New England Thanksgiving

This week was a crazy one. Our holiday festivities started with with visiting Dennis's aunts. They were all gathered in Oxford, MA to visit with his Auntie Jeannie who was down from Presque Isle, ME. We also got to visit with Dennis's dad (Walter) and Dennis's brother (Will) - who had a new car to show off! He is super proud - and I did the honors of taking pics of him in the driver's seat! It is all very exciting!


Wednesday night brought cooking and baking. Dennis got my mom's family's traditional meat stuffing recipe, and he was excited to try it. It smelled like a massacre in our house while he was making it, as it contains beef, pork and turkey.


I baked a pumkpin cheesecake. I don't have any pics, but it came out good - I swear! The fact that there is none left to photograph is a testament to that!

Thursday brought noonish dinner with my family, and naps by the fireplace. Some time in the late afternoon we headed northeast to Marshfield, MA to stay the night with Dennis's parents (and eat some of his dad's delicious cooking). This morning, Dennis and his dad headed out to LaZBoy to find a recliner (Walter is retired now, a LaZBoy is required equipment!), and I headed out to the LYS to check it out. I'm glad I found it, just in case there are any emergencies while visiting (ha!). I also savored the beautiful drive by myself. It was nice to get out and do something that I enjoy and see the local sights. Marshfield, and the surrounding towns, are filled to the brim with small horse farms, restored colonial homes and lovely wooded neighborhoods. On recent trips we haven't ventured anywhere else besides the grocery store, so it was nice to see some of the other scenes. Especially pertinent were the cranberry bogs near the end of their street. It made me immediately reflect on old traditional New England recipes, and the cranberry sauce that Dennis made and canned last year, and we enjoyed this year again.

Now that Walter has his chair picked out, we were given their old chair and ottoman. It is a futon chair (unfolds out into a single bed). I have loved it ever since they got it last year...and it is now my next big project! I am itching to break out my sewing machine and sew a cover that matches our living room! I have about a week and a half of this semester left...and then it will be time to craft!

Santa's Workshop

As evidenced by my beautiful Christmas cactus, Christmas is coming! I'm quite thrilled with (and proud of) its flowers this year. It is the best bloom since I've had it. Interestingly, the side of the plant that has the most blooms is the side that was facing the window. I am not sure if this is because of the Easterly sunshine, or because that side was more exposed to the chilly late-October nights. It is the chilliness that makes the cactus bloom. Either way, I turned that side toward the living room so we could enjoy its beauty.




For the past couple of months, I have been working on Christmas presents. I am almost done with my mom's toe-up socks, and my grandmother's Quilted Diamond Vest. But this morning, as I sat and listed to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and APHC, I finished my mother-in-law's slippers. I embellished one with a flower - and will do the same for the second one!


This Thanksgiving and Christmas are going to be tricky ones. Dennis's family now lives just south of Boston. Last year, on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, we stayed at their house until late in the night, just visiting and watching Christmas movies, because they only lived 10 m inutes away. This year will require a little bit more logistical planning. It's just a blessing that they didn't move farther away! Our friends all have their own families, and my dad has to work on Christmas Eve. It may be a Christmas of new traditions...

As my semester draws to a close, I am trying to draw on the peacefulness and excitement that the holidays always bring me. There's a few more hard weeks of paper-writing and cantankerous professors. But at the end, there will be pumpkin cheese cake and Christmas cookies, trees and garland, and the Christmas lights that I love so much.

I started Christmas shopping this week (eeek!), and am planning on making as much as I can. Its going to be a simple Christmas. Back to Santa's workshop to hopefully finish my projects in time!

Wedding Bells are Ringing!

Yesterday was such a fun day. Dennis's best friend, and lead singer of their band, got married to his partner Danielle. It was also their son Blake's first birthday (which I knit Blake's Birthday Bloomers for). It was a laid-back affair, but it was nice. Dennis started cooking at noon on Friday, and didn't stop until about 2pm yesterday afternoon (with a little break for sleep on Fri night). He and the groom, Jeremiah, did pretty much all of the cooking - and was very pleased to hear that many people (including a country club owner) asked them where they had the food catered!



Since I can't cook, I baked 4 batches of the vegan cupcakes (when I got a turn at the oven!) - they came out pretty cute, if I do say so myself!



The ceremony was done by a celtic minister - and it was a "Handfasting" ceremony. It was beautiful, spiritual and non-denominational. And they included the whole family. They had a cake for Blake's birthday, and Alexa ( Danielle's 4 yr old daughter) wore a beautiful crown of roses.


Afterwards, there was a show. Several punk bands (including Dennis's) played. It was a long day - but a fun one that went off with a hitch!

Congrats Jeremiah and Danielle - we love you both!

