As most of you know from reading this blog, I am a volunteer tutor at 826 Valencia in San Francisco. It is a wonderful tutoring and writing program in the Mission district in the city, and it is also the only independent pirate supply store in the city! ;) I have to say that this is one of the most fun things I do all week. I go into the center and partner with with one, two, and even three kids to work on their homework together. It is all the fun parts of teaching that I miss and none of the stuff that I did not like about the teaching field. It is just pure fun. While the center has all sorts of great volunteers, it still needs money to operate. Now I am not usually one to go out and solicit people for money, but this is really a great place to put your extra cash if you have some. 826 National has chapters all over the United States that help out students with homework as well as in schools programs that help teachers do all those fun and enriching projects they would love to do but need extra hands for. We also do bookmaking field trips to get kids into the love of reading and writing. So, in celebration of 8/26 Day, you could help out the national organization by donating $10, $8.26 of which goes to us by texting "WRITE" to 20222, or give on line at http://www.826on826.org. It really is that simple. Spread the word if you are so inclined to help us out. If you choose the texting option, a one-time donation of $10.00 (an $8.26 donation and a $1.74 service fee) will be added to your mobile phone bill or deducted from your prepaid balance. Messaging rates and additional fees may apply. All charges are billed by and payable to your mobile service provider. Service is available on most carriers. Donations are collected for the benefit of 826 by the Mobile Giving Foundation and subject to the terms found at www.hmgf.org/t. You can unsubscribe at any time by texting STOP to 20222; reply HELP to 20222 for help.
Also today, we are holding a Write-A-Thon at 826 Valencia from noon until 8:26 pm. I will be there writing for a while after tutoring before I head over to the Fat Chance studio. Some of you are wondering what this Write-a-Thon may be. Well, the fine people at 826 Valencia wrote the following about it:
"What is a "Write-a-thon," exactly? It's just like a marathon. Well, maybe not just like a marathon. Our ambitious, inspired, industrious writers will recruit friends, family members, housemates, and hairdressers to pledge to support them in their writing goal, be it two poems or 200 pages, at a suggested donation rate of $10 per page. Donors can choose to support writers in whole or in part—if your friend is going to write those 200 pages, you can pledge to support twenty of them, or ten, or two. It's entirely up to you!
We're going to write and write and write some more, for a grand total of eight hours and twenty-six minutes of writing frenzy. Pledge to support your favorite writer, or come join the whirlwind of writerly activity! This event is open to students, 826 Valencia volunteers, and the public. For details, please visit our website. Hope to see you later today!"
Well I am off for some quick sorting around the crafting studio before heading in to tutor, write, and go to class. Thanks for listening to my little speech about 826. It really means a lot to me. Check in tomorrow for some more dehydrating and canning fun.
Showing posts with label 826 Valencia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 826 Valencia. Show all posts
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
826 Tent Rebuild
Last summer, I helped trouble shoot some problems with the reading tent at 826's in school room at James Lick Elementary. It was a fun project and involved hula hoops, rope, and grommets. Off of that exciting experience, I was deemed a tent expert, and while I would say that I am far from an expert on building reading tents, I am more than willing to help in any crafty project. I was asked to help another lovely volunteer in taking down the original reading tent, a corner stone of the 826 Valencia Pirate Store and Writing Lab. It was a nerve racking project as I know how pivotal this piece is to the whole feeling of the room and store. It is one of the signature things in the space. The original tent was seven years old, and after that many years of kid usage, it was time for a revamp and lift. I took several pictures of the original tent for comparison and notes in the rebuilding process to get the same look with the new and recycled fabrics.
The tent is laced onto a cording and then artfully draped to several points on the ceiling. The makers then clipped the tent sides together to make it billowy and look like once sewn piece of fabric. The center pole is an old tree trunk.
From there, we moved out the furniture, donned our dust masks, and began taking down the structure. After all the years of hanging there, you can imagine how much dust was trapped in the folds of the fabric. A reading tent is not something you can easily dust or clean. As we dropped each fabric panel, a huge snow storm of dust would come down on top of us. After a while, it began to look like a stereotypical girl pillow fight, only replace the feathers with huge tufts of dust bunnies. There were all sorts of surprises for us as well. Old erasers and sometimes small game pieces would come down with the fabric. Finally it was all collapsed.
