Happy Friday

I am le pooped. I cut into my fabu vintage material, but I just. Can't. Sew. Anymore. Tonight.

I sure would love it if someone would bring me some ice cream. I'd go get some, but today (and the rest of the weekend) looks an awful lot like this.

I made this yesterday, and yes, I know I'm turning into Quagmire.

It's a very small start on some Christmas sewing. And crafting. Many, many ideas. Oh my! It's all pretty exciting, isn't it? Today, I got something at Value Village and I wasn't sure what I would do with it, but now I have an idea, and if it works, it'll be so, so good! Pictures to follow, probably after Christmas, so some people won't see them. Yes, I mean you.

And also, if you're looking for a great loaf recipe, look no further! A-Z Bread. I made it last night with carrots, and (surprise) pumpkin. I'm pretty excited to try it with apples and dates. And slightly depressed that I find that exciting...

My Creative Space

Look! I made something new! I love this material! I'd like to have bolts and bolts of it so I could use it to make everything. Or if not everything, then pants. And I could put them away, and keep them until I'm old, and then wear them all the time, so I could be the crazy old lady in the mermaid pants. And by 'keep them until I'm old', I mean I wouldn't wear them until Spring.

To do before bed:

1. Carrot and pumpkin bread
2. Draft the two patterns that are bumping around in my noggin.
3. Tidy up all the loose threads on the things I have "finished"; easily done, since I can finish them while watching Corrie (who else on here watches Coronation Street? I swore I would never, but I'm hooked. Thanks Marcia).
4. Maybe, just maybe, get something else sewn up.

The best things in life are free.

*If you aren't a dog lover, you might want to skip this.

Don't you love when you find a company that has excellent customer service? We bought Rocco a collar from Planet Dog. On October 22, he got super excited to see the upstairs tenant, and decided he wouldn't let that hold him back. He ran really fast, and snapped the buckle. So I emailed the company, and heard back from them that day; apparently everything they sell is 100% guaranteed, but since I declined a replacement (I don't think a plastic buckle is the way to go for this pooch), they offered to replace it with toys, and today, the mailman (who Rocco likes a great deal!) brought this to the door:


I was impressed. So was Rocco, even if doesn't look it...

In other news, the bathroom is almost ready to paint, I have some crafty things on the go tomorrow, and I've been baking anything and everything that includes pumpkin. We cooked 4 of the 8 we had for hallowe'en and ended up with about 15 cups of pumpkin. There have been pancakes, and cookies (OMG! Protect me from these cookies! Can't. Stop. Eating), and dog treats, and pie.

And speaking of pie... I was gone for 2 hours yesterday, and when I got back, Rocco bolts out of the house, sits on the deck just outside the door; his ears are tucked way back, and his tail's just wagging... and I notice a fork on the floor. A fork with pumpkin pie on it. Hmm. Pie is gone from on top of the microwave. On second glance, there's a banana peel on the floor by the table, which was also on top of the microwave. Rocco is still outside the door wagging his arse, looking at me, like, 'Did I do good?? I did good!" I couldn't even call him bad; I'm mostly amazed that he managed to get the pie down, keep is upright, and... eat it with a fork?? Oy.

Real crafty things tomorrow, cross my heart. And not just crafty like my hound...

Mirror, Mirror, in the wall... (or a long rambling reno related rant)

...we're just not going to be friends this month, are we?
First it was the old Rx cabinet. See, I fixed the door, and then the glass went back in, well... this happened...
Then today, we decided enough was enough, it was time to start the bathroom (by we, I mean Adam. I am slack. Slacker than slack when it comes to some things. But I digress). I didn't want to do it. It is never as easy as taking one thing out, and putting another thing in. Ever. Unless you have the original plans, and you know where everything is, you have no idea what is in your walls. Mid-veryexpensive-reno once, after we had backframed for the roughly 30 million potlights that the home owner wanted, the electrician discovered that there was something keeping him from running wires. The something being 3 steel beams. Turns out the ground floor used to be open over the rec room. And no one knew.

My point is it's never as easy to renovate as you think it will be. It usually costs 40% more than you think it will, and it will take 3 times as long as you think it should. When you open up a wall, expect wires, pipes, angry raccoons. I'm sorry I'm so wound up about this; I just feel like all the home reno shows have given people false expectations, and I'M HERE TO STOP THE MADNESS. Adam was expecting things to go smoothly; I was glad I didn't end up with a raccoon on my face. So we opened up the wall, and found this:

Turns out that's a drain pipe from the roof drain. The sink drain from upstairs runs just under the bit of drywall on the lower left corner, running down on a 45 angle, so even if I could have lived without the cabinet being centred over the sink we couldn't put it there anyway. Urgh. The final moral (and thank you if you're still with me): I have a medicine cabinet for sale, if anyone is interested.

And now for something completely different:

Rocco mistook the pumpkin guts for a buffet.
And the finished products:

Adam was very excited to scare the kiddies. It was a success; one girl wouldn't go up the stairs and sent her mom instead. Muhahahaha.

This is my sisters skeleton. He's just, y'know, hanging around...

This growing pile of things to finish....

it makes me very happy.

It starts with this....


and ends with this (I'm aiming for the Farmer's Market next weekend, I hope. And this is definitely going to be a homemade Christmas).



Took some time to Mr. Skelligen for a 3 month old cutie, who I (embarassing) haven't met yet. Here he is doing his one time only performance of "I ain't got no body" *snicker*.

In keeping with my horrible, procrastinating Hallowe'en traditiion, it's almost 1pm, 10/30, and I have no costume. When's the party? Oh, that would be tonight. SO I'm putting on my big girl panties and going to WalMart. Wish me luck.

My creative space....

Really? It's that time already? Well, wow, what a mess. My creative space is my messy, piled up, can't-find-a-damn-thing space. Tomorrow: things get tidied up.

Did a little material shopping today. Found this awesome table cloth (which is no longer in one piece...)

And buried deep down in a $2.99 bag from Value Village (which is now my favorite place to buy material), I found about this. It's beautiful, there's almost 3m of it, and it's miiiiine, allll miiiiiine (the picture doesn't do it justice at ALL. It is incredible).

Updates on what I've been doing tomorrow, cross my heart.

I know when to admit defeat....

Ever have one of those days when it just feels like your running in Jell-o? Going and going and getting nowhere? I did do things. I overhauled Adam's Value Village Grim Reaper robe. I'm not sure I'm done, but we'll see. Did laundry, dishes, went to the grocer, made supper, and zucchini bread, and most importantly went to Fabricville and got some snazzy remnants.

Regardless. I've been contrary all weekend, for no discernible reason. I blame the full moon. (Not the best picture, you say? Why did I post it, you ask? Well, just after I took this one, my batteries died. Yea. It's been that type of weekend).

This type of weekend. I was actually getting something done, and BAM, zip in the tea. Grreeeeeaaaaatttt. I waved the white flag, shrouded the machine, and left the room. Well. After washing my zipper...

*Gratuitous pooch shots*

We've had Rocco since the first part of July, just after we moved. He was 7 weeks old when we got him. He was wee.

He's 5 months old now. I'm not feeding him miracle grow, I swear!!

(Brought to you because I was looking at old pictures of him, and holy crap, he's getting really BIG!).

Happy Monday, people. May the moon get darker, and my mood get brighter.