T Stands for Tuesday & Spring is Here

  Hi Everyone,
  Our last T for the month of March. Seems like a very long month doesn't it ??  With all of the concerns over the world pandemic-we are all in this together though.

  If you missed my last post I shared my latest painting inspired from one of my own sunrise photos. I like this one better than some of them.

  Today we had another lovely day almost 70 degrees f so I decided to search for my old gardening seeds and plant some pots full of lettuce, radishes, swiss chard, and baby bok choys-we will see what happens. I also put a small pot under the hook hanger and planted some edible pea pods-they can wind on up that hummingbird pole

  and you can see my almost empty coffee cup here

These are in front of the door that faces the driveway and road These have swiss chard and leaf lettuce.

This is a huge copper pot that we brought down. Years and years ago one of Larry's relatives drilled holes in this for flowers.  What a way to ruin this copper pot. He was always going to see if he could seal the holes-which is a project that never got done-soooo I brought it to the lake house to do just that with it haha.
    I filled it with several different radishes and leaf lettuce's. mini bok choy

I put the pea pods in that small pot-I may need to move it if they don't grow tall fast enough as those are iris's coming up around it.

  You can see from this photo we are still in construction mode. We bought bricks for my outdoor kitchen, and I brought those patio bricks and bricks that I had bought. If nothing else I will set up something for my cast iron cooking. All these bricks were for my outdoor kitchen, plus another load down by the fire pit-with the virus we can't have our helper do this now.
  All that rock and concrete pieces is what was in the walk way down there-that all needs to get hauled off to other areas on the property-a large hill, and a pathway down to the lake.

I didn't take photos but the oregano plant I brought down that sits next to the lavender plant is budding out as is the lavender. Happy about that. I will probably get the lavender out of the pot this fall and plant it directly into the ground.

Last fall I raked up allot of leaves-bushels and bushels of them-I was amazed how many leaves on this tiny lot-compared to our woods home where we lived amongst lots of trees. There I didn't do anything with them except rake up the ones around the buildings and put them in the compost pile.
   Everyone around me here was burning their leaves in the road-wierd I thought lol I don't like burning leaves.  I raked them up against a wall behind the fire pit-and decided now that I needed to start burning them-just too many and I don't have a way to compost here.

If you enlarge this photo and look close at the edge of the grass line nearest the water you will find a pair of robins.  I saw the one robin so went into the house to grab my camera and when I got back he was still there--when I uploaded the photo I discovered there were two  Did you find them? The robin to the right of the other is looking at you.
  I worry about everything-now it's the grass-it just started growing and we don't have anything to cut it. We tried different people last year and they were so bad we had to fire them-keep telling Hubs he needs to put an ad out again for help with this.

Below is behind the fire pit and to the far right-I thought this was cool-a little house for a critter of some sort.

  And this photo is way to the left of above photo-where I raked up loads of leaves last fall all along this wall. I have discovered many wild violets in the grass in this area-so these leaves nee to get off so they don't die out-I love the wild violets. I enjoy making things with them too.

Yesterday (Sunday) I made us comfort food-baby back ribs- It was very windy so I cooked them in a covered roaster in the oven. This was the left overs

I have been enjoying the different teas I bought-they are all green teas or white teas. I have not been disappointed with any of the teas. Very nice combinations of teas and flowers etc

another drink reference-Husband's hard root beer-when we had dinner on the deck last week

That's my catch up for this week-I was kinda in the dumps last week, too concerned over the virus spread which is around us now-would not be safe for us to drive back to the woods house area right now as they have allot of cases.

   Actually I am grateful that we are here at the lake house otherwise I don't know how I could buy food-I would be afraid to shop in my old area now. I may look into buying groceries online at Wal Mart and then have them put my foods in my car. 
    So many people from the large cities came to the lake this past weekend-not happy about that as I am sure they have spread the virus-they need to stay home to save lives.
  I did not go anywhere at all for 2 1/2 weeks and then last week I needed to go grocery shopping-it worked out well-was very very foggy so very few people at the store. They only let me buy one dozen eggs though-which was a bummer.
 
   I have always bought things ahead by 2 months it's what we do living rural, so I have things in the pantry just not fresh items.
   Still have not been able to buy any t paper so am glad I still have about 6 weeks in stock.
 
Happy T everyone-stay safe

Happy Friday Evening & a Painting

  Good evening everyone,
 
     I thought I would share my painting from the sunrise photo I had taken.
I had a really hard time with this-getting the grey-bluish purple right. It's better than it first started out and I am fairly pleased being my first attempt of using one of my photos for inspiration. I am working on not stressing over it and just enjoying this paint journey.
 
    The painting is relaxing for me-one can get lost in it-but the results I would say I am definately a fiber artist and Not a painter.😀
   I am still thinking of mixing paints with my mixed media journaling. We will see how this develops-I have plenty of paints to play with. I am loving the wet pallet as I always have paints left over and this way they last and do not dry out-really like that.

  The paints were still a bit wet when I took these photos.

