It’s Thanksgiving Day for us north of the border. I bought this little guy at the grocery store a few weeks ago and he’s still blooming beautifully. After the holiday, I’ll put the mums in the ground and they can join my ever-growing collection.
I definitely have a lot to be thankful for this year.
The biggest thing is obviously the house. It may need a lot of work, but given the state of the housing market (the bidding frenzy has cooled a little, but the prices haven’t come down at all) we are lucky to have a house at all. At the time we pulled the trigger, we were basically at the bottom of the market. A month later, in an effort to cool things, the government changed the eligibility rules, and if we didn’t have this place, we would have been knocked out of the market completely. I’ve kept an eye on listings since we bought, and it’s rare that a house even comes up in our price range now, and with the new rules, our price range would have been about 10-15% less which is a significant drop.
I’m thankful for all the help we’ve had with the house. From my brotherly moving crew, to Dad’s demolition days, to Mom’s nicotine scouring assistance, to electrician friends who saved us a bundle. We are a long way from done, but their helping hands have been huge in getting us this far, and I will be forever grateful.
I’m thankful to the three amigos who made the move with relative ease and adapted to catio life beautifully. And I think they are thankful for a much bigger home, more windows, and a safe space to enjoy the outdoors as they please.
And of course, I’m thankful for all of you, who come here everyday to join in our adventures.
To my Canadian friends, I wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving. To my American friends, Happy Monday! I’d save you some stuffing, but I don’t think it will keep until November!
With October closing in on half way over already, I’m knuckling down on the gift knitting. First up is a pair of birthday socks for my Dad. They are the only man-socks on my list, and his birthday is just before Christmas, so I thought it good to get them out of the way first.
I chose a skein of Lion Brand Sock-Ease.
I’ve knit with it before. It’s not the softest to knit with, but it is hard-wearing, and does soften up a bit with washing. As you can see, it’s a mix of dark olive, grey and brown, with pops of orange, yellow and white. And for some inexplicable reason, the colourway is called “Toffee”. If toffee looked that, I don’t think I’d be eating it.
Regardless, it’s a nice mix of colours. It’s probably a little busy for the pattern I chose: A variation of Walking with Emma.
The yarn is probably more suited to vanilla or plain ribbing, but Mom can whip those up easily for Dad on her sock machine. I wanted to do something a little different for him, so cables it is. You can see them better when the sock is stretched out.
Unfortunately, I’ve reached the age where I have trouble working with dark colours at night. I have a good work lamp, but with the way the livingroom is set-up right now, I can’t use it. I’m close to finishing the lower part of the livingroom, and once we get the furniture moved down there, I’ll be able to have my light again.
In the meantime, Dad’s sock is stuck as daylight only knitting. For the evenings, I’m working on something lighter and brighter!
I’m making the girls fingerless mitts this year. I had just one ball of Felici in Side Pony left, and I thought it would be perfect for Rowan.
The pattern is my Glinda, and as you can see, the first one is already done. I love little knits like this that just fly off the needles. They make gift-giving so much fun!
It’s only natural to think that Burton’s BFF might be Relic, or even Rupert. But while he gets along with them, I can tell you, they aren’t besties.
Burton’s bestie is a lot smaller, and less furry.
I kid you not. It’s Mr. Toad.
Don’t believe me?
Now this not the the same toad from under the recycling bin. (I compared warts between my pics), but he’s close in size.
At first, I was worried that Burton had hurt Mr. Toad, and that’s why he wasn’t hopping away. But I checked him all over, and moved him away from Burton. He could hop just fine, and in fact, hopped right back to Burton under the mulberry bush (which is where I took these pictures.)
Mr. Toad was just hanging with our little Lord Burton, gobbling up every bug that crossed his path (and there were a lot of bug – potato bugs seem to be a favourite). I sat there for about half and hour, just watching the two of them.
I hope I get more chances to watch their friendship grow.
The next quilt off the machine was those scrapalicious pinwheels
I absolutely adore this one! I had so much fun pairing fabrics, and pulling together the sashing and borders. And despite the fact it is 100% scrappy, it has such a coordinated feel.
There are just so many fun colours and prints in here.
I had just enough of that fun floral I was hoping to use for the back and I’m so glad. It really fits in with the cheerful theme of the whole quilt.
And did I show you the cute tags Mom had made up for our quilts?
It feels like we are almost professionals now!
This happy quilt is about 60″ square, so it’s a perfect lap quilt. It’s in the shop now if you feel you need something scrappy in your life.
The first quilt I tackled on the weekend was that cute little nautical one. I went with it first because it was the smallest, and Mom already had the machine loaded up with the right colour thread.
As usual, I just did a basic meander and let the fabric shine in this one. I leave the fancy quilting to Mom!
There’s some really adorable fabrics in here. Including whales with pirate hats and eye patches. I still can’t get over them. They are just too cute.
The backing fabric is a more subtle, abstract whale print (which is also used in the centre block and secondary patterns on the front.
This one isn’t going in the shop just yet, as it may already have a buyer. She’s just trying to decide between a couple we have available. If it doesn’t make the cut, it will end up in the shop.
As you know, I spent the weekend at Mom and Dad’s. Getting all my tops quilted (there were four in total) was the main agenda. I’m happy to say, I got that accomplished (many FO posts will come in the following days), but there was also other fun to had.
In fact, the weekend was jam-packed with it.
Most of the puppies had gone to their homes by the time I arrived, but there was still one left. This is Goldie. Her new daddy came to pick her up on Sunday, so I got to spend a day and a half with her.
She is at the piranha puppy stage, and I came home with a bunch of holes in my hands, arms and feet, but she is a cutie.
Mom thinks’ Jem is going to miss her babies, but I took this picture Sunday night after Goldie was gone.
I think our Mama Dog is going to enjoy some much deserved down time!!!
It wasn’t just puppies though. The girls made me so jealous with their ice-dyed t-shirts that I just had to make some of my own. I bought a t-shirt, and little cami night dress, and Mom showed me how to tie everything up and do the dyeing. Becuase you have to wait for the ice to melt, it takes at least 24 hours to see what you’ve got. I had headed home by then, but Mom sent me pics when she unwrapped them and rinsed them out.
I was hoping for a mandala style like Mom’s quilting blocks….
But it appears I awakened the Eye of Sauron instead! Lol. This is the little night dress.
The t-shirt turned out a little more than expected.
It looks kind of like a mossy snowflake!
Dad’s coming on Saturday, so Mom said she’ll send them along with him. I’ll take some better pictures then.
Mom also sent me home with a couple of treasures. Last time I saw her, I commented that I needed to find a sugar dish with a lid. (We have a minor ant problem here, and I’m trying not to leave out anything that will entice them), so she sent me home with these:
We aren’t sure how old the stainless set is, but Mom remembers it being in her house when she was a kid. The second set belonged to my paternal Grandpa’s second wife, Honey. He gave them to Mom when Honey passed away. I love the little thistle pattern on them.
For now, I’m using the stainless set, because the lid on the sugar dish fits nice and tight, so it should be nice and ant proof.
And last….
I also came home with with this big beauty.
It doesn’t work (and isn’t worth repairing – it’s not actually an antique – it has a fairly modern construction). Someone gave it to Mom and she was going to clean it up and use it as a decoration. But she’s decided she doesn’t really have the room. So I’m going to do the same… only it’s going to be a garden decoration! I just have to decide whether I want to keep the wood natural, or paint it some cheerful colours that will really stand out on the garden! Something to look forward to this Spring!
The last Oyster Ridge sock took no time to get off the needle. In fact, it was done the night after I posted!
I can’t take all the credit for it. It’s a combination of easy lace (four row repeat with only one row of actual pattern), sport weight yarn, and the fact that I have small feet and like short cuffs.
I didn’t realize it until I took them outside for pictures, but the colour is a pretty good match to Rupert. Funny – I never think of him as being a butterscotch colour, but he really is!
Despite how well they look with our little gingerpuss, they are for me! And the pattern looks much better stretched out on a foot than it does on blockers.
In fact, I almost ripped them out when knitting the first sock, because I didn’t like how it looked. I’m glad I stuck with it.
You don’t really see those delicate little scallop shapes until it’s on the foot.
I know many of you have been following poor Araignee’s tale of woe with her kitchen reno. Over here at Chez Wanderingcat, we have one of our own. It isn’t quite as drastic or long-standing has her, and it doesn’t involve a house. It involves a car.
Most of you recall that Dave has a couple classic cars – a ’67 Charger and a ’67 Bonneville. They are the main reason we bought this house in particular – the garage was big enough to house both of them with some room to spare. This was especially challenging with the Bonneville, as she’s almost 20 feet long.
Now, when most people tell me they’d love to have a classic car, my knee-jerk reaction is to always say “Oh no you wouldn’t!” because the truth is, unless you can do all of the work yourself, or have bags of money sitting around, they are nothing but a giant financial headache. You’re always throwing money at them to keep them going. My Dad said to me once “Old cars are just a hole in the road you throw money into.” (This is his variation on his opinion of being a boat owner – just a hole in the river you throw money into.)
