I didn't have enough to make a full-body-covering costume, but I think JK will be more comfortable in just the shirt and hat.
She's not fond of the hat though.
This pink fleece-and-fur bunny costume took 1.5 hours to make, and cost zero dollars (my mom gave me the fabric several years ago). I made it big to fit over JK's coat, for the chilly Canadian fall/winter weather. It doesn't look like we'll have snow by tonight yet, but you never know.
Yesterday had a bunch of interesting things happen. Someone actually came to see our house! Woohoo! Finally! Now I'm praying like mad and crossing my fingers hoping they will make an offer.
Because of the time of the showing we had to go out for supper. But we had a bible study planned for that evening. KD's brother was going to babysit, and decided he could come get JK at 5:00 instead of 6:00, so KD and I had an impromptu date! Alone with no baby. Now that doesn't happen often! I don't think we have ever had dinner alone together since JK was born. It was nice. We went to an italian restaurant that we like (despite the fact that there was a shooting in the bar next door a couple of months ago...nothing exciting like that happened this time). While we were out without her, JK decided to take her first few steps. Strangely, I don't feel sad about missing it.
And yesterday, I decided to try my hand at making whole wheat bread...or specifically, half-whole wheat bread. With the help of my bread maker of course. I haven't been able to bake a decent loaf of bread since I got married. This recipe turned out pretty well though! It wasn't too dense, and it tasted (and smelled) wonderful. However, you know how a loaf of bread is supposed to have a nice convex curve on top? Well, mine was concave. Kind of odd. Next time I think I'll try adding more yeast and a little more water. And I'll bake it in the oven instead of the bread maker, so that the bottom crust isn't so hard.
And congratulations to Mrs. B for guessing what those eyelets I've been working on are for! I'm making a costume. It won't be done for Halloween, but then I don't ever need to dress up for that anyway. I'm trying to make an authentic-looking Medieval outfit. I've always wanted to do this, and I figured I should just go for it finally. I don't have the fabric I need for the other layers yet, and for the piece I'm working on, I'm stuck trying to figure out how to do the sleeves. Sleeves scare me, since I don't use paper patterns and I have a very limited amount of fabric so I can't make a mistake.
He's 4.5 years younger than me, and I don't really understand him much. He still has a little growing up to do. But he is intelligent and will eventually get his life sorted out. And I love him.
Happy Birthday D!
(and now I feel bad for not mentioning my sister's birthday...she actually reads this blog, and D doesn't! Oh well. Happy birthday S, a week late.)
I still have nothing to post about. I'm still working on the project I'm doing the eyelets for. Those eyelets are actually not as difficult as I thought they would be. I'm not certain that I'm doing them correctly, but they look good anyway.
I feel kind of detached from my house, so that's probably why I can't think of anything to post on this mostly-house blog.
We have an open-house scheduled for Saturday, but our realtor hasn't done anything to advertise it. We are seriously considering changing realtors. He's not doing his job. And we have only 2 weeks left to sell this place. I'm just tired of all this house stuff. And I have a school assignment due next week.
So, to counteract the cool weather we've been having this week, here are some more pictures from our vacation to BC this summer. These pictures were on the camera we borrowed and we just got them back recently.
Grapes at the winery:
JK looks so babyish in these pictures. She didn't like the feel of the grass I guess.
At the beach:
Cherries at the orchard:
I was doing a bit of hand-sewing this morning, when KD came downstairs. He noticed the needle and thread, and immediately asked me to fix some of his things. Most of the jobs were relatively easy, but when I was fixing a hole in his work bag, the buckle nearly broke my sewing machine! It pulled the needle right out. I think KD likes it when I fix things for him...he feels cared for I guess. I like doing it for him too. It makes me wonder though, what do non-sewing households do when a button pops off or a hem comes undone?
I won't tell you exactly what I've been handsewing this morning. I have a couple of projects that are bigger and more involved than my usualy 1-hour items. If they turn out, then I'll post pictures. These two things are just being made up as I go along, so they might not turn out. I've been working on hand-stitching eyelets for lacing. My skill has already improved from the first ones I did.
Here are the first ones:
And these are the latest.
Yes, the fabric is the exact colour of my living room/hall walls. Totally not planned. The fabric is just one of those free bolt-ends I bought in the spring. I'm trying to use stuff that I already own for my creative endeavours instead of buying things.
We still haven't had anyone come look at our house. We've lowered the price now, and we're having an open house next Saturday. That's all the news on this end.
OK! Almost a week since my last post. I'll never get to 200 posts if I keep this up! But it has been a nice week with very minimal time spent on the computer. Most of the house-fixing-up stuff is done. I just have the holes in the kitchen baseboards to fix, and another coat of touch-up paint in the bathroom. I'm so tired of house stuff. This entire year has been focused on the house. From the first bathroom renovation in January, until now. But it's almost done.
Last week I was simmering some cinnamon sticks, orange slices, and whole cloves on the stove for potpourri when KD came home from work asking "where's the pumpkin pie?" He was horribly disappointed that there was no pie when the house smelled so good. So the next day I had to bake him one. He loves pumpkin pie, and JK seems to be learning to love it too. She had fun "helping" me bake too.
