the mid-December gasp

So, erm... yeah.
It's the middle of December. Life is flying by as fast as usual.

Not much else to say, really. I'm living in denial, but making Christmas presents anyhow, just in case the Christmas fairies forget to show up at my house in the next couple of days. The next thing I need to do is to start planning Christmas dinner, since apparently it'll be happening at my house this year...

a glorious sunrise in my rear-view mirror.

frosting.

the perpetually-blooming rosebush.

Ellie's ballet recital.

blog-reading break day 2

Well, this has been an interesting couple of days. I don't think I realized quite how much pressure I was putting on myself... and how much like a failure I was feeling. Huh. I'll have to ponder this some more. Maybe make some changes.

Enough about that, though.

Today we made playdough!

(I hate playdough. I hate the smell of it, the texture, the way it dries into little balls that get ground into the carpet, the way it smears itself onto the table and for some reason is impossible to remove.)

But yet, because Ellie loves it, I made some.

Cherry-scented playdough.

I found a recipe that uses Kool-aid for the colourant/scent.

And it kept Ellie busy and happy for almost an hour.

Hmmm.


And in other news... my grocery budget is going to heck in a hand-basket. You see, my husband and son love peanut butter. Not just any old peanut butter, though... the natural kind of peanut butter. You know, the stuff that if you let it sit out too long, the oil rises to the top and you have to stir it back in. And they don't just love peanut butter... no, they adore it. Eat it by the spoonful every time they walk through the kitchen. And since the only way to get to the basement stairs (where the computers are located) is through the kitchen, you just know that they eat a heck of a lot of peanut butter.

Well, anyhow, I used to be able to buy their special PB in big huge jars at my grocery store. Note: used to be able to. Used to. As in, past tense. They don't seem to stock it any more. That space on the shelves is now filled with other goods.

So where do I have to go now to find the PB?  Costco. The place where you can't walk in the door without spending $100.

Yeah. Like I said, my grocery budget is sunk.

busy as a bee

It felt very strange, not to be blogging the last couple of days.

Things have been very busy... I've been trying to get lots of things done outdoors while the weather is still nice.

I'm also hoping to have my new sewing room/area ready for pictures in a couple of days. Much progress has been made in the sorting/organizing/tossing/giving side of things. I didn't realize exactly how much fabric and yarn I actually own. And yet, when there is a project I want to do, I still don't have what I need. How does that work, do you think???

august break

I have come to an important conclusion these past couple of weeks.

I am only able to do one of two things at a time. I can either do the things I could blog about, or I can blog about them. It seems that I can't do both. I don't know how the 'big' bloggers do it.

So, it is with a sense of profound irony that I'm announcing that I'm going to be taking part in Susannah Conway's August Break this month. Well, and I'm planning to do kim klassen's inspiration staycation during this coming week. But aside from that, I'm going to see if I can manage to simply post a photo a day during this month. Maybe that's asking too much. I don't know. But I'm going to try.

Here goes:

the free-fall ride at our local fair

a few notes

First... you still have a few days to enter the giveaways from Sew Mama Sew and Sense & Sensibility.

Second... I admit it. I'm northern-hemisphere-centric. I asked, in my SMS giveaway post, for a comment about something fun you're planning for this summer, and completely did not consider the fact that fully half of the planet is heading into winter right now. I apologize. Feel free, if you live in the southern hemisphere, to tell me something fun you're planning for this winter. Or something fun you did last summer. Or something.

Third... I love what being part of the SMS giveaway does to my blog stats... I laughed when I saw this - all of my normal visitor count ups-and-downs just flattened right out, and one big spike at the end. Of course, I'd have no problem if all y'all decided to keep on visiting :)

Fourth... I've decided to do a small giveaway each day this week. Just for fun, and because I can. Today's gift is a wee Pride & Prejudice themed scrabble tile.  Winner's choice of a pin back or pendant bail. If you want it, leave me a comment telling me something you wish you had done last week.

busy week

So... a couple of weeks ago, I signed up for a kids clothes week challenge at elsie marley. Yeah, that was this week.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on the point of view), I was stricken with a house-cleaning bug on Monday morning, and spent most of the week sorting and cleaning and organizing. I think I'll do my challenge next week. The weather is supposed to get wet again.

I've also taken advantage of the sunshine this week to do a bit of gardening. Mostly pulling weeds... it's amazing how fast they grow!

This is my one and so-far-only garden bed. Yes, if you look closely, you can see that it is indeed an old particle-board bookshelf. It's on its second year now, and still holding up well. I don't know for how long it will last... nor do I know what kind of chemicals are coming out of it from the wood...

I so much wish that there was a way for me to share with you the scent of this basil. Maybe if you scratched your monitor a little bit and then stuck your nose right up to the picture?? No? Oh well. Better go plant your own, then, and you can sniff it any time you like.

Anyhow... don't forget about the giveaway day happening on Monday... and I have a surprise in store for you tomorrow as well! Happy weekend!

I'm back.

The play was a rip-roaring success.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It's been about 10 years since I was last part of a theatre production, and even more than that since I last acted in a play.

I definitely won't be waiting that long again, although my long-suffering husband has begged me not to do it more than once a year.

It was a pretty stressful time for my family. I was very impressed, though, with how they stepped up and helped look after things.

So now, here I am, back again in the swing of things... trying to wrap my head around making regular meals (the kids did most of the cooking for the last few weeks), cleaning (ditto - although not nearly as much as I would have liked), laundry (again, ditto - because being able to pull clean clothes out of the laundry basket counts, right?).

I'm even contemplating a return to the sewing machine sometime soon; masochist that I am. Apparently sewing 8 dresses, a jacket, two corsets, a petticoat and a chemise within a few weeks wasn't enough for me...

And, obviously, I will again be posting to the blog more regularly!

the obvious solution

There I was, happily playing the piano... it's functional now! Well, mostly. When we got it, two of the pedals were broken in half. And cast iron is either difficult or impossible to weld, depending on whom you ask. But the ever-handy-around-the-house husband moved the unimportant (to me) mute pedal from the left side over to the right side so that I could have a sustain. Of course, it faced the wrong way, and crawled into the hole in the bottom of my slipper, but it worked.

And then it didn't.

It broke in half too. Suddenly.

It's very annoying to play the piano with no sustain pedal. It makes songs sound chirpy in places where they should be mournful. It's just wrong.

So the ever-handy-around-the-house husband made me a new pedal.

Yep.

it all makes sense now

So, this is a conversation that's happened many times* over the last 20-odd years betwixt the husband and me.

Him: Why are you buying q-tips again? What a waste of money!

Me: Ummm... to clean my ears with. I do it every day. Don't you clean your ears???

Him: No.

Me: Are you kidding me? If I don't clean my ears out every day, they get all gooey and itchy and I go deaf.

Him: ????????? What do you mean? My ear wax dries up and falls out of my ears.

Me: ?????????????? How is that even possible??? Never mind; I'm buying the q-tips. Leave me alone.


Yeah. 

So, anyhow, as I'm doing random web-hopping the other day, I come across this interesting little tidbit: there is a recessive gene for dry earwax.

Who knew???


*don't ask me how many times; I don't keep track of things like that. I only know it's been more than a few.