Quilt Club Christmas Party.....

.....in pictures.

Maxine went all out to make it special for us.

Prezzies!!

The feast!!

Show and Tell

More Show and Tell

Lots of friendship, food, games and visiting.  Now we're in the spirit to start the holiday season.

Recent Finishes

These will be my Show & Tell at Quilt Club tonight.

On the left is a table runner project done at Quilt Club a couple months ago. On the right is also a Quilt Club project.....from more than 10 years ago.

This was either a Quilt Club project or a class at Cornerstone Quilts. I remember there was a group of us and we all brought strips of fabric to trade. I don't remember the name of the pattern, but I think it was in the Fons & Porter magazine.

Orange Crush. A Bonnie Hunter mystery pattern. LOTS of pieces.

Roll Roll Cotton Boll. Another Bonnie Hunter mystery pattern. Even MORE piecing...and it's BIG. I think it will serve as my Christmas quilt this year.

The last ten pints of squash that I intend to can this year are finished. Now on to putting together the chicken casserole and broccoli salad for the Quilt Club potluck tonight. Tomorrow morning I'm off to a meeting of the Antelope County librarians...I get to go the round about way to Clearwater.  Will that bridge EVER get rebuilt???

I'm Keeping Busy....

...but the results don't really look like much:

14 pints of squash done on Friday

Small Christmas gift projects

NONE of these buttons work for these table runners. Drat!!!

I really couldn't believe that NONE of these buttons matched the table runners. And I thought I had bought buttons to match any project the last time I was in Hobby Lobby. Maybe I'll pay them another visit?? It isn't even easy to find buttons anymore. Doesn't anybody sew clothes??

Working on canning more squash today...another 10-15 pints. DH had a bumper crop and we've already given lots away and once I get what I want we'll give more away.

I have some more finished projects to show but it will have to wait until I get around to "staging" them and take some pictures.

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??

Mission Accomplished

Still need to trim the dog ears then on to assembling the border strips.

It's Been a While

It's DEFINITELY been a while since you saw anything quilty from me so here's a little tidbit.

Yesterday I cut the brown triangles for the pieced borders on Roll Roll Cotton Boll. This quilt was my summer project and now summer's over so I should get busy and get the top finished at least.  This afternoon I intend to get those triangles sewed to the pink/green parts.

Something new

My women's club is planning to collect hats, gloves/mittens and scarves for a Giving Tree at the Library for Christmas. Member Jennie brought in her knitting looms and some yarn to show us how to make hats. After vowing to not start any new craft I came home from Norfolk with THIS on Wednesday:

That's right....a knitting loom set and a couple skeins of yarn. And just today I kicked myself for forgetting to take along my 40% off coupon for Hobby Lobby. Those looms would have been QUITE a bit cheaper if I had.  Now let's see what sort of hats I can come up with.

CPD23 -- Week 13 -- Thing 19

Wow, a catch-up week....and I've just spent 3+ hours catching up!!  Great minds, and all that....  I might have time to read others' blog entries this week. Wow!!

It's nice to have a week to just look back on how far we've come and to think about how we can use what we've learned in our work/everyday life.  I already know there are some I will never use. And some that I use and will continue to use, like blogging, RSS feeds, Dropbox, Facebook.  I can see some uses for screen capture software for helpful tutorials for staff and patrons and I want to learn to use Audacity.  Also maybe dig a little deeper into the organizing programs such as Zotero.

Now, if I could be magically given many more hours in a day to do it all as well as keep up with work, home, family, quilting, genealogy, reading, etc. maybe it would all happen.

I do know that I am definitely looking forward to the next "things" on the list.

CPD23 -- Week 12 -- Thing 18

Screen Capture:  I've seen instances of this in action on how-to videos on YouTube, but knew nothing about how it was done. After reading about Jing, Screencast-O-Matic, Camtasia Studio and Lightshot, I now know how they do those videos.  The great thing is that these tools all have free or trial versions to try them out.  Jing and Camtasia Studio also have good tutorials...Camtasia's is very thorough.  While Jing and Screencast-O-Matic both have free versions, the later has a longer recording time which could make a difference as to which one to try.

