Quilting Up A Storm

I have been pretty busy over the last few weeks and this might have contributed to my lack of blogging. So the least I can do it share with you some of the things that have been keeping me busy:

1) A center piece for our table, with festive colours and birds wearing earmuffs

2) A quilt from (mostly) scraps left over from wedding crafting, the large backing pieces are new.

I need to take a totally finished picture as I put binding around the edges of the quilt and I actually quilted squares and rectangles throughout.

3) This quilt is finished, but here's a look at the piecing together stages:

I have one other piece to post about and then the final pictures of the two quilts, stay tuned!

Frisbee In Pictou County

Since the spring Greg and I have been playing frisbee in Pictou County, it started as pick up and over the summer there was an organized league. Once September rolled around and students went back to school it went back to a core group of about 12 playing pick up each week.

With the time change happened in early November this really made playing challenging as it started to get dark much, much earlier! This called for a change of location and with the new Pictou County Wellness Centre opening it was excellent timing.

So now we play in the Wellness Centre and last weekend we spent some time promoting the sport and our 'league' at the Health and Wellness Fair at the Wellness Centre:

Movies

This week I went to two movies - this frequency is particularly rare and I was very happy that both movies were great.

Last Saturday we went to see Life Of Pi. I started to read the book but had to return it to the library before I finished...and never got around to getting it again. Despite not reading the book (or because of it) I really enjoyed the movie:



On Thursday night we went to The Intouchables, a movie put on by the local film society, and it was excellent! It was hilarious, not too sad and the main character was wonderful:

Small Town Living

Last month I had a package delivered by FedEx. It was quite the process as they tried to deliver it twice but we were at work both times and after the second time I was left with a phone number to call only to find out the package was now in Truro (45 minutes away) and they wouldn't be able to deliver it again - this was sorted out after a frustrating phone call and eventually the package was delivered to Greg at work.

Today there was another experience with the same FedEx delivery person, and again no one was home. This time something awesome happened and I can only believe it's a result of living in a small place and having a very thoughtful delivery person.

A note was left, normally it says something about a phone number to call or location to pick up the package that couldn't be delivered. This note was much, much better:

Greg did receive the delivery - at the library.

This was too good not to share. I hope you can enjoy it as much as we did.

Neat!

Greg made a tasty treat on Sunday - almond bark.

Part of the process was boiling water and sugar together. It looked really neat:

I Made a Dress!

In the past I've tried my hand at sewing my own clothing - the outcomes have been less than I'd hope for. First I made a t-shirt, this shirt is reserved for messy tasks and playing frisbee. The second project was a skirt, this turned out better but I only wear it around the house.

So I really upped the ante when I set my sights on making a dress.

I got the idea from these two pieces of clothing:

Source

Source

I like the idea of the first dress but wasn't so keen on the GIANT cowl and preferred a hood. I really like the hood from the second picture so I tried to mash them together. I started by looking up how to make a sleeve pattern, made one (right), then realized that I have a book with patterns! Making the sleeve pattern was fun though, it's satisfying to use math practically.

The book! I picked this up for under $10 at Coles last year and only used it once to make my 't-shirt':

I used the hood from a hoodie I like to make a pattern and just measured the length and width for the front pocket.

So my first dress is much more successful than my first t-shirt or skirt - hooray!

Halifax Visit

Last weekend Greg and I visited Halifax for some family fun and to go to the Mother Mother show. It was a lovely coincidence that our friends were throwing a Movember chili lunch fundraiser at their house. So not only did we get to see some pals we had a great meal and supported  a worthy cause:

I also spotted some interesting signs on our visit, I have no explanation for the sign on the right but as for the one on the left it was in front of the North Face store on Barrington Street as Petraeus was supposed to be in town for the weekend - well placed, it got us to stop:

Last but not least, treats of Halifax! Since I seem to have a gluten sensitivity I can't drink beer anymore. While this is very sad at least I can enjoy something that Propeller produces, rootbeer! And on the left is a snap from the Mother Mother show - they AND their lights were very, very entertaining and impressive.

Music Nostalgia

I heard this tune on the radio yesterday and was immediately on the hunt for more nostalgia:

November Hike

Taking advantage of such warm November temperatures Greg and I headed out for lunch and a hike with a group of friends.

We went to Antigonish for lunch at Sense of Japan, it's nice to know there is a good sushi not too far from home:

We piled in cars and headed to Beaver Mountain, just outside of Antigonish, and attempted to hike a virtually unmarked trail - thankfully I took a picture of the map before our walk but unfortunately it didn't help a whole lot and we got a wee bit lost. We DID make it out before dark though, success!:

This was an interesting sight - a larger tree fell directly onto a smaller tree and snapped it over, thankfully the bank to the left of this picture was also helping to keep both trees from falling into the path:

Two interesting structures, the top picture was a super creepy find, it was burnt out inside and had a lot of furniture left. The bottom reminded me of something from a zombie movie, it was locked:

Remembrance Day

We attended the Remembrance Day ceremony on Sunday on a beautiful, sunny day in New Glasgow. It was a lovely ceremony, I took a picture as the veterans and cadets were on their way back to the Legion.

Thank you veterans and troops!

Dinner Party

Last weekend Greg and I made a meal to thank two lovely people involved in our wedding. We had the dinner at my parents house, it was pretty delicious if I do say so myself. Unfortunately I just have the table setting rather than any of the meal so you'll just have to use your imagination based upon the menu:

Sweater Time!

With what feels like a huge drop in temperature comes sweaters. I've swapped my shorts for sweaters in my closet and now I have a hankering for creating my own sweater.

