I got the shawl off the needles (FO post coming), so I’ve turned my attention back to my Oyster socks.

I’m still on the cuff, but I’m making these as a shortie pair so it shouldn’t take too long.

I’m eager to get them off the needles. October is almost here, and I really need to get focused on my gift knitting!

Many of you are familiar with my best friend Samantha. Samantha and I have been friends since I was about 12 (so about 30 years now!). We usually only see each a couple times a year (we’ve always lived at least an hour away from each other), but COVID really put a wrench in our plans. Since 2019, we’ve only seen each other once – not long after we took possesion of the house.

Samantha’s husband is an electrician, and before we got too far on doing stuff with the house, he came out to inspect everything for us, and make sure there was nothing unsafe. During that visit, he and Dave decided we needed a breaker panel instead of fuses.

And on Saturday, the pair returned to install the panel! So while the boys toiled away in our dark dingy basement, Samantha and I enjoyed the sun. She brought me a new little ivy in the prettiest pot.

She brought Dave a new little friend!

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He’s in a vase on the kitchen shelf for now, but Dave dug out our HUGE fish bowl, and I just have to clean it. Then he’ll be moving to Dave’s music studio. Dave has named him Sid Fishous.

We went through my house plant collection, and anything that could be split up up, was. Then it was repotted and put in a box for her to take home.

When that was done, we settled in for a little bit of knitting time. (She was working on a cowl, I was working on my socks.)

And when the boys were done, I fired up the bbq and made us all dinner.

It was a wonderful day – and I’m happy to say, there’s still some electrical work to be done, so they will be back soon!

It’s been quite a while since I showed you anything of my latest Leader Ender project, but rest assured, it’s been coming along steadily as I’ve worked on my other projects.

My little basket of snowballed sashing bits was starting to get full, so I decided to pull our some five inch scraps and start assembling them into blocks. I know I won’t have enough, and will have to go back to snowballing more, but I wanted to get a sense of how they would all come together, and how many I’d need in total.

Each block takes two snowballed sashing strips, one 5 inch square, and one black cornerstone.

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This is all still being done as Leaders and Enders, and I managed to get quite a few done so far.

And as Relic is demonstrating, once laid out together, they create pretty solid black stars amidst all that scrappy goodness.

I don’t have quite as many 5 inch squares as I thought I did, so when I’m at Mom’s I’m going to raid her scrap bin and see if I can add in a little more variety (I have a LOT of reds and blues, but I’d like some more colour diversity).

The mums I bought this year are just starting to fade…

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But the mums I brought from the townhouse are just coming into their own!

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In another week, they will be a solid mass of blooms that will last to the frost.

Next year I’ll add even more colours!

These two continue to crack me up on a daily basis. Gone are they days of hating on each other. I wouldn’t say they are bonded, but they have definitely come to some sort of agreement where they are fine with the other’s existence.

Rupert continues to be insanely jealous if he sees Relic getting any sort of attention. He’ll push his way right in to make sure he gets some too. But for the most part, they just co-exist.

But every once in a while, this happens.

It’s not often, and unlike this picture, it’s usually AFTER we’ve gone to bed. I’ll come down to get water or something and see them – and as soon as Rupert knows he’s been spotted, he usually gets up and leaves.

But the other night, Relic and I were on the couch, watching TV, and Mr. Ginger just pushed his way right in and settled down. They stayed like that for a couple hours until I got up to go to bed.

And of course, the size difference still amazes me.

Another eight logs have been added to the shawl.

I’m very happy with the length now, so I’m going to add just one set up the light purple (four more logs) to each end and call it a day. I hope to finish it up this weekend and have an FO post for you sometime next week.

We do have company coming this week, so that plan may go awry, but I’m going to do my darnedest to meet my goal!

There’s another quilt project that’s on my Christmas deadline list.

Back when we moved, I mentioned that my brother’s friend Shawn joined the moving party and gave us an extra pair of very strong helping hands. Here’s a little background: Shawn actually lives with my brother and his family – he’s lived them a couple years now, and has pretty much become part of the family. Because I have a cousin with the same name, I usually refer to him as “new brother” Shawn.

Still, I didn’t really expect him to want to help us move. But he did. He, my brother, and Dave did all the heavy lifting. It was hot, humid, and generally a hard, miserable day. We gave them all a bit of money, but it wasn’t enough for the hard work they put in. (It worked out to about $11 an hour).

I decided he deserves a quilt. I didn’t have much “manly” fabric in the stash, so I asked Mom if she had anything. She still had a pack of fat quarters from the Stonehenge Solstice collection, as well as a few coordinating fabrics, and was willing to give them up to a good cause.

Like my brother’s quilt, I decided this one needed a little planning. It didn’t take long, because it’s basically similar to the baby top I just finished. But still, I needed to know how many squares I needed to cut.

They are all prepped and ready to go, so I can sneak in a throw a block together whenever I have a spare half hour or so.

And of course, I couldn’t resist making one right away!

And I’m happy to say, it passed quality inspection… onto the others!

* If these prints look familiar, it’s because I made Dave a quilt out of the same line a couple years ago. I’m thrilled to be creating with them again! *

Just some little things making me smile lately.

