Fall Outside our front door

Nicole and Eli

Who knew carving pumpkins could be so fun?

Whoo boy did they have a great party at the farm this Saturday. My goodness. The premise for the party was to carve pumpkins, but due to the weather being less than ideal, the carving was done in the farm's nightclub, and so everything ended up taking on this special groovy dance time carv-o-rific vibe that was just so, so much fun. The most fun I've had carving pumpkins, ever. Many thanks to our wonderful hosts. I hope they do it again real soon!

We invited a couple of friends, a husband and wife and their daughter. I have a real good feeling about all members of this family, and I am especially looking forward to getting my Sew on with the Mrs. Both Mr. and Mrs. appear to be fundamentally great people and their kid is a charmer, too. They seemed to have a great time at the farm party too, fitting in seamlessly with all the other guests. Hopefully we will be seeing a lot more of them!

And yesterday was a terrific day, too. I'd cracked the whip on Saturday before the party to get the house in shape, so Sunday was a total lay about day. I blissed out at my sewing machine for hours before taking a nap and then going out to dinner and target with the family. not too shabby, eh?

I have a bunch of pictures I need to post, and I have that effort planned for during dinner prep. So check back later today and see if I ever got around to it!

Halloween Parties

Today is the Halloween parade and party for Maggie at her preschool/daycare situation. At 10:30 they will all be marching down main street, and then return back for a party. Maggie is VERY excited as you can imagine. Henry's after school group is having a party (but no parade) after school, and he is ready to go as well.

Last night was a real second shift! The moment I got home it was work work work. I had brownies to make (for Henry's party), cold veggies to chop for Maggie's party, take out dinner to call in (thanks for the pick up Jeff!) and then the minor adjustments and costume tweakery that come with the night before the Halloween party. Henry's jeans needed to be hemmed, a gold band of fabric sewed to his sweater, and a closing device for his Quidditch robe devised. And in between all that I cleaned the kitchen (well, sort of.) and Jeff got the kids bathed and put to bed.

I scored a bunch of copy paper boxes from work and have also begun creating a mini fabric store within these boxes. I'm taking food boxes and folding them flat and then wrapping the fabric around them, pinning it and then filing it in the box. This way I can see exactly what I have without pulling it all apart. I just need more food boxes (the Triscuit gods are smiling on me!) to wrap the fabric around. I sure have accumulated a lot of fabric since this whole thing started!

Brace Yourselves.

Here we have Maggie's Halloween costume for 2007 thank you for all your help and support marcia! This is the dress rehearsal, she still needs her hair done and the ribbons up her legs. Too cute. Like candy.



And here we have the first born. So handsome and healthy and glowing and thriving. Good stuff. Here is Henrys first grade picture:



And here he is for second grade.

Pictures from Marcia's Visit

Here is a link to snapfish.com where, once you sign in (or up, depending) you can view the slideshow of pictures taken during Marcia's visit! We dropped the ball on getting the kids in a halloween dress rehearsal, but there are some good ones. Worth checking out, for sure.

Marcia's Visit October 2007

One eared Kerm in the woods

On Sunday Marcia and Maggie and Kermit and I went into the woods in search of twigs to finish Henry's broomstick for Halloween. I have more pictures I intend to put up, because Maggie just looked so beautiful. something about the beautiful weather and being under the golden tree canopy makes for real purty pictures. I wanted to post this one right away so I could access it at work for my desktop picture.

Peak!

Holy Calzonies did things peak out here over the weekend! Here are three pictures from Saturday morning, when Marcia and I went yard sailing over in Milford. The greatest find of the day for me was a collection of sewing machine attachments that work seemlessly (pun intended!) on my machine. I can make ruffles, pleats, I can hem to varying degrees with ease, I can do zippers, enclose cord inside fabric, you name it. And the attachments themselves are just crazy beautiful pieces of machinery. Must be seen to be believed.

But how about those trees!

Save Your Mamma from The Drama!

