Fall in New England

Fall is my favorite time of year here in New England. The leaves turn beautiful colors, the air gets crisp and I finally feel like cooking again. I took two walks yesterday because it was so beautiful out. The air was cool and the sun was shining. Of course, it cools down fast in the evening. While I was out walking at noon time I had to take my layers off, but later on at my daughter's field hockey game I had gloves on.

We took the screens out of the screened in porch last weekend. As much as I welcome the change of season, it is sad to see the screens go into the garage. It really means the end of summer. Soon it will be time to clear out the old vegetable plants and close down the garden.

I picked some green tomatoes to let them ripen on the window sill.

Here are some potatoes we harvested in our garden. I asked a friend how to do it. I followed half of the instructions and here is what we ended up with. It was alot of fun to try. Maybe tonight we will eat them and see how they turned out.

Enjoy your fall. K

Monday morning

I started off slow this morning. How could I get out of bed when it was dark and stormy out? I finally did and got everyone up and out. As the last kids left I grab the only iPod I could find and headed out for a run. It turned out to be more of a fight than a run. The wind was so strong that I had to fight it to get forward. Call it resistance training. So I plugged along listening to Kiss 108 top 40 on my orange iPod with pink headphones.

I did end up walking for part of it but I used to rest of the run to think about things. I thought about the bittersweet I would come back and snip off to use for decoration. I thought about the Blogging Your Way course that is now unofficially finished. I have four weeks to go back and reread the info and use the forum. I also have a couple of jobs that are going on right now. One is pillows and a duvet for a neighbor. (sneak peak of the fabric)

I will post the photos when everything is done. I am almost done with my oldest daughters room (sneak peak)

and am excited to get photos of it and post those. So, happy Monday K

Favorite flea market finds

These were actually my favorite finds and somehow I didn't add them to my post the other day when I posted about my flea market finds?!? That's okay, I think they deserve their own post.

I recently read a post on Mustard Seed Interiors about ironstone dishes. I loved them and decided that I was going to start my own collection. At the flea market a few weekends ago I saw a stack of three plates for $15.00. Now I know that Miss Mustard Seed got some ironstone plates for .10 a piece. I thought $15.00 for three plates was a bit steep. I decided to keep looking and walked on. I came upon another booth with four plates and two bowls. The plates had $1.00 stickers on them and the two bowls had $3.00 each. I asked the guy if he would take $5.00 for all of it. He said yes and I couldn't help him fast enough getting the plates packed into a bag. The plates are very crackled and chipped. If I had a bigger collection I would maybe not have taken all of them, but since this is the beginning of my collection, I was thrilled to have this stack of ironstone. As far as the dishtowel goes, I don't need another dish towel, but I found this beautiful linen one. It was only $1.00 and I love the blue, the off white and the little bit of black. It is serving as inspiration for my bedroom makeover. When the makeover is done I will let you see it and can decide if I came close to my inspiration.

Around town

The blogging class that I've been taking has taught me so many things. It has helped me to narrow my focus, it has taught me some photography tips, and there is a community out there I can link in to. So here is a small collage of around town. These are things I see every day. I tried to capture these everyday places in a little different way.

I used my new photography skills to edit these photos and I am very proud of them. I can only do the very basic things with the online editing because I'm not quite ready to pay for the upgrade. I'm learning and trying new techniques. I'm having a great time taking my camera along and seeing things through "photography eyes." Have a great day. K

Wonderful Sunday

I spent a lovely morning on Sunday perusing the Marshfield Flea Market. After a bit later start than I had planned, I tried to make an orderly loop of viewing all the tables. I'm not sure I went past all the tables as the rows were a bit random, but I was pleased with my finds.A couple of interesting booths. Here are a couple of my finds...

$2.00 for these four finds. It was hard to get to the table as everyone was trying to see what was on the .50 cent table. The brass lamp will be painted for my daughter's bedroom, the green covered dish is going to be for butter and the two silver plated pieces will go in my bedroom for glitz. I am planning on making over my bedroom and will show you the process as I go along. :)
These copper colored pieces are jewelry bases. They were .25 cents a piece and I have a project idea, post to come later. The porcelain drops with the hooks were my most expensive purchase at $8.00 for the bag. I loved the colors and should have gotten a better picture to illustrate that. I will show another post on that as I am learning to do mood boards for my Blogging Your Way class.

