After I wrote last week, I brought my camera with me to work, and took some tree pics on the way home. The colours are amazing, and kind of hard to capture with my little point and shoot digital, but you get the idea. The last pic is of one of the trees at the side of our house.

It doesn't even feel like a week has gone by, because I really don't have that much news. We're both still just working really hard, trying to get some stuff together that people might buy as Christmas presents. It's incredibly difficult to know what types of things we should be making, as neither of us has ever done this before, but it will at the very least be a good learning experience. Of course, it would be great if we could actually make some money, too!!

Our bookbinding workshop was really fun, and went pretty well. We both made books that don't look like we made them!

Then I came home and tried to teach myself coptic binding with wood boards. It's a little different, I still haven't got it perfected, but it's getting there. I think I will make some smaller books this way, in addition to the larger books with bolts and hinges. We'll see what people like better.

Got some new marquetry designs:

But mostly I've spent the week buiding some meditation benches. I should have one or two listed on Etsy by the end of the week.

The garden is doing well. We finally harvested all the pumpkins that we grew!

Soon it will be time to put the garden away for the winter. I'd like to get some bulbs so they will come up in the spring, but I'm not sure when/if i will have time/resources to do that. I did snag some of the bulbs that came up on the abondoned property behind us last year, as they were talking about bulldozing it and putting in condos, and I just thought they would get lost in the mess. So we will have a couple of daffodils next spring, if nothing else. Our little fruit trees are doing great, we've been trying to keep them wet. The weather for the last week has been amazing - we even had a day that was 27 degrees - almost too hot!! Today, however, it is kind of chilly again.

Luckily.... we finally got our wood stove installed!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They had to use a hedgehog to get onto the roof, so of course I brought the camera outside and snagged a couple of shots.

And here's one of the wood stove in place!


We already pulled those shiny plastic bumpers off the corners, and have lit two test fires. One more to go, and then we can really build up some heat in here. I think it looks great, and can't wait to have a nice cozy room to spend the winter in. Jane agrees!