all the basic courtesies and has usurped my name (sticking a hypen in it because Blogger won't allow two blogs with exactly the same name. Now I'm seeing Maine-ly Stitching followed by Mainely Stitching in some people's blogrolls. Or in an attempt to tell the two blogs apart, mine is now being called "Mainely Stitching Netherlands." It's just not right! (The three year old inside me is drumming her heels on the floor and yelling that it's not fair!) The owner of the Maine-ly Stitching blog has ignored my attempts to contact her to try to sort this out, which I find as appallingly rude as swiping my blog name in the first place.
But I didn't start this post as a platform from which to rant. Instead, I would like to request from people who are blogrolling both Mainely Stitching and Maine-ly Stitching to please refer to the newer of the two blog, Maine-ly Stitching, by her URL, which is mexstitch or by her name, which is Patti, such as Ash has done. Please do not refer to my blog as "Mainely Stitching Netherlands" or something like that because I really did put a lot of effort into the naming game and I did my best to make sure I did it without infringing on anyone else.
I would really, really appreciate your understanding on this matter.
Credit for the lovely rose goes to Don Albert.