After learning about these tools, my first thought was of using one to do a little tutorial video of learning to use the library's OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog). It's simple enough, yet someone using it for the first time is always hesitant....and they're so afraid of breaking something if they poke the wrong button.

I also thought of little tutorials on how to do helpful things on the computer, like making the text on a page larger or opening a second or third browser window. Those are things some of us do as a matter of course, but are new and wondrous to the less computer literate.

Podcasting:   Many moons ago I had iTunes installed on my computer (it may still be there for all I know) and had it set to record certain podcasts. However, I never got around to listening to them so I abandoned it. I'll bet a lot of us don't realize there are other "podcast catching" programs available other than iTunes so I found the site listing the others helpful and have bookmarked it.

As far as creating podcasts, I really don't think that's in my future, though I do appreciate the reminder of Audacity. I understand it's an excellent audio recording/editing program. And best of all, being the tightwad I am, it's FREE. (Open source is great and all the open source programmers deserve a big round of applause.) While I don't expect to be doing any podcasting, I do have some old record albums and cassette tapes at home that I'd like to record to MP3. 

It's too bad that CPD23 can give us all this wonderful inspiration but can't give us more hours in the day to make use of it all.  Apparently what every library needs is a person who deals strictly with the computer/digital stuff....or a librarian who only has to work the desk a few hours a week yet gets paid to do this the rest of the time.  We can dream, can't we??

CPD23 -- Week 11

Thing 15 :  Attending - Presenting - Organizing

I'm good at attending! :-) I've been attending meetings, workshops, etc. for many years now.  Sometimes the offerings get repetitive when you've been at it for so long, but I know to go to the event anyway because even if the presentation is a repeat of something I've heard before I will learn from other attendees. No matter what kind of meeting or educational opportunity I attend I ALWAYS learn something from others who are also attending. So, my advice is even if you think the event is just a repeat of something you've already learned, go anyway if you can because there is always something to be learned.

Presenting (or, YIKES public speaking).  I'm much better at attending, but I have had to get up in front of people and speak---County Supervisors, Village Board, county librarians, computer classes at the library. All I can say is do your preparation so you know what you're talking about and try to relax enough to actually be able to get the words out. And, if someone asks a question you don't know the answer to right off hand don't be afraid to say you don't know.....but tell them you will find out and let them know and then DO IT.

I must say I enjoyed Ned Potter's slides on how NOT to do a presentation.  How often have you seen all those things done? Or been guilty of doing them yourself?

Organizing events is always stressful. I don't care if it's a Story Hour for four year olds or weekly computer classes or an author visit.  But, it's part of a librarian's job and eventually we get over the feelings of panic. And, there will always be the event  no one comes to. To me that is the worst...I'm embarrassed, the presenter is embarrassed, and I just never want to plan anything ever again.  Yet I must and so do you, it's all part of the job.

Last, but not least, I learned how to embed fonts into Power Point presentations.  I'd never even thought of needing to do that before.  It's the little things isn't it??

Thing 16: Advocacy

Advocacy....a word we hear a lot. And one that no doubt means different things in different communities.  In my small community/library it amounts to doing everything we can to get our patrons what they are looking for, a semi-regular Library News column in the local newspaper, reports to the Village Board and County Supervisors, as well as short talks to both at budget time (they really don't like long-winded speeches).  Sometimes I lay in bed making lists in my head of all the things we do for our patrons, all the things we offer them, and especially justifications for our computers and Internet access in a place where way to many people in charge still think of the Internet as only games and and kids getting into pornography.  And also the belief that everyone has Internet at home. I imagine that if we were faced with closure or major budget cuts it would be different and we would pull out all the stops.  Hey, I write my best Library News columns when the library is faced with some sort of challenge.

I really think the best advocacy for the library, or our library at least, is by building good will among library users by doing all we can to help them in whatever way we can on a one-to-one basis.  If they make positive statements about the library to others even the non-users will see that the library is important to somebody. And we all know that if someone ISN'T pleased with the service they received they will tell even more people than they do when they ARE pleased.

