Vacation

I have finally decided to officially declare that I am taking a holiday break for the month of December. With a new camera learning curve and new laptop (debating if I should store pics on it yet) and Christmas around the corner, this blog has fallen to the bottom of my priorities list.

HAVE A HAPPY HOLIDAY AND SEE YOU IN THE NEW YEAR!

New blocks

A few new blocks for Block Lotto . Requirements were a purple and white 8" center sampler block on point with at least three fabrics of our choice in each corner to make it 12.5" square total. I LOVE how the snails trail one turned out.

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye...a one year old talking to his friends. My moms dolls are the same height as him...he got curious about them and kept hanging out with them.

How does your garden grow?

It's mid November and up here in northeastern Washington the average temperature is not very warm...like 30's and 40's averaging. We had our first frost mid September?? I don't remember, but it killed all the tomato plants. Soon after that I brought in our strawberry and pepper plants to the mudroom. I just hope I wasn't too late for those little peppers, they all look dead but I've read that they'll drop their leaves for winter and grow back in the spring. We shall see.
But LOOK at our garden!! I took this pic last week!! We still have sugarsnap peas growing and ripening, the carrots all look great (I'm not sure if they're growing though) and the kohlrabi, while a little bitten up, are still growing too!! REALLY?!??! Into winter??
The ground is still wet and the temperature fluctuates between the high 30's and low 40's. If I read up on my veggies and gardening, I bet I would learn why these plants are still growing in such chilly weather. Although...the kohlrabi are not really growing into a ball, they're just growing. Weird.
Oh, and this is looking straight down onto the pumpkin patch, which is the corner between the back steps and the house, only next year I think we'll be growing that yellow squashes seeds. Dreary looking corner, eh? :)

Funny things in life

Neither my husband nor I ever had ducks growing up. He's a big time city kid and I grew up in a small farming town, so I had more exposure, but not much. We had chicks once, but they grow so fast they were soon sent to my aunts house in the country. Ever since we got our ducks towards the end of August, we've had daily chuckles and smiles put upon our face by these two feathered friends. EVERY single time we walk out the back door, we hear quacking and the quick patter-patter-patter of duck feet over to see us...

SLAM! Patter-patter-patter-patter...
QUAAACK, Quack, quack-quack-quack?? (Translation: OH! You gonna feed us??)
Cuz a snack would be nice, there's fewer bugs out now...
No really, cold weather = fewer bugs...
Seriously,we'd like to have a snack NOW!
So disappointing! Let's go...
EVERY time we walk out back, this is what we get.

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye...a preschooler wishing to help his daddy. Timberrrrrr!!!! And no, that wasn't the whole tree, that was just a limb. The stump we left in is about two feet across...it was a big one!

Where have I been??

Well...let me tell you...for the month of October I SUPER over-committed myself. As a mother of two...it's pretty stressful. It all started with Halloween costumes. I wanted to make both boys and my college roommate asked me to make hers. THEN it was the countdown to our churches fall bazaar where I signed myself up to donate craft items, desserts in a jar gifts and baked goods. On top of all that was my monthly Year Of Enchantment ornament swap, which was sent out a week late, mostly because of poor time management for the entire month on my part. Well, ALL of these things had to be completely roughly in the same THREE DAY WINDOW!! That's where it got stressful...time was running out. The boys got sick on top of all that.

Other than that brief explanation, here's what I have to show for the month of October:

My swap package for the Year of Enchantment. October's ornament theme was owls. I used Moonstitches tutowlrial. They were so fun to make and SO CUTE!! Below is a pic of the package I received.
In fact, they were so cute and so fun that I decided to make a whole nest of them for the church bazaar. Once again, my camera wanted to fail. Picture taking has been so discouraging ever since it's "accident" I talked about here.
Well, other than all the owls, I made two batches of pumpkin spice cupcakes, two pans of cookie type bars and a dozen jarred "desserts in a jar." They are quart jars layered with dried ingredients then a recipe tag attached on how to make them. I chose the M&M bar and the Dreamsicle bar which was a HUGE HIT!! It's made with Tang...that's what makes it so dreamy I guess. Oh, and our Halloween costumes...
Toddler wanted to be a knight because it had a sword. Look at all his armor!! Thank you dollar store!! Together we decided that baby could be a dragon, and toddler (the knight) could save the princess (that would be me, in a stinky, vintage velvet dress from my moms costume closet) from the dragon. Like the ferocious dragon in the pic?? He was pretty ferocious until we started walking in the stroller. But if I didn't make my dress and ferocious dragon was toddlers costume last year, why was I so stressed about sewing the knight costume?? Oh yeah...because I also had to sew college roommates costume, which was this...to a T. :/ Fur IS NOT fun to work with.

A perfect end to my week, I hope??

Grosgrain has always done fabulaous Halloween costumes...in fact, I think I started following her blog when she had her Marie Antionette costume giveaway a couple years ago which was for a little girl. It was BEAUTIFUL! This year her giveaway is for an adult sized costume...AND IT WOULD BE PERFECT FOR ME!!! Why?? (Warning: kid costume reveal)...Because 4 year old decided to be a knight, together we decided that 1 year old little bro would be the dragon and I suggested that I could be the princess. 4 year old thought that was an excellent idea, at least I assume so with the way his face lit up with a "YEAH" and a big grin. Winning this dress would always make a spectacular end to my crammed and very stressful week...more of all that to come. Hint: it involves sewing costumes, but not for family members, and a lot of other crafts I committed myself too that are all to be done by this Friday. Check out Grosgrains latest and greatest giveaway...but remember...it's perfect for me. :)

The Ever After Frock Halloween Grosgrain Giveaway

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye...a bird nest on the hillside.
Here's a shot of the babies inside. They were so new! I should have backed up to show how this hillside was RIGHT next to the Settler's Cedar Grove trail. As we rounded a corner, the momma bird took off flying and I thought "Where did she come from?" So I turned around to look, and there they were!

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye...some iron pyrite (or fool's gold!) embedded in grey slate. We spent last Sunday rockhounding for these purties in the mountains North of Newport!! We found quite a bit too...but I haven't found the perfect sample, so we may go back for more.