Block Party
Because I had lapsed into a blog-funk (a <em>blunk</em>, perhaps? Nope, just looked it up and it’s Urbandictionaried – dagnabbit), I decided that I should try and keep my posts to once-a-week. That decision took pressure off of me in terms of getting something posted that someone out there might find of use or at least quasi-entertaining.
Well, I’m jumping the gun on this one since I already had a post ready to go for next week, but I don’t want to wait yet another week to show this off – because I’m impatient like that. Because I’m too excited about these:
<p style=”text-align:center”><img class=”aligncenter wp-image-449″ title=”Look at how freakin’ adorable those event flyer holders are! LOOK AT THEM.” src=”http://hafuboti.wpcomstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/2.jpg” alt=”” width=”584″ height=”488″></p>
I truly wish that I could take any sort of credit for these. Perhaps I can take a teensy bit of credit for saying to a teammate that I wished there was a better way to display our small event flyers that parents take with them. Up until today we just laid them on the counter where they got in the way/got messy. My wonderful teammate was the one who suddenly said, “why not use alphabet blocks like those business card holders?” <em><strong>SHAZZAM!</strong></em><strong> </strong>The only other part I played in these were finding the blocks and purchasing them. After that I handed them off to my boss who handed them off to her woodworking father with basic guidelines of what we wanted.
He took the idea to a whole ‘nother level.
I had expected individually cut blocks for mixing and matching. Yes, I was concerned about them being easily knocked over, but I knew we could at least try my trusty museum putty to stabilize them. But what arrived today was nothing short of spectacular. They’re sturdy and stable – and even each one has a pun or special meaning. I still puttied those suckers down (between curious kids and frazzled moms, I wanted to do my best to keep them from being knocked over).
The only addition I needed to make was putting a cut-out piece of cardboard (wrapped in colored paper) to help keep the flyers upright. It took a few moments and they really make the flyers look good from the front. I may add some fun stickers to the back side so that the staff has something fun to look at too!
<img class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-451″ src=”http://hafuboti.wpcomstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/3.jpg” alt=”3″ width=”584″ height=”778″>
As I was puttying these bad boys down, I had another lightbulb moment: these would fix a problem we were having with our new picture book cart. The problem was that we chose to use the top shelf of a small book cart as a faceout display shelf – which looks great, but the books would sometimes slide and fall to the ground (not a good thing with children running around). I had thought that I should find a small tension rod or something that I could decorate to help keep that form happening. Well, in my hands I had the solution:
<img class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-452″ src=”http://hafuboti.wpcomstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/4.jpg” alt=”4″ width=”584″ height=”395″>
I puttied the heck out of those blocks and they’re doing the trick! I may even make a small sign to stick in one of the holders indicating what’s on the cart (there are signs on both sides). I am absolutely tickled with how good they look. I’ll revisit this post and put an update in a few months in terms of whether or not they stay put.
I wish that I could give a tutorial on how to make these, but since I didn’t make them, I can only speculate. I’d say that heavy glue was involved, and a nice power saw – and some paint for the bases. It seems like Woodworking 101 – so hopefully either you or someone you know have the skills to make this happen (and if you do, then<em> please</em> share your results with me).
The best part of these are that to me they represent a collaborative effort where a problem was given a unique and fun solution through the power of teamwork. So when I see these blocks I get a warm fuzzy feeling since they embody my desire to make everyone working at the library a team full of innovators and problem-solvers.
Block on!
