Archive for the ‘Crafty stuff’ Category

What does one use a blog for nowadays?

Wednesday, November 30th, 2022

I haven’t used a blog in a long time, but I sent a survey out to library parents, asking them what kinds of technology programs they would like and one of the things they said was blogs. They also mentioned creative writing, which I tried, but no one came to, but we won’t discuss that.

So, I thought to myself, I need to bring back my blog and make another attempt. What does one write about in blogs? Usually they focus on one thing or another, and don’t traipse around, willy nilly, but my brain doesn’t focus on one thing or another. It floats around without much focus…. so. Maybe some things you should know about me, should you fall into my blog.

1. I’m a children’s librarian in Rochester NY. I love doing storytimes and celebrating reading to them. I also like doing programs where the kids are totally invested in it. Whether that be crafts, or Minecraft, or whatever.

2. I can’t focus long enough to finish a book very often. I have LOTS of books that I’ve started, but it takes a very good book for me to finish it. Thank goodness for Libby where I have a list of books that I’ve checked out and how far I’ve gotten into them.

3. I like writing poetry and sometimes short stories. I’m not good by any means, but I like writing. It makes me think differently, which is fun.

4. I love running, even though I’m not what one would look at and say “wow, she’s a runner”. Still, I mostly enjoy it and I LOVE the people I run with.

5. I love making crafts. Unfortunately, I get obsessed with a craft, then stop after a few weeks. My most recent obsession was wire wrapping. Before that it was goddess bracelets.

6. I love my family. They’re a bunch of very silly, very unique people and they make my days much easier to handle…. for the most point. Sometimes there are days they drive me bonkers, but that’s all families.

Well… there you go. These are the things I’m likely to write about. At least I’ll try. It’ll probably be like my crafts, where I get obsessed for a while, then give up.

yup yup yup

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

I’ve lost track of how long its been. Again. This summer has just gone by so quickly.  I’ve been so busy and by the time I get to post on the blog I’m EXHAUSTED! … well and I need time for Facebook. 🙂

I was reading my sister’s blog (she is very melancholy right now, but Jenny and I are going to NC to cheer her up!) and she’s started posting “sensations“. I thought that was the neatest idea. I’d hate to steal it from her, but I may have to. Stuff like “rubbing feet on the carpet and touching a door handle”. I already have my first one prepared.

One thing that has recently taken up my time is crocheting. After watch the Last Unicorn for about the millionth time I remembered that I wanted to make a shawlly type thing like the one Molly Grue wears throughout the movie.

Its sort of hard to tell in this picture, but I couldn’t find many good ones online. Yes, I’m a freak, but I must stay true to myself… yes Jeff is probably ready to divorce me if I watch the movie one more time, but who needs him? 🙂 Just kidding. 😛

So onto the sad stuff… although the Last Unicorn might have been sad for Jeff… my boss’s last day is Friday. I really am bummed. She’s been a great boss. She’s easy to talk to, fun to be around, and she tells it like it is. If you’re being a dork, she’ll let you know. I actually had a nightmare a couple of nights ago. She was in a meeting with a patron that we fondly call “arts and crafts a-hole”. According to him arts and crafts programs in the library are a waste of taxpayers money. Anyway, they were in a meeting and she asked me to get some of our program fliers so that he could see that we actually have very few arts and crafts programs (this winter we’re going to have quite a few, but who cares about him). I left the room to get the stuff and as I was hunting around, I start hearing screaming and cursing. Then there’s a big explosion. I go out to check, although obviously everything’s not okay, and the room is gone, the boss lady and the mean patron with it. Of course that solves his problem. With no meeting room, we can’t have any arts and crafts programs.

Oh, I will miss her. She’s going on to bigger and better things. I hope. At least I’ll still be able to email her and check up on her.

Anyway. We’ve done some pretty neat stuff this summer. Sterling Renaissance Festival. Pageant of Steam. Corning Museum of Glass. Seabreeze. Of course, as many of you have the same issues, a public librarian can’t wander far from home during the summer. Especially youth services librarians. Otherwise their bosses kill them, and we can’t have that, can we? There was a hail storm while we were at the Renaissance Festival. We got some good pictures of that. I’ll have to try and post them soon.

Oh well. Tomorrow is Monday. Back to work. Luckily, in a couple weeks I get to visit one of my favorite sisters in North Carolina! Jenny and I are going to visit Sam over Labor Day. Unfortunately, that means that I have to be away from my smoochie-pooh on his birthday. Poor dear.

I’m getting sleepy, so I’ll say a fond farewell. However, I’ll post a sensation before going to bed. Good night ya’ll. Sleep tight!

Christmas Vacation programs for kids

Saturday, December 29th, 2007

Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t expect too many people for the programs I offered during the vacation, but this is just ridiculous!
Over the vacation I offered:

  • Wednesday
  • : Make a Gods Eye ALL DAY – ZERO PEOPLE

  • Thursday
  • : Make a Felted Bowl – Three people, included in this are the girls mother and brother, who played Uno and Chess while we made our bowls.

  • Friday Morning
  • : Holiday Storytime – ZERO PEOPLE – I don’t offer it, people complain; I do offer it, no one shows up

  • Friday Afternoon
  • : Finish up your Felted Bowl – Two people – these are different people that didn’t come on Thursday. I included the mom because she hung around to talk and read a magazine as we made our bowls.

    Monday I’m going to be doing a New Year’s Eve dance. I was going to make that punch with ginger ale, Hawaiian Punch and sherbert and get snacks. I was also going to recreate or find a video to show of the ball dropping, but now I’m wondering how much I should bother doing.

    I try not to let it bother me, but still I get frustrated. Even if I spend money on hiring out people, they often don’t draw people either. Someone did ask if we were showing a movie. Maybe if I just sit people in front of our big screen tv so that they can rot their brains, they’ll come. You know they will. Don’t shake your head.

    Next year, I’m thinking of stealing Adrienne’s idea and doing a kids advisory group (she calls it “Library Club”). I think this would be a great idea to draw on the kids talents and their ideas of how they envision the library in the future.

    We shall see. Its midnight and I’m old and tired. Plus I rearranged stuff at the library in the staff area, so that it won’t effect patrons, thank goodness. They definitely can’t handle change. Of course, we occasionally have people who ask for the card catolog, and actually mean card catalog. I thought it would be best to do this while Sally was gone on vacation. Otherwise, she would find other things for me to move. 🙂 I can’t wait until she comes back so that she can see! Yippee!

    Christmas, Christmas Time is … gone.

    Saturday, December 29th, 2007

    Christmas was busy but fun. Jack had a lot of fun playing with his (three) cousins. We went to my in-laws first, and had yummy baked eggs and icy orange drinks. Plus tons of cookies and pastries, all hand done by my mother-in-law.

    Of course, first Jack had to break into the presents. Wrapping paper went flying everywhere. In fact, once when I was trying to get someone with a wad of wrapping paper, my brother-in-law was trying to get someone else, and we managed to collide at the perfect moment, missing our original targets. The kids got tons of plastic gadgets, although the hit of Christmas was the Shake ‘n’ Go Crash-Ups Speedway, given to Jack by his aunt and uncle. The littlest one, Ben, insisted in trying to sit in the track.

    My favorite present would have to be what I’m typing on, my new ThinkPad. Wee! I love it! I like the noise that the keyboard makes and the little nubby that you use as the mouse. I like the handy little keys to switch to and from previous websites. I like the size of the screen – 15.1″.  I just really like this laptop! What I like most however, is that there is no “Mickey’s Kitchen” game on it. This is my computer.

    Whenever I would go on my computer, which is in the living room, Jack would run over and say “Mickey’s Kitchen” or “Caillou” with this adorable, questioning look on his face. Darn him for being so cute! The worst of it is that he would look up at you and say something like “Play Caillou train game?”, and each word gets progressively higher in pitch. Oh my gorsh! I don’t know how parents say no to their kids. I will definitely have to get this on video to embarrass him in the future. It is the right thing to do.

    Being the wonderful wife that I am, I bought Jeff the seven disc Carl Sagan Cosmos series, the NINE disc Aliens Quadrilogy and a four disc Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle collection. Let us ignore the fact that I purchased things that I would want to watch too and instead consider how long it will take us to watch all of these DVDs.

