Plastic Box

You say retail, I say imagination

Went shopping with my pal Erin at an upscale thrift shop (called Closets) today after work, and it was a blast as always. I found a vintage Betsey Johnson jacket and a 50s-style belted dress for work, all at a steal, while Erin found three cute pieces after weeding out some of the other things she was carrying around. This is the same shop where I found that black and white houndstooth coat last year. Squee!

I'll have to post some pics of the Betsey jacket (actually it was a 2-piece skirt suit but the skirt is...uh...a little short for work). It's definitely a statement jacket. ;) I think it was a show/sample piece because there are no size or care labels inside, just her brand labels. Exciting! The skirt material is going to be turned into a cute little clutch with a flower closure. Can we say...matchy matchy? You know it!

Also, while on the fashion kick, I'm loving this watch just a little too much:

 

Toodles from the thrifty diva!

One meeeeliion dollahs

House appraisal day. Immaculately clean, but still not nice enough to take some high-impact pics from outside, even though the new sconces (3) look awesome.

Still, I offer you the interior:

Photo album

And I've spent today going through and either tossing or filing every single piece of paper and magazine in this house. I now have three binders of hole-punched Real Simple articles and about 45 pounds of recycling. All bills, separated and filed...all photos, filed. Shoes are about to be separated into bins with new Tide space-fresheners, and clothes to be separated into "keep" and "donate." Huzzah for productive weekends!

Book It

Just want to give a shout-out to my professional organization, SLA (Special Libraries Association) on turning 100 this year. I think we look pretty hot for being centenarians. ;)

I also want to thank my mama, who toted me around on her back when I was just a baby while she shelved books in our local library, and who has spent the past 30+ years as a children's librarian. While I wouldn't take on that job in 100 years, she is where I got my love of that "library smell."

So here's a bit about the organization that I am so proud to be a part of:

SLA was founded in 1909 by a group of librarians who thought that libraries serving business, government, social agencies, and parts of the academic community were different from other libraries. These "special" --- or more aptly, "specialized" --- libraries at first were distinguished by being subject collections with a specialized clientele, but gradually it was recognized that their chief characteristic was that they existed to serve the organization of which they were a part. Their purpose was not education per se but the delivery of practical, focused, and even filtered information to the executives and other clients within their organizations. Specialist librarians, who have come to be called "information professionals," have a unique relationship as collaborators with their users.

Over the past one hundred years, SLA members have been working on the technological edge, moving into knowledge services, and adapting to new roles to keep up with the times. We are entrepreneurial --- we embrace change and use our knowledge and vision to further the goals of our organizations. Corporate information professionals synthesize strategic information to help executives make the decisions necessary for business to thrive. Government info pros organize and deliver information for congressional, parliamentary, judicial, and executive leaders to make policy decisions. Academic special librarians organize, digitize, and deliver research information so professors and students can advance knowledge.

SLA is the principal association for information professionals and their strategic partners throughout the world. Its 11,000 members come from 75 nations. SLA's strengths in serving its membership are in three areas: learning, networking, and advocacy. These are the underpinnings that prompted the info-pioneers of 1909 to come together in a cooperative association, and they are still the fundamental benefits that SLA provides the info-pioneers of the 21st Century. In its Centennial Year, SLA is well-poised to promote and strengthen information professionals for the next one hundred years.

And also, I love that Rupert Giles (from Buffy) made the association's list of "100 librarians who have shaped the profession."

Love, Allmer

Happy birthday, little brother! Just to continue the lifelong string of embarrassments that is having me as a big sister:

 

No matter how many times I may have bit you as a child (or how hard), or how many days go by when we don't chat, I'm always grateful that I had you to ride bikes with, play video games with, and chase around during "tag." Not just thankful for a brother, but thankful that it was you.

Now stop touching me! Mooooom, he's touching me! He started it! I'm telling!!

Midwest modern

I got my Amy Butler 5-inch squares in the mail last week and I'm very excited to start on two new quilts! The first will be pinks and oranges:

 

and the second will be the blues and greens from this batch:

 

I'll likely use a dark gray binding for the blues quilt and a greenish binding for the pinks and oranges quilt. Both will get my signature light gray fleece on the back. :)

They'll end up slightly larger than the lap quilt that I made Marti a couple of years ago (pictured at the bottom of this post). Yeah yeah, I love Amy Butler fabric a bit too much...so much so that I "wallpapered" my cube at work with some leftover lining from a computer bag I made:

 

Hey, I'm there so much that I had to make it cute. ;)

Dude, really?

This is a question I have asked myself, quite recently actually.

I don't plan to know my life's path, but sometimes don't you have to wonder, even maybe just to yourself (or, say, out loud on a blog), what in the world is up God's sleeve? But I'm up for it! This crazy road that is appearing before me, with blind curves and peaks and valleys. What I can do, on any given day, is be ready to share my heart and my love. I think I'm finally coming around to not fighting anymore.

So peace be with you. I am trying to find my "better person," that little crumpled thing that has been hiding some days. But I know she's in there.

I wish you all happiness this Easter. And love, lots of it.

Dog-eared corners

Has anyone read Eat, Pray, Love? I'm trying to make a spring and summer book list and so far I have that one and Sing Them Home. I always feel better when I have a good book going, and it's been devastatingly long since I've had one tucked in my nightstand.

So send me some recommendations! I have to pay my library fine before I can check anything out, though. Even with my MLIS, I am the Worst. Library patron. Ever.

I was thinking to pick up an old standby in the meantime, but I'm really looking for something new, something uplifting with solid characters. Some of my recent faves, to give you an idea, were Water for Elephants, Case Histories, Gods in Alabama, Dedication, and The Myth of You and Me.

I know, I know. Nothing too cerebral but my goodness...I get enough stress and contemplation out of my actual, bizarre life right now.

So we'll see what I end up with. I'll be sure to post.