Finished Slouchy Hat

With some time on my hands this morning I finished off my purple slouchy hat, and it's actually slouchy - huzzah!

Just in time for winter:

Halloween + Crocheting

Browsing craftgawker I spied this excellent 'last minute Halloween costume' - or at least it will make a warm hat for trick or treating!

Yet another reason to learn how to crochet:

Source

There was also a recommendation to braid yellow yarn (in thick bundles) to make a sweet lady viking hat. Awesome? Yes!

Knit Knit

Another knitting project, I lost my favourite purple hat last year so now I'm trying to replace it with a handmade version. So far so good:

I'm using circular needles for the first time and it's working out well. The picture above makes the wool look more blue but it's purple:

I'm going to keep knitting and try to make a slouchy hat. I was inspire by these hats:

Source

The website this inspiration came provided a free pattern - yay for free!

Mega Muffin!

Since we're moving on Saturday this week has been dedicated to eating all perishable food items we have. We had frozen a few pints of local blueberries with hopes of making jam but since muffins are easier we went with muffins.

There was one monster muffin that came from this batch and of course I couldn't help but take a photo of it and put it on the internet. Maybe it's a sign of a slow week.

Here's the recipe I followed if you would like to try your hand at making a mountainous muffin. I would however, suggest adding a little bit more sugar. I used brown sugar so maybe that's why it wasn't as sweet...there will be fiddling to this recipe in the future.

Moving East

I've been meaning to post about this for the last few weeks, but I've been surprisingly busy with supply teaching - hooray hooray!

At the end of the week Greg and I are moving back to Nova Scotia, this time to the less bustling metropolis of New Glasgow!

Greg got a fancy new library job there and I'll be tagging along in hopes of finding more teaching work.

When we were scoping out apartments on the Thanksgiving weekend it was probably the coldest day of the month to date...so I didn't take any pictures since my hands were pretty frozen. It's a cute little town, but there doesn't seem to be many pictures to choose from on the interwebs....so this is what I found:

Source

I have no idea where this sign actually is in New Glasgow, but I'm sure I'll find it eventually.

And if you're still thinking to yourself, I have no idea where this town is, I will provide you with a handy-dandy map:

Source - Google Maps

We move on Saturday so keep your fingers crossed for beautiful weather all across the Maritimes!!

Next New Skill: Crocheting

After searching for knitting projects I've managed to stumble across a lot of super cute crochet ideas. This is definitely one of them and I'm going to attempt to crochet as my next crafting project!

Source

Source

There seems to be hilarious uses of crochet skills...

Source

And others that are a cross between hilarious and useful...

Source

And one more idea for good measure:

Source

Science in St. Andrews on a Sunday

I volunteered my time today to nerd it up with some High School students at the Huntsman Marine Science Centre in St. Andrews. The field trip was part of their course work, oh how I wish my high school classes had field trips like these!!

There was some rocky shore investigation (sampling/checking out the biodiversity/mud nearly sucking off rubber boots) and then we headed into the super brand new and fancy aquarium to check out the touch tanks and seals.

The beautiful building with the deck is actually the aquarium

Just a tree stump hanging out on the short

Harbour Seal

Lobster...it looks cooked but it's not! That's it's natural colour

Salmon

Wolf fish - super scary!!

After our adventures at the Huntsman we headed into St. Andrews for a bite to eat and some wandering around. So when I spied a 'place your head here' cutout I couldn't resist. This was in front of a candy store, and I'm assuming I was supposed to be Willy Wonka.

Knitting for Tiny People

Learning to knit is a bit daunting. I keep seeing patterns for beautiful sweaters with intricate stitches and think...someday I'll know how to make that!

Actually finishing a knitting project and being happy with the outcome is also something that I'm struggling with. So I've been really excited to make a pair of booties (really they are slippers for babies, I'm not sure why the name is booties) and a hat for a new addition to Greg's family. It's great because since many things about babies are tiny, it makes for a speedy knitted product.

It took me a day or so, knitting here and there to make these booties:

This was my first attempt and you might notice that they are both for left feet. I learned my lesson for the next pair and the straps are going in different directions. It would have taken me SO much longer to make adult sized slippers so it was nice to realize my mistake and view it in a tiny version - it was like they became cute mistakes!

Runnning for a Cure

Last weekend a group of fine people got together to make the wonderful team the Neon Runners for the Fredericton Run for the Cure. I didn't know a number of these folks before the run so it was great to meet new people, have a nice run and raise monies for a great cause. The rain even held off until later in the day, hooray!

I'm pretty slow getting these photos up, but it's better late than never!

The Neon Runners! Photo credit to the photo lady for the run!

Dealing with the cold weather - check out those neon socks!!

I had the honour of being Team Captain, and I got a pin for it!

The Agnews

Mittens? Nope, they are socks!

Pre-run we went to Nancy and James to warm up,
the shoes had a party

What I was running for!

Neon Runners at the front of the pack, pre run

And we're off!

Accidental self shot while running

Where walkers meet runners

Signing the Wall of Hope

Summer!!!

Thanks for a super awesome time, super awesome team!!! YAHOO!!

Greg Turns 26

Hooray for birthdays! I love lots of things about them: family, friends, desserts, presents, decorating, singing Happy Birthday, party hats. So when it was time for Greg's birthday this year I was very excited to participate in a number of those things.

Homemade signs, they are better - right?

Happy Birthday Pumpkin Pie

Presents!!

Dinner at Beatty & the Beastro
*please excuse the terrible lighting choice
of my camera...I couldn't get it right in there!

Beatty & the Beastro decor
(it's like you're eating in someone's house)

Since Greg's favorite dessert is pumpkin pie I tried my hand at making it from scratch. Last weekend you might remember Greg and I went apple picking and stopped by a place to buy pie pumpkins...here is my baking adventure!

I used this pumpkin recipe but my own crust recipe. I used this recipe to find out how to cook the pumpkin to get the yummy, yummy filling.

Sliced in two

After 45 minutes in the oven

Just before they head into the oven

Out of the oven, they really darkened up

Since Greg is well liked in Saint John the woman who runs the market we visit many many times a  week gave him birthday cupcakes from the bakery (also in the market). There were two, so she kind of likes me a bit too. They were very tasty!!