    During an earlier post, I had mentioned that I was going to make all the kids tote bags. Well I finished them. On Christmas Eve at about 9 pm. They came out pretty good and I’m quite proud of myself. I will, of course, be posting pictures later.

    My mother-in-law and my mom both made Jack sweaters. They’re adorable! I’ll have to post pictures of Jack wearing them. Jeff’s mom made one with a cable stitch and I can’t even imagine how long it would take me. My mom made Jack one with her knitting machine. I must say that I’m quite proud of her. She hasn’t really been knitting recently, so I know that it was an act of love. My mother-in-law also made really cute sweaters for the cousins: one with flowers, one with a cupcake and one with duckies. I should have taken pictures, but was I thinking of my fellow bloggers? Nope of course not. I was thinking of the comfy fuzzy lined crocs I got in two sizes too small. 🙂

    Lastly on the Christmas front. Our church had its yearly Christmas Pageant last Sunday. Jack got to be a sheep! He was about as easy to corral as a sheep. Jeepers! All these little kids wandering around in white t-shirts with felt sheep ears. Luckily everyone in the church loves the kids and they didn’t really care. Still, Jack was quite the pistol. At one point the sheep are supposed to go up the stairs to the alter and look at baby Jesus and then come back down the stairs. Was that good enough for my little Jack? Oooohh nooo. Nope he had to kneel down next to Mary and Joseph and keep baby Jesus company. Did I care though? Of course not! He was too friggin adorable! And a pest at the same time… how do they do this to us?

    Oh well. Now we get to enjoy the depressing January/February dreariness that is Rochester.

    The Work Christmas Party was…

    Sunday, December 16th, 2007

    at my house. Eek! I think everyone had a good time, although everyone got lost trying to get to my house. A couple of them said, “You have to drive all this way? Jeepers!” (I added the jeepers part because it sounded cool). Luckily I think everyone crowded into two or three cars so that everyone got lost as a group instead of everyone wandering around Henrietta for days.

    Everyone brought yummy appetizers and cookies (to share and bring home). Then we had ($10) secret santas. I was given this, which was obviously NOT $10. Luckily, I got the person that got me, and she wasn’t at the party, so I still have her present. It still won’t be absolutely as wonderful as what she got me, but since there is no way I’m leaving the house today, I’m going to make her something nice. I bought her some earrings (which I probably could have made myself, but oh well) and a little wooden cross from One World Goods (that I was going to add some beads to) and a bunch of plastic bangles from a store in Brockport. I thought they were cute! Here’s what I got:

    Expresso yumminess

    GOOD GRIEF!

    I told Sally that I would bring it to work, but she wouldn’t let me. She didn’t want all her staff coked up on caffeine. 🙂 Of course, she can’t even handle her hot chocolate without getting all crazy.

    After using it, I figured its probably better if I don’t bring it to work. It took me about an hour and a half to make one cappuccino and a huge mess. I guess the first time shouldn’t count though. I’ll get better with practice. I should probably practice a lot, so I can get really good and invite everyone over. I could be your barista for the evening. IMHO, a cappuccino party would be a lot yummier than a “drinking” party. I could get rid of the hard liquor on my counter and replace it with peppermint and caramel syrups like in coffee bars. What does that say about me?

    So anywho. I think I’ll take what I have and add some beads to the cross to make it a little nicer. Still not as cool as what she got me, but oh well.

    On another crafting front, a couple of posts ago, I had mentioned that I was going to make bookbags for all the kids. That was a HUGE disaster. I had no idea what I was doing. I put aside the whole day to go to my mom’s house and use her sewing machine. The directions I used didn’t make any sense to me, but I couldn’t ask my mom for help because everyone had gone out for a walk. Then I broke the sewing machine. For some reason, the thread would come out in a bunch, and before I knew it there was tons of thread everywhere. My mom tried to help me, but it still did it. By 4:30 I was fed up.

    Beh.

    So I decided that I would use felt and tote bags I have lying around and applique something on them. I still have some sticky back iron on adhesive (I know there’s a fancy word for it, but I can’t remember) so it shouldn’t be too hard. Famous last words. I know. We shall see. At least I’ll be fully caffeinated.

