I didn’t sign up for any of the Olympic crafting challenges just because I had enough pressure preparing for my first workshop presentation. My personal challenge was to enjoy the Olympics and craft whenever I felt like it.

The first week, I knitted almost exclusively on Bryan’s mittens. They still need a thumb and to be stitched together across the top.

The second week, I worked on the saddle shoulder cardigan doubling the length of the first sleeve. One day when it’s sunny I will get a good photo of the sleeve and body of the cardigan.

Several evenings when I didn’t feel like knitting, I worked on a quilt that I started several weeks ago. I’m two strips away from finishing the top. Later this spring, I’m taking a machine quilting class and am excited to learn free-motion quilting. I know how it works but am not sure enough to use it on a quilt.

The last day of the Games, it felt a bit odd to plant seeds for our garden. As the seedlings have come up and the weather has turned a bit warmer. I am looking forward to spring more than ever.

I love the Winter Olympics but am so relieved when spring is around the corner. It’s been a rough winter for us, though I know some had it much worse.

I haven’t meant to be so absent from the blog these last few months. With the snow we’ve had this winter, I’ve wanted to nest inside. I’ve been reading a lot, sewing a bit and knitting a bit.

In late January, I took an embroidery class that I loved. I think embroidery on small things will come in very handy. The class now has me wanting to take more quilting classes.

Just before Christmas, we moved my mother’s and sister’s childhood desk up to the second floor that we’re using as our crafting area. Bryan has his workspace for collages and I have the pie safe full of yarns and fabrics, this desk and a sewing table set up. It’s the perfect space in the front dormer of the house.

The Vancouver Olympics start this weekend and I know that my knitting time will be greatly increased. My Olympic knitting goal is to finish the much-needed mittens I started for Bryan in December.

(Mitten 1 when it was in progress)
I have finished mitten 1 and am up to the first red band on mitten 2. What I love about the Olympics is that I get caught up in sports that I wouldn’t normally watch on my own.

If I get the mittens finished, I hope to get some more of Bryan’s Saddle Shoulder Cardigan knit.

Every year the local libraries in the KC Metro area participate in the Metro Youth Services Librarian’s Read Challenge. Our library is participating and I’ve been reading a ton of juvenile and teen books lately, not that it’s really anything new for me. While the challenge is to get more people to read juvenile and teen books, I’ve been challenging myself to read more period. When I come home at night, the TV is staying off and I’m reading a lot. The days I’ve been sick with strep throat, I’ve been on the couch reading. It’s amazing how much you can read in a weekend afternoon or an evening. So far I’m at six books with a little over 1050 pages since January 1.

I’m keeping a book log over on my reading blog, Reading Up a Storm.

Last night I had the privilege of participating in a Mock Caldecott Award at the Johnson County Library. Librarians from the metro area and the public were invited to participate.

At the Mock Caldecott, the winner was:
Alphabeasties by Sharon Werner
with honors going to:
The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney
Coretta Scott by Ntozake Shange, illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem by Mac Barnett
Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Rosenthal

(book images from Goodreads)

It’s been a very busy year for us. We’re finally starting to feel settled in our new little homestead. Throughout the year, we’ve been blessed with so much. And I feel honored to have dear friends to share the year with. I also feel so fortunate to have had wonderful books to have been with me along the way. It’s been an amazing year to learn and find new books that I have loved. While I miss the engagement of classes at school, I definitely don’t miss the work and I love working with the kids. I’ve read and listened to a lot of books (120 to be exact) this year between school reading and reading for pleasure. It’s been a combination of picture books, middle grade books and teen books, which I’m drawn to most.

In no particular order are my favorite books from 2009:
Hate List by Jennifer Brown
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher
Poppy by Avi
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Helen’s Eyes: A Photobiography of Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller’s Teacher by Marfe Ferguson Delano

We started the year knowing that within days of the year starting we’d be apart for several months. Bryan moved into the house that’s been in my family since it was built in 1931 and a few days later started his new job as an assistant manager at one of the Kansas City area libraries. A weeks later I started my final semester of graduate school. It was an exciting time but also nerve-wracking wondering if I would find a job.

