Boo!!

HAPPY  HALLOWEEN  !!

Memory Lane

Tonight I took myself down to the basement and pulled the box of scraps off the shelf to  sort out blues for Jamestown Landing. Found a nice batch, too.  It turns out the box was full of scraps from the days when I made craft items to sell at area craft shows back in the 80s and early 90s. All those country blues, mauve, peach and seafoam green, plus the earthtones that were so popular then. Quite the trip down memory lane.

Those craft shows just aren't what they used to be. Now the majority of the tables are home businesses selling manufactured products. In a way that's kind of nice, too.  I hate going to the products parties at friends' homes because I always feel obligated to buy something, even if there's nothing I really want. At a show I can cruise around the room and look to my heart's content and not feel guilty if I don't buy a thing. Times change and change isn't all bad.

Next Up.........

..........RRCB!!

Made some good progress on quilting this today. Have had more thread breakage problems than usual. Don't know what's up with that....could be the machine or the needle or maybe just me.  I suspect it's the same problem as with lots of things we buy...the price goes up and the quality goes down since I'm using thread that I just bought. Anyway, it's time to take a break and fix supper, then it's Book Club at the library. I wonder if anyone other than me will show up.

Quilt Inspectors.....

.....on the job.

The quilts in the background cover the sofa. The yellow cat will scratch the heck out of the sofa unless I keep it covered with quilts. Crazy cat!!

Drum Roll Please

My Roll Roll Cotton Boll is now a top!  Just finished it after supper. It always surprises me that a quilt with so many pieces actually comes out the way it's supposed to. I have to admire Bonnie H.'s pattern writing skill. The pieced border is a little finicky and can need some adjustment so the corner pieces fit properly.

I didn't get the binding attached to the Orange Crush yesterday so that was first on the list this morning.  I finish my bindings by machine following Judy L.'s method so it shouldn't take to long to finish once I sit down at the machine to do it.

I thought I'd show you the results of my foray into knitting on the round looms:

Actually I made four hats. One is the same as the middle one, only bigger. Actually I made it a little too big so might tear it out and do it over. We'll see. It's fast and addictive. Since I got rid of yarn collections twice over the years I need to exercise a little self-restraint and not start buying yarn again.

CPD 23 -- Week 17

Thing 12 -- Final Reflection

Thank-you to the Nebraska Library Commission for offering the opportunity to participate in CPD 23.  When I look back at how much has changed in the library world in the past ten years and look ahead to how much change is no doubt still to come I want to encourage everyone to take advantage of opportunities like this.

When I first saw that CPD 23 was being offered my reaction was, "Not again." Then I reconsidered for a couple of reasons. (1) There are always new things I can learn and what better way to be nudged into it than a structured program. (2)  There are useful things available the I wouldn't even hear about except for a program like this. (3) 15 hours of CE credit for free with no driving is nothing to be sneezed at.  Most CE opportunities involve a 2-hr. round trip, at least, for me.

Some of the "Things" at the beginning of the program were a review of some things included in Nebraska 2.0, but having the memory refreshed is never a bad thing. I know some of the software programs I'll never use, but knowing about them isn't a bad thing.  I have started using Dropbox as backup for my genealogy database.

The thing I miss about online learning is not having the other participants to talk with. It's just me and my computer. But still, as fast as things change, online learning makes a lot of sense. One thing about working in a library is that you have to make an effort to keep up with new developments, as overwhelming as it seems at times.

CPD23 -- Week 16 -- Things 21 & 22

Thing 21 -- Promoting Yourself

This "Thing" presented many good tips on figuring out what one wants to do, what one wants in a job and how to promote oneself when applying for a job.  I haven't had to do this very much in the past, and actually, probably won't have to again because I'm the "Library Lady" and the board and patrons have threatened to keep me until I expire. :)  Anyway as good as all these suggestions are, I'm beginning to look forward more to retirement than promoting myself into even more work.  I'm kind of wanting to stay home and make quilts and research family history and actually have time to read all those good books instead of just ordering them, cataloging them, checking them out to others and re-shelving them over and over (my least favorite library job.) I think this particular "Thing" would be much more beneficial for someone at the beginning of their career than for someone like me who is looking forward to the end of a career.

