Saturday Afternoon at the Movies

  Hi everyone,
       Saturday movies--- Inspired to post by CJ this is where we share our favorite movies that we love to watch more than once.

    Well last week I just couldn't think of another movie that I really enjoyed enough to view more than once. But this week I remembered a favorite.    A Walk in the Clouds popped in my mind.
Great actors, and I loved this story.
     It is a love story but I thought this one was unique.

"Veteran Paul Sutton is having difficulty forgetting the recent horrors of WWII, and his self-absorbed wife isn't helping matters. One day, Paul meets a distraught pregnant woman whose boyfriend has abandoned her. To help out, Paul poses as her husband for her family and finds himself in a difficult situation." from here




Here is a review

The Trailer

and I found the movie online too-for those of you that can stream 

    Released in 1995 here are the main actors.  

• Keanu Reeves as Paul Sutton
• Aitana Sanchez-Gijon as Victoria Aragon
• Anthony Quinn as Don Pedro Aragon
• Giancarlo Giannini as Alberto Aragon

T Stands for Tuesday-and Going Forward

  Happy T Stands for Tuesday everyone.

     This is where we share a drink related post, and link up with our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth. 
     Only "rules" is to be sure and share a photo of what you are drinking.

  This past week has begun our new life adventure. We are going forward with de stashing-allot, selling, and looking for a home on the lake with boat slips. Our goal is to fix up and de stash, see what is available on the lake, and put our home up for sale next spring.
   So Big Big changes have arrived. Kinda exciting too.

   I have a huge book collection, cookbooks and craft books mostly-I will start going through those first and only keep a few favorites.
    Any ideas for online sales of books? I don't care for amazon-too high fees-so far am using Facebook and Ebay and see how this goes.

   Over the weekend I worked on the ceiling and have the one section finished with two coats of paint-next up is the second section of ceiling with two coats, and then paint the walls twice as well. So progress on that.

    I had done many eco printing papers when I had the chance, so I now need to get that all put away for now. I may still want to do some natural dyeing/printing on fabric-I always need a craft break when I am working on the house projects.

   I am thinking we are going to be really really busy here-so may not be able to post for T every week-but will still visit as much as I can-I would miss you all too much.

    I am sharing a couple beverages this time. Enjoying a piece of carrot cake with my decaf herbal beverage in my favorite Yellowstone Park mug-for breakfast

and I love this beverage for during the day-as a treat. It has very little sugar and no caffeine.

   Happy T Day everyone.

No Movie Today However---I Do Have Cast Iron Carrot Cake to Share & My Weaving Muse at Work

  I was thinking about a movie to share last night, and nothing came to mind. At least a movie that I love to watch over and over again. 
  Hubs and I never went to many movies together. He is not comfortable sitting in that situation with his arthritis and after the effects from serving his country in war he was not comfortable sitting in movie theaters.  As a child growing up my parents took us to the movies when it was really hot during the summer months since we didn't have air conditioning at home. I really do not remember any of those movies.
 I do remember though my Mom taking me and my cousin Nancy to Broadway theater in Chicago-now that I remember really enjoying.
   Nowadays I mostly watch the movies on the two Hallmark channels-and since I know most of my readers do not care for those type of movies decided not to share any of those. 
    So for now will not be sharing more movies unless something special comes to mind. 
     I did really enjoy this event though-thank you CJ

This morning I made the cast iron skillet carrot cake recipe that I shared in my last post.
   I did swap the oil for coconut oil, the sugar I swapped with mostly Splenda and a little coconut sugar, and the flour that was only one cup I used almond flour and my gluten free flour blend. It smells really nice. Needs to cool-and then I will decide if I want to make a cream cheese frosting or not possibly using the Splenda for no more sugar added. The sugars in this cake is the carrots and pineapple, and a bit in the coconut sugar.

