It's Not Over Yet!

Most of you will be gladly resting, in that after-Christmas euphoria that sets in as soon as you realize You're Done.  No more presents to make or buy or wrap.  All Done.

Not I!

We were blessed with a January baby.  She was due to arrive Christmas Day, 10 years ago, but she decided to bide her time and wait... for 9 days.  This next birthday marks a mile stone - her first decade - and I want to acknowledge this with something extra-special.

So I am embarking on a journey to parts unknown, somewhere I've never gone before but have imagined for a while.

My - and her - first quilt.

It's an easy go, strips of fabric sewn together, some new some old (parts of old pajamas that weren't completely worn out, bits and pieces from other things I've made her), but still.  I've never done this before. And it seems fitting to do it for her.  My first baby, my first quilt.  And I don't have a lot of time...

Winter to Me :: In Pictures

Cosy up, peoples, 'cuz, baby, it's COLD outside.

Keeping Warm

Brrr.  It's been chilly here the last few nights, with temps getting to -11C.  Yea, I know, that's not COLD, but it's cold enough.  My mind always wanders to my outdoor menagerie and hope they are keeping warm enough.

We don't heat the outdoor enclosures unless it gets REALLY icy, like -16 or less.  Instead, we use the old farmer trick of feeding them, and feeding them well.  Every afternoon, around 3 PM, I do my rounds, as I like to call them. Buckets of warm, fresh water to everyone and today I splurged: they all got a helping of black sunflower seeds along with their regular fare.

  Feeding birds so that they have a full crop when they turn in for the night is a good, old-fashioned way of keeping them warm.  I'm not totally sure how this works, only that it does.  They emerge in the morning, bright-eyed and ready to take on the day.  Maybe the act of digestion heats them up, I don't know.

Minerva Louise here is making sure I don't forget Her.  Giving me the old stink-eye to make sure I'm paying attention.

The ladies deserve the good stuff, I do declare.

Looking for Inspiration

I don't know about you all, but I have issues with the holiday season.

All the shopping and spending and stress just does not resonate with me.  Not. At. All.

I do my best to make the gifts for my immediate family and hope that friends and extended family will be happy with warm wishes and a big hug.  I have no desire to step into the hustle and bustle and traffic.  But I do like to decorate, a little bit.  Subtle bits, here and there, to add a a little festive to our home.  Make it that much cozier, seeing as we are spending so much time indoors these days.  Which is trying for a family who is outside all the time in the warmer months.

So, where to go for inspiration??  Well, Soule Mama, of course.

We took a little walk in the backyard (with an entourage of curious turkeys), and collected a few little treasures.

Then we did a little crafting.

(We did a wreath too, but haven't got a shot of that yet.)

Thank you, Amanda Blake Soule, for being such a gentle inspiration when one needs a little help.

Countdown to Christmas

I'm starting to feel the crunch.  Not the 'hurry up and find a gift for so-and-so' so much as 'when am I going to find the time to knit stuff for everyone I want to knit stuff for??' crunch.  Cuz my fingers can only go so fast, and I can only do so much knitting in a day before I cause myself injury.  I know.  I've done that before.    I have 2 projects on the go: knee warmers for my crazy work-odd-hours man, and a cowl for my girl to match the mitts I just finished for her.  I also want to do a hat for my boy, with guitars on it, from this pattern aptly called "Harrison" (as in George, I'm assuming), with,  hmmm... 16 days to go.  Better get on it.

And then there's the sewing.

For the past several years (I've lost count), I've made new pj's for the kids to open on Christmas Eve.  They now expect it.  I even made summer jams when we spent the holidays in Mexico.  There's really no getting around it.  Thankfully, it's a really easy pattern, from Weekend Sewing, and I picked up the flannel for both today.  I've made them before and also used the pattern to re-purpose a T-shirt more than once.  I'm glad they look forward to a tradition that is home-made.  Amid all the hustle and bustle, and holiday commercialism, it makes my heart smile.

Is THIS December??

I know.  It's hard to believe, but yes, I took these pictures TODAY, December 1, 2012.  It got to 11C here today, folks.  I had to document it, it was way too cool.  Like Spring had come early.  All of us - animals included- enjoyed the fabulous weather.

Dog took a nap in the yard; geese and ducks had a swim in the pond (after pathetically trying to dive in their water dish.  They just do that.); I cleaned out the barn; hubby put up new fences.

