Saturday 28 September 2013

Anyone for an Apple?

Today was another perfect Autumn/Fall day so we went on a trip to a local pick your own, mainly so Jacob could tick off 'eat an apple straight from the tree' in the 50 things book.  I had envisaged a gentle wander around a deserted orchard and coming home with 10 apples or so but had forgotten that everything is bigger over here and didn't realise that this weekend was "Apple-fest".  So we fought our way through the crowds and dragged around our half bushel basket (how very 19th century) and were rewarded with free freshly pressed apple juice and pumpkin muffins, there's a flip side to everything and it's surprising how often it includes cake!  Anyway, here's some pics


We came here last year for Open Doors Lambton County and I took pictures of lots of weird gourds, you may remember a version of these.
Jacob found an enormous pumpkin.
Not sure if they look like Russian hats or exploding brains.
This evening I've washed and sorted all the apples we bought, and here's the haul, a rip off for $6 (and we didn't even fill the basket).  Next week I'll be making and freezing a lot of pies, if anyone has any amazing apple chutney/jam recipes I'd love to have them.
Just a couple more photos as this post obviously doesn't include enough.  Yesterday Tom and I went for a walk on the beach and the colours of the lake were amazing, these don't really do it any justice as you just can't see the vastness of it all but you get some idea.


Wednesday 25 September 2013

Ooh, My First Stippling

And seamlessly we move on to Work in Progress Wednesday, perhaps I can make something up for each day of the week.  Moody Mum Mondays or What the F*** Fridays, Oops sorry, not sure what came over me.

This week I have mostly been not sewing, so on Monday in order to have something to write I knocked up this Xylophone block from my Elizabeth Hartman Modern Quilting book.  Yesterday I stippled it.  What do you think?

Tom thought it would make a nice placement but its actually the back of a case for the Wacom drawing tablet we bought Jacob for his birthday.  I was pretty pleased with the quilting, the stippling pattern is very forgiving, you don't notice the spiky bits at all really and I hardly had to mutter any expletives while I was doing it.

Tuesday 24 September 2013

Time lapse Tuesday

(And a bit of last weekend)

Not a lot to report from last weekend.  Just some new Fall style tips from Rose, odd socks and mis-matched bold prints are particularly in vogue at 10223 Pinetree Drive this season.
And a walk in the Pinery.
Next weekend we'll do something more exciting I promise.

Today was Time Lapse Tuesday and the weather was glorious, I took these this morning at around 9 when I dropped the children off at the bus stop.  You can just see some hints of red creeping in.

And finally, aren't I lucky to have such intellectual children.  It seems to be some sort of version of chess with a bit of 'Twister' and a lot of leg thrown in for good measure.

Thursday 19 September 2013

Work in Progress Wednesday?

Here we are with WIP Wednesday on Thursday writing about Tuesday, you following?  On Tuesday I went to see my local quilting guru for some free motion advice.  We sorted out technique, tension (the machine not mine) presser foot pressure and patterns and I made some progress.
a bit wibbley but getting better
So much so that I finished off the quilting on the beach place mats I started in May, one of them even has binding now.


I feel like a milestone has been reached and perhaps finishing some of the other unfinished projects cluttering up my sewing area might actually be possible.

Wednesday 18 September 2013

Faffing, Saturday and a New Project

I don't know how this is happening but for some reason with no children around all day I seem to have less time.  How can this be? I thought that I would have loads of time for all sorts of stuff now but it seems that housewifery and faffing about are expanding to fill the void.

As a result I am only now writing a short blog on last Saturday.  Jacob went off to his friend's house so we took Rose to the main beach for some playtime and alfresco lunch, I love holiday places out of season, there's something haunting about them.  It was a perfect Autumn/Fall day and as you can see Rose has subtly adjusted her wardrobe for the new season.  We didn't do much but it was lovely.


And so to a new project.  I've decided to take a picture of our river every Tuesday to track the progress of the fall colour.  Here is this weeks, there's not much colour yet except for the Goldenrod which has been glorious this year.

I told Tom about this and he expressed the opinion that I have too much time on my hands.  He's probably right but I'm going to make the most of it, clearly faffing about is something I have a talent for so I may as well make the most of it.

Saturday 14 September 2013

Happy Birthday Me!

Yesterday was my birthday (Thank you for the gifts and wishes) so Tom took me out to realize a burning ambition I've had for a while now.  I test drove a truck.  Now by truck I don't mean one of those rigs with big chrome chimneys that ice road truckers drive, although Gary says they are all automatic now so maybe that's next, does anybody remember Long Distance Clara on Pigeon Street? A new career perhaps.