Update:
    I did make frosting with cream cheese, pineapple juice, and sweetened to taste with Splenda-pretty good tasting

     One of the major things in my craft room to down size was my vintage 45" rug loom.  It does take up allot of space-and as my craft room filled up with other things-it was just really really tight in there to set up and actually weave on. 
     I felt really bad about selling this loom as this was a retirement gift from my husband. With my age and arthritis creeping in, and pulling on that very heavy beater-it is probably a bit much for me now too--I cried a little and than put it up for sale. 
     I used Facebook marketplace, and also found a Facebook group selling only vintage rug looms. My weaving muse worked her magic as all afternoon my friend in Kentucky had been trying to reach me-I hadn't been on the computer again til evening. Her husband spotted my ad and turns out my friend has been on the hunt for a 4 harness rug loom (makes more patterns) since she gifted her 2 harness rug loom. She called me that evening, mentioned my loom but I didn't realize she wanted to buy it-we talked for awhile and she said you do understand I want to buy your loom right??  Oh wow!!   
    So I feel so much better about this that a friend is getting my loom. She will be driving up in October sometime.

Happy weekend everyone!!

Sharing Recipes Using Cast Iron

  I get an email once in awhile that has some good looking recipes that I think deserve to be shared-they look so delicious. 

From Southern Cast Iron

click on links for the recipes

Lemon-Buttermilk Scones




Plum Blackberry Bars




Gooey Layer Bars  this one is super easy




Skillet Carrot Cake




Let me know if you decide to make any of these recipes-they are all tempting. I have fresh carrots on hand-so may just make this carrot cake soon

Book Sharing

  I just finished a book: Loving Frank by Nancy Horan 

I ran into this book from my Book Bub email list-which I have actually been deleting most days so I can get caught up on my reading.  I am really glad though that I opened up the email a few days ago to find this book.

  This is about a love affair that Frank Lloyd Wright had. At first I thought what a different topic to write a book about-but the author really did allot of research of this time period in his life. She is a gifted writer and I really discovered Wright's personality through her words. This took place in the early 1900's so the religious and social values really came out-that in this day we don't even think about.
  The ending was so tragic, which I did not know about, that I looked online to see if was true-and the author was very correct in the details.

  I have always loved Wright's architecture. My husband's late uncle even lived in one of his homes in his early years as a lawyer. 
  This is a book that will stay with me.

Here is a link about the book, with a video by the author, and reviews

Eucalyptus Eco Printing

Good morning,
   Yesterday morning I set up to eco print the eucalyptus leaves I had soaking overnight in water.
   These were dried that I purchased online a couple years ago-I also found a bag of crushed eucalyptus leaves I forgot I had.
   Reading mostly India Flint, I was hoping for reds but really did not know what to expect. There are so many different species too-some no dye, some need fresh not dried etc, many needs the right season to harvest etc-so I did not know what to expect really.
   I used my alum acetate to mordant the papers-same watercolor papers used in last two posts. I did not want to soak the leaves in rusty water as I wanted to see how they would dye-print on their own.
   Since I had the crushed also,  I added a couple big hand fulls to the water-just to see if that would add any color-it did not.
  Since my water did not turn red I was prepared for no color or no prints

  I did get these pretty yellows and if you click and enlarge the photos you can also see the veining of the leaves-so I am pleased.
   Theses leaves were actually difficult to tell which was the back side.  These might be fun to try now with different mordants-silks wrapped around copper pipe, or rusty water. I need to do more reading on eucalyptus-I had read that some here in the States buy fresh from the florist in hopes of reds.

On another note: we did visit the piece of property we really liked that we saw online near Ha Ha Tonka state park and on the lake. We did drive by before a couple days earlier before our appointment just to see where it was etc. We visited with a neighbor that made us feel like home.  This would be a huge change-the rooms are small but the outdoor space is amazing-a large deck that is attached to a screened in deck area over looking the lake. The master bedroom is the largest room-I may need to take that over for my crafts. ha ha Lots of decisions and more information needed. Lots of work too-I haven't slept well just thinking of the magnitude of this project. No decisions made-but also I think we are both ready for this. 
  If it is meant to be it will happen smoothly.