Great meeting

We  had a great meeting of the Antelope Co. Library Association this morning.  We're a group of librarians, staff and board members from seven libraries in the county who meet every other month at a different library in the county each time on a rotating schedule.  At each meeting the host library lines up some form of continuing education that lasts about an hour.  Each attendee gets credit for one Continuing Education hour towards either Board or Librarian certification through the Nebraska Library Commission.

At this meeting Anita Hall, Antelope Co. Extension Educator, was our guest speaker.  She gave a presentation about how we can make a difference in the lives of the youth in our communities, including the 40 Developmental Assets for  Adolescents that the Search Institute of Minneapolis, MN has identified as the positive experiences and qualities that all of us have the power to bring into the lives of children and youth.  The presentation led to some lively discussion among those present. Since all but one of the group was age 50 or better we could also see very different ways young people are regarded between our generations and the current.

Anita's presentation made me aware that we don't always give our youth an opportunity to participate in ways that will help them grow up to be concerned, involved adults.  I don't know how or if we can work this into the library, but it's certainly something for us to keep in mind.

CPD 23 - Week 10, Thing 14a,b,c,

This weeks Things were all completely new to me...had never heard of any of them before. After reading about all three and watching the videos I chose to explore Zotero further, thinking it might be the most useful to me though I don't expect to use nearly all of the features.  This thing is feature rich.  I like the word "free" too. LOL

As an add-on for Firefox it's ideal because Firefox is my preferred browser. I often find articles online that I'd like to keep....that's why my Bookmarks list is longer than my arms. Being able to share and access what I've saved from any computer is a plus too. Though as I understand it, all three of these "Things" have that ability. At times the ability to make notes about what I've saved would be ideal.

Since I don't expect to be writing any research papers or articles requiring lots of research I don't see myself much more that skimming the surface of the abilities of this program.  And since my library is small and rural we don't usually have college students researching major papers here and the high school students don't seem to do much in depth research for their papers, but a little info about this program and the others might be a topic for a library news column sometime in the near future just so our patrons know about it and can do their own exploration.

CPD23 -- Week 9, Thing 13

Since I am already somewhat familiar with Google Docs and Wikis I decided to learn more about Dropbox.  It's been discussed quite a bit on genealogy blogs as a way for family history researchers to save their databases, share them and sync them between computers.  One of my greatest fears is that I'll lose my database even though it's always backed up to a flash drive and an external hard drive, all the while knowing that it should be backed up off-site as well. What if something happened to my house and I wasn't there to grab either the computer or one of the backup drives? All that work lost....doesn't even bear thinking about.

So, I signed up for the 2GB free version, downloaded the software and installed it on my laptop. Following the directions, I moved the file with my database to the Dropbox folder and logged into the site. All the data in that file was automatically uploaded to Dropbox where I can access it from my computer or any other computer with access to the Internet.  One fear relieved.  Now I just need to install it on my desktop and sync the files. Another problem solved...I no longer need to worry about having something added to the database on one computer but not the other. Sneaker net doesn't always work as well as you'd think!!! LOL

While I had read about Dropbox on the genealogy blogs this exercise gave me the kick in the pants I needed to actually make the move to using it.  I also have lots of other files that need to be backed up off site but some of the off-site storage options are a bit pricey, including Dropbox.  I'm thinking one called Carbonite might be an option since for one price storage is unlimited.  In researching I also came across one called SugarSync that works much like Dropbox, but again, it might be too pricey for me. More research needed.

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes

They started out slow.

Only five quarts from the first picking.

This batch getting canned today.

Seven quarts in the canner as I type.

This batch got picked this morning.....almost two 5-gal. pails full.

Should be ready to can by Friday. I estimate another 12-14 quarts.

Why was I worried that I wouldn't get any tomatoes?  There will be plenty more to pick too.

Annual Family Get-Together

Not such a big crowd this year.  A few Risinger cousins usually come, including some of their kids, but this year that branch had a wedding in St. Louis over the weekend.

We didn't lack for desserts. Or any other food for that matter.

