Happy Birthday, Altair

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It’s our sister-in-law’s birthday today! My brother lucked out with this kind, competent, accomplished, funny lady. (We all did.)

She’s all of those things but she’s also so generous: She mentors her team; she helps with the Society of Women Engineers; she volunteers with my nephew’s squadron for Civil Air Patrol; she bakes gifts for the neighbors every year; she leaves snacks out on the porch for the delivery drivers.

And she has zero ego about everything she’s done–two masters degrees, a truly impressive career, a wonderful son–and instead just looks for ways to give or help more.

Happy birthday, Altair! We all love you.

Basement Progress

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We’re in the last few weeks of this project, which feels simultaneously like no time has passed and like October was about a year ago. But the floors went down this week! A dusty vinyl "wood" floor in a basement room. A bathroom with a tiled shower opens off of it.

 

We’re not staying in this house forever so I didn’t go for custom stair treads. Just gonna keep reminding myself of that…
Looking up stairs covered in wood-look vinyl plank flooring.

My BFFs the tile guys are coming back today to finish the shower curb. Their snacks are ready, lol. A bowl of chips and snacks sits on top of the stand pipe for the toilet in a bathroom.

Wednesday Poem

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I’m a sucker for poems related to Christmas (and for carols too; this is accurate). I like how this one rambles and is sad but also hopeful–the classic December mix of feelings.

 

Advent
by Heather Christle

It’s hopeless, the stars, the books
about stars, they can’t help themselves
and how could you not love them for it
here in the new week with animals
burying food and everything outlined
in cold and even friends, it’s hopeless,
this mess, this season, all that
is lost and tickets and strangers,
what can I say, only sitting here
on this dark bench waiting for what
I don’t know, I want this world
to remain with me, this holy tumult,
which does not know it loves me
and you, friends, spectacular driveways,
an orange, the vanishing year.

Weekend Of Projects

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It was cold and brown outside and still without snow, so we skipped the hike and did things indoors–like settings up a new credenza,* cutting out a shirt for Doc’s brother,** and running the space heater on the patch of self-leveling compound that didn’t want to dry.***

A mid-century style walnut-colored credenza with a TV and plants on it, in front of green tree-print wallpaper

Pattern pieces on top of fabric stretching down a hallway. The fabric has a black background with primary-colored classic cars.

Closeup of a space heater on a raw concrete floor in a basement, near a utility room.

 

*from Costco! We love Costco! The old  credenza from IKEA is getting new doors and going to the basement for fabric storage.

**I got Doc’s brother’s name in the family gift exchange drawing and, 11 months ago, joked with Brother about a custom shirt. Then I forgot about it. Until a week ago when Doc’s sister reminded me of that conversation. Good thing I found the last 5 yards of muscle car fabric in North America. I guess it wouldn’t be December with a sewing crisis.

***I’m still not sure that’s totally dry, but that can be a problem for the floor bros today. Why yes, I am still enjoying being ⋆˙⟡ 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓒𝓵𝓲𝓮𝓷𝓽 ✧˖° on this project.

Friday Links

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1. I learned a new word this very morning: Isicathamiya, “an a cappella singing style that is popular in the Zulu South African music community. It is known for close harmonies and choreographed dance moves performed by the singers.” How did I learn this? I saw a clip from The Joy, a group out of Durban. They picked a good name for themselves:

 

2. Hell yeah: Meet the Veteran Who Chases ICE on a Scooter.

“The first time I caught up to them, I could tell that they already knew who I was,” he told me when we first spoke on the phone in late October. “They had seen me before, so they thought they were just going to speed away. I was like, ‘Ha ha, bitches, I got a new scooter!’”

 

3. How every day of 2025 has felt:

 

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Fashion! History! Catalogs!

Karen

Now that I’m sewing for long periods of time without having to go sit with an old kitty (sob), I’ve finally started listening to podcasts. Well, a podcast–the history of fashion one, Articles of Interest, by Avery Trufelman. I’d heard about it a few years ago when she spent a whole season dissecting Ivy League style. When she launched the new season about the history of outdoor gear, I jumped in.

It is FASCINATING. So far I’ve learned about:

  • How Brooks Brothers made Civil War uniforms out of a material called “shoddy” that were so bad, the adjective stays with us today
  • How the US Army adopted olive drab instead of blue
  • How soldiers in the 10th Mountain Division started gear companies and ski resorts
  • How WWII surplus led to the popularization of khakis on college campuses
  • And how the military look gradually became mainstream after the Vietnam War, leading to all those WWII surplus stocks getting scarcer, which led to people starting businesses selling European military surplus, which led to…

…BANANA REPUBLIC.

In the newsletter that accompanies each episode, Avery includes photos and links. I clicked on “what the pictures of Banana Republic used to look like” so fast I might have broken the sound barrier. Someone has collected old photos but also SCANNED THE CATALOGS:

 

That’s right, Banana Republic was doing J. Peterman BEFORE J. PETERMAN. And if I’d never listened to a podcast, I would never have known! I’ve been liking the “Gear” season so much that I went back and listened to the entire Ivy Style season between new episodes of Gear being released. Check it out–think of the things you could learn!

Tuesday Project Roundup: Gift Bags

Karen

I know the me of 25 years ago, who worked in a stationery/gift store and treated Martha Stewart’s December issue like the Bible, would not recognize the me of today, who thinks, “Wrapping gifts just takes so much TIME. And there’s so much waste!”

But you know, change is how we grow…and reusable fabric gift bags are how we evolve. Nine fabric gift bags piled on a carpeted floor. They are bright prints of christmas ornaments and wreaths in red, pink, and turqupise.

I, uh, meant to make these two years ago when I bought the fabric but they kept getting pushed for December birthday/holiday gifts. So I banged them out Thanksgiving weekend in an afternoon and now Doc and I are set for gift “wrap” for each other’s presents for the rest of our lives.

I just used half yards and fat quarters and didn’t calculate any finished sizes. This tutorial was a good reminder on how to make a drawstring bag (the casing always trips me up if I try to do it from memory).

Tile! Pies! Kittens! Shopping!

Karen

What a nice five days off that was. I made a bunch of pies, including one for the tile guys who finished the grout Wednesday at about 7:00 pm. We’ve all been hanging out for three weeks new and they did a great job, so we sealed our friendship with pie. A shower enclosure with white subway tiles on the wall and black and white mosaic tile on the floor Four apple pies with a crumb top crust sit on a stove top

 

Then we had Thanksgiving with my brother’s family, where I felt like the Turkey Princess because it was my first turkey in 25 years and my brother outdid himself with everything. There are also FOUR KITTENS at my brother’s, including Pakhet here (she’s the real princess). A little black kitten in a big cat bed bites a towel

 

And I bought some stuff for the basement, including a Black Friday chaise lounge and the deal of the century on home dec fabric from the local warehouse: Two cuts of fabric draped over a white chair. One is a dark green print with orchids and the other is a rainbow Dutch floral