As The Year Ends

Cheese Board and Chocolate

Toronto Artist Sculpts with Nova Scotia Snow

Wouldn't every knitter in North America love to have beautiful buttons from France??

French Art Work

Winter Reading

Who could resist earrings chosen by a four year old? I will wear them with pride.

White Christmas

Seventeen centimeters of snow fell in and around metro Halifax today, guaranteeing a White Christmas. The landscape is postcard perfect. We are awaiting the arrival of the Ontario foursome and trying hard not to think of our French family  as we miss them so much. And in this holiday season, we are in awe of Brother's branch of the family, who have been soldiering on in the face of trials and tribulations, and managing in that the same amazing manner that has seen them pulling together and coping so marvellously in the past.

And inside:

Below stairs, for a while this week, there was a different dusting of white:

The festive layer there was crack fill dust.

The hardwood maple staircase is finished now and it is lovely. The maple laminate floor is complete. The ceramic tile has been installed inside the back door. The baseboard heaters are installed. The walls and ceiling have been primed. Next week, the ceiling will be painted, the trim installed, the doors hung, and the electricians will come back to install all the light fixtures, smoke alarms, thermostats, door bell, and activate the all the plugs and switches.

A few post Christmas challenges remain:

1. Assembling the Ikea bookcases, cabinets, chests of drawers, and television bench.

2. Sorting through the large amount of basement "stuff" in rented storage - at least 50% of it will not be coming back! (Maybe Heather Jay would like to have a lovely honey colored Argyle pine cannonball double bed frame???)

3. Choosing a finish color for the walls and painting - I am counting on many consultations over Christmas, with input from everyone at the dinner table.

Ah, Christmas 2011

Candles in the windows, white lights along the walkway

And a dumpster in the driveway!!

Dough Day

The door to the basement is taped as a reminder/warning that there is no longer a staircase on the other side! A lapse of memory could be painful, indeed. The staircase installer is due to arrive tomorrow afternoon.

Since I had to be on site all day as the various trades came and went and, since it was a raw, windy day, I decided it was a good time to set dough to rise.

Assembling the bread  - balls of dough, glazed cherries, pecans

One of my favourite sweet dough recipes is Bubble Bread (aka Monkey Bread - aka Hungarian Bubble Ring). No one else in the family cares for it very much but that doesn't discourage me. I can never understand older people who say "Oh, there's only George and I now. It's not worth the effort" or "There's only me now - hardly any point". It is worth the effort to surround yourself with the things you savour and enjoy.

Bubble Bread rising in a warm, draft-free location

Our stove has an oven "proofing" setting. The oven fan runs periodically to circulate the air. The oven light stays on at that setting and provides just enough warmth for the dough to rise. And you can see from the photo that it has risen considerably!

Out of the oven and glazed with a corn syrup/butter/vanilla mixture.

 The Bubble Bread only requires half the batch of sweet dough so I made a cinnamon/sugar/raisin loaf and a brown sugar/cinnamon/pecan loaf with the second half.

And since I was really on a dough roll, and the ingredients were lining the kitchen counters, I put together a pizza dough for supper.

With just enough time left over to finish off little socks for a Lunenburg baby boy.

This And That

The Pink Princess would approve...

Old World Treats from an old, old booklet that comes out of the cupboard once a year...

Struggling with a neckline

I have made this little cardigan at least four times but, for some reason, I am having a dreadful time picking up the neckband stitches this time. I have picked them up and frogged them so many times that I am going to have to simply compromise now and forge ahead for fear of wearing out the yarn!

Pattern: Clown #05053 by Swedish Yarn Imports

Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock (Natural) and Lang Jawoll (Navy)

Needles: Circular, 2.5 mm and 3.0 mm

Renovation Days 6 and 7

Potlights

The electricians were here for two days, installing connections for pot lights and central fixtures, wall sconces in the stairwell, plugs, switches, dimmers, and cable outlet. They rewired the central vac outlet, installed an extra light in the laundry room, and, on their return after the gyproc is installed, will replace all the thermostats in the house with up-to-date, programmable ones, all the smoke detectors in the house (we did not know until recently that they should be replaced every ten years) and add an extra smoke/carbon monoxide detector in the laundry area. They are a great pair of young guys who check frequently to make sure we are on the same wavelength, report any placement problems, and offer advice and suggestions.

