Short Story Long

I don't usually get outdoors when the weather is cold, (I'm a sit-and-sew when it's cold out sort of person) but luckily a friend asked me to take some anniversary pictures, and I met them at a park. I love the hint of blue in the sky in the last one:

Yesterday: Today: Good thing I bought myself some long underwear last week. I have an appointment to do some portraits today!

(I don't know what that means, but my brother and husband said it repeatedly.) We had a great Thanksgiving. I hope you did, too. We had a small group, just my family: five boys and seven adults. I made Night Before Mashed Potatoes, and a cherry pie. BFJ made the turkey and stuffing! Everyone brought something, and so on. The highlight of the evening was the board game, Wise and Otherwise . We did not have enough game tokens for everyone to play so my sister-in-law drew herself on a pistachio shell. We present: Nutalie: We've had this game for years, longer than kids, but haven't played in awhile. We had so much fun, one of the boys who's just learning to read joined in. We should play it more often; it reduces people to tears. Here's proof: I'm thankful for my family, my home, my salvation, friends who knit, friends in general, little boys with dirty faces, and a husband who shares his quilt.

Frost in the morning Taking family pictures for friends And sewing with another friend while all the boys hiked to the park. A good day.

Thank you all for the kind words about my dad's benches and tables. I love the carved trees. I might have to order another item from him, myself. In family news, my parents were down to town (from the mountains) on Monday for some business and stopped by to see us. We had fun walking to school and back with Nana and Grandpa. BFJ was also home for the day, so it was a whole family affair complete with two dogs. I showed my dad a few things on his new digital camera and online, hence the last post. And that was even his photo. Pretty good composition, I thought. Oh by the way, I made the rag quilt on the couch in that photo a year or two ago. My first "quilt" by machine. Today, BFJ is enjoying snaking the sewer line, an annual delight. On the plus side, the boys were happy that Dad was home early today. Luckily we noticed a teensy bit of water around the drain in the basement this morning, so there was no major flooding this time. Since Dad is outside spraying things off wi...

I'm showing my dad how easy it is to blog. Here's a shot of another of his tables.

" 'No! It's Christmas!" So said our little one this morning when he looked out the window. Not quite Christmas, but it is our first snowfall of the year. This is pretty late for first snow in Colorado, you can usually plan on some before Halloween. It was nice on Halloween, not have to wear coats over the costumes, though, and now, we are all ready for the holidays to get underway. We've been busy: babysitting, playdates, going to the Arvada Center. There were kids there from all over the Metro area to see Seussical . The Bruise and I also got tickets for the same show. Speed was excited about riding the bus! Now we are off to school. Hope you are enjoying your day. Yay Friday!

I have been working on lots of projects! After seeing one of the baskets , someone at the knitting store asked if I could make some knitting needle cases. I can! It is so fun making these little projects; fun to use up my stash and all these great fabrics I've been collecting. It is nice to see them turn into something. I did buy the sock monkey fabric just for this project, but it is the only new fabric I've bought for these. I've made more baskets, too. I am going to some craft/cookie/gift exchanges in December and I know these are going to come in handy at some point. As I may have said before, these little baskets are great for using up scraps that you just couldn't toss. Last year, I was inspired by Erin's posts* on handmade gifts and am making a lot more this year. (Don't worry, not everyone is getting a hat!) I have a little list of projects I can work on over the next month. I am happy to report that I revisited the gift that went horribly wrong, and th...

I was surprised when, several years ago, I heard my dad defend a U.S. president that I knew he didn't like. I can't really remember the details of the conversation, but the other party stated that President So-and-so didn't deserve to be addressed as such. My dad said, "If I met him, I would call him President So-and-so. That's his title, he's the leader of our country." I was impressed that my dad had this attitude toward someone he didn't agree with. But really, isn't that how we are all supposed to act? Shouldn't we have respect for the people running our country? I am not saying that we should turn a blind eye to what happens in our government simply because they are our leaders. We should all be citizens who care about the big things, like elections, as well as the seemingly little, like how we manage our own day-to-day responsibilities. Shouldn't we respect people in general and treat them how we'd want to be treated? It's th...

I really like this yarn. I imagine there's much nicer, but it's the nicest yarn I've used so far, wool and angora. I was going to make something else for my sister with this yarn but I don't have the right gauge needles and I have not gotten to it yet. I started some Toasty fingerless... gloves? I got one done, was halfway done with the other; I tried them on. A lot. I loved them. But I didn't know for sure that my sister would, so I frogged it. I am going to go back and make some for myself. I would have just kept these but had I started out to make myself something, I would have picked a different color. For my sister, I was still planning to do the other thing, but then after the ridicule of the green hat , I said I would make her another. So here it is, a hat for my sister. Oh, and it is my own design. I am very pleased with the cabling. Sister, stop by and get you a hat. I am very glad that we got our voting done last week. It was bad enough competing for par...

(I'm here avoiding grocery shopping.) This weekend, BFJ and I got out to do some yardwork. He worked on raking up leaves and cleaning out gutters; I worked on cleaning up my garden, taking down tomato ladders and so on. First, we both had to get gloves. I lost my favorite gardening gloves in the tomato fields at Miller Farm . The Bruise voted for purple, so I got purple ones this time. They should be easy to spot! While we were at the gardening store, I also got an allium , which I've been wanting forever. At least all summer. (Yikes, I got mine for a bargain, it looks like!) So of course, I had to dig a hole. So while I was digging, I might as well move some of the grass around my rosebush, which is inconvenient to mow around. So while I am digging up grass, I might as well move it to a bare spot. So I had to dig another hole. So while I was digging, BFJ might as well dig too, and remove that other rosebush I tried unsuccessfully to dig up last spring. By then, it was ti...

One last October picture for you... Don't forget to set your clocks back tonight, if you live in a Daylight Savings area! Happy November!