all hallow's eve

it is windy & chilly today. and cloudy, so the night will be dark. seems perfect weather for a witchy, spirited day.

a friend helped carve the jack o'lantern last night. we think it is a happy pumpkin. but maybe also, just a drunk one.

so, Fall is really here.

over-wintering

all the plants have come inside. as the temps are going below 40 at night. they live crowded around the few south-facing windows in the house. I brought some basil in, though I know it won't last long. as well as rosemary, parsley, oregano & thyme.

the porches are bare. and the leaves are beginning to fall--which is good, as I'm planning to rake them over the beds for the winter.

my old house is cold. as they all are. and suddenly, it has become time to shuffle around in slippers and sweaters. (dreaming of a wood-burning stove.)

and fight the constant desire to bake warm (& sweet) things.

pumpkin c. chip muffins

as soon as a friend had mentioned she'd recently been baked some amazingly good pumpkin chocolate chip muffins...I put in a request that she get the recipe for me from the baker herself.

and as I had a wine-drinking get-together to attend last night, I made up a batch. and the few I'd left at home, were eaten up today by my nephew & brother during a visit.

so, they were a hit. and I've since passed the recipe on to another.
I love that about recipes. how they get handed from person-to-person, over time and over distance.

thanks C.-in-Chicago for the recipe. quite yummy.

space patrol

more flannel pants for the almost two-year old.

with a big space patrol pocket.

which, I may wait to give him as a part of his b-day present. since I still haven't decided what to really give him.

photo project

one of my new goals is to carry my little Elf digital camera with me where-ever I go. I'm constantly "seeing" pictures around me. Mostly, around my little town.

so a new project is to photograph this place. the nooks & crannies. the building details. places we don't always see. most of these will show up on my Flickr page.

making things for give-away

I was inspired by these little owls made by Moonstitches. And adapted her tutorial directions to create a more baby-friendly-soft owl. (no cardboard, no buttons, bigger, fatter and flannel instead of wool)
As, I have a baby shower to attend this weekend. The 2465115 th baby shower I've attended in my life. (I keep telling myself that Karma will bring me many cute, handmade gifts. when the day finally comes I have my own shower. It is how I sit through them, and keep smiling. Until I escape to the kitchen to have a glass of wine, while all the mothers move to the "joy", oh the joys, "you can't understand until you have your own" part of the conversation)

But I like this fat little owl so much, I sort of want to keep her on a shelf in my studio. To watch over things. She's wise. She's pretty. Maybe I can make another one soon.















Since I've also gotten these made, I wouldn't be going empty-handed. If, the little owl were to stay here with me. The bibs are the new, easy shower gift in my life. The pattern came from Angry Chicken's book, Bend the Rules Sewing.

fall buckeye

I have a Buckeye tree in front yard. I've been told by an aging neighbor (who wears dark blue suspenders and shuffles about) that the tree was planted in 1897, before the house was even built.

It was hurt by a late freeze in the Spring, and therefore, lost all of its leaves this summer while
producing the Buckeye nuts. (The Walnut & Oak trees didn't even bother to put out fruit)

It is skeletal now. And the squirrels sit atop branches. Cracking those nuts. Letting the shells fall to the ground. Scattering along the sidewalks and lawn. And the neighbor cats just perch in the grass. Watching the squirrels.










Sometimes, a shell or two, end up on my porch stoop. I think they must land there, after falling from the treetop & bouncing up from the sidewalk.