Serendipity 2014

G'day all!

Yesterday we headed off to breakfast at our usual Saturday breakfast spot (Portage Bay in Ballard).  We like it, it is convenient for us - a short walk away - and it is filling.  It isn't cheap but you get good quality food and lots of it.  (Oddly enough I loathe paying nearly $10 for an omelette that keeps me going for only an hour or two after I eat it.  Dunno why, but with a hash from Portage Bay, I'm good until 2 or 3 in the afternoon!  And I get leftovers as well :-)

Fire in the sky

 Sigh.  We had to wait - we weren't late but everyone was getting an early start.

And then someone asked DH a question about the fleece top he was wearing, one that he bought in Taswegia twelve or so years ago (and gee, after all he's put it through, it is still looking okay if you discount the bits of paint and putty/spackle stuff).

The rain went away!  Yay!  Other people got some though.

Turns out the couple we ended up talking to have some rather compatible interests - he's a plant guy and has travelled extensively for it as his work and she's a knitter.  So we had breakfast with them and then DH brought them back to our fantastically messy house (we got the rest of our stuff out of our friend's house and umm yeah, we need places to put it all!) for coffee and to show them the living roof and talk about plants and stuff.

What happy serendipity!

This shop has the most amazing window displays

Work on the garage has slowed right down now - DH is working in there and it means that the last bits of painting are yet to be done.  I've got some priming to do then we can paint the trim with semi-gloss paint, plus we need to do a bit more bead board around some corners.  Still, it is working for him and he's getting plenty of visits from the cat - she scratches at the window and cries (soundlessly - it's triple glazed) to get his attention.

Love this combo.

Our attention is turning to the house again - what do we need to do to prepare for DH's parents' visit?  And there are a few things that need attending to, one of which is critical and the others would be very good things to fix up or change.

I'm sure this is late this year.

The days have shortened right down now - sunset is before 4:30pm, on the days when we can see the sun.  On rainy days it gets quite dark quite early.  Even on sunny days like today, at two thirty I thought it was getting quite late.  The sun barely clears the houses on the other side of the alleyway.  You can see from the sunset pics that the sun is setting far to the south now.

Getting some good reflections at the moment

It's chilly too - the week of frosty nights has set a standard now, though night-time temps are only dropping down to fridge levels now, not freezing.  On warmer days it is getting to about 11C at best, and generally is cooler.  If there is little in the way of wind, I'm happily running around in my fleecy tops with a long sleeve tee under them and two layers on my legs.  It seems I'm acclimating.  Yikes!

A finished sleeve, highlighting the jogless jog

I have a self-imposed deadline for getting my Stripes Gone Crazy redone - I want to have it finished and wearable in a week.  I managed to get the four row stripe sleeve done a couple of days ago and the 20 row stripe is flying along - it is just so quick to sit and knit around and around and around whilst watching old eps of This Old House.  Vroom!

Pretty tree lights in Ballard

I'm also working on a quilt that I want to enter into the Modern Quilt Guild's challenge - I have to get it done by Friday to get pics of it and have it entered by Sunday.  I need to pull my finger out because Thursday will be eaten up by Thanksgiving.  Still, I'm pretty pleased with how the quilt is coming together.

One of the applique pieces.
(My spell-checker is going nuts - pieces is too a word!)

The colours are a bit pastel but that is because it is based on a fat eighth (half of a fat quarter, which is a half yard cut in two bits) of fabrics supplied by the sponsor of the challenge.  I put my name down, they sent me fabric.  Alas because I can only use fabrics from a certain range, I had to buy more of them.  Sigh.  Anyway, just in the last two days I've gotten it coming together, and it is contributing to the chaos in the lounge room.  The backing is done and I'm well into the appliqueing on the front.  I think it is pretty cool, hope I've got the layout right because once these babies are appliqued down, they are not moving for love nor money, not until they rot.

Glad we are done with frost for the nonce.
It did weird things to the soil.

 So I have to finish the front, make the quilt sandwich, baste it then quilt it, square it up and then bind it - thank heavens for being allowed to use a print for the binding!

I'd better go get cracking on a bit more appliqueing.  And spell-checker, applique is too a word!  Go check your dictionary!  You've been confusing me all the way through with refusing to believe applique, appliqued and appliqueing are words - I had to go look them up to check!

anon!