Awesome Fuchsia Hoody

At last night's Payne Bouchier holiday party at the Artists for Humanity Epicenter building, I couldn't take my eyes off this fuchsia boiled wool hoody: the silhouette, the three leather ties that accentuate the waist (which you can't see in the photo), the shawl collar, the bell sleeves, the pintucks front and back. This girl's mother bought it in Christiana, Copenhagen — a sort of mecca for hippies and environmentalists — and gives it tons of street cred, but means that even if I get myself over there, and find the designer (the label said: Defoyn), it's probably one of a kind. The perfect jacket for a snowy December in Boston.

Tree-trimming Party Ornament

For my neighbor's tree-trimming party, I snapped a picture of his Bengal cat Kimba. In sewing class, I sewed together the sandwich of red felt medallions that I'd edged with pinking shears, on top of six sheets of red and pink tulle. Then I sewed a second circle through the paper images et voila!

Nanowrimo Winner!

Nanowrimo winner means I wrote 50,000 words over the course of November 07. This was the eighth annual National Novel Writing Month with 90,000 international participants. It was thrilling at first, then grueling, and then it was over. I managed 2,000 words a day until my Thanksgiving visit to Bar Harbor, where I fell to 500 words a day, hitting the final count on 11/26/07. It was more than I'd ever written at once and I'm amazed I did it.

Unfortunately, I haven't finished. At the TGIO (Thank God It's Over) party at Subway in the Fenway, I learned about Nanofimo (National Novel Finishing Month) in December (NOW!) and am trying to gear up for an impossible 30,000 more words. Then there's Nanoedmo, National Novel Editing Month, in March 08. Nothing focuses the mind like a hanging, says Samuel Johnson. Or a deadline, says I.

What is it about? It is a fashion mystery: a fashion designer's boyfriend goes missing, turns out to have enough debt to get mixed up in some luxury counterfeiting of designer shoes (Gucci, Prada) made in China and maybe connected to the yakuza... an excerpt.