Of all of the gifts I received over the holidays...

...the most puzzling would have to be the carefully bubble-wrapped package mailed to my husband and me from my mother-in-law.

She sent us a framed photographic portrait of HERSELF. In an appliqued and beaded sweater, no less.

Now, I could see if it was for my daughter or something, but she sent it to US!  It now resides in the depths of my china cabinet, ready to be pulled out and displayed when she visits.

Just a quick update and a big HELLO to everyone in blogsville.

I hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday week. My husband very smartly planned our road trip to avoid all frozen precipitation so we made great time and actually breezed though those 770-some miles each way with relative ease.

I have many pictures to post but hubby hasn't uploaded them to our server yet as he's been busy putting some of his new (gift) power tools and handyman accessories to use fixing up this and that aound the house.

Speaking of gifts, he overwhelmed me with EVERYTHING on my Target.com "wish list" that he had shipped to my parents' house. Nothing says "thoughtful" than a man repeatedly clicking the ADD TO CART button 15 times in a row. hehehe.

One of the gift I received (which was on my "wish list" and so I was NOT insulted to receive it) is a electronic scale/body fat monitor, which seems to work very well. In fact, according to my new "toy", I manged to not gain any weight over the holidays. Now that is certainly a gift in and of itself!

Well, I am feeling a bit harried as my husband called this morning to inform me that we'd be leaving asap this afternoon for our road trip to Philly (instead of tomorrow) due to snow across Indiana and Ohio.

I have now been requested by two bloggers to complete one of these quizzes that I find to be akin to a chain letter about angel kisses or needles in the McDonald's playland. But to be a good sport, and yet NOT to lie (I am wholly against outright lying, if it can be helped) I complete this little ditty partly in the form of lighthearted parody, partly in utter truth. The challenge for you is to determine which is which.  Some answers (the truthful ones, that is) may surprise you. Enjoy!

3 names you go by:  'MommyCanIUseYourComputer', 'HiHo', 'Yo, Adrian!'

I am now heavy-hearted after learning that one of our prized Christmas traditions will not be around this year.

... and as I promised soswryter and Lyly, who both noted, vis-a-vis an internet quiz, their interest in nude bathing at a European beach, I offer the following joke:

Q: Why don't women drink beer at the beach?

A: They don't want to get sand in their Schlitz!

What's likely even more humorous than this goony joke is that I told it to my dear great Uncle George (my grandmother's brother-in-law) when I was three years old. He laughed his porkpie hat off! My mother was mortified.

Ok folks, I know I live in Chicago and HAVE been here for over 14 years now BUT...

I was watching my usual Sunday mid-morning local news show and in the lower right corner of the screen they have the station logo, the time and the temperature.

Today the temperature display said 5. Degrees. Farenheit.

Over the past few days, I've read many blogs of people bemoaning the seemingly inevitable weight-creep this time of the year. Post-Thankgiving, especially in many workplaces, there seem to be cookies, candies, and other "treats" in abundance wherever you turn.

I was at Starbucks to grab a latte and snack with my daughter after school yesterday. A woman in front of me in line was chatting with me, and as her order was being prepared, she noted, "Oh, my doctor told me to watch the refined sugars and carbohydrates. But I've lost some weight and so I feel like I can treat myself. I'll get back on the wagon after the new Year."

The server then produced her order: an extra-large Godiva hot cocoa with whipped creme and an enormous peanut-butter-cup cookie.

I looked at her and mentally, I wished her well. And then I thought of the movie "SuperSize Me."

The combined praise and bashing of "Atkins", "South Beach" and other popular diets ignore much of the true problem of American eating habits. We eat food with little to no nutritional value. We consume "empty" calories. Our food is highly processed, over-salted or sweetened, and full of bizzarre unnatural sources of fat and carbohydrates.

And those processed foods have gotten a stranglehold on our palates. We have dulled our senses to now need hyper-sodium, ultra-rich, or extra-sweet in order to derive pleasure from food.

And, sadly, many of us have forgotten how to prepare or cook our own foods, or never learned in the first place.

While working on my recent project, and posting about it (see below), I have been thinking about my introduction to sewing. About how I learned the basic techniques for choosing, laying out, and cutting fabric from a pattern, and then how to construct garments and other items from the sliced-and-diced material.

Some people had a home-econ teacher in junior high, a girl scout class, a grandmom, or similar female mentor to initiate them into the world of sewing, or other such needle crafts.

In my case, my mentor was... my DAD. Yes, my dad, the mechanical engineer. My dad, the corporate executive. My dad, the Republican. My dad, one of the most kind and creative people I have ever met. I say creative in his case, to indicate his ability to find (and fully appreciate) innovative uses for scraps and "leftovers"of various materials around the house in all sorts of craft projects.

I do remember him stating that he thought sewing was really quite engineering-oriented in that its about following certain logical steps to construct something that will hold together sturdily. And he must have been correct because I have, to use for my daughter, some gorgeous calico "clown" costumes he made for my little sisters for halloween one year. They are in perfect condition some 20 years later.

If I recall correctly, my first sewing "lesson" was a project that developed while Mom was clearing out Dad's closet of old clothes for charity. It was 1986. I was very much into that "New Wave"/funky/arty-a-la-Denise-Huxtable look. I was also 16 or 17 years old, and with limited resources.

I spied an old pair of Dad's grey wool flannel pinstripe pants that were to be discarded. He must have seen me admiring the fabric...somehow one or both of us came up with the idea of ripping the seams and refashioning the slacks into a funky long "fishtail" skirt for me. I think he did the sewing. It was a wee bit ill fitting through the waist, but with an oversized sweater overtop, you couldn't tell, anyway. I thought I looked like Molly Ringwald in it.  My mother thought I looked like a hobo. My frugal dad was just glad to see his teenager wearing non-revealing clothes that cost nothing.

I think he let me alter a few more of his wardrobe castoffs that year, including a very well-liked pair of his old plaid polyester golf pants that I took in at the waist and pegged by hand and wore with a vintage mans shirt and one of his old yellow cable knit cardigans. That outfit SCREAMED "punk"; I think I wore it to every "hardcore" all-ages show I attended that year.

The formal sewing lessons began during winter break, 1987. My freshman year in college. I had fallen in love with the ease of a long rayon jumper that I wore almost every day - over leggings and turtlenecks in winter; over a t-shirt in summer. However, I stained it while working a shift at my job in the dorm cafeteria.

Not unlike the zip-up robe dilemma for my daughter, at the time I could not find a suitable replacement for my beloved jumper in any store. So when I was home on break, Dad suggested that we try to find a pattern and make a new one. After all, it was a simple design.

He accompanied me to Jo Ann Fabric at our local mall and showed me how to find a pattern and then read what fabric types were recommended and how much needed to make the garment.

For some reason I kept telling him I wanted it "big" and "oversized" (this WAS the 80's, remember) but somehow I think I forgot that it was a loose style to begin with.

I chose a dark spice color rayon, and we took the project home to work on over break. Needless to say, it ended up being, um, kinda "plus sized" and ill-fitting, but to this day, I still have it in a cedar chest in my attic. Along with the plaid pants and that goofy grey wool "skirt."