Anyway I'm waffling, the sort of truck I meant is the jacked up, ginormous pickups that everybody drives here so off we went to the Chevy dealership to waste their time pretending to be interested in buying one.  Here's what I drove.


They put us in just about the most souped up model on the lot, there was chrome all over the place and everything was automatic, windows, doors, mirrors, seats, transmission, the works.  The only thing it didn't have was a heated steering wheel but the radio came ready tuned to country music which just about made up for it.  It was a lot of good fun to drive, I enjoyed being so high up and making good engine noises getting going, there was far more room in the back for the kids than in the Cruze and I tried to argue that it would be good for grocery shopping and transporting my sewing machine in, but as it cost about $60,000 and probably used $200 worth of petrol/gas driving round the block Tom says I can't have it.  Maybe next year.

Thursday 12 September 2013

Sewing and Celebrity Chefs

I've just been into Sobeys (local 'nice' grocery store) to pick up some forgotten bits and bobs and was confronted with multiple large posters of Jamie Oliver.  Very odd, not least because he is dressed in several varieties of plaid shirt, presumably to make him look like a lumberjack so Canadians will naturally warm to him.  Unfortunately the effect looks more slightly dodgy builder to me, I suppose it could have been worse, at least he's not in a Mounties uniform.  On the plus side they had free cake to celebrate their new partnership which is always a bonus especially when you haven't had lunch.

Anyway, enough of that, today I went for a sewing lesson in the shop where I bought my machine and learned something important, free motion quilting is very, very difficult and will require lots and lots of practice.  Here is my first effort.
my quilting looks much better from a distance, as do the children and Jaimie Oliver.
I've decided to start writing a sewing post each week and when I get confident and actually make something worth showing off I might start linking up to some 'Work in Progress Wednesdays' quilt blogs.  For the time being you can be my guinea pigs, any comments welcome.  So this week I have mostly been experimenting with sort of random broken arrows in Autumn/Fall colours but this is as far as I've got.

Monday 9 September 2013

Kettle Point

Yesterday we went on a Sunday afternoon adventure looking for kettles at Kettle Point.  For a long time I thought that Kettle Point is so called because it is for the most part a First Nations reserve and it fits in with other descriptive Canadian place names I associate (not necessarily rightly) with early colonial/native settlement like White Horse, Yellowknife, Moose Jaw, Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump etc.  I recently discovered that the 'kettles' refer not to cooking pots but to a quite rare geological phenomenon called 'cannonball concretions' that occur in this area, so being a boring Mother who is interested in this kind of thing I dragged everyone down there for a look.

We didn't do too well trying to find kettles, I think that the little round black rock in the middle of this photo is one but it was too wet and slippy to get a closer look.
So the geology wasn't really forthcoming but what a different beach from the ones I've got used to here.  Our beach is only about 15 miles up the coast from Kettle Point and it often feels like the Med with the white sands and turquoise water, this was more like Scotland, especially with the waves thundering in and the wind blowing a hoolie.  Also because you could drive right down the beach on to the sand.

The kids loved it, they always get over excited when it's blustery and they think they're really intrepid clambering about on the rocks.


Friday 6 September 2013

School's in and Kirstin's alone

How weird.

The children went back to school on Tuesday and I now have 7 and a bit hours a day of my own time.  This week I've spent it trying to clear out the detritus of the holidays, Camp Kirstin had taken over the sun room and cleaning activities had been minimal to say the least.

Now I am more or less up to date with my jobs and have been thinking that I am in a rather unique position for the next few months.  All I have to do is feed people and keep the house tidy, I have no maintenance to do as we are renting and there is no point in me trying to get a job here (even if there were any) as we are moving next spring.  I have decided to retire for a spell and do some things that I might not have the opportunity to do again for a long time.  Here is my list, so far, more may be added.
  • Learn to machine quilt properly and complete at least 3
  • Have a go at water colour painting
  • Learn to drum
Watch this space to see if I manage any of the above and if you can think of any other possible areas of study please let me know.

Anyway, as I was saying, the kids went back to school, they are both settled nicely (so far) and happy in their new classes with their new teachers.  Here is the outfit Rose would have liked to wear for her first day, I didn't think the leotard was a good idea with her current bathroom habits so she didn't.
And here is Jacob with his other new pencil case, it is supposed to be a bone but isn't very convincing, he's happy though so who cares.