A few tears of thankfulness and good will are always expected during the holidays. And I think my lists are rather cathartic for me remembering how silly and hormonal I can be, but at the same time how lucky I am to have such wonderful friends and family around me.

But even the truly blessed pregnant women can fly off the handle into a world of hormone induced fury/crying fit. And of course the recent move has added a few real zingers to the list.

So, here’s the list of completely random things that have made me cry over the past couple of weeks:

• Seeing Amy Poehler saying good bye on Saturday Night Live
• Finding out that my presents that I sent to my family were sent to the wrong address
• The incredible kindness of my two dearest friend, Lynne and Jen for coming over and helping me pack as well as my sister’s in law who has been so amazingly giving in her time and energy in helping paint and pack too. As a person who prides herself on being more of a “giver” than a “taker” it’s tough to take–even when you need it so badly. And my friends just shushed me and packed up my kitchen when after I needed a nap. I still can’t believe my luck. See, I am truly blessed.
• The service light going on in my car
• Not being able to go out because I need to PACK
• Officially being told that “I’m HUGE–are you about to give birth TOMORROW????”
• Mr. Sweetie just being so sweet–even though I am probably drive him up a wall sometimes…
• Missing the snow on Cape Cod
• Not being able to put on shoes without help
• Being so overwhelmed by more than 100 boxes that need to be dealt with
• Not cooking a real meal since Thanksgiving
• Being so over acid reflux
• Finding out that the dryer hookup is for electric which doesn’t necessarily jibe with our gas one

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It saddens me sometimes that I’ve been so busy with work and the move and being terribly tired all the time that the holidays just crept up on me.  Probably because I’m not spending the holidays with my parents for the first time in my life. Christmas at Cape Cod is not happening this year for me and my sweetie due to being too pregnant to fly and of course the move.  The picture above was taken outside on my parents porch.

I love Christmas so very very much and the wonderful traditions my family has built over the past years.  But with my baby, my own new family, there will be new traditions to build and I am truly happy and weepy about that too.

And Christmas is about remember how lucky we are to be able to spend it with the people you love and just to know that you have them in your life to begin with.  I am truly blessed and I know it.

One thing that goes beyond Christmas spirit is the incredible kindness of my two dearest friends, Lynne and Jen for coming over and helping me pack as well as my sister’s in law who has been so amazingly giving in her time and energy in helping paint and pack too.

As a person who prides herself on being more of a “giver” than a “taker” it’s tough to take–even when you need it so badly. And Lynne and Jen just shushed me and packed up my kitchen, weeded my back yard while I was overwhelmed with everything going on in my little life. I still can’t believe my luck. See, I am truly blessed.  One of the things I’ve learned is that it’s OK to ask for help and that I can’t control everything–and that is OK.

One thing I can’t control is the sadness a dear friend also faced this past weekend, when he lost his father.  My heart goes out to him and his family.  Arthur was surrounded by love and died knowing that he made an impact on many friends as well as his family. Even his little one year old beautiful granddaughter.

I hope everyone is lucky enough to spend this holiday with someone they love–whether it be over a big Christmas goose, or  take-out Indian food served on paper plates. I’ll be falling into the latter this holiday…  And even if you are not, know that there is love in this world for you even in the most unexpected places.

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I can’t even believe that I’m officially on my holiday vacation.  And what do I do? You’d think it would be pack boxes, weed the garden, or line the shelves of my new little keep, eh?  But instead I think my eight-month pregnant and bone-tired body just said enough and forced me to watch Mrs. Miniver*, read a book and take a two hour nap! Very naughty, but probably very necessary.

After all, how on earth could I say no, when I have this sleeping partner warming up the pillow.

In fact I think it’s officially her pillow, what with the sweet kitties embroidered on the pillowcase. I wish I could say I did it myself, but alas no. It’s some vintage goodness I picked up off of Ebay for a song. But better appreciated now, than stored away in someone’s linen closet forgotten. I know they will be loved for many years to come by me, Minnow and the little one inside of me that is sure to become a cat lover in due time.