   I am off to paint the hallway today or at least this week for sure-I may visit a friend today. Decided to make us bbq ribs on the grill today-just because 

  Happy Wednesday

T Stands for Tuesday & Eco Printing Update (lots of photos)

Hi Everyone,
   T Stands for Tuesday is a weekly event where we share a drink related post. Post about anything on your blog-just show a photo of the beverage you are drinking and join us at T. 
   Our Hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth's link is in my right hand column

  Yesterday I did a batch of eco prints and was really really pleased with the papers. I am really liking the 140 pound weight watercolor papers-they hold up well in the dye bath submerged and give really nice prints.  Here is the link of the papers I posted yesterday-just taken out of the dye water and laid out on towels to dry. Of course like any hand dye the colors are the brightest and prettiest when wet.

   I am still very happy with my papers today-once dry-and my stack of bonus papers-the papers I place on top of the leaves and then the next watercolor paper-I really love this technique-it does make the print on one side more clear-and not muted from prints on the back side-and you get bonus papers to craft with.

This post is full of lots of photos-click to enlarge photos to full size for better viewing

   We still have pretty yellows

Below: The first full view of paper on left-I love that bottom image-this was a tall weed with flowers-it printed beautifully

Here are photos of my set up-I have two sets of tiles stacked on top of each other. Rocks on bottom and heavy rocks on top-the lid still fits tight-I keep the water at a simmer for 2 hours-just enough water so that it can bubble into that top stack.   
    First photo-- the set up and now-second photo---
    I am waiting for it to cool down enough so I can get the two tile sandwiches out and see what I have.
   Note:  I am typing this up as I wait for the newest reveal-so exciting!!

Oh My the reveal does not disappoint!!  

I think I got this technique figured out now--
      1) soak your leaves in watered down iron water-I had a gallon going of iron water that was very very brown-I poured that into a 5 gallon bucket (designated now for dyeing) filled it up with cool water and added all the leaves. and I collected that one weed flower-that prints so nice. Let soak over night or even 24 to 48 hours.  when ready to print-discard the iron water.
    2) I used a tablespoon of alum acetate mixed in with hot tap water to dissolve-I added that to a longish plastic container about 2 inches deep-poured that in and added warm water, stirred and added in my water color papers. No need to soak overnite. I soaked 5 watercolor papers at a time-layered with the leaves the butcher type wax paper (but not waxed) and another water color paper-added in the next 5 watercolor papers. I did 10 per tile sandwich.
    3) I sandwich these between tiles and tie as best I can set on rocks as flat as you can find, I double stacked two sets of tiles-just fits into this set up I have and place two heavy rocks on top-these help to press the leaves into the papers for better prints.
    4) I then added in very hot tap water to just cover the papers on top of stack-added in some blue Rit dye stirred that in and kept at a low simmer for 2 hours-no need to let papers set over night-now fabric I would let sit in the bath over nite and take out-and leave alone for a week or so before looking-hard I know lol

     When I first saw the video with the craft person using Rit dye-my first thought was this technique was cheating using a commercial dye like that. But when I saw the results-so amazing! 
      I have used chemical dyes from Dharma Trading when I was dyeing cloth for quilt fabrics-so I now look at Rit dye a different way. I think a green would be pretty to use as well.
   I think allot of the natural dye stuffs would not work with this eco print project if it is one that would lose it's color with the 2 hour simmer time. I think onion skins would work out nice in this method though

     Ok on to the reveal---Wow so beautiful---if you have an urge to try this technique please do-it is so exciting when you open up your sandwich

and a few of the in between papers-this time I cut them close to the size of the tiles

Tomorrow I would like to eco print with eucalyptus-I have dried leaves that I purchased a couple years ago and am soaking them in water today. Not sure if these are the right variety or not to get the pretty reds-but I am going to give it a go-along with the eucalyptus leaves in the water as well.

