This week is fall break for the kiddo and we've been balancing being busy and doing nothing pretty well so far!

On Monday we assembled a motion activated spider from one of those STEM crate kit companies.

We hung it up above the doorway going into the half bath downstairs and I admit, it’s gotten me a few times (about once a day), even though I helped hang it up there!

We did a little other decorating for Halloween, though we don’t have a ton of stuff. I don’t understand why miltary families seem to have SO many holiday decorations—I don’t want to move all those boxes every few years!

A handful of fake spiders and some cheap “webbing” don’t take up much space, though, and I’ve also accumulated a few other assorted things over the years, which I lined up on the shelf under our tv this year with some orange lights behind them.

I think it looks cute! My favorites are the pumpkins and the little LED ghosts.

And at least THESE spiders don’t MOVE!

Let’s see what else have we done so far this week?

I’ve read a book or two. The kid has read a book or eight or ten.

Oh and I painted some bugs! Insects, actually.

The University of Hawaii is hosting its first ever Insect Art Show and so I thought I’d try my hand at painting a few insects in my messy abstract/impressionistic style. And they turned out okay!

Well, mostly. I don’t really like the butterfly. But I DO like the moth!

I shared more over on Patreon, if you’re interested.

The power is actually off this morning (scheduled outage, though I forgot about it until 7am when the house got really quiet!) so I’m actually writing this in a good ol’ Word document.

Fun times. Especially with a nine-year-old out of school. 😆

We’re supposed to be packing up for a trip to the beach, but I can’t fluff the clothes in the dryer that I forgot to finish up with yesterday because the power is out and, of course, I can’t actually send you this email, either!

We’ll get there, though.

I’ve made a little progress on the shawl, though most of that was over the weekend, I think.

And yes, it will be coming with us to the beach!

I’m at the point where I need to decide if I want to keep going with it exactly as it is, or if I want to start working some decreases to change the shape of the triangle.

Which shawl shape do you prefer? A long triangle that’s widest on one end (easier to crochet because the instructions are the same throughout) or one that’s widest in the middle-ish somewhere (not “harder” exactly, but you do have to stop and find out what the instructions say to do when you get to that point)?

Personally, I think I like making the first one better, but I like wearing the second one better.

What do you think?? Hit reply and let me know!

You might just impact my decision on how to move forward with this design (though I am leaning one way over the other right now).

Okay!

The power is back on and I just dropped all the photos in with the text I copied and pasted over from my Word doc, so I better get this out to you and go finish packing! (I already hit the fluff button for the clothes in the dryer.)

If you've got a fall break sometime this month, I wish you luck and fun!

Cheers!

-Connie

P.S. Mabel hasn't kicked these kids to the curb yet, surprisingly. I guess she likes being a mom a little better this time around?