Art at the Library -- Ugly Sweaters

When Kimberly-Little Chute Library was offering an even to make ugly sweaters and all you had to do was provide the sweater, I marked it on the calendar. I have an ugly Christmas sweatshirt that I got a few years back when we did ugly Christmas sweaters for Christmas day. I wanted another one, specifically an ugly Christmas hoodie.

Because I was a slacker and never made it to Hobby Lobby to get an plain hoodie, I ended up with getting a nice fleece tunic. So no ugly Christmas hoodie for me this year.

The library supplied all the supplies needed to make the Christmas as well as some samples designs to go off of. I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to make a Christmas tree and decorate it.

When I got there all the green shiny garland was used up (they had two sessions) so I just used garland that looked like pine garland. Armed with lights, ornaments, bells, stickers, and packages I went to work on decorating my tree.

I discovered that foam stickers work great since they have really strong adhesive.

I am happy how it turned out. I will wear for the Rudolph Run and ugly sweater day at work. Maybe next year I will try to get the hoodie and make another one.

4866. Go to Whoville Holiday event in Oshkosh

Whoville Holiday has been on my radar for a few years. It hasn't been a high priority but it sounded like fun. This year it fell on my birthday and the weather was going to be halfway decent. Danielle and I decided to go check it out.

Whoville Holiday is an annual event in downtown Oshkosh and features Breakfast with the Grinch, pictures with the Grinch, carriage rides, a Grinch Scavenger Hunt, showings of the Grinch movie, and deals from various merchants downtown Oshkosh. It is a great way to spend a Saturday morning.

We opted not to do the Breakfast with Grinch but decided to check out the other festivities. We picked up a scavenger hunt sheet and a map. I doubled checked that big kids can participate too since the event is geared towards families. I was assured we could.

Our first stop was getting a picture with the Grinch. The line wasn't too long and moved quickly.

After getting a picture with the Grinch, we started out on the scavenger hunt. Basically you had to find 20 different Grinches in the windows of various downtown businesses. I was seriously thinking this was going to be a challenge. Nope, you literally looked for a picture of the Grinch on colored paper. Then write down the color and letter on your sheet. Unscramble the letters and you're a winner. Not very hard but kind of fun.

Besides looking for Grinches, some of downtown businesses had window displays. It was fun looking at all the window displays as well.

My prize for completing the scavenger hunt was a giant lollipop.

We got in line for the carriage ride but decided to was taking too long and headed home. It literally took you around Opera Square.

While we waited we saw other Dr. Seuss characters.

It was a fun event especially for families with small children. I might go back and do it again next year. Maybe we will even do breakfast.

Art at the Library -- Memory Board Hoops

Neenah library has a DYI Design workshop the 3rd Wednesday of the month. This month's project was going to be memory boards made from embroidery hoops. I signed up since it sounded like a fun project.

Supplies

• Embroidery Hoop
• Cardboard
• Fabric
• Batting
• Hot Glue

It is actually a quite simple project

1. Trace the inner hoop on cardboard and cut it out.

2. Attach the batting with hot glue to the cardboard. Don't jam the hot glue gun.

3. Cut a 10" circle from the fabric.

4. Glue the fabric to the cardboard after putting on the inner hoop.

5. Replace outer loop.

The entire project took about 30 minutes.

I will eventually add ribbon so I can attach ticket stubs without using pins.

Author Talk: Jim Guhl

When a coworker mentioned that a classmate of hers wrote a book called Eleven Miles to Oshkosh, I made a mental note to add it to my to read list. Then I saw he was coming to the Appleton Library to talk about his book. I put it on my calendar.

I didn't read the book before seeing Jim speak. It never made it on my to read list and I had a stack of books I wanted to get through first. Since I didn't read the book, I limited knowledge of the plot. To be honest I thought the book was based on a true story. Nope, it is all fiction. Eleven Miles to Oshkosh is set in Neenah in the 1970s and follows the story of a teenager who is determined to find his father's killer... the 41 killer.

Jim talked about his personal life, his book, and the writing process. Jim was an engineer by trade and when he retired he started dabbling in writing by joining a writing group. He ended up winning several contests which gave him confidence and he wrote his first novel. Now he is working on his second novel.

It is always a joy to connect to authors and discover some new books and occasionally a new genre. I love hearing about how their got the idea to write their book, their writing process, and how long it took them to write and publish the book. Each author's story is different and each journey is unique yet follows a similar path and timeline.

Hopefully I will have the chance to listen to other authors in the future.

Bazaar After Dark -- Fall Edition

I've been wanting to check out Bazaar After Dark for a while now but it never fit in my schedule. Bazzar After Dark is an old fashion street fair with food, vendors, and street artists. It usually happens along a street in one of the area communities in the evenings during the summer... about 2 or 3 times a year.

This year they decided to do a fall one in Menasha. It was a Saturday. Most of the Bazaar After Dark start around 7 pm. This one started at 3 pm and to about 7 or 8. Since Danielle was busy, Heather came along.

I was disappointed. It was a fairly nice day out considering what it has been lately and there weren't a lot of people, booths, or artists. I think being November had something to do with it.

There were some game set up along with a few ping pong tables. Heather's son beat me in ping pong. I had to get used to a shorter table. It was fun trying to wipe the snow off the ball.

We wandered through the vendor booths, stopping inside to get some s'mores and hot chocolate for the Boys and Girls Club. That was the highlight of my day besides playing ping pong. The s'mores were made with marshmallow fluff instead of toasted marshmallows and were quite tasty. I kind of wish they had a fire pit outside to roast marshmallows and make s'more with. That would have been perfect.

We checked out the food trucks but I really didn't bring cash with me (dumb I know) so I didn't get anything.

We watched the sword dancers for a bit. I didn't see the fire eaters. They must have been later.

Even though I was disappointed, it was still a fun time. I know I want to go to one in summer when it is actually dark out and see it really come alive. This was a good taste to see what it is like.

Holiday Mail for Heroes

I've always wanted to do Operation Dear Abby. It's been on the original bucket list and I'm like this is the year I'll do it. However due to the anthrax scare after 9/11, Dear Abby has ceased operations. For a while I think there was an email operation but I can't seem to get to an active link for that operation either.

When I saw that Scheels was doing Holiday Mail for Heroes, I made sure I got to the mall to send one. I figured it was close enough to Operation Dear Abby that it counted.

Scheels provided the cards, pens, and postage. Literally all I had to do was stop outside of display outside of the store, write a message to a service person in a card they provided, sign my name, and leave it in the other bin. They would take care of the rest.

How simple is that?

I was glad I saw that Scheels was doing this and made time to go support our troops. Who doesn't love getting mail especially when you are thousands miles from home during the holidays? It may be a tiny gesture but I'm sure it means a lot to the serviceman or woman who gets my card.

I hope Scheels continues this for years to come.