Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving all!

I'd like to start my list of gratitude by announcing the arrival of a new member of the family:

I found "Betty" on Craigslist for an amazing $50! And she came in her original gorgeous oak cabinet! And she's in perfect working order! Alright, so she does need a new cable (that is a ribbon rigged up to make the hand crank work in the meantime), but she works like a charm! As best as I can tell, she's a Singer 128K, making her roughly 90 years old (if I were so bold as to tell a lady's age!). The bobbin is soooo cool -- it is set within a shuttle inside the machine--and yet even on this old machine there is still a bobbin winder! The machine is actually not much different from my 1970 Singer . . . not sure whether that makes my 1970 Singer old, or the technology timeless? And given that my Susie Singer is currently in the shop with a broken gear for another week or so, I now don't have to worry about the withdrawal pains I was suffering from this morning when I woke up. And my fingers really can't take any more of that pesky hand stitching thing! Finishing a binding by hand is one thing, but sewing it on and then finishing it was just a bit more than I had scheduled for my down-to-the-wire tablerunner!

So, welcome to the family Betty! And the name is in honor of my great-grandmother, Elizabeth "Betty" Keating Plunkett, who was born to Irish immigrants in the 1880s and who worked as a seamstress. There's an amazing photograph in my mother's home of Betty in her hand-made, but ever so elegant wedding dress in 1937. Nope, I can't quite aspire to Betty's sewing skills, but I like the thought that she's with me when I sew!

And so, now on to other gratitude. This has been a busy year, with some definitely trying personal and professional aspects. Nonetheless, I am so deeply grateful for the life I live and for the abundant love I have in my life. I am blessed by a family who sticks by me and who I enjoy being with (although who I miss dearly now that I liver farther away from). I have parents who are wonderfully warm, tender, complex, funny, special people who bless me by being in my life. I am also so blessed by having found the love of my life, someone who can make me laugh by being completely silly one minute, who can hold a deeply serious, smart conversation, and who can contain the messy, complex world that resides inside my brain. I am one lucky woman! I am also so so lucky to have found such great friends throughout my life and adventures. I may move to new states, but I never leave them behind in my heart. And finally, I am so grateful to my Sophie and my Zoey, my furry lovey girls are so dearly important to me and provide a profoundly wise and deep love that has changed my life!

In a year that has occasionally been personally difficult, and in a time that I know that has been financially trying for all, I am working hard to remember in my thoughts and actions all those who are struggling every day for the basics, including life, laughter, and love. I want to remember, not just today, and not just in the holiday season, that I am blessed enough that I can always share.

Happy Thanksgiving!