Don’t get me wrong – I love them (and if we had more $$, there’s a ’66 Galaxie convertible down the street I’d be buying for myself), but there are times when I’d like to light them on fire, collect the insurance and be done with it.
This particular instance started around the beginning of this year. We’re lucky that Dave CAN do most of the work they require himself. But something cropped up on the Bonneville we just weren’t equipped to tackle – she needed a new convertible top. She’s actually needed one since the day I met him (19 years ago), but he’s managed to patch and repair her to keep her going. To put it in perspective – a regular convertible top usually sees 10-15 years before the weather beats on it enough that it needs replacing. If you’re lucky, and really take care of it – you might get 20 years out of it. The top on our Bonne was ORIGINAL!!! Yep – 54 years. That’s unheard of. Even the guy who replaced it didn’t believe it at first (until he got working on it)
Anyway in January, Dave started calling around to get some quotes. We were looking at least $3000. Now remember, this is also around the time that we were getting ready to start looking for a house. But we both agreed – the top couldn’t wait any longer.
By March, Dave had managed to put away over half of it, and he dropped it off as a deposit with a guy in St. Catharines (about 40 minutes from the townhouse, and an hour and a half from where the car is stored at Dave’s mom’s condo). The guy said he should have the materials in by the end of the month, and we could bring the car in around early April. This was great because it would all be done and out of the way by the time we started seriously looking at houses.
Around the end of March, top guy called; He couldn’t find a kit for that particular car. To us, that’s not surprising – that year of Bonne is pretty rare – especially in Canada (our is actually and American car that was brought up some time in the ’80s). He’d have to have it custom made. It would take six weeks. No big deal – that would mean it would be done around mid-May. That was still doable. We didn’t really expect to have a house ready to move into for May.
We continued with our house search, and of course, found this place. With all the drama going on with that, we didn’t have time to worry that it was almost June and we still hadn’t heard from top guy.
Around mid-June, Dave decided he better call and check. It wasn’t a problem that it was taking so long – we had the house to focus on, he just wanted to make sure top guy hadn’t run off with the deposit. The car was stored at his Mom’s condo and could stay there as long as we needed. So he called; COVID causing delays… blah, blah blah, totally understandable. We go back to focusing on the house.
Then… literally the day before moving day (July 24) we got the call. “Top is in – can you bring it in next week?” We agreed. (Keep in mind, we are now living almost 3 hours from the repair shop, and we have to drive 2.5 hours to pick her up from the condo first)
Of course, you know the move actually took a little longer than expected, so we ended up rescheduling to take Bonne in the following week.
Of course, that was the day the darn diva wouldn’t start (you can read that mini saga here)
We tried again the next week and finally got her to the shop (it’s now mid August), and top guy tells us she’ll be ready to pick up in a few days. A few days goes by an we don’t hear anything. Dave’s not worried because he told top guy not to rush.
The following week, Dave gets a call from top guy – the tack strips that hold the top to the rear of the car are toast – we need to order new ones. No problem. Or at least – it shouldn’t be. It took Dave several days to find a set – they were new ones (he’d been checking scrap yards too), but they were in stock. Or so the website said.
After a week, and they hadn’t shipped yet, Dave calls the place he ordered from “Oh – they are back-ordered,” they say. “It will be at least six weeks for them to come in.”
So why are they showing in stock??? The company couldn’t give us an answer, but according to online reviews (which we unfortunately didn’t check until after), this place is notorious for that. Dave goes on the hunt again, and in the mean time, top guy is calling, getting antsy. You see – his shop isn’t actually big enough for Bonne (I told you, she’s a beast). He’s being storing the car in his neighbour’s shop (a mechanic) overnight, but it’s a really big pain. He also can’t take in other cars incase they need parts and need to be stored too – he needs that part!
Everywhere Dave finds the aftermarket part , they say the same; Part is back ordered – minimum six weeks (Thanks COVID). And the scrap yards just don’t seem to have it.
FINALLY, he find a used set at a scrap yard in California. One problem – the part is too long to ship USPS and they tell us they don’t deal with couriers (Fedex, UPS) etc. I offer to set up the courier pick-up myself- they just have to have it ready – no go. “We don’t do that,” the lady says on the phone. She sends us the links to some freight forwarders other customers have used.
Now a little disclosure here – I work for a customs broker/freight forwarder. I know there is no freight forwarder in the business that is going to take ONE parcel that’s only 66″ x 4″ and weighs five lbs. That’s not what they do. Customers may have used them to ship whole cars, but one one part. But, Dave calls them just in case. No surprise, he’s pretty much laughed off the phone.