Here are a few I've spied that I would like to try my hand at, the first seems complicated while the second seems more straightforward. I'll no doubt try the second one first:

Source

Source

Happy Halloween!

I am happy to report that we had a total of 22 trick or treaters on Halloween, that's up from 5 last year despite the less than ideal weather on Wednesday!

Since Halloween also just happens to be on my birthday Greg made me a yummy supper (with a sushi appetizer!) and gave me mittens made from local wool:

He also gave me a camera, it was put to use taking the pictures here.

I was a bit of an overachiever (or at least tried to be) when it came to carving my pumpkin and I might have gotten in over my head. I was going for a haunted house but this is what happened:


So I carved another (little pumpkin) by putting a bunch of holes in it. I couldn't screw that up too much!  Greg carved a wolf howling at the moon, very appropriate for his costume, but it seems I didn't take a picture of it - whoopsie!


To continue celebrating we went to trivia at a pub in Pictou and met up with friends who I somehow convinced to wear their costumes - note: no one else in the place was wearing a costume. Not that I needed a reminder, but I have awesome friends:

It is pretty nice when you can get a couple of wears out of a Halloween costume (that you like)!!

As for trivia, we placed second (with 3 other teams) by 3 points, not too shabby!

Stroll About Town

Before the rain and wind took most of the leaves from the trees Greg and I took a stroll around town to enjoy the fall colours:

Left: our backyard. Right: Cenotaph on the West Side with a beautiful tree behind it

There is a pull up bar along the river, so the obvious took place:

Halloween Party

Like many others Greg and I had our Halloween party on Saturday night. Here's a look:

I made some pumpkins from styrofoam balls, yarn, acorns and a bit of hot glue:

Some of our costumed guests:

Greg went searching for old lady glasses and came back looking like a hipster, but it works! We went as Little Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf:

Big Winner!

Yesterday was the last New Glasgow Farmer's Market of the year. There was a ton of stuff going on (face painting, free cider, music and lots of fresh produce) including a guess the weight of the pumpkin competition and the winner got this huge haul of produce.

I guessed the right weight (166lbs) and won the spread! They even delivered it to our house!

I've also learned there is a new feature in my phone camera since the most recent update and now I can take panoramic shots:

The haul: two 5lb bags of potatoes, kale, beets, greens, parsnips (two bags), carrots, brussel sprouts, onions, cabbage, peppers AND turnips!

Developing Professionally

Professional development is delightful, especially when  you get to see friends you don't see all that often. I attended the Atlantic Science Teachers conference yesterday held at Halifax West which was a day long learnfest with lots of swag (as all good conferences should have).

Not only did I learn things (hooray!) I spent some quality time with my pal Larissa, we went to Jack Astors for lunch where you get to draw on the table:

I also won the 'grand prize' of the conference, I'm still not 100% what it is. But it's technology related and it will come in the mail. I'll update you when it arrives!

Bangs!

I did it, I didn't even chicken out.

I asked the hairdresser to take a before and after picture and she happily humoured me.

I think the funniest thing is how an optical illusion formed where the shape of my head and the size of my glasses changed drastically with bangs.

Thankfully that's more to do with the light and camera angle and less to do with head deformation (here's hoping anyway). See the picture below for a more reasonable after look:

Halifax Pop Explosion

Greg and I took in a great show last weekend at the Halifax Pop Explosion, the headliners were Of Montreal and they put on an excellently theatrical show!

We got there to see two bands before Of Montreal took the stage: The Bicycles (left), Sheer Agony (right)

Of Montreal (below)! You can't appreciate the craziness of this show, but it included a wrestling match, crowd surfing spidermen, balloons and more:

Halloween Crafting

I stopped by the local fabric store this afternoon and picked up some festive fabrics:

I'll be posting what I make with this soon!

Halloween Prep

Last Halloween was a bit of a bust, while Greg and I carved pumpkins (well it was really squash since the pumpkins were all sold out), gave out candy (to five children despite living close to 3 schools) and decorated the house (but not enough so anyone could really tell from the road) it just didn't seem to really do the day justice.

This year we have learned from our mistakes: we've purchased pumpkins in advance, have lots of decorations to catch the eye of passing trick or treaters and of course have time to make great costumes (last year we moved from Saint John to New Glasgow on Halloween weekend and unfortunately costume making wasn't high up on the to-do list. I really didn't know where my sewing machine was at that point).

This weekend I started to put together my costume after finding all of the pieces (well enough to get sewing). I am going as Little Red Riding Hood and this is what I started with:

I picked up both of these dresses from a second hand store downtown and was happy at how they fit and that I don't have to do much tailoring.

The red dress came with really awesome shoulder pads which I promptly cut out and tossed in the garbage can. I also snipped off the little black bow but kept it just in case it seemed to fit the costume somewhere else.

I cut off the cream coloured dress just above the stitching at the high waist, that way I didn't have to hem anything there. I did have to sew in a draw string to pull it snug around my waist (top picture below). The embroidery is covered by the leather 'belt' I also made. Rather than hemming the cream dress I gathered and sewed to give an 'older' feel to it, I'm not sure why this was something I thought necessary but I think it turned out okay (bottom picture):

I'm not done the dress, I still have embellishments to add and I also have to start the hooded cape but I'll give you a sneak peek of what I have so far (keep in mind that yesterday was particularly cold so I'm wearing leggings which won't be part of my costume, and that Greg wasn't home to take my photo so I had to take matters into my own hands):

I'm not sure about the boots. I also have black shoes I could wear but I will be making that decision when everything else is done.

So there is my costume so far, let me know what you think!