Just bits of this and that tonight. My heart is still sore, especially since one of my birds got spooked and flew into a window. I knew I had to put the sheer curtains back! He didn't die immediately and I hope that is the good news because he certainly went into shock and is still unsteady on his legs. I'm letting him sleep, and sleep alone tonight, and we'll see what the morning brings. I fed him some baby bird formula, wish I still had baby food on hand. I used to keep it around when the birds were sickly but lately they seemed to be doing so well that I got careless. Sigh. This showed me just how delicate my emotional being is right now so I have to protect myself a bit more. I have to allow that I'm still grieving over dad.

What's on my immediate agenda is making things for a local crafts fair. This is a depressed area and everyone has warned me that people won't pay for anything expensive. Does that mean the ladies I see in silk don't come to these bazaars perhaps? The advertising has been poor at best but when I said something, it looked like I was rocking the boat vehemently. I'll see what I can do in future--right now I have my hands full.

If you haven't seen them already, do check out the magazines offering gift ideas for this winter. Two of my favorites are from Quilting Arts and from Martha Stewart. One of my favorite "new" magazines is Quilts and More. Jill Abeloe Mead is one of the editors and published Rag Merchant wearable art patterns for years. Maybe she still does, I haven't checked, but I sense her style on these pages--at least I always find something of interest, some whimsy, that is also applicable to making wearable art.

I lucked out in my move because just an hour away I have a master fashion professional giving classes. More about Sandy Ericson soon. She was pointing out in class how with this economy, we are going to go back to some of the old ways of doing things. I remember when I had a good navy blue gabardine shift and five different detachable white collars so that I could change the look every day. We will all be wearing fewer clothes more often. We will have to make do and be more clever with what we have on hand. The ideas in those gift magazines also imply that more of us will be making handmade presents now. But I wonder. I'm just not finding the fabrics, at least not the bolt ends that I used to depend on for interesting pieces. I know I'm sewing from my stash much more now. Only then those gifts don't look as "fresh" as the ones in ice cream colors in the magazines. You know, when I bought my fabrics, Amy Butler probably didn't have an inkling that she'd be designing textiles and making turquoise and brown popular again!