02
Dec, 2008

fresh flannel

i love new flannel sheets. i love how soft and fresh they feel. no pilling yet. no thin spots. no drool patches. i was thrilled a few weeks ago when i went to buy some new flannel sheets (we had none that were appropriate for guests and my parents were coming for a visit) and found them on sale for $15-$20 a set! no matter what size i wanted! i gleefully bought two sets–one will be a set dedicated to the guest room only (and will hopefully stay nice longer that way) and one is to replace the worst of our current flannel sheets. here’s my question for you, readers–have any of you ever invested in really high end flannel sheets (like these? or these?) are they worth the extra cost? do they last longer? i like to keep my eco footprint small whenever i can, and i realize that replacing my flannel sheets every year or two is probably not the most green option. (although i will likely find some creative way to “recycle” my worn out flannel sheets. knowing me.) if i knew for sure that spending more money up front for a set of high end flannel sheets would deliver a set of long-lasting sheets that wouldn’t get pilly right away, then i’d be tempted to buy some. but if they deteriorate at the same rate as the set for $20, i’ll stick with the cheapies. anyone have pricey flannel in their home?

p.s. only one entry so far for yesterday’s contest!  you could still be a winner!

Posted in autumn | 3 Comments
01
Dec, 2008

tiny crafty… and a contest!

during thanksgiving weekend, i got together with a young friend of mine to do some christmas gift crafting.  although we had plans to make lots of different things, the only one we ended up having time to do was ye ol’ marble magnets.  i’ve made these a million times, but i still enjoy making them.  to make it a little more interesting, i also brought out my collection of empty mint tins and we decorated them with glitter to use as gift packaging.

these were mine that i designed using my giant bag o’ stamps (purchased at an antique shop in michigan city for a pittance).  hers were cute too, but i forgot to get a photo before she went home.

in case you’ve never made these, all you need are some clear, flat marbles (available in craft stores and probably other places too), some strong magnets no bigger in diameter than your marble, and some paper or relatively lightweight fabric and some crafting glue that dries clear.  pick an image from your paper or fabric that you’d like to feature.  i often will move the magnet around on the paper or fabric to see what it will look like when slightly magnified by the marble.  when you find an image that you like, trace a circle around the marble and cut out the circle.  then, apply glue to the flat side of the glass and smush it down onto the paper with the patterned side up!  apply glue to one side of a magnet and attach that to the back side of the image you just glued onto the glass and wait for the whole thing to dry.  i would have done a photo tutorial, but really, hasn’t everyone already made these?  if you would like a photo tutorial, leave a comment to that effect and i’d be happy to put one together for you, dear readers.

i also wanted to try making gift boxes out of cereal boxes (see this instructable), specifically out of these fun boxes from “back to nature” that i sometimes buy cereal or crackers in that have leaf cut-outs on the front.  the instructable instructions didn’t work for that particular box, so i just played around with the design and made my own version.  isn’t it cute?

i added the polka dot paper and it’s not perfect, but it was a fun, brain-building exercise and now i have a cute gift box.  just gotta find a good gift to put in it….

it will take some serious clamoring for a tutorial to get me to make one for this project.  i’m not 100% certain i could duplicate it again…

i was also thrilled to spend several hours in my craft room this weekend avoiding my homework working on a quilt for my friend who gave me a painting.  i hope to have the top finished this morning before i go to work.  here’s a sneak peek:

how about a contest?  the first person to leave a link in the comments to either the flickr page or the blog post of the quilt that inspired this one will receive the leaf box pictured above (or one very similar to it) filled with goodies including a paper ornament made from the same artist that created these, some samples of my current favorite teas, and a cd of my favorite children’s music from this past year.  (as always with happy stuff giveaways, winners have the option of refusing any portion of the prize package that they do not want.  if you hate tea or children’s music, just let me know.  just realize that this cd will contain no music by barney or the wiggles.  i won’t even make them into clickable links on this site.)  who knows?  if they fit into the box with all of that stuff, i might even include some marble magnets.  good luck!