As usual, there's no evidence I was even there. LOL

Daughter's Surprise B-Day Party

Her 40th b-day is coming up and her kids & DH decided to surprise her.

Here she is just after discovering she'd been had...with the party hat she refused to wear. Her SIL took her out for drinks while the fam set up the party & guests gathered. Just before I took this picture she turned to SIL and says, "You lied to me!"

Part of the crowd in the backyard. I think some may have left before I took this picture but I heard the last guest left at 3:45am.  Guess it was a good party.

Recently Quilted

Baby quilt.  All embroidered.

Will Kindles kill libraries?

This is an interesting article I came across online.  Will Kindles Kill Libraries?  That's the 64-million-$$$ question.  While quite a few people own eReaders and like them, many, many more swear they will stick with real books.  Guess we'll have to wait and see. I will say though, that Overdrive, the major distributor of eBooks to libraries has a way to go.

I've researched Overdrive a little, thinking it might be time for my library to get on board.  However, every time I check on the availability of a book I might want to read there is always a waiting list.  Sometimes two on the list, sometimes 5 or more.  I think the record was 26.  Multiply that figure by the 2 or 3 week checkout period and you can see how long it will be before #27 gets the book.  Waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy   to frustrating.  And buying & downloading popular books gets expensive since they average $9.99 to $15.99 ea., with a few free offerings and 99 cent books thrown in.  Not only that, eBook sellers can zap them off your reader just as easy as you downloaded them, if they so see fit.  Amazon has done it. Is it any wonder voracious readers with an eReader turn to pirated copies?

Really, I don't think libraries are in nearly as much danger from eBooks as they are from short-sighted politicians who see them as easy targets for funding cuts.

Pets on Quilts

SewCalGal is having a Pets on Quilts show/contest and even though I don't have any expectations of winning I just have to enter this picture of my Nicky being cute.

Nicky.  If there's quilt, or even a quilt block, laying around she'll be on it.

Go to SewCalGal's blog, read the rules and enter your quilt loving pet.

CPD23 - Week 8, Thing 12

Finally, catching up on the blogs for Weeks 6, 7 and 8. Shouldn't let myself get so far behind...it's too much to do all at once to get caught up again.

Ah, social media. Just a few years ago the term didn't even exist and now almost everyone thinks they can't live without it.  I didn't realize how pervasive it actually was until last fall when I finally joined Facebook.  It seemed like everyone I knew or had ever known was on it. For better or for worse, it's a part of our lives now. 

Anyone who knows me personally has heard me admit to being somewhat of a hermit. I don't even own a cell phone. When I see all these people driving down the road with a phone to their ear or standing around texting I always ask myself, "Who the hell are they always talking/texting to anyway?" 

I must say that I haven't seen much professional social media activity going on in my neck of the woods. Yes, most of the libraries have web sites, some have Facebook pages and/or a twitter account. I always wonder how many people actually read those pages/posts/tweets.  Plus, we've all read how personal Facebook posts have actually damaged careers.  I guess the thing to keep in mind is that once it's out there on the Internet it's out there forever, and even if we're posting to our personal page it can either help or hurt us professionally.

Done rambling now.

CPD23 - Week 7, Things 10 & 11

#11 - Becoming a Librarian:   To all you librarians out there with the Master's degree or beyond I'm not a "real" librarian at all, though I've been doing the exact same work for more years than some of you have existed.  I started out in my small rural library as an assistant and learned as I went from my boss. When she resigned the Board realized, after interviewing a bunch of totally unacceptable applicants, that perhaps they should hire me. At least I had worked in the library for six years and knew a little about how things should be done.  From then on I learned by the seat of my pants and taking various training workshops and reading.  Since then I've worked hard at collection development, weeding out the horribly outdated junk that had collected, worked on a library enlargement project, introduced computers/Internet and networked the library. Next came the automated circulation/catalog system. It's been a ride, that's for sure. Anyway, what exactly is a "real" librarian?