Kids played in the barn with Beep.  Actually, that's not Beep.  That's her Auntie Madam.  We called her that because when she was a chick she had a black outline on her eyes that looked like eyeliner.  But Beep was there too.

If this is December, I can totally handle winter.

Happy December, people!

Weekend Reading

Books, books and more books.  OK. So I really don't have to tell you about Harry Potter; I'm reading 1 ahead of daughter, so I'm on "The Half-Blood Prince" and thoroughly enjoying it, for the 2nd time.  Meanwhile, she's panting in my ear as she impatiently waits for me to hand it over.

Then, there's book 1 of the "Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place" by Maryrose Wood, which I'm reading aloud to the children, and that we've read before.  But, we are desperately waiting the 3rd installment of the series, which seems to be terminally stuck in "cataloging" at the local library.  So we are refreshing ourselves with Parts 1 and 2 of the series in hopes that the 3rd book will be available, like, the second we're done.

And then, there's the book for me, recommended by my friend Signe from Patch of Blue: "Let's Pretend This Never Happened" by Jenny Lawson.  Oh. My. God.  Is this FUNNY!  And her liberal use of colorful adjectives (well, one in particular) makes it even more so.  It also makes it one of those books you don't leave around for your young reading-age children to investigate.  No.  You really don't want that.  I've only started it and so far it's making me laugh out loud.  It's a stand-up comic version of "The Glass Castle".  With a lot of extra fun words thrown in.

Happy Reading!

Chicken in a Basket

A Beep update:  Beep is about 10 weeks old now and has the cheeky personality of her mama, Blackberry. Having been hatched in my bra (!), raised in the house and coddled by children, Beep has no fear when it comes to the whims of little boys.  This morning, little boy wanted to take Beep for a ride, so he and dad rigged up a little basket on the front of his bike, plopped Beep into it and pushed off.  Beep just got cozy and enjoyed the ride.

We still don't know if Beep is a rooster or a hen (gosh, I am sure hoping for a hen after all the roosters we hatched this year!), but we are reserving guesses for a later date.  Seeing as our precious "Princess Leia" turned out to be a prince and not a princess at all, and we didn't figure that out until he was probably 20 weeks old, we are going to wait, with fingers crossed.

Cast Off, Cast On

Well!  It's Done.  My sweater!  It's the Eyelet Yoke Sweater by Pink Brutus Knits.  And it's lovely.

No sewing, knit in the round.  I love it so much, I think I'll do another one.

And I, in fine form, now have several projects on the go:  mitts for my little lady, from the latest Taproot Magazine; and I want to do a mobius.  Nothing like spending a dark cozy evening snuggled up to the fireplace with my knitting.

It must be winter.

A Dress for Dolly

My dear daughter has become a bit obsessed with a certain type of doll - the Maplelea Doll.  I don't quite get it, but then, do I need to?  I'm more of a Waldorf-y doll lover myself, if I can even call myself a doll lover.  I was never one to play dress up with dolls; I preferred to play with my imaginary animals, or later, my real ones, or ride bikes, or run down the back alley barefoot, or make forts in the woods...

So anyway, these dolls are, like, $100 each, plus the company entices purchasers to indulge in all kinds of clothing and accessories for the dolls.  Ye Gads.  Spending this kind of moolah on dolls? I just can't wrap my head around it.  So, daughter, knowing how her mom feels about spending cash like this, finds a simple sewing pattern in one of my books:

Ta-Dah!

And this is the book:  Oliver +S "Little Things to Sew".

Yay! For moms who can sew and daughters who appreciate it!

Weekend Reading... For Kids!

"Extra Yarn" by Mac Barnett.  Another great kids' read.  This one is sweet, for the very young and upward to anyone who enjoys the reminder that a little beauty and a little effort can make a huge difference, and that there is no price for happiness that comes from within.

I've been focusing a bit more on the kids' reads lately it seems.  My daughter, who's almost 10, is enjoying very large books that I am not familiar with -- Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and other books from the pen of Rick Riordan.  I love discussing books with her, but, seriously, these novels she's reading are epic in size and content, and there is no way I have time to read the way she does.  She also enjoys the Harry Potter series, but our deal is that I will read the books ahead of her (or, re-read them) so that we can discuss them.  So that it what I'm doing with my "spare" time -- re-reading "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" before I give it to her to devour.

So, if you'll excuse me, I've some reading to do...

Tis the Season...