Posted in crafty stuff | 5 Comments
30
Nov, 2008

a quick quiche

i have been having the most wonderful five-day break from work.  after a long stretch of traveling weekends and hosting and working weekends, it’s been a little slice of heaven to not leave the house for two days.  i’ve chipped away at my big writing projects that come due in the next few weeks, i’ve done some sewing, i’ve done some cooking, i’ve done some napping, i’ve done some crafting… (full blog posts on most of these to follow in the next few days.  i have to pace myself here!) and my batteries are slowly recharging.  when i get these two writing assignments finished, then i will feel as free as a bird.  i can’t wait. in the meantime, i’ll do a little fun writing and tell you all about our dinner saturday night.

lately, i’ve been feeling somewhat uninspired in the supper department.  when the last meal of the day rolls around, mr. h-s and i play a quick tether-ball game of “idon’tknow, whatdoyouwanttoeat?” and we eventually usually end up putting off making a decision for so long that by the time we actually get around to cooking, neither one of us has the patience to wait any longer than about 12 minutes and we end up eating eggs.  or chili.  or taco salad.  or pb&j.  i’m becoming weary of our “quick and dirty” repertoire.  so on saturday night, i decided that it was time to cook something more interesting.  i knew we had a bunch of potatoes that need to get used–especially some new potatoes that were starting to sprout.  and we have a lovely big bag of spinach from the winter farmer’s market.  and we have lots of eggs (i overestimated how many we’d need to make our thanksgiving meal contributions).  i plugged all of those things into my favorite recipe search engine and came up with a few possibilities.  but nothing was really grabbing my attention and mr. h-s was deeply involved in something else and would offer no more feedback than a resigned, “whatever.”  (i think he’s leery of me trying new recipes.)  i realized that what i really wanted to eat was a quiche with a spinach salad on the side and one of our leftover wheat bread rolls.  but generally speaking, mr. h-s is not a big fan of quiche (or “egg pie” as i once heard someone call it.), but he’d given the “whatever” and not the “no way,” so i decided to go for it.  i had some pie/tart crusts in the freezer, so the hard part was already done.  i resigned myself to just sort of throwing some ingredients together and hoping for the best when, at the last minute, i remembered one of my favorite, but underused cookbooks–the peach tree family cookbook by cynthia collins pedregon.  this cookbook comes from the hill country of texas and is full of recipes used at the peach tree restaurant in fredericksburg.  although there are very few photos, i urge you to find a copy of this cookbook and make something–anything–from it.  every recipe i’ve ever tried from this cookbook is fantastic.  the main dish at our wedding (called “texas strudel”) was taken from this cookbook.  (almost) every year, i make the monterey chicken soup for our church’s winter retreat and i don’t often get to take home many leftovers.  ditto for the chicken pozole soup i made for the easter potluck at church for a few years.  but back to saturday night–i remembered that this cookbook has a number of quiche recipes, so i flipped quickly through them and found one that incorporated potatoes!  and jalepenos!  and bacon and cheese!  (with those ingredients, how could it go wrong, really?).  my tart crust was considerably smaller than the one in her recipe (10 eggs?!), so i cut the recipe in a-little-bit-less-than-half, baked it, and crossed my fingers.  when the timer went off 45 minutes later (small quiches cook faster than full-sized!), mr. h-s wandered up from the basement, bleary-eyed and feelinig like he’d suddenly bonked and needed food asap.  so, bypassing my offer of a fresh spinach salad and a bread roll, he just sliced right into the quiche and stood at the stove eating it.  while i made my salad.  the verdict?  he liked it!  enough that he had two more helpings and eventually slowed down enough to join me at the table to finish eating.  too bad he missed out on the spinach salad.  it’s from an everyday food recipe and is a tasty alternative to the bacon dressing standby.  and the dinner roll wasn’t half bad either.  all in all?  much, much better than pb&j.

at the risk of being a librarian breaking copyright laws, here are the two recipes from saturday’s dinner.  consider them a teaser.  if you bake them, you will understand why you need to go out and purchase these two cookbooks.  both are highly recommended by me.  (the everyday food one is fun because it’s organized by season and has a full-page photo for every recipe, right next to the recipe itself.  i’ve made quite a few of the recipes and liked them all!)

jalepeno-potato quiche from the peach tree family cookbook by cynthia collins pedregon, p. 104

1 recipe basic quiche crust 10″x2″ partially baked (sorry, you’ll have to come up with your own crust recipe or buy the book.)

1 c. sliced onion

1/2 lb. bacon, diced

10 eggs

1 tbsp. garlic

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. fresh ground pepper

1 tsp. salt

2.5 c. evaporated milk

2 c. cheddar cheese, shredded

1.5 c. cooked potatoes, cubed

1/2 c. pimentos, chopped (i didn’t have these, so i left them out.)

