nature is really freaking cool

Oh wow! I woke up this morning and went outside on the balcony to check my plants and ohmygod I have tomatoes! Four of them! I am so excited.

(I was so excited that I instagr.am'd my pictures to share with everyone worldwide.)

I work two jobs (the lib and Borders) on Thursdays and while home eating lunch between jobs one and two, I decided to check out my tomatoes one more time. While out there, I happened to notice this...

My cucumber plant's vine has attached itself to its cage! Holy crap! I had no idea it could do that! Nature rocks!

I can't wait to eat cucumbers and tomatoes! Squeeeeeee!

~*Christen*~

review: collide by megan hart

I just finished Collide and I loved it! It was a fun, steamy romance with a nice twist of fantasy added to the side.

Emmaline is in her 30s, living on her own for the first time in her life, and suffers from fugues after falling during a childhood accident. Things are going great for Emmaline until Johnny Dellasandro walks into her favorite coffee shop. He is a reclusive artist, best known for his movies from the 1970s... and he wants nothing to do with Emmaline, despite how attracted she is to him. While in a fugue on Johnny's doorstep, Emm is transported into Johnny's life in the 1970s, and although "Johnny now" wants nothing to do with her, "Johnny then" can't keeps his hands off her.

I thought Collide was such a different take on the "romance" genre. Emm felt real to me and I liked her. Collide was a great story that I could not put down! We will be buying this for my library and I'll be checking out more of Megan Hart's books in the near future.

Seriously check this book out!

~*Christen*~

fabric scrap wreath

I found another simple DIY project listed on craftgawker the other day that I had to try: fabric scrap wreaths. The instructions listed on idlewife's blog are super easy to follow and I made my wreath in just one sitting. (Okay. I made Dave bend the hanger for me, but I totally did the rest!) This was a great project to use up some of those extra fabric scraps that were just hanging around.

Thanks idlewife for the great craft!

~*Christen*~

look at my garden grow

It's been about a month since I first started my container garden and I am thrilled with the progress of my plants! They're getting so big and fabulous. I really think I might get some veggies to eat this summer!

Up above is my strawberry plant! I can't believe how big she's gotten. All I want is just one strawberry from her and I'll be happy!

Next we have the pepper plant and the cucumber plant. I'm not too sure the pepper plant will do anything (that's the plant closest to the camera), but the cucumber plant looks pretty impressive. This is my plant that has grown the most since I bought it. It's even starting to flower...

YAYAYAYAY!

Lastly, the pride of my garden... My patio cherry tomato plants...

They've also grown and really filled out the past few weeks. I've been watering them and keeping them fed with a liquid plant feeder I purchased from the Home Depot. I can't believe all of the flowers that are on these two plants...

I'm going to have tomatoes! From my very own garden! I can't stand it!!

I'll post more pictures as the garden continues to grow...

~*Christen*~

getting started: part 2

So now that I have these lovely new little plants, I needed to go out and buy some homes for them. I read that plastic containers work best for container gardens because they keep the soil moist longer so I decided to head off to Ikea to use a birthday gift card that I got from my boyfriend's parents for my birthday. I love color, so I wanted containers that were bright and fun! I ended up getting two pail containers and two big storage bins. Of course, none of them had drainage holes, so Dave whipped out the ol' hole making drill tool thingie to help me out!


(He looks thrilled that I'm taking his picture!)

After The Drill King hooked me up, his son, Tyler and I got to planting! Of course, I ran out of soil, but that's okay!

Check out my little container garden! I love it! Now I just have to make sure I don't kill everything...

~*Christen*~

getting started: part 1

I have no idea how to grow a garden in containers. Seriously. No clue. I've bought a few books, checked out the internets, and talked to my gardener friends. After thinking and stressing for about a week I decided to just go, buy my supplies, and start gardening. After all, this is supposed to be a learning experience for me. How can I learn if I don't do?

My first stop was the garden center at Home Depot. Oh man. It was like Christmas shopping 2 days before Christmas. There were so. many. people. Between my confusion over what I actually wanted to buy and all of the people grabbing plants around me, I just sort of panicked and grabbed!

(I know it doesn't look like a lot of people from this picture, but trust me. There were LOTS of people!)

After ditching my cart and circling the plants several time, I walked away with these babies:

I got a cherry tomato plant, some sort of cucumber plant, a strawberry plant, and mint plant, and a green pepper plant. Aren't they beautiful?