That's my new saying to the kids when they're feeding off each other with sibling related hijinks. "Save the drama for your mamma" always comes to mind, but I, as you know, am the children's mamma so that wouldn't do.

Well kids, it's another day in blogland. My excitement is reaching a fever pitch in relation to my sister Marcia's upcoming visit. Marcia is SO MUCH FUN to hang out with, I simply can't wait to see her! We were going to go out for dinner and drinks on Friday night, but I have adjusted those plans and now, with Marcia's help, we will be having a small dinner party at the house instead.

Jeff's aunt Rozanne and her beau are going to be in town and I have a couple few new friends I've been wanting to have over and so this party on Friday night will be the perfect solution. I'm taking Friday off work, so there should be plenty of time to make ready. Trying to keep things on the small, mellowish side. (Don't want to alarm my new friends and auntie Ro-beau with a big gigizo house party quite yet!)

Anyway, I have just one more day of work and then I'm off for the weekend. Yay! Tonight Jeff has a planning board meeting and tomorrow night we have an ice cream social and book fair at Henry's school, then soccer practice Friday late afternoon, then dinner at the house. On Saturday I want to go yard sailing with Marcia and Henry, there's a fall festival on Main Street, a soccer game Saturday afternoon, and then we're heading in to Keene for their pumpkin festival. Sunday I hope to lay around and relax. (and by 'relax' I mean work feverishly on Henry's halloween costume.)

Crafty! Yardsale Patchwork Crazyquilt!

Here's that quilt I mentioned a few posts back. I am in the process of stitching everyone's name onto a square. I plan to add our town and the month and year, too. I really like this quilt. The size of it is sort of the length of a twin bed, but not the whole width of it. Like a long, sort of narrow rectangle. It's pretty fun and very satisfying to work on it a bit at a time. I ought to bind it up though, then I can call it finished whenever I want. It's not finished until it's bound, as any quilter will tell you.

The new soccer fields

This is the first year for soccer at Carnival Hill here in our little town. It's so beautiful, and the weather has been just top notch at every practice and game so far. They call it Carnival Hill because, back in the day, local townfolk would throw a winter carnival here, with sledding and other wintertime festivities. I can personally assure you that the sledding here can't be beat.

You park your car down below and walk up the little hill to where the soccer fields are, and the whole scene unfolds in this beautiful mellow good-clean-family-fun sort of way. I like how as you crest the hill from the parking lot, and you make your way to your kids field, you get sort of absorbed and enveloped in the crowds of other folks whose kids are practicing and horsing around. You see folks you haven't seen all week, catch up with friends, enjoy being outside. it's great.

It really is getting gorgeous out here

We finally got our yard cleaned up last weekend, I took these a day or two ago.


This is a new favorite tree. It's right across the street from the house and greets me every day as I come up the road.


Here we are looking west, towards Curtis Farm.


The house. I hope to doll it up with some autumnal spirit when Marcia gets out here (next week! can't wait can't wait can't wait). Right now it's a style I call "Pre-Reveal"...


And here we are looking east, towards Milford.

Aren't you glad I shared? Interestingly, as you can see, we are not at peak fall color yet. As of October 10th or something. Marcia will be in for quite a leaf peep!

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY LANIE!

Today is my dear sister in law's birthday. Happy Birthday Lanie. We all love you so much!

What's Happening? Nothing much.

Yesterday I caught up with three different people, and they all asked me what was up, what was happening, what was going on. And all three times I was like, "oh, nothing much really." I can't figure out if I'm in a rut, or just living life or feeling less than 100% or what. But nothing much is going on this week and I felt a little like a loser having nothing exciting to offer up to my three askers. So thanks for making me feel bad Papa! Dian! Jonboy! ;-)

Today is Wednesday. I feel a little tiny bit like crap. Nothing major, just bleh. Making my way through the week. I am excited for next week, however, as my sister Marcia is coming for a visit and we will be having a very good time. the Keene Pumpkin festival is on the 20th, so we will be going to that. Marcia needs to see that. And we will be going out for drinks with my new friend/co-worker, who reminds me so much of Marcia in so many ways that I feel they have to meet. I feel a little like I unearthed a treasure in this new friend of mine, so I am really looking forward to connecting with her on a social level outside of the office.

