Author: Tanie

I was planning on making this a fawn but the idea of sewing spots on something so tiny was too daunting. Overall, though, I think it turned out pretty well, and I’d say my pattern was better than I’d expected!

When I was a kid I subscribed to a teddy bear magazine, but not, like, Toys’R’Us teddy bears, more like artist bears. Yes, I’m aware of how dorky that is. Anyway there was one bear artist whose work was frequently featured who made teeny-tiny miniature bears and I remember reading that she hand-sewed 32 stitches per inch. I think on this deer I got pretty close to that.

Today is a statutory holiday here in BC, and not only do I have the day off from work, I have the day off from almost everything. Sym’s dad picked her up early, Taylor’s gone to bed, even Dougal isn’t here. A whole afternoon to myself? Let’s see what that looks like…

It looks like making a mess of paper and felt, sewing a deer from a rather dubious pattern I came up with and watching season two of Veronica Mars for the eight billionth time (I like to have tv or movies on when I’m sewing). It looks like quiet relaxation, and that’s awesome.

Which is to say, anything. Since my last book post (almost a month ago now!) I’ve read:
• one book
• two magazines
• sixty percent of second book that I should have finished in two days and just have not been able to get through

There are a lot of reason for this- in mid-October I ran out of all the books I had lined up, my pre-Halloween funk of lethargy and sulking, my also-pre-Halloween frenzy of costume making, my post-Halloween frenzy of Sym’s birthday party and gift preparation. Of course, all that is over now and you’d think that before I get into my Christmas frenzy I could get some reading done but NOPE. Yesterday I planned on powering through my current book and finishing it while the kids were having nap, but instead I spent the entire afternoon (and part of the evening) picking a new layout for this blog, changing the fonts and making a fancy header which I didn’t even end up using. Clearly not the best use of my time!

My goal was to read 104 books this year. When I finish my current book (which I’m doing today, NO EXCUSES) that’ll put me at 82, leaving me with 22 books to read in the last 50 days of the year. That’s one book every 2.25 days. Can I do it? Should I do it? Would you do it? I don’t know if I’m going to meet my goal but DANG IT, I’m still going to try.

Seeing how I was mightily pressed for time this year, I didn’t go as all-out with the decorations as I normally do. I put Clay in charge of hanging tissue-paper pompom flowers and crêpe paper streamers and left well enough alone.

The food was simple- sandwiches & veggies, popcorn and cheesy poofs (which were devoured in under 20 minutes) and some pop to drink. I also didn’t plan any birthday party activities and as it turns out, when you have eight 9-year-old girls in the house all they want to do is run around slamming doors, scream, and listen to Lady Gaga. FINE BY ME.

Instead of a cake I stuck candles into a pile of mini-funfetti cupcakes and doughnuts which I dipped in glaze and decorated with pink, blue, purple and yellow sugar and sprinkles.

The reason I had so little time for any party-planning/staging was that I spent all my free time last week working on Sym’s gift. She told me she wanted me to make her something, so I pulled out the patterns from last Christmas’s Sailor Senshi dolls and made her a little Felt Family.

I know, I’m the awesomest mom ever. I actually wanted to make all out pets too but QUELLE SURPRISE I ran out of time. It took me until after midnight on Thursday to finish these! I guess Little Dougal/Kichou/Claire and Georgie will have to go on my “to sew” list, along with Tuxedo Kamen and Sailors Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Saturn. I swear I’ll make all of these some day!

The rest of the weekend was sort of a blur of shopping, watching movies, piling every blanket onto the couch and eating delicious food I didn’t have to cook. Friday night we had takeout from Cafe Luxy and watched Ponyo. Well, Sym and I watched it, Taylor fell asleep at seven so we sent him to bed!

Saturday afternoon I took Sym out to use the gift cards she got for her birthday and buy a new coat- Taylor tagged along but did his own shopping. After Sym went to her dad’s we watched Dude, Where’s My Car? (I DON’T EVEN KNOW) and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which means we’re all ready for part one of The Deathly Hallows next week! That evening we went out to Society in Yaletown for a late dinner- Taylor had an enormous steak and I had the shake’n’bake chicken. For dessert we shared white chocolate-filled doughnut holes, and the birthday party at the next table shared some cake with us as a thank you for my taking some pictures of their group.

Today we were going to just have a lazy day but ever since September’s Frye boot debacle I’ve had a bee in my bonnet about finding some new fall/winter boots. I looked in a couple of stores while I was out on Saturday but couldn’t find anything a) and really liked and b) was available in my size! So this morning I did some internet research and came up with a couple of options, and decided to go out to Gravity Pope to check out some of my choices irl. I’m happy to report that it was a success and I have FINALLY found my new boots!

Exactly what I was looking for, waterproof, and only $200? SIGN ME UP! Unfortunately they only had my size in brown, but are ordering in a black pair for me.

On the way home we looked in a couple of shops and picked up some miscellaneous stuff, like this beautiful orange Le Creuset kettle (on sale!) and this silly owl from Homewerx for my Christmas tree.

Unfortunately Symphony is at her dad’s this morning and I can’t force her to have her picture taken, so here is one from last week (when I made doughnuts for her class Halloween party) that I think is representative of her overall disposition. And yes, that is me in the first picture with purple hair. Really.

Now for my pre-birthday party to-do list:
-clean the entire house
-buy party food
-prep party food
-make funfetti mini-doughnuts & cupcakes
-make half a dozen more tissue paper pompom flowers
-hang up all the tissue paper pompom flowers and eight miles of green crêpe paper

….. plus have a shower at some point and all this in the next 6 1/2 hours. Taylor and Clay are going to help as well but they won’t get here until one o’clock or so. Surprisingly, no one wanted to take the morning off work to help me clean the house. I know, I’m baffled too.

