All clear

Well, it has been four days (and counting) of endless cold drizzle, but I think we can safely say that Hurricane Sandy passed us by completely.  Whew!

We aren't letting the drizzle stop us from getting out and enjoying ourselves.  I'm working on ingraining our family with the Scandinavian saying, "There is no bad weather, just bad clothing."  If properly geared up, cold drizzle is no problem at all!  On Sunday, we put our mantra to work and went for a long walk in the woods.





I look forward to walking through the seasons, noticing the changes together.

Oh the weather outside ain't frightful...yet

Thinking of all our friends and family in the path of Hurricane Sandy and her colossal mess.  We are hanging out on the fringe.  The woodstove is keeping us toasty. Broccoli cheddar soup and chicken pot pie have been prepped.  I baked pumpkin muffins and chocolate quinoa cake for snacking.  Oh yes, and I bought many a bottle of red wine, just in case.

Halloween decoration

With my realization that Christmas is exactly two months away (eep!) came the realization that Halloween is less than a week away.  For the first time in a long time, we are in a country where this fact actually matters, and I needed to spring into action!

After stretching some fake spiderwebs around the front of the house and securing in place a large, non-creepy spider (my girls are small after all), I moved onto crafting.  At the start of the year, I offered to provide decorations for my daughter's second grade classroom.  I had seen cheesecloth ghosts on Pinterest last year, so today I gave it a go.



I was unable to find "liquid starch" as specified in the directions.  No one seemed to carry it.  I did, however, find heavy duty spray starch in the laundry aisle of the grocery story, so I sprayed that liberally and hoped for the best.  Check it out:



These are the coolest!  I can't wait to make more.  As I only have one soda bottle to work with as a support during drying, I shopped around for ideas.  My neighbor sent over a box of swag from her garden shed that I will try out.  Another idea is to place a ball of foil atop a paper towel roll for smaller ghosts.  We'll see how I go.  I hope to have plenty of these for the classroom...and some for our house too!

Catching up (?)

Recently, a mom at school said to me that she felt like she was finally starting to get a handle on September...just as she realized it is nearly the end of October.  Not the right time to point out (as someone else did to me) that Christmas is now exactly two months away!  What?  How does the year hit the speed track every September?  Do I get a free pass since I did an international move this year?  I finally feel the dust settling from the move as the kids settle into their school routines, and now it's holiday time!  Oh dear.  Moving on...

We've been enjoying Indian Summer in Pittsburgh this week.  After borderline wintry weather off and on for a few weeks, this week turned into a warm weather marvel.  Today, the anticipated high is in the 80s!  I'm enjoying the windows and doors being open all day, the dinners outside again, the playing in the yard for hours...because we know it will be gone again rather soon (and may not be back for months!).  Alas, Halloween night is predicted to be rather cold and wet.  Somehow I'm not sure the kids will care.

It's hard to get into the spirit of fall and decorating for Halloween when it feels like summer outside, but that doesn't mean we can't bake up some delicious fall flavors, right?  Two days ago, Stephanie and I wanted a donut treat and no suitable donut treats could be found in our usual spots.  Naturally, we had to bake our own!  I tried out this recipe for baked apple cider donuts.

 

 I have a mini-donut pan, so there was plenty of leftover batter to make a ton of mini-muffins too, which we also iced with the apple cider glaze.  I would offer you some, but we polished off the lot before bedtime that night!

Monday fun time

This weekend, Hubby bought the cats an enclosed litter box to avoid the litter spray everywhere and took their old one away.  They don't like it.  Ask me how I learned this.

This morning, we had a regular car service appointment that should have lasted an hour and a half.  When they finished, the service guy took the car to the detailing people for a good cleaning as part of the service.  Then, he went to lunch, after he accidentally put the keys in his pocket.  That was an all-morning adventure!

Some days are like that, and I'm rolling with it.  Feeling pretty good, actually.  Of course, watching something funny always help give a lift, so here you go...



Or you could watch the Saturday Night Live presidential debate clip here.
Happy Monday, everyone!

A new shirt for Stephanie

Look at this cutie wearing an outfit of mama-mades!



Today, I finally finished pattern n from Happy Handmade Vol 2.



This may be the most darling thing I have ever sewn.  The fabric is a buttery-soft corduroy, so it feels as wonderful as it looks (or at least, we think so).  I really like this pattern.  The top is loose and flowing without being baggy.  The gathers at the neck and below the button band and the ruffle at each sleeve are gorgeous details.  I used a piece of lace to cover the gathers, and I found some sweet love-heart buttons to finish it.



Full of excitement about my latest creation, I was fully prepared for it to be rejected by my discerning little fashionista.  Not so!  She loves it!  Off came the top she was wearing and now she won't take this one off (hooray!).  It even matches the pants I made.



And most importantly, the outfit stands up to actual life, which is really the whole point.

Autumn aglow

This morning, the sun broke past the hill and lit this tree afire.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend!