That time of year

The apartment is all cosied up with Christmas decorations and the remnants of a little holiday party from last Friday. I set the table with a red cross-stitched table cloth that my father made as a child. It was a long train ride from Trenton, NJ to Altoona, PA , where my grandmother's family lived, and needlework was how she kept my father busy. I think it's kind of amazing. The ruffled plates are from the same grandmother. She had a vast collection of milk glass and it became mine when she passed away, last year almost to the day. It makes me infinitely happy to have it and to use it. At least it's not sitting in a box in someones basement.

I took about 25 pictured of the table, all of them blurry, but you can get the basic idea. All warm red and orange and creamy white. Very festive, indeed.

I'm at my parents' house today and will be for the next 4 days. I had a little moment of panic when I realized that I brought my current knitting project but failed to print out the pattern! I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my free time now. It's a feeling kind of like floating in space with no anchor.

For the moment I'm watching TV and sitting on the couch with the family's dog, Ella, faithfully at my feet. Some programming genius knew I needed some comfort today and there is a West Wing marathon on right now. Is there anything cosier than curling up with Josh, Leo, CJ and the gang for a few hours? I think not.

Be grateful for the little things this holiday. Give from the heart and honor the past. Start new traditions with people you love. Keep things in perspective and keep things positive. A new year and a new opportunity to start fresh is right around the corner, so no matter what this year has brought you, there is the promise of the New Year lighting your way.

Happy holidays, everyone, and thank you for being a part of this blog, and of my life.

Craft-rageous! Craft-tacular! Craft-abulous!

I think you can pretty much put the word "craft" on the front of any other word and it would be funny.

Last Saturday was the 3rd Ward Handmade Holiday Craft Fair. The fair itself was quite impressive. It was out in the middle of nowhere in Bushwick, Brooklyn and, yet, there were hundreds of people there! Quite a turn out, indeed.

It was a mild success for me. It's been several years since I was on the craft fair circuit and was a bit rusty. I also think that Bushwick is not really the demographic for my goods. Ah, but live and learn, right? I know what I would do differently next time around.

The coasters, gift tags, and, soon, the pillows are up in my etsy shop. The gift tags were incredibly cute and my best seller. There's only a few left so go get 'em!!!!

In which I head out into the world of crafting

Hey there! I've been super busy since my last sorry post getting stuff ready for the 3rd Ward Handmade Holiday Craft Fair! It's my first craft fair in about 4 years and I'm a little nervous, so come out and say "hi", OK? And maybe buy something!

Gotta go finish with the sewing and knitting and etc! See you Saturday!!!!

Oh, hey, I have a blog

I actually couldn't remember the last thing that I posted. I had to visit my own blog to find out. That's really sad.

Then I had to go to flickr to see if maybe there were some pictures of stuff that I hadn't blogged about and there weren't. Not really. Just some random shots of supplies for a photo shoot I did a week ago and this one.

These are destined to become something that's a bit of s surprise. I'm going to sharing a table on December 12th at the 3rd Ward holiday craft show in Brooklyn. I'm pretty excited. I'm going to be selling stuff from my etsy shop as well as a slew of new items.

In the meantime, I've been sewing up a storm, knitting when I can, and, well, living life. I often forget that I can share all of this here. There's been another photo shoot, a chili takedown, a Christmas tree.... I'll be sharing all of that with you really soon.

I promise.