Frozen Fridays #11

I thought making popsicles out of soda would be a good idea, so I poured my can of Dr.Pepper into the mold to give it a shot. The flavor was great, the texture I enjoyed, but I learned the hard way that soda expands much more than any other substance I've used so far:

Ingredients:

Dr. Pepper

Frozen Fridays #10

It's classic, and it had to be done. Orange creamsickles!
I was given the interesting idea of using orange creamsicle soda pop mixed with half and half for these. The orange soda was cheaper than buying oranges or orange juice, although probably not as healthy. Sure tasted yummy, though!

 

Ingredients: 

Half & Half

Orange cream soda

Frozen Fridays #9

Out of all my popsicles, I've been the happiest with the texture of this one. A deliciously soft combination of blueberries, greek yogurt, and vanilla, inspired by a bowl of leftover blueberries that I found sitting out on the counter.

 

Ingredients:

1 personal sized container of greek yogurt

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Milk

Vanilla creamer

Throw everything together in the blender, add enough milk to make it a smoothie consistency, and put in four vanilla flavored coffee creamers. Yum!

Frozen Fridays #8

Odd as it sounds, this week's popsicle was inspired by a candle. Yes, a candle.

My boyfriend bought me a watermelon-lemonade Bath & Body Works candle a little ways back. It smells FANASTIC. So, I got to thinking, how would this taste in a popsicle? Well, to answer my own question, it tastes quite nice. It's a delicious and refreshing blend! Interestingly, you get more of the flavor when you suck on it than when you bite it. I guess it's sort of like how Otter Pops work.

Anyhow, this one is certainly worth a try in this hot July weather!

Ingedients:
Water

Lemon Juice

Sugar

Watermelon

First make the lemonade. I squirted lemon juice into a cup of water and kept taste testing (with a spoon) until it seemed lemon-y enough, then added sugar. After this I cut up several good sized chunks of watermelon (no rind) and put it in the blender with the lemonade. Then it went into the popsicle mold and into the freezer!

For those of you who may be too impatient to wait for the popsicles to freeze, I suggest making some cups of this just for drinking. It's really quite delicious :)

Frozen Fridays #7

Oddly, the ingredients seemed slightly more flavorful before I froze them. Not sure what's up with that. At any rate, while not being extremely outstanding compared to some of my other experiments, this was nevertheless good: Strawberry Iced Tea.

Interestingly, the ingredients decided to separate themselves as they sat, so the strawberry flavor is more noticeable once you reach the bottom of this.

 

Ingredients:

Lipton iced tea

Water

Milk

Sugar

Pureed strawberries.

Blend all ingredients together, skim the foam off the top (eat it! it's yummy!), and pour into your molds and freeze it until hard.

Enjoy, and have a happy Independence Day!

Fozen Fridays #6

One word: REFRESHING.

My friends and I enjoyed these (yep, this batch got shared!). Best part of it is that it gets yummier as you eat it, because the fruits are arranged from tartest to sweetest.

Top layer: kiwi

Middle layer: strawberry

Bottom layer: peach

Puree your fruits in the blender with your desired amount of sweetener and a little bit of water. Freeze each layer before adding the next fruit to it.

Tag- You're It.

I came in to work today to discover we've all been given spiffy new name tags.
Wow, I feel so official! I thought to myself.

What would it be like, being tagged? I'd never been tagged in the library before. The librarians all had name tags, but never the pages.
Goodbye, anonymous existence. I stuck the magnet-held tag to my shrug (or, basically, a short sleeved sweater, for those who do not know what a shrug is).

I figured I would instantly get along with my new tag. Why wouldn't I?

As it turns out, the tag had other ideas.

It behaved for the first few minutes. Then as I reached to put some books to the top shelf, it decided it would play hide and seek in my armpit. After that it decided it would be fun to poke me on numerous occasions.

Enough with this! I thought to myself, and inched my tag closer to the edge of my shrug. It helped, for a little while, until the tag came up with a counter move to my little solution. I picked up a big stack of books and it jumped off of my clothes and sprawled out on the floor.

You aren't getting away that easy, tag! After putting away the stack of books, I picked the tag back up from the floor. What am I to do with you, little tag? I wondered, trying it out in different locations.

Putting it at the bottom of my shirt or on my jeans would not be acceptable, I was pretty sure. It didn't want to ride on my shrug, for sure. Finally, I decided to try pinning it on the upper left-hand portion of my shirt. Low enough that my hair wouldn't cover it, high enough to look professional, and on a stable enough piece of clothing that it wouldn't try hiding or poking me in the armpits again. Perfect.

