It's going to be a long night

Our garden is over flowing with veggie goodness right now. It's pretty damned spectacular out there. Just look as this huge basket of swiss chard I just picked.

Now I have to process it so that the fruits of our labour won't go to waste. For this giant basket of swiss chard I'll wash, trim, blanch, squeeze and freeze.

There's loads of other stuff back there too.

Too many eggplants to count.

Dozens of peppers.

Tomatoes that look like huge bunches of grapes.

The question is... can we keep up?

Make-a-Mess Mish Mash Giveaway

See all this old stuff?

I'm giving it away.

There's an old book, some vintage children's book illustrations, old domed clock glass, photographs, vintage bingo card, buttons, ribbon and more. I'll add more goodies to the mix as I go through my stash.

What do you have to do? Just leave a comment below and I'll randomly pick a winner on August 30th, 2011. Please make sure I can contact you via your comment! If I can not, another winner will be chosen at random.

If more than 30 people enter I'll giveaway a second package of goodies.

That's it. Easy peasy!

Good luck and may the force with you.

They grow up so fast, don't they.

Here's sweet little Padfoot who is growing so fast. He's such a lovely dog. He plays nicely (most of the time) and doesn't listen to a word I say unless I've got a treat in my hand. No worries, he's definitely a keeper and we all love him to bits. I think he loves us too because when we got back from camping he was so excited to see us he piddled a bit. Who knew getting peed upon would be a compliment.

I've been working hard on a few things but I'll wait to post them. I think you'll like them. I've enjoyed doing them so much I've spent far too much time making them. Sometimes I get so absorbed in the making that I forget things like bed time.

I'll be making things like mad over the next few months getting ready to do a couple of small local shows AND something special too. We're going to have an open house here the first weekend of December to show off our stuff and spread the holiday spirit. I'm looking forward to it already but I'm dreading all the prep work... there's a hell of a lot of it!

Will keep you posted and hopefully show off my new goodies in no time at all.

We're back!

Every year we grab the tent and camp at a different Ontario Provincial Park. This year we went to Bonnechere which sits on Round Lake, in the Ottawa valley, just a short trip from Algonquin park.

The beach was fab.

Our site was right on the Little Bonnechere river.

The weather was (mostly) great.

D especially loved just sitting at the waters edge and catching a few fish :)

I could have done without the two kids blowing whistles at 6 in the morning (parents! how can you not hear that?!?) but all in all it was a pretty darn great trip. Bonnechere definitely ranks as one of my favourite parks so far and I'd totally consider a return visit :)

We've camped at private grounds and they don't even come close to the Provincial Park experience. Most individual PP sites allow for quite a bit of privacy, unlike the fishbowl setup of many privately operated grounds. The Prov. Parks we've been to have had great daily kid programs, hiking trails, clean beaches, and reasonable rentals (ie $30 full day canoe rental incl. all needed life jackets). Bonnechere also offered free fishing rods, beach balls, and sporting equipment. They might not be as flashy as some private campgrounds, but the Provincial Parks we've visited have felt feel a whole lot safer, cleaner and are far quieter... apart from the whistling kids.

Medieval Witch Board & Shop Announcement

Another board?

I know, I know... but I'm on a roll. This one uses a 15th century woodcut image from an Italian book on witchcraft. She's up in the etsy shop here.

Speaking of shops... I've taken down all of the listing in my witchy shop. D has decided that he'd like to earn a few pennies so I'm lending him my shop for a while. My little photog has a pretty keen eye and is going to try his hand at selling his photos online. If it goes well we'll and he doesn't lose interest in 3 minutes we'll set up his own place. I've helped with photo editing but the photos are all his... check out his work!

You can the rest of his work here.

What pirates do when bored at sea...

I imagine that during dull pirating times when there were no treasures to be buried or legs to be pegged that that a brave crew might just try to contact the spirit world. I'm sure that those more superstitious mateys would piddle themselves in fear that Davey Jones himself might be sending messages from the beyond.

Now in the etsy shop

Would this be considered adult content?

I was harvesting some glorious, scrummy veggies from our patch today and pulled this out of the ground.

There is no artistic, crafting or witchy merit to this post (I could get into the magical uses for such a root but I won't)... I'm sharing this solely because I have the sense of humour of a ten year old boy.