Oysters for Days!

Well as usual it has been WAY too long since my last post.  But, in my defense the month of November is out to get me... seriously this month has it in for me and I can't wait until it ends!  I will spare you all the gory details and leave you instead with these lovely pictures of the Taylor Shellfish Farm and one of the beautiful oyster dishes we cooked after visiting them last week.

All Hallow's Eve

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!!!  Yep, I am yelling at you, but I must to emphasize my love...
It is a well known fact (if you know me) that Halloween is my favorite holiday.  I do enjoy Thanksgiving, and Christmas gifting is cool, but I friggin' LOVE Halloween!

I love costumes, scary movies, and spooky decor.  Oh, and did I mention my husband and I met on Halloween?  We vaguely know when we got married and make an attempt to mark that anniversary, but in reality we celebrate the day that we met, and this All Hallow's Eve marks our 14th anniversary! We will be decorating, dressing up, and trick-or-treating with our son, 'cause that is how we roll.  So, I thought I would share a sneak peek at our preparations this year.

I've been working on my embalming techniques...

and doing a little tinkering...

now to hide the body, in plain sight!

P.S. to make that wonderfully spooky mummy head I started with the instructions given by everybody's gal pal, Martha (watch the video, she is funnier than I thought).  I made a few changes, first off, I used cheesecloth strips instead of paper towels because I had about a yard in my stash.  Secondly, I didn't glue it, my mummy can be completely unwrapped if I want to save the head (since I use my mannequin for displaying my crafts).  And, finally, I sewed up the eyes and mouth with black yarn and added some plastic flies. 

This is a great centerpiece and I like it so much I think I will sacrifice the mannequin head and spray the entire thing with adhesive to keep it for years to come.  What do you think? 

I will share more pictures of our scary decor and maybe even some costume shots next week.

Autumn...

I love the change of seasons (I am pretty sure I've said that before) and watching the leaves turn and fall is one of my favorite things.  I have been soaking up all of the beautiful autumnal goodness around me, but I have been so busy I have neglected my diary!  So to catch myself up:  I have enjoyed the crisp weather, played in the woods, ridden my bike around town, visited friends, mourned friends passing, knitted, thrifted rad new sweaters and a flannel, visited the pumpkin patch, walked in a corn maze, eaten oysters for the first time, sipped tea, and generally reveled in all things fall.

Making Faces

Taking pictures of myself always seems like such a weird thing to do.  But it is fun, and I see that I am not alone here in the blogosphere, heh heh heh.  I suppose you could make an argument that we are all just a bunch of narcissists, but I would rather think of myself as a creative girl without a model.  So bear with this creative girl a moment...

I've noticed I find it hard to look at, or rather hard to like, pictures of myself that are not "pretty."  After a lifetime of hearing praise for your looks (which you don't really have any control over, thank you mom and dad) it is hard to let people see you looking "ugly."  I certainly don't look amazing all the time, in fact I wake up looking a wreck most days.  But I digress.  In preparation for Halloween I have been thinking about costumes and today I decided to play with some hair and accessories to get my costuming fix for the day.  I took a couple of really beautiful shots that made me feel sexy and glamorous, but then I decided to make some scary faces for a mummy costume idea.  I am so glad I did.  It is fun to see myself this way, I may not be pretty but I like the look of these anyway.  It feels good.  Go make faces, it feels good, that is all.

Some Autumn Things

Well summer has finally come to an end.  I am actually glad to see it go, I am ready for a new season and new things.  I love the fall, I enjoy leaves changing, pumpkins fattening, apples falling, and boots!  I adore sweaters and hot beverages by the bonfire.  I even enjoy all the rain I know is headed my way.  But I am getting ahead of myself, for now I will enjoy the early autumn activities of picking blackberries, making pies, and nestling in to my cozy home.

I have been so busy this summer that these first few days of back-to-school feel like just the thing to rejuvenate this mommy.  I have started the final deep cleaning before the cold sets in (it is hard to do this when it gets wet here in Washington, so winter isn't the time to clean).  I rearranged my living space yesterday.  The light is terrible this morning, but here are some pictures anyway.

Last night I lit all the candles and we ate dinner by their light, it was so lovely we decided to let them burn for another hour after we finished our meal.  Perfect way to spend an evening with my boys.

Before I moved to Washington 2 years ago my son attended a Waldorf school.  I try to incorporate ideas from that tradition into our home life because he attends a public school now.  One thing I have been wanting to do is a nature table, but it took reading this great blog post from Tinker Lab to get my butt in gear!  Thank you ladies.  My son is nine, so we can have a wonderful variety of items on our table, including things he has collected (he is really big on rocks).  And underneath I can store some of our games, which seem to have expanded beyond the cabinets ability to hold them recently.
 

 

 Along the same lines I also try to keep my son interested in the fiber arts.  He learned to knit and crochet a couple years ago, but it is difficult to keep him interested in these activities.  A few days ago he discovered the Coco the Cat series in Crochet Today magazine, he thought she was the cutest thing ever.  He wanted one so bad I made her up while he was in school Tuesday.  He crocheted her scarf that evening (with much complaining about the difficulty, he was very rusty).  He is very excited about her and wants her to have 100 dresses!  The boy even had the audacity to tell me I should make her a dress a week since I wasn't working on my sweater a month anymore!  From the mouths of babes... so be on the look out for my next sweater, I have a couple that need to be written up, and then I better get back on track for the one a month, I'm being watched!

Back to School

This week I have been working on some alterations for my daughter.  I love vintage, and felt it was time she worked a few pieces into her wardrobe (she is beginning her Senior year in less than a month).  She usually wears the usual teenage girl's uniform of jeans and a tank top so this is a stretch for her, but I hope the tailoring helps her see you can make a vintage piece look and feel like it was made for you.

Vintage lace added to the hem of a cute printed skirt

A cute wool skirt taken up to become a mini

And the most amazing pair of vintage Italian jeans!

The skirts were very basic changes, the first one I simply added the vintage lace to the hem with my machine, done in less than 10 minutes.  The wool skirt I took about 6" off the hem and then gave it a new hand-sewn rolled hem, this one took longer, but still used very basic sewing skills.  Both of these skirts could be done by a beginning level sewer.  The jeans required lowering the waist and tapering the legs, but they were so worth the effort.  I think these may be the most rockin' pair of pants ever.  It doesn't hurt that the jeans cost about $5 and then we found $2 in the pocket!  I also did up a pair of skinny purple jeans and a cute little black vest for her, having items tailored to fit you just right makes all the difference in bringing new things into your fashion repertoire- it is hard not to feel comfortable when things fit "just right."

Amazing Green Salad

So, as usual I don't have an actual "recipe" for you, just a suggestion.  I have a new favorite salad, it is delicious, and crunchy, and beautiful to boot!  It requires very fresh iceberg lettuce, English cucumber slices, fresh green peas (mine are straight from the garden), sliced green onion, and fresh organic nasturtium blossoms.  Assemble salad, top with ranch (no, really, USE ranch dressing, trust me) and add some fresh cracked pepper.  Serve immediately, and prepare to be amazed.  This is so crunchy and refreshing, with just a hint of floral when you go in to bite it, and then you get hit with the subtle spice of the flowers and onions and the sweetness of the peas...  I literally couldn't talk to my dinner "date" until I was done eating this salad.