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Things To Do On A Saturday

It is a beautiful sunny morning today and I am thinking of things to do. Last week we went to Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma for Zoo Boo, a Halloween Party for animals. It was great fun, even if the weather was deplorable. (I know I said I like the sound of the rain and I do. Inside. It's not quite the same when you're walking outside.) There were lots of animals, of course, and face painting, too!



On the way home we stopped at the pumpkin patch for the third consecutive week. This time it was just to pick up some delicious sweetcorn and fresh apple cider. The week before Ryan, Lola, and I had properly visited the Schilter Family Farm together. Ryan had not yet had the pleasure of spending a sunny afternoon with hundreds of children, and I cannot get enough of pumpkins. Lola loves pumpkins too, and all the other fun kids' activities. This time there was a pony ride!


After picking up the corn and cider we took the scenic route to Boston Harbor to buy some fresh salmon. It was a beautiful drive. The Puget Sound is such a gorgeous area!

I think Lola and I are going to run some errands first, perhaps taking the long way home again, and then we'll go look for some chestnuts. While our pumpkin cookies are baking in the oven, we will turn our chestnuts into a variety of creatures with the help of toothpicks and string. It's a pity there are no oak trees around these parts. Acorns would be wonderful to play with, too.

I Love Fall

The rainy season has begun. This morning I woke up to raindrops bouncing off the metal roof. For the next eight months, this sound will be our alarm. That, and Lola. I don't mind it, to be honest. Not yet, anyway. The vibrant colors outside are beautiful, with or without sunshine. There are pumpkins everywhere I look. It's warm and cozy in the barn. We have three wonderful holidays to look forward to.

It's lovely to be inside again and curl up in front of the fireplace. To read a book. To bake pies and make soups. And I truly love listening to the patter of raindrops on the roof!

I Do It!

Little Miss Independent will not let me dress her anymore, nor put on her socks, strap on her shoes, wipe her butt, and so on and so forth. No, every single time I try to do any of these things, it's "I do it!" She's really cute when she is struggling with doing everything herself, and it is very funny to watch. Most of the time. But it takes FOREVER! My patience levels are reaching previously inconceivable new heights.

Lola really likes being a big girl that does things all by herself. Except when it's not convenient, of course. I am still her mule that carries her blanky, her babies, her bears, her toys, her. But I am also the person that can fix anything and everything. And the first person she calls for when she wakes up. That is the part I enjoy most. While it lasts...

Style Or Comfort?

I scored a pair of Levi's the other day. They used to belong to a teenager but I don't think they have ever been worn. They were in a bag with children's clothing that was given to Carla. They're a size 6 (36/38) and they fit like a glove! "You suck," Carla told me when I was able to close the zipper and still breathe. I was really pleased.

The thing is, they're 'mom jeans'. Jeans where the waistline actually comes up to a natural height. Somewhere in time jeans' waistlines dropped and 'low riders' became the norm. Only mothers (and the occasional world leader), notoriously uncool, would prefer comfort over style and stick to natural waistlines. Hence the term 'mom jeans'.

Despite having been told for years now that the waistline is on the rise again, I have seen no evidence to support this. It feels very strange to wear pants this high and when I look in the mirror, I am instantly transported to the early eighties, back to my high school pictures. This pair of pants may have belonged to a teenager, proving that fashion recycles itself every thirty years or so, they're still mom jeans.

I do not want to wear mom jeans. I am too young to wear mom jeans. And too cool. I must admit though, they're really comfortable. Maybe with a long shirt, so you don't actually see my waistline?

Autumn Joy

When I brought Lola to daycare on this sun filled yet bitter cold morning, I noticed a dense fog over Black Lake just down the road from Carla's house. The combination of sunshine, changing colors and mystical fog was too good to pass up. I decided to take the long way home, past the lake and through a beautiful and forested part of Olympia.

The fog quickly subsided but the ride was wonderful nonetheless. Olympia is so beautiful this time of year. Washington is called the Evergreen State because it is covered in tall pine trees. It really is green here year round. During the fall however, it becomes apparent just how many deciduous trees there are as well. A few more sunny days like today alternated with freezing cold nights and every possible shade of yellow, orange, and red will pop from the green.

We're in luck, the weather report has nothing but sunshine for the rest of the week. Oh, how I love autumn!

For The Love Of Pumpkins

Carla, Dylan, Lola, and I went to the Nisqually Pumpkin Patch today. A petting zoo, a cow train, a hay ride, a corn maze, a straw fort, and of course thousands of pumpkins to choose from; it has to be my favorite way to spend a sunny fall day.

Releasing My Inner Martha

For most of my adult life I secretly wanted to be Martha Stewart. I never realized this, of course, in fact I didn't even know who Martha Stewart was for the majority of those years.

My desire would mainly surface at the end of summer. Every year at the arrival of autumn, when it was time to go back inside and turn on the heat, I wished to transform my home into a beautifully decorated palace. I ambitiously wanted to organize elegant dinner parties for friends and family to celebrate my birthday, or Christmas, or simply the season.

It has never happened the way I envisioned. Mainly due to lack of energy and creativity. By the time I had baked an apple pie or decorated the Christmas tree, I was pretty much done. I never spent the holidays at my apartment, anyway.

Now that I have a family of my own, I want to be like Martha even more. I wish to grow my own vegetables and cook wonderfully healthy meals every day (the zucchini soup is a start) whilst arranging roses cut from my own garden and decorating my barn. And with Halloween and Thanksgiving, there are even more holidays to celebrate now.

To make matters worse, I have become rather addicted to reading craft and decorating blogs. There are many Martha's out there, I tell you. Stay at home moms, career women, home schoolers, or any combination thereof. I share with these inspiring women a love of thrift stores, the Dollar Tree, yard sales, and spray paint. Not much else it seems, because I have no idea how they can work, raise children, run a household, whip out a crafty project every day and blog about it, too.

When we installed the windows, I vowed to make the barn more of a home. Now that we have space and light, it's time to decorate. It is a bit of a challenge though, since we have no shelves, no walls, no furniture suitable for decorating really. And of course, it has to be out of Lola's reach for the time being.

People without gardens can still garden. It's called container gardening, I did it for years. I would like to introduce the concept of Container Decorating. I took the last of my fruit crates, hung it and decorated it for All Hallows Eve.


There are two projects out there that I am particularly in love with: the googly eyes wreath and the faux mercury glass pumpkins. Having limited space and being on a copper kick still, I altered them to fit my needs. (Also, I am too cheap to buy 'funkins', I buy my all fakes at the dollar store.)



Lola helped too. She handled the hammer like a pro.



I am very pleased with my container, if I do say so myself. I feel confident Martha would approve, if only because I used her felt webbing.

Go check out more great ideas at Its So Very Cheri!