As you have read, our family made the trip to my son's house to celebrate little Finley's birthday.  Killing 2 birds with one stone I took this opportunity to corner one of my daughters into modeling the Cactus Flower Shawl.

Hannah had let me know that she probably wasn't up for it ahead of time.  She shares her birthday with Finley and I think she was a little worn out from her birthday celebration at school…ha!

…so Ashley kindly offered to do it.  She is usually my go go girl as she loves to have fun with a shooting, such as the top picture.  She was going for a "good witch in the woods" kind of look…LOL  I played around a little bit with some presets to help that along…fun!

This second picture was a bit more serious with the colors being very true.

..and then there was this one…my favorite! 
This pretty little shawl is decorating my fall kitchen right now and will come to a few shows with me over the winter and then it will live in my wardrobe. 🙂

It's been a busy day here trying to squeeze all of the pre-holiday stuff with the dumping of fresh snow that we are getting.  Tucked quietly in our home, the smells of a yummy Thanksgiving are filling every corner.

I hope that you all have a peaceful day tomorrow on this day that we give Thanks.

 

Today's Tuesday topic is perfect for this week….10 Things I’m Thankful For.
There are so many gifts in life to be thankful for, but these are mine for today.

1.  Ken, it goes without saying that he is my better half…my partner.

2.  My children…they are 5 of the best around.

3.  My grandbabies….they are the frosting on life's cake, aren't they?

4. The strength to get out and walk each day.  Something so simple for most people has been a long journey for me, but I'm getting there!

5.  The music that fills my ears on that walk. Technology is a little gift that we take for granted now and then, but it's awesomesauce!

6. Tai Chi that not only challenges my mind and my body, but also brings peace to my mind and strength to my body.

7.  Being able to create beautiful things every day for other people to enjoy.  I am so thankful that I am able to work with the colors that embrace my life.

8. Quiet moments….I enjoy them

9.  This year I am so grateful for the sweet dogs that we as a Cavalier community were able to rescue from a very sad life of living as a puppy mill dog.  The Cavalier community is awesome!

10.  For the bounty and companionship that we are so incredibly fortunate to celebrate with each other on Thanksgiving.
 ~

So many more…and that's a wonderful thing!

Look at those excited faces…how cute are they? 
Big brother Jaxson was so happy to celebrate Little Finley's first birthday, and Finley was in complete amazement that everyone was singing to him.
We all had so much fun!

The baby boys had fun discovering new toys and each other.  Asher had us in stitches laughing with his non stop chatter and antics…and Finley was having fun being the center of attention and love on his birthday.

…and as a Mom, it made my heart smile to see these two talking and laughing just as they did when they themselves were children.  These two were best friends growing up.

Asher and his Papa having a serious chat it would appear from their expressions…ha!

It was time spent getting to know Jen's family better and this young lady, Jen's cousin is just about the sweetest girl I have met.  Her love for her little cousin Finley was so apparent, she is a gentle little soul.

Is his expression not just priceless?  Just like a typical 1 year old, he was very excited to open the first present, but then it became more about the tissue and wrapping paper and the first toy.  He was so blessed cute!

I think this little guy had a great time and I know that we all did too!!

Thank you Miles and Jen for having us all over. 
We always enjoy getting together with you and your family

 

The title says it all..ha!  We all traveled down to Southern Maine to wish my youngest grandson a very Happy Birthday.  I took lots of pictures some of which I will share with you tomorrow, but I couldn't resist putting this picture of Finely enjoying his birthday cake.
Such a sweet little boy!

Have a wonderful Sunday evening. 🙂
(remind me next year that blogging everyday in November is EVERY day and that is a lot!)

Yesterday I took a trek to the mall in Portland Maine because I had 100.00 worth of reward cards to The Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma.  I went with a Thanksgiving table in mind, but I ended up coming home with some things to make a delicious Turkey, so they tell me, along with some table decorations.
This year I am going to give brining the big bird a try.  This brine blend is a blend of Apple spices and the glaze is a Maple glaze.  It sounded so yummy, I gave in and bought it

Thanksgiving is pretty traditional here with the same favorite dishes every year.  Some times I think I would like to change out a few of the side dishes to switch it up, but I am never sure what to make, so this is were you guys come in.
I am going to share one of the favorites here with you all and hope that you will share some of your favorite side dishes with me. 🙂

My son would never forgive us if we excluded this particular dish, so when he comes home for Thanksgiving, which he does most years, my Mom always makes this for him.  It is scrumptious!

