scheming

Thanks everyone for your comments, emails, and phone calls of encouragement! My first day of substitute teaching went well, with very little to report. Each of the two teachers I subbed for had scheduled tests or quizzes for the day. So it was essentially like babysitting, just bigger kids and less to do. Highlights of the day: the student who said she liked my scarf and the young man in the faculty lounge that initiated conversation during lunch.

So what do you do sitting at the front of a classroom for an hour with nothing to do but tell teenagers to be quiet? If you're me, your make lists. And at this time of year, most of my lists involve - Christmas gifts! Here are some links to get you ready for the season:

• Sew, Mama, Sew is hosting Handmade Holidays: 100+ sewing tutorials compiled and presented over the 30 days of November. I've already found ideas for people on my list . . . better start crafting!
• Creature Comforts' Holiday Gift Guide. Her blog is already proof of her excellent taste - now she lets us in on her sources!
• As long as you're making/buying all these handmade items, why not take the Handmade Pledge? (Unfortunately, I'm not taking the pledge myself - there are too many bibliophiles in my family to make that feasible!)

And while we're on the subject of handmade, I'm thinking (hoping?dreaming?deluding?) of opening my own handmade shop by the holidays! I'm going to see how much I get done this week and update you by the end of it! (I may also be asking some opinion polls, so start getting opinionated!)

P.S. I'd like to apologize to my mother, whose favorite holiday is Thanksgiving and who (with me, actually) hates to see the Christmas hype starting earlier and earlier each year. Sorry, Mom.