Happy Halloween

Even after all these years, it still feels a little strange to live somewhere that doesn't really have Halloween. The neighbors have grown accustomed to my Jack o'Lantern every October and you can now get orange pumpkins here, so that's good. (Used to be you got ones that were pale green outside and orange inside.) I don't miss the tricks the teenagers played back in the US, but I liked seeing the little kids dress up.

I've got the "Goblins and Ghosties" bellpull up, as well as the decorations I posted earlier.






My garden is looking very end-of-season, but I have loads of chrysanthemums. They grow very tall here, no matter how much you pinch them back, but they get great blooms.

Back from London and it was great!

The trip was wonderful and oh-so-very fabric enhanced. One of the earliest bits included a walking trip with the folks from Thamesreach through the Walthamstow market, where I added several yards of a dark green linen blend to the stash. We then progressed to the Handweaver's Guild, where I found the Collingwood book on tabletweaving for less than a small fortune, a nice little booklet of Coptic Weaving, a small lucet, and three reels of awesome pale green embroidery silk so I can put Linden leaves on the neck of the green wool dress. Yahoo!

Other parts of the vacation included its real purpose - attending my son's University graduation ceremony in the company of my mother and daughter. This was the BEST day of all. Everyone had a grand time, the ceremony was moving, and the company was excellent - a real celebration! Here's the new graduate in formal and informal poses.











Later in the week, we also played serious tourist and went up the London Eye (twice for me!), to Westminster Abbey,




Parliament and Big Ben, the British Museum, and Chinatown. We had a daytrip to Reading to see my son's new place of residence and employment and another to Cambridge, where we had a lovely pub lunch, visited Jesus College, King's College Chapel, etc. with one of my son's friends and had tea and cakes at the end of the day!






I also attended the Thamesreach St. Crispin's Day Revel, where much fun was had. During the pre-revel heraldry workshop, I sewed as I listened and got all the buttons on the hood! Here's a picture:






After the feast, we took turns reading parts of Henry V aloud and it was a rousing success, particularly Lord Robert's reading of the St. Crispin's Day speech and Lynette and Constanza reading the comic French dialogue between Alice the maid and the Princess Katharine.

More progress

It's time to plan for the winter holidays (I know, it's not even Halloween yet. Didn't I just start decorating?), so I hemmed up a Christmas table cloth for the daughter this morning. It should look pretty on her table and it also used up some of the eternal fabric stock.

Speaking of fabric, I also cut out and sewed the green wool gown. No photos yet, because I still need to hem it. It also screams for trim at the neckline, but I'm not sure if I want embroidery or tablet weaving. Decisions, decisions! I must still be shrinking, because it took far less fabric than expected. Someone want a green hood???

Done, done, done and going to the framer!

After many fits and starts, I am VERY pleased that my daughter's and son-in-law's wedding sampler is finally finished and ready to frame. They may even get it before their third anniversary, barring any unforseen problems. I must have frogged this one a dozen times, but I do like the way it turned out. I wonder why I had more trouble with this one piece than all the other stuff I've done, combined?!

Halloween's a coming!

Just wanted to add a few shots of the house as I get ready for Halloween, which is my favorite holiday in oh,so many ways!

I changed my wish...

to let it be two weeks from now! I just realized that in two short weeks I'll be on vacation and in London! Woot!!

I wish it were Monday!

Early September was very productive, both creatively and at work. Unfortunately almost all my recent time has been taken up by my mundane job, with very little left over for the "fun stuff". But by Monday, the big push at work should be over and I'll have my evenings back to sew again. I have made some small steps forward on the wedding sampler and the plan is to have it ready for the framer by the 16th of October (Just two weeks! Yipes!). The Surprise is also coming along, because it lives in my briefcase and I take it everywhere. A few stitches here and there can add up, I hope! More posts to come, after the 6th!