1/4 to 1/2 c. jalepenos with juice, sliced  (i didn’t have jarred ones, so i used fresh and it worked fine.)

garnish:  sour cream and green onions, finely chopped (totally forgot about the garnish until i wrote this post.)

1.  preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.  saute onions with bacon.  drain well.

3.  beat eggs in blender with garlic, cumin, pepper and salt.

4.  add evaporated milk to egg mixture

5.  in prepared crust, layer half of cheese on the bottom.  then layer the potatoes, bacon and onions, pimentos and jalepenos with juice.  sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

6.  pour the egg mixture over the layered ingredients.

7.  bake for one hour and 45 minutes or until knife inserted in the center comes out clean.  allow quiche to cool 15 minutes for easier slicing.  garnish with sour cream and green onions if desired.

serves 9-10.

spinach salad with dried cherries from great food fast from the kitchens of martha stewart living, p. 24

1/4 c. raw pumpkin seeds

4 tsp. red-wine vinegar

1 tbsp. dijon mustard

2 tbsp. olive oil

coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

8 oz. baby spinach

1/2 c. thinly sliced red onions

1/2 c. dried cherries

1.  preheat the oven to 350.  spread the pumpkin seeds in a single layer on a pie plate; bake until puffed and brown, about 10 minutes.

2.  meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard, and oil until combined and thickened; season with salt and pepper.

3.  add the spinach, onion, and cherries to the dressing.  toss to combine.  top the salad with the pumpkin seeds and serve immediately.

serves 4

Posted in autumn, yum | 2 Comments
29
Nov, 2008

thanksgave

i’m a few days late with my thanksgiving post, but i just wanted to share a few leftovers with you. (tee hee!)  we enjoyed thanksgiving day with friends.  we were in charge of bringing the sweet potatoes, so i used my all-time favorite streuseled sweet potato recipe from cooking light.  it is soooooo good and always gets rave reviews.

and because this blog is about “happy stuff” i won’t tell you about poor mr. happy stuff’s run-in with our new! sharp! vegetable peeler and a sweet potato.  and his middle fingertip.  but if you really want to know the story you can ask.  i’ll just say that the “happy” parts are that now, three days later, he’s finally taken the bandage off and we are now well-stocked in the medical gauze and waterproof tape department here at chez happy stuff.

i also made some nice wheat bread rolls (sorry, no photos) and crescent rolls.  i used my grandma’s recipe for crescent rolls, but instead of half butter/half shortening, i used all butter and they turned out fine. (*recipe at bottom of post if you want it.  if you ate these rolls and don’t want to know how much butter they had, look away.   look away.*)

i know this photo looks dangerous (metal in the microwave?!), but relax.  i just put it in there to rise.  i read a tip somewhere once and i like to use it–heat a rice-filled heating pad in the microwave, then set your bread dough in the microwave on top of the heated pad to rise.  the heating pad isn’t so hot that it will bake the bread, but it retains heat well enough that it helps the dough to rise.  the small enclosed space of the microwave also is a humid environment and your dough won’t dry out on top even if you don’t cover it with a tea towel or plastic wrap.

this is such a fun dough to work with!  there is so much butter in it that it sticks to n-o-t-h-i-n-g.  i almost don’t even need flour on the counter.  when i split it into wedges for rolling into crescents, the dough just pulled away from the cut lines–it doesn’t even stick to itself!  (please ignore the fact that i’m cooking in my bathrobe.  i was just too lazy to throw on real clothes before i started cooking.)

here you can see what they look like when you roll the wedges from the wide end up to the tip.  ta-da!  crescents!  again, please ignore whatever that is on my sleeve.  this robe went right into the wash when i was done.

mmmmm…… crescent rolls rising….i made a double batch.  hooray for leftovers!

here are a few other shots from the dinner (i got too distracted after the appetizers and first course and just ate instead of taking pictures.  you can use your imagination (or–likely–your short term memory) to know what brined turkey, sweet potatoes, roasted root vegetables, stuffing, green bean casserole and cranberry sauce look like.)

the rest of thanksgiving day was a very relaxing affair filled with card games and conversation, cups of coffee

and fancy chocolates.