Perhaps the tag was just uncomfortable. We got along well after it's little move. I am happy, the tag is happy, and we both can do our jobs as we should. At last, we came to an agreement.

I think we will get along.

Frozen Fridays #5

Oops... I just learned that Nesquik syrup does not freeze. At all. After I discovered what a mess this was, I let the entire batch melt, mixed all the ingredients together, then refroze it. Didn't have a cool looking ring around the center like I had initially planned, however for some strange reason all the Nesquick migrated to the outside of each popsicle, so I ended up with a soft chocolate coating over a batch of strawberry popsicles. I failed to get a photograph of the second version of these, but I can assure you they tasted rather nice. In the future, I should probably find some sort of chocolate that I know will harden when froze.

Ingredients: Nesquik syrup, pureed strawberries, water, sugar, and milk.

Frozen Fridays #4

With last week's tea popsicle being a bit of a flop, I am coming back armed with more tea to try and redeem myself this week! I know, we can never quite redeem ourselves, but if nothing else, we can come back next time just a little better than before- which is precisely what I have done this week!

This time around, I combined Celestial Seasonings' "Sweet Coconut Thai" tea with vanilla creamer and came out with brilliant results. I am pleased!

Recipe:

1. Brew 1 cup of Celestial Seasonings' "Sweet Coconut Thai" tea. Let sit overnight in the fridge, or cool with ice cubes to obtain faster results.

2. Fill each popsicle mold with half vanilla creamer and half tea; mix contents.

3. Freeze until solid and enjoy!

Book Making!

So, just in case the fact that I have been doing work in the library for almost 10 years doesn't clue you in enough, I happen to love books. So much so that I recently decided to MAKE a book. Read a few tutorials online, mashed all the parts of the instructions that I liked all into one design and spent my weekend bookbinding. Fun!

 

Quarter folded paper! Ripped to perfection.

 

Getting it a little wet helps. No worries, this book is for me.

 

Paper is thick; So, I got a hammer.

 

Sewing paper!

 

All sewn up! Now to glue the 3 layers together.

 

Glued and holding!

 

All glued and ready! :)

 

The lovely spine of my book.

Now, I just need to get my hands on some leather to make a cover. Excited! Will post a finished photo when I get the remainder of the supplies and complete the project.

Frozen Fridays #3

I learned a valuable lesson this week: never make a completely water-based popsicle. The idea of having a layered tea popsicle sounded lovely- and I will say, it did taste quite nice. That being said, because I did not include anything in it besides the tea, these popsicles were rock hard hunks of ice! Tasty ice, but nevertheless, ice. While refreshing, these took WAY too long to eat, since I could not bite into them. Next time I make a tea popsicle I will be sure I put some milk or cream in with it, so that it will have a softer consistency.

Even though they took an extremely long time to consume, they did look rather pretty:

 

Bottom layer: red tea

Middle layer: black tea

Top layer: green tea

Frozen Fridays #2

One sad thing about summer is that you cannot enjoy your favorite winter beverages as much. Who wants hot coffee or hot chocolate if it is 100 degrees outside? Not me! This popsicle, however, offers a great alternative. The top half is caramel coffee and the bottom half is chocolate!

How I made it:

1.) Put 1 tablespoon of instant coffee into your blender. Add sugar and caramel creamer to your taste. Fill with water until you reach the 1 cup mark on your blender. Blend.

2.) Fill each popsicle slot half full.

3.) Freeze for 2 & 1/2 hours.

4.) Put 1 heaping tablespoon of hot chocolate mix into the blender. Then pour in milk until you reach the 1 cup mark. Blend, then fill the remaining halves of each popsicle slot.

5.) Freeze for 4 hours.

Enjoy this Starbucks-y treat!

Frozen Fridays #1

I stumbled across a book of popsicles in the library and couldn't resist bringing it home with me. Ever since I got it, I've been on a so far fruitless mission to find myself a popsicle mold (June is only a week away- I can't believe most of our stores aren't selling those things yet!). Lucky for me, this book not only gives really great ice pop recipes but it also gave me the solution to my problem: get creative.

One of the ideas it gave me was to use whatever ordinary object I could get my hands on, then put tin foil over the top to hold the popsicle sticks in place until the liquid froze up. My weapons of choice? An ice tray and toothpicks.

Just gave it a shot yesterday, and I am extremely pleased with the results:

My recipe went as such:

1.) Put frozen mangos, milk, and sugar (to your taste) into blender. Ingredients together should total 1 cup. Then blend until smooth.

2.) Fill each ice cube spot half full.

3.) Put tin foil over ice tray.

