holiday recovery

We made it through Christmas, and only a little worse for wear. The lead up, as little as I have to do with only one half of our family celebrating, wore me out and the morning of Christmas Eve brought on an "official" bout of morning sickness (insert meaning here). That took a few days to recover from and involved me lying on the carpet of my office trying to carry on conversations with co-workers. Not a pretty sight, I'm sure. Luckily my Mom and Dad didn't mind that I sat on their couch for our entire visit. And I had some great knitting magazines and Jane Brocket's The Gentle Art of Domesticity to help me recover, while Sadie happily played with her uncle. So the Christmas part, as always, was quiet and full of meaningful family time (not to mention mountains of h'orderves and sweets, yummm).

I have yet to photograph Sadie's nightgown or tutu which were the only things I managed to make this Christmas other than the pile of sachets above. When we went to the cottage this summer we visited a lavender farm and I have been a little enchanted with lavender since. So I made little linen sachets with bits of my Shinzi Katoh fabric and happily filled them with lavender, which had to be the most relaxing crafting step ever. I wanted to give the girls at work something handmade, and there were two other friends of mine that I wanted to think about while working on these (I've always felt the true joy of making gifts is the time you spend thinking about the intended person - time slows down and you remember all the best times, and the things you love about them). I miss the scent in our house now that all the sachets have been given, so perhaps it's time to make one for myself.

The last photo is a paper quilt I've been working on a bit and may finish next week. I've been working through Christmas, minus the stat holidays, so I'm taking next week off instead. I hope to relax and sleep enough to get my nausea completely behind me while I catch up on Mad Men and work on some art projects. There's a chance I may be able to exhibit some of my work before the baby is due, and I want to keep the momentum going while the inspiration is fresh. It will be a week of ivory silk and blue embroidery thread, tiny paper squares and dirty phrases.

I can't wait.