Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere !!

The Canadians certainly do enjoy the Autumn, particularly Halloween. There are pumpkins literally everywhere!!  Fields full of them, as well as pumpkin people, pumpkin decorations and of course pumpkin pie.  From memory, it wasn't really a big deal back in England or in New Zealand come to think of it.  Here in the valley however, remote as we are, we do get one or two visitors come October 31st, looking for some treats.  
Jemma was home with us for the weekend and Amber fancied doing a bit of pumpkin carving, so they drove down the road to a farm stall and bought a couple of suitable specimens to hack away at!  

Amber downloaded a bat template from the internet and Jemma drew freehand onto her pumpkin.  After lots of experimentation with various sharp implements they completed them.

In the meantime I had salvaged the cut out bits for dinner, as well as the seeds. These I  rinsed, tossed in some olive oil and roasted until they were golden brown. They make a great addition to salads.  

Once it started to get dark our first little visitor arrived, so cute in her little red devil costume, jumping up and down with excitement she chose a chocolate bar and headed over to the next house with a big smile.  

Jemma has now gone back to Halifax with Daddy this time while Amber and I are home alone to keep the fire going this evening.
This weekend we remembered our little Archie, who left us this time last year.  I said a few words to him under the tree.  It still don't feel ready to get another cat yet, but maybe one day.

Thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving weekend (in Canada) came and went. At this time of year there is plenty of activity on the farm with all the apples making their way into crates to be taken off to various sellers near and far. With the early morning grass covered in dew and an eerie mist in the air we wake to the dunk dunk sound of apples hitting barrels as the pickers collect the 'drops' for juicing.

Thanksgiving was one of those family weekends that I enjoy so much. Where I get to be Mother Hen for a couple of days just enjoying my family and living for the moment.

With a nip in the air and the Autumn leaves falling we drove out to Lunenberg for a walk around the streets, which were quite deserted with the summer tourist season now over. Many of the buildings in Lunenberg are really pretty ;

A Doctor's surgery,

Bed and Breakfast?

... and a School on the top of the hill.

Jemma spotted an Archie look alike cat chilling on a table and couldn't resist making friends with him. Craig and I taking a rest half way up the hill!

Driving through Mahone Bay, there was much more going on. People walking around, a busy flea market and a place to have a cup of tea.

The locals annually decorate their gardens with 'Scarecrows' at this time of year. With various themes, a little bizarre perhaps, but some of them really do go all out with their imaginations and creativity.

The girls thought it was fun to spot some hilarious scarecrow groups and Amber had her camera with her of course.

In the afternoon we played a game of Scrabble. 

Monday was a 'put on my pinny day', preparing a lunch time feast of roast pork, mashed turnip, sweet potato, broccoli, cranberry sauce, Yorkshire puds, stuffing and gravy.

No room for the apple crisp until much later in the afternoon when I was on my way to the City to take Jemma back to her apartment.

Here we are a full week later (where does the time go?) I can hear the tractor activity outside the window as the harvesting is still ongoing, the temperatures are in single digits now but the sun is still shining.

Happy Autumn days everyone :)

October is here!

I really should have come up with a better title I suppose, rather than just stating the obvious!
I'm keeping it simple this week with a few little 'makes' and 'finds'
A retail therapy trip down to my local thrift store over the weekend with Amber, we found a few treasures:
Amber spotted this adorable dress by Zara for only $4.50. In perfect condition and in her size! It was a little too long, so I chopped off 14cm's and hemmed it.

My finds were a super soft merino wool sweater by Gap in a warm oatmeal colour and this 100% heavy cotton sheet, washed and ironed all ready to turn into a table cloth. The rest of it can go in my fabric collection.

While busy on the sewing machine I made more bunting, a couple of elephants, an owl called Oliver and a few more pocket pets for my Etsy shop.

Browsing through the many many other etsy shops (of which there are soooooo many since the early days when I joined the site) I found some lovely items for sale here:



http://www.etsy.com/shop/KitzieG
http://www.etsy.com/shop/danglingjewelry
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lamixx?ref=seller_info
There are so many I could list, but after browsing the treasury collections I started to feel terribly guilty and overwhelmed by the huge choice in Etsy land. So I made myself some tea and got back to some felt cutting :)