The End Of October, So Beautiful!

 The end of October has been so beautiful! The days & nights are not normal temperatures & like everything else, this too will pass.

Today the winds are arriving from the northwest & which will strip a lot more leaves, the reds have already left us. Seeing the golds & browns reminds me of my trip to Alberta last year as that's their fall colour. I do love the red from the maple trees, so beautifully vibrant this year!

There was still colour in the gardens this week, here are a few photos of this week.

The cement urn, birdbath & statue have all been put into storage until the arrival of spring next year.

The gardens will be cleaned out in the next couple of weeks & mulch put on them for their winter blanket to keep them warm under the snow that will soon be upon us.

It makes my heart sing to see natures beautiful colours against the shorter dark days that we are having.

The sunsets are still filling the sky with colour but the skies are getting heavy with colder air.

This is the same sky in the first picture, the clouds are so heavy above the water!

Enough of being outside, let's go inside & I'll show you what I've been up to!

 

This Christmas we are going to set up a large Christmas village!

I'm seeing village pieces that I've not seen in over 15 years when we decorated the window ledge at work in London ON. I was done in our showroom's large window ledge, our work building ( The Pop Shoppe on Trafalgar St in London) the building sat between a variety store on one side & Cuddy Foods on the other side & it provided a visual entertainment to the employees, neighbours, & children walking to school. This year it will invoke some old & new memories for our family.

Finding all the accessories has been a treasure hunt! We've been surprised with other Christmas surprises too!

Repairs are being made to broken pieces, if it's broken round here we fix it!

Bill has such a sense of humour! lol

I've been watching the vlogger Marion Manner's Christmas village & she inspired me to do her techniques & it will be a labour of love for Bill & me to put our village together!

She says each house should have three trees around it. She also gives tutorials to make trees yourself so off into the woods we went & I'll show you later our handmade trees from our woods!

As you can see it will be a bustling little village!

We are planning a three-tiered village with the lighthouse being on the highest area & another lighthouse near the lowest area near the breaker wall that we're going to make.

With looking for the village buildings, a memory was fond!

I saved all the wrappers from chocolates from England that I just loved. Old world Santa warms my heart of Christmas past.

It was challenging to make these as it was an idea in my head that I needed to get out & I'm pleased with the end product!

Here is the finished product of the ten finished ornaments & are finished on the back too!

Bill is going to drill small holes to the top & I'll add a silver cord & a holly with berries on the top!

Here's how to do it!

I found that putting the silver braided cord, that I purchased at the Dollarstore with Elmer's glue that was purchased there too! I put a thick bead of glue around the edge & then added the length needed around the lid.

Oh!! The metal base of this project is the upper & lower lid from tomato paste! I used egg cups to keep the project up to dry.

You can see the chocolate wrappers in the blue box, I opened them & drew a line around them using the lid for my pattern.

Once the Father Christmas was cut out, I used ModgePodge on the metal then added the paper & once that was in place with air bubbles out, I added more ModgePodge to the top & the silver cord. The project was then placed on an egg holder to dry.

Once dried on that side, do the same to the other side!

I just loved the finished project! I love making something from nothing!

The lid would have gone into the recycle bin as would the chocolate wrapper, doesn't look like garbage now! 2021 is the finished project from an idea that I held since 2008.

So happy to be seeing it on the Christmas tree this year!

Here is the wrapper before a circle pattern is added & it is cut out. 

It's a project that took several days to make but it is here to stay for years to come with the ModgePodging that I did to hold it all together!

I just loved the scenes on these wrappers, I was shocked to see that on the back of the box stated best used before 13 Sept 2008! 

Oh my, how time flies, I loved them then just as much as now!

They seemed like little books of the past to me.

And it all started with these little lids!

I made this wall hanging to hang from Bill's bookcase. He has many Zoom meetings with work & I wanted to honour his Grandpa Richardson with this service.

When I was making this it hit me!

As I was adding the Canadian flag that I see as our country, this was not the flag flying when the soldiers in the past honoured. 

The flag that we have flown since the reveal on February 15th, 1965, I don't remember the day as a 7 yr old child but it hit me... I do remember them & the country they fought for me to live in today.

I will remember.

I just have the binding & some more machine quilting to finish it before it is hung in his office.

A fun day in Chatham NB!

John Vickers, a Miramichi man, is a pumpkin connoisseur that has been carving for nearly 20 years!

They call this 'The Great Pumpkin Walk" & it was stunning to see!

With just over 100 pumpkins on the walk on Water Street, they are illuminated from the solar panel/electric lanterns!

Let's take a stroll!

As far as the eye can see down Water Street, there are lit carved pumpkins made from polyurethane moulds & will last forever!

It takes about 45mins to carve a pumpkin & John Vickers has carved over 100 pumpkins!

Such a labour of love for the community, thank you, John Vickers!

There is such a wide variety of pumpkins, scary, funny, cute, stunning... 

My favourite was the ship!

So much work & planning went into this project & so many people will enjoy this!

The downtown was busy with people & my friend Dorice 9on the right) was greeted by many people that were known to her. She enjoyed the pumpkin walk too!

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What a talent this man has!

This is such a charming village within the area in Miramichi, that is known as Chatham.

The kids will just love this Paw Patrol carving! lol So cute!

There was sun yesterday afternoon too, making the trip to Chatham enjoyable.

Today is rain & wind, very eerie for the Halloween that is to come soon.

Congratulations to our youngest son Nicholas for being published in the Elevator World magazine!

This is the photo that won 2nd place for a photo of Projects In Action.

He's working on a circular glass elevator installation.

He is third generation elevator technician. My father, his grandfather Skip, invented the 'Skip Lift' the 1st handicap vertical platform lift in Canada in 1972.  Dad would be so proud, I know I am that all three of our sons are in the elevator industry. Yes, it does have its 'ups & downs. lol

Thank you for stopping in for a visit! 

I'm glad that you came & do come back again as the Christmas village comes to life.