Halloween Trickery

So it may look like Elliot just got a new, super cute, fuzzy, warm, homemade fleece suit, but....Add a fluffy mane, a long tail,  and one fierce ROAR and this little guy is the cutest lion on the block!

The mane was made by looping strips of fleece onto a circle of elastic.  It slips easily on and off over his head.  In fact, it's as warm as a scarf without any worry of it falling off or him pulling it off.  I'm thinking of making him one in every color for the winter.  The tail (just a strip of fleece with some fringe) is sewn onto a circle of elastic that I slip around his waist when he's wearing his costume.  He doesn't even know it's there.  Truly, the easiest, one-day, homemade, warmest, versatile and CUTE costume ever.

The Vegans Visited

We were lucky enough to have a wonderful visit from The Vegans shortly after we moved into our new place.  This was their first time to Boise so we did some fun Boise things, like Big City Coffee and The Boise Fry Co., Julia Davis Park, the Basque Block, and the Idaho History Museum (see Hilary pretending to be a very historical Idahoan below! And were people really that much smaller back then?!  Look at how skinny that dugout seat is!).  But mostly we stayed home and hung out with Elliot.  They read a ton of books, played in the backyard, and even babysat while we were at work.  Elliot adored them, and I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual.  

Settling In

Well hello!  It has been quite a while sine I've posted last.  Just a few things have gotten in the way, like, oh... moving into a new house, starting jobs, Portland visitors, suddenly needing to buy a second car, a sick babe, and the oh-no!-what-will-we-do-with-no-internet freak out that happens for a week or so during any move.  But, without further delay, I'd like to share a few scenes of our new sweet little home with you.  Enjoy!

Welcome.   This is our covered front porch.  A very relaxing place to sit and watch the neighborhood pass by.  It's also outfitted with an easel (my $2 yard sale score!) and a bean table to give Elliot some outdoor play without being out in the rain or upcoming snow (yikes).

We have a great little enclosed backyard, too.  Many thanks to the previous tenants who left some cherry tomato plants.  They have provided Elliot with endless enjoyment and exploration.  

The room that gets a whole lotta use is, of course, the kitchen.  It's got great windows looking over the backyard, cute painted cupboards, a nice big eating area, and the very vintage Kelvenator--the stove from the 40's.  It goes perfectly with our fiestaware, formica table, retro kitchen style.  (Oh, and that's Elliot finding out how much he loves to lick little cookie sprinkles    off his finger and crunch them in his teeth like a little chipmunk.  He was a very helpful, and very cute, halloween cookie decorating helper this morning.)

And my favorite room of the house... Elliot's bedroom/guest room.  The little bed is just right for any of our loved ones who come visiting (hint hint).  It's covered in Elliot's very special quilt that his Amuma made him when he was born.  Two of those dollies are mine from when I was a little girl and so is the Treeland School House Lamp.  The blonde dolly and the lamp were both made by my favorite Auntie Sue.  The oh-so-sweet owl painting above his crib was done by Andrea's cousin, Sarah Pilar.  Check out her etsy store for more of her great paintings.  Bumpers on Elliot's crib by his Auntie Gran (my Auntie Sue) and the vintage quilt was his Uncle Ryan's from when he was a baby.  And, as always, thank you Nikki McClure for the ever-important reminder.  Yes.  Breath.
While Elliot's room might be my favorite place in the house, our mantle is definitely my favorite thing in the house.  Yes, a real mantle with a read fire place.  Ever since the first time I saw this house I have been day dreaming about what I might adorn my mantle with and what my rotating seasonal displays might have.  Well, here's my first shot at it.  My glass collection (bottles from random thrift stores and one even found buried under our house in Portland by the people doing some construction work for us; glass floats from my great-grandma Marge).  And I just love my wee fall display.  A beautiful pumpkin.  An amazing leaf.  And three little acorns all in a row.  Elliot loves to take their "hats" on and off oh-so-carefully.

So, there you have it.  Some highlights from our sweet little house.  And now that you've gotten a little glimpse, don't you want to come and visit in person??!  We love visitors!

Pumpkin Painting

Elliot got to do his first real painting today... paint cups full of tempera, chunky paint brushes, smocks, the whole shebang.   He was a little tentative at first, but quickly got into the spirit of things.  Before you knew it, he was mixing colors, feeling the wet squishy paint, and getting smudges of it from his fingertips to his elbows.  It was a super fun play date at John's house.  From what I could tell, all of the boys (yes, John included!) had a ton of fun. 

Community Supported Agriculture

Last week Elliot and I went out to Spyglass Gardens to pick up his grandparent's weekly share of produce from their CSA.  It turns out that the boxes weren't ready until the afternoon, but Elliot and I showed up bright and early at 9am.  Lucky for us, "Farmer Smith" came out and gave us a whole bunch of personal attention.  He went around gathering our beets and chard and squash and this and that, then said to Elliot, "Wanna go see the chickens?"  And he reached right down and picked Elliot up and walked us back to the chicken coop.  Apparently, Farmer Smith has three young grandchildren who spend lots of time on his farm, so Elliot felt very familiar to him.  We got to see his pumpkin patch that he's getting ready for the annual pumpkin party for all of the CSA members and we talked all about the amazing spinach that he's growing.  It's a special kind from New Zealand that grows in vines up fence posts and produces the thickest most beautiful spinach leaves I've ever seen.  It's amazing.  I told him about all of the dinners I've been making with his delicious produce and he just carried Elliot around pointing out this and that while his sweet old dog Morgan followed us around.  He even gave Elliot a special little Elliot-sized pumpkin to take with him when we left.   It is so very special to get to see where your veggies and pumpkins are grown.  We can't wait to go back out for the pumpkin picking party and meet other CSA members.  But mostly we can't wait to see Farmer Smith again!

Basquos By Proxy

Elliot, busting a move to the music coming out of the Basque Center.  Okay, so it was just music coming out of the bar at the Basque Center.  But I say Oinkari, here he comes! 

Pumpkin Patch

After a very long week (I got a job and we put a deposit on a rental in the North End and are preparing to move next week--ack!), we enjoyed a wonderful weekend visit from Elliot's Spiritual Guardian, Annika.  After showing her all the best Boise has to offer (at least the best that I've found so far... Big City Coffee, the greenbelt bike path, the North End,  Zoo Boise, and the Basque Block), we finished off the weekend with a trip to the pumpkin patch.  We drove out to the beautiful farmlands surrounding Boise to Cabalo's Orchard and Gardens.  This organic farm in Kuna, ID, has a u-pick apple orchard, organic turkeys that you can order for Thanksgiving (butchered or live), a farm stand, an awesome tractor ride, and the most wonderful pumpkin patch I've ever been to.  Instead of just a dirt field with pumpkins laying on top, this was a wonderfully weedy field with twisted vines and pumpkins of all sizes and shapes.  Elliot was his usual farm-stoic self.  He's never appeared to be that outwardly excited by farms--well, unless blueberries are involved.  But Andrea, Annika and I were all smiles.  And I picked my fill of pumpkins and can't wait to put them out on our new front porch.  Thanks for a wonderful weekend, Annika.  Here's to many more years of laughing at how grumpy Elliot is at the pumpkin patch.