we stayed there until way too late, watching charlie brown thanksgiving specials and snuggling with their kids on the couch.  thanks, dear friends, for hosting such a comfy, cozy thanksgiving dinner.

recipe for grandma b’s golden crescent roll dough (sans shortening):

2 pkg active dry yeast

3/4 c. warm water (105-115 degrees)

1/2 c. sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1/2 c. soft butter

4 c. flour, divided

dissolve yeast in warm water.  stir in rest of ingredients (only 2 c. flour).  beat until smooth.  mix in remaining flour until smooth.  scrape sides of bowl.  cover and let rise in a warm place until double (about 1.5 hours).  divide in half and roll into circles.  cut circles into wedges and roll from the wide end to the tip–press the tip firmly into the roll, then curve into crescent shapes.  Let rise until double.  bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes until golden.  makes about 16 medium sized rolls.

note:  this recipe also makes a fantastic base for a fruit pizza or “scandavian sandwich wheel“

Posted in autumn, stuff that makes me smile, yum | 1 Comment
28
Nov, 2008

parents of mr. & mrs. happy stuff will ruin christmas surprises if they read this post! you’ve been warned!

okay, i’m assuming that if you’re still reading this post that you are not my parents and you’re not my husband’s parents or you just don’t care about surprises.  i wanted to tell my readers (who are not our parents) about a project that i’ve been working on over at lulu.com.  i was inspired by soulemama’s blog to put together a calendar of my own photos.  partly, i thought it would make a lovely christmas gift for our parents (shhh!  don’t tell!), and partly because i wanted one for myself and i thought that if i was putting that much work into it, i’d offer it to my blog readers as well.  i’ve decided to make things a little more interesting by promising that for every calendar sold, i will donate $10 to heifer project (my profit of $5 + i’ll double it).  at the end of january, i’ll report back to the blog about which gift we were able to give.  will it be a flock of ducks?  or honeybees?  or the “knitting basket” (2 sheep, 2 llamas)?

i got a little carried away and ended up designing two calendars.  the first one is general photos from my blog and the second one is specifically photos from our trip to maui last december.  i would post teaser photos of the calendars, but those might be hard for certain parents to ignore, so just follow the links to see what they look like.  i hope you like them!  even if you decide not to buy one this year, i’d love to hear which photos–in either calendar–were your favorites and if there were favorite photos from my blog that you don’t see in this year’s calendar.  maybe next year i’ll put one together a little earlier!

*note added later:  you can purchase the calendars directly from the links i’ve posted.  you can also click on the little arrows just above the picture of the calendar cover to see previews of each month’s photo.  if you have any problems with that website, let me know and i’ll see what i can do.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments
28
Nov, 2008

pierre’s portrait on a plate

i have a “mascot” puppet.  his name is pierre.  he is a very silly bird.  for instance, he doesn’t have arms or legs and one time when i did a storytime about shoes he insisted that if we were going to talk about shoes he at least needed feet!  so, i made him some out of stripey pipe cleaner.  they’re slightly unruly feet, but pierre doesn’t seem to mind.  pierre is very popular at my storytimes.  he helps me to pick out the books from the suitcase and usually has something snarky to say to amuse the adults in the room (including me!).  one day, early in pierre’s career, i accidentally left him at home.  i explained to the kids that pierre was on vacation visiting his aunt (in paris, texas–his home town.  he has a french accent, but it’s fake–he just think it makes him sound sophisticated) and that “harry monster” was stepping in for the day, but the kids were so very sad (some were even frightened of harry and he is the most goofy, gentle monster puppet i’ve ver seen–his tongue is heart-shaped!) that pierre has never gone on vacation since.

at a recent evening family storytime, a young five-year-old girl whom i’ve known since before she was born (i sang with her parents in a local choir) and who is a big fan of pierre (she inexplicably always calls him “peter” although i’ve never called him by his english name!) presented me with a lovely portrait of pierre.  can you see the resemblance?

check it out!  she’s got the striped legs, the stripes on his neck, the blue hat…i am so impressed!

and look at these tiny details:

she included a bird stamp (just like pierre!)…

and a yrreb, er… berry stamp (with tiny illustrated berries).  and on the back side?

a portrait of me!  hmmm…. maybe i should lay off the butternut squash–i look a little jaundiced.  or maybe i just bear a striking resemblance to little miss sunshine from the mr. men and little miss books?  i could live with that.  this is one of my all-time favorite pieces of kid art gifts.  it might even be better than this one.

