don’t hate me
Don’t hate me because it’s summer and I don’t feel like knitting a stitch. Don’t ask me where that came from either, it’s just the first thing that popped in my head when I started this post.
No Cookies in the Library
I stumbled onto this on YouTube and thought, “Cookie Monster would love our library since we have a cafe with cookies.”
I’d love to say that I’ve finished so many projects lately that I have a whole slew of them to show you but I don’t. Last week, I knitted my first stitch in about three weeks. I traveled to Kansas about two weeks ago and had planned to get some sewing done but I just didn’t have the time. Before I left for Kansas, I did whip up a cute little skirt from Sew What Skirts and cut out another one to work on while I was visiting my parents. A few things I did manage to do while I was gone were putting in, ripping out a zipper and resewing it into another skirt that I hadn’t finished. Last week for the Harry Potter party, I realized I didn’t have a black skirt to wear so I just bought some fabric and whipped up a cute black skirt. Since I had my sewing machine out, I also finished the skirt I’d been working on in Kansas. I’ll get photos up soon.
While I was gone I worked on the baby quilt, I finished two of the edges and am working on the other two then I’ll be sending it off.
While I was in Kansas, I was able to visit the Hays Public Library. It’s the library I grew up in and was anxious to see their remodeled and expanded building. What a great library and extremely inviting when you walk in. They’ve put a lot of time and work into making it a very browseable library. In two areas, they’ve arranged the shelves so that there are small alcoves of shelves, sort of what you’d see in a bookstore. I was very impressed and now know why my grandfather brags about the library so much. The best part was that they still have the castle in the children’s department that I remember spending so many hours in.
The Harry Potter party we had at the library was a big success. We handed out all of our books, more than 300, in less than 14 minutes. One of my favorite parts of the night was the reactions of the kids when they were handed the new Harry Potter book. You’d thought that they had been handed the greatest thing they’d ever seen. It makes me so happy and excited to see kids this excited about a book. The café in our library was open that night too and served butterbeer, pumpkin juice and various other Harry Potter related treats. Now people asking when is the next big party at the library. I think people not only loved the activities we had going on but the fact that the library was open late on a Friday night and it was a party. It was a lot of fun working that night, but it took me the entire next day to recover. Saturday we’d planned to go blueberry picking and I was exhausted from the night before but that wasn’t going to stop me from going to the blueberry farm. I was a gorgeous day out and to be outside I think helped me recover some.
More than anything else I’ve been reading a lot. I finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban en route to Kansas and started and finished The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld 
while I was there. Last week and most of Sunday I read New Moon by Stephenie Meyer, the sequel to Twilight that I mentioned in my previous post. I literally read the entire day on Sunday. Sunday evening, I started the fourth Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. With all of the Harry mania, I couldn’t help but get wrapped up in it. I’m enjoying the books and this is a case where I want to be like everyone else and finish the series.
The weeks are counting down and I can’t believe that in three weeks, I’ll be in the middle of my graduate assistant training at the library I’ll be working at this fall. School starts in about four weeks, fortunately my first class isn’t until August 28, so I have some time. I was checking into the book list for my children’s lit class and I think it’s going to be a really fun class. Having to read children’s picture books for class, what fun.
Tracy said,
July 26, 2007 @ 6:14 am
I wish I would have re-read all the HP books before I started 7. I will have to go back at some point and have a marathon. When I was in Childrens’ Lit - it was exhausting but fabulous. When would you even have the time or motivation to get that much children’s lit reading done? Things like laundry always get in the way. :) Enjoy.
Elspeth said,
July 27, 2007 @ 9:12 pm
I can’t wrap my head around food being allowed in a library. When I was in library school one of my classmates got harassed by her coworkers for bringing a coke to her desk, and now there are cafes and food all over libraries.
Good luck on school! I enjoyed my children’s lit class as well.
Erin said,
July 30, 2007 @ 8:05 am
As much as we want summer to be this great time to sit on the lawn with a tea and our knitting… that usually just doesn’t happen. We’re usually too busy doing other things. Or it’s just too hot and humid. Don’t feel bad about not having the urge to knit much!
The Harry Potter party sounds like it was a ton of fun!
Felicia said,
July 30, 2007 @ 12:46 pm
What a wonderful time that must have been handing out those HP books. Years from now you’ll be able to tell folks what it was like to have to wait years to read the books :)
Shannon said,
August 5, 2007 @ 3:35 pm
I haven’t read New Moon yet. I’m a big library supporter so I don’t buy many books, and I’m waiting for our library to get a copy. It will probably be a one day read for me too. Thanks for the nice blog comment :)