What a treat. The empowering (and adorable) Erin Bried, author of HOW TO SEW A BUTTON (released TODAY!) is our special guest. Erin has taken her rightful position at our BE throne to answer some of our questions. BUTTON would be such a fabulous gift to self and your girlfriends, daughters and sons this holiday.

Q1. Erin, I was raised by my grandmother, an utterly fabulous domestic goddess, so while she did teach me how to sew a button, iron a shirt and proper dusting and vacuuming techniques, she died when I was 19 so much of her hearth and home expertise died along with her. Your mission with HOW TO SEW A BUTTON is to empower women with domestic knowledge. Why do you think that’s important in a day and age when women are busier than ever?
Choice empowers us. If you’re sending your clothes out to be tailored for convenience (and you have the cash to do it), fantastic! But if you’re sending them out because you don’t know how to hem your own pants or sew your own buttons, then you have no choice but to rely on (and pay) someone else. It’s not a great position to be in, especially now that our economy is in the crapper. And, at the risk of being a windbag, there’s something else I’d like to say here: I think it’s really important for both women and men to know how to take care of themselves. For Button, I interviewed 10 grandmothers, all of whom survived the Great Depression, and one grandmother named Lucile Frisbee told me that during the Depression, “There was no men’s work or women’s work. There was only work, and anybody who was around was expected to chip in.” The men, she said, helped with the laundry as often as the women helped chop firewood. It’s a good reminder.

Q2. What were you most excited to learn how to do that made it into the book?
Here’s a confession: I’m 35 years old and until I wrote this book, I’d never roasted a chicken before in my life! Whew. There. I said it. And you know what? It’s so easy and delicious and it only takes 45 minutes. Just chop up some fresh herbs, like rosemary or thyme, mix them with a stick of butter, and then mush it between the chicken’s skin and meat. That nifty trick, which I learned from grandmother Mildred Kalish, has changed my life. Or, at least, my dinners.

Q3. Do you feel that due to the recession (and therefore less expendable income to outsource tasks) that women will embrace learning and teaching these skills?
Yes, absolutely! We’re in the midst of what President Obama has called “the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.” When we were all a little more flush, it was acceptable—even encouraged—to outsource basic tasks. When times got leaner, I began to feel that it’s not only disempowering, but also irresponsible, to not know how to do things for myself.

Q4. Julia Child made gourmet cooking for the “servantless” popular and achievable for housewives. What’s the ONE THING you want people to get from the book?
The most important lesson I learned from writing How to Sew a Button is that your wealth has nothing—zero, zip, zilch—to do with your bank account. It has everything to do with your resourcefulness, your generosity of spirit and your ability to find joy in good times and bad. The book certainly includes how-tos for all things domestic, but it also includes how-tos for making friends, finding fun and being a valuable member of your community. One of my favorite pieces of advice came from Beatrice Neidorf, who is 94. She told me, “You have to be a friend to have a friend.” It’s something I think about often.

Q5. It’s almost Christmas. If you could have your Coca-cola-singing-in- the-snow moment, what would you wish to buy the world?
Not to be maudlin, but I’d want to give everyone an opportunity to sit down with their grandmothers and ask them big questions like, What’s the secret to a happy marriage, and little ones, like When’s the first time you wore red lipstick? Nice questions, like, What did you do for fun on a Friday night?, and cheeky ones like, Did your father ever make whisky in the basement (and did you ever sneak a taste)? Bottom line: If you’re lucky enough to have your grandmother around, give her a hug. If not, hug someone else’s.

Buy BUTTON now & don’t forget #books4gifts this holiday season.