5 Ways I'm Springing into Spring!
How do you know it’s spring time? Well, it could be hearing the birds outside emerging from the deep quiet of winter. Setting your clock ahead one hour (and getting that sweet extra slice of daylight in the evening). Or suddenly realizing that time spent outside doesn’t have to mean bundling up in all those layers!
Every time spring comes around, I look back at the not-too-distant past (when there were a few inches of snow on the ground) and wonder how we ever made it through the winter! Spring feels like a fresh start, a reemergence in so many ways - of plants, of animals, of the human spirit.
Since I’ve already gotten my first official sunburn of the year (reading outside for hours will do that to you, so screen up!), I feel just as qualified as anyone to share the five ways I’m springing into Spring this season!
Easter Card Making
I know this will come as a total surprise to anyone who knows me or reads this blog — I like to make cards. I enjoy all kinds of art making, but cards have a way of inviting you in to create no matter how much time you have or the time of year. Each season comes with its own holidays, birthdays, and milestones to celebrate. I love having any excuse to get creative, and to show the people in my life that I care. Creativity feeds the soul, and cards cut right through the distance in times of social distancing. Win-win!
For these cards, I chose bright, colorful card stock paper and sketched out an egg shape in pencil (erasing and refining the lines before applying paint). Then, I free handed some simple flowers and leaves using acrylic paints and small brushes. In a library workshop, this same effect could be achieved by makers of all levels with the help of a paper egg cutout to trace onto the card. Some foam flower stamps or even seasonal spring vegetables (from the library’s local community garden?) could be used to create some really unique and interesting textures.
I also happened to have some very bright and colorful envelopes lying around (perfectly cheerful for spring!). I went the extra step to decorate the envelopes with a very simple flower chain, drawn on with chalk markers. These beauties were a great find at my favorite local thrift store for $1, and the high-quality paper cutter I got there the week before for $6 made cutting these cards to custom size oh-so-easy.
Button, Button, Who’s Got the Button?
Earlier this week, while out on a walk around my block, I happened to step into a kid’s toy store. As a small business, they have some really unique and interesting toys and games - all gender neutral, and all really fun! While buying some no-spill bubbles for a tiny tot in the family, I spotted these incredible buttons!
These are made by a company called Badge Bomb based out of Portland, OR. South Philly based artist Greg Pizzoli is the talent behind these truly adorable and fun characters that promote reading! (He is also currently doing virtual visits to schools and libraries - more info here). I picked out the “Speed Reader” pin from the Take Me To Your Reader collection, and put it right onto my shirt. If I got incredibly excited to don one of these pins (although I may be somewhat biased due to career choice!), I think kids of all ages would too. I could see these being a great giveaway at children’s story times, or as an incentive or prize for reading a certain number of books or completing a reading bingo challenge. These buttons are available for wholesale purchase online at www.BadgeBomb.com
Feeding Community
For the last year (and goodness know, well prior to that), individuals and families have been faced with the harsh realities of food insecurity. For many without access to local, healthful, and affordable foods, the struggle to put food on the table is real. The mental and physical strain of this struggle takes a toll on individuals, and on communities.
Because many people need their local community to stand with them more than ever before, creative ideas to serve our neighbors have sprung up across neighborhoods in cities and towns across the U.S. A recent TIME magazine article highlighted the incredible work of Jammella Anderson as she works tirelessly to install and maintain community fridges across Albany, NY.
In my community, there are fridges and pantries that offer free food to anyone who needs it. Neighbors with the means to donate keep the shelves stocked. An investment in community and each other if there ever was one, we are at a new frontier of fighting hunger in America. From “giving what you can to neighbors in need” around Thanksgiving time to regularly using a portion of your grocery budget to shop for others, and to know that that food will be put to use right away - that is but one major step in a revolution.
Having worked for a hunger relief nonprofit, I’ve come to understand that food donations are but band-aids to the often much larger-scale needs of the community. Fair compensation ($15/hr. minimum wage, for example), free or affordable child care, education and job training, and investing in communities obscured too long under racism’s shadow (by eliminating food deserts, for example) would be good steps to take now to help prevent hunger in our communities in the future. Because food donations are a band-aid to larger problems does not mean they are any less necessary to prevent suffering today. While we do the work to fix the big problems, let us not forget our neighbor in need right now. Let us not forget that if we need support, our community is there for us.