This entire basket of sewing supplies and the basket was only $3.00. It was soooo worth it for the scissors. There were two pair of pinking shears and three pair of other scissors. Woohoo!

I had a lovely Sunday, how about you? K

Fall bring new beginnings

To me fall has always meant the beginning. With school starting and the cooler crisp weather, I always feel it is time to implement new ideas, start projects, get things going. Gone are the sluggish days of summer, the food and drink filled weekends. In its place is the motivation to get things cleaned up, freshened up and organized. Well it's time to clean up, freshen up and orgainize my blog. In going through my excercises in Bloggin Your Way I have started to narrow down exactly what I want from a blog. I will not bore you with the details, however, I hope the results will be exciting. I plan on including lots of lovely ideas and projects to keep things interesting. I am bartering sewing services with a graphic designer and will have a new "look" soon, hopefully. I am also honing my photography skills and believe it is finally time to upgrade to a more versatile camera. Keep checking in to see how things progress. K

Hi, I know it has been awhile...again. But it is almost back to school and I am doing a little online class about blogging. Soooo, I will be back soon and with a blogging vengeance. Toodles, K

A beautiful day

Today is a beautiful day!

Last week we had some hot sticky weather but today the sun is shining and the air is comfortable. For the last couple of weeks my oldest daughter has been going to camp. I carpooled but was on the drop off end so I had to get up and out. The past couple of days we have had reason to get up and out. Finally, today, we have a leisurely morning. I would love to spend it

here,

Or here,

But, I think I will go to my next favorits spot, my sewing room (which is in no shape to show anyone) and see what I can whip up :)

K

At the beach

We have lived in this house for seven years. In my "about me" I say that I live in a coastal town. Our house is near the down town and the harbor. I absolutely LOVE where we live. We have 5 major beaches and many smaller beaches in our town. Up until today there is one beach I hadn't visited in the seven years we have lived here. Unbelievable!!

I took the kids there today for just over an hour.

It was hot but wonderful. It's a little bit of a trek since we can walk to some of the other beaches but it was lovely.

Happy Summer! K

Nothing but Net

A couple of weeks ago I posted a blog about a cute little pillow I made. I called it the Aylish pillow.

It was a fun design I found here which Crystal found here . Well, Crystal is doing a wonderful thing. She is raffling off a quilt she has created using that fun pattern. But that is not all. Each $10.00 raffle ticket buys a net for a family in Africa. You can read her version here. I just think it is a wonderful, beautiful, generous thing she is doing. I love the way the quilt has turned out and I am trying to decide how many raffle tickets I should buy. $10.00 is a trip to Dunkin Donuts for me and the kids. $20.00 was spent the other day getting knitting supplies. $30.00? Well, I spent about $30.00 on clothes for the kids the other day. I'm getting my tickets, will you get yours? K

A winter hat in the middle of summer?

I so admire Alicia who can knit a baby sweater in a couple of days.

I have had a knitting project going for about a year and a half.

I always thought I would knit when I was waiting in the school pick up line or at gymnastics. This didn't happen very often. Two weeks ago, however, I took my girls to a knitting class at the library. Once we had gone there and I was encouraged by lovely Rita, I picked up my knitting. The more I knitted, the easier it got. The farther along I got, the more I wanted to knit to get it done. I am proud to announce...

I finished it!

I am so excited that I picked up a new skein to start a new hat immediately!!K

Lovely evenings

The other evening I suggested to my kids that we take an evening walk. It was a beautiful evening and I didn't have to meet my husband at the train station that night.

Among moans of no, one of them ( probably the sugar-aholic) said "How about to Dribbles?" (the local ice cream shop) I said "No, the other direction, to the beach."

More groans of no.

I did not let the moans and groans dampen my enthusiasm and made everyone come along, even the sullen teen. Lucky for me it was low tide.

There were jellyfish on the beach

and tons of crabs

and critters under the rocks.

In the end I had to call them to go back home again.

