The kids went to Memaw’s this weekend, which meant it was high time for Mommy to sew for DD! As I was completing the tunic part of Burda Pattern #9673, I quickly made the decision not to try and kill myself by also finishing the dress this weekend and save that for another time. Either on another Grandma weekend or for her birthday. It’s not that the pattern is hard. It really isn’t, if you have some experience sewing clothing. But this was the first time I had used a Burda pattern (or any European pattern), the second time I set in sleeves, and the first time I did anything with more than one button. A lot of tricky firsts (and seconds). Overall I think I did a great job, and it looks cute:

And I made her a headband that looks nice with it, too:

Her main present this year is going to be updating her library. She reads like I do, and I read like my father: voraciously. If her teachers let her, DD would read all day, everyday. If I let her, she would, too. Unfortunately, we have not kept up with her library at home. Most of her books are still of the board book, easy reader, and phonics teaching books. And she reads at the third grade level. So, we are updating it. I can’t handmake those (well, I could – but I don’t have time to write more than a few chapters before the holidays arrive), so I visited the bookfair at her school. And took my mother. And my mother in law. DD is getting a LOT of great books, some below her reading level, but good books, some at her level, and some to challenge her. I am also passing down a small assortment of paperbacks I have been hanging onto (and yes, rereading constantly) from elementary school. These are the really good classics from my generation and from before: From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, The Wizard of Oz, stuff like that. I also made her Kidlet (Boogie Boy’s can be made while he naps) which will hold the hand-me-downs, which looks a lot like her cousin’s:

I am thinking about making a few Chicken Scratch bookmarks, and maybe some other types of bookmarks.

So aside from those (which should be fast projects while she’s at school and Boogie is napping), I am pretty much done with DD (oh, and stocking stuffers). I also got part of a present for my aunt done (but I am not posting it, she reads this occasionally) and a kidlet for my nephew:

I am listening to NPR as I type, and Jamie Oliver is being interviewed right now about how most people don’t know how to totally strip a turkey carcass and use every bit. He made a very good suggestion that I REALLY want to do this weekend! Take some dark meat and the meat from the back of the bird, fry until crispy and nummy (my words, not his) and build a Okonomiyaki on top. Oh, NUM! With green onions and lots of tonkatsu sauce. And cranberries. Double num. ^.^