happy fall & halloween

The weather was incredibly beautiful yesterday.  We couldn't help but put everything on hold to go outside and enjoy the afternoon.   I haven't spent a lot of time outside with my camera over the past summer so it was lovely to stop at one of our favorite spots, stroll through the woods and take an endless supply of photos.  Good times.

:: tree huggers ::



:: fall fooling around ::



:: fall grasshopper?? (does he know what is arriving any day now??) ::



:: fall shadows ::



:: fall sleeping ::



Today promises to be a busier day as I finish up Halloween costumes in preparation for our evening celebration. The kids are looking forward to walking through a new neighborhood and meeting people we haven't had a chance to make acquaintance with yet.  By early evening we will return home for hot chocolate and snacks while I sort through their endless supply of sugar & tooth decay.  After that we will snuggle their daddy, give him gifts and wish him a very Happy Birthday as he so generously shares his day with so many other distracting events. But don't worry too much for him, we will be having a proper dinner and cake for him the next weekend.

Wishing you and yours a very safe, warm and Happy Halloween.

birds of a feather

My mission, should I choose to accept it, will be to take this pile of faux fur and create two Halloween costumes out of it.  The first request is a Canadian Goose, need we wonder why.  The second a Screech Owl.



Wish me luck, this should be interesting.

It might be small...

...but it's all mine.

After 4 months of being in a box, my sewing machine has been found *cheering loudly* It and my computer have been relocated upstairs in the living room behind the couch. It's not a lot of space but it will be more than enough in the interim. The perks: I'm closer to the kitchen, I get to create while the littles ones read on the couch the next to me, and I get to sit by this lovely (real, oxygen producing) tree that was recently added to our home (it needed a new home as the office it was in is undergoing a major renovation, lucky me :)

skitting

That's what you get when you cross a need for skirts and knitting.



I really do have girly, girls.  Never thought I would, I was completely non-girly in the most definite way that I can remember.  I spent my years playing competitive sports and my shins were donned with oodles of bruises.  Perhaps a skirt or two were in my little girl past but I can't remember.




I don't have a pattern for this one.  I knit it in the round so there are no seams and then increased stitches substantially toward the end to make the ruffle.  I was inspired by this leg warmer I was originally making way back when. 




As soon as I get the chance I will write up the pattern and perhaps even put it in a free pdf. download.  One of the nice things about this pattern is you will be able to customize the length of the skirt depending on the size you need. 

how fetching

Miski and I had some time together and we managed to cross a-gift-to-give off our Christmas list.  Oh how I love projects that knit up quickly and look so fashionably cool.
 


The fingerless gloves are called "fetching" and can be found here on Knitty.  I like my fingerless gloves to go to my knuckles so I lengthened the pattern with another row of cables (just after the thumb area).   I'm pretty sure the recipient will like them longer too.   Happy Monday everyone :)

tired of looking at my last post?

Me too! Sorry, but we've been sick here in these parts.  It all started with me, worked it's way through the line and has again, ended with me *sigh*, or perhaps it never really did leave me?  In that case I've been feeling blah with occasional bouts of okay-ness mixed in while care giving 4 edgy children.   As expected the reno work is at a standstill but there has been lots of this going on...



lovely, lovely Miski from the Mirasol collection, oh how soft you are.  I wish that my pillow was as soft as you.   You've been a wonderful companion.
 

I'll be doing more of this and maybe even some sewing this weekend...  Yes, I finally found the box that has kept my sewing machine hostage for the past 4 months.  I'm still looking for some tres important notions but I'm sure they will surface along with other missing items when I least expect it.  For now I am almost a bit giddy about the my new-to-this-house, old friend that I will dust off and speak kindly too all weekend.  Wish me luck and many productive moments *crossing fingers, toes & eyes..*

circa 1978

Some exciting new changes that we've recently made in our renovation adventure:  lighting.  We've replaced the old with some updated styles that suite us much better.  I will no longer be staring at, what I have affectionately referred to as, "the trumpet" in my dining room which provided no light in the room at all.  This light was sort of like sitting at the dentist's chair, if you wanted to see anything you were eating or working on you had to be directly underneath it. 

