Another quick update - two days in a row !!!

A KITTEN UPDATE !!
Charlie the Cat Whisperer has been taming the momma cat and is now able to touch her head when she eats. Last night he patted her while he fed her. But that's not actually the news.
Our neighbour called out that she had one of the kittens in her house. She heard crying & found it on the beach wedged in the rocks. The sweet thing would probably have drowned if she hadn't found it. So she asked if we wanted to come see it. Charlie went over while I fed Momma AND TOUCHED HER TOO !! Then I went over. Well, it was Baby Mask !! Trotting around as if he owned the house ! She said the mother had brought him over and he must have fallen. Seemed strange that Momma would take only him away but there he was. We played with him & chatted, promised to try to find a home for him and came home. But she said she had him for the last 3 days ... we were sure we had seen Mask in that time. After we got home we peeked out the window with the flashlight ... Spike, B1, B2, and ... MASK. MASK ??? Yep. Mask. She had a smaller IDENTICAL , perhaps 1 month younger version of Mask ! There are 2 batches of kittens ... obviously with the same Baby Daddy !
Welcome to the future stray cat capital of Nova Scotia !!

FALL ... GLORIOUS FALL !! ... and a CHALLENGE for you !

I love FALL ... my absolute favourite season. And October is my A-1, Hands Down, Top of the Heap favourite month. I love Thanksgiving because it is so wonderfully "harvesty" with amazingly good food (much of it LOCAL) and no expectations of gifts or extreme decorating, just gathering and eating. What could be better ? It is also my birthday month and I LOVE my birthday ! I am happy to get older ... the alternative is riding in the OTHER PART of my hearse ... not so good ! and every year is more fun & exciting. So I am thrilled to celebrate my birthday and always try to draw it out to at least a week long festival ... childish & self-centered, I know, but I still do it ! And then there is our annual Pumpkin Carving Party. Love that ! And the Pumpkin Regatta in Windsor, the Pumpkin People in Kentville, beautiful flaming leaves, crisp nights, sunny days. And, then, the holiday of all holidays HALLOWE'EN !! It is simply the best !!
Fall also brings out the COMFORT FACTOR. Fires in the woodstove, blankets for TV watching, sweaters, flannel PJs, soups & stews, baking, comfort food. I have been in the comfort cooking zone this last week. Chicken, leek, and rice soup ( leeks from my garden !!) ... chili ... buttermilk cheese biscuits ... cabbage rolls ... butterscotch pie ( and no pudding mix either !). My next plan is Hot Pepper Jelly and then cooked pumpkin for the freezer.

But one thing is missing ... time spent sitting at my work table MAKING THINGS . SO I have decided to challenge myself to MAKE SOMETHING EVERYDAY for the month of October. Something... anything ... JUST MAKE IT !! It may be just a tag one day, or a card, or part of a bracelet, but it will be time spent creating & crafting. And it will be creating a time-use pattern that will hopefully stick for the whole winter. The rewards will be great !! I will post photos as PROOF !! (Hmm ...But what's to say that I don't madly run around the house taking photos of stuff I made 5 years ago ... KIDDING !!! I am not going to CHEAT ON MYSELF !!) But here's where you come in ...
Why not join me ? Try to make something everyday for the whole month of October. Work on a scrapbook page, stamp a few cards, string a few beads, knit a few rows, whatever ! Add a comment to say that you are in then update us throughout the month with what you are doing. I'll try to get photos from some of you to add to the blog. It will be a rewarding INSPIRING thing for all of us !!

GLORIOUS DAY !!

