It's Saturday & Part of a Long Holiday

  I don't have a movie to share this week but I was looking for cats in movies and found this link to 100 most iconic cats in movies




Its a long holiday weekend here in the States-Labor Day weekend. It started off late Thursday with T storms and has continued to storm with winds and lots of rain since last night. Very cloudy and cool here at the lake still but so far no more rain.
   I am planning on getting the Weber charcoal grill going on Monday and grill up some baby back ribs. Have not decided on the sides yet. So far just the two of us.

    My rock for Miss Calico has not worked out yet. I decided to use materials I already had here in my craft room. Have lots of colors of permanent markers so did that first-turned out nice-I had some clear finish spray-but alas not for these markers as it all disappeared before my eyes-sigh. So I did it again but didn't put a finish on it as I didn't have varnish here and reading online sounded like it would withstand the elements-not so-totally washed away in the rains.  Soooo I do have acrylic paints here and small paint brushes so may try that next.  This was all too painful so I will wait a bit before I do this again. Thanks for all your tips on how you paint rocks-I will go back through those again.

Those of you celebrating-Happy Labor Day weekend

T Stands for Tuesday & September 2018 Fabric Journal Page

   Hello everyone,
       Tuesday brings us to our T party with hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth. Find link in my right hand column, and you are most welcome to join us just share a photo of your beverage.

    First of all I wanted to thank all of you that commented comfort and support in the tragic death of Miss Calico. It has been very difficult for us, with everything else happening here this was one more stressful event. Life sometimes throws so much at us that we must be strong to come out ok on the other end of it all.

  That evening before I had posted a video of my completed craft room and that evening I was so excited to dig out everything for my 2018 Fabric Journal. I finished the embroidery around the edges for September and the next morning I looked at my calendar notes and started finding things for the month. I stopped to make us our 2pm meal and that's when the tragedy occured. Saturday I spent most of the day in my craft room-I was tired but I needed to get my mind on something else. Arts and crafts are excellent therapy tools.

   Sunday, I ventured out for the first time by myself and headed north 20 minutes to the Wal Mart in Versailles, Missouri. This is a pretty drive, very very rural farm and Amish area, and the drive also goes next to the lake in a conservation area for boating.  I took my time going through the food aisles to see what they had. Actually I like this store-allot of healthy food choices low carbs-keto-gluten free etc. Nice produce too. It is an older store and smaller-I am thinking some day they will probably upgrade this one.
   These were items I spotted right away-had not seen no sugar added dark chocolate chips before or espresso powder which is in several recipes I have seen but never saw it in a store before-also these cool marshmallows gluten free and a little better ingredients although they still have sugar.
   There are two small local stores in the town south of our lake house-they are similiar in distance but the prices are just too expensive unless I just want to get a couple things-as much as I don't like doing major shopping at Wal mart stores they are more economical and have better choices-especialy when living rural like we do.

Sunday was a long busy day, and in the evening I watched a Hallmark series that started up again and then finished my September Fabric Page.  This one ended up with lots of interesting elements. Metal-leather-hand dyes-beads-tea bags-paper-plastic-wool-cotton -stamping-rubbing-a little of everything

Tea bag and remember this cow from the cream bottle?-I had to save it-was made with thin plastic (a drink reference-the tea pot and cup, tea bag)

I did another 3 mile walk-this time I cut "me" out in leather-glued it down, along with leather hair and hat

This cross stitch was a recycled piece-you can see the date 2008-a neighbor friend made coasters for gifts one year. She cross stitched four different leaves, glued to a thick cardboard circle which I was able to peal off, and it went inside plastic pieces which came apart too-they were well worn but I was able to save two of them for crafts

the moon is made from the last of the wild grasses that I had made paper with-I just smooshed the last of it into this circle-decided it was perfect for the harvest moon. I glued down onto the hand dyed by me recycled coat lining

We went to our friend's daughter's wedding. was held outdoors, brides colors were purple and gold, and many danced through the night-not us lol

This is another of my hand dyed cottons that I did a rubbing over one of those plastic templates for marking leather-it worked out well-I did this one years ago. This glossy paper with the goldenrod I saved because I have done allot of dyeing with it, it blooms late August into September. There are always little flying bugs in the flowers

When we were moving I found a sack of metal and wooden objects of camping, wildlife, fishing poles etc.

