Going Forward Into The New Year

I hope your New Year's Eve is as calm as it is for these alpacas. Don't get too drunk tonight--no one wants to start a fresh new year with a hangover.

Tuesday Project Roundup: NEW SEWING MACHINE!!!!!!!

Look what is in my house RIGHT NOW:
Compared with the 1962 Singer I've been using (goodbye, Old Paint), it is like a spaceship. I hear the Also Sprach Zaruthustra theme whenever I look at it. This is the beginning of a new Sewing Age. It makes buttonholes! It finishes the edges of your seams! There are nineteen different stitches to choose from! It comes with accessories! (Cat butt not included in all models.) And I think the Swiss Army made its ballistic nylon cover:
Best (early) birthday present EVER. Thank you Mom and Dad!

It's Monday

And if you're home on vacation, you can just do this:

Notice there's still a blog here? That's good! But it still looks the same--I figured out how to make the change but still need some more info to do it. So we're waiting on that. NEXT week it will be all new and improved.

Testing!

This is only a test.

Happy Christmas Eve

Like the rest of the blogging world, I won't be posting the rest of the week because of Christmas. But I have more plans than celebration and vacation--I'm going to attempt to move the blog to Blogspot (gasp!) to help with the organization and overall look.*

So I will leave you with three things to read for the next three days:

1. Tonight I'll be reading The Tailor Of Gloucester (this link even has the illustrations!) to everyone. Mr. Isbell can humor me, Toby can look at the pictures of the mice, and I can commiserate with the Tailor about not finishing his projects and buttonhole quality. And we can all say NO MORE TWIST.
2. If you'd rather read something to yourself or if your cat has a longer attention span than mine, I recommend the Christmas chapter in The Wind in the Willows. It's the winter chapter where Mole rediscovers his old home after living at Rat's all summer and takes Ratty there on Christmas Eve. There are also caroling field mice.
3. And if this is all too cute, here's something adult you can read: It's Nigel Slater describing Christmas in Vienna in a Guardian column last year. You will want to listen to Strauss.
   

*I am a little nervous about this, but I have reinforcements I can call in (hi Amber!) to fix things if the move goes horribly awry. So if you don't see a blog here next Monday, don't panic; it just means that I'll need another week to have someone who knows what she's doing fix things.

Tuesday Project Roundup: All I Want For Christmas Is Some Crafty Time

And after today, I will have time--I have tomorrow through January 4th OFF. I'm going to try to finish that taupe cardigan (I have to start over on the back, though, so it may not happen), sew two shirts, and knit one of these cowl-y scarf-y things:

(Found, along with a pattern, on the suitably titled CopyCat blog of craftiness.)

We Made It

Yesterday marked the Winter Solstice, so at least we can have more light as we fight "the depressive psychological effects of winter on individuals and societies," which Wikipedia defines as "coldness, tiredness, malaise, and inactivity."

I've mostly escaped malaise and Mr. Isbell and I have been pretty good about staying active, but the coldness this year has been getting to me. My fingers and toes are ALWAYS cold, and Toby and I are in front of the space heater like it's a roaring fire. (If only it were.)

But at least December is almost over, then there's just January and February. We can do it, right?

Friday Unrelated Information

1. www.postcardsfromyomomma.com is a collection of emails and IMs that adult children have received from their parents, and it's priceless. (Especially the "dads" category, no offence to any excellent fathers.) Maybe it's because I think moms are so awesome, but I get such a kick out of reading them:

Got it! Good photo! Did the studio send out the buffet for you?!! Is that a hotdog/cigarette/donut you’re eating?!! Who is the young lady in front of you?

I really must know what you have in your mouth. Dad is curious, too.

Please reply immediately. Love, Mom

2. Speaking of parents, I was visitng last Sunday and my father had taped part of a sales flyer shouting THESE ARE THE FINAL DAYS to the calendar in the kitchen. With six days left until Christmas and Snow-mageddon on the way in just hours, I couldn't agree more.

