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.

I don’t have a tonne of Christmas knitting planned for this year – but I do have a couple hats I want to knit. In fact, I’ve had the yarn for several years now, I’ve just never got around to knitting them.

I’ve been working pretty steadily on the first one all week – but I still don’t have much exciting to show. I’ve gotten through the ribbing, and some plain knitting, but just two rows of the colour work. The pattern – when I get through more of it – will be the Deathflake motif. It’s one of my favourite patterns to put on hats!

I’m hoping I can get through this one by the end of this week. Now that i’m on the colourwork, it should go fairly quick.

There have been some interesting things happening on the Furby front…

It seems someone in this house has gotten extremely attached. As I’ve noted before, if we are outside, Furby is generally out, hanging out with us. We started putting food out for him to make sure he was getting enough to eat.

The extra attention has made a difference. The first picture above is from June when he started hanging out with us. The second from the beginning of this month.

A couple of months ago, Dave decided Furby needed a spot to rest. So I rustled up a basket and some flannel from the collection

Then, since he spends a lot of time with Dave in the garage, he got a basket out there too…

And he certainly looks right at home there.

But with the colder weather setting in, Dave was getting worried about him at night… so next thing you know, he was on Amazon, and…

And an insulated cat house** was being delivered. Of course, he had to repaint it in our signature green so it matches the yard.

Dave, being Dave, also added some extra insulation, straw, a heated mat… and a camera….

As you can see, the inside has two rooms (the further room has the heating mat, the front room got straw)

Furby gave it a thorough inspection, but hasn’t really bothered with it since. I told Dave he’d use it when the nights got really cold. But Dave worries.

Which resulted in this happening…

Dave started letting him into the music studio***…. where he put ANOTHER food dish and cat bed. Of course, that door can’t be left open, so Furby can only make use of it when the weather is nice and Dave is around.

But Dave was still worrying. Especially when the temps dropped just below freezing the other night. And the next thing I know…

Now he’s coming in every night before we go to bed.

He still goes out again every morning – and won’t come in until bed time. But at least Dave’s knows he safe and warm

** and the money spent on the cat house won’t go to waste. Furby can still use it when it rains. There are other stray cats that may take advantage. Or there’s always this guy…

*** the really funny thing about Furby in the studio is the studio is supposed to be a no-cat zone. There’s too many speakers that can turn into scratching posts… but then he goes and lets Furby in. Talk about favoritism!

Way back at the start of the season, I planted a bunch of Dahlia tubers – Two called Cafe Au Lait, and two unnamed ones from the dollar store (one a dark purple/red, and another a bright pink).

At first, they took off pretty well (with the exception of the bright pink one) and then they just kind of stopped. They didn’t die.. but they didn’t grow either.

But as soon as the weather turned at the end of September….

The red purple one just exploded with flowers.

Cafe Au Lait grew nicely. But she just didn’t seem to want to bloom. Finally, about a week and a half ago, she put up one single bud. And I’ve been waiting…and waiting… and waiting for it to open.

Mid week, it finally did.

Was it worth the wait? Absolutely!

But…. I have to dig the darn plant up this weekend it I want to keep it for next year. Dahlias aren’t hardy here and I need to store the tubers over winter so I can enjoy her again next year. Sigh….

I think I’ll start my Dahlias indoors next year… and see if I can get the full season out of them.

In the meantime – here are my other Dahlias. These ones were bought as grown plants instead of started from tubers. They also struggled this summer, but have done better than the ones I started. But they are certainly shining now.

(Friday Felines has been pre-empted because today is a very special day)

October is my favourite month of the year. For many reasons – I love the weather, I love the colour, I love Hallowe’en. But most of all, it’s because it’s the month when I met this guy, and decided I’d keep him.

We started talking online at the start of October 2002, and then a couple weeks later, went on an official date (art gallery and dinner at Kelseys, followed by aimlessly driving around in his ’67 Bonneville). Like all couples, we’ve had our up and downs. There were a couple of times I didn’t think we’d make it.

But after 23 years (almost exactly half the time I’ve been on this earth), I can honestly say, there’s no one I’d rather have at my side as we navigate this crazy thing called life.

Two more years marks a quarter of a century together. Now doesn’t that sound grand?

I’d promised Burton some time in the studio while I was off, and you know I’d never hear the end of it id I didn’t deliver. So into the studio we went… and banged out a block for our Blockhead 6 quilt along.

This is our version of Block 5 from the quilt-along. They are up to something like Block 20 now, so we are horribly behind. I’m not too concerned, as we didn’t plan on doing all the blocks anyway.

And while Lemmy was super excited about the whole thing… Burton and I, not so much. I fear our sewing juju has deserted us.

Even seeing all our blocks together didn’t really help.

Maybe another day in the studio will get it back… there’s only one way to find out!

I had a different post planned today, but on Monday I was working away in the garden (doing some trimming for fall) when I spotted this lovely lass napping on the front window sill.

You will recall that last year, we had several of these grey tree frogs in the yard. Mostly the front garden. I assumed it was because we cut down several trees in the backyard, and they got displaced. My theory seemed proven, because up until Monday, I’d only had one other tree frog in the yard this year. And I have been checking the front gardens around the butterfly bush (where most of them were spotted last year) on a regular basis. I’ve heard them around… but haven’t seen them.

But then there she was, hiding on the window sill behind the butterfly bush. Since it was the butterfly bush I was trimming, I left her snoozing spot completely exposed.

So I relocated her to further down the bush. She’s the biggest tree frog I’ve found – and you can see by my hand – she’s not very big.

She still put a big smile on my face for the rest of the day!

Some decent progress made this weekend on the stitching front. Though I did spent A LOT of time outside in the fresh air… so I was pretty pooped when I did come in to stitch. I suspect after this weekend I’ll be be moving the hoop up again. Onwards and upwards!