I made a list

Oh summer, where did you go? Ah yes, that was those happy months filled with sunshine and friends and family visiting from the UK - busy, busy busy, and beautiful.  So much fun, many happy hours in the garden, another fabulous wedding and a few snatched hours in my craft room.  I was feeling like I had been slacking off on the creative side and hadn't really made very much, but now I've made a list: Mother of the Bride Hat No.2 for Daughter No.1's wedding (No.1 hat for Daughter No.2 was last February), cable knit gloves and stripey socks for me, curtains and blinds for the house, curtains for the Potting Shed, a bib for an absoloutely darling baby, and my personal favourite, a ScareCrow. Oh, and some dinky little seed packets, which won't win any design prizes but at least I finally found a good use for the butterfly stamp I bought in Amsterdam many moons ago.  So after making that list and digging out the photos, I'm feeling quite pleased with myself and don't feel quite so daunted by the long list of projects I have lined up for the winter. Looking forward to some cosy hours in my craft room, and in the kitchen too - we went vegan this summer (feeling SO good about that!) and I have a stack of new recipes to try.  In the meantime, I'll be making the most of every drop of Autumn sunshine that remains - I'm almost enjoying raking up the leaves this year, even though there are a gazillion of them every day, as I have the time to pace myself, and the view is just gorgeous.

Fits like a glove!

There were some highs and lows at my sewing machine this week: first, I made with great care a dress to wear for my daughter's wedding, and I love it - the fabric is a linen mix which hangs beautifully, I adjusted the pattern so the waist is in the right place, studiously pressed all my seams as I went along and did a couple of final alterations to get it just right. My primary school sewing teacher (Mrs Diaz - no shortcuts under her beady eye!) would be proud of me I think.

Flushed with success, I was keen to make a start on one of the many projects in my 'make do and mend' stash.  With my only pair of oven gloves in dire need of a wash, and spurred on by recently having resisted a pretty and very cheap pair in the local dollar store (on the basis that, cheap as they were, I really should use up some fabric and make them for free), I made a start.  Aiming to keep it simple, I thought I'd just wiggle a bit of quilting on each layer of lining / padding / outer, then stitch together the 2 layers with a snazzy zigsag stitch and neatly trim around the edge - it looked great in my head but turned out - well, see below left! I resisted the urge to throw it in the bin, remembered Mrs Diaz, thought it through carefully, and had another go.  Seems the trick is to cut the padding smaller than the liner /outer, leaving space to neatly stitch and turn - much better!  So now I have a slightly odd pair of oven gloves, which will serve to remind me that mistakes really are ok if I just stop and ask myself what I learned along the way.  Only taken me 60 or so years to really get that into my head!

Time really does fly when having (lots of) fun

Prompted today by a dear friend who said "are you going to carry on with your blog now that you really have something to write about?" (I'm hoping she didn't mean that I didn't have anything worth writing about before...), here I am marvelling at how 4 months can fly by and life change so much in such a short time.  To summarise: I turned 60 in November, retired from office life, and moved to Canada.  After a flurry of unpacking and our first ever childless Christmas (quiet and a bit strange, but helped by lovely friends on this side of the ocean) I quickly settled into my new and very relaxed routine, spending some considerable time wandering around with a vacant grin on my face, revelling in my good fortune - but also cooked, stripped paint and dug what felt like several tons of snow.  My new crafty corner is up and running, fabric (soooo much fabric) stashed away, and I've even managed a spot of knitting for Daughter No. 2: my first ever pair of gloves, first ever anything with 4 double pointed needles, first ever fair-isle type pattern.  I am hooked - quite a revelation to me that gloves, even fancy patterned ones, are so much quicker to complete than jumpers - who knew?!  Even better, as they don't use much yarn, I treated myself to some really nice wool.  I think this is definitely my kind of knitting - next up is a pair of socks and another pair of gloves, both for me.  Somewhere, I have a whole book of pretty sock patterns. And then there's that fabric stash... 2017 is gonna be a craft-fest around here.  Lots of visitors booked in for Nova Scotian holidays, 2 acres of land to whip into shape and our lovely house to beautify - very happy days ahead!

The Homestead

Crafty Corner

Foxy!