If you look close on the tan squares you will see hand stitches with embroidery thread. I randomly over the two pages did rows of stitches-to try and bring it all together more. I seem to have allot of seperate elements on my journal pages-but I do try to overlap when I can.

and another drink reference-a cup of hot tea sitting on my work desk

I have a question-at the lake house most of the basement is sitting on huge slabs of this slate rock. We have also found several smaller pieces like this one around the house.  I brought one in to paint a marker for our Miss Calico--Would acrylic or oil paints work for this?-and then what would I finish it with so it can handle the weather outdoors-thanks

Happy T everyone!!  Tuesday morning I have a dentist check up so if I don't visit Monday evening I will visit later Tuesday.

A Very Sad Day Today

  I just wanted to post that we lost our sweet Miss Calico.
      She was just outside the front door eating her food when I heard her food dish go flying and when I stepped outdoors saw her being attacked by 3 dogs-I was able to shoo them off but sadly they hurt her so bad the vet needed to put her down.
     Such a shock of events for sure. I called the county sheriff as there is no animal control or any city law enforcement here at the lake.  I wanted to report this as these must be wild feral dogs and could kill other animals or small children.
     We will be grieving for some time, feel so terrible her life ended in this way. We brought her home and buried her at the lake house.
     Friends are asking if we shouldn't have moved-I won't go there-life is fragile and precious no matter where we are in our lives.

  The last photo I took of our dear friend

You my internet friends are always so special to me, I just needed to share my sorrow.
   

A Peak Into my New Craft Room

This was quite the job going through boxes and figuring out where to put things. I finished it today for the most part-I can finally get to my big desk, my sewing area, and I have an old bottom like what is on Hoosier cabinets that will be perfect for messy crafts-the top is already stained so not going to concern myself over it and just enjoy using it. I had to put some spinning items here in the back as I really ran out of room.
   Next up is to set up my weaving corner next to the woodstove so I can finish threading and hooking up my loom and get this finally woven off. Although right now I am kinda anxious to weave on my mini loom saori style-sits on my big desk not sure if can see it in the video or not.

I took a video to share-I can't believe how easy it was to upload my 6 minute plus video now that we have "real" internet only took a minute-loving it!!
   And if you click on full screen to view you can see much better.

PS: now where did I put my fabric journal project-yikes I don't know and I would love to be crafting right now-haha wish me luck on the hunt

Update:  Found it-I sat and thought about it a bit-was in one of the big plastic containers marked journals and wool fabric-yeah Located way on top of those deep steps in the closet

T Stands for Tuesday & I Blame it on My Artistic Friend

  Another Tuesday will soon be upon us-so it's time for T Stands for Tuesday. You are most welcome to join us with a drink related post-just share a photo of your beverage-and drop by our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth-link in my right hand column.

   Last week was a hot and very humid one as it still is today. We had another very long day in Springfield, Mo for Hubs follow up appointment-the surgeon was called in on an emergency so the appointment was about 2 hours later. What made it worse was that we got in earlier than we thought we would-light traffic plus I dropped off my car for oil change and safety inspection and that all went faster than expected.
   The news is that Hubs will have open heart valve replacement surgery-they will go in under his arm between rib bones instead of going through the front-which can not be done do to problems 20 years ago. This is a better long term surgery that will help better than the clip they first talked about.
    It is set for mid September, they have hospitality rooms in the hospital so we can stay overnite-as he needs 2 hours of testing the day before. So our spirits were lifted I think for knowing what is going to occur-finally-it's been a long time of visits and tests since mid March-way too long I think but it is what it is.

   All the parts have arrived for my washing machine so I will be back to the woods home on Wednesday-all paid for but they are putting in $1000.00 worth of parts and labor-crazy I think but in the end my repair insurance paid for itself now and will be working for the new future owners.

   At the lake house these past few days-we have had awesome full moon over the lake views-My digital camera did not capture all of the beauty but it was so breathtaking-views from the big window and off the deck.

and this morning a gorgeous sunrise

I am sooo enjoying these gorgeous views.  There is a huge boat race event next weekend and then soon Labor day weekend-and after that I think the lake will be very quiet.

