For those who haven't noticed, the R is back in the month. That post reminds me I should plant my bulbs for spring!

I so love this time of year. There's nothing better to dress to get warm as to undress to get cold. I've been wearing my Uggs again for a week now and it feels so good. I'm taking long bike rides twice a week and I love how the trees change color and the fallen branches and leaves on the cycle path. I love mittens, scarves, hats and the tits (as in birds, not my tits because that would be crazy, cold and a neighborhood scandal) in the garden.

Anyway let's get to the topic of this post and that's Amy Butler and her cute Gum Drop Pillows. A couple of weeks ago I bought the Gum Drop Pillows pattern but I've been laying it aside not really knowing if I was ever going to make one at all because I honestly do not need any more pillows or cushions in my home. But today I decided to make one just for kicks and I absolutely love them. I need more. I made a small one (the pattern includes a large and a small version) but I also need a large one. I need one for in the bedroom, one for in the new guest room and I might as well make one for all the rooms in the house because they are fantastic! I definitely want to make one with Amy fabric.

For this one I used left over material from the pet bed.

I'm going to make some of her floor pillows too to mix and match. I'm off to find some Amy fabric!!

Thank you so much for the your comments on my previous post. I really enjoyed reading them all, they are extremely therapeutic. I'm so chuffed about the comments I get in general, they are so long, heartfelt, sincere and intelligent. It feels like a have a whole bunch of new friends I can discuss things with and I don't even know you all.

I just feel like hugging my screen each time I get a lovely comment and I sometimes feel quite frustrated that I can't do anything back. So I baked you a heart shaped pear pie.

This pie is really easy to make, just follow these simple directions and you'll be ready to stuff your face in no time.

Preheat your oven to 180 °C (350F)

Peel the pears, toss them in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.

To make a perfect pie crust follow this recipe:

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar

Bake for an hour

Serve with whipped cream, vanilla, cinnamon or pear ice cream or if you want to go nuts serve all on on big plate. Make sure the pie is hot for the extra yummy factor.

Enjoy!

The dish is by Emile Henry and the tea towel by CK.

Thanks so much for your tips and good advice concerning Mona.

Mona moved to a friend of us who's not having a very spoiled, fat and who think she's a princess cat living with her. The problem wasn't really Mona because she is fantastic. They say chows are difficult dogs, I think they are the best. I had her housetrained in two days, she was an absolute star at night and overall a really lovely happy little puppy. But yes we have a really odd relationship with our cat and we simple can't function well if the Boo isn't functioning well. So when our friend begged us to let her take Mona, after her own dog passed away, we simply couldn't resist to have things back to normal. And literally back to normal because just two hours after Mona left the building princess BooBoo Consuela Banana Hammock was back in her old routine like as if nothing ever happened ... "a puppy, what where? Oh that's a lovely basket ... for me?". It's my fault I've spoiled her rotten.

We still get to see Mona grow up and we're at my friends house often to play wit her and if Boo lets us we'll have her over for a pajama party. So it's not really goodbye!

The other day I found her sleeping in my strawberries. Boy, I love that cat!

Because of all my complaining I received my first negative comment.

I think that you are complaining a lot. I mean, a little puppy? How about 5 children! I guess you live a very comfortable life without any dutys, taking naps, watching telly and reading magazines. Anonymous | 09.10.07 - 3:53 pm | #

I'm really happy with this negative comment because it makes me realize how fortunate I am not to have to deal with five children. Man alive that would make a pretty interesting blog if I had five children!! It's a very good life choice for me not to have them because I know I don't do that well. I know I'm good at lots of other things and that's why I do them. Sometimes I have to try something new to know if I can or can not do it. I love to write about these things on my blog because I know we all struggle with these things. Some are big, some are small but all as important. I do hope that this anonymous commenter made the life choice that best suits her and that she isn't afraid to sometimes fail miserably, just like I (we all) do!

I've started all kinds of odd jobs in and around the house because I really need to get my mind of our current pet situation, it's grim people!

One of them is this roman blind I've made for our indoor patio. When we moved to this house I quite quickly decided not to use expensive fabric for curtains because we have massive windows and really high ceilings. I only splurged on fabric for the dining room curtains because my mother agreed to partial fund the fabric towards a birthday present (she's good at that). I tried to find affordable fabric for the rest of the house. I'm still pleased with my choices. For the living room I picked white linen curtains from Ikea and for the kitchen and indoor patio I picked cheap cotton red/white gingham fabric.

To add some color and to hide the white pencil pleat curtain heading tape (I didn't line the curtains) I made this wee roman blind of the same print I wallpapered on my kitchen walls.

I used the guidelines in this book by Katrin Cargill. It's a lovely book and extremely useful. There are so many wonderful projects in this book you immediately want to do. I feel so tempted to make my own eiderdown for the attic guestroom we are working on. It's really a "aarrggh, where can I put 50 million cushions because they are all so cute in this book" book. Anyway I've made it the book of the month and you can buy it in my aStore.