Welcome to a super-special Flannel Friday! <\/p>\n
I am celebrating this week because one year ago this weekend, on January 21, 2011, I posted the first-ever Flannel Friday<\/a> on Mel’s Desk. <\/p>\n So today I have FOUR Flannel Friday posts: this celebration, an invitation<\/a>, a giveaway<\/a>, AND I’ve got the round up<\/a>! <\/p>\n A Little Flannel Friday History<\/strong><\/p>\n I came up with the idea for Flannel Friday as a way to make sure I posted regularly to my blog during a more-than-usually busy patch last winter. (I was co-teaching a class on Early Childhood Library Services at the University of Denver for the Early Childhood Librarian project<\/a>, in addition to my regular full-time job. Very fun, but BUSY.) <\/p>\n It worked just as I hoped; I reached into my files and put up a new idea every week from January to March. That pretty much got me to the end of the quarter, so I met my personal goal and I was happy. <\/p>\n But then something really cool happened that made me even happier: On March 18, Anne at So Tomorrow<\/a> and Mary at Miss Mary Liberry<\/a> decided to post Flannel Fridays on their blogs, too! <\/p>\n All three of us posted the next week as well, and Anne went into overdrive on Twitter talking it up, and on Tuesday, March 29, I posted to PUBYAC<\/a> with a general invitation for anyone with a storytime blog to join us, and the first Flannel Friday Round Up<\/a> went live on April 1. <\/p>\n A big shout-out to Katie<\/a>, Mollie<\/a>, Nicole<\/a>, and Sharon<\/a>, who dove right in and joined Anne, Mary, and me that day. <\/p>\n What a ride it has been! <\/p>\n Flannel Friday Milestones<\/strong><\/p>\n We started using the hashtag #flannelfriday, not realizing we were sharing the tag with a fashion trend<\/a>. <\/p>\n From the beginning, Anne has generously donated her time and management skills to maintain our post archive list and the host schedule<\/a>, as well as some tips for hosting, at her blog So Tomorrow. <\/p>\n At the end of July, we fell in love with Pinterest and set up a Flannel Friday account<\/a> to index all our ideas there. <\/p>\n I finally created a blog button<\/a> for us in September, and I can’t tell you how much fun it is to come across it when I’m surfing blogs for ideas. <\/p>\n Mollie started a Facebook page for Flannel Friday<\/a> at the end of September!<\/p>\n Sharon announced 6 months of round ups on PUBYAC<\/a> on October 1! <\/p>\n Now here we are in a new year and Flannel Friday is still going strong! <\/p>\n Flannel Friday By The Numbers<\/strong><\/p>\n Flannel Friday Round Ups: 40, as of last week<\/p>\n Flannel Friday Round Ups with At Least One New Participant: 19<\/p>\n Total Flannel Friday Ideas (I’ve probably missed some): 533<\/p>\n Average Ideas Per Round Up: 12.9<\/p>\n Number of Flannel Friday Hosts: 14<\/p>\n Total Number of People Included in the Round Ups: 41<\/p>\n Highest Number of Ideas in One Round Up: 22 Members of the Facebook page: 174, this morning<\/p>\n Followers on Pinterest: 661, this morning<\/p>\n Total Number of Twitter Retweet Support from Flannel Friday Readers: Uncountable! People Who Have Been Inspired By Flannel Friday: UNMEASURABLE! <\/p>\n Who knows how many people you have reached, and helped, and inspired? You are all rock stars. <\/p>\n Thanks for reading my Flannel Friday Celebration! <\/p>\n Don’t forget to check out my invitation<\/a>, and my giveaway<\/a>! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome to a super-special Flannel Friday! I am celebrating this week because one year ago this weekend, on January 21, 2011, I posted the first-ever Flannel Friday on Mel’s Desk. So today I have FOUR Flannel Friday posts: this celebration, … Continue reading
\nA TIE between 11-4 and 12-2. Thanks Anne and LQ for hosting those days!<\/em><\/p>\n
\nThanks to everyone who promotes Flannel Friday on Twitter!<\/em><\/p>\n