Don't Smoke In Bed

Time for a light diversion. I need one. My thoughts have been heavy. I have been pondering the origins of the universe as I am so prone to do. Sometimes I think in the eyes of the creator, our little eyes are so dramatically different and simple that we cannot even begin to comprehend anything that really matters.  Me trying to ponder the creator is like little Nigel here trying to figure out what I do after I drive off in the car. He cannot even begin to ponder it as he has no point of reference. How can I ponder anything when I have only seen creation from my side of it just as Nigel sees the world from his side of it and his side are the four walls of a house? Think of the universe. Think of my house. Nigel's universe is my house. He has no idea. Therefore, I know I have no idea.  Sometimes I think from the second we come into this world until our last second in it, our lives are only insignificant shadows of what is yet to come. What is yet to come is so much more. I try to remember this when I am all wrapped up in some worldly issue that will soon enough pass away like work dilemmas or any other temporal drama. I said my thoughts were heavy. I am a ponderer. That aspect of my personality has never changed. Many aspects of me have changed over time but that is one that has not.

So...I need to lighten up and here it is, folks. Look at these people. They are from the 1940's. Times change, do they not? In fact, have things changed so much that men used to wear their dress shoes with their pjs? Did ladies used to wear their dress shoes with their night gowns? Correction, the garment this lady is wearing is called a 'house wife wrap' according to the pattern. Now, what about this garment indicates a house wife? Are women called house wives anymore? That sounds like an archaic term to me. I do not know any women that are wives to their houses. They might love their houses, clean their houses, decorate their houses but be wives to them? Not so much. Yes, things change. Notice the lady again. What is that in her hand? A pack of cigs? Is she about to smoke in bed? Yes, things change.

Mother of Pearl?

Maybe this lady has a daughter named Pearl. I am crazy about pearls. Of all the gems, I find pearls to be the most fascinating. I can become almost hypnotized by the luminescent glow that pearls seem to cast. I love to admire their creaminess and lustre. I was attempting to create some pearls with photoshop. They looked prettier before I saved this as a gif. If I had to choose a favorite color of pearl, I might choose gray. I think this lady has a daughter named Pearl. At any rate, she is celebrating Easter with a new hat and it is still a wee bit chilly wherever she lives.

Knee High to a School Girl

This was one of those pieces where I started with a background, then, looked for something to go on it. I had no idea it would be about school when I began it. Something about my 70's looking girl caused me to think of school. It could have been the knee high socks. Something about orange makes me think of the 70's also, therefore, I had to punch some of it in there. She is doing some writing, geometry and some socializing. Are those not most of the necessary elements?

Tiny Dancer

No, it is not Song Lyrics Sunday but I just wanted to do something vintage looking. I was not sure what it would be when I began but as it turns out, it is about a tiny dancer.

Baby You Can Drive My Car

This woman is setting out somewhere in her car. I wonder where? She appears to be in another world already.

Easter Frock

Why do you suppose this lady has a picture of a bunny couple on her wall? Is this a wall in her own house or is she visiting the bunny couple? Perhaps they are her parents. What do you think? Whatever the case, they all seem to be snappy dressers.

Where does it all come from?

My days are all messed up now. I am not sticking to my plan very well. That is me, what can I say? I am just not a structured person. I am a willy nilly go with the flow, roll with the punches kind of woman. I would never have made it in the army or any thing regimented. I made this the other night when I was watching tv. I do not watch a lot of tv. I only have a couple of shows that I consistently 'try' to watch. If I miss them, I watch them on hulu. I do love the new program "Who Do You Think You Are?". As a librarian working in special collections, genealogy is always forefront in my mind. I think it is important to know who your ancestors are. It changes your entire outlook about yourself. When you realize how many people you have standing on your shoulders, you cannot help but feel differently. While seeking your genealogy, you will learn both good and bad things about your history. One fact will remain true. You cannot change what you are made of;" it is what it is" as they say. However, it may help to answer some questions you have about yourself. You will ultimately know yourself and your family better for it. What does all this have to do with this piece? Perhaps this...I found out while searching out my genealogy that my family name means "to dress". People who had my name in the old country were usually tailors or dressers. Maybe that accounts for my fascination with this topic. It could be the key to knowing myself better. I see myself in a new light.