... for knitting!  You know all my posts before about gardening?  Well, now that the garden is pretty much put to bed (still got some lettuce in there! Yes Indeed!), the focus switches from outside to inside as we spend more and more time near the coziness of the fireplace.

For me, that means knitting.  My sweater is almost done, which means my mind is gravitating toward my next project.  Oh, the possibilities!!  I have this yarn in sapphire, a blend of merino, cashmere (!) and nylon.  It's not cheap, let me tell you, so choosing the project is quite an undertaking.  I want to do another sweater, the same as my brown one, but in short sleeves, but I'm also thinking that a really long comfy cowl would be just the thing to keep me from totally dreading the onset of winter.  Especially with this merino/cashmere blend.  Yummy.

You might wonder why the yarn I choose is a little on the pricey side.  I tried knitting with the less expensive yarns, and it just didn't work for me.  The pieces would be scratchy, or the drape not quite right.  Knitting takes Time.  And, like I've mentioned before, Time is Precious.  So why waste (a lot of) Time on something you are not going to like the looks of when you're done, or, before that even, not enjoy knitting with?  Because knitting is a process.  I feel the yarn in my hands.  I think about things; not only the thing I'm making, but who I'm making it for.  My mind wanders, plans for the day, week, or, further.  It's meditative.  Doctors say it's good for lowering one's stress level.  The better the yarn feels, the more sedate I become.  A good yarn is seductive.  It lures you into a place of quiet and peace, no matter what your surroundings.  And, when you do it in public, it's a great conversation starter.

I'm not a high-maintenance type.  I don't go for mani's or pedi's.  My clothes are almost all second-hand.  I grow a lot of our own food.  I don't go to "lunch".  My hair is wash-and-go.

But my yarn...  it's my "happy place" and it's worth a little more.

What's on your needles these days?

The Golden Nectar

Have you ever done a taste test with Honey??  Some of you might think, "What for? Honey is honey." So not true!  Honey is available in so many different "flavors" and from so many different climates, it can be mind-boggling.  I decided to try a taste test with a few different varieties for part of a 4H Cloverbuds meeting on honeybees.  I collected a couple of samples, some from local sources and a generic Costco brand.

We tried a fireweed honey and a lavender honey from Planet Bee, a basil honey from Bees Inc., a plain honey from Arlo's Honey Farm, and the generic Bee Maid from Costco.  Well.  The kids loved the lavender honey.  It was infused, in that the lavender flavor was added afterward.  I thought it tasted like bathwater.  Maybe if the flavor had come naturally from the bees collecting the pollen from lavender flowers, it would have been subtler, and I would have enjoyed it more.  To each his own.  The Fireweed honey was an all-around favourite.  The flavor was delicate and delightful.  Oh, but then the basil honey was amazing.  So clean-tasting.  Not like the costco honey at all.  The generic, factory-made honey tasted like goop compared to the small-batch, locally made honeys.  Fine for baking, but when you're actually going to taste the honey, like on toast or in tea, I'm voting for the local guy.

What is your favourite honey?

Weekend Reading

I love knitting.  LOVE it.  Have I said that before?  Hmmm.  Maybe. Once or twice.  I also love reading about knitting, whether in a magazine that tells about a certain kind of fibre, or where it comes from, or how a certain designer gets his/her ideas, or reading patterns, or whatever.  But novels about knitting.  Love them too.  Especially when I want something light that I totally get.

So I found this:

"A Life in Stitches" by Rachael Herron.  What a sweet read!  Herron is very candid about events in her life and how it related to how or what she was knitting at the time.  I can relate to this!  I almost always have something on the go, and until recently, it was 2 or 3 things.  Right now, I'm focussed on finishing this sweater for me, in a lovely warm brown baby alpaca/bamboo yarn from marisol yarns.  It's dreamy.  I'll share more when I'm done.

Anyway, again, I digress.  If you knit, you will enjoy this book.

Happy Knitting! Happy Reading!  Happy Weekend :)

And so, I sew.

I love it when I can give someone a hand-made gift.  I know it's so much easier to go to the store and buy whatever is the current rage, but I really seem to have difficulty doing that.  Part of it is that I love making things.  But there's something else.  People - kids - "these days" expect things instantly, a quick fix, something that, to me, doesn't take much time or effort.  Time and Effort are precious to me.  They are so rare.  My hope is that maybe, just maybe, I can light a little spark of something in a child.  Maybe they realize that nice things can be home-made.

