I will admit, my work schedule lately often has me working in the evenings, or just too tired to craft. As a result – I don’t have anything fun and crafty to show you today,
Even our thrift finds have been somewhat mediocre…so nothing fun to share there.
But you know who has been productive… My mama!
Here’ a look at all the quilty things she’s finished since the beginning of August
Can you believe it? And she still finds the time to walk the dogs, knit and cross stitch too!
Several of the quilts have been gifted or will be. And I know she’s keeping a couple (including those awesome cat placemats). But I know for a fact that Halloween quilt is in the shop! And on sale until tomorrow!
It’s been a little more than a week since we started bringing Furby in at night. And I when I say “bringing in” I really mean “letting in”… because I just have to hold the door for him.
It didn’t take long for the “Fur Man” (Dave’s name for him) to realize what we were offering. Generally, every night around 8 pm – I just have to go outside. If he doesn’t come running when he hears the door open – I just have to call his name. Within 5 minutes he’ll be running down the driveway, right up the porch steps and in the door.
He still wants to go out as soon as Dave gets up. But he’s content to spend the whole night inside with us. He’s already come to bed with us a few times.
The boys have taken his sudden presence in the house surprisingly well. And Furby is tolerant of them all too. Burton and Rupert treat him with mostly indifference. Burton is not going to give up his lap time just because there’s another cat there. One night he laid half on top of Furby, and neither cat cared much.
Lemmy is still a little put out. As soon as Furby comes in, Lemmy has to stick his nose right up his butt. But as soon as Furby turns to smell Lemmy – Lemmy turns into a hissy pants. He will settle down and ignore Furby for the rest of the night after that. We are trying to make sure he gets little extra love so he knows he’s not being replaced.
And it’s not just night that Furby comes in…
He comes in randomly throughout the day… generally following Dave inside after he’s been out in the garage or yard.
He’s explored most of the house, including the office.
I am hoping, eventually I’ll get him used to the catio… and won’t have to let him wander. He has been out there once, but wasn’t thrilled that he couldn’t get to the rest of the yard.
Maybe the colder weather will make him realize the house cat life is really where it’s at.
Regardless.
Sir Furbsalot the Orange is definitely one of the Bearbottom Crew!
Stitching went as planned this weekend and now both the witchy bottoms are complete. Not only does this mean I get to move my hoop up… AND I get to start the next chart!
Obviously, this is not getting done for Fright Night… but I don’t mind – I am loving every stitch.
I’d hope to show you a finished hat today, but I didn’t quite get there.
I did get through the full deathflake chart though. It looks even better than I thought it would! With the chart complete, I can start the decreasing. It will definitely be finished this week!
Last year, I set up my Hallowe’en decorations as soon as the calendar turned over to October. But I learned a valuable lesson… the grass is still growing then! I had to pull up all my tombstones and bones to mow the lawn and it was a total pain!
So this year, I decided to wait until after Thanksgiving. I did plan to put them up while I was on vacation, but never got to it. So mid-week last week, after the day job, I set to work.
We have so many decorations now, it’s a good couple of hours to get it all set up.
But it’s worth it!
There are a few new things this year. Some new tombstones, some spooky grey fabric, and a couple new skeletons.
The skulls on the left were thrifted additions (there are matching skulls in the box on the opposite side of the porch. In the picture on the right, the urn was thrifted, but the skeleton parts are new… it was an idea I saw online and I just had to have it for the garden.
I ordered the perfect wreath from Michaels. This was part of my big purchase back at the start of the season.
And I couldn’t resist this cutie. He glows in the dark!
All the old favourites are back
Including Good Ol’ Doug…
I think next year I’m going to have to trim the burning bush… or find a new place for Doug!
The only other new addition this year was a second set of lights for the arbour.
While we’ve had some nice warms days, there’s no doubt now that we’ve seen the back end of summer. Leaves are falling fast and some nights the temps are right down to 0.
While there are still quite a few flowers blooming, we are only one good frost from it all being over for the year.
The Monkhood is looking fabulous this year. It’s such and odd looking plant that does well in shady areas. This one has really grown this year. I might split it up in spring and spread it around a bit.
Koko Loko still had several blooms. I love how the colour is so dark, and slowly fades out as it blooms. I did cut these ones and bring them inside, along with a few bolero blooms.
Bolero smell amazing. I really should cut the flowers more often and bring them in.
We had a few days of pretty heavy rain, and it knocked down the Vanilla Ice Cream Sunflower out front. So I took it down completely and cut the remaining blooms for another vase. There are still two other large plants in the garden, so there’s still seeds for the finches.
I absolutely love these yellow nasturtiums that I planted under the cucumbers. I wish I could remember what the name was so I can make sure I have more seeds for next year.
