Pumpkin Sunrise

The last weekend of this year, can you believe it?  This year went fast for me, but to be honest every year goes fast for me the older that I get.  Aging does that.  We are in the deep freeze with low temperatures.  I'm wearing all the woolens.  All of them!  While I agree that 5 degrees is a tad too chilly, I'm enjoying this weather.  All you summer lovers will have your day soon enough. I decluttered the house and put away all the holiday decorations.  I usually wait until January first but this year I wanted them put away.  I started on the 29th and finished yesterday.  The house looks bigger, brighter and tidier.  I find it funny that when I decorate for the holidays the house looks cozy and warm.  The day after we open presents, my house looks crowded and messy.  Yesterday and today I had some pockets of knitting time that made me so happy.  Finally!  I had some free mental therapy as I worked on all the knitting.  To be honest, I felt quite relaxed this after

How is your weekend?  Or should I say, how was your weekend?  Well, mine was pretty nice.  I love December and so far this weather is good, I'd like some snow but I can't have everything all at once.  I achieved a lot and marked off the many tasks that needed to be done that accumulated over the week.    Yesterday, I read blogs and became current in your lives.  I also squeezed in some time to do some book reading and relaxing.  I am reading the Hunger Games trilogy to finish off my reading year.  My son thinks I'll love them and he is usually right.  He is a good book recommender for me.  I am not a good book recommender to him.  I wonder why?  I had a lovely evening watching an episode of Dr Who and knitting away on some simple stockinette projects.  It's the only way to get through the boring knitting (except reading while knitting).  After 7:30 a.m. Mass, I went grocery shopping because I cannot figure where I can go during the week.  Even though my

We were with my side of the family this weekend.  What a full weekend!  We spent Thanksgiving day at my dad's house and ate too much food and exchanged our gifts since we do not travel during the Christmas break.  We were fortunate to have all of us attending this year.  As our families grow, our schedules are filled with visiting many relatives. my dad's dog Emma  My husband and I stayed at my sister's house for a couple of days and the 'kids' (grown adults now) stayed with my nephew at his house.  My sister and I had a lovely time out shopping on Black Friday at the places that have thinner crowds.  Apparently not everyone crafts.  I had the BEST salad ever when we ate out.  This wave of 'big' salads chopped or un-chopped is my kind of thing.  I'm on the left my sister is on the right  Friday evening was the annual gingerbread house making party with my aunt and cousins.  I like to sit and talk to my relatives and enjoy the company.  All

How was your weekend?  Mine was packed full of 'busy'.  But the good kind, you know?  On Saturday, our son arrived by lunchtime and then we were off to find some red wool for the toddler baby girl.  I found it!  phew - I can mentally cross of that to do.  When I get something in my mind, I am unstoppable!  I can't start her sweater until I finish the last hat.  The last hat will be finished today or tomorrow, I promise.  Last night we started watching Stranger Things on Netflix and I'm hooked.  I love that it is PG 14 (my mental age for scary movies).  The show reminds me a bit of Dr. Who with the amount of suspense.  All good! These photos are showing how messy my studio gets when I am wrapping and in the midst of creating.  Just keeping it real around here.  There is no perfect - even in the blogging world. Today, I attended 7:30 a.m. Mass.  I really enjoy church in the early morning hours and the rest of the day is stretched out in front of me.  Onc

Another weekend, phew!  I spent yesterday morning cheating at my tags with some stickers and new washi tape that has Christmas themes.  I also unearthed the hole puncher from my one of many junk drawers (I've got three!).  I was in Michael's when I spied those wee stickers and boy was I in a super festive mood.  I figured it out why... They were playing Christmas music and I smelled some of that cinnamon pinecone scent that just screams the holiday season.  Ah.  I love it!  I had a great weekend,  my husband and I walked each day in the freezing cold and chatted.  I sat and knit for long pockets of time chipping away at that shawl that is on my needles and I hope is off my needles by next weekend. Our internet is being really 's l o w' right now so I'm furiously typing thinking I can post this when the signal is back.  Just so you know, I would rather have spotty internet than no electricity so I'm not currently losing my mind. Today, I