Early Days of December

On the main level, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas:

And below stairs...

 Day Four: More framing. The closet and door to the laundry room are defined

Day Five: Framing continues.

The light switches and security panel are moved. The half wall appears. It will have small shelves for dropping off birdseed, gloves, hats etc. throughout the day. The window is framed.

The bulkhead is framed.

 

The stairwell wall is cut back to the third step to open the area up more at the foot of the stairs.

The central vac outlet is relocated.

Basement Reno - The Early Days

Day One:
We have a very, very good feeling about Blunden Construction. The estimator, Mark, has been excellent to deal with and he makes a point of visiting the job site once or twice a day. He keeps the homeowners informed about exactly what will be happening each day and liases with all the trades and suppliers for us in the most efficient and easy manner.
A team arrived early and spent the day jacking the house up along the load bearing wall in the basement, using both wood and metal posts. An electrician was called in to unhook the central vac outlet, light switch, and thermostat - all of which were fastened to studs on that load bearing partition. A plumber came, dismantled the two baseboard water heaters and discovered the first (and hopefully) only problem - that those heaters were "looped" into the heater in the basement office. So additional plumbing work was required there but the problem was quickly resolved.

Day Two:

The team arrived at what will now be their usual time - 7 a.m. each morning! The better part of the day was spent installing the steel beam with a jack lift. Mark stressed that this beam preparation and installation is the most important and most difficult part of the project. It was a tricky manoever as the extremely heavy (600+ pound!) steel beam had to be snugged in beside the metal ducts of the ventilation system. They also started insulating and installing a vapor barrier between the cement pony wall and existing drywall.

Day Three

 Studding begins. We also asked this morning if an eavestrough problem outside the basement door could be resolved by the company while they were here. By mid-afternoon, they had an extension ladder on site and the offending eavestrough was hooked into a higher one that runs the length of the garage.

A Christmas Tradition

Movita and I have made a tradition of spending part of a morning at Thornbloom each year and having lunch afterwards. Go to Movita's blog to see the wonderful display of Christmas baubles.
This year, we had lunch at A Mano - one of our favorite downtown restaurants. Pasta for the main course and then, because it IS only once a year, a round of fabulous desserts:

Projects

We are notoriously bad at making decisions. We have a tendency to over-research everything and we, as they say, over think - big time. My poor brother witnessed the process one day when he and his basset hound dropped in while we were trying to plan a vacation to Britain. We were making calls to various locations in the British Isles, madly reading up on accommodations, changing flight plans, considering the pros and cons of a variety of weather conditions... The poor man - I am sure his head was spinning by the time he left. And we never did fly overseas that week. We made it as far as Toronto. 

After mulling over a variety of house projects for the last couple of years, we finally settled on a basement renovation. Work starts two days from now.

The "Before" Photos

The upper photos show the "room" that runs from the front of the house to the mid-point  and the lower photos show the "room" running from the midpoint to the back side of the house. The load bearing partition will be removed and a 350 pound steel beam installed to make one large room. The back door will open onto a small area of ceramic flooring. There will be a half wall by the door with bookcase style shelving. The rest of the room will have maple laminate flooring. There will be a closet, eight recessed pot lights, and two overhead semi-flush ceiling fixtures (we like LOTS of light), and a cable hookup. The "rustic" staircase to the basement will be replaced with maple hardwood.

We'd like the new room to have a cosy, comfortable seating area around an area rug for watching television and reading, and many bookcases, etc. to hold knitting supplies, reading materials, etc.

A Much Smaller Work In Progress:

The babies keep coming. I''m having a bit of fun here adding stripes to a basic baby cardigan. I may just stripe the sleeves and leave the rest of the sweater white with navy buttons. After so many baby girls, I am counting on one of these newcomers finally being a boy.

What That Ball of Fabel Became

Why, little dancin' boots!