But is there anything more bittersweet than reading a particularly yummy and engrossing book and realizing that the wonderful thick part of unread pages ahead of you is waning by the hour, as you use the dust cover to save your place. And that’s happened to me twice so far with these books that I have been sailing through.

The first one of the Potato Peel Society book that has been getting a lot of buzz and the other one is the Tenth Muse by Judith Jones (given to me by my dear friend Renee, who I miss working with more than I can say).  I highly recommend both!  Very consuming books that help take one’s mind off of walls that need to be painted, boxes that need to be packed, and work to be done.

*BTW, I don’t know why Mrs. Miniver is considered a holiday classic. Any ideas out there why?

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I must admit, I am kinda in awe of my sewing machine. But I need to break it in with a nice easy project, so I can get over my new sewing machine fear and turn it into the workhorse I need for my many many baby and house inspired craft projects.

As my first sewing project with Maggie, I decided to make some baby burp cloths. I’ve seen some very fancy versions, but I didn’t want to bother with them. I wanted some super absorbent, but fun ones that were incredible easy to make and dare I dream–use up some scrap fabric to take care of my frugal goals.

I bought some tri-fold cloth diapers to be used as burp clothes for the baby. At about a dollar each, the price was right, but they did need some sassiness. Enter bias tape. Better yet, enter bias tape that you made yourself out of scrap fabric!

And here are the first few trial ones. I must say, they do look cute and were so easy to make. I even tried the new walking foot with them and it was great! Hurrah walking foot!  I used Angry Chicken’s brilliant no crying bias tape tutorial which I highly recommend!

And you can see it glowing the background of this picture. It’s not bad to combined the office and craft room into the crawfice!

And here is one of the burp cloths as modeled by Mr. Sweetie. It’s quite the fashion statement, no?

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I have a long love of quilts, thanks to Craft Mom, who is an uber quilt artist. I’ve had a quilt fascination since the age of 14 and have marked all of the major milestones of my life through quilts. Not necessarily in creating them, but they’ve been there–like when I moved to Boulder in high school and was in the musical Quilters, where the cast quilted as part of their daily after school bonding. Or receiving the seven sisters quilt wall hanging as a present from Craft Mom for my college graduation. Or the light-weight blue gingham and white quilt I bought when I moved to California to start my career. And the most recent addition–my amazing Denyse Schmidt quilt that was a wedding present from a dear family friend.

So, clearly making a quilt was going to happen for my first born. It was just as important as knitting something for her. But I didn’t know what to make. Until I found this great vintage poppy tablecloth. I knew that I needed to keep this quilt simple, so I put the focus on the beautiful design with a gray border.

I knew that this wasn’t going to be a hand-quilted job, which is fine–I know–shameful, but fine. I was determined to use a walking foot to help it out, but alas, no walking foot would fit my trusty old Singer Featherweight, (named Stella) so I decided to go commando and just plow through. Then I realized that the plow should never be used in crafting. But alas it was too late. My beloved Stella crumpled under the pressure. I actually saw smoke coming out of that little sewing machine.

But I did what any self respecting crafter would do. Hotfooted it to the local sewing machine store (and yes, there is one on the island) and bought a new machine. NOTHING CAN STAND IN THE WAY OF MY CRAFTINESS!!! So, I splurged a bit. OK, more than a little bit, but they gave me a great credit from my trade in and a deep discount. So, it turned out to be less than what I paid for Stella eight years ago. And Stella had a good life. She made a slew of drapes, dresses, and disasters during her time–she served me well and hopefully, she’ll serve someone else as a great first sewing machine.

May I introduce you to my Janome Magnolia–who shall be known as Maggie from now on. I’m very pleased with my purchase. Janome has all metal parts and is digital. It did a buttonhole beautifully and has so many sassy little stitches that I’m sure I’ll use at least three of them this year alone.

And they gave me a free walking foot to boot. Very sweet of them, indeed!

