It’s here, the milestone is here. I’m 40! I don’t remember the specifics of when I turned 30, but apparently I was in a cruddy mood all day (thank you, 11 years of blogging). I wasn’t taking photos of myself regularly then, and I thought I should start. When I’m 50, I want to know what I looked like today.
Category: Events and Celebrations
I went to ALA Midwinter while it was happening in Seattle last weekend, and it was amazing to walk the exhibits space and just see so many great books. I’m not as current with what’s happening in children’s lit since I left teaching, and I really miss it. I love being a full time, working writer, but…I love children’s books, and I love sharing them with kids. I was at ALA on Sunday, and then Monday morning they held the ALA Youth Media Awards, where they announce all the big winners in kidlit. This is what I watch every year for the announcement of the Newbery and Caldecott books, and then I immediately buy all of the Caldecotts for H’s collection–we have them all for every year of her life, plus the year I was pregnant (and lots of other years because I just love Caldecott books). I also picked up a lot of the other award winners announced on Monday, and by Tuesday they’d all arrived.
Read more on We’ve Got the 2019 Caldecotts (And Lots of Other Award Winners)…
I know I’m not a working librarian anymore, but the American Library Association had its annual midwinter conference here in Seattle over the weekend. Which was really exciting since this is where the announce the Newbery and Caldecott books every year! I didn’t go to the awards ceremony, but I did spend Sunday afternoon walking around the exhibit floor.
This was, by a mile, the best birthday party H has ever had. Four of her friends and their moms met us in Brooklyn at Brooklyn Owl, a unicorn horn store, for a day out in NYC. The moms went for coffee, and Adam and I stayed to take photos of the girls picking out their own special unicorn horns, making unicorn crafts, eating unicorn cupcakes, and solving clues for the store’s magic mirror, which spoke to them and transformed them from little girls into magical unicorns. We could not have packed more unicorns in if we tried, it was fabulous.
I made this quilt for H’s 6th birthday this week, I finished it last week just in time for her big day on Thursday. I used the Lisa the Unicorn pattern from Elizabeth Hartman, and it was phenomenal. Clear directions, and so much fun to make.
I turned 39 last Saturday! It’s been a week since then, and more than two weeks since I’ve blogged, and it’s been busy and eventful and so much has been going on. So I desperately need to catch up here.
I’ve been on a blogging break all month–work deadlines, holiday prep, everyone’s been sick (I have the flu as I type this, I never get the flu). But this was our December:
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at our house this year. My family came over, there was turkey, I threw butternut squash in the stuffing, and I made an all-day bone broth with the turkey once the leftovers were eaten.
It’s here! Trick or Treat Day came and went. I was so in the weeds with this Belle costume, which H asked for back in July, and I ended up sewing the whole thing on Friday night. I stayed up all night, it took 11 straight hours of sewing, I binged all 9 episodes of Stranger Things 2 while I did it. But she is so excited, and I love how this gown turned out.
Other posts on this project: I’m Working on a Halloween Quilt.
Still haven’t finished her costume! But I did finish this Halloween quilt. Let’s be real here, I’ve cut out the paper pattern but have not cut any fabric or sewn a stitch yet. I’ve been under the weather the past couple of days and haven’t made any more progress, but I will. I am determined to get this costume done by next Saturday, for a costume birthday party for one of H’s classmates.