After it was all taken down from the center pole, we took the fabric off of the wire and decided what we could keep and what we had to throw. The keep pile got taken outside and was shaken vigorously to get as much dust out we could. The other keeps that could be washed came home with me and went into the washer. After this dusty job, we ended for the night because the dust needed to settle out of the air before we could clean it up.
Wednesday's process started with my running around to get fabric for the replacement panels. After all the fabric was purchased, and 45 minutes on the Muni system for a 10 block trip, I made it to the writing center. I found that the wonderful intern staff had already cleaned up our mess that we fled the night before. It made starting in on the next phase all the more enjoyable. We started by cutting the lengths of fabric and then sewing in the channels for hanging. From there we fused velcro on the edges of the fabric pieces so there would be less gaping issues that the old tent had. This was a brilliant plan for the most part. The gossamer panels did not take to the adhesive very well, so there is some hot glue gunning or something similar to happen after the tent settles and the fabric stretches. We hung fabric and draped into the late night hours, finally wrapping up the job with Dan's help around 11:45 pm. Here are the two quick pictures I took right before we left.
I like the addition of blue to the tent and the replacement of the antiqued looking gold with the bright gold gossamer. We also shifted some of the panels around to bring more light into the tent area by placing gossamer strips where light sources outside of the tent are. While not exactly the same, I think it stayed true to the original and looks great. There are still some gaps that have to be fixed, and that will happen in two weeks. After that, I think I can declare this a finished project and wonderful success. I would not have been able to do it though, without my partner in crime, Lily. She had such a good eye for the colors and panels, where they should be placed, and how it all should be draped. I had so much fun with the project. Thanks so much Lily!
The tent is laced onto a cording and then artfully draped to several points on the ceiling. The makers then clipped the tent sides together to make it billowy and look like once sewn piece of fabric. The center pole is an old tree trunk.
From there, we moved out the furniture, donned our dust masks, and began taking down the structure. After all the years of hanging there, you can imagine how much dust was trapped in the folds of the fabric. A reading tent is not something you can easily dust or clean. As we dropped each fabric panel, a huge snow storm of dust would come down on top of us. After a while, it began to look like a stereotypical girl pillow fight, only replace the feathers with huge tufts of dust bunnies. There were all sorts of surprises for us as well. Old erasers and sometimes small game pieces would come down with the fabric. Finally it was all collapsed.
After it was all taken down from the center pole, we took the fabric off of the wire and decided what we could keep and what we had to throw. The keep pile got taken outside and was shaken vigorously to get as much dust out we could. The other keeps that could be washed came home with me and went into the washer. After this dusty job, we ended for the night because the dust needed to settle out of the air before we could clean it up.
Wednesday's process started with my running around to get fabric for the replacement panels. After all the fabric was purchased, and 45 minutes on the Muni system for a 10 block trip, I made it to the writing center. I found that the wonderful intern staff had already cleaned up our mess that we fled the night before. It made starting in on the next phase all the more enjoyable. We started by cutting the lengths of fabric and then sewing in the channels for hanging. From there we fused velcro on the edges of the fabric pieces so there would be less gaping issues that the old tent had. This was a brilliant plan for the most part. The gossamer panels did not take to the adhesive very well, so there is some hot glue gunning or something similar to happen after the tent settles and the fabric stretches. We hung fabric and draped into the late night hours, finally wrapping up the job with Dan's help around 11:45 pm. Here are the two quick pictures I took right before we left.
I like the addition of blue to the tent and the replacement of the antiqued looking gold with the bright gold gossamer. We also shifted some of the panels around to bring more light into the tent area by placing gossamer strips where light sources outside of the tent are. While not exactly the same, I think it stayed true to the original and looks great. There are still some gaps that have to be fixed, and that will happen in two weeks. After that, I think I can declare this a finished project and wonderful success. I would not have been able to do it though, without my partner in crime, Lily. She had such a good eye for the colors and panels, where they should be placed, and how it all should be draped. I had so much fun with the project. Thanks so much Lily!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Busy Harvest
I have been so busy this late summer that I wonder when it is all going to slow down. I suppose it will not really happen until winter, and that brings its own time full of things to do. Last week was very busy with the rebuilding of the tent at 826 Valencia. I spent quite a while on Tuesday and Wednesday over there working on the massive project. More on that tomorrow with a detailed posting with pictures.
