Camera Bag

To help care for my new camera, I made myself a camera bag. It's really basic - felt lined with cotton and hand-sewn with embroidery thread. I added a button and there's a hole in top for the camera strap to fit through should I want to carry it that way. Just a little basic project but a good way to use up some scraps.

berries to jam

On 4th of July, I went blueberry picking with my friend Sally to Brewer's Farm in Midway, Georgia. It was so quiet and peaceful that it made me really homesick for my grandmother's place in Vermont where we could go out into the old orchard to pick blackberries. That bucket is 5 quarts of berries for only $7.50!





In any case, I took advantage of the slightly cooler weather last night to make up a batch of Peach-Blueberry Jam. Here's the recipe:

2 quarts fresh sliced peaches
1 quart fresh blueberries
6 cups white sugar
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
*Boil it all down until it reaches jam consistency. (check consistency by placing a spoonful of jam onto a plate and putting in the freezer for a few minutes - if it's the right consistency when you take it out, you're ready; if not, keep boiling.) Spoon off the froth. Put into jars, follow the canning process and voila! Preserved jam! This recipe made exactly 5 pints.

These will be in the mix with the rest of the jams for our wedding favors.

Creating a New Pattern

I got a request for a custom teddy bear and I've been trying to work out a pattern from scratch. The first two photos are my initial attempts and then I made up a final version out of attempt #2. I think though that the longer I look at them, I like #1 a bit better. I like his longer legs and that he's a little bit slimmer. The other guy is a little too fat and stubby, but I do like that his face comes to a point at the nose so I might try to work that into the other design.

Thus far, this is the most complicated pattern I've tried to create. It's so much easier when you do an animal that is recognizeable just from it's profile. I'm not sure yet that it's worth the effort.

Update on Wedding Shrug

Here's an update on my knitting for the shrug that I plan on wearing for the wedding. Thank god for LionBrand Yarn's current knitalong of this project! I decided to veer away from the original pattern and not do the stripes across the back and sleeves so it's just a straight knit/purl with a seed stitch detail on the edges of the sleeves to match the seed stitch that will be on the collar. Still need to finish the left sleeve before I pick up the whole round to do the rest of the back and the collar.

New Camera!

Oh so happy. After several weeks research, we got me a new digital camera and it came in on Friday. An early birthday present for me and much needed as sharing a camera was not working well for either of us. I did some research on Consumer Reports and PCWorld and some online review sites and decided on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX55. It consistently got great reviews for the compact digitals in the price range that I wanted. It came really fast through the mail and I've been playing with it since. Now we just need to get me a new lappie so that I don't need to wait until Ron's done with his to download the photos!

Too long

Oh it's been too long since I posted anything. One might think that I hadn't been doing anything, but in fact I've been quite busy. I've been crafting - knitting the wedding shrug, made a new stuffed animal pattern & made a mock-up and sold a custom order, been berry picking and made several batches of jam. I just got my own digital camera so no more sharing one camera between both Ron and I. That means that I should be able to post more photos more frequently.

In the meantime, I'll let you know that while sitting at the reference desk for a Sunday afternoon shift I just finished reading "The Collected Works of T.S. Spivet" by Reif Larson and it was absolutely fantastic. It was so good that I think that I'll buy my own personal copy so that I can read it again and mark it up. Highly recommended.

CBS Radio - The Librarian

From 1938-1940 CBS Radio ran a program called "Americans at Work." A radio script for "The Librarian" segment from circa 1939 proves that we've always been attempted to combat the stereotypical image of the old maid.

It's fascinating that some of the aspects of the job remain exactly the same - problematic patrons, the need for subject experts, the frustrating fact that it's mostly men in management positions, limited funds for acquisitions, scheduling. Technology and training may change, but fundamentally the same skills are required of the job.