It has been a busy but productive couple of days. Lots of social stuff, and progress in the studio.
First an update on the book organization. I now have all the spinning and natural dyeing books in one place, which follow the weaving books, which makes sense since there are a few ‘Weaving, Spinning, Dyeing” books. Especially “Early American”! And I have two copies of “Your Handspinning” from Elsie Davenport!
Did you every have one of those books, that just doesn’t fit on the shelf with the rest of the books? Either too tall, or too long? I’ve got a copy of Spinning and Weaving with Wool by Paula Simmons (I think that came from my mother in law’s stash), and The World of Wooden Bobbins, the Story of Old Wooden Textile Bobbins, both of which are very wide. So they stick out from the shelf about 3-4 extra inches from everything else around them. There are all kinds of stressors in life. (Yeah I know that isn’t a word, oh well, it fits!) And I usually am able to deal with each one that comes my way, I would like to think, with grace and flexibility. But I’m an organized and anal person, yes I admit to that, and these two books, that stick out on the shelf, make me sort of nuts. They are ruining the order in my system! Would it be too much to ask for publishers to have some kind of standard?
I spent the last two days polishing the new seminar on Website Success. This is a killer of a seminar to develop, one because I am trying to condense years of study into 2 1/2 hours, and because the information changes almost daily. I am scheduled to give it again at Convergence in Albuquerque in 2010, and I fear I’ll need to completely rewrite the seminar by then. What was I thinking?
I took a copy to my neighbor/friend, who is a media specialist at a local high school. Though website design is not her expertise, presentations are, and conveying the complex world of technology to a world of non technological people 
is well within her experience level. She was really helpful, though I didn’t want to hear it. “Way too much information” (Am I not famous for that?), “Boring slides”, she was correct, but how many visuals are there to explain such things as FTP, IP, ISP, Host Servers, HTML, etc. So I went back to the drawing board, and added lots of clip art, figures with question marks coming out of their head, guys looking at road maps, call-out shapes that ask questions the audience is probably thinking (like “What’s a .png”), construction sites, and whatever else I could find to jazz up the otherwise pretty static overload of information. I will admit, it is more colorful. That there is too much information, I can’t help. That I may run over my allotted time, I can’t help either, the first time through a presentation is always the roughest because there is no way to time it and know what things the audience won’t understand. So, I am plowing forward, and I have a cover, and I am waiting until my techie husband goes through it one more time to check for technical boo b00’s.
Last night we had the privilege of attending the opening night of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s Summer Musical Program with the New Jersey Youth Theater Program, Sweeny Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. All I can say is WOW! First, this is a Sondheim 
musical, and probably his most challenging. It is almost all sung, and it is dark and difficult. Secondly, it was performed by the NJ Youth Theater program, which trains young adults for serious work in musical theater. My neighbor/friend (the same one who proofed my presentation) has an 18 year old daughter, who is very gifted, and was accepted to participate in the ensemble in this summer’s production of Sweeny Todd. All of the cast members were under the age of 24. Many were still in High School. The ensemble resumes alone are totally impressive. I will say it was every bit as good as the original production I saw on Broadway, and again at the Papermill Playhouse years ago. I’m so fortunate to be able to see good theater on a regular basis.
Today I drove to the shore. Actually that would be in Jersey speak, “Down the Shore”. There is a difference! There is an active weaving guild “down the shore”, called the Shore Fiber Arts Guild, and they invited me down for the day to teach a class in inkle weaving. I had 16 in the class, and an assistant, who was amazingly helpful. There were a lot of non weavers in the group, and surprisingly a couple of teens with their parents, there was a mother/daughter and father/daughter team. There were a couple mother/daughter teams, from what I understand. It was great seeing such a range of ages, and enthusiasm. Did I remember to take a photo of the group? No, duh…
Anyway, I sold 11 of the little Inklettes by Ashford, so there are 11 more small looms out there in the world to be woven on! 🙂 (Note to Rita, I do have a couple left if you are interested!)
So I’m unpacked, and catching up on my blog, my daughter is back from her second week of CIT training at the Girl Scout Camp. The fuchsia hair is fading somewhat! She leaves again on Monday for two weeks of volunteer work at the camp. This camp has probably been one of the best influences on her, teaching social skills, responsibility, confidence, and maturity. I would like to take credit for all of it as her mother, but her experiences at this camp have been amazing. It is great to watch her come home each summer, full of stories and adventures, and to be able to articulate them with a maturity beyond her years and still exhibit a sense of fun! Their motto as CIT’s is “If you don’t feel like a fool, then you aren’t doing it right!” Now isn’t that a quote we can all live by?