Broccoli Casserole

I head of cooked broccoli
1 can of Creamed Broccoli soup (yes, I hate using canned cream soup now too)
1/2 c. of mayonnaise
diced onion or 1/2 T onion flakes
2 eggs whipped
1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
Breadcrumbs mixed with melted butter

If using diced onion, saute them in a little butter first to cook them, then combine all of the ingredients together in your casserole dish of choice and cover it all with the bread crumb mixture.
  Cook in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes. 
Easy Peasy, but SO yummy!!
Nowadays, if I were making it instead of my mother, I would make my own cream of broccoli soup, but she makes it and it is still very yummy in spite of the canned soup.

I look forward to seeing what you make for Thanksgiving!!

(note….this is one of my girls, not one of the dogs in the following story)

On another note, today was a very emotional day for Cavalier breeders and owners.
It's a long story about a one time decent breeder gone bad which resulted in over 100 sweet Cavalier dogs being sent to a puppy mill auction today in Missouri.
Our rescue groups worked tirelessly over the last few weeks raising money to save every single one of them, which was no small feat as these were fairly well bred dogs that went for very high prices.
There were many tears shed over the course of the afternoon as more money was needed to be raised as the day went on and many of us were on pins and needles praying and giving so that not one of these dogs would end up in a Puppy mill.  The wonderful news was that every single one of them escaped a life in captivity…so much to be thankful for today!

The next hurdle is getting all of these dogs vetted and spayed, then foster homes and finally forever homes where each one of these sweet babies will be loved as every dog should be.  The need for donations will still be there for vet bills and care, so as we move into the holiday season with many things to be thankful for, if you can spare a little extra to help the wonderful people who worked tirelessly to rescue these dogs, you can donate here and if you are interested in giving one of these sweet babies a home you can find more information there as well.
I am so proud of the Cavalier King Charles Community that I belong to on this day…AMAZING!

 

I won't lie, I almost copped out on today's post and thought about back dating it for  tomorrow morning, because it has been a challenging week here at Casa Woolen Rabbit. 
Learning new software is always a challenge and doing it while you are working and planning for a Thanksgiving dinner with 18-20 people attending is a huge challenge, but truth be told, I really enjoy doing this kind of work.  When you are not quite sure what you are doing however it is a long series of "pick and learn" all the while knowing that there really is a much easier way if you knew what the heck you were doing.
 
This song always makes me feel inspired and makes me smile. It reminded me that I need to stay on task with my blogging commitment, so while it's not much, it's something, right? 🙂
Yes, this girl is going back to school…and in the mean time, I will continue to pick and learn my way through updating my new space. 

Normally I would wish you a wonderful weekend here, but you get to hear from me again tomorrow…ha! 
I have a nice conversation in mind for tomorrow, so until then, have a wonderful evening.

Tiles of carnelian, lapis and jade,
The muralist sets his picture.
One centimter at a time.
Every piece alone is precious;
Together they make a priceless whole.
Deng Ming~Dao

Whew…this post almost did not make it up tonight.  You see, I have been drowning in the sea of CSV (comma separated value) files this evening and at this point, I don't think even CPR would help me tonight..ha!  Oh well, I was able to import some important things into the new shop and will have to resort to doing the rest manually for fear of messing up all of the work that I have already done.

Thankfully my day was a bit smoother.  A typical day in a sometimes boring life, but that's ok too.  Tai chi this morning followed by a walk and an afternoon of dyeing.
While the dyepots were brewing downstairs, I was playing upstairs in the studio in between pots with fabric.Yes, my table looks pretty much like the inside of my brain, which is fine because it works well most of the time for me. 😉
This quilt is going to be fun and it is going to be fairly easy which is the best part, right now.  Piece by piece it will becomes something beautiful.

