What do you get when you empty the office into the rest of the house?

Chaos!! Actually, the living room looks like a resale shop, doesn't it? These pictures are of the living room from two angles, it's crazy. What a mess!

Here, in the foyer, we have three bookcases waiting for this project to be finished. There is a fourth one on the other side. Now it looks like a badly organized used bookstore.

But it will all be worth it, we are nearly finished installing the floor in the office and it is gorgeous!

Falling Leaves, first sighting!

Several times yesterday during our trek through heavily wooded roads we drove through clouds of falling leaves. They were all from the same kind of tree but I don't know its name.

C'mon fall.

Braid, Part II

This post is not at all interesting unless you play video games!
As I was playing this game I was not surprised that my son would like it and recommend it so strongly - - besides the ability to rewind time and discover what that means, very nice music and the what the heck is going on factor - - it has a philosophical feel. DH heard an NPR report about the game, calling it a "masterpiece" and as having a "meditative feel" and here is the link to the audio clip, from All Things Considered.

The text on the page is not a transcript of the clip, so if you are interested in what's being said about the success of this game, click on the audio.

Note to my brother: I think you'd like this game!

Thanks for the artichokes!

One day at my mom's I noticed this beautiful ceramic artichoke in her kitchen, and I promptly stole it. I heard that my aunt had two more of them, and she very nicely offered them to me. This was good because I would have stolen them from her if she hadn't offered. Look how lovely they are on top of the kitchen hutch....


If you click on the picture to blow it up, try not to notice how much dust is on the greenery. I know. I need to fall clean.

Oh, we just ripped up the carpet in the office and pulled out like 14,500 staples from the padding. All right, we pulled out maybe hundreds of them, but it felt like thousands. Now for the tacking strips.

Posting with breakfast....

I'm a little tired from playing BRAID last night - DS was right, I love the game! It also has very good music running through the background. I am just starting to explore what the game can do, but it is fun!

We emptied out the office last night and now the whole house is a MESS with books, bookshelves, and general office-y stuff all over. First order of business is to paint the ceiling, then rip up the carpet and get ready to put the new floor in.

Very exciting!

Farm Day

Every other Monday I go to a local farm to pick up my "share" of whatever is being harvested. We split a share with another person, hence the every other week thing. Most of the food has been picked and is in the barn on tables, and you go around and pick up a set amount of each thing. Then you can go and pick certain things yourself - yesterday was herbs (every herb, they are all ready) four types of green beans, blackberries, and three different flowers. You can also buy local (organically raised) chicken, beef, dairy products from cheese to ice cream, and eggs. Often it is so hot and humid that I either skip picking or just go as fast as I can to get my stuff, but yesterday was breezy and nice and I enjoyed it. DD and Boyfriend were with me and they picked too - you could pick all the green beans you wanted so we did, and the blackberry vines were just loaded. It can be very pleasant; you didn't have to till/plant/weed/water, you just get to harvest!

I usually arrange my haul on the kitchen counter while I am putting things away because it all looks so beautiful and yes, someone in my family usually laughs at me. But honestly, just look at this gorgeous food!

Swiss chard, kale, lettuce, carrots, onions, garlic, zucchini, cucumber, green and purple peppers, yellow potatoes, green/purple/yellow beans, tiny green beans called haricort verts, and on the right, a really big bowl of blackberries!!

No surprise that last night's dinner was a big pan of roasted vegetables with some grains, and carmelized onions and kale.

Halloween, anyone?

I don't even like Halloween decorations much but I just came across this fabric, which is a reproduction of a vintage piece and I love it! Just look at that. Who needs a Halloween bag??

But first, the morning coffee

There I was in the kitchen, making my latte and wearing the camera around my neck so I wouldn't forget to take it into the office to upload pictures. I noticed that my latte was perfect, almost-but-not-quite too good to ruin by drinking, worthy of photographing. So here, for your viewing pleasure, is my morning coffee!

Is that gorgeous or what? Now on to other things.

I made my mom a small tote bag for her birthday in June but was not happy with how it turned out. I started a second one then but haven't gone back to work on it until this week. I spent the last few mornings with my coffee at the sewing machine and ironing board to finish it, and I love it! It's not very big and it's meant as a tote, not a purse, so it doesn't close. But look!

I love this fabric!This is a close-up of the handle attachment. Ok, so I'm still not happy with that wavering line of stitching, but with that metal ring in the way I can't figure out how to get it any straighter!
Pockets on each side....
Inside, on one side I made a cell phone pocket, a pen pocket and a wider one - notice the binding on the pockets? Yep.
And the other side of the inside, with two wider pockets. I stuck a note card in the right and a cd on the left for scale - not that my mom is going to be carrying around a U2 cd, but you never know!
Now I just have to give it to her. OH DARN! I just realized I forget to put one of my labels in it! I will do that this morning, glad I remembered!!