Blahs Over!

Hi, everyone!
Sorry for the lack of updates. I've simply felt very blah for the past two weeks, but didn't want to whine about it; and the end of the semester has also been very, very busy. I wanted to catch up on the classes I was unable to teach a couple of weeks ago, and encouraged my students to hand in extra work to practise for their exams. This week is the last week of term.

My foot is better, but not quite healed yet; I still need crutches for anything that involves walking for more than a few hundred meters; otherwise, I find I regret it afterwards.
This is making me very concerned about my Christmas gifts. I can't even shop for food, let alone shopping for anything else. Those of you who've followed this blog for a few years know how much it means to me to give handmade gifts at Christmas... I needed some material for gifts I'd planned to make, but this simply had to go out of the window. The fabric store is too far away, and the shopping crowds too dangerous to tackle with crutches at that time of the year.

But - Seb is coming home, at last, and he'll be staying until the beginning of January!! We even have a small trip to England in the plans at the beginning of 2008. Whoopee!

I have made a few gifts for my family, but can't share them here yet, as they enjoy visiting my blog every now and then. ;)

Here's something else I made over the past few weeks, but of a different kind: translating pretty French children's books into English, for a little girl in New Jersey.

This is a gift for Allison's daughter. Some of you may remember that Allison and I started a swap a few weeks ago. She sends me American patterns from my wishlist when they're on sale, and I send her things she wants from France. It's been such a lovely experience. I've always had a passion for translation (I was trained in translation as well as literature) and greatly enjoyed working on this for little Daphne.

Sewing news:
I finally managed to finish my Simplicity coat this weekend - hurray! I am so happy with it. This is definitely one of the projects I'm the most proud of; and being able to get back to sewing is certainly making me feel better. I'll share pictures soon! Perhaps even tonight.

Meanwhile, here's a sneak peek for you... He he.

With a fabric-covered button. ;)

I was also accepted at Ravelry and was glad to discover a loom-knitting community over there. Yes, I do have an article on loom-knitting planned for you as well!
For those of you who'd like to check me up on Ravelry, my name is IsabelleB.

So long, everyone. I promise to be back real soon, with pictures!
Have a lovely week.