T Stands for Tuesday and Watercolors & Monday Morning Views

   Hello everyone,
Can you believe it? We are nearing the end of June 2020 already, and our last T for this month.
   You are most welcome to join us at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's for T,   just share a drink related photo in your post.

   Most of last week and allot over the weekend, I have been watching watercolor videos and right now found two instructors I really like.
   One is mostly flowers and such which would be pretty for card making and journals, and the other one I found is by Alek Krylow I really like him, he has allot of tutorials that I am learning from and he has a book out printed in Danish, but he is also offering an ebook in English which is actually just a pdf but it's over 100 pages which also includes direct links to his videos. He lowered the price to $5.00-and is just full of information. I am learning allot from him. I think I will be able to finally paint a better sky and water after watching him in his videos.

  I am still waiting for my paints, I ordered a couple more tubes to have the colors he suggests. He only uses 9 colors and mixes everything from those. I thought those color charts you see weren't all that useful 'til I saw his and how he explained it all. So I will be making one of those.

   The Wal mart brushes just will not do well for these watercolors-they really are super cheap. So I spent most of yesterday online looking for the two brushes he suggests. I guess I also went crazy and purchased two books another one on watercolors and one for drawing-searched around allot online and found the lowest prices I wanted to spend.
  Do you see a pattern here? I get excited about new things and then get the supplies. My reasoning-excuse is that I am now retired, 70 and just need to go for it haha
   I am more excited about playing with watercolor paints than I was with the acrylics. I will still play with them but I just feel more enthused learning watercolor.
   I was really anxious to try out some flowers so I used a little water to soak the pigments out of the watercolor pencils-they are pretty pale as I used too much water, the darker ones was wet paper and drawing with the pencils. I got to try out some brush techniques though

I was planning to go the woods house to work outdoors (Monday morning) but it is so hot and humid here already not a good idea for me. Needed to be out the door by 6 am at the latest.

While watering some plants I noticed several families (waterfowl)  together on the lake

  So I grabbed my camera

As you can see bright sun, a couple fisherman on the lake, birds singing in the background-this is how peaceful it is everyday except for Friday through Sunday during the summer months.

  For my beverage share-I have my decaf coffee with a little cream and a handful of ice cubes.

and Wow-we just don't understand why these huge ocean boats want to be on this lake

Those of you in the USA are you ready for the 4th of July? any plans? We will have a couple friends over Planning on barbecuing  baby back ribs, make more ice cream and maybe another cheesecake. also want to pick up some shrimp

Happy T everyone

Happy Mail From Greece

  Happy Saturday and Weekend everyone,

   Surprise in my mail box today. I joined Mia to celebrate her Blogeversary awhile back and she in return sent gifts to all of us who celebrated with her by coloring in one of her mandelas.

   So fun to get Happy Mail. Thank you soooo much Mia

As you can see lots of goodies in here-a handmade card, stickers, tea, candy, a tube of gauche white paint, papers with flowers and leaves embedded, the little red bag has handmade jewelry, two fabrics perfect for making pillows and really Love the nautical piece! So thoughtful of you hugs.

Up close

This is a look at the paper-I love these and fun to use in my journals-thanks Mia

and of course I saved all of the cool stamps

Thank you so much again Mia-

Another Journal Page for Halle's Theme Over at AJJ

  I wanted to make at least one more collage journal page for Halle's theme A Stitch in Time for AJJ.
  This page is just for the time. I got another new to me clock stamp while browsing online-this one was used but in really good shape so I couldn't pass it up. I think it will be fun to use on more projects.

   When I searched through my saved magazine papers I couldn't find anything with glasses of wine, and I didn't have anymore nice wine labels. So I created a page for Wine in the Garden.  Perfect for these summer time days now.

 I repurposed this pretty handmade card from a friend. This piece pulled off the cardstock easy, and I was able to pull off the spring message too. 
   The butterfly is a very old cancelled postage stamp I had saved. The message join me for wine in the garden-I hand wrote onto a patterned cardboard that was printed inside of a tea box  I didn't care for the grey paper so colored it in

These are two pretty magazine cutouts. and I used the clock stamp with green ink on a paper doily and then cut it out
    That pink on the repurposed card is washi tape

I will share this over on Art Journal Journey 

Happy Friday and weekend everyone. We are back up into the 90's f so its hot and humid here. Lots of those speed boats from last week Friday were back today-fun to watch.