# 11 - Mentoring:   I have definitely had much needed mentors -- the school librarian in my high school where I was a library volunteer, my first boss in the public library, fellow librarians in my county.  I have been going to the County Library Assoc. meetings since I first started out in the public library and at each meeting there is some educational program, mostly about librarianship.  Now that I am the most senior librarian in our county I am more mentor than mentee, as informal as it may be, and I try to be as helpful as I can.  Whether mentor or mentee, there is always more we can learn.

CPD23 - Week 6, Things 8 & 9

#8 - Google Calendar:  If I led a more complicated life, worked in a library/business with lots of different events, opening/closing times, etc. and had a phone that accessed the Internet this could be very useful. As it is I don't really need it, though it's good to know about it.

#9 - Evernote:  At first glance my thought was, "I'll never need this."  However, on further thought it might be hand during my genealogy research.  Sometimes I bounce around from site to site and later am not sure what was where.  This might be a solution to that problem.  Will require further investigation.

Look what I did

For better or for worse, here's the Library's poster for the County Fair display by the Antelope County Library Association.  Considering the hot & steamy weather we've been having, I'm ever so grateful the group decided to have an unmanned display this year. Regardless, I wouldn't have been there. It's also our local celebration this weekend.

Not the greatest picture with half of it shadowed and looking more crooked than it actually is, but you get the idea. Orange, lime green and purple....I like bright colors, and these are my favorites of the moment.  Turned out Neligh's poster was in the same colors. :)

Sunday....Hot and Muggy

We've been babysitting since Wed. morning for our daughter's dog while they were on vacation. Did you know that babysitting dogs is much easier than little kids??

The grand-dog.

 And here are 600 HSTs all sewed together into rows and pressed, ready to be put into blocks.

And here they are sewed into the blocks. Fifteen finished and fifteen to go.

I don't know about anybody else, but I'm ready for Fall. This heat and humidity is getting old. Sunny Fall days with bright blue skies and NO humidity...YEAH!!!

Later.  Oopsie...do you see what I see?  The row of HSTs along the right side is sewed on backward...gonna need a do-over there.

CPD23 Week 5

Thing 6:   I found it interesting to read about the various online networking opportunities though quite a few of the examples given seemed to be more British than American. I joined Facebook last fall and have found it to be a good way to keep up with the far flung members of my and my husband's families. I especially enjoy the pictures some post of their family activites.  LinkedIn was one that I had heard of before and it looks like it would be a good one to join if your aim is to make many contacts in your profession and might be useful for job hunting and relocating. Since I'm not looking to do either I won't join. Somehow I just keep thinking about something I saw once that said, "On the Internet you can be anything you want to be."  While online contacts may be a starting point, I really think good old fashioned face-to-face networking is still the best. 

I've been reading quite a bit about Google+ and the favorite thing about it for most people seems to be the circles so you can post certain things to certain groups and not to others. I think the way Facebook does it gets people into trouble because everything posted goes to everybody on the friends list, or friends of friends depending upon how your privacy settings are set up. Google+ might be something to keep an eye on.

Thing 7:  I had never heard of the majority of these face-to-face networking opportunities. I think ALA was the only familiar one...one I have never joined because I don't work in a library that would pay for going to meetings and events or pick up the tab for dues.  Most of my personal networking is kept pretty local...the county library association and the library system events. Living where I do there would just be too much travel involved to participate at the state or national level and I'm not eager to pay for these things out of my meager small town library salary. I do see where it could be useful for MLS professionals who want to become better known and move up the ladder. I know I'm staying here and just want to keep on top of things enough to do the best job I can for my library and it's patrons.

Pressing Matters......

Working on pressing 600 HSTs. Not as much fun as you would think.

Updated later:

All done!! With one pressed the wrong way, I see. Oh well, at least it doesn't involve ripping.

We wished for warmer temps.......

....and now they're here. My thermometer is sitting on 98* and I just saw on AccuWeather that the forecast high for today is 103*. Whoever invented AC wasn't paid nearly enough!!!

Been doing some slicing & dicing of fabric lately:

Doesn't look like much yet.