The black walnuts have been falling-and when I see them I collect them to dry-leaving the skins on as my dye teacher says she does. This makes beautiful brown dyes and I want to try making ink.  This is just a start as the tree is loaded with nuts  I have these drying in the basement-hopefully the squirrels will not find them here.

  My friend Barbara and I inspire each other with ideas for our art and crafts She asked me if I knew anything about silk hankies-as she bought some, shared a video with me on how to make roving-that can either be spun into yarn or knitted or crocheted with out spinning.
   I had heard of these hankies but had not researched them out-wow after I saw a few videos-I gotta have some 😀  so It's all her fault haha

Here is a video that I found on an Etsy sellers store. I am so impressed with this of course I needed to order silk hankies to try this out-I may try spinning it or just weave it in saori style. I bought blues and greens and one with fall colors.

This is what I ordered-and they are not very expensive





from here


I have been cleaning up our leather jackets, hats etc. They have been stored in a huge trunk where they could not breath so they were in dire need of a good cleaning. I am about half way through now. I even looked up the right way to do this-so I needed to find the right wooden hangers, than acid free tissue paper, and also breathable garment bags-so the leathers do not touch- this photo is just half the pile of leather clothing  Some of this we hope to sell like our chaps when riding a motorcycle which never got worn.

and the ones done now stored the way they should be and in a closet finally so I am really happy with getting this project almost done.

For my shared beverage-I have not had a glass of wine in months so I opened a bottle last night to go with a Hallmark movie and popcorn. This is dry red wine-merlot.

I had fresh lemons in the frig. so I made up fresh lemonade-very nice for these hot days

Happy T Stands for Tuesday everyone.

T Stands for Tuesday & Coffee

  Hi everyone, I am later than I like to post so this will be a short one.
      Tuesdays is where we get together and share a drink related post with friends.  You are most welcome to join us at our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth-find link in my right hand column.

  I knew Monday could probably be a long day back at the woods home, as I had an appt. with the Sears repair service for my washing machine-and they won't give you any idea when they are coming-just 8am to 5pm.  So I left Hubs home at the lake house so he could take their phone call (no phone service at the woods any more-and if you don't answer they don't come out) and I drove down early so I would be there by 8 am.

   I did some cleaning in the kitchen-mostly my two Norwalk dehydrators (which are now called Excalibur)  I am keeping one and we will give one to a friend. These are 40 plus years old and still work great-I used to run both at the same time and pretty much get most of a  bushel of sliced fruit between the two of them. Now these are more pricey but they are the best on the market in my opinion-mine are not as fancy as these newer ones.
   These sat on top of the refrigerator-easy to use-but next to the big stove so they had gotten a greasy film on them-so I had a job with cleaning everything.
    Here in the states they have been running a Dawn dish soap commercial that says it will cut through tough grease-even greasy tools and tires. So I gave it a go as my spray kitchen bleach solution did nothing to cut the grease. Wow I am very impressed-it did a fantastic job and with no harsh chemicals-so wanted to share that. I pretty much only use baking soda, vinegar, and borax to clean my house with. Although for the tile floors I do like the swiffer instead of sitting on the floor to scrub.

   The Sears guy did not arrive til 4:30 He managed to manually get all that water out-and lots of things are broken. I have needed to purchase a repair agreement all these years do to their computer boards are super expensive. This is the 4th one since 2005-he had a whole list of parts that he needed-all covered-so this washer will be working good for the next owners.

    I have been wanting to bring the commercial coffee pot up to the lake house. It is filled with water (I use distilled) so it is always hot for coffee or teas. Just pour threw the top and it pushes the hot water through instantly. We love these machines as Hubs drinks a pot a day, and was great when we had sleep over company. I can also make me a pot of my beverage as there is a warmer on top.  So I did that yesterday. Hubs wanted to pour off the water I did not want to do that-so I found that this would fit perfectly into a cooler and I did not lose a drop of water-yeah.
  Now getting it down the stairs at the lake house was fun but I did it.
and it fits perfectly next to these upper kitchen cabinets and to the right is the sink.