3. And, from The Onion: McCain Stares at Screen, Attempts to Write Family Christmas Letter:
Forty-five minutes later, after two aborted attempts to compose the letter from the point of view of the family cat, Oreo, and another about what 2009 held in store for the McCain clan, the Arizona senator took a break to make a cup of hot cocoa and listen to the grandfather clock ticking in the background. "Jesus," McCain mumbled. "Jesus Christ."

So awesome. Go read all of it.

Food I Cook For Myself

Oyster stew is a traditional Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve supper in my mother's family, but only she and I like it. Mr. Isbell doesn't care for it either, but since he was at band practice last night, I made some for a week-before-Christmas-eve dinner for myself. (And Toby. Toby, I discovered, is a big fan of oyster stew.)

I've started reading some M.F.K. Fisher again, to compare her with Laurie Colwin, and in Consider The Oyster I found this about oyster stew: "mildly potent, quietly sustaining, warm as love and welcomer in the winter."

And also very popular with spoiled housecats.

A Poem For Shopping

This was on the Writer's Almanac site last month. Don't worry, the deer is not being hunted...

A Deer in the Target

by Robert Fanning

I only got a ten-second shot,
grainy footage of the huge deer
caught in the crosshairs
of a ceiling security camera, a scene
of utter chaos in a strip mall store,
shown on the late local news.
The beautiful beast clearly scared
to death in this fluorescent forest,
its once graceful legs giving out
on mopped floors, think Bambi
as a fawn its first time standing.
Seeing the scattering shoppers,
you'd think a demon had barged
into this temple of commerce,
as they sacrificed their merchandise,
stranded full carts and dove for cover.
And when the aisles were emptied
of these bargain hunters, who was left
but an army of brave red-shirted
team members, mobilized by
the store manager over the intercom
to drive this wild animal out.
I wager there's nothing on this
in the How to Approach
an Unsatisfied Shopper
section in the Target employee handbook,
but there they were: the cashiers
and stockers, the Floor Supervisor,
the Assistant Floor Supervisor,
the Store Manager,
the Assistant Store Manager,
the District Associate Manager,
the District Supervisor,
the District Assistant Supervisor
and visiting members from
the Regional Corporate Office,
running after it, it running after
them, bull's eye logos on their red golf shirts,
everyone frenzied and panting: razor hooves
clattering on the mirror-white floor tiles,
nostrils heaving, its rack clearing
off-season clothes from clearance racks.
All of them, in Target,
chasing the almighty buck.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Too Busy For Projects

There's a reason I made last week a week of Things That Are Soothing: I left the house yesterday and came home thirteen hours later. It's Christmas! It's Christmas in retail! There are parties to attend! Parties to plan! Presents to wrap! Booze to stockpile against the coming Canadian cold front! You get the picture.

I have sewing projects planned for my winter vacation between Christmas and New Year's (bless you, winter vacation) and I'm knitting when I can, but there's not much to show for this week.

I don't want to complain too much, though, because as frantic as Christmas can get, we can't forget what it's all about: The night when we get presents.

It's Monday

Go to it as thoroughly as Toby washes his leg:

Friday Unrelated Information

1. It's my sister-in-law's birthday today--the big 3-0! This year she's gotten a dog and started grad school, too, so she's officially an adult now. Happy Birthday!

2. If you're not working or attending a questionable performance of Babes in Toyland tomorrow, you should go up to the Holiday Open House at Blue Moon Ranch. There'll be free hot chocolate and snow-covered alpacas.

Things That Are Soothing: Laurie Colwin

I only recently discovered Laurie Colwin as a food writer (I still haven't read her novels) and got Home Cooking and More Home Cooking in quick succession from the library. More Home Cooking in particular has been a delight: How can you not love a cookbook/memoir whose first chapter begins with, "There are those of us--the harried, cowardly, overextended--who find the beginning of December to be life's most trying time."

She encourages us to hang in there until New Year's Eve, when we can stay home with "a couple of similarly New Year's Eve-phobic close friends" and eat delicious soothing food, including salmon and marinated Brussels sprouts and lemon rice pudding.