A few weeks back, I picked up these pretty mums at the grocery store with the intent of putting them in the garden. I was surprised to fin there were actually three plants in the pot. I’m hoping that they are perrenial mum. The grocery store mums never say, because they are sold as just seasonal items. But I’ve gotten lucky with a couple.
These two were both perennial mums bought from the grocery store. And although they look very similar here, the one on the left is much larger, and the one on the right it normally a much brighter pink.
You’ll recall that I moved the toad lilies out of the catio this year – as they were attracting the hummingbirds into the danger zone.
They didn’t bloom earlier enough for the hummingbirds this year – but they are thriving in two of the spot I put them. In two other spots, they haven’t done so well but those spots are much dryer and I think with the lack of rain, it was just too much for them. Not sure if they will come back next year. But I have plenty in the spots they did do well in.
As the season winds down, there’s nothing to do but enjoy every last bloom.
A couple weeks ago… I looked out my front window and spied something curious on the side of the road in front of my neighbours….
It was a rather large cat tree that looked to be in somewhat decent shape. You can bet I skipped across the street as fast as I could to check it out. It needed some work – one of the poles was loose. The neighbour was getting rid of it because their cat prefered a different tree. So I brought it into the backyard to show Dave. He assured me he could fix the broken pole.
He had it fixed up and cleaned up in no time. It does have some wear, but nothing that would bother the boys. As you can see, Burton checked it out immediately.
He especially liked the basket/hoop bed that hung off the side.
Though it is a bit of a snug fit. He doesn’t seem to mind.
Now the boys already have a smaller cat tree in the front window… but I thought this one was a good fit for the sun porch.
We’ve got the plastic up on the windows for the colder weather, so it’s nice and toasty in there right now.
Long time readers will recall my small collection of Monster High dolls. When we moved, I downsized a bit, giving several to neighbour Wren. I did keep a few special ones. Due to the fact that we still want to redo most of the rooms in the house, they haven’t been unpacked – and I’ve been very good about not adding to the collection.
Until now.
Generally, whenever we go thrifting in Sarnia, we stop at Walmart to pick up things we need. Dave LOVES to wander through the toy section, and I’m certainly not opposed to it. I love looking at the Barbies. And of course, the Monster High dolls (also made by Mattel).
Several months back, they got in a Special Edition Wednesday Addams Monster High doll. Both of us LOVE the Tim Burton show. I’m not going to lie… I wanted to buy it on the spot. But I just couldn’t justify spending $60 on it when we have so many other things to spend money on. So just about weekly, I’ve been walking by and wistfully wishing I could put her in my cart.
Well – the other week… I walked by… and she was on clearance.
I hesitated. It wasn’t a huge drop in price (I’ve noticed since Covid – those clearance discounts just aren’t as deep). But in the end, I could resist no longer….
I apologize for the glade on the packaging. My other dolls have all been taken out of their boxes… but I’m debating on taking this one out. I love that window background and it will likely get destroyed with the way they pack the dolls in these days (thanks a lot, shop lifters)
Like all Monster High dolls – I love the level of detail they put in
She even comes with Thing!!!
What can I say. Sometimes you just need to indulge your inner child.
As you know, Friday was our anniversary. Since I was off on vacation too, I asked Dave where he wanted to go. His response “Whatever you want to do.”
Great. Now I had to figure it out. So I took to the internet… Fridays are our usual thrifting days – but we already know most of the thrifting places in all directions within a two hour drive. And I wanted to do something other than thrifting.
There’s lots of places to hike around here, but Dave isn’t as keen on hiking as I am. I decided to look for museums… and imagine my surprise when I discovered there was a DINOSAUR MUSEUM in downtown Sarnia!!!
We’ve been to this area many times since we moved out here, but somehow never noticed the museum. To be fair, it’s not totally obvious it’s a museum from the outside. But inside…
Was it ever a museum!!!!
10,000 square feet of not just fossils… but all kinds of taxidermied specimens of all sorts. It’s really best described as a “Natural History” museum
The sheer number of specimens was amazing, and someone really had an eye for creating drama with the displays
While I, of course, love all the animals… I really went for the dinosaurs
I LOVE dinosaurs.
I sometimes drive Dave crazy with how much I love dinosaurs, but he was just as happy to check out the museum as I was.
I mean – who wouldn’t be!?!
In addition to the dinosaurs and mammals displays, there were also a lot of preserved fish
Though a large number of them had googly eyes in place of glass eyes.
That gave us a good giggle. Especially with this shark…
Dave loved all the different crabs and lobsters
I, of course, loved the butterflies
And some really cool bugs!
It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon, and our anniversary! I’m sure we will visit again!
Not a whole lot was accomplished on the stitching front this weekend.
Really just a few lines of the second witches dress. That’s partly because I just didn’t have a lot of crafting mojo this weekend. It’s also partly because of this…
Training a new assistant is always time consuming.
Wandering Cat Studio 