Maggie has picture day today at her preschool/daycare. I dressed her in a shirt that will make her blue eyes POP, and even added, at her request, a little blue ribbon for her hair. It will be a real moment for me to have TWO 8x10 school photos to frame and put up (Henry's school photo and hers). I will figure out how to post both photos online when they come in and if you happen to share the genes of my children, you will mostlikely receive an actual picture via snailmail at some point down the road! Lucky you, kin of my children.

Okedoke. You take care now. Oh! My friend Mike updated his blog finally, so go check it out and catch up... It's over there on the right, under "Blogs of Loved Ones". The Mustard Bun has been updated! Yahoo! And Katie, Mom and Matt, time to get cracking!

Have a good day.

Weekend Update

This weekend I went yard sailing. I struck such gold that I went home after just two stops! The first sale was at the local funeral home, which I thought would be cool. Not sure what I was expecting to find there, but I managed to spend $15 on books and a toy for Maggie.

What I got for Maggie was one of those stuffed toy dogs that comes with it's own fancy doggie carrying bag - complete with rhinestones and other adorable accessories! Maggie was so thrilled. The dog was named Collery at first, but now she's Jenny. If I had a dollar for each time this weekend I clipped and/or unclipped the leash to Jenny's collar, I'd be up about twenty five bucks.

Next place I went to was a big old painted lady (Victorian house) across the block from Henry's school. They had their sale inside, and what a beautiful house it was. My goodness. And so big! Anyway. Somebody's momma had just passed, and momma was a quilter... You can imagine the rest!

For five bucks I got a big box of vintage fabric. Much of it was already cut up into seven inch squares! So as soon as I could I brought it all home and began stitching a patchwork quilt out of all the squares. The lady clearly had a plan when she cut the squares up, so I went for it. Got the whole quilt pieced and added a denim border on Saturday, then, using an old blue blanket for the batting, quilted it up!

The quilting part was a real bear. I see these fancy shmancy long arm quilting machines and they make me start to want one. Very slow going and rather tiresome. Luckily I went grocery shopping in the middle of it because I picked up a quilting magazine that had a big article on crazy quilts and was sufficiently inspired.

See, I love to embroider, but I never really get far enough along in a project to have anything worthwhile at the end. I like to doodle, is more like it. So now I'm going to see my patchwork quilt as a doodle pad of a sort, stitching around the borders with colorful floss and experimenting in the middle of some/many squares with various designs and stitches. It's already quite satisfying, as each stitch now has value! it won't be thrown away or forgotten about when I get bored with it! I am pleased. At some point I'll post a picture.

On Saturday night I went out to dinner with my friend Christine, it was great to hang out with her. We went to the farm and visited with the baby (and his parents, of course) and in general had a real good time.

In a never ending quest to match his clothing, on Saturday Henry went out on errands wearing a hawaiian shirt and some shorts that are actually pajamas. We called him Henry Hotpants all day. HAR HAR!

Henry has his own cheerleading section

Here are a couple of cute shots of the kids taken Saturday morning. I'd told maggie I'd get her some pom poms to cheer henry on at his soccer game, and whipped these up. I like how serious she looks as she strikes her version of a cheerleader pose. And the one of the two of them, Henry look so handsome. Who wouldn't want him for an older brother? (Especially if it meant we would be your parents!)

Crafty! Baby quilt!

I whipped this up yesterday and gave it as a gift to some friends of ours who just had a baby. (Hello out there!) I like the use of orange and purple and blue here.

and this is also, clearly, the best way to photograph a quilt so you can see the whole dang thing in decent light.

Crafty! My first quilt!

Here it is, ain't it purty? made of the softest flannel ever. What a treat to work with, that flannel was. Here it is on the guest bed in the cozy/play/tv/sewing room (in order of order of room makeover), and here it is in outside at the farm. THANKS MOM for all your help!

