An icy day at home
Well, we may not have snow, but we do have ice. Got up to find an inch of snow on the deck this morning and thought it would be easy to get to work. Nope. The day started when I heard the neighbor making a run at the hill in front of our house and revving, revving, revving, then idling, idling, idling til I guess he gave up. So we made a pot of coffee and waited for the sun to come up and thaw things out. My husband left at 10 in the 4x because he has to work latest tonight and we might have more snow (strike that-went to let the dog in and it is snowing). I followed in the Envoy, which is neither all wheel or front wheel drive and is a left over from Texas that belongs to the mom-in-law. It is parked a lot in winter–starting today. I started out the driveway and immediately hit ice and went no where, so eased off the gas and backed down the hill to our driveway. I got back in the house and found a message from the hubs telling me to stay put, he barely made it up the hill in 4 wheel drive. So I am staying put today at home–baking muffins, cooking beans, doing laundry, surfing the ‘Net, catching up on email….I was due for a day off anyway.
I’ve been doing some research for a project at work. Found a nice website that gives benchmarks for retailers–Retail Owners Institute (http://www.retailowner.com/). This will help us get our mercantile back on track. I’ve learned more than I dreamed possible about retail this past two months. Boy–we still have a long way to go.
Spin, Weave or Dye
The Hubbard Museum is hosting a fiber arts event, Spin, Weave or Dye, on June 12, 2010. We are inviting fiber artists from all over New Mexico to participate. The goal is to allow them to demonstrate their expertise in fiber arts and also to raise awareness of the artistic talent that we have in New Mexico, but they will also be selling their handmade products. As part of that, we will host a Knit in Public Day , but will invite anyone with an interest in fiber arts to bring a portable project (knit, crochet, embroidery, quilting, tatting, etc) or come to learn and socialize in our Stitching Bee workspace. We are also asking people to donate 7″ x 9″ washable knitted or crocheted squares that we can assemble into afghans for a Warm Up America project, which we will donate to a local charity. We will be open 9-5 on that day (normal hours) and regular museum admission will apply, so I hope you will come join us that day if you are within driving distance.
The Truth About Movies
I am getting an education this week on how difficult it is for a small museum to rent or buy movies that complement our exhibits. We don’t charge for them, they are just a “value added” for our patrons when they come to the museum. So far I have learned that public performance rights cost at least $150 per movie, even with severe limits on how often and to how many times you can show it, none of the vendors who can license to us for public performance carries much of anything that is educational, and we can’t qualify for a general umbrella license to show movies because we are a museum and have ‘live venues’.
Listen up, movie moguls–we need a way for small nonprofits to find decent educational videos that they can afford to use in their public programming. We don’t plan to make a ton of money off of them, just educate people on the issues we present in our exhibits.
But then we all know Hollywood has never been about the money…right?
Charities for crafters
Busy hands are happy hands, so I have been looking for charity projects that would allow me to use my crafting skills for a worthy cause. Here are three that were recently highlighted in my Yarnmarket Knitting News e-newsletter:
