My Weekly Random-ness

 

 

This past Wednesday, Alli & I met  Ella & Cori & we went to hear Bethany Hamilton speak at LU convo.

The girls have both read her book 'Soul Surfer' & watched her movie with the same title. What an incredible story of inspiration. You can check her story out HERE.

I finsihed this cowl that I started last week.

I love the design, colors, etc. but I think next time I will make it just a smidge longer.

It's a pretty cozy, snug fit & will be wonderful on a truly cold/windy day.

A stack of quilted & crocheted coziness.....straight from the dryer.

Just a friendly little Halloween card going into the mail.

Saturday afternoon found me starting yet another new hooky project. I'm making a Spiderman afghan for my little nephew who will turn 4 right after Christmas. This will be a combination Christmas/birthday gift for him.

Alli & I decided to go check out the Apple Festival at Drumheller's Orchard  Sunday afternoon after church. It was such a gorgeous fall day! The above picture we were waiting in line to go on the hayride.

In the pumpkin patch.

Such grace & balance. ;-)

Here's what we ended up with. Both Alli & Michael had been really wanting to carve a pumpkin. So, when we got home...they set to work while I whipped up a couple of pumpkin pies to have for our dessert.

 

Here's the finished project. Michael carved this cool Jack-o-lope....

....and Alli did this carving of the Joker. I had to snap a picture of hers in regular light because it just didn't show up right in the dark. Because hers is just scraped & not actually carved all the way through, it just didn't give enough light to get a good picture. It looks really cool in real life though.

And one last photo from today. It was such a pretty afternoon so I took my crochet outside & sat on the swing & enjoyed the sunshine for a while. Little Mr. Frederick just couldn't resist getting in the picture too.

Peanutbutter....Who Knew?

After I had done all the picking-up-of-pinecones yesterday...I was in here at the sink trying to get all the sap off my hands with some rubbing alcohol. And Alli decided to google. Her ever-favorite learning tool these days. One of the things she discovered was that peanutbutter would clean sap off. Of course she found this out AFTER I had scrubbed & scrubbed some more to get the sap off my hands.

 

So, today after I picked up another bucketful of pine cones, I decided that I would try the peanutbutter.

 

And what do you know? It was wonderful!! I just smeared some peanutbutter all over my hands & down in between my fingers. Rubbed in real good & then rinsed with warm water.  No sticky left at all! Another Unschooling/life-learning moment. The very best lessons ever in my opinion.



Manic Monday

Well, not really.....nothing manic about this Monday....pretty mellow if truth be known. It was kind of icky this morning with the wind blowing in the wrong direction for the boys to go hunting. So they enjoyed sleeping in for a few more hours. When they did get up, they headed to the woods to do some scouting & put up stands.

 

Before he headed out, Clay asked if I'd mind picking up some of the pine cones all over the yard. They make wonderful kindling for the wood stove....nice & sappy & all.

So, I grabbed a bucket & set to work. What an awesome work-out this is for your legs & buns.

Didn't take me long at all to fill a whole bucket. But at this point I was starving so I knew a lunch break was in order.

When I came in, this is what I found curled up on my couch. Charlie on one end & Rocky on the other. Such cute snuggle buddies.

Another bucket filled after lunch. I still have more to do....but there were other chores to do inside, so I'll get back to the pine cones later.

When Clay & Michael came back in for lunch, he asked Alli if there was any ribbon around. Said he needed a piece. Whatever. Said he wanted to see which way the wind was blowing. It wasn't until a little bit later when I went out on the back porch that I saw this. 'You might be a redneck if.......' came to mind. The red post is a broken piece of an old bunk bed set stuck in the ground with the piece of ribbon tied to it.

As you can see, it worked. They could obviously see which direction the wind was blowing from.

So nice to see the sun peeking through & shining across the field.

I got the urge to do some paper crafting this afternoon. I hauled out all my Halloween supplies, queued up Mannheim Steamroller's Halloween music on Spotify & Alli & I got busy doing some crafting.

I made some Halloween cards & she had a go at some of her Halloween make-up creations. It was really neat to sit at the table & craft together.

And, as promised earlier.....here's the picture of my not-so-spooky Halloween skulls decorating our mantle. Time to get up from here now & go get some supper going so it'll be ready when my hungry hunters get home later.



Lot of Hooky-ness!

Thought I'd catch up & share some of my latest Hooky projects. I had rememberd saving a 'candy skull' pattern last year thinking they'd be fun to do for Halloween. Well, anyway....the other week I came across THIS pattern which I liked a whole lot better & decided to give it a whirl. 

They work up so quickly & easily! I love this multi-colored guy the best!

I ended up making 5 of them & stringing them together to make a cute little bunting to hang along the mantle in our dining room. Will have to see if I can get a good picture of the finished project to show you.

In other Hooky news....remember this sweet little afghan that Aunt Linda had given me back in the spring. Well, I noticed a place where I guess the yarn had just worn out & broken. As you can see in these pictures, it was right smack in the middle of a square & I wasn't at all sure just HOW to go about fixing this. So, I googled.

