It’s been a crazy few weeks but things are starting to settle.

A week and a half ago, I received my MSLIS (Master in Library and Information Science). Graduation was an exciting day but also a day of saying goodbye to some very good friends. I miss them all so much but I know we’ll see them again.

The day after graduation we moved the rest of our stuff from the apartment in Illinois to our house in Kansas. It was probably the least stressful move I’ve ever experienced. (I’ve only moved six times in the last 13 years.) We’ve begun to settle into the house with some boxes still remaining in the downstairs. The upstairs attic (future craft area and spare bedroom) is still full of boxes and needs some serious work. One of the challenges of moving into this house has been going through my aunt’s belongings and making room for our own.

Two days after our move, I started my new job as the Teen/Youth Coordinator at one of the local libraries. I love my new job and it still doesn’t seem real that I’m an honest to goodness librarian. I’ve been planning activities to go along with our summer reading program which has been a lot of fun. Today literally flew by.

Over Memorial Day weekend, I worked a lot in the garden. It’s now 95% planted with peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, peas, butternut squash, onions, herbs and we’ll soon be adding peanuts. We also put in two raspberry bushes in the backyard with one more to add later this week. The gardening has been so fulfilling and I can’t wait to find out how plentiful our harvest will be. I think we’ll probably have lettuce in the next couple of weeks.

Okay, so maybe spring isn’t officially here except the calendar says it’s here. It snowed on Monday and has been chilly the last several days. Will winter ever leave?

(Dahlia seedlings three days after planting)
Spring feels like it’s trying to get here. There may be flowers outside but inside is where the exciting things are happening. Little seedlings are trying to grow big and strong in their little pots in my office. This morning as I was getting ready to water them I noticed three little plants have already pushed through the soil. When I came home from work there was another one starting to come up.

The semester is wrapping up quickly and it’s all making me quite nervous, excited and sad. Nervous and excited because something I’ve wanted for nearly five years is all coming to an end. There were months I hoped to get into library school and in about six weeks I’ll be graduating with my MLS. And also sad to be leaving so many great friends. Some are starting off on their own post-grad school adventures while others will give us a reason to return for visits.

Wow, 500 posts. It’s hard to believe this ol’ blog has been a part of my life for almost seven years. (April 18 will mark exactly seven years.)

This weekend was the Fairy Tale Ball at one of the local libraries. I volunteered to read stories and several friends and classmates volunteered to do other things at the Ball. It was a lot of fun and the fortune teller, who I happen to know was fabulous.

I’d spent a good part of Spring Break wondering if I would find a dress that was perfect. The first store my mom and I walked into and the second dress I tried on was perfect. I didn’t even need to hem it.

Friday afternoon, I whipped together my head garland in about an hour. I bought several stems of “silk” daisies and leaves at Hobby Lobby and twisted them around a bridal headband that I bought. It truly turned out better than I expected.

A couple of classmates said we should wear our Fairy Tale outfits more often. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a plan to wear them to one of our upcoming classes. Oh the joys of being a future children’s librarian! Now to just get the degree and a job.

This weekend I also started peppers, tomato, herbs, dahlia and echinacea seeds for our future garden. It’s a small portion of what we have planned for the garden. Bryan is working on getting the garden prepared for planting. We’ve found out that soil in Kansas City has a lot of heavy clay in it. Poor Bryan found that out the hard way yesterday after trying to pull up the sod. Looks like we’ll be paying someone to till up the soil for us.

This spring will probably not be remembered as the learning-to-keep-myself-in-check season, but it probably should be. Bryan has always been a good balance for me and when I start to get a bit overstressed or over-analytical, he always seems to remind me of the wonderful things we have. Turning 35 this past December was a real wake-up call for me that I needed to take better care of myself, the number sort of jolted me, especially knowing we would be living apart for five months. I’ve incorporated yoga into my life in a way it’s never been before. And I’ve been learning to just enjoy being quiet, though my mind does get the better of me a lot. Daily journaling continues and is a way for me to purge everything at the end of the day. It’s all been an adjustment and I’ve had my moments where I’m ready to pack up and just move. Bianca has been a huge centering element too. She keeps me in line and gives me a lot of kitty loving exactly when I need it.

Last week, I spent my Spring Break with Bryan and visited my family in Kansas City. Coming back was difficult but it’s made me realize how special my friends here are to me. I know have a very finite time here and I’m also preparing to finish up a library degree that for so long has felt so far away. Now we’re looking forward to living together again and the amazing things that come with having our own house with a huge yard. Last week I plotted out our garden – 10 feet by 30 feet. Bryan came home and immediately said, “That’s it?” The yard of our new house is huge and a 10 x 30 foot garden looks like a very tiny piece of the yard. I have a feeling we’ll be planting lots of flowers and berry bushes so there is less yard for Bryan to mow.

I may be in the middle of a busy semester but that doesn’t stop me from dreaming of sewing. My mother and sister bought me some wonderfully beautiful fabric while my mom was visiting my sister in Singapore this past Thanksgiving. I’m starting to feel the itch to make some cute tops out of the fabric but getting my reading done each week for class doesn’t allow me a lot of time to sew. Even with listening to several as audiobooks. As May approaches and my packing has to increase, I’m hoping that I can squeeze a bit of sewing time in. I have several patterns that will make great little tops and even traced a couple of patterns from a Japanese pattern book that my friend Sarah owns. I’m hoping that this weekend, I can sneak in a bit of sewing time.

It’s been a while. I’ve been trying to keep myself busy with class work, work, volunteering and reading. Classes started on January 20 with Young Adult Literature and Storytelling. It’s been a good start to a final semester. But I’ve had a hard time keeping myself motivated while living alone. I just find so many ways to distract myself.