    We had a taste for ice cream one evening over the weekend-here's a photo of mine-vanilla frozen yogurt, fresh blueberries, and caramel yum.  Hubs loves chocolate mint the best.

The beverage I am sharing:  Kathy's made up Yellowstone-ginger beer beverage ha ha

    Fill a tall glass with frozen yogurt, a shot of huckleberry vodka (I found this bottle in West Yellowstone last year) fill up slowly with ginger beer-I use diet now. (note ginger beer has no alcohol in it)  Delicious! and thanks to Jo for mentioning ginger beer-I really enjoy it now.

Happy T everyone

Eco Prints on Watercolor Papers-Preview

  I just unwrapped the papers-I did two batches this time, with the smaller size papers-around 20 sheets. 
    Hubs cut me two tiles in half that are perfect. I was able to stack them in the steamer, with room to set them on rocks on the bottom and the top-and the water came up just over the tiles.
   I added a little bit of brown Rit dye to the water, probably a tablespoon. Loving the results!! and I cut the papers to size this time as well.
   These photos are wet just out of the water-so of course they will lighten up quite a bit once dry.

   I am very impressed with these prints. I used some leaves that were red, some were yellow, and allot of the yellow on the papers is also the reaction with alum acetate fixative from the leaf to the paper.
    I also liked soaking the leaves in rusty water over night. I have leaves left so I am re soaking them for another batch tomorrow.

There is only one piece that did not get a clear image the third one in the second row

These are the papers in between the watercolor papers-allot lighter in colors than the blue papers I did but still prints  The edges took up allot of the brown dye. I think these we will be fun to use inside the matching papers as notecards.

Happy Saturday-Weekend & Possible Life Change

  Hi everyone,
     Today's project for myself was to get the coat of kilnz paint onto the rest of my hallway project. One wall and one ceiling.  This is kinda slow going as I paint with a brush not a roller-ha ha. I can hold on to and also make much less of a mess paining with a brush. I have painted our entire house with a brush. Of course Hubs just shakes his head-but no one can see any brush strokes so all is good.
  Actually especially for this first coat of paint-a roller would pretty much make a mess of things and pull allot of the paper off until it is  sealed first with the first coat of paint.

    After I finished that up, I decided to grab a bucket and collect a bunch of leaves for my next eco print project. The kilnz coat will be better to set for a day anyways before applying the final color paints.
    I was hoping to find more leaves in color, but sadly most are just drying up and falling on the ground. I did grab a few reds from the sumac and some yellows. I have them soaking in cold rusty water. I emptied my gallon of rusty water into the bucket and then filled it up with cold water So the rusty water will be much more diluted than last time. 
   I may also leave out the addition of tannin with alum as that seemed to make spots on the papers-but then again the leaves are probably losing allot of their tannins now so I may just add a little to this rusty water tomorrow morning.

   I ordered some new papers that I got in yesterday. This got good reviews from a couple sites I had read on eco printing. Bee Papers watercolor papers 140 pound weight. These are also cut to 6" x 9" (inches) So I think I will like this size as well