Weekend Getaway II

This weekend was another one away from home. A last hurrah for summer. It started out with the Woodstock Fair with friends. We ate fair food (fried dough, pretzels, gyros, sausages, and cookies as big as our face), we saw all of the livestock and barely restrained ourselves from taking baby cows and a sheep or two home with us!



And we (well, our husbands did) posed by the BIGGEST PUMPKIN!

We even rode the Ferris Wheel!



After all that fun, we headed up to the South Shore area to spend the long weekend with Dennis's parents. The second night I couldn't sleep because Dennis's cousin told me the house is haunted. The house was built in 1800, so a few ghosts here and there are likely. But the whole family has seen him, and I was terrified I would too. Sunday night, I was way too tired to care!

We had a fun weekend of IKEA, BBQing, horseshoes, new kittens, and of course knitting!

Weekend Getaway

This weekend couldn't have been better. I don't get to spend much time with my sister, and I haven't visited my aunt in a really long time. So, mix my sister's unexpected weekend off, some gas money from my mom, and a hankerin' to get away, and you get:

A beautiful view of the mountains from the front porch;

A swim in the pool;

Breakfast made with a smile by your aunt and cousin;

Night quading through the woods;

And a large dose of sugar from s'mores (or, "schmoes" in my family) right before bed. Also, Aunt Donna got us Keebler Fudge Stripe cookies instead of graham crackers and chocolate. Try it. Pure genius.


I have spent these last three days trying to catch up on sleep. Monday morning, a coworker held the door for me and said "you look exhausted!" But it was all worth it....for a weekend away with my mom and sister in Vermont.

'Tis the season...for color

Saturdays are for projects. In my house, they always have been. They're for working in the yard, they're for loading up the trailer and going to the dump, they're for washing and waxing your car, they're for trips to the lumber yard - and they're definitely for creative projects. I've inherited a hard-working creativity from my parents. I suppose knitting is part of that - and finishing and painting furniture definitely is. When my mom was younger, she bought unfinished furniture and finished it herself for the fun, and for the challenge. She caned her own chairs, reupholstered furniture, and sanded and polyurethaned all the floors in their home. So a while back, when she called me and told me that she picked up cute chairs on the side of the road for us to paint - I knew she meant business. For a while, Dennis and I only had the four chairs that matched the dinner table set that someone from the Fire Dept had so generously given us when we got married. It got a little tricky when we had people over. So my mom knew that we were looking for chairs; free was good and fix-up potential was best! A couple weeks ago, we started washing and priming them, and I put the first coat of paint on one today (and you can the see door that is her current project). And I am looking for the right fabric to use to cover up the ratty seat cushions. Just haven't found it yet.


The chairs will match the bookcase that I painted last month. And looking at how packed the bookcase is - I have no idea how we managed without it before!

Happy Saturday! Did you do anything creative?

New Beginnings and Fun Surprises...

New beginnings...why are new things so much fun? I've put off starting a blog for a long time - but have succumbed because so many people seem to be having so much fun with theirs (especially the hoards of knitting blogs out there). This blog isn't meant for mud-slinging - its meant for a creative outlet, for absent friends to keep contact, and for fun.

Buddhism teaches that new life and reincarnation does not necessarily mean that we physically die and come back to life - it can be having a new experience, or learning a new thing - and moving on with life thereafter. With each new experience, your life is different. And so, we have this fabulous new technology that not only is fun to use, but can be a useful tool to track (and share) our experiences, and our constant rebirth as creative and intelligent human beings.

* * *

A couple weeks ago, my parents adopted a new kitten who is cute as a button. They had sworn that they wouldn't get another one when I took my cat, Eddy, to live with us, but I knew it wouldn't take long. He was scared at first...but now he runs fast and loose.


I like to keep plants...well, I like to try and keep plants. And I was so delighted when I spied this happening in one of my fave plants:



It is so beautiful, and has come right on time for my theme of new beginnings.


So, if I said that our vacation was a week of outdoor fun, I would be wildly exaggerating. Despite our best laid plans (and the kayak on the roof of my car), we really didn't get out much. We went for a rainy hike on Thursday, and a quick paddle and swim on Friday. It was nice to get away, but the rain wasn't quite what I was hoping for. Although, the sun did shine our entire drive home! But we did make the best of it. We relaxed a lot, and it was a good to meet some of Dennis's extended family. We were planning on visiting the UMaine Presque Isle (North of Ordinary!) to see their science museum. But, it was disappointingly closed for renovation. But we did stop to see the Jupiter, which, along with all other eight plants, is along Rte 1 in between Presque Isle and Houlton. It stretches 40 miles, in a scale model of our solar system. It is pretty neat.




And, we were surprised by a lovely crocheted afghan from his great aunt Geneva. I am usually not a fan of finished crochet projects - but this afghan is breathtaking. And I love every stitch of it.



So now we're home and doing laundry, putting away our vacation trinkets, and sighing with satisfaction about a vacation well done. :)