Working at USC library

Downtown Los Angeles

A few days ago my Grandma took me to her work.  My Grandma works at the University of Southern California (USC)  library. She is a librarian, and works in a library that has over 2 million books. My Grandma leaves to go to work at six-thirty in the morning so I had to sleep over at there house.  I couldn't have breakfast in the morning because we had to leave right away.  On the way to her work, we passed downtown Los Angeles.  Downtown is a place where there are many gigantic buildings were people work and live.  

Each isle has more than 100,000 books in it

Stamping Discard on books

At her work there is a toaster. We took some pieces of bread and cream-cheese and made breakfast there.  After I had breakfast, my Grandma gave me some books to stamp the word Discard on the books that the library didn't need anymore. I had to stamp the spine, the first few pages,  and the back where the bar code was. 

Very old books

While I was working, some students arrived to work in the library. After I was done stamping the books, my Grandma took me to one of her students named Olivia.  That day was her last day because her school started on Monday. The first thing I did with her is to find the books that people were requesting to check out.  All the books are organized by call number.  It was very hard to find the correct books.  Then Olivia showed me the Dewey section. In this part of the library many of the books are over a 100 years old.  The books are smelly and very dusty.

Scanning books

Next, we scanned a whole cart of books that were returned back to the library.   When I was done, I had lunch.  That day there was ice cream for all of the students and I got some too.  After lunch,  there was a job fair that my Grandma had to attend.  A job fair is a place where all the people who want a job go and meet with people who are hiring.  My Grandmother wanted to hire 3 students to work in the library.  The job fair was on the main campus of USC.  On top of the building, there is a Globe that stands for International Relations were the students study how countries relate to one another.  On the other side of the building, there are many flags from different countries.  While my Grandma was talking to other students,  I went around to every table and got candy or other goodies that they were handing out.  When I got home, I shared all the goodies that I brought with my siblings.  After the job fair, my Grandma looked over the applications and looked for the neatest hand writing.  I learned how important it is to have neat handwriting.

Globe on top of the International Relations building

International flags

Job fair

Who do you want to be when you grow up?

Do you like your job?

Fashionable Friendship Bracelets!

This summer, I decided to make a friendship bracelet.  A friendship bracelet is a bracelet that is made from string or yarn that you give to your friend.  The first step to a friendship bracelet is to find a friend. A good friend is someone who is nice, fun to be around, and caring. My best friend Adia, has all of those characteristics and came up with the title for this post.  Thank you Adia.  Every week this summer, Adia and I took turns coming over to each others houses.  We swam in the pool, made friendship bracelets, played board games, played ping pong, and did many other activities.

Here are the steps to make a friendship bracelet:

1. Pick out the colored string that your friend would like.  Use at least three or more different colors.
2. Tie all three of your strings into a knot at the top.
3. Tape the string to your thigh or another hard surface (e.g. desk)
4. Pick one string and make a shape of a four.
5. Take the end of the four and put it under the strings. Pull it forward so it forms a knot around the other strings.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 with the same color 5 to 10 times.
7. Follow the same instructions to create a pattern with the other strings. 
8. Give it to your friend.




Step 4





Step 5

 



Adia wearing the bracelet

Have you ever made a friendship bracelet?

Do you have a best friend? 

 What do you like to do with your best friend?

A Day With Grandma Tanya

Last weekend my mom and dad had to go to a wedding, so I stayed at my grandparents house.  I did a lot of things with my grandmother like cooking fish.  My Gandma bought fish that still had the head attached.  First, my grandmother and I took off the scales with a knife and cut off the head.  Before my Gandma cut off the head of the fish, I got to touch its teeth.  After the head was cut off, my grandmother washed the fish and cut it into four pieces. Then she salted the fish.  Next, I put the fish into flour so the skin would get crispy when fried.  Then, I put the fish onto the frying pan and let it cook.  When the fish was ready, I put the ingredients away and let the fish cool. 

Later, my grandmother and I went for a walk with their dog Elsie. Elsie is a big German Shepherd.   While we were on the walk, it started to rain.  Can you believe it? It rained in the summer!  My Gandma Tanya and I ran to a tree and we stayed there until the rain stopped.  The tree was large, green, and bushy and protected us so we didn't get wet.  During our walk, we took some photographs of beautiful roses and flowers that we saw on the way. Here are some images of what we saw.

  

On our way home, we decided to go to my Gandma's neighbors house to see their cats.  After visiting the neighbor, it was time to go home to Grandma's house.  It was then that my grandmother realized she didn't have the keys to open the gate to get back.  So I had to climb over the gate, swing on a tree branch to get into their backyard.  Then I got the keys from the garage and opened the gate for my Grandma.  It was a big adventure. 

Have you ever spent the day with your grandmother? What did you do?

    

My Pillow

I just finished a new craft. I made a rug of a puppy using a latch hook kit. The printed image was color coded to correspond to a colored piece of yarn.  

 

I used a latch hook to attach the yarn to the canvas.

When I placed the colored piece of yarn over the latch hook and pulled on the hook it created a knot around the canvas threads. 

When I finished the rug,  I made a pillow.  I cut blue fabric into a square large enough to fit the back of the pillow.  Next, I took a needle and blue thread and started sewing the blue fabric to the canvas.  It is important to use small stitches when sewing or else the stuffing will come out.  After I sewed 3 of the sides, I started stuffing the pillow.  Then I sewed the 4th side but left a hole to add more pillow stuffing.  At then end, I sewed the hole so nothing could come out.  

 

Here is an image of what it looked like as a pillow.  The pillow is now part of our living room couch.

Are you working on an interesting craft that you can share?