Here is the view outside this window-you can see Miss Calico sleeping

I have been really enjoying my decaf. coffee. This week before I brought down the coffee pot, I make Hubs in the china pour over, and mine in my french press.
    That blue pottery cup brings back memories. In the late 70's when I lived in Denver Colorado, I would sometimes eat at this restaurant that was christian based. They grew most of the food served, made the handmade pottery dishes too and you could buy them as well. I bought four of these cups and four of their soup mugs.
   They had helped me so much back then, My little sister was killed by a drunk driver while she was on vacation when we lived there.  While I was waiting to get my transfer with the phone company back home to Indiana I would eat at that restaurant. One of the waitress's saw me holding back tears-and she just helped me get through things.  (was not planning on sharing all of this but my fingers just typed away-these cups remind me of good times back then and the comfort I received).

I have lost 15 pounds and keeping it off-but am at a stand still again not losing any more weight that last couple of weeks. My goal is 10 more pounds to get me back to around 135 pounds-see how I feel and drop back to 130 which I would love to get to eventually

When I am not eating eggs for breakfast I am enjoying greek yogurt with fruit or a jam with no additional sugars. This one is soooo delicious. I found it in West Yellowstone two years ago and now buy it online.

Happy T everyone!!

Happy Friday

  Hi everyone,
       Thought I would pop in to stay hi. We are in reverse now-staying overnite at the lake house and traveling back to the woods every couple of days to check on things and load stuff.
      Big stuff yet from the house is my two commercial deep freezers, and a couple large items of Hubs things. He also needs to go through his out buildings and decide what to bring-he has tools and machinery of all sorts from his very younger days-I am encouraging him to take what ever he wants and has room for in the garage.
    Ever have one of those weeks where everything is just difficult? that's me this week. From the start with Monday getting Hubs appt to sooner than later. The tracfone I just updated in April never kept a charge and now it totally does not work. Go back to Wal mart (a big box store) to buy another one and get our minutes transferred over-and they have No phones in stock-could not believe that one. So I just food shopped instead, went back to the woods house and picked up Miss Calico to stay with us at the lake house.  I had called the Wal mart store near the lake house about 20 minutes away and they sell the phones but do not transfer minutes or set up the phone for you-that was weird I thought.
     My woods house washer machine went totally crazy on me jumped off the plumbing and everything-wouldn't finish spinning out either-so I took the sheets outdoors to dry. Big surprise a couple days ago I opened the washer to clean it out and it had filled up to the top with water-oh my water every where. Fast closed the door so only half of it had to get cleaned up. the drain spin option no longer works either.  Today I am setting up a repair appt as I still have time on my repair protection agreement and the guy refuses to set up an appt for me cause he can fix it over the phone-No you can't I say, we have done everything already--so I call back-no problem getting an appt. for next week--the list goes on but those are the highlights haha.

   Anyways I am getting ready to drive from the lake house back to the Wal mart near our woods house for our cell phone fix hopefully no more problems. This is just a simple phone that we can throw in the car for emergencies and now that I turned off the house phone in the woods we need something for emergencies there. so wish me luck today 😀

   I surprised Miss Calico so I was able to get her in the pet carrier very easy. She did a very sad meow on and off-and then slept mostly for the hour drive-she is 20 years old at least so nothing phases her much in the long run.
    She has adapted pretty well-so far no wild animals have found her food-I do still only put a little handful out for her at night.  She seems to enjoy the steps-I did carry her around the lake house and she saw the guys fishing. It was time to bring her-if we stay over nite at the lake house the animals eat all of her food at night and she has nothing during the next day.  I just ordered her a pet house so she will have a nice place to get out of the weather and to sleep at night.  She has not done well as an indoor kitty-never would always use the litter box and pees on carpets-so she has been an outdoor kitty for many years now.

I just took these photos this morning.

Hubs was working in the garage and spotted this eagle-totally forgot about the eagles resting here many days. This is just across the road from those steps. Hoping he doesn't get any ideas about Miss Calico.

Happy Friday

T Stands for Tuesday

  T Stands for Tuesday is when we share a drink related post with friends. You are most welcome to join us with our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth-find link in my right hand column.