It is an absolutely positively GLORIOUS day ! Sun & lovely fresh air. We are off this aft to meet with the FLAME PAINTER and see her sketches ... I am getting excited again !! Then ... who knows - the world is our oyster !
Here are a few great things that I am loving today !
1. Fall . It can't be beat. Crisp days, sunshine, cool nights, apples, flamelike leaves ... PERFECTION !!
2. Blankets again at night. Oh, it is so nice to snuggle under a pile of fuzzy blankets instead of a skimpy sheet. MMMmmmmm.
3. Vicki's Fish & Chips. We went last night for the first time - oh, my. The special was a 3 pc fish and chips for $9.99. The 3 pieces were HUGE !! ( one came home for Mama Kitty & her babies) And the batter was excellent - thin & crispy. It was perhaps THE freshest, most white fish I have ever had - and I am fish-picky. Excellent !
4. Crispy juicy apples... and all they could become ... caramel apples I am thinking !
5. Pink Paislee "Amber Road" paper... oh so beautiful !
6. My new stamps from Close to my Heart. Lovely !
7. A whole wide open sunny afternoon ... ready for adventure !
Have a super weekend !!

Fingers crossed ...

Phew ... finally some progress on the hearse front ... it was re-delivered to the painter last night who decided he wanted to make it right. And we have another artist lined up to do the flames. So now as we approach week #8 we may finally have the car we hoped. I'm nervous because there has been so much disappointment but hoping REALLY HARD that it will be great !
We have wasted the last 8 weeks, cancelled a parade, a party, our vacation, and a few other events ... so here's hoping that week #8 will be the lucky charm !!

And the kittens ... oh, they are so cute ! Last night we came home after dark. As we turned into the driveway, we saw a little furry tumble of bodies playing in the woodpile. They quickly hid amongst the logs but snuck out a few minutes to eat the food we put out. This morning their house got a little reno - a bigger door and a wee roof. Hopefully they'll snuggle in there out of the rain.

Friday Update ... this morning I started my day off with the most wonderful sight ... 4 little dry fluffy kittens tumbling out off their Kitten House. HOORAY !!!


Made a few fun projects this week ... seems like work and car obsession are taking up too much time ... but I did find a few free hours. Hope to keep at it.
I think we are off this weekend to a cat show. Never been before but have always wanted to. Should be fun !!

a-MAZE-ing !!!

This weekend we took two friends of ours to the Evans Family Corn Maze ... and it was amazing !! SOoooooo fun !!

We spent about an hour and a half in the maze collecting our stamps. We collected the same stamps several times ... but eventually we found all six and were then able to find our way out !! It was great fun running down the paths, finding the stamp mailboxes, coming up dead ends, and crossing paths with all the other "mazers". We then had a wagon ride around the farm, did the little hay bale maze, and played in the "cornbox". It was a great way to spend the day !!

In the words of my maze partner Brandon "This was the funnest day ever !!". What more can you say ?
It was a great weekend all round ... We did some of our favourite things & fully enjoyed ourselves. That's what life is all about isn't it ?!
Here are a few things we did ...
* went to Jonny's in Berwick for a Sweet Maria Burger. This takes a hamburger to new heights ... grilled pineapple, local bacon, homemade mayo, and thai chile sauce. MMMM yum.
(oh, and maybe a side of the crispiest yummiest sweet potato fries ever ...)
* found some great new Somerset Magazines. They truly are my crack !! I love them. Drool over them ...
* visited all the farm markets checking out the produce and getting a huge bag of apples. A fall ritual !
* built a kitten house for the little family outside.

Our cat Vernie had to try it out first !!

In human life we say life is sometimes a pressure cooker ... I guess in the cat world it is a Turkey Cooker !!
* harvesting my garden . I picked beets, early turnips, broad beans, celery, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, radish, leeks, red onions, and red cabbage. Not bad !!
* just relished the sunshine, our wonderful friends, our sweet funny snuggly cats, the funny little kitten family, the beautiful Annapolis Valley, and life in general. How sweet it is !!
Well, I just received a BIG box of the best looking paper, stamps, bling, etc... to unpack so I gotta go !! Have a great week !!
P.S. Merrilee ... here is a picture for you ... this is Baby Batman ... a bit blurry but they aren't yet the posers our house cats are !!

hmmmmm ... don't want to complain, moan, groan, and kvetch ...

