Ruffles scarf

Along with being addicted to knitting little baby caps, I also love knitting scarves. Caps and scarves are often fairly quick to knit so I guess that's why I like making them so much. Both are great for gift-giving too, an added bonus. The pattern I used for this scarf is called "just enough ruffles" by Laura Chau, and it's available on her website as well as many yarn shops. I used pure merino superwash Malabrigo yarn which is also available at lots of great yarn shops. This yarn is such a treat to knit! In the photo below, you'll have to pretend that the newel post is my head;-)

It's warm and cosy to wear this scarf scrunched around your neck, but it can also be opened out and worn shawl-style.

I'm looking forward to a day cold enough to wear it!

All the best,

Judy Ann

30!

What a glorious weekend this has been! Jeff and I celebrated Thanksgiving and our 30th wedding anniversary all weekend long. Thirty years ago on our wedding day it was chilly, cloudy, and breezy, nothing like this week's almost hot and non-stop sunny weather! Yesterday we had a delightful family celebration with our kids, in-laws, parents, siblings and other family members too. Great company, fantastic food and even a fun, fast bike ride! It's amazing to think about how our family has grown over the years from the two of us to this wonderful gang:

Carly baked us a delicious chocolate-

cinnamon-buttermilk cake and decorated it beautifully!

Today the two of us took off for Fergus, Ontario, and had lunch at the Breadalbane Inn where we stayed one night on our honeymoon. We haven't been back in 30 years! It was lovely to be there and the drive was scenic and so pleasant, a real trip down memory lane. We've been so blessed all these years and feel so grateful we could almost burst! We're ever hopeful that we'll have many, many more wonderful years together.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Judy Ann

Spool Buddies

Jeff and I had the pleasure of looking after our 5 year-old niece, Marie, for the weekend. She loves being crafty as much as I do! Here are photos of the funny little spool characters we made together. To make them, bend a long pipe cleaner in half and thread on a two-hole button for a hat. Thread on the head bead, then an empty (or full!) thread spool. (I have a bag full of lovely old wooden spools that I dip into regularly for crafty projects.) Thread on another button and twist the leg pipe cleaners so the spool won't fall off. Wrap a short pipe cleaner under the head to make arms. Bend over the ends of the pipe cleaners to make hands and feet. Decorate the spool by wrapping it with variegated yarn (glue the yarn ends in place) or glue on a piece of fabric. Tie three strands of yarn under the button hat to make hair. Finish the spool buddy by drawing on a face.

Sweet Marie decided this one needed a necklace so she patiently threaded little beads onto waxed dental floss. So cute! We separated the strands of yarn to make wavy hair. (You can also braid the yarn hair.)

She trimmed this buddy's hair.

Loads of fun!

Enjoy your day,

Judy Ann

Woven apples

Autumn is apple time! One of my favourite ways to eat an apple is to slice it up and dip each slice into natural peanut butter. Yum! What a great combo! Since I was thinking about apples, I decided to make an apple craft with the kids at my teeny tiny library last Saturday. We had lots of fun!

Begin with a sheet of red, yellow or green card stock and draw a large apple shape on it. Cut it out and fold it in half.

Make cuts in the apple from the folded edge to the open edge, but stop about an inch (2-3 cm) from the open edge. You can make the cuts straight, zigzagged or wavy.

Unfold the apple. Cut 6 to 10 narrow and wide strips of other colours of card stock. Begin weaving a strip over and under the cuts you've made in the apple. Push the strip as far to one side as you can, then start weaving in another strip, but this time weave it in the opposite way of the first one.

Continue weaving in strips until no more fit. Glue down the ends of the strips on both sides of the apple. Trim off the extra bits. Cut out a couple of leaves and a stem and glue them in place.

Try another colour too!

If you like, you can cover your woven apple with self-adhesive vinyl and use it for a placemat. Lots of fun!

All the best,

Judy Ann

Old Faithful

For just over 30 years now, we've had the same almond-coloured Kenmore refrigerator. We bought it from my not-quite-yet brother-in-law in the summer of 1981 when we were setting up our home just before our October wedding. It's been an amazing fridge, never needed repairs, and has quietly and efficiently served our family of five all these years. When we bought it, we needed the door to open on the right side, but over 25 years ago when we moved to our current home, we needed the door to swing open the opposite way. So all these years the fridge has opened to the doorway instead of the kitchen counter! The fridge has been plastered with our kids' art, school photos, funny notes, hockey and soccer schedules, pictures of new babies, wedding invitations, grocery lists, newspaper clippings and every kind of magnet you can imagine. It has preserved the ingredients for countless meals, kept juice and milk cold and ice cream and Popsicles frozen, cooled off leftovers, held school lunches, birthday cakes, and so much more. That's why I'm feeling a tiny bit sentimental today as I wait for a new refrigerator to arrive. Old faithful broke down on the weekend and we have to replace it. The new one is a bit deeper, shiny, will use about one quarter of the electricity of the old one, and it's bright white. You can no longer buy an almond-coloured fridge! Oh, well. I'm sure it will take our family a while to remember to reach for the door handle on the left side, but we'll get used to it. We may even bond with our new fridge. I highly doubt, though, that it will last for 30 years!

All the best,

Judy Ann

A nice review

My brand new picture book, Reaching , has been reviewed by Kirkus. My favourite line from the review is:
"Ultimately a book that many new parents will reach for as they revel in their love of baby."

I'm very pleased that the reviewer says lovely things about Susan Mitchell's gorgeous art. The whole review is here . It's not a perfect review, but it's nice. I hope I've accomplished my goal of writing a book that shows the ideal growing conditions for a baby. Here's a spread from Reaching:

Enjoy your day,

Judy Ann

Buttermilk

I love baking with buttermilk. It just seems so wholesome! I've had a carton of buttermilk (and rotten bananas) in the fridge, and recipes that use buttermilk on the counter, for a couple of weeks now. Yesterday was finally cool enough to have the oven on for a few hours of baking time. I started with three loaves of banana bread packed with crisp walnuts:

Next was Irish soda bread, so aromatic and yummy. As you can see, I didn't wait long to have a slice, with lots of butter, of course!

I made Raspberry Buttermilk Cake last so that it would still be warm for dessert. Jeff and I ate half the cake in one sitting!

It looks like today is too hot and humid for baking so I'm glad I made time for it yesterday. It's a muggy start to a new month.

Happy September,

Judy Ann