November News...

Tuesday November 1, 2016

Tonight we Partied with the Pets at our local Capital Area Humane Society where we make monthly donations after having brought home our very own fur baby, Tamsin. The event was a fundraiser with the target to raise $35,000 which is apparently what it costs to feed the furry residents until they find forever homes. I’m not sure if they reached their goal, but the director, Rachel Finney, announced they had already raised $25,000. We brought a check for a small donation figuring every little bit helps.

Besides munching on hors d’oeuvres and lovely desserts (and knocking back the wine : ) we met all the feline residents. Unlike when we visited the cat café, most of these cats were awake and quite lively. It was hard not to fall in love with all of them (and I don’t think that was just the wine talking), but Tamsin has made it very clear she doesn’t wish to have any siblings. So, with a heavy heart, we had to walk away. There were lots of people browsing, so maybe one or two of them came back later to adopt.

We also met the resident guinea pigs, one of which reminded me of my brother’s pet named Casey. Sadly, Casey only lived a couple of years. Later my sister adopted an all brown guinea pig and called it Brownie. Brownie lived for at least four years, so we often held her when we were home from college.

Saturday November 5, 2016

Today my friend Kathleen and I went to the St. Brendan’s annual Craft Fair. I suggest we go on a fact-finding mission to gather decorating ideas for Christmas, and, if the price was right, perhaps pick up a wreath or an ornament we could use.

We spent nearly two hours wandering around and only found one booth that sold wreaths, but we weren’t impressed. We did quite like the booth selling ‘Yeti’ (furry snowman) ornaments. I ended up going back to buy one later after we admired them our first time around.

Even though we didn’t leave empty-handed, we failed in our mission to gather ideas we could use for decorating the church for the Christmas season. However, we did receive inspiration for projects we could do in the classroom or around the house, so the morning wasn’t a total loss.

I think we both agreed that our favorite booth, at least in terms of feeling good about where your money was going, was the booth where a lady was selling jewelry (made out of rolled up paper) crafted by women in Swaziland. In fact, she had such a good memory that she remembered who made each and every piece, and asked if you wanted to see a photo of who made the bracelet or necklace you just purchased.

We also loved the little blue boxes our purchases came with at the Origami Owl booth (they’re a private jewelry making company that make their sales by home parties, like Tupperware). I bought a charm for my necklace and Kathleen bought a pair of earrings for her daughter.

Later in the evening, since it wasn’t windy for a change, we decided to finally burn the huge pile of twigs that has been accumulating for the past couple of months. I also took the opportunity to make s’mores, which was quite fun (we did that after the last twig had been thrown on the fire; turning our marshmallows over the hot embers).

Sunday November 6, 2016

Among other projects, I decided to work on my stained glass piece. Although I finished putting the foil around all my pieces on Thursday, I wasn’t happy with how they all fit together. Thus, I decided to recut a couple pieces, so now everything fits together rather snugly, even if it’s far from being straight all the way around.

While I was doing that, Andrew cut and laid another drain pipe next to our side garden to help drain water away from the house.  At one point Andrew blew into the hollow pvc pipe which made a noise similar to a digeridoo (perhaps a new hobby?). It was a task he very much dreaded doing (like me with the stained glass), but he managed to get it done in the space of an afternoon.

Hence, at the end of the weekend we both felt a sense of accomplishment.

Have a good week everyone!