In desperation, I emailed a colleague in our freight division. I explain the situation, and ask if he knows of ANY company that can help us. His response is “That’s definitely a courier package, but send me the details and let me see what I can do.”
He emails back an hour later – he had a colleague in California call the wrecking yard. It was too far for said colleague to go pick up (which was amazing that he was willing to even do that), but the yard agreed to send it to the California colleague, and he will forward it on to us by courier. AMAZING!!!
But guess how the yard is going to send it to my colleague??? BY FEDEX!!!!! They use couriers all the time. They just refuse to do use them to send to Canada – and they won’t explain why. If we didn’t have our backs up against the wall with this, I would have walked away and not given them the business.
Anyway, they send it out. But of course, now we are dealing not only with COVID staffing shortages, Labour Day, and Hurricane Bloody Ida!!! It took almost a week to reach my colleague. (It was about a four-hour drive from the yard to his house.) Wonderful man that he is, he sent it on right away, but because of all the aforementioned things, it seemed to take FOREVER to get to the border. (And of course, during this time, top guy is calling every other day to find out where the part is – he’s old school and doesn’t use email, so we can’t send him the tracking directly). We watched it inch along, one state a day, through tracking. FINALLY, on September 17th, it was delivered directly to top guy. We breathe a huge sigh of relief.
The morning of the 21st, we get a call – Bonne is done and ready to come home. And as you can imagine, top guy wants her out of there right away. No waiting until the weekend.
I tell Dave I can take the next morning off work, and we can get up early and go get her. There’s one problem – they are forecasting a huge storm – 125mm/5 inches of rain, high winds, possible hail, covering almost the entire province – ALL DAY. Those of you with classic car experience know – those cars RARELY see rain, and never on purpose. Dave once drove her through an early October sleet storm to pick me up when we first started dating and it was a sign of just how much he liked me and was trying to impress me. I doubt he’d do it now!
He reluctantly agreed (because he knew we didn’t have a lot of choice), but wanted to take her back to his Mom’s condo when we picked her up. It’s closer to the shop (but only by about an hour IF we don’t hit traffic). That would mean we’d have to go an pick her up from the condo another day, which means another five hours on the road. I just wanted her home and done with. I finally convinced him when I reminded him that the condo likes to clean the underground every six months or so, and we ALWAYS get a last minute call from his Mom telling him we have to move the car. If that were to happen, and the weather wasn’t good enough to bring her all the way home, it means not only do we have to drop everything to do it, but also not one, but TWO five hour round trips (one to move her to Dave’s grandma’s driveway, and one the very next day to put her back in the condo)
Wednesday morning arrived, and it was just as bad as they predicted. I don’t mind driving in bad weather, but it did mean taking a little extra time – almost four hours to get to the shop.
Dave got in Bonne, and I followed behind, making sure no one could tailgate him. We made better time, but it was still a miserable drive. We had to stop half way because one of his wipers went on him, though he was able to get it going again. The top is also missing some weather stripping along the front (not part of the replacement, and we knew that – and not an issue if you’re not driving in the rain), so it was a bit of a damp drive for Dave. By the time he got home, his jean were pretty wet from water pushing through and dripping down.
But the main thing is she got home in one piece. The wind was really howling so we cleared out one side of the garage as quick as we could (we still had some flooring and records and stuff stored there) and got her under cover before it hailed or a stray branch came down.
Happily, the next day was bright and sunny, and Dave pulled her out and cleaned off all the dirt and dust from the rain.
It makes me so happy to finally see her in her permanent home (she always had to go back to the condo in winter because we had no place to store her). And after the nine-month saga of getting the top done…
Of course, now he’s go to look into the a drive-line vibration she has at highway-speed. Oh, and the Charger needs to be brought from storage at his Grandma’s but we need to do some work on her brakes first… it’s always something!
I didn’t expect to see any rose buds this year.. but wouldn’t you know it – Honey Perfume and White Lightning decided to surprise me!
I’m especially thrilled about White Lightning. She’s such a beautiful rose and has a really amazing scent. Honey Perfume does too, but White Lightning is just that much stronger! There are several more buds coming (she’s a pretty prolific bloomer once she gets going).
Elsewhere, my yellow mini rose is thriving. And though I should’ve waited until I see how she manages through the winter… I just couldn’t.
These two little guys were just $4 each last grocery day. They are now beside yellow, creating a happy, mini rose wonderland inside the catio! They may get moved, come spring (if they survive), but for now the cats and I are enjoying the blooms!
Wandering Cat Studio 