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!

October Hike

After eating a lot of food on Saturday we decided to go for a hike on Sunday, it's also handy that the leaves are changing colour these days.

We went to Fitzpatrick Mountain in Scotsburn, our previous hikes at this spot have been in the winter and on snowshoes. So it was nice to see the hill in a different season.

It was an instagram day:

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday this year and it was a pretty great decision, cooking and eating this much needs a 2 day recovery period.

To spruce the place up for fall we picked up some gourds from the market and I finally moved the dried hydrangeas to a vase:

Our neighbour gave us another bouquet of dahlias for our Thanksgiving centrepiece:

We ordered our turkey from the market and picked it up from the farm this past Tuesday, it was great to be able to pick it up from the farm rather than the freezer at the grocery store:

Our guests brought a diverse and yummy spread of food, we will have left overs for days (HOORAY!)

Mini-Honeymoon

To unwind after a very busy couple of days Greg and I headed to Wolfville for the night. We stayed at an AMAZING Bed & Breakfast (In Wolfville Bed and Breakfast), had amazing food, picked apples, slept in and enjoyed both the rainy and sunny weather.

For dinner on Sunday night we went to Privet House and we both had amazing meals. It's a cozy little spot with a very tasty menu.

This is the B&B we stayed in, beautiful right?

Despite looking older from the outside, we learned the house is only 12 years old. There is a lot of charm inside but with a totally modern feel. The bed is king sized and was SO comfortable!

There was a fireplace in our room, but it didn't throw heat it just looked really pretty in the evening.

Wolfville is a beautiful place, particularly in the fall.

We headed down to the water and the tide was out leaving lots and lots of mud!

As you do in the Valley in the fall we went apple picking!

In addition to apple orchards this U-Pick has roosters and pigs. I might have gotten the pigs a bit too excited trying to take a picture of them - they started oinking and grunting like crazy...we left quickly.

For lunch on Monday we went to The Port in Port Williams. This was another great meal, in addition to being a restaurant they are a micro-brew. Their bar was lined with hanging hops (blurry picture on the right) and if your beer wasn't hoppy enough you could ask for some hops to add to it!

A lovely view from our table inside, on a warmed day this deck would be the perfect spot to watch the tide come in and out.