Art at Your Library

Rockport Public Library is venturing into Year 2 with art! Today we had an ATC Make-and-Swap with needle-felted and embellished cards, with the wonderful Robinsunne and a few talented artists, young and younger.

Our combined efforts at the end of the afternoon, above.

In case you haven't experienced the wonders of needle-felting, it's a dry felting technique using these really vicious barbed needles that help to stick the fibers to each other, making felt with no water or mess (only the occasional poke and loud words). The results with 3D objects are amazing, but here we were today, having fun with it in 2D form also.

That's a sponge, which helps against poking yourself with the felting needles.
That red bird makes me glad.

Beads, shiny metallic papers from chocolate wrappers, paper bits, and even those weird plastic domes that protect pills in their foil wrappers... Don't you love this?

Do you see that guy in the lower left? With the yellow eyebrows?

Best of all, I got to meet a blogging neighbor from the midcoast, who blogs at Skip the Chips! It's always so crazy to me that the friends I find online could actually, physically be near to me. When you check out her blog, make sure you read the post about 10 indoor things to do with your kids (OK, you southern hemisphere folks, don't gloat because you have gorgeous summer right now, just bookmark this post for later!). I also loved the post I just read about great art supplies to have on hand with kids...And oh, yeah, she's also a hedgehog fan (another shared interest) who just visited Alewives Fabrics for the first time because she read about it here.

The Prince and the Pea? Stacking beanbags in the children's room to read on a perch, it's Sylvan!

Pieces of Me: Student

don't look too closely, the keyboard is dirty

I finished my undergraduate work (at very long last...it began in 1993 about 5 colleges ago and before kids) in December and hopped on board with my graduate studies in Library and Information Science in January. I am attending San Jose State University via my computer here in Maine and the commute is really great.

I have two classes this semester, though one of them feels like two classes by itself, about information and how we find things. What I hate is group work, because as much as you already hated group work live and in person, group work virtually is even worse. Thankfully, my group is very motivated and on top of things. Still, it's stressful. Another thing I hate is textbooks that require translation sentence-by-sentence to know that actually, I already know what they are talking about and I have personal experience in the real world with the concept, but it took me a few minutes to make that connection because of the Academic Way the authors have written it.

What I love is learning. Always and everything. Forever. I like reading. I like making connections with things I do in the library where I work, or things I could do. I like writing compare and contrast papers. I like meeting virtual colleagues online and getting to know them through their writing and posts. I am curious, and new ideas and technology intrigue me. I like constructing arguments and doing research. I like quiet study.

roses from my brother

What's hard is that I went away this week and the work was still there, yet with none of my usual structure for doing it. And I am single-parenting. And my mom has dial-up, so I had to find high-speed wireless daily. Wah, wah, wah. Well, all I am saying is that it has been hard lately. I found myself just a little jealous of my brother's friends who are students full-time, no kids, jobs, spouses, etc. I mean, I like all of these other parts of my life, don't get me wrong. It was just momentary wistfulness.
Here is what I am not doing when I am being a student: laundry. I wash it throughout the week, but then it sits and waits to be folded, in a growing mountain in the corner of my bedroom. I am also not doing much housework, sewing, or exercising, all of which give me a certain amount of balance and pleasure.

Happy Valentine's Day

The boys came home with their beautiful Valentine's folders from school today. School has a policy about handmade Valentines only, which I love. Here are some of my Valentine ATCs---don't forget to snuggle your loved ones today!

And thanks to Carol for pointing out this amazing design-your-own fabric site, Spoonflower! Just when I think my brain is overfull of the best creative things I could possibly dream up to do in this lifetime...Another great one comes along and somehow my brain doesn't explode.
One thing more that I love: APA's latest bag! Find a gorgeous photo here. Her colors and fabric choices are always a knock-out! She is bold, that one, and I admire her for it. Alewives Girl, do you have this pattern at my favorite fabric shop?

The material on this ATC is from my new favorite, recently-weeded book from Rockport Public Library, entitled: The American Heritage Book of Fish Cookery. Really weird and old sorts of recipes and excellent quotes and black and white photos of fish and fisherpeople. Like a person holding a fish eating another fish. Or a person holding a fish that is 450 pounds. I promise to take some pictures to show you before I cut the whole thing up.

Celebration, then Sickness

ATC Valentine: "So---That's where that guy eats!"

Warm strawberries for a sick boy.

Well I have been the Mama trenches these past days, home with a sick Sylvan. We have read off and on(sometimes from My Father's Dragon, one of my all-time favorite read-alouds), listened to Mary Poppins on CD twice (Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious on repeat for awhile, because it brought a smile), one tiny puzzle, lots of coaxing to keep drinking fluids, some auditory hallucinations on his part, putting up towels to cover the windows and taking them down, re-supplying the sick table with books, washing mud off the toy tractor treads so they could be brought in and driven on a sick lap, etc. Thanks be to my loving partner who knows how much I need sleep to function, and let me sleep by myself in the guest bed last night.

What I've been knitting, while being with the sick one.

A gingko leaf bookmark and present.

So, before all this, last weekend I had my birthday. And it was lovely. The perfect sort of day filled with family, a few very special folks, and a lot of crafting.
We weren't that many in number, but we certainly made quite a bit of mess. We had a fabric ATC table and a collage ATC table in the next room.

One of us made a special ATC for Maine's senator, Susan Collins.

