T Stands for Tuesday & Still Texturing and Painting Walls and Ceilings

Good morning everyone,

   T Stands for Tuesday where we share a drink related post. Our hostess is Bleubeard and Elizabeth-just click on link in right hand column to join in.

  Not much new happening here still-the weather continues to be way too hot and humid so I am stuck indoors-which is a good thing since I am working every day for at least 6 hours on the hallway project. I did have to stop taking my 3 mile walks as the humidity was just too much even early mornings-sigh

   End of last week I did finish the first stage of my hallway project-hard to take photos-but I am very happy with the color-a soft grey for the walls and foggy skies for the ceiling.

This is the same texture tehnique I did in the bathroom but this time I am adding much more texture with the tissue paper-I am very happy with it (photos will all enlarge more just click on them)

This next photo you can see the grey a bit better-this is part of a window frame.

I took this photo so you can see the contrast of colors with the ceiling and the walls-funny a daddy long leg spider has already moved in to check it out lol didn't see him there when I took the photo.

and this photo is looking into the second section of the hallway-I just finished the texturing on this wall today.

To keep myself focussed and on target I am not doing in baking, or starting new projects-as I want this finished. Hopefully we can find someone reasonable to hire to tile the bathroom and hallway before winter.

I have been spinning bison yarn a bit in the evenings, and also reading new releases from my favorite authors.

Since I love everything Yellowstone National Park-I couldn't pass up a super sale over on Shutterfly-for two days last week they were giving 40% off on hard cover photo books and also free extra pages up to over 100 pages-that was too good of a deal for me to pass up--so I made another photo book from my trip in May. 
    I also enjoy photos from Yellowstone over on facebook so I grabbed quite a few and set up a slideshow screen saver on my desk top computer so loving that. They have already had a week of snow-which started to melt now.

I am still getting several hummingbirds at the feeders-quite surprised many are still passing through this late in September.

For my drink I am sharing a couple of liqueurs I picked up a couple weeks ago-coconut, and a pumpkin pie spice--the pumpkin one is soooo delicious-no after taste no strong spices-just tastes like pumpkin pie-very nice. Also the coconut one is really smooth and nice too.

Oh and I wanted to share something fun. Our friends that make good fried catfish-called us up one evening last week around 7:30pm which is late for us-especially hubs-and said they were coming over with hot fish. We were thinking hot fish??  When the guys went fishing earlier in the week they only caught just a couple but three different kinds of fish-so our friend battered them up and fried them and brought them over hot along with a fresh baked apple pie right out of the even-now how is that for friends just poppin over? lol

Happy T Day everyone!

T Stands for Tuesday & Roasting Coffee Beans & Autumn Magazines

Good morning, 
   Hi everyone, especially to the T Partiers since today is Tuesday where we share a drink related post. I have really enjoyed this group and reading about their travels and art. To join us click on the link in the right column. Thank you Bleubeard and Elizabeth our hostess each week for making this event so much fun 

   I do not have much new to share with you this week. Yesterday I did finish the first section of my hallway and it is now ready to put the final paint on. I will start with ceiling today. I am mostly anxious to see if I love the grey I chose for the walls. I added allot more texture with the tissue papers this time than I did in the bathroom walls. The two areas will look a bit different-I am hoping.

  I have been able to stick with my walking and yesterday finally was able to make the 5k or 3 miles.  With the weather change that gets to my asthma a bit when the seasons change over -it took me over a week to get back to the 3 so yeah me lol

  On my walks the goldenrod is in full bloom-I love that plant especially since I had finally accomplished a lovely yellow with it in the dye pot a couple years ago. For me if I did not take it out of the dye pot right away when I got the yellow it would turn to a brown-a pretty brown but not what I wanted  The goldenrod always makes me smile; at it's peak so beautiful 

  Our friend's teenage son has gotten into roasting coffee beans-he loves the process. He buys them green and then roasts them. He handed hubs a small bag of them since he always compliments him on the flavor of the coffee.
   I decided to roast them the old mountain man way-in a very hot cast iron skillet-but not over a camp fire instead over a gas stove flame.  The beans did not roast even and I did not want to burn them which I read is easy to do so took them off the heat after 10 minutes. The articles I had read said to roast for 8 to 10 minutes. and I asked our young friend about them roasting uneven and he tells me that is normal doing at home
   Hubs said the coffee was good though. Here are a few photos.

I did totally forget to take a photo of the brew-it was lighter in the cup than regular coffee.