Things with Wings- Cats, Sure

Cats do not have wings but have you ever seen one that wished he did? I have plenty of times. In fact, I am almost certain one of my cats (most likely Nigel) 'tried' to actually fly yesterday. When I came home, I found the valance over the window down. I am sure he was using it as a spring board for some flying type bug chasing. C'est la vie as I always say. When you have a cat, you cannot have anything but cats. They will see to it. I am okay with that.

Vintage Wednesdays-This Old House

I enjoy making these digis so much. I find the creation of them to be very destressing. I try all kinds of things on them before I post them here. While making them, I get all kinds of help too. Once while making this one, Ollie stepped on my computer causing it to go all haywire and at another point, Claude had his two front feet resting on my shoulders as if he was watching. Claude is super good. He is my special old fellow. I tell these young whipper snappers to be nice to him because he has seniority. This is kind of a composite of Vintage Wednesdays and Finding My Style Saturdays. It was a case of Finding My Style while using a vintage picture of a house.

Grungey Rose

Is there such a thing as a grungey rose? I do not think so. This is my attempt at a grungey piece. I figured it would take the edge off of it some if I included something beautiful too. What do you think?

A Day in the Life

This is not going to exactly be Sunday Song Lyrics but it is taken from a title to a song. I hope that is close enough to count. This is a pictorial review of my life in the Digital Library. Since January, I have been working in an academic library in the part of the library called Digital Library Services. It is in the basement of the large central academic library. The university is working on a large initiative to convert all audio visual materials to digital formats. The Library of Congress has a similar initiative on a much grander scale. This is what my work station looks like in the DLS...not fancy but it does everything I need for it to do. I do not spend much time at my station.

In the next picture, I am logged onto my favorite site which has nothing to do with my duties (OED).

These next pictures are from the Special Collections offsite storage location. Essentially, it is a climate controlled warehouse specifically built to hold library materials. I am not concerned with digitizing all of the libraries audio visual materials but only the items in Special Collections. Special Collections is largely a collection of donated materials. It is where you would go to find genealogical items. There are other items there as well such as donated record album collections and art work. The items are treasure troves. For example, there is a donated home movie from the 1950's of a personal tour of the Pope's Summer Palace. There are private photographs of President Kennedy, President Johnson, President Roosevelt just to name a few. This warehouse stores materials that have been weeded and are not yet prepared for sale to other academic libraries. It also holds materials that have recently been donated but are not yet catalogued. It would be safe to say we really do not know yet what treasures are in here. Here is where my job comes into play. Remember I said I was working on a digital initiative? It is my job to find all audio/visual materials contained here then, map it in a fashion so that it may be found again here when it is time for digitization. As I said, these items are not catalogued yet, they only have an accession number. It may not seem like hard work but it is. It is very physically demanding to climb to the tops of these stacks, pull out boxes and go through the contents. It is necessary to get on an electronic picker to reach the tops of these rows. This is not all of what I do or where I do it. I will post more about this digital initiative at a later date. The pictures at the very bottom are examples of what happens to art work that has no place to be viewed currently. Items rotate in and out of these cages as needed. There is a lot of physical work to librariaship and contrary to what you might read, librarians are not going away anytime soon.

Fashion Fridays-Well Sort Of

I missed Fashion Friday by a few minutes. Well, I tried. I love these fashion pieces. They are fun. This is off topic yet funny. I have myself a little cat that I have been taking care of outside. He is so cute. He has one of those little snub noses and very round face. He is just adorable, really. He has taken a liking to me too. He sees me come home and here the boy comes running. I can hear him purring already from 3 feet away. We are a match made in heaven for each other. Okay, here is the odd part. Sometimes when I see him, he completely ignores me. I call out to him, he stops and stares, then saunters off as if he could not care any less. I had begun to think of him as a Doctor Jekyll Mr. Hyde type cat. Long story short, last night he ran to meet me. I was outside talking to him and he was carrying on with his cute self. I looked up two houses down and there he was...no, he is still carrying on his cute self at my feet. He has a twin! And his twin is not so friendly. Mystery solved.