Yesterday the weather was fabulous here at the lake house-83 degrees f
I asked Larry if he wanted to eat out on the deck, he said yes and grabbed a bottle of hard root beer.
    I made a chunky beef soup with tossed salad Lots of boats on the water too all sizes from ocean size boats to small fishing boats to recreation boats. I wish they would not allow those huge ocean size boats here on the lake-

Happy Weekend everyone. Stay safe those of you in the path of the t storms and possible tornadoes.

T Stands for Tuesday

 Hi everyone, and Happy T with our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth where we share a drink related photo in our post. Find link in my right hand column as you are most welcome to join us.

  Wow, I do not remember being this stressed out and frustrated since I was working for the phone company and that was back in 2003.

   With all that is going on I have been watching everything live as it happens and not listening or watching to any news media. Also I have been reading about the virus and more online as well trying to be informed.
   Getting this latest bill passed this morning in my opinion was crucial for the American workers and business's and to protect our investments as the stock market continues to tank. It would put money into the hands of workers as well. The left has their own agenda I guess and refuse to pass it. saying it helps big business's too much. My understanding is that the big business's are getting loans not free money and don't we need business's to hire workers? So much money was in this bill to help pay salaries as the workers stay home, more money for medical etc etc. I feel embarrassed to the world that they can't work together to create a bill to help Americans and not add in abortions, obamacare stuff (Pelosi), etc as hostage for passing. Someone even added in a green bill to this-ridiculous  There are also at least 5 out with the virus or self quarantine so they can't vote. (a Constitutional requirement to be present to vote)
   Anyways I just had to get this off my chest to somebody haha
  What really topped it off for me-- my brother posted on facebook that since he isn't ill he should be able to drive anywhere he wants as the virus doesn't sit on surfaces-ah No-so my husband sent him two links that explains the virus spread my brother got angry and unfriended both of us-craziness-complete ignorance and craziness.

   I don't have much to share today. My last post had my latest painting that I shared
    I was planning on painting today but I am too upset with all this right now.
   I do have a plan though and am set up. I printed off one of my sunrise photos I took over the lake, and I glued two pages together in the journal-gesso two coats, and then painted a light grey over all except for the very bright yellow area in the photo.

  There was a discussion on a blog friend's page I follow about if it was still art if one is to copy a photo or a picture.  My feelings for this one is that I took this photo of the sun rising over the lake one morning, so the painting should still be mine.
  Do any of you painters have suggestions on what paint colors to mix for the redish area of the sky?  this photo will enlarge just click on it.
  Thanks

    I started getting a Tea magazine in the mail for something different to read. I won't renew it as the recipes in this I can't modify to use for us, and this doesn't have many photos that I can use in my journal either.
    I did read through the ads and found a mail order tea company to try. I splurged and I bought a bag of coffee for my husband, and lots of different green and white teas for me. They have a National Parks collection but those were all made with black teas (caffeine) except for this one the Shenandoah National Park.

  They had some very interesting collections-parks-authors-etc. I ended up buying enough to meet the free shipping requirement. I always figure would rather spend the money on product and not shipping. Also I was able to choose more teas by getting them in these bags instead of the cool tins they had. I needed a new tea infuser and this lucky cat was perfect.
  I really enjoyed the above tea that I tried, and am anxious to try these different blends-they all sounded really good.

This is look into the bag of tea I brewed

This is the coffee I picked up for Larry-all of the coffees were pretty expensive, this one wasn't too bad and sounded good

Since many of us are doing virtual things I thought I would share photos from online of a tea party for all of us



and coffee for Valerie and Elizabeth and any of you that prefer coffee







Fresh fruit



Tea Sandwiches



To close I decided a glass of wine was in order haha

Happy T everyone-be safe

Oh and I just remembered I wanted to share something I saw on a sewing group in facebook-prayer flags-some are making them to hang on their porches etc. You could make these with papers too  here is a how to link  You can make them however you want to-many of us have scrap fabrics around etc. could be a fun family project

Another Journal Painting for AJJ

  Hi everyone,
     Hope you are all well. Those of you in the worse areas that are in a lock down to prevent the virus spread my heart goes out to you the most right now. Missouri is still not in real bad shape. Cases and deaths seem to be in the large cities but the numbers are not real high as of yet. I am running out of fresh salad veggies, and I need more yogurt and eggs but I am a bit concerned about going to stores and bringing the virus back home to Larry-his immune system would not to be able to fight a bad case of this. I will decide Monday if I want to go to the store or not as Sunday we have storms and cold moving in again. I find myself a bit on edge-so am using painting to relax-I am also spinning another roving. From my big bag of Yellowstone inspired colors.

   I wanted to do at least one more entry for AJJ with Eileen's theme green since we had the first day of spring this week too.

