Hallowe’en in our Neighbourhood
These photos are of some of the Halloween decorations I found while out for a short walk on Tuesday. You might be surprised to know that there aren't very many children living in our neighbourhood, and that most of these things were hanging outside homes where I know only adults live ... adults with quite the sense of humour, that is.It's probably a good thing there aren't too many little kids around because the general gist is pretty spooky.
Embroidery on Felt : A Black Cat Decoration
Here's a small black cat I made from felt, embroidery thread, a bit of stuffing and a couple of mismatched buttons.
This project was inspired by an image I saw on Pinterest of similarly made cat-heads, that were made into brooches. (The image was very old and unfortunately I can't find the original source.) I added a body of my own design to make a felt figurine that can be leaned up or hung to display.
The stitching around the edges is the blanket stitch (nicely demonstrated in this Youtube video). The front legs and the base of the tail are attached by whip stitching. There's a small bit of stuffing under the front legs. I love how my regular colours of embroidery thread look florescent against the black felt.
If you'd like to give making one a try here are the self explanatory photos I took of the process :
A Celebration of Friendship
It's been said before that making new close friends as we become adults can be difficult. And so I think that any connections that click should be celebrated, right? This is a post about exactly that ... Julie and I went out for dinner and toasted our friendiversary. Luckily, schedules allowed us to dine together on the exact date, two years after our first meeting.
Any readers who dropped by here back then would have seen this post, which was about the night we met. Nick and I had gone to the release party for a book of poetry written by our friend Nyla. Not knowing anyone there except for Nyla, who understandably was very busy with all of her guests, we enjoyed the evening sitting towards the back of the room. Just before heading home, I went to get my copy of Sumptuary Laws signed. As I waited, a friendly person who was also waiting to get her book signed, said hi. And that was Julie.
Right from our first brief meeting, it was obvious that we had a lot to talk about. One topic we touched upon was the fact that we both had blogs (She is also a talented poet, (her book, Tangle), and a knitter with this blog called 'Knitted Bliss'). It was through our blogs that we kept in touch and got to know one another at the beginning.
Since then we've gotten together regularly and here we are, two years later, out celebrating this friendship ... and still with plenty to talk about!
On Friday, we went to Politica for dinner.
Curried Pumpkin, Carrot and Chickpea Soup
So I've posted about a Pumpkin sweet-treat (here), and a crocheted Pumpkin decoration for your home (here), and now I will show you the final Pumpkin related thing I have for you this autumn season. It's a tasty, filling and nutritious soup, made with Pumpkin Puree, Carrots and Chickpeas, and seasoned with the warm flavours of curry.
A dollop of Greek yogurt is added at serving time, and that, along with the chickpeas, add protein that makes a bowl of this a meal ... we had it for dinner and were satisfied.
I used roasted puree that Nick had previously made from pie pumpkins, but canned puree would be fine as well, as long as it's straight-up pumpkin and not seasoned and sweetened pumpkin pie mix.
A Bit of Extra Colour in a Fall Garden : A Goldcrest Drops by on His Way South
A little luck had me looking out the window just in time to see this little yellow crested bird out in the tree. Even more luck had my camera, already fitted with the telephoto lens, right there on the table beside me.
This is a Goldcrest, also known as a Kinglet, presumably because he wears a little golden crown. His queen also wears a similar crown but the touch of orange at the back of his indicates that he's a he and not a she.
Subscribe to my Youtube channel:
Recent Stories
Recent Thrift Store FindsHave You Ever Snickerdoodled?Good GullyHanging Out Back with a Friend