T Stands for Tuesday & This and That

This month of November is flying right by us.  It's Thanksgiving week already here in the States
   Tuesdays you are most welcome to join us with a drink related post, link up with our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth.

    We are enjoying gorgeous weather today-65 degrees f with no wind and full sunshine-same tomorrow-but by Thursday Wow highs in the low 30 degrees f with snow flurries and rain-ugh.
   I took advantage of the nice weather and went grocery shopping early this morning. We have been invited over to our friends with the big log home for Thanksgiving, but I still bought us a small turkey. Will be nice to cook it up with simple sides for us for the long weekend.  If I knew the weather was going to turn this bad I would have thought about declining the invite. It is good for us to get out of the house though-especially with Larry still recuperating.

   I did get the two long side panels finished with the embroidered fish. I decided not to do the sides facing into the table as they won't be seen and I think jeans will just rub on the embroidery when people are sitting at the table.
   I had a difficult time with this for some reason. Took the small fish out several times til I was half way pleased. and this is the first time I had difficulty sewing with embroidery threads that were not DNC threads. I have a big bag of colors that I have collected from resale shops and garage sales and put the unknown brand threads together in a different bag. This was Sullivan from China and it just sewed up with difficulty-tangling and knotting, the thread seemed to fluff up while stitching to the end of the thread-so stitches not consistent.
 
  Note my cup of decaf coffee in another one of my favorite hand thrown pottery cups

  As much as I wanted to be finished-I decided to sew one large fish to the 4 end panels This first one ready to embroider

and those of you that are on Facebook and love teabag art; This past year I have been enjoying seeing the art that is posted to this group. Some of the work is just amazing. 
     Some artists keep the tag attached and many also do not. Here is one of the entries from today and  here is a link to the group and this piece.



This artist also makes art painting inside egg shells-amazing

Here is one with the tag left on



I get inspired viewing this group's pages of tea bag art.

      I also wanted to share a quote I found in a magazine over the weekend. No author was given but I really love it and it struck a note for me--"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone"   That sounds like a theme for art to me as well.

     After reading this quote I felt better about branching Wayyyy out of my comfort zone to try calligraphy.   I am still waiting for two more books on the subject, extra black ink, and the graph paper notepad.  I had purchased this to practice with but when it arrived Saturday it was damaged-so just sent that back and waiting for replacement.
    In searching for a protractor or t square, or small ruler I ran into this rolling ruler that says it has everything. The reviews were all really good. I know nothing about any of these tools-so something new for me to figure.
   I also decided to get the next size down in pen size so I now I have two.  There was a really nice set of these of either 4 or 5 sizes but decided for now to just get two.

   This past year with the move, and Larry's medical I feel I am so out of snyc. Still so much to do for both properties, that I am at the point some days I just don't want to do anything but read books. 
   I am slowly getting refocused. Setting time slots for working on a house project,  and then another time slot for my art and crafts, sewing projects etc. It will get there.

We have now seen a pattern with some of the geese now. That area at the corner of the house to the left of our dock-where I shared photos last week and posted below-we have discovered there is a pair of mallard ducks and the group of 7 Canada geese that seem to bed down for the night in that spot. Pretty cool I love watching the geese and the other birds as well. They begin to move around just after daylight.
   On the left corner is the edge of the water-then up a bit is the grass lawn-they are spending the nights in this area(but not on the grass). You can also see some of the large slate rocks being more exposed now-they like to sit on that too-and facing the bank there are little holes in the slate where they find food.

    I couldn't get a good close up-but we are also seeing allot of pelicans flying by-these were swimming in the middle of the lake (click to enlarge photo to view them better)

I am leaving you with another cast iron crisp. Last week I made a crisp with fresh pears and one can of cherry pie filling made with no sugar.
Turned out really delicious.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you that will be celebrating

and Happy T Everyone.