  I was not going to post this yet, but Hubs is starting to tell friends about it-so thought I would share-perhaps it will help everything come true and easily obtained.
  We never have talked about this at all, this was to be our forever home here in the woods-I do love it here away from neighbors especially, but keeping up with all the grass cutting etc is getting to be too much for us. Especially with Hubs failing health, and as we are getting older so is all of our equipment too-so it's either pay out money to have it cut or buy new. It takes two full days to cut everything that should be cut around all of our buildings. So pretty expensive to pay someone.
  We were driving together up to the lake near Ha Ha Tonka State Park-one of my favorite parks close by, and Hubs out of the blue says Ya know I have been looking at lake property to see what the possibilities are, in fact I fell in love with a place totally perfect for us but was sold within 5 days-and I didn't say anything cause I didn't think you would want to move again. What??? well I was kinda thinking we needed to down size in the near future and I would love to downsize to a lakefront property and Not to a city that's for sure.
   I would enjoy the lake enviroment, I love to eat fish, the views, but I do Not do boats, as I do Not know how to swim. lol   We would want property with boat lifts and dock so easy for Hubs to launch his boat by himself. I also don't want to move so far away that his fishing buddies wouldn't come and go fishing with him
  Sounds pretty fun, but when I was out collecting things for eco print-what would be available at a lake enviroment??  Biggest thing is-just a huge huge project to sell things and downsize-we did not downsize at all when we moved from northern Illinois- kept everything because I didn't know for sure what I wanted. We both collect many things, and we have garages filled to the brim too--a big task-Hubs says we could just bring in an auctioneer-yes that's doable. lol
  So right now we are surfing the net to see what is available. another thing is our house never got completed inside-still a few floors to do, and the bathroom stills need finishing. I am going to not stress over this-and just see what develops.

so we'll see perhaps our future will be views like this


   

and not views of our woods and wildlife-wondering if there are birds near a lake? deer roaming by?
  So a new life adventure is upon us-searching and thinking about it can be half the fun. and I have already started going clothes-next up is all my vintage kitchen things-I can sell those My crafts-looms-ummm don't think so ha ha

Saturday Afternoon at the Movie

Hi everyone,
   This is where we share our favorite movies-those movies we enjoy watching more than once.
   Inspired to post from CJ


I wasn't sure what I wanted to share this week. As I am learning that most of you don't like my love story movies -- Sooooo I am going with a total action film that my husband and I love and have watched at least 6 times or more.
   I totally love the lead characters, this is an action and shoot em up movie-I am not into most violent movies but I loved the story and the chemistry between the two lead characters. We really thought there could have been a part 2 to this movie but didn't happen.

The Replacement Killers



    Information here   and I saw the full movie free online too

A Ceiling View & a Completion

Wow-I know two posts in one day ha ha 
   I am so excited to share a finish-with someone-so that's you my friends in my computer.

   I started the paper texturing of the last of my hallway probably about a month ago. I have been struggling with the ceiling allot these past couple weeks-as I seem to have lost my balance-or at least being comfortable up on the ladder texturing the ceiling. So I am happy this is the last of our ceilings in the house as I don't think I could do another one-especially a textured one.

  This week I told myself this week I must complete this texture on the ceiling. I just finished-what a relief it is ha ha.

  The painting will go better I think-kilnz first then the paints with color. The other short section of the hallway I finished the texturing and the kilnz coat last year about this time too-and then stopped to work on the guest area.  So I will paint the ceilings first in both these areas and then the walls. I will strive to get the painting finished before another week goes by.
   Then the big tile project-I don't know how to do that-Hubs is really not in good enough shape to do this kind of work any more-but he thinks he can-we will see how that all goes.

a few photos I took of the ceiling Click on photos to enlarge to full size to see the texturing better

The lighting in this area was really really poor to work in but I got er done

This was the final corner

I wanted to share a photo of the tissue paper I used-as several of you in one of my posts thought I was using just regular tissue paper. That would not work at all just too thin. This tissue paper is made for this project.
   I ended up with quite allot left. My local stores no longer carried it so had to go online to search for it and the best price was to buy a case of 12 packs. I have probably 6 packs left so hoping I can sell the rest-or perhaps use it to eco dye with-but that's allot of papers.

   

  I have a little wallpaper paste left-question can I use it as a glue for paper crafts? Like with an atc

Rain

We are so thankful here-yesterday we finally got Rainnnnnnn

    At first a super light rain then it really came down, and I was so amazed at how fast the grass turned green-almost before our eyes.
   When the deer stopped by for corn, they also hung out and enjoyed eating the fresh green grass

My photo is a bit blurry but you can see the green instead of the very brown grass and how much the twins have grown-they are much taller now

Happy Thursday everyone
   below photo found online

T Stands for Tuesday & Spinning and a Brat Picnic

Welcome to my T Stands for Tuesday post

    This is where we share a drink related post on Tuesdays. Our hostess is Bleubeard and Elizabeth-find link in my right hand column-you are most welcome to join us at our T Party.