Little thing #1

It’s on our list (and it’s a really LONG list), but we just haven’t had time to address putting up a clothesline yet. Unfortunately, my dresses can’t be put in the dryer (they will shrink). I’ve been putting them on my little drying rack, which is ok, except they take a couple days to dry thoroughly that way. If it rains, it means the rack has to be on the sun porch, and it just gets in the way. But the other day, I had a brilliant idea. I went and got some hangers from my closet and …

I took advantage of the mesh on the catio overhang! I kept them near the poles so the weight didn’t pull on the mesh too much (it probably won’t hurt it, but better to be safe). There was a fantastic breeze and within a couple hours, they were dry! AND as they were already on hangers, putting them away was quick and easy!

Little thing #2

Although I am trying my hardest to focus on putting all our extra money towards the house, I HAD to get myself something clothing related.

We know winters here are going to be colder/harder than at the townhouse. Part of that is because the area gets hit harder, but also because this house is older, and frankly – the windows are crap. We aren’t going to be able to update them all before winter, but I’ve got lots of quilts and warm woolies. I should be ok. But just in case, I wanted to be prepared.

Last winter, I found a fabulous company in Scotland that not only makes merino wool tights, but they also make them in my curvalicious size. I got two pair from them last year (a black and a burgundy) and they are FABULOUS!!! Fit great, not at all itchy, and nice and toasty. While I got them to wear with my dresses, they also slide nicely under a pair of jeans to keep you toasty like long underwear without the bulk.

I thought it prudent to see if I could get a couple more pairs. And naturally, while on their website, I fell down the rabbit hole and started looking at their “Hallowe’en” tights. And there was a pair on that page I HAD TO HAVE. Can you guess which ones???

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I mean, how could I not? Because the dresses I wear fall to my knee or just below, you don’t actually see the cats unless I’m twirling, sitting, or hiking my skirt up – and I love that! They look just like normal tights otherwise!

And they are going to look killer with my favourite Christmas dress!

Little thing #3

Orchids!!!!

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Over the years, I’ve learned that orchids really like north or east facing windows. At the townhouse, I didn’t have a place that would work for them and managed to murder every orchid I owned. The only one I had that did well was the one I kept at the office in a north-facing window.

When we moved here, I knew I had several places for orchids and was determined to get one at the first chance! Unfortunately, all the orchids I came across were well over $20. With everything going on, I couldn’t justify spending that much on a plant.

But last week, I stopped in Giant Tiger to get some clothes for Dave and there they were! Orchids for just $10! I really should have gotten only one, but I couldn’t decide which one I liked better!

Little thing #4

I mentioned earlier that the butterflies are plentiful around here, and I know it’s only going to get better when I really get my gardens going.

Still, it delights me to no end when I can get pictures of the ones that are hanging around.

Including these two White Cabbage butterflies who I caught in an intimate moment!

What little things are making you smile?

Here we are, mid-September. It’s time to start getting serious about the big C-word. It’s only three months away. So other than the Blossom quilt, the only sewing you’ll see here for a bit will be gift sewing.

You may remember that my brother and I like to exchange silly gifts that speak to our twisted sense of humor. Back in June, I showed a panel and coordinating fabrics that I bought to make him a special quilt. It was time to get working on it.

Though I recently said that I like to fly by the seat of my pants when quilting, because of the panel, this one really needed a plan.

It took a few tries, but I finally settled on something I liked. It meant cutting the panel apart, but that was ok. I started cutting and got everything prepped and ready to go.

This one will be a lap quilt, so it didn’t take terribly long. I even had time to put together some quarter square triangles (I’m getting better at them!)

And assemble them into the centre of the quilt top.

Now I have a pile of friendship stars to make, so things will slow down considerably. Still, I’m off to a great start!

Ooops… I didn’t it again.

Once again, it wasn’t my fault. Dave had me looking up something on FB Marketplace again. And the ad for that local garden centre came up again (the one where I got the butterfly bushes). They were getting ready to close for the season and were clearing things out.

Dave needed to go into Strathroy the other day, and since the garden centre is on the way home… and I had $20 cash just burning a hole in my pocket (I rarely carry cash, but I had it leftover from the Pussywillow adventure) so I told him we were making an extra stop.

I kept to my $20 budget and came home with five lovely new perennials.

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More Lupins were high on my to-get list. I brought purple from the townhouse, and I have seeds for some yellow ones, but I want Lupins in all colours! I was hoping they’d have some pink, but they only had white and purple, so white it was! I’ll find some pink ones in the spring.

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I also got some Russian Blue Sage. I used to have a different sage at the townhouse, but I lost it over the winter. This one is a much bigger and more robust species.

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Yellow Wild Indigo is new to me, though it’s been on my to-get list for ages. It’s a native plant, and apparently a big draw for pollinators of all kinds.

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I got some butterfly weed for our little Monarch friends.

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And finally, some scarlet red Bee Balm. I have a nice little compact pink one in the catio. This one should be much bigger, so I planted it near the fence.

I won’t get to enjoy blooms on any of these until Spring/Summer next year, but it’s something to look forward to.

In the here and now, I’m enjoying all these.

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Clockwise from top left: The mini rose is thriving. The white bellflower is enjoying a small second wind. The purple Speedwell has many little bloom spikes, though they are somewhat stunted. And the mums I brought from the townhouse have started to bloom.

And last…

I finally found a plant for my little kitty pot.

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A nice little two-toned African violet. I’ve been looking for a new violet for ages (since my purple one is doing so well) but none of the grocery stores around here seemed to have any – until the other week. This one was the only one of this colour, so I snatched it up!