Thing 22 --  Volunteering to Gain Experience

I guess you could say the volunteering I did in my high school library when I was a student there gave me the library experience needed to get a job at my current library as a library assistant.  From there I moved up to director....mostly because none of the other applicants had any library experience at all.  However, all the experience I've gained in my years of library work is not going to get me a decent job in a bigger library because they all want a college degree if not a Masters in Library Science, neither of which I have.

My opinion is that volunteering might get you some experience to get your foot in the door, but you have to be careful not to overdo it.  I know the thinking, especially in small town libraries and probably in larger one too, is that if you can get the work done for free why pay somebody to do it.  It can be a fine line.

On To The Next One

The next top to be quilted is loaded on the machine.  It had been languishing in a box under my bed for ten years or more, but its time has finally come.

I'm hoping to finish making the binding for the previous one.....and maybe even get it attached before the end of the day.  Who really cares if there is laundry to be done, dishes to go in the dishwasher and pears & squash that need to have something done with them?  I'm in a mood to sew and quilt so sew and quilt I shall!!!

Appreciate Your Plumbing

How's that for a title?  You know, none of us truly appreciate plumbing until it doesn't work.  Friday after work my DH threw his work clothes in the washer, started it up and went outside to do whatever it is that DHs do when they go outside.  I was in the house and it was quiet and after a while I heard gurgle, gurgle, gurgle coming from the bathroom. Having had this experience many times since living in this house, I immediately knew the drain was backing up and dashed for the basement to shut off the washer. Too late, the water was already spreading.

Now, late Friday afternoon was the beginning of the Columbus Day long weekend, so that was one strike against me. I did get the town maintenance guy to come look at the sewer line under the street, but he didn't want to get the jet truck to jet the line because he was clocked out for the weekend and would be back to work on Tues.  Our regular drain routering guy was gone because they'd just had a baby and the baby was having some issues. Strike two.  So I called another  guy who had done our drains before. He wasn't home either but I left a message which never got returned. Strike three.

So this morning I set my alarm for bright and early and called no. 3 at about 7:15 and he agreed to send someone to my house by mid-morning. Then called guy no. 1 to make sure he remembered he was going to jet the main sewer line this morning. He did and he did. Guy no. 3's guy showed up and routered the line from the house to the main and all is well.  So, appreciate your plumbing. I appreciate mine more than I did last week.  You just don't realize how much you run water until you can only run a very small amount once in a great while.

After all that drama I decided I was going to get a quilt loaded on the Premier and do a little quilting.  The poor machine was probably thinking I'd totally abandoned it since it's been so long since I quilted anything.

Orange Crush loaded on the machine

I have more tops to do and hope the momentum will last until I get at least a couple more done.

CPD23 -- Week 15 -- Career

I always say I fell into a library career by accident.

I always liked to read but never set foot in a public  library until I was probably a senior in high school. When I was a high school sophmore I started volunteering in the school library because too many study halls were too boring.  By the time I was a senior I'd read everything in the school library and branched out to the public library.....and found that the librarian (the proverbial little old lady) thought I should only be reading the juvenile books, which kind of turned me off.

After high school I didn't have the opportunity to attend college, my parents thought it was a waste of money---especially for a girl. So I spent a summer working as a clerk in the County Treasurer's office.  Later that fall I got married and started working as a waitress in a small town cafe for a while, followed by staying home for several years with my kids. By the time my youngest was about three I was thinking about finding a job. There weren't too many choices in this small town and I knew I didn't want to waitress, tend bar or drive a fertilizer truck. I also knew I didn't want to drive 25 miles to work in a nursing home. So when a job in the local library opened up I applied and got it.  And that is where I've been ever since.