1 in 5 American kids face hunger and food insecurity. Let that sink in. This statistic was true well before the pandemic. Kids, like adults, don’t ask to know what it’s like to be hungry firsthand. They don’t ask for the stress, the worry, the uncertainty. If anything, these community pantries have the opportunity to offer kids some joy and some hope. The particular pantry in my community is often well-stocked with healthy foods: lentils, beans, rice, canned vegetables and soups. Cereal, tampons, pads, face masks, and snack bars all line the humble shelves. Staples. For the children coming to the shelves with their parents, they might not find anything too exciting. After I watched another woman donate a box of pretzel bags, and a little boy eagerly hug the box to bring it home, I knew there should be more for these kids.
Snacks and treats for kids in the community pantry. All of the bottom shelf items pictured cost about $15 total to donate, many purchased on sale at a local supermarket.
I’ve been shopping the sales at my local grocery store, and scoring some really fun items just for the little ones. Apple juice, healthy juice boxes, baby food, Softsoap fish soap, funfetti cake mixes and frostings, and Goldfish of all kinds! Whenever I donate, these things find their way to a lower shelf of the pantry. Let the adults have the lentils and pasta sauces and vegetables of the upper shelves. The closer-to-the-ground shelf, to me, is for the kids. It’s for joy.
Those running my local pantry (it is located immediately in front of a small cafe) post regular status updates to a newly created Instagram account, letting followers know when the pantry is looking a little spare. While maintaining a community pantry may mean doing this kind of social promotional work, and putting the fridge or pantry in a physical space that ensures easy access for both donors and recipients, I think that this model could work most anywhere given the right location and leadership. I think that libraries have the opportunity to share more than just knowledge with their community. I think there is a real opportunity to serve the whole person in both body and mind. Because it’s 2021. There is nothing that we cannot do if we do it together.
A Little Free Library in Sandy Springs, Georgia. Photo: Little Free Libraries
Little Free Library Love
I have long been an enthusiast and supporter of Little Free Libraries. Over the last dozen years, this simple concept has grown to reach all corners of communities both big and small. These little literary portals are more than just ‘a library for ANTS!!’ as Derek Zoolander might be inclined to believe. Though there is clearly no substitute for walking into a whole building full of books, there is everything to be said about access. Little Free Libraries are open 24/7, and you can simply pick out a book if it calls your name and take it home. Or, drop off a few if your bookshelf is starting to resemble a frown-face emoji :\
Though I haven’t been dropping off books as much as I used to at Little Free Libraries (that may be because the one nearest me is always stuffed to the gills!), I have been taking some time to organize the two shelves of books for easier access. Whether it be toddlers pulling out a handful of John Grisham’s latest and putting it back haphazardly (because it is there and it must be touched!), or simply the effects of a well-browsed selection or a quick donation drop, sometimes these little libraries need a little help.
As simple as it sounds, leaving things out in the world a little nicer than when we found them is peak Spring vibes. Since people tend to pay it forward when they notice others doing similar gestures, you may never know the full impact of picking up that litter off the sidewalk, holding that door open a few moments longer for the person behind you, or simply tidying up books on a little shelf, in your little corner of town. Just like community fridges and pantries, a little love can go a long way.
Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar movie poster (cropped)
And of course, Culottes…
Never in a million years would I have bought the light green petite flower print culottes now hanging in my closet if it were not for the pioneering heroes of 2021 comedy, Barb and Star (Annie Mumulo and Kristen Wiig). That I found something pretty and even joyful about my latest clothing purchase which is so far from my usual taste speaks to the pure mirth and fun of Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar - it’s contagious. Barb and Star enthusiastically answer the question that no one was asking — yes, culottes can bring you happiness and may even save your life!
This wacky, whimsical, and warm-hearted comedy is reaching status as a cult favorite at a time when we could all use a little (or a lot!) of an escape from our day-to-day reality. I plan to bring a little of that escape to my Easter celebrations this year in the form of, you guessed it, culottes.
Thank you so much for reading! And don’t forget, keep wearing those masks and social distancing. The finish line is in sight but we haven’t reached it yet.
Stay safe, everyone!
Rabbit and chick wearing masks GIF by Molang