If this doesn't warm your heart, you're dead inside.

Lanie models her new apron!

I made this apron for Lanie for her birthday, and Jeff brought it up there for her this weekend. A couple weeks early -- HAPPY BIRTHDAY LANIE!!!

Maggie wearing my glasses

Maggie eats pears...

There's a farm up the road from us, where the "Ladies" live if you know what I'm talking about. (We thought it was a dairy farm, so we called the cows there Ladies. They're beef cattle, actually. I guess we should call them Dinner now?) over the weekend they had a bucket of pears off of their driveway with a sign saying to help yourself. So we did and boy were they yummy. Here is Maggie enjoying a pear while watching Henry at his first soccer practice of the year.




... at Henry's soccer practice.

Mom teaches Henry to knit

How cute is this picture. This weekend Jeff and Maggie are going up to Maine, leaving me and mom and henry behind. Henry was pretty excited to be staying behind once he realized he could practice his knitting. When he came in to the kitchen to show me his progress, my first words were "hey, cool. you know, Brian knits." I was very pleased to actually know of a dude that has knitted on occassion, as issues of what a girl does vs. what a boy does are of great importance to henry. So thanks Brian, if you're reading this, for being a dude that knits! it gives Henry permission to knit.

Maggie and Henry, September 2007

Here is a great picture of our kids. We were all in the kitchen when they came walking in just like you see here. luckily I was able to grab a picture. Henry is such a great big brother. yesterday maggie became very freaked out and upset by a spider and he was just so comforting and understanding towards her.

He's also really opening up to his grandma. He likes to work next to her and gradually shares details about his life with her, which is really sweet. yesterday he was telling her what to do if you're being bullied on the playground. (stick around the part of the playground that has teachers in it.) I guess they are imparting that info to the kids as part of an overall behavioral improvement campaign or something. Anyway. it was real cute to listen in on them as they sat in the kitchen working on their seperate projects.

It's official!

I am a quilter. Yep! I am nearing the end stages of my first ever quilt! it's a beautiful thing. My mom is helping me with it, and I am positive I wouldn't've have made it this far without her. (I am speaking of more than quilts.)It's a full size quilt, all flannel. Gorgeous colors too. I'll post a picture soon!!! It will eventually be Maggie's quilt, but right now I am so thrilled with it I want it all for myself. So let's just say that one day it will be Maggies.

I am having a great time with my mom. She had a cold over the weekend, but is feeling much better now. We are just hanging out, sewing and crafting and eating and watching tv -- all the good stuff! I think she is very tickled with the children. They are very cute with her too. She's got a different sort of style from their other grandmother (hi grammi!) and I had been wondering how they would perceive the differences in style. if they'd think she was a stick in the mud or whatever (no offence mom! hi again grammi!) but what I'm observing is that while she may not be like their grammi, she is an awful lot like their mom. They are very comfortable and happy to have her around. JUST LIKE THE REST OF US!

Jeff had a very quiet weekend, mostly laying very low. He got out a bit yesterday with the kids so that Mom and I could go to a quilt show in Townsend, MA. That was great fun for mom and me. I picked up a new craft - Needle Felting it's called. You take a little ball of un spun wool, roving they call it and place it on a square of backing and then place that over a block of upholstery foam. then you jab the hell out of it with a felting needle, which is a needle that has little barbs on it to gradually attaches the roving to the wool fabric. Here is an example of needle felting that I found online somewhere:



Mom brought me a lot of fabric from her stash pile, so I imagine I will be jumping in to that pretty quick here. I want to finish the quilt I'm on right now first of course. All I have left to do is the actual quilting of the layers together and then put the binding on. I really cranked through it this weekend.

Also I watched HBO's new series "Tell Me You Love Me" and I really liked it. Talk about your spicy meatballs as far as the sex scenes go though, good heavens! But there are other reasons why I liked the show. ;-) Anyway, now that stupid Big Brother is wrapping up I happen to have room in my schedule for better quality television. So I'll keep tuning in.

talk to you later blog!

