Twenty five years ago today, I was 18 years old – standing in a church, dressed identically to two other pretty young ladies, witnessing one of the most important moments in the life of one of the most important people in my life… the wedding of my bestest friend in the world – Samantha!

(We absolutely did not plan on having anniversaries in the same month… it’s just a good month for a wedding, I think!)

Samantha, and her husband Michael, had actually been together for several years before getting married (yep – high school sweethearts). Right now, the pair are off, enjoying a little anniversary trip to Jamaica.

But before they left, I made sure my anniversary present made it to them.

This is the big secret project I was working on back in August and September. I collected the fabrics a few months before (to match their newly re-painted bedroom).

It’s a mix of florals and bee-theme fabrics. And the background fabrics look black here, but they are really dark grey.

The block is very simple, and when you put a bunch of them together…

It makes a bunch of wonderful secondary patterns.

This is the biggest quilt I’ve made, finishing up at about 94″ square…. and it was definitely a slog to quilt and move around… even with Mom’s long arm.

So there won’t be many quilts of this size… but I think this pair are deserving of at least one!

Saturday it was once again grey and rainy (off and on all day), and though there are still things to be done outside, I decided to spend it indoors instead of trying to work between showers. I did a few things around the house in the morning, and told Dave to leave me alone for the afternoon, I was going to the studio.

And though it was grey and rainy, I had a lovely colourful view from my sewing machine out my pretty new window!!! Our colours are just a few days past peak, and still so pretty. They almost glow against the grey clouds.

When I wasn’t staring out the window and marveling at Mother Nature, I was working on the latest Blockhead sew-along block.

Now we have five blocks total.

After we finished that up, the boys helped me do some much needed organizing in the studio.

And once it was all tidy, Burton and I worked on a secret Christmas project. Sorry – we can’t share. But it’s going to be an awesome one!

It was so nice to have some uninterrupted time in the studio again. I hope we get to do it again soon!

This is the wettest October I think I’ve ever experienced – and while it may not be the coldest, it’s not been very warm. The first week was almost summer-like – but then mother nature flipped a switch, and I count us lucky if the temps get into double digits (Celsius, that is).

While the gardens appreciate the rain, the cooler day have really slowed things down. Instead of bursts of colour, we’re down to a handful of blooms on most plants, with the exception of a few.

The usual suspects are still doing well.

Namely the Susans and the Coneflowers.

Even a few of the fancier Coneflowers are still blooming – they tend to stop a little earlier than the native ones.

Most of the Tickseeds continue to wow

I really hope those pink ones make it through the winter – they are so pretty.

The blanket flowers are still trucking

And of course, the mums are doing their thing still

Those bottom two are new – I don’t think I showed them to you yet. The first is called Red Hot, and the second Flamingo. I think you can see why. They are planted directly in the garden, and hopefully they will come back next year. I’m not 100% sure they are hardy, so I won’t find out until next spring.

And speaking of hardy – have you every heard of Hardy Glads? Neither had I. But look

I got them from my mail order place this spring. They grew, but I didn’t think they’d bloom this year. But when I was pruning the Eden climbing rose, I discovered these two beautiful blooms hiding in the rose branches!!! Aren’t they just stunning??? The blooms are smaller than the big fancy glads, and I don’t think they get as many flowers, but they certainly pack a punch!

And speaking of roses… I never did end up pruning Chrysler Imperial

Because it started getting new growth all over the place. I’m still going to wrap it for winter, just to give it some extra protection, but I think it’s going to make it through just fine.

I got a bit of a suprise with this next one

It’s a pink Yarrow. But I never planted this pink Yarrow. I did notice some odd leaves in the lawn (those little fern like leaves), and wondered if they might be Yarrow. But since I mowed at least weekly, I never found out. Until this one popped up in the new garden around Edible Alley. One of those little sprouts must have migrated to a space safe from the mower. I’m very happy to have it though – I also have red, yellow and a different shade of pink.

And last, I’ll leave you with some of those blooms that shouldn’t be showing on October… but are

From left to right… Shasta Daisy, Spiderwort (Widows Tears) and Clematis.

The weather has been absolutely dismal this October, making it very difficult to get out and decorate for Hallowe’en – but Monday afternoon, it was finally dry enough so I wasn’t about to miss the opportunity. I got all my skeletons out of the closet in my office, and set to work creating my Garden of Bones!!!

It’s all focused in the gardens around the front walkway – which is of course, where the kids will walk to get their candy. All the weird and wonderful (and impossible) skeletons from last year have returned.

And there are a few new additions

No Garden of Bones would be complete with out a DEATH SNAIL!!!!!
And I don’t think I need to explain why I added this little guy….

Could a skeleton be any cuter???

Dave wanted to add some gravestones this year.