The theme was Valentine's Day, could you guess? (And if you need still more Valentine's inspiration after this post, check out Tollipop who is offering a Valentine's freebie! Adorable.)
We ate cake twice.
There was this, a cake appetizer: gingerbread muffins with whipped cream and crystallized ginger.
And later we ate this,
Old-Fashioned Chocolate Layer Cake from Cook's Illustrated (March/April 2006) frosted with my mom's own recipe for peppermint frosting (crushed up peppermint dust added to white frosting), which gives such a pretty pink color.
The cake was perfect and moist.
Is it any wonder we didn't have much appetite for the lovely birthday dinner? Which thankfully was all prepped and ready to be eaten the very next day. Yay for a crafternoon birthday party!

Pieces of Me: Librarian

Babar's little girl is having quite a time in the Children's Room, giddy-up Duckie!

Being a librarian is like being a matchmaker. I get excited each time I get a new question for what to read next or how to find something. The best part is when I make a good match, and hey, it's not like a marriage---if I make a bad match, you can choose to toss the book on the floor.
As your librarian, I check a lot of books in and out. I answer the phone and call you when you have a book that has arrived. I find the books you want and request them from other libraries. Then I unpack the bags when they come each morning, and it's kind of like the thrill of getting presents, except it's fun twice because first I get to open all the packages and then I get to tell you the happy news that the book you wanted is here in my hand!

the lovely rug that our Youth Advisory Board chose for their alcove

I will always tell you the phone number to the Camden Public Library (236-3440---see, I know it by heart by now) and will happily mark it down as a reference question, for our statistics. I work on weeding the collection, making room for the new, saving the noteworthy, making hard choices about what should stay and what should go; it feels really good when progress has been made, and the shelves look so much better. Sometimes I help you on the computer...setting up an email account for the first time, printing e-tickets, showing you how to request books from the comfort of your own home, looking up archives on NPR for the first time. I get my library exercise when I walk around and put books away. I get my brain exercise when you have a challenging question or when I am dreaming up new ways to display books.
We have a little stamp to denote Rockport Readers Recommend (the RR) and you can recommend online also! And another stamp for a BookLovers' Cafe recommendation, the little red tea cup. Thanks for the stamps, Jane!
I am always learning new things from my colleagues; one who patiently teaches me (and re-teaches me) the completely anti-intuitive Hold Pick-Up feature; another who taught me to not be fearful of contact paper when covering books. I have a very talented and creative and visionary Director, whom I love to collaborate with.

I like it that I know your names (mostly) when you come in. I like getting to know your reading tastes. I appreciate that we all read different things for different reasons at different times, because I certainly do.
Sometimes I get to be your Librarian-Baker when it's a BookLovers' Cafe day. I get up at 6 a.m. and make muffins and scones (lemon blueberry and dried cherry/ginger, recently) for us to share as we discuss the books that we have recently (or long ago or for always) loved. The threads of our conversations always inspire me, sometimes on parenting, or loss, or WWII, or ancestors.
Sometimes I get to be your Librarian-Artist when it is an Artist Trading Card Make-and-Swap day.

And just because you should see that we also have some very beautiful volumes (and not just ones about leeches, with horrifying pictures of rotten toenails on them), I give you a few shots of my vote for the Most Beautiful Book Cover of All Time, The Poetical Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and I apologize for not having the publication year (publisher is Hurst, New York):
At our small library, I am a generalist and get to do so many things that I am never bored. I learn every day and I like that.

Mail Love

Ladies and Gents, I give you Angelo,
a Christmas robot programmed for World Peace, made by Miss Smith.

No, I have not forgotten about my Pieces of Me assignment, but there were some technical difficulties and so a post is in the works for later.

The world has become a smaller and more interesting place, through the blog-friendships I have formed. Remember that package I sent along off to New Zealand? You'll recall it was for a swap, with Miss Smith. And so thrilling, the package arrived to her! I love swaps, and I love sending art in the mail.

Her handwriting is quite similar to my best friend from high school's.

Now I am not saying I am an American with no geographical interests, but before knowing Jenny and her sister Mary Anna, New Zealand was a place that sounded cool, beautiful, interesting, but probably not a place I was likely to visit. Now, the idea of New Zealand with its opposite seasons to us Northern Hem folks, is something I think about weekly by visiting these blogs. If I have some travel bucks sometime, I would love to come visit.

Look, a calendar full of NZ native wildlife! This bird is a Kea.

And here are some nice wooden vintage buttons. Ready to be crafted.

And Jenny, just so you know, I am sorry that your only experience in the US was in Los Angeles. I have never been and don't plan to, and I can tell you that here in Maine, we tend NOT to be small, blonde, and tan. In Maine, we are mostly oblivious to high fashion and people often dress up, but still wear sensible shoes. In fact, one time I went to pick up Jonas from school in about March, and since I couldn't stand the sight of my pale and pasty face one more second I was wearing lipstick. Jonas's teacher asked me where I was going or coming from? Like, lipstick was so novel, I would have to have an occasion or something.

The photo that was meant to accompany the last post.
A piece of Mail Love from Rhode Island,
illustrating that vellum envelopes are always better.

Citrus Goes Unwasted

The color feels medicinal.

Someone bought a box of clementines and put them in a cupboard to keep cool. And she forgot about them, so they stayed in the dark cupboard and grew soft. Then another person found them, kept trying to send them to school in lunchboxes, and the clementines kept being returned home uneaten ("too squishy").

So this morning, the first someone decided to juice the whole box, plus one grapefruit and two oranges, to redeem herself.

There were a couple of other great shots, but annoyingly, Picasa doesn't seem to like to retain the fact that I have changed--and saved--their orientation. So Blogger wants to show them to you turned sideways. Can't they just be friends? They are both Google siblings, after all.

Last year's Valentine for Dollhouse Sylvan.