days of thanks

Can you hardly believe december is really here? I've been such a little busy bee these past few weeks with a trip to placerville for thanksgiving, starting fashion design school in San Francisco, and getting Red Moon Arrow geared up for the holiday season. I was contemplating going back to school for pattern making and design, and after many weeks of marinating on the idea, I decided to go for it. I have officially finished my first week of the pattern making and drafting course. Going to the city is quite the journey for me from our mountain cabin in the woods. But I'm ready to dedicate some hours of my life to it because I know it will be well worth it in the end. The school is broken up into many classes and you can work at your own pace going thru the program. My class is once a week which is really nice for me. That way I can still dedicate time to the shop and still spend time with my sweetie.

Some other great news to report... I finally finished my bracelet that I have been working on for the past few months. Since I only put in a few hours here and there, it took a while to get it finished, but well worth the wait. My teacher Bill is amazing and I am so grateful to him for guiding the way and believing in me. I'm excited to get started on my next creation and to see where spirit directs me.

I know it's a little late to post on thanksgiving but thought I'd do it anyways. Gus and I made our way to Placerville this year and spent Thanksgiving with some very dear friends. I cooked a turkey for the 2nd time and good ol' Martha Stewart sure gave a helping hand! I'm sold on using cheesecloth over the turkey. Makes it all golden brown and tasty. We made homemade green bean casserole with fresh chantrelle mushrooms and Gus chopped shallots and fried them. SOOO good! I made fresh cranberry sauce, fruit salad, mashed potatoes and my friend Jackie made 4 loaves of fresh bread, along with 2 amazing pumpkin pies. YUMMY! Danny and Bridget had other dinner plans, but still stopped by for a quick hello. It was nice to spend this year's holiday with dear friends, a little change up from being with just family. Aly, Jackie, Ryan, Naomi, Gus and I all enjoyed the meal and drank some wine and sat by the fire talking till it got really late. Mellow and sweet.

 The next day we went to Jackie and Ryan's farm they just acquired,  South Fork to see what they've been up to. Oh my gosh was it inspiring! Their hard work and dedication really showed. They have been fixing up a cute little 1930's house and making it their own and planting seeds on a 10 acre lot. So happy for them and the new adventure they have begun. We all ate thanksgiving leftovers out on a picnic bench in the afternoon sunshine. I spent some time taking a few photos of the cute little tree swing and all the scrumptious leaves that fell to the ground.

Then in the evening we all ventured down to the Cozmic Cafe for the annual post thanksgiving party. It's always a little bit of a social overload because so many people are there but it's always nice to see some old friends. It's kinda like a mini reunion. I had a smile on my face the whole night! I was bummed I didn't take any pictures, I guess I just got caught up in the moment and forgot to snap some.

The next day I got to do my favorite thing, Antiquing! I love it more than anything. I scored some awesome furniture for our new cabin and even got an awesome Wolf Mannequin for my store/sewing school. Danny met up with us at the movie theatre in the afternoon and we saw the new James Bond movie, Skyfall which was pretty good. We contemplated sticking around another night in pville, but  we had to get back to our doggies and chickens.

And now December is here! I will be posting my weekly update on my progress with school. Better get to my homework so I can post some photos of my skirt sloper.