Happy Tuesday, dear readers. I hope that your week is going well and that you are not feeling the stress that seems to come around holiday times. You know, a great stress reliever is having some fun, so today I have a couple of bits of fun. It is the end of the quarter and I know everyone around here, at least, could use a bit of fun.

I Love Typography has another lovely post on this week in fonts. I’m particularly enamored with Alex Trochut’s Trojan and the possibilities of using it for very lovely book cover designs.

Also, probably of no surprise to readers of this blog, I am rather fond of tea. So it should not be a shock that I quite like this project to make a tea cup lamp. Also, the video tutorial looks quite easy to follow, so yay! I love good instructions when taking on a DIY project.

Finally, because it is definitely the holiday season, I thought we could all use a Simon’s Cat Video:

Happy Tuesday, dear readers! I hope your day is going well. If you need a little pick-me-up, look no further than today’s Tuesday fun!

I don’t know about you, but we have a lot of graphic t-shirts in my house. In fact, we just had to do a purge of them not too long ago so we could actually close the drawers on my husband’s chest of drawers. Sometimes you have awesome graphic t’s that have seen better days, but you don’t just want to turn them into rags or throw them away. If this is the case, check out this Instructable on creating T-Shirt Wall Art. Looks like a fun project for a break from holiday baking and wrapping on the weekend.

Also, I love this Field Guide to Famous Felines poster. Great gift too for the feline-loving librarian in your life. Just saying.

Have a wonderful day and a great week. I’ll be back on Friday. Allons-y!

Happy Tuesday, dear readers! I hope you had a lovely, relaxing weekend and are having a lovely week. I can hardly believe we are in December and am in a bit of a panic about getting all my holiday baking done in the next two weeks. But that is neither here nor there. Let’s get into some fun to help us on our Tuesday!

So a couple of weeks ago “The City” aka San Francisco got taken over for the day by Batkid. It was wonderful to see some happiness in the news and see so many people come together to make a child’s wish come true. Someone even made an awesome “teaser trailer,” The Batkid Rises. Enjoy!

Also for your enjoyment today, check out CatAcademy teaches you a foreign lanugage with funny cat photos. Best use of Lolcats ever! I really do hope it comes to Android soon and expands to multiple languages. So fun.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and a fantastic week. I’ll be back on Friday with more. Allons-y!

Happy Tuesday, dear readers! I hope that your day is going well and for those of you in the United States, I hope you get a short week so you can enjoy Thanksgiving with family and friends. In honor of giving thanks, I have some recipes to share and my usually annual list of things I’m thankful for this year. So let’s get into it.

One of the things I’m thankful for is Joy the Baker’s blog. Never let’s me down and has tons of yummy recipes like bonkers awesome candy bar cupcakes and persimmon prosciutto and Brie grilled cheese that would be wonderful for making with family and friends visiting. Seriously, if you are stumped about something new to make for the holidays this year, check out her blog.

After you get done drooling over all the lovely recipes, come on back and I’ll share a short list of things I’m most thankful for this year. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

2013: 5 Things I’m Thankful For List

1. My husband. It has been a crazy, fast-paced, work and fun-filled year, but the thing I’m most thankful for is to be married to my best friend and partner this year. Here’s to many more wonderful years together.

2. My friends. Weddings are great excuses to get everyone together and have fun. I love my friends and totally wish I had a TARDIS so I could visit those who live across the country and on other continents more often. But even with distance, my friends make my life richer and keep me going. Plus, they do amazing things, like presenting original research at conferences, leading children’s story times, and doing plover rescue and research, that inspire me and make me feel like the world is a good caring place.

3. My work. I’m incredibly lucky, I think, to be working in a field where I truly feel like I can make a difference in the lives of students and in my profession through my research and publication. I love teaching, in all its formats, whether at the reference desk, in research consultations, in the classroom, or in a workshop, and that’s what keeps me going when there just seems to be way too much to do and not enough time to do it in.

4. Used bookstores that feel like an adventure. We recently went to Powell’s City of Books in Portland, which is amazing, and I’m definitely thankful for used bookstores where one can get lost in the stacks and find amazing things to read. I love libraries and bookstores and amazing used bookstores definitely make me feel like a kid in a candy store who must be stopped before buying up the entire store.