And here they are on my (ugly!) balcony:

Welcome home, little plant babies!!

~*Christen*~

tissue paper pinwheels

Last week I downloaded the Craft Gawker app for my iPhone and discovered all kinds of DIY fabulousness. While searching for possible library crafts, I came across the DIY pinwheel and saved it as a favorite for a later crafting attempt.

Fast forward to today. My boss does an American Girl club here at the lib (aka library) once a month and she needed a craft for tomorrow's program. We discussed tissue paper flower rings and then BAM!, I remembered the pinwheels. Following these super easy directions, we made sample pinwheels for the library and now the American Girl Club will be making them tomorrow night!

Check out how cute these pinwheels turned out:

I plan to make a few with silver tissue paper for around my condo. =)

~*Christen*~

awesome photography editing freebies

I like to stalk photographers' blogs. I love to look at their pictures, check out their styles, and also stay up to date with what is going on in the world of photography. As much as I love taking pictures, I'm still really new to photography, so I rely on blogs to help me learn and improve.

While reading (read: stalking) Elizabeth Halford's blog, I came across a post that pointed me to Isabelle Lafrance's blog and oh my goodness, it's like I'm a kid in a candy store. Isabelle has a page on her blog entitled "Freebies" and it is a fantabulous smorgasbord of awesome Photoshop freebie greatness! I got free actions. I got free textures. I got free frames. I am in HEAVEN!

My boyfriend's son had his school field day this past Friday, so I decided to try out some of my new Photoshop goodies on a few of my pictures.

Here is my "Before" picture:


Now after some texture/action/framing magic we get this:

I used the Midsummer texture first and then added the 1_2_3_pop action. After a little bit of tweaking, I pasted the picture in the Brown Paper Frame, and Voila! Awesomeness!

This is just the beginning. There are so many free textures and actions to play around with on Isabelle's website. I can't wait to try them all out!

Thank you, Isabelle for these wonderful freebies!

~*Christen*~

regina's maternity session

I love taking maternity pictures. Moms-to-be are always so happy. They're beautiful. When I found out my girlfriend, Regina, was pregnant with her second baby I *couldn't wait* to get her in front of my camera lens!

I am in loooooove with these pictures. She looks so fabulous and her son, Will, is just too cute for words!

Please feel free to check out the rest of the pictures from this photoshoot here!

Thanks for looking...
~*Christen*~

a story in pictures about me, my home, and my (ugly) balcony

Hi!

I’m Christen…



Welcome to my very lovely condo community…



Some of my neighbors do a really great job of taking care of their porches and balconies…



And then there is my balcony…



Sigh…



You think *that* is bad?!?

Wait for it….

BLEH!



Oh look. Ugly chairs…



And my shih tzu, Miss Stitches…



Meet my boyfriend’s kitty cat, Miss Chloe… (she’s not supposed to be out here!)



I guess once upon a time, back in the 1970s, someone hung up a potted plant…



Stains. Boooo…



What is *THAT*?!?!…



This is going to take some planning…



~*Christen*~

to begin...

Hi! If you happened to stumble here on accident, my name is Christen and welcome to my blog. I'm a librarian who loves books, photography, crocheting, container gardening, bad 90s action movies, milkshakes, and Zumba!

Why am I the "inverted librarian", you ask? Well, because I'm always doing something, turning my life upside down and all around as I go crazy. Plus, I like to hang upside down from street signs. (True story.)

I'm currently a Young Adult Librarian in a public library in New Jersey. I'm in charge of programming and Collection Development for our 6th-12th grader patrons. I love my job and am OBSESSED with YA lit! (YAY HUNGER GAMES!!!!!) My library teens also love to make movies, so you should probably check out our YouTube page!

In 2009, I took part in Project 365. (If you want to see all of 2009's P365 pictures, you can check them out here!) During that year of picture taking I realized how much I love being behind the camera. On Christmas of 2009, my boyfriend, Dave, bought me a Canon Rebel XS DSLR. My obsession with photography has only increased since then. =) Feel free to check out my work on Flickr.

I also love to crochet, although this is a much newer hobby. I had ankle surgery in August of 2010 and was home recovering on the couch for almost two months. While home, my mom asked me to learn to crochet and make her a scarf. Well, I did it! And I now have my own Etsy shop to boot!

Please feel free to follow my blog of crazy random awesomeness! I'll be discussing librarianship and library issues, as well as crafts, container gardening, photography... and so much more!

Thanks for stopping by...

~*Christen*~