  The weather this past week-sigh- still not a drop of rain. We are in a spot I guess where the rain is missing us. Hopefully with all of the rain coming in this week we will finally get some.  
    Still hot and humid but not as horrible as it was.  Everything is dying here in the woods-acorns and nuts falling off the trees before they have matured, blackberries all burnt up, leaves turning to their fall colors and dropping. 
   I did get a nice surprise though when I watered the veggie area this morning-another nice bowl full of beans, several cucumbers, another yellow cayenne pepper, and the tomato plants looking beautiful-with some rain they may just produce for me.

  These beans all went into the freezer

This past week, I finished spinning the baby alpaca fiber and am quite happy with it-still spinning singles but finally looking nicer.

This yarn is really soft.

When I finished up with the baby alpaca fiber I grabbed my bag of bison fiber. I have spun allot of skeins of bison fiber already and it is still quite bulky so am glad I took a break from it and spun a couple of other things.  Now that I am back to it-I am thrilled that I am spinning this fiber thinner as well-that makes me happy. The bison fiber has very very short fibers so I was afraid to draft it out-but it's working for me without falling apart.

Cuteness arrived in the mail today-friend Barbara sent me a couple very sweet handmade items. One is stuffed and hand beaded, and the other is a knitted rabbit.
   The rabbit really made me smile as a rabbit family has returned this year to live down near our home-so we see them often. They are always fun to watch.
   I have a box full of nuts, and protein bars near my computer-so I stuck them in their on top-so cute-the face has so much personality. And the mini stuffed little "pillow" that is beaded has flowers and grasses on it-so these go together nicely.

Over the weekend, we invited our friends -that made the catfish dinner- over for a brat picnic.  I grilled indoors do to the super dry grasses, and made sides of potato salad, cole slaw with carrot and crushed pineapple, baked beans in the slow cooker, and a angel food cake with fresh strawberries and blueberries.  
     I made a gluten free yellow angel food cake using my Grandma's recipe-just changed the flour-it turned out sooo good, no one would know it was gluten free-it even rose above the pan-so thrilled.  I forgot to take a photo of the cake out of the pan though

We also had gluten free macaroni and cheese and deviled eggs, along with my own pickle relish, lots of different mustards to choose from too.  I had ended up with too many brats and hot dogs in the freezer so that's why I decided to have this indoor picnic. I used toothpicks to tell the difference-cheese brats, polish, Italian, natural hot dogs, and angus beef hot dogs-so there were lots to choose from. I also picked up three different types of buns-one was Chicago style for my husband.
    The biggest favorite was the crock pot beans-those had cooked all day long-some were my canned beans along with cans of pork and beans-I added molasses, maple syrup, a little mustard, a little ketchup
   Of course I sent home with our guests lots of left overs but we still have lots of salads left.

and for dessert--so good

On another note entirely:
    I looked online in search of another doctor group in hopes of an earlier appointment than November. I found a doctor with excellent credentials and 5 star reviews-but sigh today I learned she is closing her patient practice and only working at the hospital. Asking about someone else in the group-they are booked up through next January-wow is there that many people with thyroid issues or is this area just short on doctors?  
   So I guess I will need to be satisfied with the November appointment-in the meantime I continue to gain weight-which mentally I can not deal with it--I am close to going on a liquid diet for awhile. ok sorry finished with my rant-lol

   For my beverage share:  One really hot day this past week I decided to make a root beer float-hadn't had one in awhile-did use diet everything-no sugar added frozen vanilla yogurt and diet root beer. Yummy-one of my favorite treats for the summer.

Happy T Day everyone.
   so glad you dropped by