new hat on the needles  Hello!  How was your weekend?  Are you enjoying your extra hour today?  I am.  Well it feels like this day is lasting forever, but since time goes so quickly anymore, I'm okay with the foreverness.  Yesterday we drove to Delaware to visit our daughter and son in law.  I had a lot of fun.  We had lunch at their place then shopped at the 'big' mall and later headed out for dinner. Driving home was tricky in the dark and the GPS gal was being a little bit difficult.  She likes to sometimes omit street names.  So there were two wrong turns.  Do you remember when we used paper maps???  Now that was tricky, especially if I was the one reading the map. I finished the third Gamache mystery last night ( Cruelest Month by Louise Penny) and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I'm chipping away at Alias Grace,  I do adore Atwood's writing style immensely. Today, I've done all the laundry and some of the house cleaning.  I ran out of energy because

third hat progress How are you?  How is your weekend so far?  Mine was quite nice and I've got a few more hours before it's over.  The temperatures are dropping so hopefully I'll be wearing some wool knits this week.  A knitter can dream. Yesterday we visited our son and had lunch out at a Thai restaurant.  I never knew I liked Thai food as much as I do.  I love the veggies.  We walked a bit around the town and I purchased some new gel pens for making gift tags (white, silver and gold).  I'm pretty excited about this - last Christmas my sister gifted me the ingredients to make the tags - card stock, washi tape, etc.. We visited an Indian grocery store to stock up on some supplies then headed home.  My back was not happy on the ride home at all, but Tylenol helps. son in law's sweater progress Today I had some time to knit and make some progress on the third hat which just might be finished tonight - I'd like to be finished soon.  I will been look

Can you believe we are coming close to the end of October?  I cannot.  Seems like I just flipped the page to October first only days ago.  Time is flying by!  How was your weekend?  I hope it was filled with goodness. Yesterday I witnessed a beautiful sunrise while I was outside with Frodo.  These days have been glorious to look at, sunny, bright and moderate temperatures.  I'm still wistful for a wool wearing day but I know that will be here soon. Our weekend was a 'pretend we are on vacation' weekend because we were supposed to visit our family in Ontario.  However, since I have back issues the trip was sadly cancelled.  We stayed local and ate out at our favorite restaurants.  We also took a walk by the river near the park in town. Our son came home for an overnight visit to get away.  He was here for 24 hours then was back at his apartment.  I'm still doing laundry but the kitchen is super tidy. This morning while driving to 7:30 a.m. Mass I saw an ev

How was your weekend?  Mine was slow and steady.  I'm the famous tortoise taking my time to win the race.  I've sat around a lot and I must say I'm now comfortable enough to knit which is all that really matters if you're a knitter.  I feel so calm when there are knitting needles in my hand. Yesterday was a do-nothing day.  We took a walk down the dirt road before lunchtime.  In the afternoon, I worked on the red hat  while my husband made his famous curry dinner.  We were together doing our own things - one of the best facets of our marriage, being alone - together! Today was more of the same.  Another walk down the same dirt road and lots more resting my back and knitting or reading my books.  Oh did I mention there were donuts?  yup.  Definitely donuts cure back pain... Kathy B  asked on  Friday's post why I named my blog Pumpkin Sunrise. Well....the story is a little twisty turvy.  I knew I wanted to have a blog and I anguished over a name since bl

clean coffee table - this is huge! My pesky back had me up at 4:40 a.m., so I'm dragging my feet today.  The back is feeling better each day but boy is it slow going and I'm impatient.  How are you?  How was your weekend? I started a new book,  Alias Grace - good golly is it a fantastic read.  I was drawn in from page one.  If you'll recall, I read The Handmaid's Tale  instead of watching the Hulu TV show and loved the book.  It was edgy but in a manageable good way for me.  I will be reading more of Margaret Atwood's writings in my future. gobble gobble, my sister sewed this turkey!  Today was knitting and reading but not together.  I still had dinner to make and my friends came over to knit and chat.  Truth be told, it's more talking than knitting, but we like that.  The conversations swirl and weave in and out, jumping from tangent to tangent. The weekend: -ordered pizza - hometown parade - candy -  rice Krispie Treats - morning rain sto