The first weekend of November 2013 ... does

anyone know what happened to October???

It seems to have passed by in a flash which is

frustrating to me because it's my favourite 

month. The fact that  there are two major 

holidays in October probably has something 

to do with it.    Thanksgiving and 

Halloween.   

November came in like a lion with strong

winds and heavy rain although the temperatures

were quite mild, thank goodness.   There

was concern that Halloween would be 

spoiled by the weather and indeed it wasn't

the most pleasant of nights out but the 

heaviest rain and the strongest winds did not

occur until much later in the night so the

kids were able to get out and do their 

trick or treating without too much hardship.

Whether the parents who accompanied them

would agree to that observation or not I can't 

say.   Many of them stood on the sidewalk 

in front of our house huddled under an 

umbrella, sometimes clutching a cup of 

some sort of hot beverage and trying to

be patient as their offspring went from

door to door.   

We had about 50 kids come to our door

between 6:30 and 8:00 which is about

normal for us.    We handed out the

mini chocolate bars by the hand full

and I'm very proud of the fact that I

did not eat a single one (or multiples)

of those delicious morsels.   We had

lots left over because I tend to err on

the side of caution when it comes to

preparing for special occasions such

as this so on Friday morning the 

caldron went to work with DH and 

it returned home that night empty!!!!

Thank you for the kind words about

my zentangles Rowyn and Vonna.

I've been filling small sketch books

with my practice pages as well as 

 finished pages such as these here.

I do use a protractor .... is that the

right term? ... a compass?? ... for

the mandala designs since I cannot

draw a decent circle to save my life.

Here is a great site for finding zentangle

patterns and instructions on how to

make them. 

http://tanglepatterns.com/tag/zentangle

.

And needless to say I have a few (cough,

cough) books on the subjects too.   These

are some of my favourites.   I love the Designs

Originals publications.  

These three books are smallish in size but are

jam packed with instructions and ideas.  I refer

to them all the time. 

Just a warning .... these things are crazy addictive.

Once you start, you might not be able to stop.

You've been warned!

And since one cannot indulge in too many

hobbies here is another of my (our) favourites.

I began a Lizzie Kate Christmas design this

week and am enjoying it so much. 

Whenever I have some spare time I sit at my

desk stitching and listening to talk radio on

my computer.   I'm stitching this one in 

hand ... without use of any kind of frame ...

which is something that I haven't done for a

long time.   For these smaller projects at least

it works just fine.  I have to use a table magnifier

and an Ott-Lite as well to see properly.

This is being stitched on 32 count Lugana in 

Light Taupe ... which doesn't translate well

in either of these pictures.  

***********************************

Toronto has been in a tizzy for the past

few days thanks to some unexpected and 

astonishing revelations about the city's

mayor Rob Ford.   Allegations of the mayor's 

drug and alcohol abuse, rumoured and hinted 

about for months, plus reports of a video 

showing the mayor posing with suspected 

drug dealers whilst smoking from a crack pipe

have been rampant for half the year but

the mayor has strenuously denied everything

and angrily heaped abuse and scorn at anyone 

(newspaper reporters) who claimed any of it 

was true.  

On Thursday Toronto's police chief 

announced that the alleged video had

been found in the deleted files of a 

computer and the police had a copy of

it.   Oops!

Cries for the mayor to step down and get

help for his problems are coming loudly

from all quarters but he is still denying

all of it and refusing to quit.   

So it's been an interesting time for sitting

and stitching and listening to talk radio.

Note:    I am not at all fond of the mayor

in any case.   Although he does seem to

have done some good work in the early

part of his term in office he is also - to me -

an obnoxious, overbearing bully who 

has been systematically alienating both

allies and opponents in his push to 

implement all his plans for the city and 

he is definitely not a suitable representative

of the city to the rest of Canada and the

world.

********************************

Time to get back to the stitching and the

talk radio.   Have a great week all.

Cheers!