Cougar Tracks?

Last night I stepped out of my comfort zone, with the help of my oldest, and decided to try out boxing. I have never tried boxing, but I am in desperate need of regular exercise, and it's free....three days a week, so it wasn't a question of should I. It was more a question of why am I not already doing it.

Well, my oldest and I headed out, and on our way, we saw these tracks on the sidewalk just behind our house. They are a little hard to see in the photo, but these look very much like cougar tracks.

Dog tracks are closer together in the toes, and are also more pointy. Also the heel pad is shaped differently between cats and dogs.

So now I am a little fearful that there is another cougar in the area, or the same cougar has returned. I am almost certain these tracks were not there the previous day. I pay pretty close attention to the ground when I am walking, and especially to tracks, so I can point them out to my kids. Rob was trying to convince me that these are from a dog, but I am not convinced. Do any of you know whether these are cat or dog tracks. I forgot to use something as a reference for size but they are the size of a large dogs prints. 

On another note, the sky was amazing last night. 

Win Your Discount Wednesday at SVP-Aug 24th, 2011

I picked a 43% off chip today, which is awesome! I love getting odd numbers. I think I picked 41% off another time.

I found another wool blanket. It's a good fall color.

It was made in Canada and is Mothproofed, so......cool.

A pineapple nightie. Couldn't pass this up.

Even though I am considering moving away from making clothing for a little while, I still couldn't resist getting more tees. The rainbow striped polo may go to my husband if he likes it, and the tan colored polo will be used to make the Deer design for my newest quilt. 

Jas picked these for daddy. 

What are some of your best thrift finds? I keep reaching out, hoping to make a connection with more of you:) No pressure.

Hope you are enjoying the final bits of summer. I can already see signs of Fall. The leaves have started changing color and falling. Summer always ends too soon.

Want to play Plinky?

Before I start the Plinky questions, I wanted to share the start of my new quilt:

This one will have a Deer design

We have a ton of these little guys around right now:

A blog that I follow occasionally has Plinky questions. I usually answer the questions to myself, but today I decided to answer them on her blog. It's fun, and so I wanted to try playing Plinky on my blog, so feel free to leave a comment with your answers, or you can answer them privately to yourself.

1. Name a food you were surprised to like.


2.  Share a fear that you are working on overcoming.


3. If you were given the chance to find out what happens in your future, would you take it?


4. What were the must have toys when you were a kid?


I so hope that some of you will share. You can answer one or all!


I will get the ball rolling:


1. Carrot jello 


2. Driving. I really want to learn how to drive. It would make my life so much easier, but I am sooooo afraid!


3. I don't think I would. I fear it would take away from the experience of living.


4. Rainbow Bright, Care Bears, Popples, Cricket

Potlatch Gifts

My aunt finally has a shop featuring all her beautiful designs, called Potlatch Gifts. For any that may not know, my aunt is the one who generously gave me some of her designs to use on my quilts and blankets.

My aunt is off to Emily Carr at the end of the month to pursue her love of art, and I can't be any more excited for her. She has spent her life helping others, putting her desire to create on the back burner, and she is now going after her dream. It is so inspiring.

Unfortunately I am not computer savvy enough to figure out how to add photos from her shop, so I encourage you to pop over and browse through her beautiful designs.

Here are a few of the designs she has given me:

Hummingbird

Deer

Butterfly

Killer Whale

Bear Prints

Tree of Life

So pop over and maybe you can get some early Christmas shopping done:)

What's new in my garden

We have had a few blueberries, and they are the tastiest blueberries ever. There is almost a rosey flavor to them.

Forget me nots that were given to us on earth day. 

Our zucchini's are not as plentyful as they have been in the past, but this is our first year in our new home and the soil is not very great. 

The yellow squash is producing lots, but they aren't growing very big.

Here are some more yellow squash.

The pumpkins are so cute:)

The second crop of strawberries have started. Yummy.

It looks like we will have some tomatoes soon. I'll be using these for fresh salsa.

This is my first year growing cucumbers, so it's super exciting seeing these grow. We have already eaten two cucumbers. One from this plant and....

one from this plant. Jude ate most of the cucumbers to himself.

These tiny squash aren't really getting much bigger than this. 

Only four pole beans survived the critters, and they are starting to climb the poles.

Our peas are done. We just pulled up the pea plants on the weekend, and I have planted a second crop where the pole beans are, and I will be putting up chicken wire to keep the critters out. 

I am hoping to pick up some alpaca manure from our neighbors soon, so I can work on improving the soil. I have heard alpaca and lama manure is like the rolls royce of manure, so it's pretty exciting to have a source so close at hand.

