It doesn’t take a lot of decorations in our tiny apartment to make it look like we’re crazy Christmas people. (This isn’t even all of them.) But we seem to accumulate some extra little something every year that we just have to put out, so I’ve decided to just embrace it. We’re festive! Sadly no big tree this year, which will set you back $70+ in Manhattan. This little guy is our $14.99 recession special. I also particularly like the goose bookend wearing his mitten/hat.  And last but not least, I made Colin a moustache ornament in honor of his famous Movember ’stash.

I was poking around my dad’s house last weekend and found this old sewing tin that I used (aka mostly played with) as a kid. It was my grandmother’s and I think it’s just gorgeous. I recalled it being full of embroidery floss and when I popped it open—lo and behold, years and years worth of thread. Now I doubt I’ll ever sort through this tangled (but pretty!) mess, but I just love the fact that some of this floss has been around for at least 25 years. (At the bottom of the tin there are a bunch of paper wrappers that list the price of the skeins: 5 cents!) Needless to say, I snagged it to bring home. It’s amazing the treasures that you casually discard as a child and cherish as an adult.

On a recent chilly weekend, I got the crafty itch and decided to take up embroidery, which I haven’t done in at least 10 years—probably more. I popped over to the fabric store across the street (classic thing about living in Manhattan—awesome but slightly sketchy fabric store across the street, no grocery stores in a 15-minute radius…). I bought cheap muslin, a wooden hoop, and some embroidery floss for under $6 (cheapest hobby ever!), but then I couldn’t remember how to do a single stitch. After a little Googling, I stumbled on Mary Corbet’s Needle’n Thread, where she has an amazing video library of stitches.

So now I have this work in progress that will be entirely satin-stitched, because I just had to go for one of the hardest stitches right away (standard). No idea what I’m going to do with it, but if you’re interested in such things, Mary’s huge how-to library is a must-see. Sublime Stitching is also pretty great (and rather more my style). She sells patterns but also has a nice how-to section.