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.