At long last, the leaves are done...

...just in time for them to turn colors and fall off. Believe me, if I could think of a way to do that, I would.
So now the next step is to stencil the ferns coming up from the baseboard. After that, I don't know...I don't know how far Deb wants to carry this, but all I can say is that the white wall continues down the hall, and into the living room. That's all I'm saying.

Anyway, it has rained here quite a bit in the last couple days. Today was sunny, thank goodness, because I don't know if my dog can take more than one day of rain in a row. It's like having a 6-year-old who can't go out to play. She wants to go out, so I put her out and she stands there looking pathetically out at the yard and finally decides "this sucks" and wants to come in where she is literally bored to the point where she gets into mischief just so I will have to stop her. Then she wants to go out again. She likes it when it's nice out and people are in the yard, Preston doing yard work or working on one car or another and stopping to throw the ball, my Dad puttering around with one of his many projects and stopping to feed her milk bones. It's all about her. What a life! She does like the snow though, so that shouldn't be a problem. The only problem with winter, and it's already started, is with ME--I get this uncontrollable urge to cook. And while the house is fragrant with beef stew and biscuits today, as it was last night with the bouquet of baking eggnog cookies, I am going to need to find some sort of exercise program or I'll never fit out the door in the spring.

Band news: Decorus Mens is hosting a concert on December 7 at the Calabrese Club in Westerly so anybody in the area should go check it out. It's a benefit for the St. Mary/St. James Food Pantry, and the price of admission is 3 or more nonperishable food items, baby items (wipes, diapers, etc), or toiletries.

Sewing news: Linda Perra and I have resurrected the old Christmas Open House, which is going to be November 17 and 18; details at www.incrediblethreads.com. I haven't done a Christmas show in years, and I can't tell you how happy I am to be sewing fun little craft things for a change instead of hems and zippers.