• I’m working on a care package for my college freshman brother. So far I’m putting in cookies, wool socks, a knitted hat, cash, what else? Ideas? He is facing finals next week and is stressed out to the max, poor guy. I wish I could put a plane ticket in that care package because I miss him terribly and feel the need to feed and spoil him thoroughly.
• My son told me this morning that when I volunteer in his classroom it increases his popularity by at least 10%. That gave me a chuckle. I’m glad I can help, buddy.
• My littlest man has had an ear infection for three weeks but the real pain seemed to come to a peak earlier this week. He spent Monday and Tuesday laying on my lap watching cartoons. It’s torture when your kid is in pain. This morning he seemed ready and roaring to face the day which is great… so far so good! Lets hope that this darn ear infection is going to go away and STAY away now.
• I’m knitting Route 66 socks, I’m crocheting a mega granny square afghan out of my Peace Fleece stash, I’m knitting slipper socks for my husband, a sweater for my oldest son. Needless to say, my needles and hooks are busy and progress is slow. Hopefully I’ll have it all done by Christmas. The Route 66 socks are total selfish knitting though and of course what is drawing all of my attention. I’m awful like that.
• I’m going to make lots of Christmas cookies this year and will be mailing out most of them. I’m thinking Egg Nog Snickerdoodles from the latest Cooks Country, peanut butter dream bars (old 4H recipe), waffle cookies (Grama Betty’s prize recipe), chocolate peppermint sandwich cookies (Cooks Country), I saw a recipe for hazelnut lemon curd cookies (also Cooks Country) that I’d like to try, and I dunno — whatever else strikes my fancy. I hope to get most done this weekend. I’ll also make, truffles, peanut clusters, fudge and dipped pretzels. Most will be going to my sorely missed brother.
• I made some penny rug Christmas ornaments. Two are designated for my boys — I stitched their names on to the backs of them yesterday. (photos to come) I took one of the ornaments that my Grandma Martha made me off of our tree as a reference. It felt so wonderful to use one of her hand made ornaments as a guide. It felt like she was sitting right there with me and I was reminded of so many reasons why I loved her and also how much I am like her today.
• I have a kit to make two needle felted gnomes that I’m going to make in to ornaments. I think my parents will get a kick out of them.
• We bought a waffle iron a few weeks ago. It’s been fun to make waffles with my boys. They both love to mix up the batter and the little man is in charge of letting me know when the red light turns to green.
• We have NO snow. Well, a dusting but that is it. We’re all twiddling our thumbs waiting for the first big wallop of snow. When, oh when will it be?
• When I tell people out here that my boys love to sled, they correct me and say “oh, you mean sliding?” I think it’s because ‘sledding’ refers to snowmobiling out here.
• I miss all the Christmas lights in Des Moines… we used to love driving around looking at lights. There are a couple of houses here that decorate but nothing like living in a city.

OK — back to my sock, my sunshine, and my tea. Cheers!

This pillow is definitely country cutesy which really isn’t my style. But it’s seasonal and I can stand it for the Christmas season. I’d love to work up some of my own designs. I see visions of sheep — pumpkins — owls — with an artsy fresh funky feeling. I don’t know when I’ll get to that but it’d be fun. Until then, I’m having fun trying new kits.

There are kits galore for penny rug and applique projects online (no surprise there). I have been browsing the kits at Winterberry Cabin lately. This is the next kit I’m going to try. I also love all of the Wooly Lady applique kits… especially the pillows!

Anyway, it’s been fun to find another hobby other than knitting that is still related to wool. There’s just something about wool.

We live in the woods and have exactly one neighbor. They made sure to let us know that the boys need to come Trick or Treat at their house on Halloween. They are so great at making our boys feel special and we appreciate it so much.

We have an amazing little Japanese Maple tree in our side garden. It was spectacular this fall. It turned the most perfect shade of red well after all the other trees were past their peak. It was a wonderful late fall treat. They’re all gone now, but it’s a nice treat to look back on the pictures.

A break in the clouds behind our house on a peaceful fall evening.

We had stuffed acorn squash for supper the other night. It was good but well… very squashy… and while I like squash, I don’t LOVE it. The rice was superb though. I used Alton Brown’s brown rice salad recipe and it was fantastic.

My son is growing like a weed! He already wears my shoes and they’re going to be too small soon enough (probably a good thing since he looks silly walking around in my shoes) but he also can easily wear my handknit socks. I caught him rifling through my handknit sock drawer the other day looking for a pair … my first thought was “EEEK! I need to find a new place to hide all the letters to Santa!” But then I was just so thrilled that my socks fit him. We have sorted out all of the ‘boyish’ handknit socks that I have for him to borrow for a while. It won’t be long at the rate he’s growing but hopefully we can get through the winter.