Pattern: Baby Booties in Patterned Sock Yarn

Yarn: Fabel Superwash by DROPS

Color:161p

Needles: 2.25 mm

Sunday Review

Pattern: Parade

Designer: Judy Kaethler

Yarn: Jawoll Solids

Color: Gray - 23

Needles: Circular - 2.25 mm

Other Good Things This Past Week:

Bark mulch delivery. I moved the entire two yards on Monday - proving once again that gardeners never get too old to do the things they love to do. Some of the mulch was used to mound the roses for winter, some placed in heaps along the foundation at the front of the house to cover and hide the wires and extension cords when the shrubs are covered in Christmas lights, and  the rest was stockpiled under the trees in "mulch holding area".

A visit to Have A Yarn in Mahone Bay. The lady working there that day had made some dear little items that were for sale at the front counter. She was most helpful in helping me to choose the yarn for working on one of those sweet little projects. We decided on this ball of Fabel sock yarn and she provided me with a free pattern from the store. 

I was not as lucky, however, in finding just the right type of yarn for a cardigan for the Pink Princess. They had the color she loves but in a heavier gauge than the pattern calls for.

And something I have been meaning to share for a long time.

The Japanese edition of Johnny Kellock Died Today by the great Hadley Dyer.

Week in Review - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good:

I love my new flip mirror (regular on one side and with 8X magnification on the other). It is definitely one of my better purchases! It helps immeasureably when it comes to tweezing eyebrows, applying makeup, and filling wrinkles and cracks with miracle cream.

And it has a light! So first thing in the morning, or last thing at night, it lights the bathroom with a softer, more ambient light than the overhead fixtures. When I picked this one up at Home Outfitters, I noticed that they had wall mounted models as well. I highly recommend them as an addition to any bathrooom.

My new glasses. I've spent the past year with my old glasses on top of my head more than on my face. This new prescription (my nearsightedness has actually improved greatly) is awesome. I love the frames and they are always firmly on my face - except when taking a photo of them ...

Other Really Good Things:

The Pink Princess in France is hungrily learning to do math and read. At four years of age, she is a marvel but, of course, you heard me say that four years ago!

The estimate is in for the basement renovation. It's good. And the estimate for the basement hardwood staircase has arrived. Not quite so good but we knew it would be expensive. The light fixtures (eight pot lights, two semi flush ceiling fixtures, and two wall scones) are being couriered to the house on Tuesday. We expect construction to begin by the end of the month.

We had 49 kids here on Halloween - our largest number in the fourteen years we have been here. The three little boys from two houses away came with their baby sister and made a fuss over Lucy Dog and solemnly told us how their dog, Hunter, is in heaven now and they are still sad and miss her very much.

The Christmas pound cake is made and has been carefully wrapped and stored. I thought about Isabelle all that day.

The window boxes have been emptied, cleaned, spot primed, and filled with perlite. Once the weather really turns cold, they will be filled with evergreens for the winter.

Ms. Cutie's Little Car Coat has been boxed and will soon be on its way to Toronto.

The Bad and The Ugly

I ordered navy blue Jawoll sock yarn (one of my favourites) weeks and weeks ago to knit a pair of socks for a Christmas gift. I got the two balls out this week, and started one, completed the leg section, put it aside, and started the leg of the second sock. Last evening, both legs completed, I had them side by side for the first time and noticed immediately that the navy color is not the same. The vendor sent me two different color numbers with two different dye lots. I lost a week of sock knitting and won't get this particular yarn again in time for Christmas. And the socks were looking so good!

The drapery panels I have been waiting three weeks for arrived from Pottery Barn. Upon opening the package, I discovered that the price quoted was for one panel only! And the color - ivory- was actually more an orangey/sandy/light tan. Yikes! Not a shade I could live with. The panel has to go back. And I am back to square one in my search for a simple, lightweight, semi-opaque, softly draping pair of panels.

And Finally

Winter is coming. The time changes tonight. The bad news is that when the snow flies, there will be more difficult driving in the weeks ahead. The good news is that the landscape will be lovely covered in white.

Current, Long Term, Life Long Project

Ms. Cutie's Little Car Coat

Pattern: Garter Yoke Baby Cardi

Designer: Jennifer Hoel

Yarn: DROPS Merino

Color: 17 Cerise

Needles: Circular - 3.75 mm and 3.25 mm

This is one of my favourite patterns for babies.

The only modifications I made were to increase the bottom border by a few rows to reduce the risk of rollover, and to finish the sleeve cuffs on a smaller needle as I prefer them to be just a bit narrower.