i am sitting in my living room. yes, i am sitting in my living room and am still connected to the rest of the world via internet. thank you AT&T.

i am sitting at my wonderful little round table i found at a yard sale for $7. it's sits right under my favorite bookshelf. the front door is open and is letting in the rainy breeze from outside. leaves are falling and i can just barely see luna's ears peaking up over the screen door. it is peaceful here. i am trying to be peaceful myself. i find each day i get too easily overwhelmed with all the possible things i could do and then never get much of anything done. jeremiah is on his way to d.c. for work and i am having a friend spend the night so i should be getting to cleaning. but i will show you what i have been up to for the past week or so...

chico.

some lovely golden leaves i cut to put...

here.

my latest pillow. this fabric was originally a bag that i bought while in peru. the pillow is stuffed with newspaper because i'm too poor/cheap to buy batting.

my grandmother's deacon bench which is now being used as extra sitting in living room.

i finally got around to making a curtain for the kitchen window.

november.

time for lunch!

etsy.

so i love etsy. as most people who know about it do. i'm always surprised when people you expect to know all about etsy, don't know a thing. i love getting the opportunity to tell them about it. it's as though i just gave them a special present or a treasure.

so etsy has a blog. imagine that? and it's quite lovely and worth your time (well in the big scheme of things it probably isn't, but...) to browse through. they have these wonderful videos on different etsy artists called handmade portraits. one of my favorites of the handmade portraits series is enhabiten. her new england look is also starting to rub off on me. i find myself falling more and more in love with the simple and "worn" (in a good way) look of new england homes and interiors. to my absolute joy, i discovered that the lovely creator of enhabiten also has a blog! her blog along with 36 Shea are two of my favorites at the moment.

that's it. nothing important. just sharing some of my favorite things at the moment.

relax, never.

It's been over two weeks since I have written. Hopefully, I will not let this become a trend.

As expected, I have become extremely engrossed in my new house and it is very hard for me to pull myself away from it, even to go to Common Market and get coffee and use the internet. I am getting better now. For a few days there, Jeremiah thought I would never relax again and would always be in decorating-mode. Now I will take the time to watch a movie or even sit down and sew a bit. But it's not too long till I am back to making a list and walking through the house to see what else needs to be done.

Here is a little bit of what has been going on at the Austin residence for the past two weeks...

fresh apples from an orchard up in VA. compliments of my sweet mother-in-law! they have now been simmered into soft sweetness with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, sugar, water and more sugar.

jeremiah in his tool pantry. the only space we had left in the house for his tools. he's a trooper!

my china cabinet! repainted and decorated. finally. thanks mom and dad for bringing it to us from burlington. it will be well loved here.

my linen "closet" in the laundry room. full of sheets, tablecloths, towels, and more.

my collection of rags which i use instead of paper towels. working very well so far.

my take on white bean and escarole soup from the recipe book, the broccoli forest. a lovely vegetarian cookbook.

our neighborhood owl!! he's the blob to the left under the street lamp.

spotting him was one of the most exciting parts of our new home so far. hopefully he will stay in the neighborhood and be our owl friend. and hopefully if he does, he won't eat any of my mimis (cats).

happy friday and happy november!