Monday, December 31, 2012

Out With The Old...

It's now New Years Eve - only because we have chronic insomnia in our house tonight - ordinarily we'd be asleep at this hour!  But since we're awake, here's a quick photo tour of the last couple of days...

HAHAHAHAHA!  We've done a lot of this, and a lot of tv watching and reading and not much actual 'doing' of anything.

We found this little sweetheart at the pet store while we were waiting for movie time to come around.

How cute is she?  I have to be careful, I'm very pet vulnerable at the moment!  We could end up with a zoo in our house!


Last evening we went to the town centre to visit the Centennial Bonfire.  Love how it was next to the Christmas Tree! 

and here's an arty late night shot of my current knitting project and my beautiful new yarn bowl.

After we've got some sleep, we're planning an 'out with the old' day, checking our resolutions that we made at the start of the year, seeing how far we got with them, and cleaning the house up a bit, ready for the next year's arrival in about 21 hours from now.  It's been the toughest year of our lives, and next year may be much harder, but we're heading into it with as much courage as we can muster! 

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Visions of sugarplums...

It feels like a long time since we harvested delicious fruit from the garden and the hedgerow, but a dear friend asked me today about sugarplums, and so here's a picture or two of the pretties from our garden...

apples and sugarplums from the garden, blackberries from the local hedgerows.

they're so pretty! 

In investigating sugarplums, I have learned that the 'sugarplums' from the Night Before Christmas are actually not plums at all, but plum-shaped confections made from chopped dried fruit and nuts and rolled in sugar to make them pretty!  Who knew?  Looks like we might have to make some of those soon, since our tree plums were eaten up months ago! 

It's a quiet day with the Aga today, we're hanging out at home, the fire will be going as soon as I'm done chatting to you, and we'll be reading and knitting and resting and healing.  We have vague plans to make mince pies later, but we'll see... 

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Resting

Happy Boxing Day!  

It's been a pretty intense few months here at the Scally house, but today we are resting.  Tea, knitting, movies, books, blankets, footstools, comfy pillows - all of these things are featuring heavily in our day today.

So, in lieu of all the posts I haven't written over the last 3 months, here's a quick photo tour of life at our house...

We've had yummy autumnal dinners.

We've made beautiful cupcakes that look like adorable shoes!

Caity made most of them, but this super-sparkly pair were made by Becca! 

Caity made a cute gingerbread village for Hallowe'en.

We celebrated Thanksgiving!

We made felted slippers.

and snuggly warm socks.

and beautiful squishy wraps. 

The fuschias in the window box woke up early for spring!

We festooned the inside of the house with fairy lights. 

We made a tower out of Christmas Crackers. 

We dragged a tree into the house and made it look beautiful!

We were spoiled rotten by lovely friends! 

We made Ninjabread cookies - the girls decorated them so well, they're hilarious, and they taste great, too!

Here's a ninja cowboy! 

Santa came and filled the girls Christmas sacks with fun gifts. 

Caity got a GIANT teddy bear!

Snowglobes and nutcrackers arrived, just like every year. 

and the table looked beautiful for Christmas dinner. 
There's been a lot happening, and there's a lot more where that came from - hopefully it won't be three months before you hear about it all! 

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

In Which Connie Is Very Busy.

Summer is beginning to wane here at Scallyville, mornings are a little foggy, night-time is a little chill.  Usually this makes me sad, because I love to be warm, I love the sun, and the endless grey chilly days are difficult. 

I've been enjoying the long summer, working on projects like this beauty -
 it's a shawl, named Bivalve, in a yarn colorway named Atlantic, and I love it!  

this is what makes summer fantastic - look how the light travels through the fabric - gorgeous!!!!

 And so it's a little sad when those fabulous slow days are over and the routine of school starts up again. 

But this year I have Connie, my faithful Aga. 

She's been busy the last 24 hours.  Monday she made plum chutney with the beautiful little sugar plums from our tree.  We had so many we weren't going to be able to eat them all before they went soft, so I preserved about half of them. 

Yesterday she slowly braised chicken in red wine, and last night I threw a tray of slightly sour table grapes into the warming oven. 


This morning when I woke up, I had raisins! 


 Yummy!  Raisins are pretty expensive around here, grapes are a dollar - seems silly not to make my own raisins since I have the tools for the job! 

Right now there's basil drying, and thyme, in the warming oven, and the smell is wonderful! 
 
On the cooktop I have cranberry sauce simmering (I love the sound of popping cranberries!)

 
and there's another tray of grapes washed and ready to be raisined overnight tonight.  Maybe fall is not so bad after all. 

Friday, July 20, 2012

Sort Of Like A Museum Of Crap...

So I was chatting with a friend about our little cottage and all the quirky contents, and she said 'Despite the clutter the cottage sounds fun.  Sort of like a museum of crap!'  which got me thinking, and today we've taken some pictures to show you what we've been sharing the last 2 weeks with. 
There are some fun things, like this hollowed out section of tree outside, where people have collected their favourite treasures from the beach. 

There are some quirky friends, like these 8" high penguins on the mantle shelf.
Then there's the video collection, of which this is just one shelf.  2 copies of Fargo??? 





"We have left some shelves and cabinets free for you to put your own things..."

Really? 

Where exactly?
We kept most of our clothes in the suitcases, and our food on the kitchen counter, there was no cabinet space to put anything. 


This is Brian's favourite drawer, he found all sorts of useful man-things in here! 

Did you forget your glasses?  There are 6 pairs in here, maybe one of them will work for you...
That deck of cards was one of many, at least 15, all wrapped in elastic bands. 

Then there are a few things that are just a bit strange....

anatomy of a hand? 
Boxing Gloves? 

A 'loft'?  I think this was rather extravagantly advertised - it's barely 15 inches high, not long enough for a teenager, and rather claustrophobic!  The ladder to reach it has to be propped against the bed that it shares the room with and is a bit of a precarious climb.  I'm not sure it should have been advertised as 'a bed', really, but it gave us somewhere to store the excess cushions from the beds and couches!!! 
not sure if the 'plant' is real or fake, but the apple is definitely not the real thing - what use one might have for a silver apple, I am not sure...

At first glance, the top of the bookcase seems to just have more clutter, of a boating variety, but a closer look revealed this...

The boat is balanced on the stand, with a weight, so it actually rows - super cool! 

Windows are a good place to put things, too, apparently - although we felt they obscured both the light and the view! 
 There are lots and lots of pictures on the walls, and some under Caity's bed, too, just in case they should find themselves running low! 
A seagull with her baby - just like the 'fuzzy rocks' that hatch outside Brian's office. 
 There are curiosities like this lamp...
Do you think she knows she has a table lamp growing out of her head? 
 and these felted rocks.  They're heavy, they actually DO have rocks inside - now I love yarn, and felting, but I love rocks too, and I'm not sure that their natural beauty is enhanced when they are wearing 'rock cosies'. 
Fuzzy rocks!!!!!  And a felted bird!  My yarny home!!!
It's been an adventure, that's for sure.  I have more pictures to share, of the outside, it's been quite a day for weather!  But for now, I'm off to make a cup of tea and enjoy our last evening.