Beginning of Fall, Summer Bucket List Results,Fall Goals, and Thoughts on Becoming a Vegetarian

Hello Friends,

Hope you are doing well. I am happy it was the first day of fall yesterday! It was so hot yesterday, and was even hotter in Toronto today with a heat advisory warning this weekend. I hope that it is sweater weather soon though. It was cold for a while, then it got hot again. I also can't wait to be able to wear some of my knitted things. This year I will hopefully have a knitted sweater to wear once I am done and the kerchief, and a pair of socks. I worked on all of these earlier this year.
Yesterday I went to a flower shop to get a plant as a gift and saw this cute little pumpkin in a basket and had to get it for the start of fall. I worked on pulling out the old seam on my sweater and enjoyed a cup of tea while doing that.  We went to my boyfriend's sister's place later on to see her new apartment and had a pizza and board game night which is always so fun.

Happy Fall!

I had posted my summer bucket list in July and wanted to give you an update on how that went and what I would have liked to do or changed:

Summer Bucket List Results

1. Go camping: in August, I went camping with my family and boyfriend in August and it was a lot of fun. Click here to read about it!

2. Roast marshmallows on the campfire: I roasted marshmallows while camping!

3. Knit socks: I finished knitting some socks for my mom for a Christmas gift! click here to see them!

4. Go on a trip with my boyfriend : We went to Montreal this summer at the end of August! click here to see what we did. 

5, Make Summery treats: I did not make the popsicles that I wanted to, but I did try out a lot of smoothies. Click here to see the smoothies I made! 

6.  Have a picnic : The weather was not cooperative this summer. I planned to do a picnic with friends, but on the day we met up to go to the park the weather was crummy so we did an indoor picnic instead. 

7. Go to the beach: I went to the beach in August while camping and loved soaking up the sun and going into the water.  Click here to see my trip!

8.  Read three books: I only read two and still working on the third one I started in August.  

9. Watch a baseball game : We did not end up going to see the Blue Jays this summer. I hope we can next year! 

10. Go Kayaking : I had a plan to go, but it got cancelled then never happened, hopefully next year!

Summer knitting at the beach.... the best

I wish I had done more of the activities like having a picnic outside, and kayaking. I had not gone on a picnic for awhile and it has been a few years since I have been kayaking. I will try to do these things next summer for sure. 

Some things I would like to focus on in the fall, are to:

• Continue knitting Christmas gifts
• Carve a pumpkin
• Decorate for fall
• Bake a pumpkin pie
• Do a DIY fall decor project
• Finish knitting the stocking for Christmas
• Finish sweater seaming and neck edge

And for anyone wondering if I went vegetarian or how that is going, I have not eaten meat for 6 days now but am currently still having dairy products. I did not eat meat last week, but did have some on the weekend when I was still contemplating what I would do. I am feeling great, lighter and have more energy. I also feel happy that I am doing this and I am learning more every day. I have been watching documentaries such as Cowspiracy (a must watch), Vegucated, What the Health, Forks Over Knives. I love watching them and becoming more knowledgeable about what is really going on in factory farms. Even if the documentaries are hard to watch sometimes, I would rather know the truth and make decisions based on that then to not be aware. I also have been watching YouTube channels like So You're Dating a Vegan who are so informative and fun to watch. I have enjoyed watching their series on people they know who have taken two week to a month challenges to go vegan. I am seriously thinking of becoming vegetarian for reasons concerning health, the environment, and compassion for animals. This change just sort of hit me the past couple of weeks but sometimes that happens in life and you just have to go with it. Things all of a sudden make sense for you. I had thought of going vegetarian in the past, but there were always excuses and now I will make it happen. I would definitely consider going vegan in the future, right now I am taking it slow and starting with meat first. Please email me(lknitter09@gmail.com) or comment below if you are one a similar journey and want to chat about it!

Thank you for visiting my blog and welcoming fall with me. If you would like to keep updated on when I post blog entries, please follow me on Bloglovin', Google Followers, or you can subscribe by entering your email in the top right corner to receive emails when I post.

Fall Craft Show, Knitting Progress, and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I had a wonderful weekend, spending time with my family and my boyfriend's family. Yesterday, I went to the Milton Farm Craft Show that they put on every year. There were so many wonderful things to look at and this year I bought a couple lovely things. I bought a ceramic berry bowl for my boyfriend's stepmother for her birthday. I also purchased some beautiful, soft alpaca sock yarn from Alpaca Time. I am so excited to get started on knitting socks with this yarn. My sister who crochets, also purchased some yarn to crochet a hat. It was an exciting find for us. I loved our trip there this year and looking forward to going to more upcoming craft fairs in the Winter hopefully.

