Back in early summer, Samantha and family had to say good-bye to their beloved Labrador boy, Dozer.

And though he was ancient by Labrador standards, and lived a wonderful, happy, spoiled life, it’s never easy to say good-bye to a family member.

Especially for her youngest son Ethan – he was just a toddler when they got Dozer as a puppy. They were pretty much litter mates.

When Dozer passed, I asked Samantha if Ethan would appreciate a special “Dozer quilt”. She said he’d be ecstatic, so for months, I’ve been designing, planning, and gathering fabric.

I knew I would use this puppy dog block :

I finally had a chance to Dozer-fy it this past weekend.

It was tricky, because Dozer was a very special yellow lab. He was so light, he was almost white. And he didn’t have a dark brown nose, but a very light, almost pinkish one. I think I managed it with these fabrics though. I am going to do some stitching around his ear and belly make them them stand out a little more. But I’m very pleased with the result.

I have some bone and heart blocks to make, but once I get them done, this one should go together pretty quick. It probably won’t get quilted before Christmas, but will be one of my first finishes for the new year.

While I think it’s a little too early for Christmas decorations (I’m a firm believer in no Christmas until December), I have to admit a little snow makes the neighbour’s decorations look a little less out of place.

This house is just a few doors up from us. It looks much more impressive at night (they have a lot of lights), but I do love the way they wrapped the pillars with red ribbon.

They also have these cute little guys on either side of the walkway.

A little further up the street, the welder has decorated the flag pole at his ship. Again, this is much more impressive at night. The lights go all the way to the top of the flag pole.

This house with two units has a really nice display set up (though I do find those bright yellow doors a little distracting).

And I love how this house decorated their front door. (But look to the left… they still have some Hallowe’en decorations out… lol).

Around the corner and down the street, this house has filled their barrels. This is similar to what I plan on doing with my white planter boxes…. though on a much smaller scale of course.

And last, I think this house is of a mind with me. They put up their decorations when the weather was milder, but are keeping them under wraps until closer to the actual Christmas season!

Next month, I’ll have to do a walkabout a night to get you some pictures of all these houses lit up and lovely!

I’ve been making some good progress on Dad’s sweater…

But I have to put it aside for a little bit. There’s a knitting emergency!!!

Neighbour Krista just adopted this 8-week old Chinese Crested/Chihuahua cross. His name is Kermit. And the poor naked thing needs a sweater!!!

Two more block have been added to our collection in the Sewcialites quilt along.

Lemmy seems to enjoy sewing days just as much as Burton.

Though they spent most of their time wrestling on the sewing room floor behind me.

Eventually they settled down into separate baskets and let me get some work done.

There’s 24 blocks in this series, and we’ve got five done so far.

Lemmy can’t wait to see what the next block is!

The snow melted, and the snow returned. Large parts of the province got absolutely dumped on the last couple of days! Thankfully, we don’t live in those parts.

But we did get some snow. And yet… there are still flowers…

Despite the fact that the nights have been below freezing, and the days are lucky to get above freezing, there’s still a few mums in the porch planters. In a couple of weeks, I’ll clear them out to make way for some Christmasy decor in the planters.

And these snap dragons are tough! This isn’t the only bunch with flowers still on them. There’s two or three that are still hanging in there.

And while his petal have looked better, this coneflower is still strong and upright – even with his little snow hat!

And though these guys are being stubborn, it’s safe to say the gardening season is officially over. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing growing.

I have my extensive collection of house plants to keep me going until spring. And one of them gave me a wonderful surprise this week.

Back in mid-summer, I bought this neat cactus (Hairy Rhipsalis)

It’s not spiky at all but soft and hairy.

It hung in the centre of the catio until I brought the plants in. Then I hung it in the sewing room window. It seemed really happy there, and it looked like it was growing lots of new shoots.

But I went in there on Friday and noticed…

They weren’t new shoots… but flower buds! And it was covered in them.

And such pretty little flowers they are….

Like beautiful little indoor snowflakes!

We have reached almost two weeks with Mr. Purrmister in the house, and it’s already hard to imagine our life before him.

He had his first vet check-up on Monday, and everything went well. He weighs almost 3 lbs, and is nice and healthy. We did get sent home with de-worming meds, and some drops for ear mites, but we expected that.

He and Burton continue to be great companions. Relations with the other cats are much the same. As long as he doesn’t jump on them, they will tolerate his presence.

He’s growing fast, and finding all kinds of new ways to get into mischief. Though I think we have the plant potty problem licked.

Like all good kittens, he plays hard and sleeps hard.

He is very much an unexpected gift. And I’m so happy Dave just happened to spot him as I was driving on that cold and rainy Hallowe’en day!

And I think he is too!

The snow of last weekend has melted, but the cold remains.

As such, Rupert would like you to know that he’s gone into hibernation and he will see you all in spring.

One of my previous Leader Ender projects has been languishing for a while. You may remember the little nine patches I put together ages ago.

Well they were destined to be the centre of saw-tooth stars. I just needed to make all the star points. It required chain piecing a pile of geese, using the four at a time method.

That kind of sewing is the most efficient way to do it, but it’s definitely not the most stimulating.

That is a pile of 120 geese. They are all cut apart, I just have to iron the last point open, and trim them all up using my handy dandy Wing Clipper ruler. But I ran out of steam, so it will have to wait for another day (or several days – I may break it up into a couple mini-sessions to keep me from going crazy).

I did do four of them really quick, just so I could throw one block together.

Lemmy and Burton think this one is just stellar!!

What a difference a day can make. All those flower pictures I showed you on Saturday were taken on Friday. Overnight the temps dropped and by Saturday afternoon.

The weatherman had been calling for rain, but the temperature dropped more than they said, and it came down as snow. Wet, heavy snow. It snowed all Saturday afternoon.

As much as I love my flowers, I do love a good snow. The world is so pretty when the snow is fresh and new, so I took a walk.

Here’s a little side-by-side – Friday to Saturday.

It was a little odd seeing winter all over what was left of fall, but…

Those who put up their Christmas decorations early looked much less out of place!

Snow or no snow, holly is the only Christmas decoration you’ll see at my house at least until December 1st.

Whenever I had a moment this weekend, I’ve put it towards working on Dad’s Christmas sweater. Of course, that meant sitting in the recliner, so I frequently had help.

Some of it more helpful than the other. I’ll leave you to guess which was which.

I’m a few inches further along than this picture shows. But as you can see, I’ve divided for the sleeves and body. Now it’s just a whole lot of knitting round and round and round forever.

And maybe even longer if this one gets his way.