Sewing and growing

As promised, here are a few photos of my summer harvests! The purses and prints will be up for sale on an Etsy site soon (watch for coming details). The garden has produced many peppers for salsa (which promises to be very hot this year!) as well as lots of tabouli and pesto!

The cherry blossom print was so cute I bought it before I knew what it would become!

These prints were made in 2007 when I took a printmaking class with Mara Beckwith.

I absolutely LOVED how the celtic cats turned out!

Nasturtiums are one of my favorite annuals (and they are yummy, too)!

Sweet and hot peppers, basil, parsley, tomatoes and cilantro (yuck) have been calling my porch home all summer.

Lake Compounce and RI Beaches

On Sunday, September 14 I took Karen, Rea and Ian to Lake Compounce for the day. The weather was a bit overcast, but it was the perfect day to go: there was hardly anyone there! Seriously, I think the longest we waited in line was for one of the kiddie rides that Rea wanted to go on, and we only waited because the ride had just started when we got in line.


Karen was happy to have Ian along because he would go on the roller coasters and other scary rides with her (Rea and I just watched). The water park was also a load of fun and, again, no lines!

Karen and Ian on Downtime, commonly known as a free fall. Watch your ankles...

Rea and Ian had a blast, or should I say a "splash," playing in the water park!

We stumbled upon what appeared to be the graveyard for test dummies...

The following weekend, Ian and I were supposed to go kayaking on Sunday. However, I was exhausted and sore from kickboxing and helping Karen empty out her storage room. Instead we drove up Route 1 into Rhode Island and did a little sightseeing. It was a beautiful day to be out and about and strolling around. We stopped for lunch in Wakefield at Surfin' Tacos and browsed in Myopic Books (it was very hard for me not to buy "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" but I will soon enough). We also spent some time beach combing and grabbed a bunch of clam shells for an upcoming gift project...

AAArrrggghhhh!!!!!

Avast, ye scurvy sea dogs! Dust off yer "Ahoy"s and polish up yer "Argh"s. For today be International Talk Like A Pirate Day! Ah, to hear the yar's and growls of me shipmates be a joyful sound in me ear. To be greeted by a hearty "Argh!" is like to put wind in me sails and billow me on through the rough and rollin' seas. Tis true.

Dread Pirate Julie and Skye the Merciless prepare to sack Constantine's.

It be a little know fact that pirates were the first to coin the term "Booty Call," as shown here.

Tis a sad thing, to part from friends. But me ship awaits and there are towns to pillage and ships to plunder. Until we chance to meet again, keep a weather eye on the horizon and remember: Take what ye want, give nothing back!"

Pumpkin has his say

Pumpkin here. Mommy has been really busy lately, so I'm posting a bit to let all you human peoples know what's going on.

First, Mommy is starving me. It's true. She took me to this horrible doctor that told Mommy dirty, rotten lies. The doctor said that Mommy is feeding me too much! I object! I protest! What kind of faulty data is this doctor-lady using to make this outrageous statement? I am a finely tuned, top of the line hunting machine. I am totally in shape... round is a shape. It makes me more aero-dynamic for hunting milk caps and stuffed mouses. Mommy tried to make this as painless as possible by cutting back just one ounce at a time. Ha. I'm clearly wasting away and my Mommy will be so sad when I expire from hunger. Nice going, doctor-lady.


Speaking of torture, apparently Mommy has been very bad. She has been making herself work out really hard and run really far. She says it's for a charity or something, but it sure seems like a punishment to me. Maybe she's punishing herself for starving me... Poor Mommy. If you want to see more about why she says she's "training" take a look here. As for me, I'm conserving energy. Winter is coming and I know Mommy does not like to turn the heat up until the frost on my whiskers turns to icicles, so I need to take it easy and try not to burn off my insulation!

Crafting!

I think I may have finally figured out that the best way to post pictures and text is to just upload the pictures first and then write around them... Let's give it a try and see how it works! Still trying to decide if I like the text before or after the pictures, so bear with me while I experiment.

Here are some pics from the felted wool clogs I've been making. I picked up the pattern last December and took a class this spring (more for the social interaction than the lessons). In order to felt, you have to make the knitted piece larger than what you want the finished clog to be. Hence the comparison below to my shoe!
Here is a pic of the finished clog slipper! This one ended up being a little bit big for my foot, but the blue cuffed one was way to small for me to model. They are super warm and comfy and I can't wait to wear them when the weather turns cool (which it is starting to do already!). And yes, I took this photo in the middle of summer and my legs really are that pale.

