Went to school.
Ate donuts.
Went to the fabric store for thread.
Didn’t buy thread, but bought this Valentine mailbox kit and put it together:
Tag: girls
I’ve noticed that quilters–the ones who are prominent, well known, with Instagram feeds I aspire to myself–don’t talk about politics. My guild friends talk about it nonstop, but the community at large seems to be pretty neutral. Many of them talk about issues, and man, do we have a history of tackling some issues with fabric and thread. But less specifically about politics and candidates (even if those issues are loaded, politically). I have this sense that it’s something that’s just not done in the professional world of quilting, and I kind of straddle both professional and not. So when I had this banner idea the other night during the DNC, I suddenly got nervous and almost didn’t make it. I’m trying to build something here with my quilting, and I wondered for about 5 minutes if this would be a bad idea.
This past weekend I went to dinner with some fabulous Phi Mu ladies. We went to Ninety Acres in Peapack, NJ, a farm-to-table restaurant in the heart of Natirar park (formerly Natirar estate). It is seriously gorgeous, and the restaurant is in the carriage house of the old estate.
Today was my very last program at the public library; my official last day is on Tuesday. So I decided I wanted to have another GCPP. Following the hit formula of the first one I did back in April (which followed the hit formula of my Girl’s Club predecessor), we watched two movies, had lunch, made a craft, and were all around pretty silly.
So now that the word is out, I can write about my new job. In about 3 weeks I’ll be starting as the librarian at an elementary school closer to home. This means I won’t necessarily have as many crafty activities to write about, but I’m sure I will still have plenty of librarian-like things to post. It’s a very cool, exciting change, and I’m really looking forward to it. I just have to figure out how to deal with leaving the kids at my current public library position. I’m sure they will recover in about an hour, but I’ll be pretty upset for a while. I’m having one more Girl’s Club Pajama Party before I go, so I’m working on some fun stuff for that. Big changes!
I couldn’t get enough of this book, I read it a few months ago in one sitting. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things is the story of overweight Virginia Shreves, a Manhattan 10th grader in a perfect looking family who urge her to lose weight so she can be pretty. When her older brother does something deeply despicable, she starts to understand how imperfect her family is. She becomes empowered, stops apologizing for her size, starts getting strong, and just becomes awesome. I was cheering for her at the end, and I think this is a must read book for teenage girls. I can’t say enough good things about it, one of the best YA books I’ve read. I’m only sorry it took me this long to read it.
Read more on The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things by Carolyn Mackler…
Today it was time for another private school visit. The kids were great, and I just picked fun stories to read to them. I brought A LOT of Mo Willems because I’m doing a program around his books in a couple of weeks. I wanted to try them out. Here’s what I read today.
There are a few books now about my favorite glamour girl, but the first Fancy Nancy is fabulous. Robin Preiss Glasser’s illustrations are so sassy. If the Girl’s Club girls were younger, I would do a program around this book. Nancy lives to be fancy in everything she does, and she tries to get her regular family to dress up and be fancy, too. The illustration of the whole family standing in the doorway of the restaurant for their entrance is hilarious.
About a month ago, a much beloved children’s librarian left our staff to move to D.C. I took over a few of her regular programs, including the monthly Girl’s Club for girls ages 8-12. One Monday a month the girls gather to watch a movie, have a snack, and make a craft. This beloved librarian had also thrown the girls a Saturday pajama party twice a year.
I think Lulu and her dog Bingo are my new favorite superheroes. This is a brand new, adorable story about being the youngest and the smallest in the family but finding all the really big things you can do. I hope this husband-and-wife team write more Lulu adventures. As a little sister myself, I think the illustrations perfectly capture that feeling of being small and sometimes having to make your own fun (my mother’s favorite answer when asked what we’re going to do today: “I am not the cruise director!”). Lulu’s dog Bingo mirrors her moods wonderfully, and his ears are characters all their own.