Thursday was spent teaching a friend all about canning. I am by no means an expert canner, and call on my mother and sister as well as another good friend for guidance often. They are all able to send me in the right directions. I BARTed out to where she could more easily get to me, and we headed out into the country for some farm stand goodness. I was happy to be out of the city for a day and enjoy seeing nothing around me but wind farms, brown grass, and fruit trees. There was even some corn fields to make me feel like I was back in Illinois. We found good peaches at one stand, and at another there was some of the famous Brentwood sweet corn that Annie assured me would be just as good as my missed peaches and cream variety from Illinois. She was right, it is just as good. At the stand where I got the corn, he also had these wonderful green variety of figs that are pretty common around this part of California. They have a sweet but smoky flavor, and I though they would be great for some jam. The farm owner, after realizing that I was making jam with them, brought us out a flat of figs that were too over ripe for selling at the stand but would be perfect for our cooking. Best of all, when I went to pay for the corn and figs, he gave us the 5 pounds of figs for free! I gave him a few dollars for them as I just could not take them with out giving something to him for the favor. I look forward to getting more corn from him soon!
Annie, being the food person that she is, wanted to learn to make jam not using the commercial pectin that we bought. I had not done that before and was willing to learn with a partner in cooking crime! We washed the figs off and blanched them for 10 minutes in boiling water to remove the natural wax and soften up the skins, which were already pretty soft.
From there, we opened up a bottle of wine and began destemming and rough chopping them up.
Then it was into the pot, adding a thermometer this time, and lots and lots of stirring. We learned the spoon test and also the cold saucer test for the jam. I found the spoon test to be very hard to learn, but the cold saucer really worked well. Before you start your jam, you place a couple of saucer in the freezer. Once your jam gets around 220 degrees Fahrenheit, you take a spoon of jelly and place it on one of the frozen plates and place that back in the freezer for three minutes. After that time, you run your finger through the middle of the jam puddle to look for correct jam texture for you. It was also nice because you got a preview of the finished product. Once the jam is at a proper jell for you, I like mine so that the two sides of the puddle do not come back together, you stop the cooking and start the canning. We ended up with five very full pints out of the free fruit.
We then moved on to cocktails and peach jam! We took less pictures of that one, but here I am stirring the pot of jam:
It was so fun! I also received some wonderful flowers this week from Dan. While I am not as great at arranging flowers as my mom, here was my attempt:
My flower arranging teacher in college said that when someone gets flowers for another person, they get them for anyone they pass by because seeing another person bringing flowers to someone brightens up the viewers day as well. I hope this brightens your day!
My posting is late today due in part to my need to use the light when I have it for pictures. I took several pictures for new hairflowers that I hope to list this week in the Etsy store. I am also going to list up more destash clasps and things that are great for jewelry makers out there. Today I am hopefully going to finish processing the rest of the bushel of apples in the new toy - a food dehydrator! It is fun and I love it. I am also going to get the house straightened around and cleaned a bit more. There is also fabric for Christmas presents to be tossed in the wash. Yes you read that right.... Christmas presents are going to be started waaaaaayyyy ahead this year so there will be less hair pulling and gnashing of teeth come December 20th. I want to make mailing deadlines before prices are through the nose again. Tomorrow I will have the tent wrap up finished with the pictures!