4.) Poke toothpicks into tin foil in each ice spot.

5.) Freeze for 2 hours.

6.) Put frozen strawberries, water, and sugar into blender. Ingredients together should total 1 cup. Blend until smooth.

7.) Freeze again. This time for 3 to 4 hours.

8.) Wiggle popsicles out of ice tray and enjoy!

This recipe made me two ice trays full of mini popsicles.

This recipe was my own invention, but to get more inspiration and ideas, go check out the book Irresistable Ice Pops, shown below.

 
UPDATE - 5/25/14: I just found a popsicle mold a couple days ago. After expressing my intent of making new popsicles every week this summer, a number of my facebook friends said they wanted to know what all I end up making. So, to quench the curiosity, every Friday this summer will be "Frozen Fridays", on which I will post up my popsicle of the week! I hope you can enjoy them (almost) as much as I do :)

Fifty Shades of Eavesdropping

Honestly, I don't eavesdrop on purpose. When you are in a library and people start chattering loud enough, and you are nearby, it just kind of happens.

There were four teenagers seated around a table in the back of the library; two boys and two girls. They all were giggling and making jokes as teenagers do, and making their best effort to have their fun without getting themselves booted from the premises or asked to tone it down, as they had in the past.

Then it happened: one of the girls dared the boys to go find that infamous novel, Fifty Shades of Grey.

I mentally shook my head, then continued about my business, pushing along my cart and putting away books (and truth be told, I checked my cart just in case it housed the tale they were after). I overheard a brief bit of bantering from the table behind me, then watched as the boys meandered off on their mission.

It was not long before I heard the boys' hushed voices from a row over,
"Found it yet?"
"Nope"

"You should ask her", one boy said, casting a quick glance in my direction.

"No way!", replied his cohort, "You ask her!"




"Not a chance."

And with that, the boys began searching the shelves once more. 


Interested and rather amused at their plight, I kept a discreet eye on the two. They did indeed manage to find the book themselves. I grinned to myself, partially because of their previous little argument and partially because I was glad that there are still some high school kids out there who can find something in a library without help, even if the book had to be Fifty Shades of Grey.


Then an idea struck me. I should bring them a present. I wide grin spread across my face as I marched purposefully down the aisle toward the cookbook section. Yes, the cookbook section. Good ol' 641.665, for any of you who may speak Dewey Decimal. We had in the last few months acquired a book entitled Fifty Shades of Chicken: a parody in a cookbook. I quickly snatched it from the shelf and took it back to the very back table.

"I happened to overhear you guys," I said, with a sheepish grin, "so, I had to bring you the parody."

In the end, I found them reading more of the cookbook parody than the original. Considering the content of the original, I'm totally okay with that ending. Little did I know, it wasn't the end. Half an hour later I noticed the same foursome standing outside the library using some black goo to dye the hair of one of the guys. Oh the joys of teenage adventures!

Book of The Week: 1,327 Quite Interesting Facts to Blow Your Socks Off

All I can say about this book is that it is fun. So just go read it. And don't lose your socks.

 

Title: 1,327 Quite Interesting Facts to Blow Your Socks Off

Authors:  John Lloyd, John Mitchinson, &  James Harkin

 Synopsis:

From the creators of the hugely popular BBC quiz show QI and the best-selling Book of General Ignorance: 1,227 mind-bending facts. Did you know?

• Cows moo in regional accents.
• The international dialing code for Russia is 007.
• The water in the mouth of a blue whale weighs more than its body.
• Pants are responsible for twice as many accidents as chain saws.
• Saddam Hussein's bunker was designed by the grandson of the woman who built Hitler's bunker.
• Heroin was originally sold as cough medicine.
1,227 Quite Interesting Facts to Blow Your Socks Off is a trove of the strangest, funniest, and most improbable tidbits of knowledge—all painstakingly researched and distilled to a brilliant and shocking clarity.

Help The Tittle Family!

Taking time out of my usual blog posts to make a special announcement and plea to you all:

A girl I know in Arkansas was killed, along with her father and sister, in a tornado this week. Now her mother is left alone to care for the remaining 7 children. Their home was completely destroyed and ripped from it's foundation in the storm, and all of their belongings are now gone.

If you would, please consider donating to the family's relief fund, Here.

If you can do nothing else, please at least share this post and keep the family in your prayers.

Thank you! 

Book of the Week: Horseradish

  A number of years ago I was having a rough day. I was near the end of my rope; then mom came home from the thrift store and handed me this book. It totally made my day, and this has since become one of my favorite books to show people. I absolutely adore Lemony Snicket's witty quotes!

