Ready To Go

The lights are on. The glass balls are all hung. The food is ready. The drinks are ready. Now we just need the guests. Mmmm...it's that time of year!

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Getting Ready For The Get-Ready-For-Christmas Party

It's that time of year again. Tomorrow night the ladies are coming over to get ready for Christmas with their crafts, unfinished gifts, cards, knitting, cross stitch. Some are just coming to hang out before December chaos hits!

I started decorating, but didn't get too far because decorations take up space and I'm thinking there's going to be a fair number of people here. These small balls were a Paperchase purchase in November and the larger sugar plum balls were rejects from my parents last year. They had them forever - I think they were some of the first decorations they bought when they were married and last year they decided they didn't want them anymore. Pack-rat-sentimentalist that I am, I rescued them, even though our tree was so full last year it didn't have room for anything more. But the window is a good solution! Yup...I like it.

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Okay, NOW We're Ready For Christmas Eve

This is the exact copy of the The Night Before Christmas that we read at my house every Christmas Eve. I was in the bookstore getting supplies for the office this morning and I found this. I haven't seen this version anywhere, so I bought. So now the blue house is ready for Christmas, even if there's no tree or other decorations. We've got the book, so it's all good!

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New Art

We love this art that Kelsey, Rebecca, and Jared gave us. We moved the picture that was here into our dining room which somehow makes that room look even larger!

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Stamped And Ready To Go

Okay, so we're not done yet, but we're getting there with the Thank You cards...slowly but surely, just in time to write Christmas cards! That's life, hey!

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Candy

Yummy treats for a Grey Cup Sunday!

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Creative Storage

Our kitchen has four drawers and sort of three cupboards. And that's it. So we have to keep a lot of our stuff on open shelves of a variety of types (here are our dishes) and it has to look nice-ish. My most recent creative storage was the addition of cup hooks to one of the crudely built shelves in our kitchen. We can't believe the HUGE difference it made.

(PS The two sets of measuring spoons are awesome! The ones further back go down to the measure pinch!)

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Stuck

This truck took a wrong turn and got stuck on the dead end driveway outside our office. As this used to be a fancy house, it's a drive around driveway with a covered drop off place at the front door. And he got totally stuck. He drove forward, drove back, drove forward for a good hour and then put a distress call in to his office. A couple of guys later they got him out. He just needed a few extra eyes to check out what was happening so he didn't crash into the hedge or the building.

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Jack Frost Came To Visit

Evidence of Jack Frost is everywhere...and has been for a few days. Colleagues have shared stories of sliding off bikes, our neighbour spent at least 10 minutes scraping her windshield this morning. I think winter is on its way!

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Last Winter's Mystery Knitting

Back in January, when I was confined to the house and spend a lot of time sitting at the kitchen table, my mom and I discovered just how leaky the back door was. It's old. It's divided like a barn door. It has a stained glass window. All these things contribute to leakage.

AND it had a huge gap between the bottom of the door and the floor.

GRRRR...so I started making this using some bits and pieces of wool. I only got partway to finishing it, there is still one step left here. It still needed to be felted. But that required numerous trips up and down the stupid, scary stairs and I didn't think I could demand someone else do that. So I waited. And then it got warm. And then I forgot about it. Until the other day when it cooled off again. And the kitchen was drafty. And the floor was cold.

So I finally felted it...and today, it was dry from the felting, so I stuffed it and voilà! we have the finished product. And it's already making a difference in floor temperature!

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Afternoon Tea

MMmmmm...it's a beautiful afternoon and tea is nice and warm.

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Relaxin'

Alex is working "normal" hours this week. Or at least as normal as they get in his business. That means he's home for a late dinner and gets to do normal stuff like catch a tv show or movie before bed. And yes, he's a goof...

PS Happy Birthday Dad!

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It's Here!

Our brand new green vacuum cleaner arrived this evening. It was a bit too late to vacuum without annoying the neighbours, so it's living in its box for the time being.

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Wine Glasses

Not the kind you drink out of, the kind you see through! Any guesses?!?!?!

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Huggable Bride and Groom

Our friend Sarah and her mom Pauline gave us a teddy bear bride and groom...very cute and more huggable than the wooden bride and groom. Sorry Sarah, their little house had to stay in London...there wasn't any room for it. But the important part, the teddies, made it home safely!

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Bride and Groom

The small boys in our life gave us a pretty, carved bride and groom.

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Hello Grown Up Dishes

The Corelle went away partly because we got GROWN UP dishes as a wedding present. We love them! White is pretty!

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Bye Bye Corelle

The empty shelf was home to Corelle dishes...I've had them for ten years and before that my grandpa had them for 25 years. The time has come for them to go away. (Don't worry, I am a pack rat, so they are in the basement...I also have cousins who might one day need them and you have to pass family heirlooms on!)

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Car Service

One of the few restaurants left with car hops...gotta love the smell of the car after you eat deep fried food in it!

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Wedding cake

Okay...so there are three pictures today...because I couldn't resist.


We got a tiny, little wedding cake from my friend Heidi. The idea was we could eat it and not have to pack it home, but in the end, it ended up coming home with us. It sat in the fridge until tonight, when we had dinner at home with my mom and dad.

See how tiny it is!


And this picture of Mom being goofy would have been the picture of the day if the cake hadn't been so TINY!

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Two Things

This morning I looked out our kitchen window and discovered two strange things.

The sun was shining! The last report I heard for today said we'd get lots and lots of nasty rain. What a nice mistake the weather guy made!

AND

The deck seemed bigger. Much bigger. It took a long time. And then I realized the tree that held the nasty wasps' nest last summer got totally hacked back while we were gone. I can't believe how much bigger the deck feels, I just wonder if we'll miss the shade next summer.

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Danish Design

A brown paper package arrived for us from Denmark. In it was a pair of the coolest salt and pepper shakers ever! They're great!

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Goodbye Recycling

Finally our recycling is leaving. Almost 10 weeks of recycling took up six or seven bags plus the boxes and bags the city distributes. And that was just ours. It was week two of recycling pick up, so the other two tenants probably got rid of their backed up recycling last week, but we were away.

There's so much space in the kitchen now! I love it!

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Couldn't Resist!

Yesterday I said we didn't do much shopping, and we didn't, but there were some things we just had to buy, like this adorable little outfit for Alex's niece. I could have bought suitcases full of little winter and Christmas themed clothing, but Alex convinced me one was enough.

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Toy Soldier

We didn't do much shopping while we were away - space was a bit of an issue and while I'm not much of a shopper, Alex is even less of a shopper, so shopping, it wasn't high on our priority list. But, we did see these dancing soldiers and thought there might be two young boys who might like them...

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Fall

No doubt about it, fall, which had only sort of arrived before we left is definitely here now. I can see the road from the porch!

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Going Home

What a crazy, wonderful, busy two weeks. Sad to leave, but happy to go home. Probably the best way to end a trip!

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Going To Edenbridge Town

Headed south for a visit with friends and a bonfire night parade.

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London Eye

High above London. What a view!

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Trafalgar Sqaure At Night

A very good time to go, if you ask me. The pigeons are sleeping, so it's safe from birds!

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