Posted in fun stuff, library stuff, stuff that makes me smile | 1 Comment
26
Nov, 2008

a parental visit

my parents came for a visit last weekend. they haven’t been to my house for about a year and a half, so i was very excited to have them here again. the first night that they arrived, i made black bean and sweet potato burritos and then we watched lars and the real girl. a great “odd people” movie that i knew they’d enjoy.

the next day, i took them to the macha teahouse where we enjoyed a few of their tiny, yummy cookies and two tiny cupcakes–chai flavored and “hummingbird” flavor (with pineapple.  and no hummingbirds.)–and did a little shopping on monroe street, then my mom wanted to go to a thrift store (they’re better here than in her small town) so we went together and i bought four pairs of pants! i haven’t bought that many pants in one visit in a looooong time. mom must be my good luck charm.

my parents both experience a big-deal birthday this year, so i wanted to do something special for them while they were here. mr. happy stuff and i decided to take them out for a foodie dinner at harvest. i think they enjoyed it. and we were thrilled to have an excuse to return and eat there again. our waiter was so extremely formal and proper that we giggled each time he left the table. don’t get me wrong–he was exceedingly friendly, just … formal. i would go into the details on what everyone got to eat, but there were four of us and that would take too long. feel free to look at their online menu and drool. i’ll just say that my favorite small detail was the toasted hazelnuts in the beet and blue cheese “first course” dish. they had such a rich, toasty flavor that just bloomed beautifully in the mouth as soon as you crunched into them. i wished that i had more. i also enjoyed my pork chop (the thickest i’ve ever had!) and my dessert of cool, creamy vanilla panna cotta with raspberry compote.  my mom ordered a glass of elderflower cordial with her dessert and i took a few sips and it was extremely delicious.  yumyumyum.  over dinner, we reminisced about the one expensive meal we had when i was a kid.  my dad published a book in 1983 and although we were on an extemely limited budget, my parents decided to take us out to a fancy restaurant to celebrate.  my memories of the meal were of feeling very fancy and princess-like and of the towering dessert cart that they brought to our table.  it was full of the most beautiful sweets i’d ever seen in my life and i ignored the waiter’s chatty descriptions and decided that i wanted to eat the very prettiest dessert on the cart–the rum pudding.  my dad said he’d wait to order his until he was sure that i wanted the one i got.  good thing too.  after one bite i scrunched up my face in disgust and said, ‘wine pudding! yuck!’  so my dad got my “wine pudding” and i ordered a safe fruit tart.  during our meal this weekend, my mom reminded me that the waiter had been kind enough to bring my sister and i chicken fingers and hamburgers (which weren’t on the menu) for our dinner and that my sister had sprawled across her chair in a not-very-lady-like position and that the waitstaff seemed to get a big kick out of these not-so-typical restaurant guests.  i remember my parents being a bit shocked by the price of our meal ($60!) but i pointed out to them this weekend that there aren’t many other meals from when i was 8 years old that we remember so vividly and with such great stories.

after dinner, we took them to the “dollar” theater. it seemed sort of comical, considering where we’d just eaten, but it was the only place in town still showing “burn after reading” which we all wanted to see and hadn’t seen yet. very coen brothers. very funny.

we spent sunday working on house projects. i made pancakes and pecan waffles for breakfast, then the men went out to examine the gutters (they had a few issues), then they examined the bathtub drain (we have a very unusual drain that doesn’t seem to be working all that well–is it normal to have to dump a bottle of foaming drain cleaner down the drain 5 or 6 times a year?), then we all trooped out to purchase wood for a new window seat and a few other things. my dad, in the middle of trying to fix and build all of these things also baked a pear custard and answered all of my random questions about household stuff (can i clean lint out of my dryer vents by myself, or should we hire professionals? how can i get my toilet tank to stop sweating? what should we do to improve the lighting in the living room?) and finished a really challenging sudoku puzzle (anyone wonder where i get my schedule-packing tendencies?).

the group of women i sing with came over for a “rehearsal” at my house before church so that my parents could hear us sing in person. it wasn’t our strongest rehearsal by any means, but my mom said she got shivers (in the good way) a couple of times. they also enjoyed attending our church service and talking with a few people they know there. then, supper at noodles & co., dessert at culver’s and back home again where they shared photos of their recent trip to bosnia and serbia which my talented mother had made into a dvd.

it’s always so comfortable to have them visit. the house wasn’t perfectly clean, i forgot a few of the guest room niceties (i usually put a carafe of water and a glass in there and i forgot), but they’re family and they love me anyway. or maybe they love me more because i’m not perfect–it gives us all room to relax. the morning that they left, it snowed.  i wish they could have stayed a little longer, but i suppose it’s better to wish that than to wish they’d gone home sooner.

