I've been playing around with the gadgets and
tools on my i-photo application to see what I
can do to my pictures to make them more
interesting. One of my favorite tools is the
"antique" application which is what I have
used on the above picture.

This is the door of an old church in Toronto
that I walked passed the day of the Word On
the Street festival. Love the vines growing
over the brick and over the door itself. And
the stained glass window over the door is
wonderful with the framed round center-

piece. A bit of a Gothic look.

This is a Mourning Dove sitting on the railing of
our deck, preening his feathers and basking in
the warm sunlight. I caught him in just the right
moment, with tail feathers spread out and wing
lowered to show off his under feathers. Quite a
common bird around here and easily overlooked
because of it's lack of color but they do have nice
markings on their feathers and have an understated
but elegant look about them.

The pose sort of reminds me of those stuffed birds
that used to be arranged on top of lady's hats back
in the 19th and early 20th century.

I have almost finished a large motif on my Halloween
Quaker. I spent quite a bit of Saturday afternoon just
stitching away on it which was quite enjoyable. A bit
of Stitcher's Numb Butt syndrome never hurt anyone.
And since my weekends for the rest of November are
pretty heavily booked I'm not sure when I'll have
time to spend an afternoon stitching again.

I have a four day holiday during the week of the
16th to the 19th and although two of those days
are booked I do have two free days (so far) which
might be good stitching time, unless something
else gets penciled in.

I do have to take a few hours to pack away the
Fall ornaments and to clear the living room /
dinning room / den and bedrooms to get ready
for Christmas decorating which will be happening
on the weekend of the 20th.

Oh, and Christmas cards will need to be done as
well, once I find ones that I like. Which also means
Christmas letters to overseas friends and family to
write .... Ack!!!

Don'tcha just love the Christmas Season???

I've never introduced you to this little darling
who followed me home from Black Creek Pioneer
Village back in September. A lady was selling
some of her crafty stuff in one of the buildings
and she had a couple of these bunnies on
display. I thought that this one was especially
adorable and couldn't leave her behind. I love
the fabric that she's made with and she is
beautifully crafted.

And since we're speaking of Black Creek Pioneer
Village I should add a couple of more pictures
of the samplers that I found there during our
visit. This is one of a pair of matching samplers
which were stitched in memory of Thomas and
Ann Newman.

A close up of Thomas's sampler. The verse is
made up of such tiny stitches it's hard to read
in the pictures that I took and the glass covering
both samplers made it difficult to get really
close because of the camera flash.

I'd really love to know the history behind these
two samplers. It appears that Thomas and Ann
died within two days of each other. Were they
husband and wife?? Siblings??? Who stitched
these two samplers in remembrance of Thomas
and Ann?? I'm nosy that way.

My book finish this week was another fabulous
read that I had trouble putting down and got
totally lost in when I was reading it. Part
historical fiction and part young adult story
it is a rich, engrossing and often times emotional
read that keeps you hooked every step of the
way.

Andi is a young musical genius who is caught
up in the guilt and grief relating to the death
of her younger brother Truman. Depressed
and suicidal Andi is going through the motions
of her life at an exclusive school in Manhattan,
while caring for her mother who is herself
immersed and lost in grief for her son.

When Andi's father, a Nobel Prize winning
genetic scientist who is physically and emotionally
separated from his family, discovers his ex-wife's
mental state and is informed about Andi's failing
grades at school he insists that Andi join him in
Paris where he's involved in a project requiring his
expertise.

Once in Paris Andi discovers a diary hidden
inside the case of an old guitar which belonged
to Alexandrine Paradis (Alex), a girl who lived
during the French Revolution and who became
involved with the french royal family and in
particular the young Dauphin Louis-Charles.
As Andi reads the diary she becomes caught up
in Alex's story and the events during this turbulent
and violent time in Paris's history.

Donnelly deftly weaves the many strands of story line
that include Andi's work on her senior thesis about
the mysterious composer Amade Malherbeau who
also lived during the revolution, the budding
relationship between Andi and a young rapper
musician and taxi driver named Virgil, and Alex's
struggle to save the doomed Louis-Charles and
herself from falling victim to the horrors of the
French Revolution.

This is one of those books where you become so
emotionally attached to the characters you find
it very hard to let them go when the story ends.
And although you can't put the book down and
are eager to find out what happens next at the
same time you are sorry to have it end.

I've read two other books by Jennifer Donnelly
(The Tea Rose and The Winter Rose) and loved
them too but this one has more of an emotional
connection then those two which were more
"fun" reads. Check out this book for yourself
and see if it doesn't draw you in as well.

One of the best books that I've read in ages!

It's been ages since I've featured a picture of one of
the cats for you so here's Phoebe in all her furry
sweetness to say hello.

Halloween last weekend was cold and windy and
as a result we had fewer trick or treaters then we
did last year. We even had snow ... sort of ...
during the day. It was probably more like tiny ice
pellets then snow, but it gave us pause to see it
coming down in brief blizzard style spurts.

Oh, yes ... winter's coming ....

We had a cauldron full of mini chocolate bars
left over at the end of the night which I insisted
DH take to work with him the very next day.
I'd been picking my favorite mini bars (mmm...
Kit Kat ... mmmm ... Aero .... mmmm ... Coffee
Crisp ... mmmm ... Smarties etc) out of the cauldron
and wolfing them down between shelling out to the
kids Halloween night and didn't trust myself to have
them in the house any longer then could be helped.

I'm glad you all managed to survive the previous
"foodie" post. It seemed to have many of you
scrambling for the kitchen once you'd read it and
seen the pictures and for that I apologize ... with
a wicked grin on my face. :)

Hope you all have a fabulous week and thanks
as always for dropping by.

Cheers!