Yesterday we went to my BIL's wedding....why do people get married in July when it's almost a sure thing the weather will be at it's hottest and most humid? Weather wise it was a repeat of our niece's wedding last year, only her's was outdoors and this was in a church with comfortable AC in the sanctuary.  Then we moved to the church basement for the meal and it was freezing cold down there, after which we moved on to the auditorium downtown where it started off fairly cool but got hotter as the evening progressed. I heard the happy couple is going to Arizona for their honeymoon. Who in their right mind goes to Arizona in July?? Oh well, it's a dry heat! :-) :-)  

Car Show

DH's car won 1st in it's class and Best Interior at O'Neill's Summerfest Car Show last weekend.

CPD23 Week 4.....Reflective Practice

Reflective Practice....writing about it isn't the easiest thing in the world. I'm looking back at the "Things" we've learned about so far. Some have been new, others were refreshers of what we learned in Nebr. 2.0.  I continue to blog, and enjoy it for the most part. I'm considering moving our library website to the blog format.

Twitter held no value for me. Maybe if I worked at a bigger library with lots and lots of activities going on and had a patron base that were heavy Twitter users, it might be different.  I still can't see that I would use Pushnote.

"Branding"  is the new buzzword for libraries and fodder for workshop presenters. I still don't think I have a "BRAND."  I'm wife, mother, grandmother, friend, quilter, genealogy researcher, computer fixer and on and on. At this point in my life I'm not really interested in establishing a "brand." I'm thinking more about retirement. For someone just starting out in a career, maybe establishing some sort of professional "brand." is important, but then again maybe it's just the latest fad and in a couple of years we'll leave the branding to the cowboys and the big corporations who are trying to sell us something.

Upon further reflection, the thing I need to concentrate on is keeping up with this project week by week so I keep it all straight. :-)

CPD Week 2--Update

OK, so I was a little confused when I did my previous post for Week 2. I had it in my head that BRANDING was Week 3. Oh well, I think I've got it straight now.

Being a country girl what branding means to me is marking cattle so we can identify which ones belong to us if they wander off into a neighbor's pasture.  More and more I see lots of chatter about "branding" as a marketing ploy, both for business and libraries.

It seems to me that public libraries have a perfectly good brand...."FREE."  As in free information, free books, magazines, movies, etc., free computer/Internet access, along with a multitude of other things depending on the library.

As for me, what should I "brand." The Wife/Mom/Grandma me?  The librarian me? The quilter me? The genealogy researcher me? The computer fixer me?  Do I even need or want a "brand"?  When I did my blog I knew I only wanted to maintain one blog so I rolled it all up into one ball of wax......all the parts of me.

This 'n That

It's getting late so I'll just post a few pictures and try to keep the commentary to a minimum. Grandson pics first:

With the bass he caught all by himself at Willow Lake last weekend. He was so proud.

Don't know what got into him here. It was plenty warm when he stayed with us.

Just quilted. Pieced by my 90 yr. old friend who has lost most of her vision to macular degeneration.  It will be a raffle quilt for the American Legion Auxiliary.

Gotta have a kitty picture once in a while. Isn't he sweet all curled up on the sofa pillow for a nap?

That's it.  Nighty-night, all.

Week 3....CPD23

This was originally posted as Week 2....sorry, I was a tad confused. Just goes to show that one should not do these things too late in the day.

Anyhow......I read through the material and found I'd already done some of it during the first Nebraska Learns 2.0.  I had signed up for a Twitter account and tweeted for a while but it didn't hold my interest or serve any purpose for me that I could see so I quit and can't remember my login or password anymore. I didn't get a new account because I just don't see it being any more relevant to me now......not all my life is spent on the computer.

I had also set up a Google Reader account during the previous session and still make use of it. I have quite a few blogs on it and keep up with reading  them.  I read some of the "favorite" blogs listed in the material and intend to get back to them though I haven't subscribed in Google Reader as yet.

Pushnote........what can I say?  I read the FAQs to find out what it's about but didn't sign up for an account or download the browser add-on.

So, what have I learned from this?  Well, I'm beginning to think I'm not really inclined to a lot of online sociability.   Strange for someone who spends a lot of time on the computer.  Just my hermit qualities I guess.