… until I forget what a pain it is and tackle the next room.
But for now I’m done – I finished painting the living room yesterday. Here’s a before photo. I have to admit – it was pretty and the style was sophisticated. But the carpet was dirty and it just wasn’t my style.
So here it is today – lots and lots of photos:
And now we are all ready for an early turkey day with Mom and Dad and Jennifer and Jenna this weekend. I’m so pleased to have this job done!
Swiss Chard from my garden
I’ve been painting my living room! It’s a big project – lots of doors and trim and I had to remove wallpaper in the entryway. I am so eager to get rid of the blue trim and the dirty cream walls. I’m nearing the the end of the project. Dreaming of finishing the painting and putting the room back together. Stay tuned for photos of a finished and refreshed living room. Then I might be thinking about curtains, curtains, curtains…
The rain stopped just before we went out to trick or treat. So finally we had a Halloween where we weren’t wet and freezing and huddling into our winter coats. Claire was shy at the beginning. Bea got overheated in her octopus costume. But by the end they were pros – doing more trick or treating than they have ever done. The houses in our neighborhood are pretty close together so it makes for good trick or treating. So many people decorate and many go all out with lights, music, severed heads and ghosts in the trees. You always see a few groups of parents strolling around pulling a wagon with a cooler full of adult beverages. This year our whole street was closed to traffic so it was thick with little monsters. Now Bea is off to a sleepover and Claire is sorting her candy. A great Halloween!
The octopus features suction cups on the underside of her arms. And that’s a rainbow owl, of course.
Happy Halloween!
All that AND Brian completed his 10th marathon. See him there below with the black shirt on? Ha.
Well my gardening season is wrapping up. I still have carrots, beets and swiss chard in the ground. Also, the tomato plants are straggly, but they keep producing. And the herbs are looking mostly good. Good ol’ sage always keeps going until Thanksgiving. Yum.
It was a good year for my garden – only the second season. My climbing green beans were not a great success – I think I planted too many plants at the base of the trellises and then we went on vacation and the beans got overgrown. After that they were a mass of tangly vines and I could never seem to pick many that were not over ripe. I’ll try again next year. Or maybe I’ll try cucumbers on those trellises. The carrots were a happy surprise – for some reason I thought they were hard to grow – turns out they are easy peasy.
I froze some green beans (from the bush type I planted). To save the tomatoes I like to chop them up and mix them with garlic and herbs and olive oil on a sheet pan. Then I roast them and put them in the freezer.
Only 5 more months before I can start all over – beginning with planting the peas in March. I love my garden.
This one grew in my sewing room:
In October I make Halloween costumes. This year I have a brand new sewing machine to use. I had been putting off buying one for a long time. I knew I wanted to upgrade but I didn’t know exactly what I wanted. I finally came across a mechanical Janome machine and the reviews caught my eye. Now that I’ve had it a while and used it some I love it. It has lots of handy features and special feet but really it just takes the fabric and sews so smoothly and quietly. Like butter compared to my old machine chunking along.
So here’s my old machine – it was a good machine – a good friend.
And my shiny new Janome.
I’m knee deep in quilting rainbow diamonds and sewing suction cups onto fabric.
The costumes are almost complete. I’ll show you soon.
The ponies also needed a sewing machine.
Laowai 