Happy Halloween from the Chicken-Head Cats!

Chicken Head Mango looks at the flying witch making her way across the sky on a broomstick, while Chicken Head Kingston licks his lips in anticipation of the chicken-flavored candy he'll be collecting tonight.

Booty Check

After John went wild over my bright orange booty and asked where I got it, I realized it's really good fiber blogger etiquette to ID your stash! Give props to the maker! So without further ado, here are the origins of the softness that now lives in my sheep closet:
Left to right, there is:

• Pale blue with rainbow streaked merino top from Stony Mountain Fibers
• Crazy colored wool from A Touch of Twist -- the label says "Screamer's", and I'm not sure if that's the color or another name for the company, but either way, it's appropriate!
• Merino orange and red sunset brilliance from Spinners Hill
• And the lonely skein of yarn on the top is 400 yds of Brook's Farm Solo -- I think this is merino, too, but the label just says "fine wool"

Rhinebeck!

Mother Nature just keeps on giving, with the beautiful weather still holding today. And what a day she gave us for Rhinebeck! I drove over there on Saturday morning, with the sun hitting the trees in just the right way to create such brilliant shades of orange and yellow that I couldn't believe my eyes. I wandered around for a bit, and then ran into Sweetgirlknits. Together we wandered around fondling things until we it was time to meet up with the rest of the SnB gang. I got to see PassionKnitly's beautiful new tattoo, and then witnessed the beginning of the end for her -- she bought her first fiber and spindle! Oh there is no stopping that girl now, she's gonna spin! I also saw lots of other NYC friends, and not a few fibrous animals. The funniest thing I saw all day was a boy around 10 years old giving a mini lecture on alpacas and publicly re-affirming his humanity. We were gathered around one of the pens, petting the alpacas' lovely heads, and the boy was saying to everyone, "Now, if the alpacas weren't in pens, they wouldn't stand still to let us pet them. But I think that since they are in pens, they are getting comfort from us being here. But I don't know that for sure, because I'm not an alpaca."

I didn't go crazy buying stuff -- I was tempted by a pair of wool hand cards, but I think I'm going to put them on my Christmas list. I really, really need to wash and card that raw fleece I bought in Greencastle last year...but here at Rhinebeck,I mostly stuck to colorful fiber, really really soft fiber -- I think it's all merino. Even the one yarn purchase I made is merino. The soft stuff was really calling to me. I could have done a lot more damage, but after 4 hours my feet and hips were killing me and I just had no will to go on. Bacon was just trying to save me some money, I guess! Now, I just have to remind him that alpaca cria walk the very day they are born, none of this starting with crawling and then working your way up to bipedism...

All the fall beauty does mean one thing besides apple cider, pumpkin picking and leaf peeping -- time to rake leaves! The maple tree in our backyard has shed, BIG TIME. But isn't Dave doing a nice job of cleaning up after it? And doesn't Mango really blend into those colors?

The pumpkin hats, they just keep on coming

I wanted to share these cute pics from last weekend with you before RHINEBECK completely takes over my blog. And that's only 2 days away so I realized I was running out of time. Our friends Cherisse & Steve came to visit our "country house" from the great big city, along with their cute son Jack (who would not leave his hat on long enough to get a good shot of him in it!). We did lots of fall stuff like go on a hayride, pick out pumpkins and eat apple pie. Now I just need to carve up all of the pumpkins we have been hoarding for the last few months...because jack-o-lanterns are fun, and roasted pumpkin seeds are even better!

Totally off-topic -- does anyone watch Dirty Sexy Money? I DVR'd it to give it a try, and I am hooked. At first I was annoyed with Nate's constant honesty (ok I KNOW his name is Nick, but he'll always be Nate Fisher to me), but now I think it makes things interesting. We'll see.

MUD's Crib

As promised, here are some inside photos.

First is the living room -- the inaugural lighting of the fireplace is getting closer as the weather FINALLY turns to real fall.






Attached to the living room is a little sun porch. The cats and plants like it for now, but it's not in very good shape and won't be a pleasant place when winter comes. We want to remodel it next year, so that we can hang out in it for all four seasons.






Here's the kitchen.






And the orange room -- the office/guest room. If anyone wants to come visit, this room will be your home away from home. Complete with double bed and internet access, yeah!

Interiors!

Several people have asked me to post some interior shots of the house. So here you go! The best part is the baby's room, because that just happened in the last 24 hours. My parents got us the crib and glider (and dresser but sadly it hasn't come in yet), and they were all disassembled last night. But when I woke up this morning, it was like Christmas -- Dave had put everything together! It's so cute even in this stark naked state of undress. And the carpet just came 20 minutes ago. Look at the window behind the glider -- we have a huge maple tree, and the leaves are really starting to change this week.

I love our living room, and bedroom too -- the only other rooms that have new furniture. Pics of those to come tomorrow, because they are both a mess right now.

Showing off

David & I finally got our house in order enough to invite some family members up for a fancy pizza dinner this weekend. My niece Sam and our friend Emily really got into the pumpkin hats I made for them, despite the fact that it was pushing 90 all day and we had to turn on the A/C to keep from melting. What is it with this weather, huh?

The next day, David & I took a drive through Litchfield County to check out the fall-ness. Not too much in the way of leaf-changing, but we did run into a fair where there was a spinning demonstration and bluegrass music! And a petting zoo with calves and baby pigs -- baby pigs! Here's me in front of the covered bridge in Cornwall, CT. Down below, this guy was walking his dogs, who seemed to prefer to swim -- they were having a GREAT time!

This weekend we also picked up some fall decorations in the form of pumpkins and mums, to go with our corn stalks. I think our home is looking nice and seasonal, don't you? Of course, it definitely needs a good power washing, but Bacon can do that in the spring...