Goodbye 2009

Happy New Year everybody! Yesterday for Winter Camp we made Chinese dragon puppets and explored a bunch of other New Year's traditions from around the world. So now here's another one: the end of the year review...

I've had a really good year. Really. Knock on wood and all that.
I applied to grad school with a portfolio of cityscapes in pencil and embroidery, and found out soon after that I'd been accepted to Tyler School of Art at Temple University to get my Masters in Art Education. Hooray!

I got to be a part of Little Berlin's 80 person collaboration back in June, which led to new connections in the art community and a chance to explore my mapping ideas.

I continued to teach embroidery, color theory, and started teaching kids classes at Fleisher. With the new administration there it seems that fiber arts will continue and grow in the future.

In the summer I started to get involved with NLArts, teaching at their summer camp. Success there led to further opportunities to teach in their First Friday kids workshops and Winter Camp. Hopefully I'll get to be more involved with planning next year's summer camp too.

In September I got to teach an embroidery workshop up at Peters Valley Craft Center, which was a big highlight of the year... maybe even the decade!









I started attending the Philadelphia Cathedral and am happy to have found a faith community that feels like home. I've enjoyed singing with the Cathedral Singers, especially as much of the music is challenging and beautiful to hear in that space. They've learned I'm the creative type and have started to enlist my help with projects as well (more on that tomorrow).

Grad School is going well so far. I got to exhibit with my classmates back in September and my coursework has pushed me towards new areas of exploration both artistically and academically. My family has been supportive even though I haven't been able to pay as much attention to them as I'd like in this time. I've been incredibly busy and pre-occupied, and I'm glad I started this blog back in May to help me make sense of it all.

So- all in all, it's been a good year. Thanks for joining me on my journey, and health and happiness in the new year!