'Tis The Season

....and I would really love to just phone it in.
I am not truly feeling any Christmas spirit whatsoever.
We managed to erect our Christmas tree. It does look lovely. I am so proud of the fuzzy children because they seem to be behaving themselves.
Unless of course, they are lulling me into a false sense of security and the proverbial shit will hit the fan any day now.

A few items have been purchased and a few have been made to show my appreciation for family and friends.
This is a toque I am currently working on called Frosted Pine.

I am really enjoying this pattern. There are a few different cables and twists that give me a sense of awe when I see them emerge in the product.

We are also debating about whether we will be visiting my parents for the holidays. There has just been so much drama over absolutely nothing and I just do not have the energy to deal with it. If I really think the situation through, I would love to just stay home. Spend time with my little family and just enjoy doing normal stuff. We could have a nice meal. Watch a movie or two. Find a use for the mountain of snow that has fallen in our little world. In the end, it will most likely be guilt that takes me across six hours of actually pretty scenic roads. I think that this is the reason behind my melancholy. It will pass. I try to remember that I am really fortunate that I have everything I could possibly need. There are many people out there who would feel blessed with even a third of everything that we possess.

Thank you for letting me vent a bit. Jackie and I are going to catch up on Supernatural and call it a day!
Night everyone.

Winter is Here

We had our first snow fall the other day. Compared to other parts of the world, it barely snowed. I enjoyed looking at the photos of Buffalo. There is something magical, awe inspiring, terrifying and beautiful about Winter. It takes a strong person to like this season.
With the little snow we acquired, Little Man and Jackie had a great time outside. Especially Jackie as it was her first experience with snow.

I am very thankful I no longer live in a place that has the possibility of double lake snow effect.

I've found my drawing mojo. I was so inspired when Hubs took this pictures at work, it actually motivated me to sharpen my pencils.


This is my version:

I'm happy so far with my progress and I am looking forward to continuing.

I have also been knitting. I finished a pair of Socks on a Plane


I have also been speeding through a pair of mittens called Cabobble.

I just need to add thumbs.

A friend has requested I knit her friend a hat. I said ok as long the materials are sent my way.
This is the material I will be working with:

The tag says the colour is Crimson. I cannot tell if it is red or a dark pink to be honest. I do know that I am looking forward to this little project.

Well, it has been a busy day for us.
Jackie is starting to shut down,

and I am recovering from a cold that has knocked me on my butt.
We are going to settle in for some serious cuddle time and call it a day.
Have a good night everyone. :)

Goes By Too Quickly!

There goes another Halloween celebration, tucked away in giant Rubbermaid containers. Until next year scary skeletons. You did a fantastic job scaring small children and quite a few parents.
We all had a fantastic time. Well not all. Jackie voiced her complaints quite loudly when tiny trick or treators came to the door. She unfortunately has to spend some alone time in our bathroom.
Jacob look fantastic in his demon watcher ensemble.

The one picture with the burnt house in the background? We had nothing to do with that. That was a nightmare situation from this past May.
A lot of people walked by Jacob thinking we had some really awesome decorations.

Speaking of awesome decoration,
this was Hubs' costume this year:

He was Jason Voorhees from The Friday the 13th series.

All I told the boys, were if anyone pees on the porch, they were in charge of clean up this year.

Last but not least, I was the Bride of Frankenstein!

Who apparently hooked up with Jason, spawned a demon child and has a thing for hot beverages.

Around 19h00, things started to calm down. I thought it would be okay to let Jackie out of her confinement.
I was wrong.
At 19h10, there was one little princess almost finished for the night. We were the last house on her list.
I opened the door, exclaimed what a wonderful outfit and thanked her royal heinous for visiting our estate.
Then BOOM!
Jackie was out like the Flash.
It was just a blur of grey, white and black and took after so many trick or treators, you would have thought there was a herd of crazy puppies on the loose.
I threw was remained of my candy in the Princess' pumpkin head bucket, picked up my wedding gown and ran after the blur in my 5 inch heeled boots as well as I could.
Jackie has managed to make it to the end of the street and was on her forth lap back to the house when I finally caught up with her.
She returned victorious with a mouthful of raisinettes, (I certainly hope they were raisinettes), a yellow caution tape and a lot of glitter.
By the looks of it, Jackie also had a successful Halloween experience.
I am thinking, next year, she will be older and perhaps not so demonic.