Yarn I purchased from Alpaca Time at the craft show

Just a few of the many stalls set up at the show

Me with some craft show finds

In knitting, I have been working on knitting up the first stocking as part of the project for this Christmas to have handknit stockings for my boyfriend and I. I am using the Jumbo Christmas Stockings pattern on Ravelry. It is a fun, fast knit and I love working with big, chunky needles and thick yarn around this time of the year when it is getting a bit cooler. I am liking the way the stocking is looking so far, except I added an extra row in by accident right after working on the gusset but I think it isn't too noticeable.

 The sweater is still in a standstill and I must work on taking the seam out on the left sleeve and redoing it. I definitely want my next sweater not to include sewing pieces together at the end as many people have said it is more enjoyable that way.

I am still reading the book Love the Wine You're With by Kim Gruenenfelder. I am liking it but haven't been setting aside time to read due to being distracted by school starting up again and different things. I will try to read a little bit each day so I can enjoy the book. I have also still been reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. I am on the chapter about paper and have been going through paper of mine and find that the book is helping so much to help me toss more things than I have before because we really hold onto things we don't need thinking we'll read it one day when we never do. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the book and working through all of the items and having less stuff around. 

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On, AsKatKnits for Unwraveled Wednesday, and The Little Room of Rachell for Yarning Along. 

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today! If you would like to keep updated on when I post, please follow me on Bloglovin', Google Followers, or you can subscribe by email at the top right corner for updates to your email. 

Have a great day!

Veg Fest in Toronto, Knitting Updates, and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well.  On Friday night I went to Veg Fest which is organized by the Toronto Vegetarian Association. I had a great time going with my friend, trying samples, and learning more about a vegetarian and vegan lifestyle. We first spoke with a woman from Mercy for Animals about their organization and how they work to make lives better for animals on factory farms. I have since added them on Facebook, Instagram, and visited their website and love what they are all about. Then we went to the area of the festival where they had lots of food and products which were all vegan. I tried the Chick Chicken burger at a food truck which was made from chickpeas and my friend got the imitation beef burger. It tasted so good, I would not miss chicken eating that burger. Then we went around and ate samples and I also bought a vegan ice cream made from oatmeal. It was so good and my friend bought a donut from Bloomer's to share. I was pleasantly surprised how delicious it was.

Photo of me about to eat the vegan ice cream

Veg Fest tents set up 

My chick'n burger which was really made from chickpeas. It was really good!

My friend's burger, she got their famous burger which looks like beef patty but it is also made from chickpeas

I have been thinking lately of cutting back on eating meat and I want to live a more vegetarian lifestyle. Right now I am not limiting myself and saying I won't eat meat, but I want to gradually reduce eating it for my health and compassion for animals. I am excited about this change which I have been contemplating for quite awhile. I can share some vegetarian and vegan recipes I like on the blog too. I have gone a few days without meat now and eating more nuts, beans, other foods which contain protein but I am still learning about supplementing my diet with other foods to get the protein and nutrients I need.
Tonight while I was at Loblaws, I saw these snacks in the natural food aisle that I sampled at the festival and had to buy them because they were so delicious. The Hungry Buddha coconut chips are so good and they a crunchy and so flavorful. The SimplyProtein chips I have not tried yet but did try the granola bar and liked it, so I am looking forward to giving them a try too. They were a decent price, under three dollars each. I am not affiliated with these brands in any way, I just wanted to share which snacks I liked from the festival with you.

Vegan snacks

In knitting, I have not been knitting too much this weekend. I was busy seeing family this weekend and getting organized before school starts. I will share some progress made on my stocking and sweater seaming in a couple days to catch up! I will also be starting to knit some other projects soon and looking forward to sharing those projects with you.
I am still reading Love the Wine You're With: A Novel and enjoying it so far! I have also started reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing and I am loving it! I will be posting an entry soon on my experience with the book and how it helped me to get organized and start tidying up properly!

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today! If you would like to keep updated on when I post entries on my blog, please follow me on Bloglovin', Google Followers, and you can also put your email into the subscribe button at the top right corner of my blog to get email updates when I post!

Have a great day!