Watercolor Painting

  I had one of those nights that I didn't sleep real well, so was in "space zone" this morning.
   I decided to grab my watercolor pencils along with the water brushes I bought-I really love those, and try one more go with that sunrise photo I had painted in acrylics twice.

   I also bought watercolor papers to use instead of my mixed media papers.  I am thinking watercolors might be my painting "calling"  I ordered some watercolor paints to try and also because I signed up for the class Eileen suggested. That class looks fun, it was super discounted so could afford to buy the watercolor paints.  Our Wal mart only has the kids paints and those are pretty bad.

  I still can't mix up the right purplish color for the water especially-but I enjoyed  this painting. I did forget to use chalk instead of pencil for marking out a couple lines-none of my erasers took that off.  This is still just for practice and learning

I am joining in with Paint Party Friday

T Stands For Tuesday & Speed Boats, Ice Cream, & a Page for AJJ & TIOT

   We are getting towards the end of June already, I can see now that these warmer months will zip on past us before we know it.

  Tuesday brings us to T with Bluebeard and Elizabeth. Everyone is welcome just share a drink related photo in your post. Link in my right hand column.

  We have learned since living here now full time during the warmer months, that the busiest lake days are late Friday and all day Saturday. Sunday a little bit more so now getting into vacations.
   This past Friday though-surprise-early in the day one couldn't miss the noise of the speed boats. I didn't grab my camera right away because I didn't think about there being Lots of speed boats. It ended up being close to an hour going past us from left to right and then a couple hours later back the other direction.
   It was mesmerizing to watch and listen to them. Sometimes there was a matching helicopter to the speed boat above it. Larry found the event online here  We only saw them on Friday so they must have gone a different direction on the lake the rest of the weekend.
   I did capture a couple videos.

 

and updated: I subscribe to a lake newsletter and they posted a link of all these boats close up-pretty cool looking  go here

I also wanted to make up another batch of the keto ice cream that I had shared in a past post.  I did do a few changes-I doubled the recipe since I have a 2 quart ice cream maker, and I kept the mixture in the refrigerator over nite instead of several hours to make sure it was really chilled.  On the second half of the recipe I wanted to change up some of that cream so the whole recipe was not all cream That was 3 cups-so I used 1 cup cream, 1 cup half and half, and 1 cup whole milk.   I churned it early Sunday morning-and Wow what a difference! It churned up perfectly, I served it around 5 pm Sunday evening-and we loved it so much more. It stayed totally scoopable when taken out of the freezer, and for me I loved the flavor so much more with it not being all cream. Sooo delicious, and did not get icy.
    I made notes of all my changes-so next time I will play with flavor additions. I feel happier with my investment now. I love how this machine works with the no ice and salt.
  I did have about about a half of a cup that wouldn't fit into the machine, so I will be using that in my coffee (smiles)

I was thinking I needed to look for a storage container for my finished ice cream, but then I remembered I kept all of my Mom's freezer containers-she had a few of these 2 quart size down to 1/2 pints-and I know these were made in the USA as they were around when I was a kid at home A nice memory for me.

   For several days now I have been helping Larry with his industrial shelving units that must have held over 100 drawers. He has had these for awhile now-very very heavy shelving that a business was going to toss, but a friend of ours there hated to throw them out that worked at that business and asked Larry if he wanted them Ah Yesss.
    So this is probably at least the 4th time they have been moved. He was not going to move them again but I insisted he make room in the garage (which is his work shop now)  He got help loading them at the woods house-once at the lake, I carried the drawers all in-some were so heavy they had to be at least 50 pounds each-I slid those down the trailer ramp into the garage, and our neighbor and his son and family were in so they got the shelving in the garage for Larry.  (I had to stop him from doing it himself-ugh)
   Many of the drawers needed cleaning up from rat nests and wasp nests.  He is so happy they are here now. (smiles)
    We are actually more rural for shopping at the lake then we were at the woods house.  These drawers are full of all sorts of nuts and bolts etc etc.  He was able to combine many of the drawers to leave room for more items from another cabinet still at the woods house. Those items should fit into the empty drawers he has now.