After all that looting, she is finally tuckered out.


Now we brace ourselves for Christmas.
I hope you all have a great week.
I'm off to do the housework that should have probably been done weeks ago.
Have a good day!

Time For Pumpkins and Seafood!

We had a busy night and it is still not over. Hubs and the Little Man are in the garage putting the finishing touches on a costume for tomorrow.
After someone arrived home from school, we went right to work to create our pumpkin masterpieces!

We had some supervision for the process.


May we present our Minecraft and Demon pumpkins!


For supper tonight we had seafood pasta.
Have I ever mentioned how I do this? I can't remember.
Things we need:
Stick of butter
2 or 3 garlic bulbs
pinch of pepper
package of frozen seafood medley (mine of choice usually includes: shrimp, scallops, octopus, calamari, cuttlefish and sometimes crab meat)
pasta of choice
spring peas
mushrooms
cup and a half of grated Parmesan cheese
heavy cream (35% cooking cream)
dry white wine to cut through all the heavy ingredients

Start the water boiling for the pasta
melt a tbs of butter in a fry pan
sautee the chopped garlic in that pan
turn up the heat a bit
add your seafood

Quite the mix eh?

At this point, I take the rest of the stick of butter and start melting it in a sauce pan
When my seafood is no longer frozen together, I start cooking the pasta and pour the cream into the saucepan with the melted butter
I also toss in my peas and sliced mushrooms

This is the healthy portion of the meal. ;)

Toss a bit of pepper on top of the veggies and seafood and remember to keep it all moving or it gets this weird grey colouring.

When the pasta is a few minutes away from being cooked, I gradually start to add the cheese to the butter and turn up the heat on the saucepan. By this time, I will turn the heat down to low on the seafood and veggies.
The sauce will look like this:

Almost looks like I'm conjuring a demon.

When everything is cooked and melted and drained, I toss it all into a pot and serve.


Stay safe everyone!
Cheers. :D

A Few More Nights

When I was a child, the couple of nights we had to wait for Halloween to arrive was the longest. I think I found it more excruciating than Christmas. Actually, I still the wait difficult. It is my favourite holiday. I believe Halloween is the only holiday that is actually geared towards children. Christmas is more of a family, stressed induced panic. You have these head games going on. So and so gave me this last year, I must find something of equal or greater value. We must invite Aunt B and Uncle F. The rest of family will think horrible thoughts if we fail to do so. Those thoughts are probably why I have no problem working during the Christmas season.
Halloween is a whole other bag of tricks. Children dress up as whoever or whatever they desire. You get be someone else for a night and no one will question you and suggest you need therapy. You can let all your creative juices flow. You can be THAT house on the block and it is perfectly acceptable. There are still one-upmanship. I have a couple of houses on my street that try to outdo each other every year, but the children actually benefit.
I love getting dressed up and scary the little ones that come to the door. My husband takes it to another level and tries to scary them before they even get to the driveway. It gives the kids stories to tell the next day as they sway their candy. Tonight we will watch scary movies, carve up our carefully selected pumpkins and put the finishing touches on our costumes. the excitement is getting pretty high. Even the dog is wondering what is happening. This year Little Man actually asked if I could make his costume. He saw how much his father and I had last year and wanted in on the preparation for this year. What is even more awesome, he is having a costume contest at school. This would the first year for this event. A new principal, a new set of ideas. I'm happy about these changes. I believe it promotes the idea of an open mind.

When I am not heavy into prep work, I'M just tooling around the estate. I have been working on a sweater for me.

It has been a very long time since I knit anything with black yarn.

I cleaned up the last of the peppers for the season:


With all the leaves falling and the colours and smells changing,

Jackie has been having a field day.

So much so, she has had quite a few baths lately.

I don't even want to know what she rolled in the last time.

I'm off to veg in front of a horror movie with my partner in crime.
I hope you all have a great day!

Prep Work Underway

With Halloween quickly approaching, I've been sewing like a mad fiend.
We also found the perfect pumpkins!

Just a few finishing touches and we will be ready!
More pictures will follow!

