Another day, another autoimmune flare, another medical specialist, another round of blaming myself for chronic illness and also telling myself I should not blame myself. The road goes ever on and on…. (Advice not requested.)

🎮 Had a breakthrough in Blue Prince and I’m so excited about it it’s hard to sleep.

📚 Reading Zoraida Córdova’s Labyrinth Lost and realized I had the perfect bookmark for any book by this author.

Finished reading: Surrender to the Devil by Lorraine Heath 📚

Lorraine Heath is so good at the job.

Finished reading: A Curse Carved in Bone by Danielle L. Jensen 📚

This companion-sequel to A Fate Inked in Blood spends the first third or so revisiting the first book but picks up in the middle third and is gripping and full of revelations for the last third. I highly recommend the duology.

Finished reading: These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean 📚

I will follow Sarah MacLean anywhere, from Whitechapel to Narragansett Bay. If you like family narratives with a strong romantic thread, read this book.

Finished reading: Three Simple Rules by Nikki Sloane 📚🎧

“There was something about trains.” 💬📚 Reading Sarah MacLean’s These Summer Storms while actually on a train.

Finished reading: The Rose & the Dagger by Renée Ahdieh 📚

Another excellent book!

My First Skirt Sketches 🧵

Here are my first sketches for my Skirt Skills class with Brooks Ann Camper. I did a yoke for each waistline because my tummy hurts often enough that I want a friendly waist for it. I also sketched with real shirts I actually have, tucked in, since I often do tuck in. (Usually with a French tuck, thanks Tan France!) My plan for my skirt is to make something lightweight that I can wear to my job as an elementary school librarian early in the school year, then transition to fall and winter with leggings. Each sketch includes a pattern inspired by fabric available from Spoonflower and a bookish graphic tee that I actually wear to work.

Brooks Ann has a great way to create a custom croquis to draw clothing designs on your own body, which is how I got these sketches that actually look like me.

Sketch 1: Pencil skirt A sketch of a clothing design with a pencil skirt

The pattern inspiration for this skirt is Stack of Books by Kassi Simpson and the shirt is It’s Me Hi I’m the Librarian by Yaquetees.

A swatch of fabric printed with stacks of books A black t-shirt that reads 'It's Me Hi I'm the Librarian It's Me'

Sketch 2: A-line skirt A sketch of a clothing design with an A-line skirt

The pattern inspiration for this skirt is Red Crimson Pink Blush Roses by Elda & Oak Design Studio and the shirt is the Book Nerd Floral Unisex T-shirt by Out of Print.

A swatch of fabric printed with red and pink roses on a black background A t-shirt with the text 'Book Nerd' surrounded by illustrations of flowers

Sketch 3: Tulip skirt

A sketch of a clothing design with a tulip skirt

The pattern inspiration for this skirt is Pumpkin King Stripe by Disneybound Dresses and the shirt is the What’s More Punk? t-shirt from the Mt. Pleasant (VA) Library Friends.

A swatch of fabric printed with wobbly white pinstripes on a black background A t-shirt with the text 'What's More Punk Than The Public Library?'

Drawing these was super fun and has really inspired me. I’m beginning to understand and imagine so many possibilities for designing my own clothes, especially for cosplay.

I’ve been thinking about going back to a hand-coded website for a while now. I don’t want to lose the functionality I have at my current site, so I’ve created a staging site where I will work on brushing up my coding knowledge. You can follow along at handcoded.kimberlyhirsh.com.

Finished reading: Managed by Kristen Callihan 📚🎧

📚 In Animal, Vegetable, Junk, Mark Bittman writes 19th century farmers wouldn’t let land lie fallow or rotate crops because it made the most sense to force land to yield the most profit. This led to soil exhaustion. I think the same thing happens when we try to extract maximum labor from people.

🔖 Read We Cannot Give Up on Each Other by Kelly Jensen.

I really needed this today.

The page isn’t turned, and the book isn’t closed. There are chapters still being written, chapters still to be written, and people who are eager to be brought into the story to help make it what we all deserve.

Finished reading: The Wrath & the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh 📚

So great.

I’m taking Brooks Ann Camper’s Skirt Skills Custom Sewing class. Yesterday I put together my notebook for the class.

My goal is to use stuff I already have as much as possible so long as my experience doesn’t suffer for it.

Here are some photos! Notebook cover, pencil box, sketch paper.

🔖🧵 Read Just Make it Already! How to Boost Your Sewing Confidence.

Brooks Ann Camper includes this as a bonus link in the orientation for Skirt Skills, which I’m taking right now. It’s exactly what recovering perfectionists need to heal & works for any creative endeavor.

It’s very Kimberly that I just had a nightmare in which the nightmarish occurrence was that the public library had pushed the YA bookshelves so close together that they were inaccessible. 📚

Finished reading: To Have and to Heist by Sara Desai 📚

Super cute and fun!

🧵 I made a pillow! Well, I covered a pillow. I used instructions from the Sewing 10 class from Brit + Co. My seams were so wobbly that I actually had to go back and hand sew a gap closed. I used a messy whip stitch to finish it but I’ve hidden the seam on the bottom here.

📚💬 “When no help comes from outside, a lost crop becomes a famine.” Mark Bittman, Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal

Finished reading: Once Upon You and Me by Timothy Janovsky 📚

Another delight from Timothy Janovsky. Full review coming soon!

Finished reading: Idol by Kristen Callihan 📚🎧

Finished reading: Tangled Up In You by Christina Lauren 📚

A super cute Tangled retelling!

Disabled writer heroes: Leigh Bardugo. Esmé Weijun Wang. Johanna Hedva. I have more but these are the ones top of mind at this moment.