Big Brother: YANKEES WIN!

Big Brother: Yankees Win!

The good folks over at TVgasm have written up a very satisfying and highly accurate analysis of last Thursdays Big Brother. Those two Donatos. I hate that they'll win it. Daniele is the worst.

Money CAN buy happiness!

...if by happiness you mean satellite television!

we flipped the switch to the boob toob pipe back on yesterday. It feels great to have options again for watching TV again, although I wish I didn't have to actually be at work paying for the dang thing. Here I am at my desk, when I could be home rotting in front of the television! Oh well. That's the way it goes, I guess.

This weekend we went to Canobie Lake Park as part of a end of summer thing thingie at Jeff's work. It was real fun, although real hot. The heat always zaps me of my energy. The kids had fun though. Henry was up for riding the most jarring ride possible, and Maggie enjoyed the little kiddie rides best. She was a trouper and joined us on the Boston Tea Party, which is a short log flume like ride, with a big wet splashy finish. We all went on as a family, and it was so cute to see her little body crammed in between Jeff and Henry. WHAT AN ADORABLE FAMILY WE ARE.

My mom arrives tomorrow morning! I am so excited to lay eyes on her, even more thrilled to have her in my home! Can't wait to see you momma!

Labor Day Parade Video

Oprah, is that you?

Will my dear reader in Chicago please come forward?

Signed,

Curious.

A very sweet picture

of Maggie and Jeff today

Labor Day Parade

FIRED UP, READY TO GO!



Henry and I marched in the Labor Day parade with Barack Obama on Monday! I even got to shake the man's hand! He was very casual and warm and friendly, full of energy and charisma. A total rock star.


This is the crowd that was set up to walk behind him. The organizers had created big homemade letters that spelled out "OBAMA 08" and I got to wear the final "A" and Henry was the space between the name and the years, and as a result, we literally led the pack! Henry can be found in the front of the crowd of people in this picture. Can you spot him?


The man himself pressing the flesh with those of us marching with him...


This is probably the best picture of many I took over my shoulder. There had been a lot of confusion at the start of the parade regarding where the letters ought to be. In front of Obamas car, behind it, between his car and the secret service SUV's (the secret service agents weren't crazy about that), up ahead in front of the car, etc. etc. Very confusing and a lot of shouting and running into position at the start.



Ultimately we ended up leading Obamas car, and it was very cool. We shouted various OBAMA specific chants (Henry really enjoyed that part) and basically led the way. At different points, Obama would hop out of the car and go shake hands with the crowd and we would have to stop and wait for things to move again.




This is us coming around the Oval in Milford. CROWDS of people. Obama was like a rock star, I tell you. People would totally surround him, tons of news camera and press following his every move. It was pretty incredible to be a part of.



And here is just one view of the crowds of people that came out to see us. Do you recognize anyone?!

It was a great day, so fun to be a part of something big like that. And to share it with Henry. That kid didn't complain once, and let me tell you, there was a lot of sitting around under the broiling sun! I was so proud of the high quality of his companionship that I promised him ice cream after, PLUS $10! That kid is terrific. I know he loved being a part of the excitement and leading the whole thing off (we lucked out carrying those letters, let me tell you) and seeing other kids he knew while we were on the parade route. He is a great kid.

New Cozy Room

Here we have the latest version of the cozy room. Moved the TV back to the living room, pulled the red couch out and brought in one of the (two) twin beds I had out on the porch. This is where my momma will sleep!




I'm most excited about my sewing corner. I'm hoping that by containing myself in the corner I'll accomplish two important things: 1. my sewing related flotsam and jetsum (thread, scraps, pins, etc.) will be better isolated and not wreck the whole room. 2. little visitors to my sewing corner might be more inclined to stay where I want them (around the perimeter of the sewing corner please!) I also like how I can see out both windows now, and my desk can be accessed from both sides, which will be great for cutting. I need a full sized ironing board, and to throw the doors back on the whole ball of wax and then that oughta do it!