Fairy Houses

I haven't been on here in a while- not because I haven't been doing any mini work, but mostly b/c I haven't even had time to breathe, let alone type a nice leisurely blog entry.

I've been incredibly busy because I now have 3 jobs: a day job (school librarian), a night job (writing instructor at local community college) and also a weekend job (local history museum).

I was working this past Sunday at the museum (which is really a small historical village) when they had the Fairy House tour. Here's the link from the event, direct from author Tracy Kane's website: http://www.fairyhous...smouth-nh-2013/

Towards the end of the day, I happened to meet the lady who arranged these Fairy House events. She told me that every year, there are a few houses that never get claimed, and they end up in the dumpster. I thought that was apalling! Not just the idea of the wasted materials, but also the idea that these beautiful little houses don't get a chance to be seen again!

I told her that I am a dollhouse/fairy house builder myself, and that I also work in a school library. Our school has a little courtyard that the library windows look down into, and I told her I'd be happy to take any unclaimed fairy houses to display in the school's courtyard. She told me to come back on Monday (yesterday) and just take any houses that were left b/c Sunday night was the deadline to pick them up. So I went yesterday, and ended up taking 3 fairy houses back with me!

Not to mention- they also inspired me to make some more of my own! I made 2 little ones last night from these little wooden, decorative birdcages that I picked up at a thrift store last year. And now I am working on a 3rd one in a larger, metal decorative birdcage that was also bought at Goodwill.

I cannot wait to set them up in the courtyard, and then casually tell teachers/students to go out because "I think some fairies have taken up residence in our courtyard!"

Throwback Thursday

I rescued a Kodak slide carousel from the library's trash can yesterday. For anyone reading this that doesn't know/remember what the heck I'm talking about, this is the machine that allowed sharing one's favorite photographs to get 'technologically advanced" (a few decades before Facebook).

 

In an episode of Mad Men, Don Draper pitches an ad campaign about this exact product. I highly suggest watching the episode, but here's his speech for your reading pleasure:

Remember, in the 60's this was THE height of technology. 

Now it's archaic, practically an antique. But the sentimentalist in me (and she's pretty loud!) could not bear to see this artifact in the trashcan, destined for the dump. Even if I have no real use for it anymore, I had to save it and preserve it in some form.

At first, I just took the box. I hail from Rochester, NY which is/was the home of Kodak since George Eastman founded the company, and the box is a small piece of my home city's history. But then I decided to do some Googling and I saw some neat-o pictures online of ways to upcycle slide carousels. Pretty soon, my screwdriver was out and I was disassembling the thing, picking out the pieces that I can use.

I am not sure what I'll end up making yet, but the slide carousel is headed toward a new life. 

I know that librarians are supposed to embrace technology and welcome new ways to find information, but I am always torn between the historian (all about the past) and the librarian in me.

I think maintaining a soft spot in my heart for outdated technology, while finding a new use for it is a way to allow these two sides of my personality to co-exist in peace.