oops

I haven't been very good at documenting my craftiness lately -- and there has been a little bit achieved in that realm, despite the end-of-semester craziness (not yet over) AND despite my Little Mishap last week: a nasty -- yes, nasty -- accident with the rotary cutter.  I was exhausted one afternoon, after teaching, and thought I would take a little "me" time to indulge in sewing...obviously this was a big mistake!  I was too quick in my release of the ruler when trimming some Drunkard's Path blocks, and as I swept my left hand up and out I crossed paths with the Deadly Blade.  Ouch.  My sweet cat Ramone stayed with me the whole long afternoon, I didn't get a drop of blood on the quilting things (?!), and for the first time in my life I understood the rationale behind and usefulness of a Stiff Drink to dampen pain.

I would very much like this to be my LAST rotary cutter mistake.  It hurt.  It is definitely on the mend, but because the wound is on the ring-finger-sided tip of my middle finger, I have slammed it repeatedly on all manner of things (tapped, really, but under the circumstances it FEELS like a slam). My two accidents have not happened because I was holding the cutter improperly (which, I gather, is the root of many RC accidents) or from failing to retract the blade (I do that automatically, after every cut), but because I am moving too quickly and thinking about a million things at once.

So my promise to myself is to be MINDFUL and SLOW.

On a cheerier note, since my last post I have made another Oliver + S Playdate dress for Miss F plus several lined drawstring bags from Jeni/In Color Order's great tutorial.  I will try to document these at some point!

Last week we had a lovely visit to my in-laws' "down south," where Frida threw sticks in the lake and met Santa Claus.

Today we had a belated St. Nicholas day -- a family tradition, in which St. Nick delivers our tree overnight, fully decorated, his horse munches the carrot we left out for him, and little presents appear in the kids' shoes.  The buntings and treeskirt I made last December have made another appearance, and this morning I finally bound the tree skirt so we wouldn't have to use it rough-edged again this year (!). We followed up the excitement with a breakfast of french toast and bangers, and then my daughters and I made some whole wheat butter cookies.

Unfortunately I have a pile of grading to do before I give an exam tomorrow, so I leave you with some pic's of our house in as clean and as festive state as it is likely to be seen!

Happy Sunday to all :)