Posted in stuff that makes me smile, trip down memory lane | 2 Comments
25
Nov, 2008

macha cha-cha-cha

are you sick of hearing about my favorite teahouse? well, i just have to tell you about this delicious cupcake that i ate the last time i was there. i just finished re-listening to the audiobook eat cake by jeanne ray. it’s one of my very favorite audiobooks. the descriptions of the cakes the woman in the story bakes just make you want to go out and eat the fanciest, most awesome cakes in the world. and anything less than the best seems pointless. so imagine my hopeful delight when i saw this beauty in the bakery case at the macha teahouse. it looked pretty (and not too much frosting. so many of those cupcake shops in chicago looked like they had so much frosting and i’m more interested in a good cake than frosting.) so i took a chance and bought one. i bit into it and discovered, to my delight, that it was a carrot cake cupcake with cream cheese frosting. eat cake talks about carrot cake at least once and cream cheese frosting is about the only frosting that i actually really like to eat. the cake was moist and nutty and just delicious. i hope this one stays on the menu for a little bit.

and one more piece of exciting news–while i was at the teahouse, i checked my e-mail and happened to get a message from macha telling me that i won third place in their writing contest! my prize? a ninja launcher:

and a box of david bacco (i thinK) chocolates–filled with a bright green, green tea filling. yum!

Posted in yum | 3 Comments
24
Nov, 2008

fun mail!

so, a few weeks ago, i got an e-mail from leslie of good-ness telling me that a comment that i’d written on her blog was one of the 100th comments and so i had won a prize of a $10 credit in her etsy store!  of course, i had to buy a little extra because how could i resist?  the package arrived the other day in the mail.  i got it on a very busy day and couldn’t actually open it until late at night when i finally got home from work, but what a nice treat to look forward to!

i love the printed paper she wrapped it all up in!

and just look at that teacup fabric!  cuteness, stripes, polka dots…. i smile every time i look at it.  and that car/truck linen tape?  mmmm….. gonna have to come up with a great project for these fabrics.

then, she also included these cute freebies too–more ribbon and waxed treat bags that say “animal of africa”  and have lions and hippos and flamingos all over them.  this whole ordering fun stuff off of etsy could get very dangerously addicting.  i may have to open my own etsy shop just to bankroll my habit….

Posted in crafty stuff, fun stuff | 4 Comments
23
Nov, 2008

be creative @ your library!

this post is dedicated to any children’s librarians who read my blog.  (for all of you non-librarians, here’s a sneak peek of next year’s program theme!)  here are photos from the most recent summer library program workshop that i made decorations for.

note the slate tile (from a hardware store) and envelope moistener pens (from office supply store) that kids can draw on and then the water dries and it’s ready for a new “picture.”

die cut paper dolls decorated with magazine clippings.  maybe make a long chain of these decorated by different kids to hang up around your library?  maybe they get a set of dolls to decorate for every 10 books read?  i love to cut hair out of pictures of …. hair!

for a larger version of the ever popular magnetic poetry, try flannel poetry!

let kids draw on the wall!  well, maybe it would be better to put down some paper first.  how about taking a note from this awesome wallpaper and giving them a bunch of frames to fill?

and my favorite idea?  a collaborative banner!  this one was created with the help of a bunch of different librarians, but you could have kids each make a letter or different people in your own community (firefighters, the mayor, the ice cream man, local art teacher…)

i gave participating libarians the cryptic instructions to just create an assigned letter no smaller than 6″ and no larger than 18″ (i think) and said they could use any medium as long as it could be hung on a clothesline.  if you decide to do something similar, i might suggest a weight limit.  that letter “i” in the word library was created inside a plexiglass “ice cube” and needed a little extra support, even hung that close to the ground.

thanks to everyone who helped to make this banner a reality!  i hope you can use some of these ideas (or that they spark ideas of your own) next summer!

Posted in library stuff | 11 Comments