To add to it all, life has been feeling a little off-kilter lately. When I lived by myself (before I moved in with Bryan) I thought of myself as an independent woman with momentary lapses at times. After I got married, I still considered myself pretty strong and pretty independent until last month. I think it’s learning to live alone again while also having your spouse five hundred miles away. I was sort of dreading Valentine’s Day but it was fine. I saw Coraline a second time with knitting friends and pampered myself with a haircut. Bryan definitely made up for not being here.

Bianca definitely enjoyed the flowers too.

Between the time Bryan moved and the beginning of classes, I knit quite a lot on Bryan’s Saddle Shoulder cardigan. When he left at the beginning of January, I had about four and a half inches finished and I’m at nearly 16 inches. Then I have the pleasure of figuring out the sleeves and where in the pattern to start them so they will meet up perfectly with the body.

After seven winters of my cute fall colors flower hat, I decided it was time for a bit of a change. I saw the cover of Boutique Knits and sadly our library didn’t own it until just last week. So I figured out my own version of the cloche on the cover. It was a lot of trial and error as I only had about 115 yards to work with. I reknit it several times before I was happy with it. One problem was I ran out of yarn and the hat was just too big.

A couple of weeks ago I decided it was finally time to case a book that I bound this past fall. It’s my new reading journal and once it was dry, I quickly started to fill it with all of the books I’ve read since I finished my last reading journal. I also bound and cased a book for Bryan and I to write letters in to each other. He hasn’t received it yet and I want him to receive it in the mail before I post photos of the book. I have to admit I think it’s the most beautiful book I’ve ever made.

To say that November was busy is a bit of an understatement around our house. The week before Thanksgiving Break I was beginning to question my sanity and the lack of sleep due to working on projects into the wee hours of the nice wasn’t helping. I definitely enjoyed my Thanksgiving Break and spent some time sewing. Our Thanksgiving was relaxing, we spent it with Bryan’s family in the ‘burbs. The rest of the weekend was spent just taking it easy and getting ready for the coming week. I did a bit more sewing that I’ll show off soon. Now one of my favorite months begins. It’s not just the holidays, it’s the birthday celebration and how everyone seems to be in a warm and giving mood. I certainly dread the commercialism of the holidays, especially after working retail for a holiday season three years ago. This year there will definitely be as many handmade gifts as possible.

In all of the craziness of November I still managed to keep a bit sane and worked on a few smaller projects that seemed to fly off the needles. I have to remember to take knitting on the bus, projects seem to go so much faster. I constantly have this internal conflict as I’m walking out the door to catch the bus to campus – knitting or pleasure reading. For most of the semester pleasure reading has won but I’m thinking that maybe knitting should win for a while.

About a month ago Bryan mentioned how on cold mornings it would be nice to have a pair of mittens that were warm for walking to work but not too warm like his current pair of mittens. I rummaged through the stash and came out with several possible yarn choices. He chose some yarn that I hadn’t a clue what to do with it, which was fabulous. Twelve days later he had himself a pair of walk-to-work mittens. He loves them and has requested a button for the flaps.

I’ve been truly inspired by The Black Apple’s clothing blog. I’m tired of feeling frumpy and several weeks ago, I decided to knit a cowl that I could wear to replace my standard winter fare of turtlenecks. I’d had a ball of Malabrigo sitting around in the stash and decided this was the perfect yarn. It was so soft and knit up quicker than I expected. I think Malabrigo is one of my new favorite yarns. I was a bit disappointed at how it pooled but I received so many compliments on it.

As part of the attempt to wear nicer things, I decided that it was the perfect time to clear out a lot of the old clothes. This past weekend cleaned out my closet and dresser and gave away two and a half trash bags full of old clothes, many that I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve had since college (I graduated over 12 years ago). It’s amazing how attached we get to clothes that no longer fit.

Another attempt at frumplessness is my current project. I’ve had this yarn sitting in the stash for over three years and I’ve wanted to make something with it but have never known quite what to do with it. I always knew it would be a lacy scarf, finding the right lacy pattern for it has always been a problem. Then as I was exploring the Barbara Walker books for a cowl pattern, I came across the Japanese Feather pattern in A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns and immediately fell in love with the pattern. I love the scalloped edge of the pattern.

There have been several little sewing projects going on that I’ll get posted later.

Books I’ve made lately. I learned how to bind my first book using the pamphlet stitch about three weeks ago.
Immediately I decided I had to make a book for Bryan for our anniversary.

This was my first book I ever bound with multiple signatures. It’s a collection of his poems and collages in one book.

He knew I was up to something because I was on the computer and making purchases at an art store. When I gave it to him, he was quite surprised.

After finishing Bryan’s book, I immediately wanted to make another book.

When we were in Kansas cleaning out my grandfather’s house in May, we came across several daily diaries my great-grandmother had kept for several years.

One of the entries really touched me, it said something to the effect of “John called. Jane had baby girl. Mom and baby are fine.” That baby was me and I decided this year I wanted to keep a daily journal, just to record my last year of school.

My attempts at keeping a daily journal before failed but with the perfect book, I knew this time would be different. I figured our anniversary was the perfect time to start.

I knew I wouldn’t find a journal I liked and I decided to make one for myself.

In early September in my Book Arts class, the first book we learned to make was an alphabet book.

Each member of the class made one and we each stamped two letters in the book.

I had “A” and “J”. I love this book, it’s such a special little book.
The button I used for the cover is one I’ve had for about seven or eight years and I’ve never used it. This seemed like the perfect project for it.

This weekend I’m taking an all-day bookbinding class. We’ll be binding three different types of books.