Anyone who reads this blog on a remotely regular basis may have noticed that the “crafty” part of it has been lacking this summer. I haven’t even cooked anything new and exciting recently. As I’ve mentioned before, work has been so busy that I’ve just been reading and vegging at home. Then this whole sick business. Nothing gets the creative juices flowing like some major cabin fever. I am STILL home fighting bronchitis, doing my best not to abuse my returning strength with insane projects around the house.

This is my typical MO when I’ve gotten sick like this before: 1. Lounge around in a heap for about a week. 2. Start to feel better. 3. Paint a room, hang curtain rods, move, host Thanksgiving AND Christmas, decide to tackle those flat-packed bookshelves all by myself, rearrange the kitchen cabinets. 4. Get sick again. 5. Swear to stop running around like a maniac. 6. Rinse and repeat.

This time, I have learned. Despite nearly uncontrollable urges towards DIY madness, I have been making myself sit still and rest. I’ve read books, watched endless TV and movies, and now I’m turning my antsy brain towards a new project. I have officially begun planning for Christmas! Now that I’m getting all fancy with this sewing business, I had the brilliant idea to make everyone’s gifts for the holidays this year. I know! Ambition coursing through my veins, I will have no leisurely evenings in November with hot chocolate and my laptop leading me to Amazon and point-and-click elving (I don’t go near stores if I can avoid it). Forget how much I love shopping for gifts. Possibly in my prescription-induced stupor, I have decided that it will be a homemade Christmas at the Reeves’ this year. Now, bare in mind that it is August 5th. Christmas is an infinitely long 4+ months away, which now seems like plenty of time to make things for everyone on my list. Plus new stockings for Adam and me from these fabrics I bought on a recent trip with my mom, and maybe some non-holiday things for the house to make it even more homey come December. I’ve already got the Crete Quilt rocking and rolling, how hard could this plan be? Famous last words, I have no doubt. I’m fully aware that this time Friday I’d decided I would learn to sew clothes “this weekend” and make myself a whole new wardrobe by Labor Day fashioned after Rene Russo’s in The Thomas Crown Affair (still my favorite fashion movie evah!). Never mind that I’m 5’2″ and considerably more round than Ms. Russo. Or that I’m still learning how to put basics like zippers and buttonholes in. But none of that matters now because I have abandoned that plan in favor of the much more reasonable Christmas/home decorating alternative.

I’ve got my sketchbook out and my Christmas DVDs lined up. Because who can plan for the holidays without some cinematic inspiration? I have an annual roster of movies I must watch every Christmas, although I usually only make it to the summer before I have to have a little mid-year Christmas cheer. Adam walked into the bedroom last night, where I’d set up camp and was watching Love Actually, and commented, “Made it all the way to August this year, huh?” If it wasn’t the dead of summer I’d even get out the hot chocolate. Let the holidays begin!