~ never a dull moment...

...when you're travelling with Sofia :-)


Happy Thanksgiving!

~ happy sunday...

Today I have quite a few projects to choose from.  We have bright blue skies, cold temps, and wind...  Not really a good day for playing outdoors.  Luckily, there are a few choices for me as far as indoor projects.  I can continue working on my kitchen window curtains (almost done), or, do some holiday shopping (probably not a good choice on a weekend), or, stare at this fabric fat quarter bundle.



I won this from Fat Quarter Shop a few weeks ago!  They were having a give-away and I won the awesome prize which included this and a bunch of other wonderful fabric goodies.  I was sew happy :-)

So while I am staring, I will also be drafting my first Burgoyne Surrounded quilt block.  There is an online quiltalong that I want to participate in -- but it doesn't begin until December.

Stay tuned...

~ thought for the day...

If you haven't already seen this, it is definitely worth the 5 minutes to watch...

 


...it is surprisingly enlightening :-)

~ taking a commercial break...

I am busy cleaning windows -- so instead of boring you with that, I want to talk about the "Sleepy Hollow" tv series.  Sofia was excited to watch this when it started back in September -- so, not expecting much from it, I agreed to watch the first episode with her.  The newest episodes air from 9 p.m. - 10 p.m. -- so I just assumed that I would fall asleep halfway through.  Strangely, that did not happen.  I was pleasantly surprised by the interesting story, excellent casting, and special effects.  We have since watched every episode at least twice!  Two thumbs way up!



http://www.fox.com/sleepy-hollow/

~ happy birthday...

...to my baby sister!

photo circa 1969

Hope your day is filled with excitement! :-)

~ busy, busy, busy...

We've been so busy.  Taking down halloween.  Putting out minimal thanksgiving decorations (I do not like a stark looking house -- makes me uneasy) and some not too christmas winter decorations.  By the end of next week I should have the christmas decorations flowing.  But for now, I am stuck behind this pile of fabric that I am using to make some red valances for the kitchen windows.



We've also been auditioning some baking recipes that we will be using for the holidays.  Miss Sofia has decided that she enjoys baking.  Sofia has fun baking, the guys have fun eating -- I clean up the mess...sound familiar? ;-)

~ vintage fall crafts...

The weather made me feel a bit nostalgic yesterday -- so after I finished taking down the outdoor halloween decorations, I decided to pull this guy out of semi-retirement and hang him on the front door.  The colors are still pretty and bright outdoors with all the red and gold leaves on the trees -- so I think he fits right in.  Don't you?



I made this for the front door of the apartment we rented as newlyweds on South Kensington Avenue -- seems so long ago...

~ granite countertop...

...installed!



So happy that this area is functional for kitchen purposes -- so far we have the pantry cabinet, base cabinet with recycling bin/garbage pullout, overhead light/electrical outlet, and, countertop.  The "message center" part of the project has not started, and there is spackling, molding, painting, etc. that still needs to be done.  In the photo you can see that I am auditioning paint chips -- the two chips up against the wall are battling for first place.  The chip on the left side is named custard and is the lighter of the two.  The chip on the right side is name tahini and it is the darker of the two.  Which one do you think will win?

Oh, yes -- and in case you are wondering about what's going on under the countertop, up against the pantry cabinet?  It was necessary to make a "T" brace to support the weight of the granite countertop.  In the photo, it looks dark and unfinished, but it is painted the same color as the cabinet and looks fine in person.  Normally on the underside, there would be only the piece of wood running parallel to the countertop, but we didn't trust the integrity of the side of the pantry cabinet with the weight of the granite.  The construction of the cabinet is fine if you're not going to hitch a slab of heavy granite to its side -- but, since I didn't take the granite weight into consideration when we purchased the cabinet, we have a "T" brace.

Stay tuned...

~ halloween leftovers...

Sorry Ozzy -- not much left from all that halloween candy.


Last year's record of 150 trick-or-treaters was broken.  We were able to accomodate up to the 150, but Sofia held fast to these butterfinger candies that she plucked out of the candy bags.  There were some stragglers in cute costumes who left empty handed. :-(

~ and he's off...

in my car!  Rick is taking him out for practice with his driver's permit.  Yikes!  :-)

Let's see how he does on his road test in March... :-)