Relapse

The crunchy part of the year has begun. You know, when everything is smushed together into

"halloweenthanksgivingchristmasnewyears"?

From October until the start of the new year, my life is just too busy.  I'm always trying to squeeze extras into my routine and inevitably other things are neglected. (Such as blog posting!) So, let me play some catch up.

I've posted pictures below of my "recycled" clothing experiment.  The skirt that was too long was shortened and a ruffle added to the bottom with the excess material, along with a matching ribbon trim.

skirt

sweater

 I crocheted red cap sleeves on the sleeveless brown sweater and also made a little flower pin with some of the skirt material.

 







blouse



The blouse that was too low cut has been made modest by the addition of some pink crocheted lace stretched across the neckline. 

"plarn" (plastic yarn) bag

I thought I'd also show a picture of the finished "plarn" bag from several posts ago.





 

I have not gotten around to the aprons yet (though they would have been the simplest project) because I had to make two Halloween costumes first and I ran out of gas. The Halloween outfits both had aprons though!



Halloween Dress 2



Halloween Dress 1



The purple apron was made from an old shirt I had and the white one was made from a pillowcase.  I took two bridesmaid's dresses I bought at a thrift store and reconstructed them using lace and netting I had at home.



  

There has been enough "recycling" going on here that I really should speak of something else for awhile.  But, no matter how hard I try to think of something else,  recycling seems to be dominating my life right now both at home and at work.

At work, we have several projects going on and some that we recently finished that involve the re-use of materials.  We have put up new display shelving for our paperbacks that came from a book shop and our wooden cupboards came from a department store that went out of business.  Our old revolving bookracks have been given to another branch library for re-use.





cupboards on red wall  and display tables



paperbacks





We are in the process of building a "coffee shop area" in the library that will have vending machines, tables and chairs, wooden floor, beautiful lighting and piped in music! While new to us, this is a re-cyled concept stolen from  Barnes and Noble that we hope to copy successfully.

future coffee shop area

The "Big Shift" project (where every non-fiction book at Central is re-shelved and every shelf has been adjusted) is almost complete.  Now instead of the Dewey numbers running horizontally across the aisles, they flow down each column as they should - making books so much easier for patrons to locate.

reshelved non-fiction

The GD Moving Crew can truthfully say they have physically touched each book in the collection at least once (and sometimes twice).  Word up....the Chilton Auto books are really heavy!

At home, I cooked a big ham with pineapple for supper on Sunday - then recycled it into sandwiches the rest of the week.  Ugh! I'm even reading a book called "Juliet" by Anne Fortier which is a updated, recycled plot from Shakespear's "Romeo and Juliet".  Earlier this week I watched the old musical "West Side Story" - which is [guess what?] another re-telling of  "Romeo and Juliet". Seriously, I just now realized that!

OMG! Have I finally reached the age where there truly is nothing new under the sun?

Maybe not. Recently, my daughter made me listen to this song she liked by someone called "Shaggy".  It was set to a Jamaican beat, but the lyrics and tune were basically stolen from the old Juice Newton song (who BTW stole it from Nina Simone!) called "Don't Call Me Angel".  Well, okay there was one little difference - instead of singing "just touch my cheek before you leave me", he sang "closer than my peeps you are to me".  Hopefully, this is one song that won't be played in the coffee shop area. (Sigh)

Slowly turn away. 

I won't beg you to stay. 

(Maybe the sun's light will be dim and it won't matter anyhow.)