Normally I am not much of a blue person, but just toss in a little gray and I love,love,love it!  This pretty fabric just makes my heart smile.  I know that I will buy some yardage of at least one of them, and it will live inside the big leather/fabric hand bag I am working on for me.
This line of Atelier fabric is absolutely beautiful in all of it's color ranges..so very beautiful!

You should check it out here.

 

Pattern:  Cactus Flower Shawl
Designer:  Romi Hill
Yarn:  Woolen Rabbit Opal
Colorways:  Mourning Dove and Red Hot Chili Peppers
Needles:  US 4 and 5

A while back a group of fellow knit bloggers from the beginning of blogging time got together and knit a mystery shawl together, now called Algiers which was designed by Kirsten Kapur.  We had such a nice time cheering each other on that some of us decided to continue on with another shawl.  Some of us chose this Cactus Flower and others chose to knit Kirsten's Germinate. 
I think that all of us have finished, but not everyone has finished pictures up yet.

I'll be honest with you, I have been finished for a little while.  This beautiful shawl looked at me in her unblocked stage for about a week before I finally filled up a pot of warm water with some wool soak and gently put her in….and there she sat looking at me for almost another week.  Can you believe it? 

Finally, I shamed myself into just doing it.  Procrastination is my middle name at times, just sayin'.  After seeing how Margene had blocked her beautiful version, it made it so much easier for me to envision just how to block this shawl.  It took close to an hour to get it all blocked, but taking the time to do it right makes such a huge difference in the end, so it's time well invested.

The color in this picture is probably the truest color of all of the pictures.  In the top picture I played around in Lightroom for a class picture and I just loved how it came out, so I have used it, but this is a truer example, although the real color is somwhere between the two.  The gloomy skies of November can be challenging to shoot pictures in.

I will be heading down to Southern Maine this weekend for my youngest grandson's birthday, so I will wrangle one of my daughters for a modeled picture.

This was one of the most enjoyable knits I have done in a while, once I got past those first set of nupps. 
Thank you Romi for such a beautiful pattern!

….and I don't have much.  Ten on Tuesday's topic today is 10 Musicians I Would Bring Back from the Dead, and normally I would jump all over this, because I love music….but my body and my brain are just plain tired.  I have been pushing myself both physically and mentally over the last week and it slapped me hard today.

So, I decided to go with this last picture that I worked on for my Start2Finish class.  Kim has been away, so there were no lessons for this week and I have to admit that I missed it.  The class will be wrapping up soon and it makes me a little sad because I have really enjoyed the entire learning process.  So much so, that I talked to Ken this weekend and I am going to research going back to school for an associates in Graphic Design.
Now, I worry a bit if this aging tired brain can go back to school, but why not try, right?

My back is not going to allow me to dye and lift heavy wool for many more years and I figure it's great to have a plan for something that I really enjoy doing.

I promise, I will have a little more for you tomorrow.  Blogging every day is not for the faint of heart, I tell you. 😉

 

As you  can see, Ken had another fun filled weekend of wreckage.  Tearing down walls…all of them!  There once was a wall and a big cabinet behind the washing machine, now there is none.  Where there once was a door opening in the kitchen to the bathroom, now there is a new wall.  No more feeling like you are peeing in the kitchen..whew!

..and that tarp is covering the carefully placed plywood to keep out the cold as Ken says, but in my mind it's there to keep out any potential critters that could be down in our dirt crawl space…eww.  I can't think about that too much or I get much too creeped out, even though Ken tells me I am being silly. 
It is pretty darn cold back here though, I will give him that.

For anyone who has ever been here, you can see a total open concept going on..ha!
The good news is the bathroom will be bigger, the wash/dryer will go into a closet against the back wall with the water heater and there will be a nice tub in there.

Me, I spent most of the weekend working on a new Woolen Rabbit website…so much work!  I did manage to squeeze in a few 5K+ walks and a short Tai Chi class, but other than that and helping Ken when he needed help, my butt was glued to my office chair.

Will the construction be finished before the holidays?  Nope. 
Are there curtains in my kitchen for the holidays?  Nope (kitchen gets a face-lift next)
Will the dining room window treatments be finished for Thanksgiving?  Maybe, maybe not
Come back and see in a few weeks….. Same bat time, same bat channel.