Magazines:

   For me now a days, purchasing magazines is a splurge and a treat. I love mail so for awhile I was receiving quite a few-quilt magazines, cooking magazines and others of interest to the both of us. I think they are too expensive now especially since the main stream ones are quite thin with loads of ads and they refer back to their website for the recipe and more of the article-I don't like that.

    I do enjoy Mary Jane Farm's magazine that I read cover to cover and then since she uses recycled paper I make my handmade paper with it.

   I did subscribe for one year a spinning magazine named Ply which is written and sold from here in Missouri. The owner is a very accomplished spinner and has a couple spinning videos on Craftsy. This magazine is quite thorough on the subject like buying a small book almost.

   In the fall especially I love a good food magazine for ideas. I have been hunting for the new Pioneer Woman's magazine which sells out fast-I finally got a copy last week at Wal Mart. I have also run into a new magazine about cast iron cooking-baking that has some really good recipes in them.

   So when we went shopping at Sam's Club last week I went to their magazine rack and Wow I found several to bring home with me. They were even selling Sift which is a new baking magazine by King Arthur Flour. The one I picked up was all about sourdough baking.
     The recipes in all of theses below that I picked up look wonderful using lots of sweet potatoes and fall fruits and veggies,  so I am excited to try some of these new recipes.
   I even picked up the new Farmer's Almanac which I have not done in a few years. 

note all photos will enlarge just click on them

   What magazines do you enjoy??

Southern Cast Iron 

                                       Taste of South Fall Baking

As you can see in the photos I am enjoying a cup of my herbal decaf brew-this time no cream. I love this cup it is a big one but not heavy and well balanced. Probably over 12 years ago now when I was doing more quilting this quilt shop was sending along this free cup with an order.

Happy T Day everyone!!

We Have a Winner for my Corn Husk Paper Challenge

  Good evening everyone, I am going to be running errands in the morning so decided to draw a winner late tonight.

   Two of you had an interest in my corn husk paper challenge so I put the two names on slips of papers folded to same size and tossed them around and had hubs choose one. The winner is Valerie-Jael  

  I want to thank both Valerie and Erika for showing an interest in my challenge. If she decides not to do this do to cost of postage I understand and will give the challenge to Erika.
   I have decided to send along three of my papers to Valerie-one for her, one for me, and one piece for her to use as an experiment to see how the paper reacts to different mediums-paints, stamps etc. I did add gelatin to the pulp to help with the pens and inks not to run but this is my first time using plant materials from the raw plant to make paper so this is all new to me too. Sounds fun to me.

   I am excited hope Valerie is too

T Stands for Tuesday and a Giveaway (with a special condition)

   Hi everyone and Happy T Stands for Tuesday
  Where we share a drink related post with our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth-link in my right hand column. You are most welcome to join us.

  Since last Tuesday I have delved back into my hallway project-tissue papering the walls for textures. The hallway is in three sections so I am working on each section from start to finish-I think it won't be so daunting this way. One section is full with so much stuff-that will be the last section lol.  
    Tonight I am almost finished with the texturing in the first section-a little more on the wall to go and about half the ceiling-so getting excited about this first finish.  It will get another coat of kilnz paint and then painted. I chose a very light grey for the walls.  all photos will enlarge just click on them

   I have also gotten back to walking every day even if it is just a mile-I strive for 3 miles but I don't always get 3 in but I figure if I can stick with walking each day this will hopefully get me back into a routine. I am soooo bad at sticking with exercise routines.

   For my Giveaway-which also comes with a condition-I would love to share one of my cornhusks papers with one of you. I would also like to send along a second piece for you to create a woodland or country theme for me which I will want to frame and hang, My art expertise is not paper art but fibers. You all make such beautiful art that I was hoping you might be interested in this challenge.  If so just say so in comments and I will draw a winner.  

     for my beverage tonight I am enjoying a diet root beer along with a gluten free blueberry fig bar  This is sitting on one of  my handwoven placemats that I made years ago.

This is also a day of reflection being 9/11 here in the States-no we will  never forget what happened that day-wow 16 years ago now.
   Also prayers for all those in harms way of the hurricanes in Texas and Florida and the storms around those states-we have a friend that lives in the keys I pray he still has a home after the hurricane. 
    Also prayers for all those in harms way do to the fires out west-so many in Montana and other western states.
Happy T Day all of you!

T Stands for Tuesday & More Baking in the Dutch Ovens-Over & Under the Coals

 Hi everyone, those of you in the States hoping your Labor Day weekend was awesome. 
   The weather was perfect for us here in the Ozarks with Monday being the exception with the very hot temperatures and high humidity returning.