At least we have those sweet little kittens to watch.
There ... that's my effort to follow the old adage "If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything ..."
Yep, those kittens are great.
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Seriously though, the kittens seem to be doing well but for some reason they have started sleeping in the thicket instead of under the house - even last night in the wind & rain. So this weekend we will build a "kitten house" of some sort to give them a cozy spot out of the wind.
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And the car ... well .... Paint Shop #2 thinks that it may be another 4 weeks before the paint can be sanded off because it is too fresh. Everyday a new twist ... sigh
Oh well, we try to remember this :
1. Those kittens are sweet.
2. Our dream car will eventually be.
3. Someday this will be part of the funny story we tell about the car. Someday. Any day now.
Ha. Ha.
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Oh ... I tried my Bread & Butter Pickles last night ( you are supposed to give them a few weeks to mature) They were AWESOME !!! Crispy, sweet, tangy ... oh my, they were scrumptious !! I will get some more cucumbers this weekend & make more .

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What's on for the weekend ? Not sure.
Maybe pickles. Maybe a corn maze trip with our kid friends. But I'm sure it will be fun whatever we do.
Have a great weekend !!

WHAT A WEEK !!! But a wonderful happy spot at the end ...

Okay ... this week was a bugger . Ill briefly tell you why but then I want to get on to the good ... because that's how it has to be. And also because the pity party is over ( it was from 3am to 5am Saturday morning . You missed it. ) And we all like happy endings ... or at least a happy turn in the path ...
* some of it was this crazy longweekend effect that happens. It always seems that a week that starts with a holiday ends up being longer, crazier, and just plain weirder than most. A lot of people tell me that they too find it makes the week seem extra long. Maybe we just get out of our grooves...
* we had several appointments that meant we had to be in the Kentville area by 7 or 8am so that meant early mornings - some even meant being up bt 5:30 ...UGH - and RUSHING to get back for work.
* I picked up my new glasses. Don't like them. Too heavy, too big, too boring. Too expensive to change. Enough said.
* Had to take those very glasses back because of a flaw. But they were able to fix them. I think I was secretly hoping that it was a FATAL FLAW and they would say"Oh, you can never wear these again. Go pick another frame!!" But alas, not to be.
* We got our 25 lovely chickens for the freezer for this winter. I cut some up but it was hard work and I decided after 5 that I had mangled enough chickens & I would start putting them in the freezer here at the store. Opened the lid ... AHHHH WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT SMELL ????? oh my. I slammed the lid down. Then opened it again to discover that the freezer had stopped working and was thawed... and not smelling its freshest. oh boy. I scurried around, found a place for the new chickens at my parents, dug out the 8 chickens that were still cold enough to be okay, gave those out to people who wanted them, then closed the lid. We bought a new cord because we thought the plug had jiggled loose. The freezer started happily humming. Phew ! I prepared to clean it out the next morning but thought it wouldn't be too bad as it would be partially frozen. Hmmm....
* In the midst of "The Chicken Crisis" Charlie came back with the car from the paint shop. Now, understand, this has become the absolute CAR OF MY DREAMS. We planned a party around it, our vacation around it, I dream of driving in it ... IN it , not DRIVING IT !!! . I LOVE IT. He looked a bit concerned when he came in. Wasn't crazy about the flames ... I washed off the blood and went out to look. Absolute stillness and silence. I HATED IT. It cost about double what we had expected and was in no way what we wanted. Not at all. We parked it behind the store & there it sits. I have nothing to say about it. No comment whatsoever.
* I lay awake from 3 to 5 am feeling sorry for myself and planning how to get the freezer cleaned out before I had to open the store. I didn't realize that there would be another surprise ...
* the freezer was running in the morning - it just didn't work. So the smell had intensified and everthing was that much more rotten ... yumyum. I started my day by throwing out about 60lbs of beef, bags of chicken wings, 7 half chickens, and a bunch of other gross stuff. In the "good old days" it would have been all pitched in a garbage bag but of course now it all has to be opened and dumped in the green cart. What fun !! The only really disturbing part was the bag of human ears I found ... Did you know that frozen peach slices that have been unfrozen for a while look EXACTLY like human ears. EWWW ... Then the bailing began. I bailed out 5 inches of blood/water... 5 buckets. I have the bruises on my side to prove it ! Oh well, it was good to have it all done & the stink gone .
* decided I needed to re-evaluate the car as I wasn't in the best frame of mind when I saw it. Another look ...I disliked it even more. And have grown to dislike it more each day. It has not left the parking spot. I have no desire to take it out. Nor does Charlie. Again, nothing else to say.
OKAY ... I AM GETTING TO THE GOOD PART NOW ...
We went home Saturday, listless, stoop shouldered, dull versions of ourselves, a bit defeated by the week . As I got out of the car I heard rustling in the blackberry thicket at the end of the driveway . I froze. Out came a ..... KITTEN !! A little black and white batman-mask-wearing kitten. He disappeared under the step. We searched everywhere but couldn't find him. But the greyness lifted & we were excited again !! We eventually went in the house. I looked out the dining room window - it looks onto the back of the thicket. A little black kitten emerged, then a fluffy white one with a black tail, and then another little black one. OH MY !!! We had a whole family. The Momma arrived the next morning. So we spent a very happy weekend watching "kitten TV" from the dining room and lowering food out to them so we wouldn't scare them. Charlie even built a long handled thing to pass the bowls out the window. So a crappy week pulled itself out of the dumpster with a lovely little kitten family !!! Ain't life grand ?!!

