"Wait... What?"  Those were my thoughts exactly after I walked into the kitchen and looked out the window.  My first thought was that the rain had watered the bush in the backyard and it had grown a whole bunch without me even noticing.  After doing a double take, however, I realized that there was a tree in our backyard.  The tree that used to grow out of the hillside (which you can see in one of the pictures in this post) is now taking up most of our back deck.  The roots are still in the ground, so hopefully the hill will remain in place with the next storms that come our way (one is raging even as I speak).  Having a tree in our yard makes it difficult to spend time out there, and definitely not with Goen.  I'm hoping they come cut the tree out soon.  Besides, I have my eye on keeping some of the wood for a project idea I have.  Which reminds me.  Does anybody know how to cure wood to prepare it for carving?  Any print or online resources that you have found helpful?  I'm a complete novice, so something basic would be great.

This past week has been a mixed bag.  There has been some good and some bad and some in-between.  In no particular order:

I discovered two new-to-me fabric companies and three fabric designers that I absolutely love.  The first fabric company is Windham Fabrics.  They print fabrics designed by Jessica Levitt and Kim Andersson, whose first collection comes out in January.  I discovered the third designer, Eloise Renouf, on Instagram, then visited her Etsy shop.  I loved her designs so much that I messaged her to ask if she designed fabric.  She responded back directing me to check out her collections on Cloud 9 Fabrics.  All these designers have collections that are inspired by nature; realistic, but with a whimsical feel.  I have already chosen several that I would like to use for a quilt I am planning for my little one.

Somehow, wool-eating insects (carpet beetles, apparently) got into my house.  I noticed them Sunday evening while picking up toys.  They had made dinner out of poor Mr. Fox.  He is now recuperating in the freezer, along with my handstitched nuthatch (so far untouched), just in case there are more bugs on/in them.  It was a very sad thing to see my hard work full of small holes that will inevitably become bigger unless I patch them up.  Mr. Fox's beautiful face is gone forever.

Our second wedding anniversary was Friday.  I made a delicious red curry with peppers and kabucha squash over rice.  I had planned to make an apple crisp for dessert but ran out of time.  I made it the next night instead.  Although we were celebrating two years, we have actually been together for over six.  It felt strange not to recognize the other four just because we hadn't said "I do" yet.

Saturday's dinner of barbecued chicken legs was left on the grill for about three hours too long, becoming something more like "charbecue."  It's a long story, but the end result was hours of work for my husband to clean the cast iron grates.  Luckily, I remembered that night was the moms' club Halloween party that I had RSVP'd for over a week ago.  They served a delicious dinner of serve-yourself soft tacos.  I had also volunteered to man the craft table for an hour, which was... interesting.  The crafts were of the "this is how you do it" variety.  Coloring pages and markers, foam pumpkins and stickers, string and beads.  Pretty generic stuff.  But I have never seen such concentrated chaos.  Five to ten kids at a time, some with a parent, all reaching for something while spilling something else and leaving everything out when they left.

I came up with a name for my future farm (should it become a reality) only to find out from a Google search that it has already been used as a blog name.  The blogger only published a single post about a year ago and then quit.  Maybe, if I succeed in my goal, she will let me have it and I can blog about my adventures as I continue my quest for self-sufficiency.

My sister had surgery.  It was minor, but still scary.  There is nothing like a medical experience to make you think about how things would be if...  Luckily everything turned out fine.

I am getting close to finishing my entry for the Wise Craft Handmade contest.  I used up some fabric from my stash and have only purchased embroidery floss for it.  It should be done in the next few days (assuming I get enough baby-free time to actually touch my sewing machine). 

Our 50mm camera lens, which I use almost exclusively, quit focusing on anything more than five feet away, probably as a result of being dropped six months ago.  I'm not sure what to do about it.  I can't afford a new one, and I'm not sure paying someone too fix it will result in a more usable lens for the long term.  In the meantime, I'm limping along and hoping my subject stays close.

I had several very strange and disturbing dreams.  One involved crash landing on a dark, glacial island surrounded by frothy ocean water and inhabited by werewolves.  In another I chipped a tooth.  And last night I dreamed of my childhood nemesis.

It was a very busy week, this one.  Busy enough to make me miss the slow, mundane, even boring days I'm used to.  But, hey, life is always mixing it up for us.  It's what keeps things interesting.