The Night Sky

I love how beautiful the night sky is. The top picture was taken of the full moon. Rob really wanted a photo of the moon rising. The sunset pictures were taken by Rob a couple of nights ago, and the last picture was taken by me last night. I commented on how we need a tri-pod because the pictures turned out so blurry. Rob asked if I used the railing on our balcony. Ummmm....I tried using our patio table, but the railing blocked the moon! Isn't it funny how sometimes the obvious is TOO obvious? Sigh. Next time.

Supercharged Science

I have just signed my kids up for the Supercharged Science homeschool program. We haven't spent much time perusing the material yet, being in front of the computer is not where we want to be, but we have watched a few videos. There is a huge selection of experiments, which makes the program very hands on. Something me and my kids will appreciate. Most materials can easily be found around the house, if not, then they can be picked up at the store.

Here is a video on how to make a simple hovercraft:
www.sciencelearningspace.com/members/go.php?r=7856&i=l16

The only material required are a CD, ballon, glue gun, and water bottle spout.

The other day I watched a Fire video with Jai and he was super excited about it afterwards, sharing the information he learned with Rob afterwards.

I want my kids to be excited about learning, and I think this program will fit our learning style well.

It's a homeschooling program, but I think it is something that kids in school could benefit from as well. Who doesn't love doing fun experiments?

Also, until 5 PM Pacific time, Supercharged Science is giving families the opportunity to try out the program for $1, as well as some other goodies, which I can't remember what they are.

You can learn more about the program on their site here, or sign up for email updates where they send you free experiments or videos.

Win Your Discount Wednesday at SVP-Aug 10th, 2011

I feel so fortunate to have made two thrift store trips this week. On Monday, Rob took the day off of work and I went into town (Victoria) with Jai for his first day of hockey camp. I hung around the arena for a little while to shoot some pics, but it was freezing!

I hoped on a bus and went downtown. The thrift shop there is much pricier, but there is a much bigger selection. I was excited to spend the whole day scouring the racks, sans kids, and felt pretty ambitious. Unfortunately I just don't have the attention span for hours on end of searching through endless racks of clothing. Though I did find some goodies:

I found all these tees and am in the process of making the "homework" tee into a hoodie.

I like this message.

This is the front of the shirt.

Purple suede!! Yahoo! I had already started cutting this dress up before I took pictures.

Here is what I am making with the purple suede.

This is great knit spandexy fabric. I found some other great knit, but it didn't have a price tag, so they wouldn't sell it to me:( 

Who doesn't have a guy in there life that this applies to. There was another one that was similar, but for some reason I didn't get it. I think I was starting to burn out at that point. This shirt is going to Rob. He wants me to cut it up and make it into something cool for him.

This is what I found today at SVP where I won 25% off!

This amazing red 100% wool blanket! I love it! 

Some more tees. A few blank tees that will be great for silk screening.

Stripy fabric:) 

Dress shirts for pants or dresses, or one of each. I haven't decided yet.

And that is the end of my shopping adventures. I hope you are having a great week.

Art In The Park

I had a bit of a disappointing weekend. Art in the Park was a flop. There isn't much foot traffic in Sooke, so I was taking a bit of a risk signing up for the event. There was entertainment though, which filled the silence and made the 7 hour days feel not quite so long, and Ed McGregor Park is beautiful, so spending the day in a beautiful park with the sun shining was not bad. Plus I was right next to the delicious freezies. In the end it equaled a good tan, a connection with a shop in Sooke where I can sell my clothing, 8 Hermy cards sold, and another lesson learned in following my gut:)

On top of that, there were three shops from my VI Etsy Team at the event. I snapped a couple of quick photos before my oldest came up from behind and scared the breath out of me.

Sunshine Jewls was across from me. She also happens to be my neigbor:)

She makes beautiful, sparkly jewelry using swarovski crystals, freshwater pearls, genuine semi-precious gemstones, and sterling silver or 14K gold vermeil.

I love pendants, and I adore the driftwood displays that she made. It gives such a natural feel that fits well with our little island.

 And Megan Linford was sharing a booth with Sunshine Jewls.

She makes fashionable and functional handbags. I love her choice of colors and patterns.

I had many an hour to stare at her work and couldn't decide which was my favorite. From one hour to the next I seemed to come up with another fav. I really like all of them and I wish I had taken more photos.

And the third shop I didn't get any photos of, which is disappointing. He makes incredible pottery and is unfortunately not listing much on Etsy these days. Here is his shop: Casitadel Lobo Studio. His wife sells at Moss St Market and he is selling here in Sooke at the Saturday market. They are more focused on markets, as well as having some pottery in a shop downtown Victoria.

I am going to start shifting into fall mode, and will be working on long sleeves, pants and hoodies. If you have any special requests, please do let me know.