Thursday was spent teaching a friend all about canning. I am by no means an expert canner, and call on my mother and sister as well as another good friend for guidance often. They are all able to send me in the right directions. I BARTed out to where she could more easily get to me, and we headed out into the country for some farm stand goodness. I was happy to be out of the city for a day and enjoy seeing nothing around me but wind farms, brown grass, and fruit trees. There was even some corn fields to make me feel like I was back in Illinois. We found good peaches at one stand, and at another there was some of the famous Brentwood sweet corn that Annie assured me would be just as good as my missed peaches and cream variety from Illinois. She was right, it is just as good. At the stand where I got the corn, he also had these wonderful green variety of figs that are pretty common around this part of California. They have a sweet but smoky flavor, and I though they would be great for some jam. The farm owner, after realizing that I was making jam with them, brought us out a flat of figs that were too over ripe for selling at the stand but would be perfect for our cooking. Best of all, when I went to pay for the corn and figs, he gave us the 5 pounds of figs for free! I gave him a few dollars for them as I just could not take them with out giving something to him for the favor. I look forward to getting more corn from him soon!
Annie, being the food person that she is, wanted to learn to make jam not using the commercial pectin that we bought. I had not done that before and was willing to learn with a partner in cooking crime! We washed the figs off and blanched them for 10 minutes in boiling water to remove the natural wax and soften up the skins, which were already pretty soft.
From there, we opened up a bottle of wine and began destemming and rough chopping them up.
Then it was into the pot, adding a thermometer this time, and lots and lots of stirring. We learned the spoon test and also the cold saucer test for the jam. I found the spoon test to be very hard to learn, but the cold saucer really worked well. Before you start your jam, you place a couple of saucer in the freezer. Once your jam gets around 220 degrees Fahrenheit, you take a spoon of jelly and place it on one of the frozen plates and place that back in the freezer for three minutes. After that time, you run your finger through the middle of the jam puddle to look for correct jam texture for you. It was also nice because you got a preview of the finished product. Once the jam is at a proper jell for you, I like mine so that the two sides of the puddle do not come back together, you stop the cooking and start the canning. We ended up with five very full pints out of the free fruit.
We then moved on to cocktails and peach jam! We took less pictures of that one, but here I am stirring the pot of jam:
It was so fun! I also received some wonderful flowers this week from Dan. While I am not as great at arranging flowers as my mom, here was my attempt:
My flower arranging teacher in college said that when someone gets flowers for another person, they get them for anyone they pass by because seeing another person bringing flowers to someone brightens up the viewers day as well. I hope this brightens your day!
My posting is late today due in part to my need to use the light when I have it for pictures. I took several pictures for new hairflowers that I hope to list this week in the Etsy store. I am also going to list up more destash clasps and things that are great for jewelry makers out there. Today I am hopefully going to finish processing the rest of the bushel of apples in the new toy - a food dehydrator! It is fun and I love it. I am also going to get the house straightened around and cleaned a bit more. There is also fabric for Christmas presents to be tossed in the wash. Yes you read that right.... Christmas presents are going to be started waaaaaayyyy ahead this year so there will be less hair pulling and gnashing of teeth come December 20th. I want to make mailing deadlines before prices are through the nose again. Tomorrow I will have the tent wrap up finished with the pictures!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Canning Setback
I have always been very sensitive to mold, and while it is usually a good thing, there are times when it is not so great. Mainly this has to do with my foodie side of things. I cannot eat things like blue cheeses, and while I would love to go into Cowgirl Creamery in the Ferry Building I cannot even get close to their stand. The mold rind and strong blue cheeses knock me out just passing by. When we were shopping for a house back in Illinois, our Realtor even joked that I should rent myself out to home buyers as I could detect both mold and mildew upon walking into a space. I instantly get stuffy and cough like a tuberculosis patient. So, you would think that I would listen to this reaction instantly, but when it started on Sunday at the Farmer's market, I ignored it. I just figured that I was still not over the Chaos Wars cold I caught. Well when I started to get things ready for making the strawberry jam yesterday, I learned why I was having such a stuffy nose and cough. The first layer of strawberries was really soft, and the bottom layers were completely molded through. I guess it will have to wait until I hit another stand on Sunday to buy another half flat. It was a sad state of things.
Today I have the curtains to sew for the 826 Tutoring Room I went to several stores looking for the correct shad of red in a fuzzy fabric, but the usual Pirate Store crimson was no where to be found. Right when I was about to give up, I found some neat looking crimson fabric by the door of a shop. I bought all that they had, and while it is enough to cover the space, I am not sure it will be full enough for a long term solution. We will have to see what Maria and the crew thinks about them when I bring them in this afternoon. After I do that, I am going to get the canning back in action and get the apricot jam processed. I also want to pick up my socks that I am learning to knit when I head into the city on BART. If there is enough time after all this, a crisp is in order with those great apples for tonight's dessert, and I would also like to pick up one of the belts I am working on again. I guess I should get to it and get some of this done. I feel inspiration coming on!