     Sunday after making the ice cream, I decided to create another journal page for Halle's A Stitch in Time with my other new stamp.  This one just came about theme wise after I got the background on.

  To the left is the background I used-first I glued down a piece of the paper bag to the left and then on top I glued down the packing material.  I got to thinking this looks a bit masculine now-so I grabbed this vintage photo of a gentleman, found this waterfall scene that I used the clock stamp on-and came up with this quote. Across time always a rainbow. 
   I will submit it to Art Journal Journey and to  Try it on Tuesday for their theme Masculine.

On Facebook I am so enjoying all of the photos and videos of Mama bear 399 and her 4 cubs-they are hanging out in the Tetons right now (near Yellowstone)  She is such a good mother and has me smiling every morning from all of the shared photos and videos.
    This one had the name of the photographer on it so sharing it. They are just so cute aren't they??

and for my beverage share for T-this is my newest warm weather beverage-it is a sparkling water with natural flavors and no added artificial sweeteners or sugar. I like it and very refreshing.

I am going to post this early (Sunday evening) as I may be going to the woods house to work Monday and/or Tuesday depending if we get t storms or not.

Happy T everyone

A Stitch in Time for Art Journal Journey

  Hello everyone,
       A surprise in my mail box today-the two clock stamps I had ordered arrived-that made me smile as they came earlier than predicted-and I could finish up my mixed media page.

   As I worked on putting this page together it ended up reminding me of my Mom. She was a master seamstress-sewed everything for her home and family, and later in life after my father had passed she fell in love with quilting. We also shared cups of hot tea together over the years.

   I will be sharing this journal page at Art Journal Journey with Halle's theme A Stitch in Time.

note photos will enlarge for better viewing-just click on them

I used these stamps and inks, and the paper under the cup of tea is from this little collection of handmade papers. It was the perfect color for this page.
   My Mom always labeled her quilts so I grabbed that handmade with love stamp.  I used one of Mom's old sewing patterns-crumpled it up before glueing down. Then I ran a brown piece of chalk over all of the wrinkles. I added one of my yogi tea bags I had saved
   I also hand stitched around two sides.

     This page just sorta ended up being about Mom-it was not the plan when I started out.

Thank you so much for your visit

Just for Fun-Watercolor Pencil Painting--OK Now It's Finished

I took a photo of this pretty sunrise last fall and it is one I wanted to use for inspiration for a painting.

I began mixing colors in acrylics and just could not get those yellows and oranges right at all-so I brought out the watercolor pencils and ended up with more of an interpretation instead of getting the colors matched up.

This will go into my chocolate spiral art journal

I may decide to go over it a bit more tomorrow

Update: just went over it to soften it up a bit  I will submit this to Paint Party Friday coming up this week.

T Stands for Tuesday-Hot Days & Creative Muse, Paintings, TIOT

Happy Tuesday, and wow we are almost half way through June already. This also brings us to T with our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth. You are most welcome to join us  just show a drink related photo in your post.

   We have had very summer like days for awhile now-hot and humid. So my tomato plants and pepper plants are growing nicely and the herbs have really grown.  We also needed to break down and turn the air conditioner on-the humidity gets really bad in this area of Missouri so there is no getting around not using it. Our age with some health issues also makes it necessary.
    I never grew up with air conditioning-my parents refused to have it. When we were kids and it got too hot they would take us to a movie or we would walk around in the malls getting built back then. Actually Larry and I only had a small air conditioner in the bedroom and didn't have all air conditioning in the house til we retired to the woods house. That was quite a treat for us.
    I still feel a little guilty spending the money on it, but I think I always hear my farm girl Mom telling us kids to just sit in front of the fan for awhile haha.

   Sorry didn't mean to go about that-my hands just typing 😀

  I made a batch of keto cookies that we both really liked. She named them "oatmeal" cookies because she ground up coconut and almond slices to the texture of oatmeal. Only change I made was to use coconut oil for the butter so they ended up more cakey which I like any way. oh and I didn't use her add ins but used a handful of yellow raisins.  Here is the recipe  she uses swerve sweetener, I got started using lakanto sweetener that also has monk fruit in it, I really like it so far.