So we got three. I think they look great, so I think next year we’ll add a few more. The “Ground Breaker” skeletons with the arms and legs I had from last year.

But the torso coming out of the ground is new. As is the skeleton arm throwing the “goat”

Given that Dave is a guitarist, I thought it was most appropriate.

The rest of the skeletons are scattered throughout the gardens like they were last year. (A very easy way to decorate, I must say)

And Dr. Bones is hanging on the porch with his batty friends

There’s a couple of skeleton lanterns and another bat hanging from the arbour – and I’m still debating about covering it in fake spiderwebs. It’s been so wet though – I’m thinking it will just end up a mess.

My pumpkins are styrofoam, and very light so they won’t go out until Hallowe’en night because they blow away too easy.

But all in all, I’m thrilled with how it looks. Even in the dark!

So now I’ll leave you with a little tune to get you in the mood – Just 10 more days to go!

While I was planting bulbs, I had a lovely visitor…

This sleek grey boy lives at the house across the street. He’s a frequent visitor to our yard, though he’s still pretty shy, mostly running off when he sees us. But more and more, he’s been sticking around as long as I don’t try to approach him.

As you can see, he came that day, for a munch on the catnip, which has filled in beautifully after it’s slow start. After his snack, he even came over and gave me a little sniff. But he ran off again when I tried to pet him.

You know how much Dave and I love thrifting, so while I was on vacation, we took as many opportunities as we could to stop at thrift shops and antique stores while we were out and about. Here are our latest finds…

We are going to be hosting our families for Christmas this year. There will only be about 10 people, but I needed some proper serving dishes. These large banana leaf shaped platters should hold some turkey and stuffing quite nicely!

They stack nicely for easy storage too.

At our favourite used store in Strathroy, I found this 3.5 gallon galvanized bucket, perfect for the garden. And three of the largest Mason jars I’ve ever seen.

Here they are beside one of my 500 ml jars. They are HUGE! I have no idea what I will use them for, but I just had to buy them.

We also made a trip to our favourite antique mall in Woodstock, and each came away with a good score.

There’s over two yard of the Hell Kitty fabric.

And last… on the way home from that Sarnia trip on Saturday (the one that interrupted my sewing) we drove by a pile of furniture on the curb… most of it was in pretty rough shape, but there was a loveseat that was in great condition.

It was the perfect size and just fit into the back of Dory! We brought it home and Sunday I gave it a good steam clean.

It goes quite nicely with our thrifted recliner. It fits well in the upper living room and it allowed me to finally get rid of the broken old futon. Between this and the furniture in the lowing living room, we have plenty of furniture for Christmas entertaining.

But I think our guests might have to fight Burton for the recliner…

The Difficulties were still hanging out…

If you look closely, you’ll notice that I managed to get to the ribbing despite them.

In fact, I’m almost done it.

Just a handful of rounds left and the body will be done. The sleeves will go much quicker!

Time is a funny thing. I certainly doesn’t feel like I’ve spent half my life with this guy.

But I have. And he still makes me smile and laugh like that at least once a day.

Twenty-one years and counting… I think I’ll keep him.

I had hoped this vacation would give me lots of time to get in the studio. Despite the foul weather, it was not to be. There were just too many other projects that had been neglected.

I got in the studio exactly two times. Early in the week when I went in with a migraine, and this past Saturday. I planned to sew all day – but I wasn’t even through the first block when Dave came in and interrupted. He needed some part for his car – and he needed me to drive him to get it…

Sigh… I asked him to let me finish the block and I’d be down.

So this is all the sewing I accomplished on Saturday. It’s the latest block from the Blockheads sew along and will go with my other red and white blocks I made earlier in the week.

Maybe I’ll be able to get some time in the studio this coming weekend… though I doubt it. I also didn’t have good enough weather to paint the catio porch like I wanted to. It’s looking like the weekend will be the last good one for the year… so painting will be priority if the weatherman is right…

While working in the garden, I came across several wee friends… some old, some new…

I love these brown Mantis ladies. The mantis population is very good here in the garden. If only they ate Japanese beetles! Regardless, they are always welcome.

I interrupted an intimate moment between two Grasshoppers on the Royal Red Butterfly bush. The grasshoppers are always very populous here – though they are a little less so in the catio yard, thanks to a certain ginger kitty we brought home.

This moth (either a corn earworm, or a cowpea moth – Google can’t decide) was making the most of the warm sunny day.

There was a Cabbage White butterfly getting what she could out of the pink pincushion plant out front. The pincushion plant is very popular among the Cabbage Whites.

And a bumblebee was taking the opportunity to get a little nectar from the lavender.

Absolutely everybody was getting ready for the coming cold weather.

I better go stock the bird feeder…