Today I have the curtains to sew for the 826 Tutoring Room I went to several stores looking for the correct shad of red in a fuzzy fabric, but the usual Pirate Store crimson was no where to be found. Right when I was about to give up, I found some neat looking crimson fabric by the door of a shop. I bought all that they had, and while it is enough to cover the space, I am not sure it will be full enough for a long term solution. We will have to see what Maria and the crew thinks about them when I bring them in this afternoon. After I do that, I am going to get the canning back in action and get the apricot jam processed. I also want to pick up my socks that I am learning to knit when I head into the city on BART. If there is enough time after all this, a crisp is in order with those great apples for tonight's dessert, and I would also like to pick up one of the belts I am working on again. I guess I should get to it and get some of this done. I feel inspiration coming on!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Less Productive Than Hoped
I was a little less productive than I has hoped yesterday, but I do have the excuse that Dan ended up scrubbing the launch yesterday. He ended up coming home rather early, so I had to also make dinner when I did not anticipate it. I was going to surprise him with cookies and a new tie blanket when he got home late, but I had to move the schedule up. I got them done before he got home, but the work suffered. I also got most of the cleaning done yesterday as well. I also cannot finish that up today seeing as the water to the building is being shut off for pipe work. It puts a little wrench into the situation... hey.. hey... pretty punny! Anyhow, I am going to continue the constant cutting work on the birthday present. I hope to get a bunch done on that before I head into the city to do work at 826 Valencia this afternoon. I cannot wait to get back there after missing it last week. I miss the kids and helping them find a joy for learning. After working there I have a meeting for a new project I am going to help with; more on that in the future. Then I am going to head home, either with Dan or not. I am not sure how this is going to work. They are launching today, so it may be a late night for him or it may go the route less traveled and deploy with no problems and he can just come home. Who knows? Well I am off to upload the Writer's Almanac for today and then off to the cutting table. There is work to be done! :)
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
It's 826 Day!
Ok, I know this blog is supposed to be about Fabulous Pants and all that I do in that area of my life, but sometimes there are other things that bleed into other areas of my life. One of these things is my volunteer time at 826 Valencia. It is a writing and tutoring program in the city of San Francisco that has successfully branched out into other major cities such as LA, Chicago, and New York. It is meant to help tutor students that need to bridge the achievement gap as well as working with students who are talented in writing and journalism. And since the date it 8-26, today they celebrate over at 826 Valencia! I am going to head into the city today to help set up the celebration and meet with the new students and parents for this year. The Mission High book project has been announced as well, and while I am totally taken with the idea of it, I am afraid I cannot be a core member. It would take too much of my already scattered time. So if you want to know more about 826 Valencia, check out their website and donate or buy some student writings! I am sure you will be amazed at their raw talent!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
826 In Schools
Ok so I have kind of been slacking in the Fabulous Pants shop, but it has been for a good cause. I have been helping out 826 Valencia, a tutoring program and writing program here in San Francisco. They do great work, and I am honored to be a part of their volunteer work groups. I had the pleasure of working with a couple other 826ers on one of the in schools rooms. The great people at 826 have some rooms in certain schools to work on writing and other programs with students right there, in their own school. And the best part of all this... they make the rooms just like 826. They are a place full of imagination and whimsy. I have been helping them with their tent project. An 826 associated room would not be right with out a reading tent. This particular tent was missing some spunk, so I came in for the assist. For the past four days, I have been trouble shooting ideas and fixing up the tent so it looks more... well... tent like. A hula hoop and some twine did the trick. If only I could claim that this got me over my fear of using tall ladders. Well I guess I should try to get back to working on some things for the shop. I am just so worn out lately between all the activity in San Francisco and trying to breathe in this wildfire smoke filled air. It just takes the energy out of you. I will post pictures of the tent sometime if they get sent to me from the people at 826.
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