  I actually had a couple days of "normalsy" is that a word?? 😉
     We have most things in the house moved to the lake house-still have two deep freezers that will go in the basement and Hubs has some large items-but we need help getting these moved.
    Even though I am not the one that is ill, driving up and back every day for several months is really really tiresome. I stay overnite a couple nights now. Pretty soon Miss Calico kitty will be coming with us to stay at the lake.
    I did get allot of sorting accomplished. Some things are not in place like the dressers for the bedroom so difficult to load them up.
    Today though and also late yesterday I have tackled my craft room.
I am not good at visualizing space so I have discovered that both of our extra rooms are much smaller than what we had in the wood's home. We each have a closet that helps out.
    I probably should have gone through more and eliminated lots of craft things, but like I have mentioned before I am just not ready for that & my stash collection of all things fibers goes back to the '60s. quilting, sewing, weaving and I have added spinning with loads of fibers yet to spin, rug hooking, journaling, paper, soap making, herb salves etc dyeing. Did I leave anything out?? haha
    I did eliminate allot of books-mostly cookbooks and gardening books, but I still ended up with lots of books both craft and art books and novels.
    Soooo today I did manage by the end of the day to see my floors in front of my big desk and sewing table. Still boxes to go through-some things will sit on my desk, but I have allot of spinning and weaving tools I need to figure out how to store.  I am getting there though
     On the two back to back steamer trunks (that sits across from these shelves, I put on top another trunk full of felted wools, and a wicker full of weaving yarns. So that area is now pretty high-oh well

These two shelf units are to the left when I walk in the door-I originally had all of my quilt fabrics on here but needed space for books etc so all of my fabrics are now in big plastic storage containers except for my 1800's reproduction fabrics which are in the shelf in my closet--I have needed to change up things as I started figuring out where to put things.
   These shelves in this photo have rug hooking, paper making, lots of dye supplies, soap making pans and molds, lots of weaving reference materials, novels, and there is some yardage to the right and the bags are silk, linen, lace, velvets and more
  All of these rooms in the house except for the bedroom and kitchen-dining area have no overhead lighting-so it is too dark now to take more photos.

This peak in the closet with shelving-lots of patterns and some of the reproduction fabrics

Tubs of quilt fabrics, and also felted wool which I didn't have room for in the trunks  This area is also loaded up with bags of spinning fibers
   this is going to have to get moved this fall so we can get to the crawl space in the attic to blow in insulation fun haha

shelving in the closet

Soap making supplies and butters for lotions etc also with basket of hexagon project.

  Sunday I woke up early enough to view my first sunrise on the lake

For my beverage reference today-I have had a taste for coffee lately. I have to have decaf and the coffee sold in stores still has too much caffeine in it for me, as does restaurants. So I searched online and found that the swiss water process is 99.99% caffeine free which of course is more expensive.
   After reading about several I settled on this one. They grind your coffee the same day it ships-and it tasted soooo delicious and I didn't get sick from it-so a happy camper for sure. Tastes just like "real" coffee

I got to see this sailboat sail by over the weekend.

Update on Hubs-the visit to the surgeon was a disappointment. We had to wait an hour and a half on him-talked to us for less than 5 minutes-and ordered more tests-I was Not happy and let the nurses know it.

Last week he went into the hospital where they checked his heart, all the prior grafs, stents etc.  That went well. 3 of the 4 grafs that were done in '99 are in excellent shape as are the stents. The issue is he needs valve work-this surgeon was pushing for open heart to replace the whole valve but back in '99 he had a massive staff infection that kept him in the hospital an additional 3 months so we are not liking that option.  We got a call this morning for another appt with the surgeon for the end of this month to discuss options-not happy about the wait time as his health is declining allot in the last couple weeks. So I wrote a long note to the surgeon's staff and they ended up giving him an appt for next week thursday-so it does pay to pursue.

These ducks swam by the dock while I was watching the sunrise--Happy T everyone

Second on the 2nd-Hand Dyes

Good morning, Wow we are into August already!
   I went through my old posts to look for a hand dye post. This one is full of fun. September 27, 2013.
    Photos of golden rod, osage orange, and my silk on silk blouses-which I want to do again-so fun. I ended up selling these blouses on etsy within a few days of posting them-my first ever "fast" sale haha.  I should really do more

Link here

a few photos from this post  If you go to the link there are lots more photos and you can also enlarge them all as well









Happy second on the 2nd