Libraries and librarians have seen lots of changes since then and I have had to learn so much -- the introduction of computers, the Internet, computer circulation & catalog systems, supervising a library enlargement, writing grants to pay for the new things,  -- learn, learn, learn.  I guess it's a good thing I like to learn new things.

CPD23 -- Week 14 --Thing 17 -- Prezi & Slideshare

Prezi -- I'm happy to learn that there is a more dynamic alternative to PowerPoint. I think I only ever worked with PowerPoint one time when a little 4-Her came into the library needing to make a PowerPoint presentation for the fair. Talk about the blind leading the blind -- but between her, her mother and me we got 'er done.

I've always thought PowerPoint presentations were boring, boring, boring.  Prezi allows a presenter to put on a much better show. After watching the demonstration videos on how to do a Prezi I think it would take me quite a while to get my brain around the process.  However, since I don't do presentations it's unlikely I'll ever do much with either Prezi or PowerPoint.

Two other  services mentioned in the Prezi page were ZamZou for free online photo format conversion and Picnik for online photo editing.  I played a little with both of them and they are pretty slick.

Slideshare    This would be a great service for someone doing lots of different presentations, especially if one traveled a lot doing so.  It's a service that hosts your presentations all in one place where they will be available on any computer with online access. How great would that be if you arrived at your destination and found that the file on your computer was corrupted?  It also makes your presentations available for others to find and share.  Can it be used for Prezis?  I didn't see anywhere that it said if it could or not.

Prezi, Picnik and SlideShare all have limited free versions. If you want a little more they all cost money. Prezi - $59 yr., Picnik - $2.08 mo., SlideShare - $0 - $249 mo. with special pricing for non-profits.  I think I'm seeing a trend here -- the programs we use being "in the cloud" and us needing to keep paying a monthly or yearly fee to use them.  When will all this become too expensive for the average working person to afford?  Think about it -- every program you need to use to do word processing, bookkeeping, play music or videos, edit & store pictures, manage your family tree -- all in the "cloud" and demanding monthly or yearly fees to use & have access to your material.  I don't think I want to go there.

Holiday Decorating

In years past I have gone all out with decorations for the various holidays. There are boxes & boxes of stuff in the basement. Last year I was working on my kitchen so nothing got put out for Fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving and very little for Christmas. Lo and behold, I discovered that more is NOT better and I like the simpler look. Here's my effort for Halloween this year.

My Halloween decorating effort

Just a few things on top of the entertainment center, a pair of painted wood pumpkins leaning against the side, a small decoration on the front door, and a little ceramic jack-o-lantern on the end table.  It's enough.  At the end of the month I'll just switch out the Halloween things for a few Thanksgiving things.

Last year my Christmas tree didn't go up until just a couple of days before the big day  with just lights and few colored globes. I liked it. (Other years I have always had the tree completely covered with ornaments collected over the years.)  Added a few of my Santas on top of the entertainment center, Santa's hat over the corner of a picture frame & decorating was done. I'm thinking maybe I'll do the same thing and just add a very few of the collected ornaments to the tree this year.

Somehow, so much of the holiday decorations just seem like clutter to me anymore. I'm seriously thinking of going through everything, picking out my very favorites, and hauling the rest off to Good Will.

Yesterday I Sewed....

....all afternoon and got this done...

....the pieced border sections for Roll Roll Cotton Boll. One of these days I'll have to shove all my living room furniture back out of the way and lay out the blocks. The end is in sight and I'd really like to have this completely done and on my bed for the Christmas season. It has enough red and green in it to pass for a Christmas quilt I think. Bonnie H. has already mentioned the next mystery quilt on her blog so it's time to finish this one up.

I suppose the next thing on my agenda though will have to be getting caught up on the 23 Things library course again. Somehow I always find myself getting behind and then doing a marathon session to catch up.  Is that a personality flaw??