P.S. I hope to get pix of the little babies soon. As for all that other stuff ... I'm just ignoring it.
Have a great week !!!

What colour is my neck ? ... GOLLY ! I think it's turnin' red !!

Oh,... after this weekend I am a bit afraid that I am turning into a redneck... yes, really.
My whole weekend revolved around metal, motors revving, grease ( on cars & on my food), smashing & crashing. AND I LOVED IT !!!!!!
We went to Digby on Saturday for the Wharf Rat Rally. It was awesome - even better & bigger than last year. We ran into friends - old & new.The weather was amazing. All the bikes ... all the skulls... all the beautiful design. Loved it. I am not a "biker wanna-be" - not really interested in having a bike BUT I love the design, shape, ornament, paint, EVERYTHING about them. They are beautiful !!


And , well, for the last 5 months I have been carefully eating whole grains, fruits, veg, etc ... but on this day it was Beavertail (ooo, deep fried dough ...), homemade potato chips, and ice cream. We went to visit friends after the rally and made it home for supper at 11:30pm. So ... cheeseburgers it was !! Nothing clean about that eating !!
So the next day it was up bright & early to hit the farm market for pickle & jam ingredients on the way to ... BASH FOR CASH !!! Oh , now that was awesome !! Cars smashing & bashing each other, fenders flying, tires exploding, ... well I could feel my inner redneck clawing its way out. And I could hear her too ... she was letting out some big screeching "Wahoos" ... hmmm ... I think I am becoming a redneck because my thoughts now are how much I would like to do it next year !!! WAHOO !!!


Anyway, it was an absolutely glorious jam packed weekend and I loved every minute of it. I vote for a long weekend every few weeks !!
Today I am SUPER busy trying to unpack another 4 boxes of wonderful stuff AND getting used to my new BIFOCALS !!! Maybe now I can bead & cut paper without using 2 pairs of glasses at the same time !!

okay ... I'm good ... done with my snit fit ...

