The future of the Snippets Playground

Thank you so much for your input about ways in which to ease things a bit for me, yet still keep the Playground running. I can't tell you how helpful your ideas have been - and one thing I did pick up is that there would be some very sad people if the Playground closes. Not least Parsnip and myself! So first of all, let me most emphatically assure you that whilst it's in any way possible I'll carry on with the Playground. I can't afford Parsnip's redundancy cheque in any case - he's already muttering about being worth his weight in gold here :)

Having weighed up Parsnip plus suggestions and options, this is what I propose:

- the Playground will now run for two weeks at a time, rather than the old weekly challenges

- for the minute we'll stick with just one entry per person per fortnight. I know that some of you welcome the fortnightly idea to have more time to join in (and indeed I had picked up that a few challenges had moved to fortnightly so thank you for pointing that out girls) yet some of you could probably make several snippets cards. But, whilst we still have prizes it seems fair to say just one entry and keep a level playing field - and it also eases my commenting and choosing picks of course, which is part of the objective! Of course, it might lift the bar a bit as you have more time to think up inspiring ways to use up those snippets - and I hope that we have some more great ideas in store from you :)

- challenges will begin every other Sunday at the usual times (00:00 GMT) and close at 11am on the next but one Saturday - same times of day as now

- my new Sunday Snippets post after the closing of a challenge will contain a fresh Mr Linky, my own snippets card and details of the prize to be won during the coming fortnight

- on the interim Sunday I'll post the name of the winner of the prize for the challenge which closed a week before - as well as a selection of 'picks'. The reason for this is to try and ease the mad rush I have each Saturday morning - even though I always try to at least have an outline post ready I still only add the final list of picks as well as doing the draw at the last minute once the Playground gates close. This sort of 'leap frog' arrangement will give me a whole week after the gates close to finalise and write up the picks as well as doing the Random number draw at my own pace. In truth, I've always avoided this idea as I really wanted to keep things on the 'boil' and totally current - but, it's taking its toll on my health as well as tying me to the laptop each Saturday, so I hope you can see why I'm making this change. I truly would love to be able to go out to archery with Len on a sunny Saturday morning - if only to walk around the local village and some very impressive historical ruins (ha, NOT the archers!!)

- I really like the suggestion of us having a Guest Designer now and then as well - who would have a snippets 'make' (remember it doesn't need to be a card) showcased in place of the card I would usually make on the day that the new Mr Linky appears! What would be fun is if we could mainly focus on innovative ways to use up snippets, although that's not a total requirement it's good to have new ideas and inspiration. I know that lately I've been lacking in new ideas myself so would really welcome this. We have a few ways to choose Guest Designers of course so I'm open to suggestions about this one! Volunteers, picked from folk (say) adding GD after their name when entering (I could use random selection for this which might be some added fun) - and of course I would allow plenty of time before a GD 'make' was required! I am sooooo off the thought of any pressure and certainly have no intention of putting pressure on any of you girlies.

It was so interesting to see how many of you came up with a lot of these ideas or similar and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your sweet words. The Playground WILL live to fight another day, I promise you!

Perhaps you might want to leave a comment on my proposals below?

I hope this made sense - shout if it doesn't!

And thanks also for the good wishes about my 'teacher training' venture as well. That expression was a euphemism for 'holiday' and right now Len and I are in sunny Portugal. Blue skies, sunshine and pleasantly warm - can't knock it. But, the little white furry snoop is keeping me up to date of course!

I'm trying hard to comment but am having issues with my baby laptop so currently am having to resort to my notepad - which is much more tedious of course. Plus, Dumbo has forgotten her FlickR log in details and a couple of other useful things. So I might be playing catch-up at some point - like when we get home!