  I decided to use the view out my window while sitting in my craft room for inspiration. I didn't get to learning more about painting water and skies so that has not improved much.  I tried to paint in simple boat docks but I did not like them so painted over them. In doing that I ended up changing the blue tones in the sky and the water. I also had an idea for the light in the grassy areas but I realized that had gotten thrown off when I changed the sky to darker. Soooo I decided to do a watery grey wash to tone down the light in the grass and to hopefully create a storm coming in effect.

View out my window while sitting at my desk (all photos will enlarge just click on them)

I ended up painting in the path that is behind the fire pit into the front of the fire pit

Some days the sky and lake water do look the same color so this painting reflects that

I thought it would be more interesting to get a couple docks in to break up the water space-but just did not like them

   I did enjoy working in this new journal-the pages are larger and glossy. I glued three pages together and then painted two coats of gesso and then a light green wash on top of that. The one art teacher I am following always paints his canvas first with a color tone that will go with his painting-he likes the white covered up-so I started doing that

I do really like the wet pallet set up-keeps me from wasting paints.

Our tv provider which is part of our electric coop turned on for free lots of movie channels so families would have more tv to watch-thought that was nice of them. and I know many of you don't like Christmas movies but sometimes they are just good feeling movies-Hallmark channel is running those all weekend.

Stay safe everyone

Fun Mail Has Arrived & Reubens

   For lunch today I made us up reuben sandwiches with the left over corn beef.
     I did decide to bake up two rye breads from my Austrian rye sourdough starter. I decided to do an experiment for me and see if I could eat my rye bread without getting sick. I never mess with anything gluten any more-over 30 years  now.
    Rye is not gluten free but it is very low in gluten compared to wheat, and I had read an article a few years back that the author had celiac and as long as she baked with her own sourdough starter she had less problems-kinda skeptical about that but since I haven't had gluten in soooo long I thought I would give it a go. I would not suggest this if you haven't been gluten free for many years.
   My bread turned out edible-most gf baked breads are horrible-I did add in one beaten egg and 2 tablespoons of psyllium ground which is usually added in gf breads and instead of bread wheat flour I used gluten free flour blend. I also used a red dot thermometer with probe to test the bread-it needs to be 108 degrees f inside temperature to be baked. That is a big problem with baking breads with gluten free flours-getting it done.

    I was very happy with my bread-I will finish slicing it and freeze for later so I don't get myself in trouble with the gluten. I didn't get a photo of Larry's reuben with his sourdough bread which baked up much larger in the pan.

Now for the fun mail-my paints have arrived and I am very happy that these were made in France not China.
    This set is very reasonably priced on Amazon This 48 piece set was a better price I thought and would give me an idea of what colors I like and then will find out how to mix those. My painters color wheel did not arrive yet.

and I was intrigued with this set up and was cheaper to buy this kit.
    I did notice how fast acrylics dry-and I read that this kit-a tray-then a dampened sponge-and then acrylic papers on top-to use as a pallet for your paints-then when finished with the painting-place the lid on top and it will keep your paints fresh for many days some said weeks.
    While waiting for this to arrive I had a small sour cream container-so I put the paint in the lid and then when finished added the bottom container to the lid-which kept the paints moist til the next day-but I think I will enjoy this kit-the reviews were all positive and I asked if there was a mold issue with this-and I got 6 answers saying no  I don't use that many containers of plastics any more either.

  Do any of you use this system?

          Stay safe everyone Happy Weekend

A New Journal Page-Painting

  Hi everyone, we are actually a bit warmer today, still no sunshine here and lots of rain and t storms coming in for a few days. I think the humidity in the air is why it feels warmer-Hubs just went to the dock with fishing pole and worms in hand-I told him he go anywhere on this property but no place else-haha. He is 74 with major health issues so I am firm on that point.

  The last few days I worked on another painting. I am still having fun although the results are not what I am envisioning for sure. 😀

  I decided to add texture to the mountains by adding in used dried tea leaves into the paint. It helped it some. I think tomorrow my box of Liquitex paints will be here-so I am excited about better color choices. I know one doesn't need allot of colors as they can mix them-but this set I have now is not doing that-just making things lighter or darker.

  I am not sure if I will add this one to AJJ's  theme for green by Eileen-my painting skills are really not all that good yet.
  I figure if I share these painting attempts then I leave this open to suggestions from you better artists for tips on improving

  Ok Erika suggested it was ok to link up with AJJ   thank you

all photos will enlarge just click on them

 I am still disappointed in the water movement

A couple weeks ago my blogging artist friend Barbara sent me a spiral cookbook that she thought I could use for my journals--I am thinking of changing over my paintings to this book-the pages are bigger-and I think with the different size of paper I may be able to do better with distance etc.

I think this direction looks like a nice size to paint on. these are glossy papers. I will again glue two pages together and then either gesso it well or glue down acrylic artist paper like above painting

I have had enough coffee for awhile so I grabbed my french press and added in two kinds of white teas and two pea flowers to brew up a tea-very nice  I took this photo just a few minutes after pouring in the hot water. when steeped for 5 minutes it was a very dark green color-due to to the purple pea flowers.

Happy Friday and weekend everyone-stay safe and healthy-please