Instead we now have an elegant chandelier that provides ample light for all our late night activities. 

Our entrance way chandelier was a plastic eyesore of monstrous proportions.  Each dangling piece of plastic reminded me of those huge acrylic key chains that were the rage in the 80's.  I never did own one of those but I'm wondering if I should keep them in case the style revives.  After all skinny pants, ballet shoes, & leg warmers have all returned. 

A close up for posterity's sake...{{shudder}}

Our new fixture is much simpler and follows the "less is best" philosophy.  It feels both romantic and gothic to me and reminds me of something you find in an old castle.   I wonder if the kids will try to swing from it when they get older? 

The hubby was a real gem for hanging this one in our vaulted entrance way, especially when I told him to raise the height of it a couple of times. 

The
next day he kept trying to figure out why his back and neck were so
sore and I wasn't about to remind him...way too many more fixtures to
change in the house. 

A voting we will go

Yes people it's that time again, we Canadians go to the polls today to decide which leader will be better suited to lead our fair nation.  Again?  Didn't I just go to the polls in 2006?  and before that in 2004?  It seems our elections are pumped out quicker than my babies.  (Always gotta bring the post back to the mumma topic.) 

My politics have changed dramatically over the years. I am increasingly more concerned about our global village, the people, and this planet we all share. Today I will vote with these issues in mind, for my children and future generations; for the kind of world that they will inherit and the problems that will become theirs to fix.

If you are Canadian remember your vote is needed!

the gathering

In a nutshell, if you don't like the look or sound of geese you should never, ever live on a lake.

Thankfully we don't fit into that category so we are safe to continue to live on our lovely, loud lake.  Every evening at dusk the geese do a ritual of flying above our houses in large groups before they land and settle into the lake for the night.  During the night, with my window open, I can still here them in the distance, it's a reminder to me that they are still here.  Before long they will make their amazing journey south where we will no longer see or here from them until spring breaks.  I made this video for the B-meister who is deeply enamored with our feathered friends.  He will miss watching them from the yard and hearing their delightful and excessive honking.  Admittedly, I think I'm going to miss them too! 

kitchen reno underway

I mentioned briefly about not having a kitchen back in August and well that is still true in some respects, things are starting to come along.   Paul's grueling work schedule during our move came to a final stop so we have been able to get things going in a serious reno direction.  I didn't think ahead of time about taking pictures of the room before we started any work so I'll have to rely on the realtor's photo (below) from the website.

Can you see the old kitchen pantry door that is dark brown and off to the left of the fridge?  That was the original pantry door when we moved in.  A narrow door about 1 1/2 feet wide that you would have to enter sideways to get into.  Inside the pantry wasn't much better, small and with no lighting, it would make finding anything an interesting feat. We knew the wee pantry was not going to work for our needs so Paul went to work building a wall for a new pantry.  But with any building project you have to re-adjust your existing space to make space and so we chose to eliminate the eat in portion of the kitchen.  It wasn't too hard a decision for me as it was one of those things that I didn't like about my last house, but didn't have much option to rectify as I had no dining room.  This house has a good sized dining room so it was obvious to both of us which direction we wanted to go in.

I now have a pantry door that is a standard 36 inch width.  The inside is even more exciting with ample storage shelves for food and all those other kitcheny things that don't fit in cupboards, including my deep freeze (I was siting on it taking the next picture).

The final
measurement of the pantry is approximately 12 feet x 4 feet.  Plenty
of room for everything.  It was such a pleasure to finally unpack our kitchen boxes and a nice feeling to have at least one room, even a pantry, completed in this long moving process.  Happy Day to you!