Through February, March and April, I visited Bryan a lot. Each month we knew that our time apart was getting closer to the end. April was an exciting month, I participated in the annual Storytelling Festival at the Graduate School and a few days later interviewed for a job. I was offered the job as a Youth & Teen Librarian and couldn’t pass up the opportunity. It was a relief to have a job before graduation.

May found us saying goodbye to many dear friends that we’d made in the Champaign-Urbana area. I graduated with my Master of Science in Library and Information Science. I was a real honest to goodness officially certified librarian! The day after graduation, we packed up our apartment and headed to Kansas City. The movers moved the rest of our stuff in on Tuesday and I started my new job on Wednesday.

This summer we spent a lot of time in the garden and enjoying the fruits of our labor. So many amazing tomatoes, peppers and fresh herbs. We’re still enjoying butternut squash that we picked in November. There are definitely plans to expand the garden next year.

With the threat of a huge snow storm (huge for the KC area), we headed over to my parents for Christmas Eve.
We all stayed overnight at Mom & Dad’s and woke up for Christmas morning there. It was very lovely.

The snow was beautiful to see Christmas morning. The wind helped the snow drift nearly two feet in my parents driveway.

Coming home Christmas afternoon, not so lovely but we got home safely. Most of Saturday was spent inside, except for some shoveling and one snow angel. The flakes were as big as cornflakes, which required a bit of tasting. All in all a very lovely holiday weekend.

I’ve been knitting again recently and am working on a wonderful pair of Mittens from Pakistan for Bryan from the Folk Mittens by Marcia Lewandowski. They are a much needed gift.

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

At my library, I’ve been running a teen writing group. It’s been quite successful and the teens that have come each month have been really enthusiastic. At last night’s meeting, we had a video conference with Sarah Darer Littman, an author of teen novels. It was a really great experience and afterward the kids kept saying how “awesome” it was to talk to a real writer. I think she made an impact on them.

As part of each writing group meeting, the kids have an opportunity to read some of their own writing. It varies from what they’re working on on their own or what they wrote during our writing sessions that day. The first meeting, I didn’t have anything to read and the kids let me know that they fully expected me to participate in the group reading time. Thankfully, the second meeting, we read from what we’d written during the writing session that day.

A few weeks ago, I attended two different conferences in a week, one for young adult/teen librarians and another was on reader’s advisory. At both, I was struck by people who were participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). They were regular people, like me, trying to write a novel in a month. I’ve also been listening to a lot of audiobooks during my commute to and from work each day. Earlier this week, I had ideas swirling in my head (something that hasn’t happened to me since high school) and I decided to sit down and write. So I’ve set a writing goal for myself for each day and we’ll see how far I get. I’m not writing a novel in one month, I’m just setting a goal of writing 500 words each night. I guess it’s a job hazard when you’re running a writing group for teens.

Fall has definitely come to the little homestead.

This weekend we spent some time getting the front garden prepared for the winter, we got all of our bulbs planted. Then we prepared another garden in the front using the lasagna method to prepare the soil. Come spring we’ll be able to plant some flowers in that garden.

It’s been a great fall for us. The tomatoes in the garden continue to amaze us. The lettuce and peas I planted Labor Day weekend are growing well and we were able to harvest a few leaves of lettuce this weekend.
Saturday, we picked all of our carrots. They were so bunched together it was impossible to just pick one.

We’ve also managed to finish cleaning out the upstairs. We have our crafting area along with a guest bedroom for visitors. It’s such a great space and Bryan has been taking full advantage of the space, much more than I have.
I think once the cold really sets in and I’m a bit more into crafting, I’ll spend more time upstairs, especially since it’s warmer than the downstairs.