December Mishmash
Peace out, 2024!
Hi! I hope everyone had a great holiday. I didn’t have really any extra time off, which was kind of a bummer, but it was a non-eventful couple weeks of work. I think this will be my last substack monthly roundup for a while. Just not feeling it these days, and am scrambling to pull it together at the end of each month. I may bring it back in the future, but for now consider this my last missive. If you want to get newsletters from me on a much more infrequent basis, focused more on sewing, and find out when I have new quilts for sale, sign up here: MichFlookMakes.com. I am planning to get more in the habit of sharing there in 2025. Otherwise, follow me on instagram to keep up with my sewing adventures, Remi’s unending cuteness, and random things I cook!
Food!
On Christmas, I made this Mushroom Bourgignon. We had it with mashed potatoes, some rosemary roasted carrots, and a simple arugula salad. We love mushrooms, and so we loved this. I considered adding some lentils to add some protein but in the end I am glad I didn’t because the flavor was pure mushroom, and the lentils would have I think taken a little but of that away with their uber earthiness.
I found a really good bottled Caesar salad dressing (from Primal Kitchen), so I thought I’d share about that. We love Caesar salad but I am really lazy about making salad dressings. I typically rely on the bagged Caesar salad kits, which are fine, but this dressing is better! The other night we weren’t that hungry after a large lunch so I just roasted some broccoli and cauliflower, tossed them in this dressing, and it was great! So just thought I’d mention it as a little meal shortcut.
For a post-Christmas Flook family get-together, I made these Ginger Cheesecake Cookies! They are a little fussier than my typical baking adventure, but I just had to make them.
Books
You can shop all my recent reads here: https://bookshop.org/shop/michelleflook (Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.)
I read five books this month, bringing my total for 2024 to 70 books!! I set my goal at 60, so I am patting myself on the back! I read Awake in the Floating City, the rest were audiobooks.
Non-fiction:
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell is my favorite of the books I read this month. A really interesting look at cults from the perspective of language, and how this language really permeates so much of our lives without our even realizing it. The audiobook was great (read by the author), and I will be reading more by this author.
Rebel Rising by Rebel Wilson is a good celebrity memoir that I really enjoyed, it felt very authentic and really took me on a journey with Rebel through her life. Audiobook read by the author is a plus.
Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere by Maria Bamford is another memoir, read by the author. Maria is very quirky and this book probably isn’t for everyone. But if you have seen Maria’s stand up, you might like this. The format is a bit chaotic but I liked it.
Fiction:
Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan - a dystopian story set in a completely flooded and almost unlivable San Francisco where the rain never stops. The narrator is a young woman, an artist who no longer does art, she's alone, grieving, and cannot bring herself to leave the city, her home, even though everyone tells her she should join what remains of her family in Canada. She takes a job caretaking for a VERY old woman in her building, Mia. They build routines, Bo learns a lot about the history of the city through Mia's stories, she gets back into making art, and the ending is bittersweet. A really lovely book.
The Round House by Louise Erdrich - I read a book by Louise Erdrich many years ago and LOVED it, and I am trying to dig through her back catalog to get that feeling again. I didn’t love this book but I did like it. The main character, Joe, is a really lovable kid seeking desperately for answers about something terrible that happened to his mom, which upends his daily life and routines.
TV/Movies
A Man on the Inside (Netflix) - a really fun show with a lot of heart, from the creators of The Good Place. I just love Ted Danson.
Shrinking (Season 2) - Season 2 is really great. I had a few moments where I felt it was a little cheesy, but overall, I really love this show. The finale really got me in my feelings.
The Substance - an extremely entertaining, slightly unhinged, upsetting and disturbing movie that I was dying to see, and so glad (?) we rented it! If you like very out there/grotesque horror with dark humor, this is for you.
Black Christmas (1974) - My favorite Christmas movie, we were lucky enough to get to see it in the theater this year, thanks to some friends. It was fun watching with a big group, and it holds up. It’s spooky in just the right ways.
The Holdovers - the only other holiday movie we watched, only a year late. It was sweet, but I didn’t love it. I dunno, kind of slow and not super Christmas-y.
Santa Camp (HBO) - This is a documentary that I really enjoyed. I thought it would be light and fluffy, about Santas learning how to Santa, but it actually had a lot more social commentary and made me think about some common conventions about Christmas.
Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara (Netflix) - a really good documentary!!!!
Projects!
Here’s my December block of the month from the Sweet Potato Quilts Block of the month club, and all the blocks together! I will be sewing these all together, quilting it up, and donating it for an auction event in the Spring!
Here is the mystery quilt for Q4 from Toad Circle, called Button Up!. They gave the option of a baby-size this quarter, since it’s a busy time for most people, and I am glad I chose to do the smaller size. It came together quickly and is so cute. I’ll be selling this one once I get it quilted and bound.
I made a few little Christmas ornaments that turned out pretty cute!
All together, here's a collage of all the quilts I made this year!!! There is one project not featured here that I never sewed into a quilt top, I think i might make those blocks into pillows or tote bags… tbd!
Miscellaneous!
We got dressed up for a swanky holiday party!
Watched Die Hard with some friends!
Had a little family pizza party/white elephant get together that was really fun! Nephews are getting so grown up!
Remi!
We hacked together a family photo for our Christmas cards, but they printed so dark that we got so many texts from people saying they couldn’t even see Remi! Here’s the actual photo. We will plan better next year :)
Thanks for reading! 💜
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye! <3
xoM