ooh, ooh, chronicle books is having a 40% off sale right now....i just stocked up on angela adams and lotta jansdotter stationary! and some gifts, too. oh my god i can't wait!

well, thanksgiving was an absolute joy, and i'll reference some pics once my busy husband posts them. i had a spatula, baster, spoon or fork in my hand nearly the entire weekend, so hubb took all the photos. my 20-pound monster turkey, who i lovingly named thor, was divine, and it still gracing us with delicious leftover mash-ups.

my family was wonderful, and i am so touched that they all decided to come out to spend the holiday with us in our new home. we had more fun than i ever expected shopping, playing games, cooking, and of course, eating. we also visited the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum, which was packed but enjoyable nonetheless.

once they left i needed something to keep myself busy in the evenings, so i began making some of my christmas gifts.

these little penguin ornaments will be for my cousins and sisters to represent their fast growing families, and the teddy bears will be for the kiddies.

this was my very first attempt at sewing a bear, and dispite his slight downs syndrome appearance, i think he is rather sweet. i made another one last night, with brown felt for his feet, inside ears and nose, and his little head looks much more proportional. i have 3 more bears to go, (#1 is a prototype and i'm keeping him!) and with my pink, blue, and wooden button eyes i'll be assigning them to my new little neices and nephews. i may even do a little monogram on the foot for each baby: carter, brenae, sophie and justin.

i'm getting more into the holiday spirit each day. yay for crafts!

one of my best friends from college, two years my junior, is pregnant. she's pregnant! and her two best friends are also pregnant, plus one of their sisters. and my boss just had a baby a week ago and my sister just had a baby a month ago, and someone else at work is pregnant, and a good friend's sister is pregnant with TWINS and i feel like i'm dwelling on this too much but i'm getting a little weirded out. i'm feeling out of the loop and i'm strangely jealous, not because i want a baby because god knows that i have no desire to handle THAT right now, but because if everyone else is doing it, i want in. it's like a secret society of reproducing women all around me and it makes my insides all smooshy. it's a middle child syndrome thing, older friends and younger friends are all having babies, and i'm stuck in the middle a little lost and not ready but jealous all the same. is that weird? now, nearly our entire regular social circle is child-less, but that almost makes it worse. it is all people i don't spend regular time with which makes it all that much more mysterious. it's interesting to reflect on how your environment can influence your life choices so dramatically. i'm rambling because i'm happy and excited and also feeling left out at the same time. but that's ok.

and i'm getting ready to host thanksgiving for the first time in my new home. i hosted last year for 6, which went of wonderfully except when the oven died as i pulled the just finished turkey from it. the toaster oven didn't really work all that well on the rolls, but our downstairs neighbor allowed the 3 inches of room in her oven to save our stuffing. i'm altering a few recipes this year, inviting a few more people, and am fretting over my simple yet delicious decisions. i feel the need to step it up, but if i'm going to i need to figure it out fast.

i'm making:
butternut squash and pumpkin soup
a 20 pound turkey spiced with orange and cinnamon
gravy
apple sage cornbread stuffing
maple sage roasted sweet potatoes
caramelized brussel sprouts
moroccan carrot salad
ginger apple pie

they're making:
rolls (in the oven this itme)
orange cranberry sauce
garlic mashed potatoes
goat cheese rice stuffing
pumpkin creme brulee (yum.)

i plan to document, and post a few photos and recipes here.

happy thanksgiving, everyone!

my comments got lost. boo.

ok, things might be a little wonky around here for a few days. i just reformatted to the google version of blogger and i lost a lot of my side content. i'm working on it, and it was probably time for a redesign anyway (note the new title bar).

woo! i received my list of swappers, i finished all but one of my pears (11 out of 12, but i only really need 9 to mail out), so it looks like i'm almost ready to mail! now i just need to attach my yarn for the "hook", determine which method of packaging will work best, and make little notecards. then it's off to the post office (or usps.com more likely). i have 6 US swappers, a swapper in canada, one in london, and one in south africa! i can't wait to see what everyone has made.

bummer. tiny showcase sells out every week before i get a chance to peek. this week i am devistatingly heartbroken.

lovely. wonderful huggable pears for the swap. i have some gnarbly brown yarn to add for an ornament hook.

i heart these guys so much. and apparently my cats do too. i accidently left the pears on the coffee table the other day, and when i came home they were strewn about the apartment. the kitties are jealous i am not making toys for them. that might be a little side project soon, catnip-filled felt fruit for eva and stella.

excited.

1. money. we were good loan-payers this year, so our credit union lets us skip a wedding loan payment. woo! one less check to write this month, and more money for presents.

2. ...presents for me: i've decided to finally splurge on a le creuset dutch oven. i might need a while to get over the excitement of this. i'm shaking.

3. i've also decided to learn to make more sweets. i saw this recipe and decided i must make them. if you come to any of my parties, please be advised that these will be there for all of them. as long as i don't eat them all myself.

4. i just received feast in the mail and it makes me want to stay home in bed until i'm done reading it. lovely, witty, britty, and beautiful. inspiring, too.

5. tonight i shall start sewing soft little chenille teddy bears together for my little niece, nephew, and cousins' christmas gifts. we have a one year old and three new little babies in the family this holiday, and i'm feeling amazingly wonderful and giddy about the whole thing. it means so much to me to give gifts made by hand, especially by my own.

6. similarly, i have finished 8 of my 12 christmas ornaments for the swap. i decided on adorable stuffed felt pears. i'll take some photos tonight. i might keep making them, and maybe some apples, too, to try my hand at selling rather than spending at etsy.

i got a rather large gift certificate to barnes and noble for my birthday, and for the past week i've been struggling with which books to buy. i have a list of "must reads" from like two years ago, but now i'm not so sure about some of my choices, and i honestly haven't been keeping up on what's new and what everyone is reading. i need to freshen my list before i can go shopping, and i need your recommendations.

i am definitely going to buy i like you by amy sedaris, and one or two jose saramago books because i love his writing. and i might get the 75th anniversary joy of cooking becuase i've never owned it and i feel like i should. other than that i'm a little lost. i've historically liked the-books-that-everyone-on-the-train-is-reading, but i'm not so sure that's what i'm looking for now. just good reads, or can't-live-without resources.

anyone? anyone?