    Nifty idea

    Sunday, November 18th, 2007

    If you’re around Rochester, you should take the time to check out Central Library’s newest exhibit. Its art all done by staff members throughout the Monroe County Library System. Check out the article here on the MCLS website. What a great idea! It lets people see another aspect of staff that doesn’t have to do with books. I must admit that I am mad that a certain boss of mine didn’t let me know about it until about a week before so that I didn’t have enough time to get it together. Oh, well. Maybe it’ll be so popular that they’ll do it again and I’ll have time to submit something. Hopefully someone will take the time to put pictures of everything on the library website. Then more people will get to see the art!

    Maybe in the future, they could have a staff art competition in a couple different areas (photography, yarn craft, jewelry, painting…) and have patrons judge the art. They could make the winners “staff member of the month” and have some prizes or special things for them. How cute would that be?

    Caught yet again by the crafting bug

    Sunday, November 18th, 2007

    I want to try and make a couple of those drawstring bookbags. One for me (of course) and a couple as Christmas presents. Supposedly, they’re very easy to make, but I’ve only used a sewing machine a couple of times. I like making special homemade presents for Christmas, and not always just giving presents that I had to punch people out to get. The bags would be for my nieces, and I’ll try to make some things for other people in my life. I think it really shows people that I care about them that I made something unique and just for them.

    On a humorous note, the Christmas displays have been going up everywhere (not funny) and I’ve asked Jack what certain things are. He knew snowman, penguin and reindeer, however whenever I point to Santa Claus, he says, “CLOWN!” I love kids.

    Another Bag

    Saturday, March 3rd, 2007

    Yesterday I bought buttons for some bags I’m making for my nieces. I found this box of random buttons at Joanns, and I had to buy it. I found some REALLY great buttons in the box, and I just happened to have a tote bag laying around so…

    orange flowers whole bag

    zoomed in orange flower

    red flowers whole bag

    zoomed in red flower

    Women’s Retreat

    Monday, February 26th, 2007

    This past weekend I went to a women’s retreat with my church. I invited my friend Clorinda and I think she had a great time too. There was nine of us; half of them were in my car: my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, Clorinda and I. It was nice and relaxing, not having to think about how much work I had to do at home and at my job. How far behind in things I always seem to be. We talked some about God, but we also talked about life in general. It was interesting to talk with other women and listen to their views on life and God. I don’t really seem to talk about God much, although it seems that I have been saturated by religion where-ever I am, having gone to Catholic school through high school, and being very involved in my Catholic church until Jeff stole me away to his Presbyterian church. I guess I’ve always just taken God for granted and not really thought much about the subject. Especially since being a Catholic and having to memorize so much. Anyway, it was nice to think a little bit about how I feel about God and religion. And I realized that I really don’t think about God.

    The other part of the retreat was to think creatively. We made blessing bowls out of papier-mâché, water color paintings, prayer beads, scribble drawings… we were also encouraged to write about the thoughts and ideas that were cluttering our mind keeping us from moving on in our lives. We also discussed the importance with prioritizing our lives, and thinking about what is most important in our lives.

    Clorinda and I spent some times with the water colors. She talked about her new obsession with circles. She also showed me an appliqué of a bird that she’s working on. Of course that got me thinking, so as soon as I got home, I had to do something of my own… and here is the completed project.

    Bag with flowers

    Here’s a close up of the appliqué. It was really easy actually. All I did was buy some felt pieces, some fusible backing and some embroidery floss. I ironed the backing to the felt, and the felt to the bag. Easy peasy. I made one for myself, and now I’m going to make one for my mother (for her birthday, which was on Valentine’s Day… doh).

    Flower up close

    I’m just trying to decide if I want to sew around the center yellow circle… what do you think?

    I like crayons.

    Thursday, September 7th, 2006

    I like crayons. I like them a lot. However, not all crayons are created equal. I do not mean to be a crayon snob or anything, but Crayola has, hands down, the best crayons. Their consistancy, their smell, the vibrancy of their colors. Although I must say I like these crayons as well however I am offended at how these people use crayons (not in a dirty way)… and on a serious note, I probably would like these Staedtler crayons as well, because I know they make really good erasers, so why wouldn’t they make good crayons?

    BTW, about 30 minutes has passed by because I got trapped in the world of Flickr. You are evil! Evil I say!