 

 

Title: Horseradish

Author: Lemony Snicket

Synopsis:

Lemony Snicket's work is filled with bitter truths, like: 'It is always cruel to laugh at people, of course, although sometimes if they are wearing an ugly hat it is hard to control yourself.' Or: 'It is very easy to say that the important thing is to try your best, but if you are in real trouble the most important thing is not trying your best, but getting to safety.'

For all of life's ups and downs, its celebrations and its sorrows, here is a book to commemorate it all – especially for those not fully soothed by chicken soup. Witty and irreverent, Horseradish is a book with universal appeal, a delightful vehicle to introduce Snicket's uproariously unhappy observations to a crowd not yet familiar with the Baudelaires' misadventures.

I'm back! - Meanwhile At The Library...

I seem to go through phases. I write, I play guitar, I draw, I quilt, I do photography... My hobbies seem to cycle through. Clearly, I was out of the blogging phase for a while there. Now for the time being, I am back on the blogging train!

What has gotten me inspired to come back again? Partly, being there again today. I've had very limited work days this month (6, to be exact) due to my nursing home job taking up a lot of this month's otherwise available days. Then, I was supposed to work last week and I got sick. So, my 6 days went down to 5. At last, today I made my return!  After being away for a little over a week and then returning, I realize just how much I missed carrying around armloads of books. It felt good to push the cart and look at the expanse of stories, recipes, projects, and information packed into those bound stacks of parchment. Maybe I am a little too attached to "my" books?

By the end of my shift, the library was closed and the librarians, with a chuckle, told me I should head home. Yeah, I was told to go home from my job. Not too many people can say that, and fewer people can say they were slightly reluctant to obey the order. I like paging way too much :-)  Really though, what's not to like? On top of getting to handle 100+ books, I also came in to discover that there apparently is a holiday called National Library Workers Day. It happened on the 15th, and they gave me a gift card to Baskin Robins to celebrate!

So, I said "partly" the above was my reason for getting back to my library blog. The other part was this video I stumbled upon on Youtube that gave me a good laugh:

Super Bowl: XLVIII

I've never been one for football or Roman numerals. When I look at the title of this year's game, I see this:

SUPER BOWL
Extra Large, Version 3

My boyfriend's mom kept telling me that since both teams have elongated animal heads for their logos, it would be funny to see what a combination Bronco and Seahawk would look like. While my family checks out the game, I decided I would create this new mythological beast. I give you... The Honco.

 

All jesting aside, I'm very happy for my home state of Washington finally getting their shot at all the game glory.

Go Seahawks!!!

Book of The Week: The Beanie Baby Handbook (1998)

To be honest, I made this the book of the week simply because I could hardly believe there was a book published on this topic. Beanie Babies!? Seriously? Do you remember back in the 90's when these were popular? I do. My parents were part of that craze- at one point in time, we had boxes of them because of the supposed resale value they would have for collectors in later years. It wasn't until somewhat recently that they finally gave up on that dream and sent the beanies to their nieces and nephews for Christmas presents instead.

So, if you want some nostalgia, recipes and a chuckle, go find this 1998 edition of the Beanie Baby Handbook. Then, go on Ebay and see if any of the characters listed are actually selling (yes, SELLING, not just listed for) for as much as the book price says. Currently I see some crazy prices for one of the beanies I have in my childhood collection, but none have any bids :P

Title: The Beanie Baby Handbook
Author: Les & Sue Fox

Synopsis:
Contains full page color photos of all NEW Beanie Babies, and includes photos and current values for all 200 Beanie Babies. This edition includes 52 fabulous recipes from the authors and Beanie Chef Jeanette Long. Both previous editions have been on the New York Times Bestseller List, as well as on the USA Today Bestseller List. There are over 3 million copies of The Beanie Baby Handbook in print!

Website: http://www.ty.com/

How They Speak

The more I've worked with the books, the more I've come to feel as if each one has it's own distinctive personality. Some speak out in a southern accent, with their yellow and brown tags boasting a picture of cowboy boots and the label "western", while their covers depict dry sagebrush scenery behind daring gun-slingers and their horses. Other books- clearly romances- seem to demand to be placed where the cute, starry-eyed couple on the front may have a little time to themselves. There are also the sci-fi stories, often giving the idea that if you were to so much as open one, you would be engulfed in a green glow from the alien space ships or obliterated by a ferocious blaster gun ray; unless of course, it happens to be the Steam Punk brand of sci-fi, in which case, people in Victorian-style clothes pose with their unusual technology, framed by silver or bronze with gears & cogs scattered about.