Visiting with Mother Nature

I really love spring! It is my favorite season of the year. I especially love it this year! I have missed the birds and the beautiful green leaves. When I see a daffodil, I know spring has arrived.

Fashion Sunday

I didn't get around to doing a post on Friday. I do not plan to post everyday or make up for posts when I do not. However, I made this little thing this afternoon.

Sunday Song Lyrics-Bad Romance

I think Beauty and the Beast pretty much epitomize the song "Bad Romance". At least, that is always who I think of when I hear the song.

Finding My Style Saturdays

Just a little something I created to represent city nights....I really like 'Finding My Style' better than any other category. It is fun to find your style!

Alternate Universe

In the alternate universe I created, things with wings still exist.

Vintage Wednesdays

London may be cloudy and dreary some of the time but it brings sunshine to my soul and joy to my heart. If ever a person was truly in love, it is I...with London.

Visiting with Mother Nature

I am especially tired this evening so my creation will not be much. A lot of times when I am making these little pieces, I am multi-tasking. I never have time just to do ONE thing. Wow, just to do one thing at a time almost seems self indulgent. I am so tired today that I am having trouble thinking of words. Do you ever do that? For me, it is a symptom of sleep deprivation. I have never been a good sleeper. As I get older, my sleeping habits become worse. I do not like to sleep. I want to stay awake all night. I figure some day I will sleep forever, right? I will catch up on whatever I am missing now, then. Sometimes I watch tv while making these little pieces. I only have a handful of shows that I like to watch. But true to form, when something catches my attention, it catches it completely. But there are some commercials on tv that just drive me up the wall. One that I hate is Swiffer!!!! That is just oogey! Showing that old broom in the hot tub or the feather duster and some kind of doll in the attic. Creeeepppyyy! Or a rake and mop in the garage having a spaghetti dinner. Yucko. I wish that cat in the feather duster one would just tear into that old feather duster and rip it to shreds. Okay, 'nuf said.
Here is my completely digital representation of the beautiful full moon I saw a couple of nights ago. There are some things that I love that crop up over and over in these creations...the moon and hearts are the main two. I love the shape of the heart. I do not know why but it suits my tastes right down to the ground.

Three Sheets to the Wind

A short time ago, I spent some time doing genealogy. It is very odd what a person discovers about their ancestry. There are many ancestors in my past that make me smile when I think of them, people that I never knew but that I am carrying their genes. Some of it is not surprising. Some of it is deep rooted down to the core and I somehow knew it without really ever having heard it. My mom's ancestry was done by another family member on her side of the family. He has done much more extensive research than I ever did. He has even collected photographs of ancestors dating back to early 1800 Scotland. I set out to find out more about my dad's side of the family as I essentially knew nothing about them. I was surprised to find that they were a most prolific bunch of people. It was nothing for their families to have 13 to 16 children. My original ancestor on my dad's side that came to this country came here from London as the captain of a ship carrying supplies to the new world. He never stayed but he did have a son that stayed and lived in Virginia.

This little creation is a tip of the hat to that ancestor. To say someone is 'three sheets to the wind' is to say that they are intoxicated. It is a nautical phrase. Sheets are not the sails but rather the ropes that secure the sails. If the sheets are unsecured, the sails are flapping. The ship is free to rock and roll. Therefore, sailors began to refer to wobbley, intoxicated behavior as being 'three sheets to the wind'. 'Three sheets' was very drunk. To be 'one sheet' was only slightly drunk. I think the ship in my creation has all of its sheets secured. It is setting sail for a new land.