This is a particular favourite. I've made it at least 5 times now.  It's a colorful and practical pencil roll with individual little pockets for colored pencil crayons, or paintbrushes or knitting needles, you get the idea.

And maybe, just maybe, they will be inspired to make something, too.

Happy Crafting!

This pattern was adapted from that in "Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts"  by Joelle Hoverson.

Fall Postcards

Cheesie scarecrow

Mill Creek Park bridge

A view from the corn maze at McMillan Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkins!

Grapes!

Fall leaves & rain

The fall attire: fleece and rubber boots

The Bachelors

Weekend Reading

"The Butcher and the Vegetarian" by Tara Austin Weaver.  I thoroughly enjoyed this one.  I've been needing something a little lighter lately, and this one did the trick, not only for the humor, but it was also interesting and followed my thought pattern of late.

Weaver was raised a hippie 70's type vegetarian and never knew anything else until doctors told her to eat meat to cure her chronic fatigue.   I, for over 20 years, have only eaten chicken and fish because I couldn't stand to support the commercialism and brutality that plagues the food industry in North America.  (I tried, for about 3 months to go total veggie, but I simply enjoy chicken too much.)  Lately though, I too have ventured into the land of meat, providing it is ethically raised, pasture fed, "happy" meat.  You know what?
I like it.

But Weaver's book isn't just about eating meat.  It's her journey to learn more about herself and what works for her.  For listening to one's true heart is one of the best lessons one can learn.  Interestingly enough, Weekend Reading from 2 weeks ago gives the same life lesson. Hmmm.

Where ever you are, whatever you do, enjoy your weekend!

Who's Da Man?? HE'S Da MAN!

My lovely ewes got a little surprise last week:

He didn't come with a name, but Daughter insisted on calling him Apollo, after the Roman God of light and the sun, truth and prophecy, healing, plague, music, poetry, (among other things) and the patron defender of herds and flocks.  Appropriate?  I think so.

Since we've never introduced a new member to the flock, we decided to safely introduce the girls to Apollo through the fence, as we do with chickens:

Don't they look like they're smiling?

Hmmm.  Apparently sheep are more accepting than chickens, as this was the peaceful scene later that weekend (that's him in the middle):

And so the adventure begins.  We have borrowed him for a month, give or take, and then in March, we will see the results of this.  He was never hand-raised like our girls were, but is very gentle and acts like he's been here forever.  Nice.

Hopefully we'll end up with about 6 lambs of our our 4 ewes, one of which we will give back to the lovely farmer who loaned this guy to us.  The others will be pasture-raised until late summer and sent... away.  We already have customers queuing up for their "happy meat."

Tomato Cages are Stupid

Seriously Stupid.  Tomato Cages are.  And the result of such stupidness is such an embarrassment I am not even going to post a photo.    Really now. These heritage variety tomatoes we planted this year were So Huge, the shear weight and size of them toppled the "cages" over weeks ago.  And here I am, attempting to harvest the last of summer goodness, by untangling the web of tomato vines from each other, sadly observing the sorry sight of the mound of forgotten tomatoes, lost and rotting, on the ground beneath said cages.

So, next year, I'm doing THIS.  Seriously, Sophia at the www.joyoffarming.blogspot.ca has it Going On.

Enough of the other nonsense.  Tomato Cages.  I fart in your general direction.

Oh, and by the way?  My List?  Not bad.  Passports applications are complete, awaiting pick up of photos. Garlic was totally planted, then we decided to pick up some Yugoslavian bulbs today to add to the German and Russian already in the ground.  The plum tree has been thoroughly raided and plums are frozen and/or dried.  "Beep" is being transitioned; in that she is starting to spend her nights in a slightly cooler room of the house, but is not yet outside.  Elderberry Syrup?  Check.  Roosters?  We are currently finishing them on organic boiled potatoes (I dunno, I read that somewhere), garden gleanings and black sunflower seeds (recommended by a friend).

Tomatoes?  Well... See Above.

Weekend Reading for Kids

 "Waiting for Winter" by Sebastian Meschenmoser is one of our family's seasonal favourites.  Deer has told squirrel that winter is coming and Squirrel really wants to see what that's all about.  

In his efforts to stay awake, he rouses Hedgehog and Bear who then want to see it too.  

They have an idea what winter is supposed to look like, and what they think is winter is hilarious, to both an older child, and preschoolers alike, as the pictures are priceless.  Meschenmoser's artwork captures the emotions to a "T" and the whole family will laugh out loud.

Happy Reading!