Ian was a bit reluctant to go blueberry picking with me, but he got over his bad attitude and ended up loving the time in the orchard. Similarly, he was hesitant to help me make blueberry jam. But being a good sport he ventured into the fray and now proudly proclaims that he helped make the jam! It's never to early to start Christmas crafting!

After returning from Montreal I still had a few days off before going back to work. Julie and I took advantage of a BEAUTIFUL Sunday to return to Cliff Walk in Newport, RI. It really was a lovely day to be out walking by the water. It wasn't as hot as our last trip there, which made the walk that much more enjoyable. Whether it's hiking, strolling through the park, or watching PBS Jane Austen movies, Julie and I always have a great time together! One of the mansions had these great camel shaped plantings on their lawn. I wonder how much water they need...

My co-worker, Kim, is going to be a grandmother soon and she hired me to make a baby quilt. I decided to do a bow-tie and snowball pattern, thinking I was being very original. However, when I put a copy of this picture into my quilt journal, I realized I had done exactly the same pattern about 3 years ago! It's hard to tell from the picture above, but the printed fabric is actually little buttons. I toyed with calling the quilt "Cute as a Button" or "Buttons and Bows."

Stay tuned for some pictures of my porch garden coming soon!

At last, the long awaited Vacation Summary!

This must be some kind of record for me! I have downloaded my camera within a month of taking some of the photos. Seriously, not having my own computer makes it kinda tricky to keep up on the blogging as well as the digi-pics. But I manage by mooching time on other people's computers (namely Ian and the library!).

As previously mentioned, Ian and I took a relaxing little road trip up north: Potsdam/Canton, NY and Montreal. Someone (I won't say who) forgot to bring her camera when we climbed Mt. Arab in the Adirondacks and explored a waterfall with Kimberly and Matthew. The views were stunning and the hiking was physically invigorating and mentally relaxing. Mr. Arab is supposed named such because the rock profile is shaped in a twisted spiral, similar to a turban. I guess Mt. Dairy Queen didn't have the same magestic ring to it...

Montreal was a real treat! Literally, there was this GREAT ice cream shop just down the street from Alana and Xander! It was housed in a building shaped like a castle but painted pastel blue, pink and yellow and they had the best soft serve ice cream I've had since I was a kid! No lie. I actually had TWO cones our last night there.

Alana was a champion tourguide. Even though she was feeling a bit under the weather, she did a wonderful job of showing us around.

Alana and Ian in the Old Town.

Creepy gnomes in a window display...

A picnic on Mont Royal: Lovely!

Ian was happy to visit several game shops while Alana and I found one really great yarn shop (and one very stuffy, uppity one). I have some other pics from the trip, but I've been fighting with the blogging software and it seems to be winning. So perhaps I will post more later. I do have some pics of a few recent craft projects as well that will be forthcoming.

A 5K training update: I shaved another 45 seconds off my three-mile time! I'm now down to 39 minutes exactly! I have no delusions of jogging the entire 5K next month, but I am excited to be making progress. It feels great to be challenging myself physically and working towards a goal. And who knows, maybe by this time next year I will be ready to jog the whole way!

The Curse of Vacation!

Ahhh, vacation. Time to relax, unwind, visit friends, explore...panic when I come back to hundreds of emails and work undone!

I usually try to schedule my vacations around major holidays. I find that most of my clients and co-workers are already on mental vacation and my work load tends to be less. Additionally, if everyone else is on vacation (such as for Thanksgiving and Christmas) there is no one at work to be sending me a load of emails while I'm out. Alas, I took the last week of August off and was dismayed to come back to a hectic rush of things that needed to get done ASAP.

*tangent* the term ASAP (as soon as possible) always makes me laugh. People say it with the assumption that it is synonymous with "immediately" when in actuality it may not be "possible" for me to get around to it for a few days.

Needless to say, I'm still digging out and trying to get caught up. I remember my mom saying once "I'm keeping my head just below the surface." It's a sad image, but feels like a very accurate description of my work life lately. Once I have a few moments to download my vacation pictures I'll update a post about the wonderful trip to NY and Montreal!!