A rare session of lunchtime knitting at the Matthei Botanical Gardens conservatory last week.

Turkey Tom is safely in our fridge defrosting and our new Turkey Trot shirts are neatly folded – BOTH waiting for their debut on Thanksgiving Day. Brandon, Miss L & I spent a nice Sunday working around the house – Miss L is becoming quite a little baker, after we’ve rabidly consumed most seasons of Great British Baking Show on Netflix, and when she puts her hair up in a messy bun, I know she’s about to produce something yummy- and a lot of dishes to boot. I love her cheese buns but the dishes are no joke. My Bosch, which I think was purchased when Lily was a baby, finally died and although I would have hoped to have gotten a few more years out of a Bosch, we bit the bullet and found a new Maytag on sale at Home Despot. To be delivered later this week and although my credit card is smoking hot after holiday shopping and will definitely need a post-holiday break, a dishwasher is kind of a big makes-my-life-a-lot-easier appliance that I don’t like going without. So it goes. In addition to getting the dishwasher sorted out, Brandon has spent a lot of time in the house doing renovations – building shelves in our spare room and hall closet, cleaning the basement and garage, unpacking his study, rearranging our belongings in the house, and hanging art. Wwe finally finished up a few projects today that gave us a working spare bedroom and much-needed storage space, and had some time after L went to her dad’s for a three mile run in the to-be-valued November sunshine.

Brandon is carving out a knitting corner for me in the upstairs bedroom, and I look forward to the day soon when I’ll have a painted shelf for my stash and knitting books and an old comfy armchair. Sarge has pretty much claimed the spare room bed for himself, as you can see in this shot of the knitting nook in-progress.

It wasn’t a very relaxing weekend, but it was very productive, and very rewarding to see his belongings mesh with ours in this house. He has a great aesthetic and a talent for knowing what looks good, and his touch and his things have made me love our space even more. We are definitely not a couple that goes to Pottery Barn and buys a matching living room set and Home Goods art and has a carefully curated furniture storeroom. We’re much more of a mismatched, whimsical decorating style, things collected and handed down, things  meaningful and interesting and a little shabby. I wouldn’t change a thing.

I’m looking forward to a nice break later this week, catching up on some of my favorite vlogs (Ina Knits and By the Lakeside on YouTube), magazines (loving Midwest Living), knitting (still working on the hot-water bottle cover, Log Cabin blanket and the Isabel Kraemer Pink Memories sweater), television (Crown Season 3 and of course more Great British Baking Show), spending time with family, running the Detroit Turkey Trot on Thursday along the route of the Thanksgiving Day Parade, and going ice skating at Campus Martius on Black Friday now that the Christmas tree is lit.

Ina Knits on YouTube and a few rows of my Log Cabin blanket.