Yarn Porn Hawaii

I have all these great ideas and often when I share them, people look at me like I'm a space creature from the planet Sif. Except for my husband, bless his heart. (mebbe cuz he bounces all his ideas off me too). So I'm just going to start a series of lists that neatly categorize some of these ideas for my type A personality.

Community
Every community fixture should have a way that community members can get to know the employees better while also utilizing available services. For example:

1. Community Library - have a place that posts a library employee's or a library patron's recommendations and current reading. I want to know what the people who work there are reading!
2. School library - how about getting various school staff and parents and community leaders to read a favorite book on tape to be lent out, with or without the book it goes with
   
3. Police Station - their bulletin board can have a monthly safety tip along with a picture and name of the officer who offered it
4. Don Quijote has started offering a lot of Mexican food ingredients. I don't know how to cook Mexican food but I'd be willing to try. Why not put take-away recipe cards using some of those ingredients next to this section, or by the entrance along with the weekly specials, or at the customer service counter. Every week or two, a new recipe. Every month feature a different ethnic food group. Or all kinds of recipes featuring kabocha, which would be on sale that week, or bok choy, etc.
5. Blockbuster - put specific employees picks on display, along with his/her reviews of recent releases
6. Post Office - is there a way I can find out about my mail carrier (kids? hobbies? how long been one?) and his mailing tip

I suggested the thing about the library recommendations, twice, and both times the response was "well, we have the Hot Picks" which is a list of a few national bestsellers that all the library branches carry. My response to that response: but I want to know what MY library's peoples are reading! That was six months ago, I guess they were not amused.

Fundraisers
My kid's school does various fundraisers all year. All year. Mostly selling stuff entirely unconnected to the kids, the community, nothing. It's just stuff. Anyway, I was wondering, why can't fundraisers for kids be stuff or services made or provided by the kids. The kids would learn that their ideas and tangible production have value, as well as a host of other relevant business skills being gained. The other way, they're just learning, maybe, to ask people for money. And their parents are probably doing most of the work, so where's the learning. So what can kids (and teens) make/offer? How about:

• service coupons (wash car, rake leaves, clean out the garage, walk the dog, read the newspaper to someone with limited vision)
• handmade wrapping paper
• take your bottles and cans to the recycle place for a fee
• organize, copy and bind all your family recipes
• bookmarks
• decorated spiral notebooks and composition books
• shop for a younger student's school supplies
• design school or community shirts/mugs/towels/etc. and sell on cafepress.com
• design logo stuff for school clubs other than their own
• videos of school events
  

Now how much ownership, pride, and learning would those fundraisers have gained.

Now, do I have to personally offer to coordinate each of my ideas for them to be taken seriously? Put them in writing and submitted to the pertinent place? I may try that. Not the offer to be in charge of each, but the in writing part. I'm good at the in writing part. That would be an awesome experiment. See what kind of response I get. Not like I don't have enough on my plate. I'm supposed to be doing some etsy forum learning as I type.

20 Reasons Why Living in Pearl City Rocks:

1. larger parking spaces than town
2. wider roads that are also easier to navigate and change direction on
3. the library
4. 2 craft stores
5. Daiei now Don Quijote
6. elementary, intermediate and high schools
7. WalMart
8. Wendy's
9. lock Buster
10. Longs
11. 3 Zippy's (with fabulous mid-priced sushi at the closest one)
12. a wholesale fabric store
13. malasadas
14. a Thai restaurant
15. Dave's ice cream parlor
16. YMCA
17. free trolley
18. 2 BordersALL the above lie within 3 square miles of my house!
19. Moms Club
20. my kid's school is small

Favorite Ice Cream Flavors:
something with coffee and chocolate
chocolate
mint chocolate chip
haupia
lychee serbet
green tea
ube

Things I like to read about:

good friends
smart, funny women (if they swear, it's a bonus) who get the guy
plot twists

Okay, that's it for now, but these lists will continue!