FRIDAY : EDITS ...
yeah ... I'm good. My "mad" is gone and I am seeing an up side here. If I don't have a party this weekend I have a WHOLE THREE DAYS with NO plans !! And that pretty much rocks !! So instead of baking like a fiend this week , cooking chickens & pork loins Friday night, and just plain scrambling on Saturday ... Nothing. Anything. Sky's the limit. Whatever. OKAY ... I SEEM TO HAVE FORGOTTEN THAT I ACTUALLY HAVE TO WORK SATURDAY ... BUT IT IS A HALF DAY !!
So I am going home tonight to cook dinner, pile some wood ( hooray!! The guy came at 7:20 am - not so great for the neighbours - !!) so that means our plank walking days are almost done. YIPPEE!!! And then I am going to choose an awesome NEW cupcake recipe and bake up treats for tomorrow ... hear that Jill ... treat tomorrow !! And then do some laundry, maybe try my new Walnut Ink Mists & Distress Stickles, read a bit ... great. WE PILED NEARLY 2 CORD (WOOT!WOOT!) AND CAN NOW PARK IN THE DRIVEWAY & USE THE STAIRS. SWEET !!
CUPCKES ... NO ... I OPTED FOR SNICKERDOODLES ...
DID LAUNDRY, DISHES, INKED A BIT, READ, AND THEN .. FELL ASLEEP ON THE COUCH. LARGE DAY !!
And then this weekend I can do any or all of the following ( I am leaning towards all !!) :
* Wharf Rat Rally
* Bash for Cash
* get peaches & make jam
* get mini cukes and make pickles
* find some hot peppers & others and make hot pepper jelly
* read my new Wally Lamb book
* fix (YIKES) my garden up ... weed, harvest, pull ... ( sorry garden, you have been neglected)
* plan Party Version II even bigger ... more time to come up with stuff !!!
* and just plain hang out & relax ....
CAN'T WAIT !!!
Have a great LONG WEEKEND !!!
TODAY I HAVE *4* BIG BOXES TO UNPACK ... BUSY DAY AHEAD !!!

in the blink of an eye ... SHIT

Yep, you heard me. SHIT. That's what my day turned to yesterday in a millisecond. Now I know there are bigger worries & real tragedies out there but I was really out of sorts over this. My post yesterday was all happy ... excited about the party & all the things to come this fall. Then Charlie came in with the news that the car would NOT be done by this weekend, maybe not for another week or so after that. WELL. That will be 5 weeks. I could not believe it. Nor could I believe that I would have to postpone the party ... and I sure as hell was not picking a date based on projected finish times. I was REALLY upset. I said a lot of words that would get me reported if I shared them here with you. Then I completely denied it ... I calmly ordered beads. I think I better check that order before I send it because I think I pounded the "ADD TO ORDER" key quite a few times ... Anyway, my first job this morning was to contact everyone about the party ... and NOT deliver the remaining invites. So it is all on hold. And I am trying to just let it be and not obsess about "when????". ( and hoping that we enjoy BBQ pork loin ... for days and days because that baby will expire before the car is done so I guess we are eating it ... every last pound of it ...) But, no, I am letting it go...
My mom came yesterday with the inheritance money from my Gramma. That was also a bad point in the day. I didn't say anything . I just left the envelope laying on the desk. Everytime I looked at it , it seemed to be the saddest money I have ever seen. You see on TV that people have things left to them in a will and they are all excited. They obviously didn't love the people who made the will. I would so much rather have my Gramma. Had she not died, we would have been just 3 weeks away from flying out to Alberta to see her. This would have been a very exciting time. Anyway, it is what it is. I am using the money to build a beautiful garden up on the hill behind the house as a memorial to her. The garden shed is all planned out, we have added fruit trees, a fireplace has been installed, and next year I will start to build fences and add flowers. It is a beautiful calm place that overlooks the Bay of Fundy and the fabulous sunsets. "Gramma's Garden" will be a place of peace & beauty.
Then we get home to find that the wood has not been cut up ... and we are still walking the plank. That pissed me off even more. ( I was actually in quite a foul mood at the end of the day.) I "anger ate" a handful of too salty chips ( emotional eater ? Me ? never ...) , set off the smoke alarm with the BBQ, dropped cheese all over the floor, and then lay on the couch with a blanket practically over my head. The day was getting out of hand !!
Oh well... I am over it today ... ( do you believe that ?) ... actually now that I have contacted people & set aside my plans, I am kind of over it. I did get to see a baby raccoon and a deer last night - that was good. The cats didn't throw up in the night. That was good. My tea was hot & yummy this morning. That was good. Actually so good that I am going to go make another cup ...
Have a great day ... have a cuppa ...
( Hey ... maybe we can squeeze in the Wharf Rat Rally AND the Bash for Cash this weekend ...hmmm........!!!!)