While they all have such varying voices and styles, the majority of the books are all very friendly. Even the shy little Amish romance novels would be more than willing to follow you home, were you to pick them up. But there was one book to which an exception applied: a large, menacing,  old-fashioned looking, black book. It stood two feet tall and was 10 inches thick, with a muscular, unmarked spine. Nobody checked it out, and it was no wonder; even if there happened to be a person around who was strong enough to lift it, they likely would not have been in a place to notice it. The book kept it's home underneath a shelf full of old copies of a newspaper that no longer existed, tucked away in the farthest, darkest corner of the library.

I often wondered about it, because having a book with no title, no author, and no dewy decimal number was quite an oddity. In normal circumstances, it would mean the book did not belong to us and was thrown into the book-drop by mistake. Obviously, such a monster as that would never have fit in the book drop, so that option was out. I once tried to ask the librarians, but all they would give me was that "it is an antique, and should you see anyone attempting to move it, please ask them to put it down."

The fact that they seemed so uptight about the mere mention of it seemed a tad odd, but perhaps it had just been a hard day for them. Even librarians can get bombarded with tough to please people every now and then. Whatever the reason, I knew there was something different about that book, and I was determined that some day I would find out what secrets it held.


-"Between The Pages" exerpt (C) by Sarah Iddings, June 2013.

Whovians Shall be Whovians

I know a lot of you who follow my blog are avid watchers of Doctor Who, therefore I feel I can shamelessly post something like this and know there are some of you who are legitimately interested! Hazzah! For those of you who are not fans of the show, my deepest apologies. There will be a more normal post coming soon for the likes of you :)

These guys did a very fun (and professionally made!) musical:



They also made a sequel!




This girl has the most crazy (and cool) dad ever. Seriously. Can you believe these guys are actually putting a TARDIS into space in a few days!? Pretty nuts, but they're sure going to go down in history for it! I have some friends who helped to fund this.

Also, they have a website: http://tardisinorbit.com/



There also appears to be a whole host of talented craftspeople who have created many fun projects:

10th Doctor Cosplay Dress

The 4th Doctor crochet 

 10th Doctor Plushie

Sonic Screwdriver Necklaces 

Even the quilters have gotten into things!

Tardis Quilt

Gallifreyan Quilt

Oh, and might as well add a piece of art from yours truly- my Tardis pendant!




Last, but not least- if you happen to be a local, our library system now has Day of The Doctor on DVD and Blu-Ray! I finally returned it, so you can now go place your claim. Enjoy :)

Book Of The Week: Battle Bunny

When I was putting away kids books, I noticed that the spine of this one looked like it had been drawn on. Upon pulling it out, I discovered that it was actually just the way it was made. Surprise!

This is honestly one of the most hilarious things I have read in a while. I showed it to my family and they got a lot of laughs off of it too. The idea behind it is that it's a little kid's "Birthday Bunny" book, but that a young boy took his pencil and crayons and re-wrote the entire thing to tell the story of an evil villain who tries to take over the world, and how the kid super hero named Alex is there to stop him. If you happen to see this book, take a look. You won't regret it :-)

Title: Battle Bunny

Author: Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett

Synopsis:

When Alex gets a silly, sappy picture book called Birthday Bunny, he picks up a pencil and turns it into something he'd like to read: Battle Bunny. An adorable rabbit's journey through the forest becomes a secret mission to unleash an evil plan--a plan that only Alex can stop. Featuring layered, original artwork, this dynamic picture book celebrates kids as storytellers.

Link:

  http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Bunny-Jon-Scieszka/dp/1442446730

Socks & Star Wars (Welcome to 2014)

Some people celebrate with alcohol, some with kisses, some stand out in the cold most of the day in New York City watching concerts and a descending light-up crystal ball. Me and my friends? We celebrated with socks and Star Wars. 

A long-time friend of mine has this family tradition of starting the new year off with a new pair of socks. Though his parents have since moved away, he decided to continue the custom. He began by making the announcement that we should "start the year off with a nice warm feeling, and what better way to do that than with a new pair of socks?" I grinned, remembering with fond memories the first party I'd been at where his father had made a near-identical declaration.

Following this, we counted down the seconds before we hit play on Star Wars: A New Hope. It was necessary to count the seconds so that we could time the climax of the movie to happen as the clock struck 12:00 on the first of the year. In the end, we were only 30 seconds off, which wasn't too bad; it still meant the Death Star exploded during the first minute of 2014 :-)

What about you? Any good memories or fun traditions that you practice on New Year's Eve? Post a comment below- I would love to hear about it!