The books are smart, engaging, funny (read the "Jam Anxiety" chapter) and most of all encouraging. And we all need encouragement.

Things That Are Soothing: New Upstairs Neighbors

Last week Mr. and Mrs. Stompy moved out, taking their tap shoes, anvils, and bowling balls* with them. I know we have new upstairs neighbors because I saw them moving in, but that's the only way I could tell. It's like having little mice wearing slippers above us. Or angels flying over the softest snow with fluffy feathers. I love our new neighbors.

*Not really. But they were SO LOUD. They walked loudly, dropped things loudly, Mrs. Stompy laughed loudly--it's amazing how much my blood pressure has dropped this week.

Soothing Project Roundup: Knitting

I haven't made much progress on the sweater this week, but knitting definitely gets a mention in the Week of Things That Are Soothing and Not Rushed, Worried About Money, or Full of People.

I'm still just tickled to death that sticks and string can make something warm and useful. Knitting lets you feel productive, surround yourself with something soft and pretty, and make something much greater than the sum of its parts--which are basically just the same stitches, over and over and over. Kind of like the Bach G major cello suite prelude. (Listen here.)

Also: My house got about five inches of snow and I finally have new tires this year. This is not soothing as much as reassuring, but I'll add it to the week's list anyway.

Things That Are Soothing

I think I'll focus on calm subjects this week--things that are quiet and as far away from the retail aspect of Christmas as possible.

Let's start with alpacas at sunrise:

Friday Unrelated Information

1. My father can relate to this. It applies to me, too--just change "ten o'clock" to "two o'clock."
A person who has not done one half his day's work by ten o'clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.- Emily Bronte

2. I've started listening to Christmas music, at home, of my own volition. I don't know what's wrong with me.

3. Look at this sweater! There are OWLS on it. I know what I'm knitting next. (More pictures and lots of scholarly musings on craft, history, and women on the creator's blog, Needled.)

Putting It All In Perspective

The Big Picture blog--a news blog in pictures (yes, big ones)--has started a galactic Advent calendar. As the lead notes:
"Every day, for the next 25 days, a new photo will be revealed here from the amazing Hubble Space Telescope. As I take this chance to share these images of our amazing Universe with you, I wish for a Happy Holiday to all those who will celebrate, and for Peace on Earth to everyone."

The images really are beautiful. I'll take this as an Advent calendar any day--kind of puts all the squabbles about "Christmas" versus "holidays" in perspective.

(Via my new favorite blog of imaginary outfits and space news.)

Why Must You Be Like This, Chris Buttars?

From yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune:

The West Jordan Republican is sponsoring a resolution encouraging retailers to embrace Christmas in their promotions rather than the generic "holidays."

"It would encourage the use of 'Merry Christmas,' " Buttars said of the non-binding statement that is still being drafted. "I'm sick of the Christmas wars--we're a Christian nation and ought to use the word."

I know this is rhetorical at this point, but is anyone else concerned that a member of the state legislature seems so blissfully unaware of the First Amendment? We're a Christian nation? No we're not, jackass: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"

And here's another point: He's encouraging retailers to use "Christmas" in their promotions, as if a "Christmas Sale" is more righteous than a "Holiday Sale," but if he's that devout, shouldn't he be objecting to using the Birth of Our Lord to sell crass material items?

Why do you waste our time like this, Buttars? Why?!

Tuesday Project Roundup: Measure Twice, Cut Once

Even measuring once would have been enough, but I'm not used to making things with long, cuffed sleeves so their length didn't come up--until it was too late. Oh well. It was a nice enough way to spend a couple of days of vacation last week.

The knitting is going well, too. Look, more sleeves! (These are long enough.)

I haven't cut into the Japanese fabric from last week, though, because I need to save a project for Christmas vacation and because there's a possibility of a new sewing machine that either Santa or the Birthday Fairy will bring.

(Hear that, Santa or Birthday Fairy? I still think that's a great idea.)

It's Monday

Sit on it like it's the arm of a couch and make a weird face: