Wild West Christmas

This year we did something completely different and travelled to Pacific Rim National Park on the west coast of Vancouver Island.  We have been to this beautiful place many times over the past 40+ years.  The first time I went there was in 1969.  I went with a group of young people, riding in the back of an open flat-bed truck over gravel roads to the most spectacular beach (Long Beach) I had ever seen.  In those days you could drive right on to the beach and camp wherever you wanted.  Hubby and I went there together for the first time in 1974, camping in our VW van. Now the roads are all paved and the park is heavily regulated with pay parking lots and absolutely no driving on the beach - definitely changes that were needed as once the area was "discovered" it became a very popular tourist attraction and summertime in the area is pretty crazy.  It has also become a popular place for surfers, even in the middle of winter.

P.S. - we don't camp any more, preferring life's mod-cons, we stay on MacKenzie Beach at Tin Wis.
 

Bootleggers

My second pattern ~ boot cuffs.  I made these for my daughter and she loves them.  They are a quick knit (still time before Christmas!), worsted weight wool on 4.5 mm needles.  A 2X2 rib on the inside snugs around your calf and the oak barrel cable pattern shows up nicely on the outside of the boot.

The pattern can be found here ~ Bootleggers

Snowvember

Last weekend we took the grandboys part way up Forbidden Plateau so they could play in some snow.  We stopped at Nymph Falls where great big flakes were falling.  Fog was hanging over the water creating a spooky light.

Brothers

Snow Angels!

 

Never Forget

Sadly, due to ongoing involvement in the Mideast, lives continue to be lost and previously healthy young men and women are coming home with horrific injuries.  

~~ PEACE ~~

November Roses

It is a beautiful fall day here.  Blue skies, sunshine, 10° C.  There is very little in bloom in my garden, a few hardy fuschias and these two roses ~~

CALM SEAS COWL

I published my first pattern today on Ravelry. Pattern is available here.

CALM SEAS COWL

Mario & Luigi Hit the Streets

I had so much fun making these costumes for the grandboys.  The overalls tutorial is here and the hat tutorial is here.  They were very easy to sew using fleece fabric which has a good stretch and doesn't require any seam finishing.  I got the giant yellow buttons from eBay and the gloves (89 cents/pair!) from Wal-Mart.  The most difficult things to find were the shirts, believe it or not, especially the green one.  It seems that almost all kids' tees these days have graphics and it's hard to find plain solid colours.  I eventually ordered them from Lands End.  

Here they are on their way to a block party.

(sorry for the blurry iPhone photo)

Fall Has Definitely Fallen

We had a glorious August, September and early October but I'm afraid that is not enough for this spoiled child.  I got quite used to wearing only the lightest of clothes, wandering out into the yard in my nightie and slippers (seen only by the resident wildlife), gathering garden blooms for the house, feeling not a drop of rain.  Sigh.  We were a bit concerned about our well and the level of the aquifer as we only drilled down about 35 feet.  This has served us well for 21 years and we have never run dry but we have never had a drought such as this before either.  It was quite reassuring to know that we have a good source, although some of our neighbours did run into difficulties. 

However, all good things must come to an end and we are now really and truly into autumn.  One of first signs is these little critters on the road.  My grandson picked this guy up and moved him into the grass at the side of the road so he wouldn't get run over.

There is a beauty in this change of season that I can't deny, but I'm a warm-weather girl and I tend to cocoon during the winter, reluctant to leave my cosy house.  The up side of this self-isolation is that I can knit to my heart's content.  Can't complain about that!

I Am Not A Robot!

These things drive me crazy!

I would probably get this one correct, although it clearly frustrated the person who provided this image.

This one is getting iffy.  I probably would have entered "anlonserth" before noticing the third letter was actually an "i".

Where is the second part of this?  I see no letters or numbers in that photo.

The number is clear here, but the letters?  WTF??

The last two I took directly from a blog I was about to comment on.  It often takes me two or three tries to get these ones correct.  Who thinks up these things?  A robot?
 

Long Overdue

My sewing room had gotten into such a mess that I didn't want to go in there.  I had so many things I wanted to do but every time I opened the door I was overwhelmed by the chaos.  I was inspired by my friend Marnie, who had recently turned her office into a craft/sewing room, to get in there and clean up.

I started with the closet.  Hubby got a steal of a deal on some wire shelving ($3.27 - ahem) and turned the unusable space into great storage room.  I don't think I need to tell you which are the before photos ~~

I found this fabric at Fabricland, on sale for $9 a metre ~~

Three large garbage bags, a lot of sorting and a bit of sewing later ~~

And, no, I won't come to your house and do the same.
 

Bringing in the Apples

We got a pretty good crop from our "Wealthy" apple tree this year.  A batch of applesauce was made yesterday, with little helping hands.  Pies and crisps and crumbles are in our future.

 

Sketchy Sketches

I have been messing around with some features of the latest update in Picasa , a free photo-editing and organizing software program.  I often use the "I'm feeling lucky" fix as well as the cropping and colour management tools.  The newest update includes some fun options such as this "pencil sketch" tool which takes a photo from this:

 to this:

 this:

 to this:

 and this:

 to this:

 I have printed these "sketches" out and made Father's Day cards for two dads, one grandpa and one great grandpapa.