Hockey season has also began. I've been knitting happily along to my Leafs trying to establish a decent win record.
I finished Hubs' slippers.

He has actually been wearing them as you can see in the photo!

I also completed a shawl for my Mother in Law.It is called Sun in Cold Water.

When she saw the shawl, the first thing she said was, she will show it to her girlfriends at her next breakfast get together.

Why is it worth the trouble to actually make something by hand?
The recipient who actually enjoys wearing and showing them off to other people.
You cannot buy that feeling.
If you are an artist, you constantly hear things like: but, I can buy that for a few bucks; they are not the same; is it supposed to be like that?
For me, an artist can be anyone who creates something. Everyone from a baker, painter, knitter, designer, chef and so forth.
The list of people that you would actually give something that poured your heart and soul into, is usually a short one.
The mere idea that someone who is a recipient of something you created, totally appreciates the efforts, is actually not very common.
There is not really a specific way for me to express the feelings I experience when I see someone wear or hang something that I created.
They understand how much time is involved. They realize that each stitch or brush stroke cannot be totally replicated.
That does my heart proud.

Last in my long list of works in progress is a pair of socks I am making for me.
Socks on a Plane.


We cannot always be working hard in the creative field. We need to get outside and explore.
Here is something Jackie and I found on our walk the other morning:

It had gotten quite cold over the night. The poor thing had frozen. So Jackie and I decided to bring the butterfly home to show everyone.
Unfortunately, someone got hungry during the day and ate it.

"The cat. It was the cat", says Jackie.

I suspect you are correct Jackie.
Reno does seem particularly hyper this morning.


"That's not true! I've been here the whole time!!!", says Reno.

Now I'm off for new adventures. I hope you all have a fantastic Sunday!

Happy Thanksgiving.

To all my Canadian friends, Happy Thanksgiving.
Sometimes it may not feel like there is a lot to be thankful. All you have to do is read the paper, watch the news and listen to your town gossips. All those images that bombard us with fear and anger. People killing each other over who and they think we can love. Our environment eroding because of our selfishness. Some of our archaic ways being lost from one generation to the next because we simply do not have the time to show and teach appreciation.
We have to work a little harder. There is good out there. There are people that go that extra mile to help and show they care. Holding open the door for the next person. Saying please and thank you. Picking up things someone has dropped. Smiling at children. Sharing meals with friends and family. Just simply listening.
I am thankful. I have a roof over my head. I am surrounded by people that care and love me. I am able to go to work. At the end of the day, I know that I have done the best I can. I can even maintain my sense of humour. I have worked hard and now I can say, that I do have a good life.
Thank you.

Too Much Adventure

Well, this would be the second morning in a row that I have provided the neighbours with entertainment. Thank you Jackie.
She is a sneaky little creature. Nothing like a brisk morning jog in your bathrobe to get the heart pumping.
She leads you to believe she has to go outside for a personal moment. Then lulls you into a false sense security.
Jackie starts making her way towards to the back veranda doors. Then, BAM, takes off after the collection truck.
There is absolutely no convincing this pup that refuse collector is allowed to take our bins at the end of the driveway.
She ignores your lines of reasons and continues to follow the truck in all her barking glory which is amplified by the cone of the shame.
I guess all that morning calisthenics has tuckered her out.

I haven't even bothered to take the leaves out before ushering her inside.

Adjusting

We are all a little sleep deprived. Jackie was spayed last week. The new accessory is driving us all a little crazy.

It is like outfitting her with her own personal megaphone. Not to mention the itchies. You will be sound asleep and all of a sudden BANG, SCRATCH, SCRATCH, SCRATCH....so on and so forth, usually at 0300.
It also makes for a challenging cuddle time session. I have so many bruises, people are starting to wonder what I do in my off time.
One more week and we will be free.

I have been working on Hub's slippers.
I was not happy with the first finished product.

They just look awkward to me. I need to make them a bit shorter in the length and higher on the sides.

Here is my second attempt:

I feel more confident with this version.

At this point, there really isn't too much happening. We are all just working hard to keep the puppy calm while she heals. Not an easy task at all! There are all these interesting Autumn colours and smells that Jackie is trying hard to investigate. One more week has been our home's mantra.

I'm off to catch up on Project Runway. I hope you are all keeping well. Until next time. :)