October Recap...Where does the time go???

November?  Already!?  Where did October go?  I know I felt pretty busy in October, but it wasn't until November arrived that I realized just how busy we'd all been.  The weather changed, cars got repairs (heck, a car got stolen and found - Valiant's girlfriend's car, to be specific!), a room got painted, I made it to book club for the first time in months(!), dogs got sick, dogs got better, sprinklers got blown out in anticipation of the freeze, I even covered for a friend at her work so she could get some much needed time off.  Obviously, I didn't take pictures of it all, but I did take some random photos:


I put up a few of my favorite Halloween decorations, but with no little kids at home, I didn't feel like going all out.  I have three of these wrought iron spiders in various sizes and just love them...this is the smallest one:

I also put up our ping pong ball bats...they just make me smile whenever I see them.

Not bad for a ping pong ball and googly eyes!!

I got some awesome bird feeders to replace the generic plastic ones I've had forever...and, as you can see by the picture I just took, the birds are fans and empty them quickly as they prepare for winter. 

 

So pretty when they're being swarmed by birds...

I even managed to get a new barbecue cover on Superman's barbecue before the three weeks of rain came...the leaves?  They have to wait until tomorrow...I did the front yard today.

Ready for winter!!

I did a lot of sewing.  Some of it was sewing for my friend Cassi at Piping and Pleats...and a c couple of the projects were incredibly large cushions.  Seriously large.  I had my sister in stitches on Skype watching me stuff the cushion below into its slipcover...to say it was stiff would be an understatement.  I was wrestling the sucker into submission!  Check out this before and after:

Just to give you an idea of how large this is:  That cushion is lying across a couch and each of the
 floor tiles visible in the before picture are 13x13" tiles.  The cushion was large!!

I finally pulled the trigger and bought some embroidery software to enable me to do more with the embroidery functions on the Brother SE400 my family bought me four years ago.  I went with Sew What Pro for $65 because I don't even know what I don't know, so I couldn't see a reason to spend more on Embrilliance.  At some point, I might switch over, but for now, I'll see how it goes.

I love binding PDF documents - software instructions, pattern instructions...binding
makes them so easy to use.  They lay flat when they're open for reference during a project.

After quite a bit of trial and error, I decided to go for it and embellished a couple of toddler sized Halloween t-shirts for Aunt S's baby boys...my first time embroidering something other than names on anything and my first time embroidering on clothing.  It wasn't easy, but I was pretty pleased with the results.  (Plus, toddlers aren't perfectionists!!)

Ruined Cash's first shirt, otherwise both would have been grey...live and learn...

In the middle of it all, I had a birthday and Superman and Charming got together to get me these:

Who doesn't love red Vans?

Oh, and my sister requested some Halloween pillowcases made from some of the most fabulous fabric...the pictures she sent me didn't do it justice...as soon as the fabric arrived, I was itching to get the pillowcases made and shipped off to her.  They were such a fun project!  (And it's really awesome when your family likes what you sew enough to ask for more!)

Best fabric ever!!  (It reminds me of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.)

And, as October wound down, Buttercup and I helped close down our beloved CrossFit 509.  It has been our gym home for five and a half years and I was heartbroken when the owner had to make the difficult decision to close it down.  Still, when you're lucky enough to have your gym become part of your family, you help with even the sad stuff.  When all the equipment is gone, you're just left with just a sad shell of a building...very sad and weird and all of that...even Honey was bummed...

I had to chuckle at the scuff marks above the blue stripe...wall ball marks!  Bahaha!

We finished off October by going to dinner on Halloween...as the kids got too old for trick or treating, we started a new tradition...this is our 6th year doing it...PF Changs was pretty tasty.


There you go...some of the stuff that went on in the Nagle5 world in October.  Now I'm ready...let November roll on in!!

Would you like to see our garden?

One of the things I've learned from living in a place where we truly experience four true seasons is that by the end of winter, I'm desperate for color.  After the gray days of winter, I long for bright colors.  As soon as we have our last frost, I'm planting annuals and prepping for my perennials to come up.  Then, we wait...

By July, we have those bright colors we've been waiting for...

My day lily fence...

We have daylilies acting as a little fence between our yard and the neighbor's yard.

Self-seeded petunias...

We have a profusion of petunias...interestingly I planted only a few...these babies self-seeded from last year.

Aren't these beautiful?

We have gorgeous Asiatic lilies.



We have seven of these...

Look at our hanging planters...aren't they pretty?

Butterfly approved...the ultimate garden seal.

One of our two apple trees.  We didn't know they were apple trees until our third year here.  Improved irrigation did the trick.

And the view off our deck is still fabulous.  We keep hearing that they're going to build something horrible like retail there, but for now, we're oh so grateful that they haven't.

The view off our deck...geraniums are a nice pop of color, aren't they?
We get a lot of birds at the bird feeders, too.  The cats love that!

We have lots more going on, but these pictures give you a good idea of how busy our yard is keeping us.  Definitely some serious productivity going on here!

Uh oh...

Dear Dad,

Mom found the chainsaw and has gone mad with power. The yard may never be the same.

Love,

Valiant and Buttercup

Getting A Lot Done, Just Not Any Blogging

We've been on a roll the past few days, so I really haven't had time to post. (Yes, I know kitten posts, while cute, don't really count!) I heard a nasty rumor that we're going to be having rain through Saturday, so I'm doubly grateful that I buckled down and got a bunch of yard work done these past two days (with the help of my trusty associates!).

Twinkle lights hung on the deck? Check!

(Yeah, I know the deck cover needs to be painted, but the twinkle lights make me feel happy when I see them and the painting will get done this summer.) Even better? These are twinkle lights from Christmas that are LED, so they are super inexpensive to have on. (Valiant took this night shot for me just now...wasn't that kind of him?)

Lawns got mowed and edged...I've decided Mondays are the day to do it. Weekends can be for other fun stuff and yard work just becomes one more Monday chore.

The last of the seedling in are in the ground or in pots and all the pots are hung or set out, even the ones that needed to be attached to the railing around our firepit.

Our new turtle is doing well and I found the time to clean his/her bowl yesterday. This turtle is the size of a quarter and, by our best research, it is a Florida or Alabama Red Belly, which means it is not native to our area and wouldn't survive our harsh winters. We have five guppies still with us, too.

Oh, what? I didn't mention the turtle? My dad found the turtle in the driveway and he gave it to us because he knew we needed more pets! Wasn't that kind of him? What is the turtle's name? We don't know...it won't tell us and we can't seem to figure out its name. Do you know our turtle's name?

The sprinkler system has been checked for problems and repaired where needed. Valiant even repaired the pond filter to keep our koi happy as the weather warms up.

I even found time to go to the chiropractor to discover that I am not pulling the starter string for the weed whacker or the lawn mower properly and am tweaking my neck and shoulder and that is why I am in pain! I love my chiropractor and am grateful that Superman is so supportive of our relationship.

In between that kind of stuff, Buttercup begged for her favorite Honey Wheat Bread, so I couldn't help but make some for her. If you haven't already tried it, this recipe makes an awesome wheat bread that is moist and flavorful...it became a family favorite the very first time I made it. (Oh, and it uses the bread maker to make the dough, so you can keep working in the yard!) Since I was already spending time in the kitchen, I decided to teach Charming to make bagels. Charming loves bagels and making your own is so gratifying, I knew this would be right up his alley. Right now, our bagels are spending the night in the refrigerator (slow rise is apparently one of the tricks to good bagels), but we'll be boiling and baking them tomorrow morning.

So, now you know what I've been doing instead of blogging. Forgive me?