Watch for the future adventures of Maggie shortly, who I’m sure will be tested by the craft explosion that is about to hit our new little island home over the next couple of months.

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So I found matching colors for the yellow quilt. Thanks to eBay for the Henry Seed bird fabric, which I adore and saw it first on eveyone’s favorite dressaholic’s blog used by Erin for one of dresses. I also found the yellow polkadot fabric on eBay too. And lastly the charming green fabric which I bought at WhizBang Fabrics in SF.

Seen here with our favorite cat model and the quilt top I matched the fabrics to.

What is it about cats and quilt work? Minnow just can’t seem to leave a good quilt alone.

But with the move, I might have to put off making this wonderful quilt, so expect more on it in the new year.

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I first heard the term “keep” to describe someone’s home about 10 years ago. It was during an NPR radio segment about homes in Russia to describe the cozy feeling that one’s home can get through years of love and life. Then, I realized I heard it many times before in one of my favorite songs of the 80s by ska band extraordinaire, Madness…

“Our house–it’s our castle and our keep..”

And the term “our keep” came to mind, when we first saw this house. It is our keep.

Our wonderful new keep–cozy, yet roomy and bright with a big holly tree out back to hang a hammock from. A lemon tree to make lemon sorbet year round. A big garage for Pinkie our 1957 pink station wagon to snuggle into at night. The brightest kitchen with the original metal cabinets to house my vintage kitchen goods. And a room that is begging to be our nursery. Perfect for our little Peach.

We have the keys in our pocket. A month from our first viewing.

And two months before the baby comes… I can pack up a house and unpack a house during my third trimester, right? During the holidays? During one of the busiest times for my company. Right?  Wish me luck!

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I meant to post this awhile ago…

As much fun as cooking Thanksgiving is, the frugal side of me enjoys finding the best ways to use up the leftovers. Here are the three standards which are now expected with as much anticipation as T-Day extravaganza.

First there is the turkey–which means turkey stock!

It’s also a great way to use up the left over vegetables. Like these pearl onions that I couldn’t deal with peeling them all. And the extra celery.

And left over turkey was changed into this lovely turkey salad from a chicken salad recipe from the Barefoot Contessa. That tarragon makes it!

For some reason, we always have a lot of mash potatoes left over. I could do a shepard’s pie, but instead I opt for potato bread. Oh, it’s so good with that turkey salad!

And lastly the leftover half and half is transformed with the help of Trader Joe’s holiday Jo-Jo’s into ice cream. A tradition started last year which will be continued for hopefully many years to come.

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Eileen, my craft sister, bought a serger a few years back and lent it to me to figure it out.

Well, with nothing but time on my hands at 3:00AM, I thought it was the perfect time to figure that darn serger out and play with a machine that had four very feisty needles and a switchblade. Two hours later and re-threading the scary lower needles twice, I figured it out! Me: one, serger: zero.

Well, I should say, I got the machine working and doing something that looks kinda right, but I have a feeling it will take many months to truly figure this thing out. I still haven’t managed to figure out that “cutting the fabric” part yet, but hey there is always the sleep deprived 3:00AM of tomorrow.

By the time the sun was up, serger mania hit me. I think this hits everyone who has ever owned a serger. It is the somewhat expected desire to serge every piece of fabric in my house, and boy did it hit my hard. So, I used some old undershirts of Mr. Sweetie’s and turned them into proper kitchen wipe rags to hopefully lower our paper towel consumption. And over a two day period, I created 40 of these perfect wipes.

They are super absorbent, and look rather jaunty with their serged edging color combo of red, white, black and purple (thank you, Eileen for your excellent color choice) making them the perfect for learning project for how to serge. And trust me, it is a learning process. And they take care of that resourceful/green/frugal lust that I inherited from many generations of Dotson thriftiness.

Next step, serge the random colorful bits of stretch cotton I bought and turn them into receiving blankets for the baby.

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A big change is coming.  A little hint.

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