5. Great customer service. So I’ve had to be on the phone a lot over the last month with changing things due to being married now and I can honestly say that I appreciate great customer service even more now. It makes all the difference in the world and if I could, I would have everything route through a couple of companies that simply have amazing service. I’m so grateful when I can call in, get to talk to a person easily (without going through 10 levels of an automated phone tree; thank goodness for the trick of hitting 0), and the person is friendly and knowledgeable and able to help me, instead of having to call back numerous times. It makes me thankful to work in a library that truly values great, friendly, helpful service to our library patrons so we are not one of the places that makes me sad through bad customer service.

6. Bonus: I’m thankful for this buttermilk pie crust from Joy the Baker. Truly, best pie crust ever and will make you friends if you bring in pie using this recipe. Word.

Finally I leave you with this tutorial on how to make an edible apple swan. These would be fabulous for Thanksgiving Day tables.

Have a wonderful day and week. I’ll be back with a post for you to read post-Thanksgiving on Friday. Allons-y!

Happy Tuesday, dear readers! I hope that your day is going well. Today I have a few fun things to share that should brighten your day. So let’s get into the fun!

First, I love this story of how a Lego wheel turns tortoise into bionic turtle. Way to go veterinarians–awesome use of Legos!

Also, it is nearing Thanksgiving here in the States, so I am constantly on the lookout for tasty recipes. Joy the Baker’s fresh herb and Gruyere puffs sound like something that will have to be made in the very near future. Any excuse to go to the Cheese Board Collective is a good one!

Hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and I’ll be back on Friday. Allons-y!

Happy Tuesday, dear readers! I hope your week is going well and you had a lovely weekend. Today, I just want to share a few fun things to help you take a break today. So let’s just get to it.

First, did you know that Amazon will donate part of your purchases to your favorite charity? That’s pretty nifty and you don’t even have to do anything other than shop to help out.

Also, autumn is in the air, which makes for great photographs as Anna shows us in her from neighborhood: autumn sights post. Love the photos. Also, you should subscribe to her blog; it’s fun and insightful, plus she is a librarian and archivist. (Full disclosure, I’m incredibly biased about this as she is a dear friend and she is married to one of my best friends, but that doesn’t make her blog any less of a good read).

Finally, what would a Tuesday be with out something typography related? A sad day indeed. Luckily for us, Gizmodo has this lovely article with photographs on 12 monumental structures made from type. Pretty amazing work.

I hope you have a wonderful day and week. I’ll be back on Friday. Allons-y!

Happy Tuesday, dear readers! I hope your day is going well. Today I just want to share some more fun to get you through your Tuesday.

For your viewing pleasure, the awesome halftime performance by the Ohio State University Marching Band:

And, because this is a use of a 3D printer that I can totally get behind, check out this lovely, tiny letterpress.

Plus, who doesn’t love this week in fonts? If you don’t, please don’t tell me. I love seeing examples of new fonts.

Have a lovely rest of your week and I’ll be back on Friday. Allons-y!

Happy Tuesday, dear readers! I hope that your week is going well. Can you believe that it will be November at the end of this week? I can’t either. But luckily getting into the holidays means it is time for wonderful food and hopefully some fun. So let’s get into the fun stuff for this Tuesday.

I am a fan of Joy the Baker and excited to be able to start making all her cold weather-type recipes now that it is getting chilly in the Bay Area. Her recipe for honey chai roasted almonds sound perfect as an autumn snack and pretty easy to make, too.

Also for your Tuesday enjoyment, check out this lovely TED Talk video, Apollo Robbins: The art of misdirection (then share it with your friends to blow their minds).

Hope you have a fantastic day and week. I’ll be back on Friday with more. Allons-y!

Happy Tuesday, dear readers! I hope your week is going well and that your Tuesday isn’t like a Monday if you are just back at work after a three day weekend. Today, I just have a few fun things to share, so let’s get right into it.

On the typography front, I love this wooden typography puzzle (and fun copy by Gizmodo). Plus, who doesn’t want to play a typography game? I’m looking forward to playing Type:Rider soon.

And finally, because I find Jack Johnson’s songs relaxing and I think everyone could use a little bit of relaxation during the work week, I leave you with his song, I Got You. Enjoy!

Have a great day! I’ll be back tomorrow with my blog post for Blog Action Day 2013. Allons-y!