On a side note, I don’t think he believes in Santa anymore but we sort of have this ‘wink wink’ agreement about Santa. He knows that he has to keep it alive for his brother.

10/7 – a little out of town shopping.

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10/8 – Fryeburg Fair

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10/9 – I will never get tired of playing lincoln logs.

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10/10 – It was gorgeous tonight. The wind finally died down and we spent a long time playing outside.

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10/11 – Pardon the odd reflections — I took this through our kitchen window. It’s impossible to tell how big these turkeys are in this photo but they’re huge. We have dozens that circle the house throughout the day. They’re our feathered friends that we’ve watched grow up from little babies earlier this summer. It was so funny when they were young because they’d jump and hop around in the tall grasses to get the grains off the top.

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10/12 – a favorite snack

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10/13 – steamy lake — the air was cold this morning but the lake is still warm.

9/30 – Yet another rainy gloomy day. Today the little man sat at the table most of the afternoon making pictures while Eric and I moved furniture around.

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10/1 – Just a quick errand to run but the view was incredible. I had to pull over to take it in and get a quick snap.

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10/2 – The sun was setting and making pretty shadows on the wall… this chair is where I do most of my knitting.

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10/3 – Today was a gorgeous fall day. This is Horseshoe Pond in Stow, Maine. We had fun frolicking in the woods… we hiked a little, we explored deep woods back roads, we found new places to canoe. We went back roads all the way in to North Conway, NH to avoid as much traffic as possible … our route took us up and over Hurricane Mountain — what a fun road that is.

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10/4 – Joe Booker Stew – (beef stew with dumplings) Here I am testing the dumplings … they weren’t quite done. This stew was phenomenal. I don’t know if you can call mine the traditional ‘Joe Booker’ because I didn’t use the salt pork… but it was still great. The leftovers were even better and I put half away (sans dumplings) in the freezer, too.

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10/5 – Today I sat at the kitchen table for hours seaming up my new cardigan. The pattern is October Frost by Lisa Lloyd. I was shooting to be done this week so I really pushed it and got it finished. It still needs to block, but over all I’m absolutely thrilled with the end result. FO Photos to come!

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10/6 Remember last year when I had woodstove envy? Well then you can probably guess how happy we are that we have a woodstove now! Wow how far we’ve come in one year. I can’t believe that this is the third house we’ve lived in since that post last year. That’s two of the three huge moves we’ve made since February of 2009. I’m still reminded constantly about all that we’ve been through in such a short amount of time… I’m very eager for it to all start fading in to the background. We’re working on that — life is settling down quite a bit and for the most part we’re very happy with how everything worked out… and the woodstove sure is a nice bonus!

photos taken this week: 46

1:365 Minestrone

9/16 -Today is my 33rd birthday. I made a big pot of minestrone (my fave) and as you can see it was messy. I have very limited counter space in this house (why does it seem like every time we move I lose counter space?!) The soup was delicious and since it was my birthday, I didn’t have to clean this mess up.

2:365 Work

9/17 - I worked at the yarn shop today. I’m thrilled about this new arrangement. New faces, new friends, new opportunities. I kept thinking all day long that ‘wow, I’m getting paid for this!’

3:365 Budding Artist

9/18 – Smiley faces with arms and legs are my new favorite pieces of art and are pure genius.

4:365 Ahh Lake

9/19 - It’s meditative to live near a natural body of water for numerous reasons. For me it’s very therapeutic to take it all in every time I’m going to and from home. Each time I drive through here, I give thanks. The leaves have changed quite a bit since I took this photo… I’ll have to do a comparison shot.

5:365 Pikes Hill

Not the greatest photo but I’m going to stay true to my task at hand… it’s the only photo I took today. This road is incredibly steep… I wasn’t to the steep downhill yet. At the top of the hill the view is enough to cause one to get teary — the mountains to the west, our small town in the valley below and the hills beyond. But don’t get too choked up and keep that foot on the brake because it feels like it’s straight downhill from here!

6:365 A Walk in the Woods

9/21 - The boys and I took a walk after school today. It was just too nice to head inside to make dinner and do homework. We can’t wait for many more walks throughout the fall. The colors will be amazing.

7:365 Hopscotch

9/22 – We add a few squares every time we come outside. Since taking this I think we’re up to 96.

photos taken this week: 128