happiest of Thanksgivings to you, and my annual sale is on!

Hello hello to you. Today I plan to mindfully and thankfully devour sausage balls, smoked turkey, ham, pecan pie, pumpkin cheesecake, the WORKS. And to be especially grateful for delicious, lovely fat and sugar as I have been on WW since May and I'm ready to eat allllll the things to celebrate the day. There may be a faceplant in a plate buttered yeast rolls. (Humor and holiday splurging aside, WW has actually been really great, and I highly recommend it. I love to eat, and there's always something tasty I can eat for zero points. I've lost a good bit of weight and I'm feeling pretty fantastic about that. I plan to stay on it for the long haul. Tomorrow.)

Besides butter, there is much to be thankful for in my life this year, yes, especially this strange, sad, and challenging year. I've heard from so many folks who found a special refuge in all forms of handcraft this year, and goodness knows I have. I can just see in my mind's eye lucky people around the world being delighted and amazed to open their special handmade gifts on Christmas morning as a result of worldwide lockdown crafting. What a lovely vision. I'm so grateful if my patterns have played any small part in that joy.

Do you have plans to sew for Christmas? Better get crackin'. (I'm mostly speaking to myself there.) Today through Monday there's 20% off of all patterns in my shop, so be sure to take advantage of that if you've had your eye on a project or two. Be aware the sale is automatically keyed to my US time zone, Eastern Standard, so factor that in if you are in a different zone on our wonderful planet!

I wish you the warmest, happiest, most delicious time spent with your loved ones today, whether an unlucky turkey figures in there or not. We can all take some time to count our many blessings and say a prayer of thanks. 

Little Elves preview

Here's Little Elf Girl, the first design included in my upcoming new 'Twas the Night pattern. She's just coming back from fetching the letters in Santa's mailbox. It's cold out there!

...and Little Elf Boy, the second design included in the pattern. He's busy helping Santa to check off who's naughty and who's nice. You can customize the list to suit your own family. All nice I'm sure! ;-)

Toothpicks, permanent markers, gel pens, card stock, and a very fine tip writing pen will come in handy for the tiny accessories. You can use metallic felt, wool felt, or even card stock for the mail bag. Ooh or glitter felt maybe.

Both of these elf designs are almost final, with only super minor tweaks needed. I'll be writing the pattern and making the final samples next! All the samples will be in the two Benzie Design felt color palettes I've chosen for the series, Classic and Retro, but of course you can make your elves in whatever colors you like! 

Ah I see there's a helpful note on the back of the envelope. Santa's policy is 'trust but verify', little Tucker. :-)