I have a new painting on my wall-it needs to get framed yet, you may have seen it on Barbara's page-I fell in love with it so she gifted it to me
   Thank you soooo much again Barbara.

 This also encouraged me to try painting again with my acrylics on Sunday

I had painted from this photo I took of the sunrise awhile back, but I wanted to try it again. I had watched a couple of painting classes since then. I did not look at the first attempt til after I finished this one.  My first attempt had allot of textures which I liked, but I think I did a better job-finally- with the sky and the water on this one.

   I am quite pleased.

I also started a new journal page for AJJ A stitch in time, but I am waiting for a new stamp I ordered, I don't have any clock stamps in my stash so I browsed online and found two on ebay from the same seller that I liked-he reduced the prices and gave me free shipping. Happy about that.

 This morning my muse was still here (Monday) so I have a journal page for Try it on Tuesday that I will be sharing.  The theme is Masculine.
    I went through my collection of papers and clippings-tossed a bunch in the process, organized a little and came up with this page.
      I like it and hope it is masculine enough.

    The background is one of those wet wipes that I used while painting, I started saving those (Elizabeth gave me that idea-thanks)
   I made a collage from different magazine cut outs, the 1850 is from a folger coffee bag, the bison came from a package of ground bison, the blue strip on top is a paper scrap from my eco printing. That strip to the right under 1840 is from the bottom of an envelope that has some postal cancelling on it.

(all photos will enlarge just click on them)

I did this top page just for fun and thought it gave some visual balance too

  Saturdays and Friday evening are the busiest at the lake it seems during the warmer days.
     This sailboat was out with all those boats-not sure he was happy with that. After I took this photo there were all sorts of very large boats and those "motorcycles on water" all around him-he was really rocking.

I did get the blue merino and silk roving spun up, and am now on to the next of my Yellowstone inspired colors.  My beverage reference is a glass of hard cider from Strongbow

When I bought these rovings at Fiber U a couple years ago the price is by weight-she had to add a little bit more so that's why those are so short on the right

Months ago I ordered Outlander's second cookbook. I really enjoyed reading the first one and am happy I ordered this one as well-good recipes, and fun reading She also has references to make gluten free, vegetarian, and vegan, dairy free-which is a thoughtful addition.

I am off to whip up another keto new york cheesecake-the last one was good, I decided to bake us up another one.

   A few weeks back the Wal Mart I shop at now finally had some USA made flags in. These have longer sticks so I bought a package of them-mostly for 4th of July, but also to have a flag on the patio.

Happy T everyone.

Making Keto Ice Cream

  I thought I would share my first adventure with making keto vanilla ice cream in my new machine.

  The other night I spent allot of time online searching out different no sugar homemade ice cream recipes. Husband is diabetic so I wanted to try making ice cream that hopefully would be better tasting than what's at the stores. Also I don't like that most of those sugar free ones have upped the salt content.

  I had found one I thought I would make here  (This site I am following more now as her cheesecakes are excellent).

   So I wanted to read a bit elsewhere online and see what else was out there. Pretty much said what the link above said:  if you use only swerve type sweeteners your ice cream will be too hard and if you only use xylitol sweetener your ice cream will never freeze-will be softer than soft serve ice creams. I was surprised how many recipes were out there saying it was so good, tasted just like ice cream but was very very soft.Well that's not good ice cream then.

   After her experiments she came up with using both of these sweeteners, a little xantham  gum and a little bit of vodka so the ice cream did not turn hard and icy.

 Anyways I followed the recipe-the flavor and consistency of this ice cream is amazing-tastes like expensive ice cream-but for us way too rich.
  Also the recipe said 8 servings and after churning for over 30 minutes it never expanded so thought that was not right. Not sure  I did just ask some questions in a comment under her recipe.

  I still have a big bag of splenda which I have used in baking with good success, no after taste at all, things bake up nice-so I looked for ice cream recipes using splenda and the reviews were all bad-came out super hard-perhaps could try the same idea and add the xylitol to it.

  I am thinking next time I want to make the base like in the recipe but when she adds in more cream-I would like to change that to whole milk or nut milks, and would like to reduce the butter. My question to her was-will this work and still make a creamy ice cream?

She has a lemon curd ice cream recipe that sounds amazing I would love to try.

     I look forward to more experiments with ice cream making