We got back from our vacation around lunch time yesterday. We had a good time in Edmonton and I thought I would share it as a bunch of pictures. Sometimes we go on vacation and I'll take almost no pictures at all, other times I find myself keenly aware of how things might look as stills when we get home; this was one of those times. The picture above is my lemonade from dinner Sunday night; it was so refreshing.

This is our first breakfast in our new house. It was also the morning of the solstice which we think is kind of cool. It was part celebratory and part fortification for a busy day of moving. I think there were also pancakes.

We're now completely moved out of our apartment. It was so strange to see it all empty and then hand over the keys and walk away. All our stuff has been moved to the house, most of it has been unpacked and some of it has been put away. Figuring out where everything should go is a much bigger job than I'd guessed . We've got a lot of boxes cluttering up our space too. We'll be making a run to the recycling depot soon to regain more of our floor and shed (temporary box storage) space.

We have pretty much no landscaping on our lot (this is a new area of town) except for a little strip of grass in front of the house. It means that for the time being it looks a little sad (especially next to houses that have already got their landscaping done) but also means that we can do whatever we feel like without being constrained by anything done by the previous owner. So far we've started a compost, bought a few containers of flowers and a strawberry plant and decided that we really need to get a lawn mower and something to cut down all the weeds.

We've got a few pretty volunteers right now. This little white one is part of the pack of weeds at the curb end of our lawn. I've no idea what it is but it looked kind of sweet when we moved in (its grown about a foot and a half since then).

There are a few very small wild roses around the house, mostly on the edge of the little bit of wilderness (read: mosquito swamp) between our house and our rear neighbours lot. I'll probably keep a few of them (most of the swamp will have to go); they are a favourite of mine (and almost impossible to completely remove anyway). They always smell so nice and are a lovely shade of pink. I might even have another try at making rosehip jam.

Zeke has been alternately terrified and curious about his new living space. He spent most of the first three days in the house hiding under our duvet, completely invisible to anyone else who tried to find him (we knew the secret). He's getting more comfortable and seems to especially enjoy watching the neighbours.

I think today will be spent getting some random garden things into our shed and trying to make sense of the piles of stuff in my studio. Yep, I have a studio. It's really strange to be in a different room than Rob (though my computer will migrate back to the family room once we've got a desk set up in there) but it will be very handy around Christmas and birthdays when I usually end up doing some rather creative time management to keep things secret (What ... you don't do all your sewing while your husband is in the shower?). I have some ideas for this space but right now my goal is to find a nice cutting table.

Pattern: A rough interpretation of circular shawl knitting (from Knitting Rules ) and a vague understanding of how to make a cat bed.
Yarn: Noro Kureyon colour #164
Yardage: 3 skeins
Needles: 6,00 mm dpn's and circular

This is Zeke's Christmas present, finally finished and ready for him to snooze on. The knitting was nice and uncomplicated and I only messed up the math once. I pretty much just knit in circular shawl fashion until I figured the circle was a little bigger than I needed and then did a few decrease rounds and plain rounds to make sides that wouldn't flare out too much. I did the felting in the sink and blocked the bed on our ottoman - it was the only thing the right size and I wasn't worried about any colour bleeding. It took me two tries to get it the size I wanted but I'm very please with it.