Bibliosphere

 February 14, in addition to being the all-important Valentine's Day, is also National Donor Day! Whether you donate bone marrow, blood, or a kidney (and everything in between), today is the day for you! So here are some ways to celebrate your love of donors: Sign up to give blood! Check out this list by zip code. Make a donation to a local blood bank, the bone marrow registry, or a tissue bank. Thank a friend or family member who donates. Sign up to be a part of the bone marrow registry here . Make sure that your driver's license says that you're an organ donor and make your wishes known to friends and family. Ask your workplace, community organization, school, or church to host a blood drive.

 Hello everyone! Guess what? My fundraiser is still happening and there's plenty of time to make your donation!  Did you know that St Baldrick's is a top funder of childhood cancer research? I donated over a foot of hair twice and shaved my head once, all to help kids fight cancer. There's nowhere for me to shave or volunteer in Utah, so I started my own fundraiser in parallel with the February Facebook fundraiser happening nationwide! I'm walking at least 25 miles in February, and I hope that you will join me in donating to St Baldrick's to raise funds for childhood cancer research. You can donate here ( https://www.stbaldricks.org/fundraisers/mypage/4993/2024 ). Thank you in advance for helping save lives!

 So here's the deal. I used to go home in middle and early high school and sit at my desk and just creative. I made jewelry and painted things and played with wax molds and printing kits and all sorts of things I'd found at Goodwill and yardsales. I continued to create later on in high school and into college, but it dwindled as I got older. Grad school and mental illness took a lot out of me, and getting back into the arts, even just drawing, felt like a huge task. But, slowly, I've gotten back into crafting. I started easy, drawing. I did a few Inktobers (drawing challenge in the month of October), I started getting into visual journaling, and slowly began to get creative juices again. It was different than what I'd grown up with though. I was trained classically in drawing at the arts high school, drawing only from observation in many classes (although I branched out at home and in classes with a loose format). But I started drawing from memory, and it's mostly l...

 Did you know that February 4 is World Cancer Day? The theme from 2022-2024 is Close the Care Gap, and it aims to close gaps in cancer treatment. From their website : The last year of our campaign is all about bringing attention to a higher level—literally. We will raise our voices to engage our leaders. Now that we have knowledge and a united community by our side, we are ready to shake the very foundations of injustice—to become lifelong advocates fully equipped to push for lasting change.   Together, we will make sure our leaders know that we demand a commitment to prioritising cancer, to creating innovative strategies designed to confront inequity and to investing our resources to achieve a just and cancer-free world. We will call on leaders to eliminate health inequities by addressing their root causes, ensuring that everyo...

 Today is the day - my fundraiser officially kicks off!   Donate Here  I have to say, I did some pre-fundraising. I have a few donations, some unexpected for sure. Of course I donated to my own fundraiser too.  I set "milestones" for every $100 plus one at $250 for the halfway point. It won't correspond exactly to miles walked, especially since I walk 3-5 miles daily, but I think this will be a special amount that I count only actual walks.  I love going for walks, so the 25 miles isn't a problem. 50 miles probably wouldn't have been a problem. But it's not about the miles.  It's about the kids. Donate Here  

 My county library is probably one of the most awesome library systems (I am super biased though) and actually is one of the busiest systems in the country. I love the system dearly. I love going to their events and often bring along a friend. For the first week of the year, I brought her to our newest library building for a Vision Boards workshop. I didn't think we would spend the whole hour and a half, but sure enough, we didn't roll out until just before the end of the workshop. I spent a lot of time combing through the magazines, picking just the perfect images and text for my board. I focused on my hobbies, especially cooking, things I want to do this year. I unfortunately didn't include a lot of art items, just based on what the magazines had, but also got a lot of cool foodie stuff and them some other pretty things.  Overall, I don't have one concrete vision for 2024. I have some resolutions, sure, and I have my goals. But I'm trying not to set the bar too hi...

St Baldricks February Challenge is almost here! While the fundraiser technically takes place on Facebook, I've made the decision to do an actual fundraiser page, on St Baldricks' website. You can find it here .  I'm honoring children close to my heart, but I'd love to honor more. If you have a child (or adult survivor) you'd like me to add to my page, please comment. Kids can't conquer childhood cancer alone, but we can help them.