   T Stands for Tuesday where we share a drink related post, find the link in my right hand column that will take you to our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth.

     The first thing I want to share is the lovely postcard I won from Val. (oops should read Valerie) It arrived so fast in the mail I couldn't believe it and l love this quote so much that I was so happy to win this one. The link will take you to her gardening post that I really loved too.
    Sorry I did not share this sooner at the time I was immersed in canning tomatoes and relishes and forgot.  It has found a home on my refrigerator door so I can view it easily along with my Yellowstone magnets.

 Note-all photos will enlarge just click on them:    

  I decided for this 3 day weekend-although being retired every day is a weekend now lol-I would do lots of baking in my cast iron dutch ovens. 

   Saturday I baked up another lemon meringue pie and a gluten free zucchini bread. Both turned out really nice.

   Sunday ended up being a very long day out in the heat for most of it.  I have neglected the wheat and rye sourdough starters for a couple of months now and they both just needed to be fed really well and used. My original thoughts were to make rye bread and pizza dough for hubs. 

    I hadn't read the recipe the night before for sourdough pizza and it needed very little rise time so decided not to do that this time. 

     I ended up making two loaves of sourdough caraway rye bread and two loaves of sourdough cinnamon raisin bread. I was jumping for joy how well these baked up---well almost jumping for joy (smiles) as by the end I was really hot and my back was hurting a bit from picking up the two dutch ovens a few times-but all was good I enjoyed the day.

   However, I will not be following the instructions by Lodge on how many coals to place on top and the bottom of the dutch oven according to size and temperature. They wanted 19 charcoal on top and 10 on the bottom I really thought that was odd and not right but since I had not baked yeast bread before and needed 400 degrees f for the rye I did it--wrong-- the tops got too brown (not burnt) and the bottoms needed more coals--so no more following directions lol 

the sourdough starters

The sourdough caraway rye bread risen in the pans and ready to be baked

The sourdough caraway rye bread out of the dutch oven. this bread came out so perfect. I can not eat gluten but I had to take one small bite of this one (something I Never do)-it was heavenly

Sourdough Cinnamon-raisin bread-this baked up so well too, and smells divine. I was short one large and wide bread pan so had to settle for the next size I had-when it rose it went over the sides-so after baked I had to cut that all off to get the bread out-kinda funny at the time.

I won't bake two breads like this again on the same day in the dutch ovens-I started at 9 am getting the coals going and ended around 5 pm  I definately got too much sun-but since it all baked up so well was worth it to me.

Today-Monday, I have bbq baby back ribs on the grill. I just need to check on them each hour and then run back into the a/c lol it is extremely hot here today.  I was going to cook the veggies on another grill but it is just too hot-so "cheating" and will finish up everything else in the house.

Yes I am still spinning bison yarn-loving it, and still reading in the evenings.

For my drink related photo I am sharing my favorite yellowstone cup filled with my dandelion root-chicory hot beverage with a splash of cream and a slice of my gluten free zucchini bread- that was still warm from baking-with cream cheese-fabulously delicious lol 

Second on the 2nd & Fabric Painting a Sky

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

August sure went by fast didn't it?? I still can not believe we have started September already.  Which brings us to Second on the 2nd where we share a previous post. Hosted by Bleubeard and Elizabeth see link in my right hand column to join in

    Instead of copy and pasting like I usually do I decided to share just a few of the photos and the link to the blog for better viewing-as the format on my original blog is so different it does not fit here well.  I tried bringing it over it just did not look good and as you can see the fonts have even changed lol

This was posted December 17, 2013 and titled Reveal of that Special Project I was Working on  Click here to read the entire post.

      That year I was approached by a blogging friend that was making a special quilt for her cancer recovery and she commissioned me to paint sky fabric. Me???  I told her I really don't know if I can do that as I am not that kind of artist-she assured me yes I can.

   This ended up being a challenge, allot of fun, and with good results. Please click on above link for more information. Also if you go to the original post you can click on all the photos to make larger for better viewing.

I really need to try this technique again I remember having allot of fun with it-I had done several attempts and this was my best one.  and wow this is bad-it is almost 4 years and I still do not have the hand sewing of the binding completed--It is all pinned and I have finished one side--more fun spinning now lol  but I really want this quilt finished so we can use it-that one had allot of history-which is another post once it is finished. I am just so bad at bouncing around with my crafts-but that's what I do.