K

My decorating mojo

My decorating mojo was in full force yesterday while I was getting the house ready for the 4th of July weekend. We have some beautiful hydrangeas in our yard and the ones by our driveway need to be trimmed often to let us by. I gladly cut and placed hydrangeas throughout the house. I added a comfy quilt to the hammock

like Alicia and some lavender like Sarah. We are doing a lot of boating this weekend but I can't wait to come home and enjoy our porch. Have a Happy 4th and see you back here next week with some new projects. K

Super easy, super fun!

I started with this from my stash,



cut these



and four of these



added the strips like this





Until I got this




I trimmed it to look like this



I sewed them together





and finished it into a pillow!!!









This pattern was super easy and super fun to do. I found it here while I was reading this blog. I tried it out and was amazed. I want to have my girls try it with fabrics of their choosing. I named mine the Aylish pillow which is the name of my daughter's friend whose mother is my friend. The colors remind me of Aylish. Happy Day!!! K

You know you love to sew when

1. You look down to find several threads hanging onto your shirt.
2. You find something you like and turn it inside out to see how it is made.
3. You find something you like and then turn to your daughter and say the phrase that annoys her "I could make that..."
4. You love your sewing machine and serger - and you tell people too!
5. One of your favorite things is stacks and stacks of fabric.

I started sewing when I was in my teens. It was something I enjoyed to do. My mother signed me up for a sewing class where I made a button down shirt that probably never got worn. I don't remember it turning out too well.

When I was in High School I bought my own machine, a Pfaff, which I still have and use regularly. I have since upgraded to a fancier Pfaffhttp://www.pfaff.com/global/72_326.html and recently bought a serger and I absolutely LOVE it. http://www.babylock.com/sergers/imagine/ I try to sew with my daughters so they learn to like it and at the very least learn to sew. I want them to be able to hem, sew on a button, sew a little something and I would love for them to love sewing like I do.

Life was extrememly trying about seven years ago when my kids were still very little. I would want to sew/craft so badly but would find the days slipping away with the many tasks at hand. These days my "baby" is almost seven and my time is more my own. I can often be found at my machine if I have a few minutes to spare. I am working on a few projects right now that I hope to be sharing soon.

Tonight marks the end of a chapter. My second daughter graduated from sixth grade and will be moving to the middle school. Very bitter sweet... They are now ready for more. They are ready to meet more people, have different teachers, I know from experience that they are ready to take one more step away. This graduation is especially meaningful because these sixth graders were the first to start as kindergarteners the year the school reopened. Seven years ago we moved here. Seven years ago she started school. She only has six years until she graduates High School. I watched her every move tonight, trying to take it in and commit it to memory. I'm very proud of her.

It's been awhile

Well, it certainly has been awhile. Now that school and activities are winding down I am again focusing on my sewing. I have had quite a few sewing jobs in the past weeks and now I have been sewing for myself. I have a slipcover to do and a few valances that will hopefully come together in the next week or so. I am determined to keep you posted. K

Creativity???

I don't know exactly what happened to all that creative energy I had. I still have plenty of projects floating around in my head, but I haven't gotten to anything. For one, the kids keep having half days and no school. There hasn't been a week since Christmas vacation that someone hasn't had some time off from school.

Don't they need to get some work done??? Next week the big guy starts his new job. This will take him back into the city after over a year of working from home.
It's been nice but for some reason I don't get stuff done when he is around. Next Monday is going to feel like a new year starting with everyone going off to school and work.

That is until Feb vacation comes around :)

Creative

I've been super motivated to start some projects that I have been thinking about for awhile. I finally got some shelves hung in my workspace so I can get organized.

The other projects will come later as I get some photos of them. The days are still busy but the sun seems to be staying out a little bit longer each day! Kathleen

So the Year Starts

I'm about three days into my new goals for the year. One is to keep in touch with friends. Today I called my friend to wish her a happy birthday - she wasn't there. The rest of the day was spent racing from one task to another. So, I hope to slow down a bit but my commitments don't seem to know that I have that as a goal.

On the up side I worked at the office for about three hours, took a walk and got batting for a quilt I need to finish. Not too bad.