Symphony had a weird tooth this week. I’m not going to post a picture of it because it’s weird and creepy, but what happened was one of her baby teeth, the root didn’t dissolve completely, so while it was still firmly anchored in her gum, it was also hollowed out, sharp and raggedy where the root had dissolved and full of blood. Yep. Charming. I had her dad take her to the dentist yesterday and they gave her the option of just trying to wiggle it out at home, or having it pulled. In a surprise move (because she is usually a big chicken about the dentist) she opted to have it pulled out. She brought it home in a little pink tooth-shaped box and left it for the Tooth Fairy last night, but unfortunately the Tooth Fairy was very busy sewing birthday presents until midnight and forgot to leave anything. Luckily, Sym figured out that it was because she left the box on her desk, not under her pillow, and hypothesized that maybe, when the kids are napping and I’m watching Veronica Mars, the Tooth Fairy just might be able to sneak into her room. She stashed the box under her pillow and wouldn’t you know it? That wily fairy already snuck in there and left a tiny gift in place of the creepy tooth!

Tonight was Georgie’s last obedience class and she (and I!) did great on her little evaluation. Hooray!

I mean, literally taking them out of my body. This day has been intensely aggravating and there’s only one solution.

PUPPY PICTURES.

These were taken a couple of weeks ago by Taylor but he didn’t upload them until recently.

Last weekend the breeder I got Georgie from emailed me to say her dog has had a new litter of 6 puppies- 2 Georgie coloured, 1 black & tan (like Kichou) and 3 chocolate & tan. I swear, if I wasn’t at my legal limit for number of dogs in the city I’d get another. Who could resist this?

Perfection.

I’ve been living in this neighborhood for eight years now, and every year we have more and more trick-or-treaters. The first year there was only a couple, but soon parents clued into the fact that as the last intact block of actual houses downtown, there were more trick-or-treating opportunities here than in blocks full of apartment buildings and condos. Usually at least one person in every house is giving out candy, and some people go all out with the decorations. It’s really fun!

Taylor had to go to bed early since he was working last night, and Sym was going to be trick-or-treating with her dad and stepmom. I didn’t want to sit at home like a sad sally, giving out candy by myself, especially since the dogs bark their tiny faces off every time someone knocks on the door. I decided to give out candy at the front of the house and teamed up with my neighbor Matt, who was having a little get together. He and some of the neighborhood kids had put out some pumpkins and spiderwebs, but I want to up the ante a little and raided my holiday decoration cupboard.

I added the jack o’lanterns we carved on Friday night, more cobwebs, a cardboard skeleton and honeycomb-paper spider, some mini-Halloween wreaths and my favorite- long streamers of black crêpe paper that fluttered in the breeze like tattered shrouds. Matt’s friends Aaron and Darren provided the giant spiders and our house was Halloween night ready!

Matt, another neighbor named Katherine and I combined all our candy, and it was a good thing because this year there were HUNDREDS of kids! Altogether we had about 20 lbs of candy and by eight o’clock we were tapped out! It was crazy! Some of the kids had really great costumes- there were some amazing homemade cardboard Transformers, several little Lady Gagas, and one boy with a bloody rag tied around his had carrying a bloody cauliflower- a no-brainer. There was no contest for my favorites though!

Colleen, Symphony and Clay as the three magical creatures from My Neighbor Totoro! Colleen made these from hoodies, which I can appreciate since sweatsuit costumes are my oeuvre. I like how Clay’s Totoro hoodie has the big teeth! Very cute.

Now that Halloween is over, I can finally focus on Sym’s birthday party, which is OH GEE this Friday! This happens almost every year- I spend all of October focusing on Halloween and suddenly it’s November and I have four days to throw together an awesome party.

For Halloween, a story from the creepiest summer of my life, the summer of 1992.

One day in July, my parents went gone down to Victoria for the day leaving me in charge of my sister Zoe (14) and my brother Owen (11) at our house in the country. Zoe and I shared a bedroom upstairs. It was a huge room, about 25 feet wide and fifty feet long. The east wall had four big windows and the south wall had one, which was right by my bed. The door was also at this end of the room. The south window looked out over our driveway and the house next door, belonging to this fisherman named Tony. Being a fisherman Tony was often away for weeks at a time, and happened to be away then.

It was a Saturday and we were supposed to clean our rooms, so at around one o’clock I was lugging the vacuum cleaner up and when I went into the room I happened to glance out the window and that’s when I saw THE CLOWN. He was standing on Tony’s patio, a man in black boots, black pants, black turtleneck and black gloves, topped by a creepy clown mask- a big white rubber face with red tufty hair, red nose and a huge freaky grin. He looked like Pennywise and he was LOOKING RIGHT AT ME.

I immediately dropped to the floor and called my sister over from her end of the room- I made her walk along the west wall (no windows) and drop next to me. We peeked around the edge of the curtain and there he was, THE CLOWN, LOOKING RIGHT AT US. We were like HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK. We ran downstairs and locked all the doors and grabbed my little brother, making him come back upstairs with us. I guess we should have called the police but instead we spent the rest of the afternoon up in the bedroom, staying away from the windows. We didn’t see the clown again and when my parents got home (before dark, thank god) and we told them what we’d seen, they went over to Tony’s house but didn’t find any signs of forced entry, and when he came home a few weeks later he never said anything about a break in. Our parents thought Zoe and I had imagined the whole thing but we know THE CLOWN was real.