We had Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend. If we waited until November, it would be winter already. KD had to study much of the weekend, but on Sunday we had a get-together with his family at his brother's big new house. JK tumbled down a couple of stairs while we were there because she got distracted by the dogs. She was more scared than hurt. She's quite good on the stairs usually, but I think B's stairs are more slippery than ours.
Yesterday, JK and I went to have dinner with my mom and grandparents while KD hung out with his childhood friend from Ontario. I love visiting with my family. The time always seems to go so quickly. Suddenly it was 9 PM, and JK was cranky and tired. She had fun playing with Grover, my grandparents' huge fluffy husky. He's really gentle and didn't seem to care that she was poking him and pulling his fur.
They did change the pictues on our house listing...at least on the mls site. They still have the old pictures on the realtor's site, but I don't care about that. No one is going to go to a specific realtor's site when searching for a home.
We have had one call about our house, and he said he wants to come look at it. KD told him to just call before he wants to come. I would have tried to book a time right then, because I'm not always at home. This is not a realtor, but someone who found my Facebook Marketplace ad. So of course I'm going to stay home for that one. We've had no other calls, and I'm getting kind of worried. There are only 2.5 weeks left before the deadline to sell. As my friend said: "The market is soft....marshmellowey."
...And I have nothing intelligent to say.
Mrs B. tagged me a few days ago for a "Four Things" meme. Thanks!
Four things I did today:
1. I showered.
2. I got JK out of bed and discovered that she might be growing attached to her tigger that I've put in her crib for the past two nights. She didn't even ask for her vitamins, she was too busy playing with him.
3. Checked my real estate listing and grumbled to myself about the ugly pictures still being there.
4. Read part of my text book, which has to be finished by the start of class tonight. We're practicing a book review, using our textbook (Spunk & Bite by Arthur Plotnik...very interesting read for anyone interested in writing) as the subject.
Four things on my to do list:
1. Paint the basement door trim
2. Clean up the dust in the stairwell from patching the walls and painting
3. Fill nail holes in baseboards. Gee, that's been on my list for a while!
4. Fix some baseboards upstairs.
Four of my guilty pleasures:
1. Coffee...especially the sugary/fattening kinds like lattes and stuff
2. Mindless television
3. Cookie dough
4. Reading when I know I should be housecleaning or exercising or something useful.
Four random facts about me:
1. I would love to go to a Norah Jones concert someday.
2. We used to have a cat. KD named him Griffin after his college athletics team (He used to run cross-country). He was really aggressive and needed to be an outdoor cat, and then I got pregnant and didn't want him to be aggressive with the baby. So we gave him to a no-kill shelter that would take him to a farm if he didn't get adopted. He would love a farm.
3. I love to bake, especially in the fall and winter. Cookies especially, but pies too. Not cakes, I've never been good at them. But then no one is around to eat what I've baked except me, so I can't indulge in baking as often as I'd like.
4. I used to think I was a romantic, imaginitive dreamer, like Anne of Green Gables. But I'm not. I'm actually rather logical and down-to-earth, though I do have my moments.
I don't want to tag anyone just now, but if you want to do this one and haven't already, go ahead!
My crafting area:
Gratuitous picture of my little one in her new snowsuit from Nan and Poppa:
My backyard with the beloved patio that was so much hard work:
I will miss it and all the trees and birds around here, but I'm having fun planning out our new yard. Trees will be planted as soon as the ground thaws in the spring (so, in June)
*****
So I emailed our realtor and asked him to put my pictures on the listing instead. I think he may be annoyed with me, but he said he'd do it and I emailed the ones I wanted yesterday afternoon. Their admin person said it has been updated and the mls site should soon show the change, but as of right now, it's still the old ugly pictures. The realtor's website has the old ugly pictures, plus two of my pictures. They had better be taking down the ugly pictures. I tried to explain myself clearly without being overtly offensive, and I apologised for being a perfectionist control-freak. But our realtor doesn't seem to think that pictures on a real estate ad are important at all. I beg to differ.
And it has lovely 30-year-old blue shag carpet. My parents had carpet just like that in their bedroom when I was growing up. I tried to make the blue look not so jarring (because the paint colour doesn't go with it at all) by using the wedding quilt that my Nanny made for us on the bed with the green and brown bedding. I hate the fact that our bed sits right on the floor, but KD wants a low platform-style bed, and I want a high, or at least normal-height bed so we compromise.
JK's room. Our realtor said it's a very nice colour.
The crib used to be lengthwise under the square picture frames, but JK started pulling stuff off the dresser so I moved it.
I don't think I've ever shown this picture of our main bathroom. I just love the marble mosaic tile.
I could show pictures of the third bedroom/office, but its a total mess right now, and has way too much furniture in it. Tomorrow, we'll move on to the basement and the yard.
and move to the entry
The kitchen is cheerful and bright, even with the aged 1970s cabinets with old hardware, and the fake-wood countertop.
The living room is my favourite place in the house. I love to sit by the window (especially when it's raining or snowing) reading my favourite books. I hope I can give our new living room the same warm, cozy feel, even though it's open to the kitchen, and the fireplace's location makes it impossible to make it a focal point.
Of course, in this house the fireplace can't be a focal point either.
And then there's the half-bathroom, which I've already posted about. I am still thrilled with how it turned out...and I still haven't found a soap-dispenser to go with it. (But of course that's ok because now we're moving).
I'll show you the upstairs tomorrow.