I found some wonderful information on this blog: Yarn In, Yarn Out . I was able to tie off the loose ends & then just completely removed the innermost two rows. I replaced the inner two rows with the gold & off-white as seen below......

....and viola! As good as new. I was so proud of myself! This was my unschooling for the day.....learning how to repair a granny. Pretty nifty to know.

This was my Saturday afternoon. After taking a lovely walk outside in the misty-ness....I came in, fixed myself a nice cup of hot tea & spread my Granny Patch out on the floor so I could choose colors for the next row. I try to keep it pretty random, but I do sit down & choose the colors for a row at a time. That way, I only have 10 colors of yarn in my project bag at a time instead of having to drag along my whole stash.

And here's a peek at how it's coming along. The beginnings of row nine. Not sure just how many rows it will end up being. Will just see how it goes.



Yesterday afternoon found me learning something else new. I love it! I had 4 balls of yarn that I had bought on clearance at Michaels...which I wanted to make into a cowl for myself. I found this lovely Mosaic Infinity cowl on Pinterest. It looked simple enough, but what I learned was how to make a Chainless Double Crochet Foundation. I was thrilled. It's super simple & eliminates the chain foundation...just one less step in the process. Terrific for when you have a really long foundation row like this one....with 162 DC.

 

And here we are...moving right along. I ended up getting three bands of color done by bedtime yesterday evening. I'm super excited about this & can't wait to finish it!

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Counting My Blessings:

*I'm thankful for waking up & having another day--'His mercies are new every morning' * lunch at O'Charley's with Ella & kids * taking lunch to my sweet hubby * silly texts from Clay * Seeing Jon & Ashley * Clay got off early Friday & was able to go hunting with Michael * squirrels--we've never had so many out here & I love watching them play * nature walk in the misty-ness---seeing God's beauty everywhere! * Peppers frozen * laundry done * pumpkin scented candles * the privelege of prayer * a new trash can--yes, seriously!! *pumpkin pie *

 

Fall Break & Stuff

Wow, I've had some busy days this past week. I started off last week cleaning & just basically getting everything ready for the kids to come home on Fall Break. Then Wednesday evening I headed to Lynchburg to pick the kids up. Ashley, Jon AND Brendan would be here through the weekend. It was such an awesome feeling Wednesday night knowing that ALL my kiddos were together under one roof. All the noise & boistrous-ness was great! I didn't even mind all the piles of laundry that came home with them. I was prepared.....I had made sure to get caught up on ALL our laundry before they came home. So I tackled the 'Mt. Everest' of laundry with joy!

Thursday was spent kind of lazing around. The kids slept in & I did laundry & put a pot of chili on for supper. After lunch, Ashley took Brendan on a walk...showing him around our neck of the woods.

 

Friday, Brendan & Ashley came with me to town. We did La Carreta for lunch & then dropped Brendan back off at school so he could work that evening. After our grocery shopping & errand running, Ashley & I hit McDs for a much-needed treat.

Saturday, was another gorgeous Fall day & I was most happy to spend some time outside crocheting.

Of course, Frederick enjoyed keeping me company.

And Charlie helped to keep Alli company. I think he's just a tad too big to stretch out on the piano.

Rocky was a little jealous that Charlie was sitting on the bench with Alli.

Saturday was also Opening Day of bow season here & don't you know that Michael got himself a doe on the very first day!

Rocky was about to bust a gut to check out the deer. Jon could hardly hold him!

So, we finally gave in & let Rocky join the boys in picture.

Also, Saturday afternoon Ashley took Alli out for a 'Portrait Shoot' that she needed to do for her photography class.

The late afternoon sunlight was amazing. She got some really wonderful shots!

Late Saturday evening, Brendan borrowed his buddie's car & came back to spend one last night of Fall break here at the Bunner house. And so Sunday morning found these two headed back to school in time to meet friends for lunch. Jon stayed & helped Clay & Michael with a few things around here before I took him back late Sunday afternoon.

It was absolutely gorgeous driving home Sunday evening. I just love this spot of road.....just topping the hill, looking down into the town of Amherst with the mountains in the far distance.

Crossing the RR tracks at home.

Monday morning as I sat out on the porch drinking my coffee, I was amazed at how many leaves had fallen all of a sudden. I love how they look here on the brick steps with the ivy growing here & there. Very cottagey.

Counting My Blessings:

* All my kiddos together under one roof for Fall Break * All the laundry caught up & put away * Jon fixed the light on Clay's car * ice cream from the Dairy Isle * Beautiful double rainbow * Letter from Ms. Carol * Lunch with friends * Leftover Vitos pizza for lunch * Watching Cosby with Jon * Michael shot a doe * Watching Jon & Michael work together to skin Michael's doe---best unschooling ever! * music * LU * smell of the evening air * watching the leaves swirl & fall from the trees--I love October * clean sheets * rain * Quiet/slow/peaceful mornings *homemade banana bread * taking a walk with Alli *