Another T for Tuesday is upon us. You are most welcome to join us with our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth, just remember to share a photo with a drink reference.
Autumn weather has arrived here these past several days-cooler temperatures in the mornings, less humidity, foggy mornings, and being so dry most of the summer the acorns are falling off the trees-green and not matured. The chipmunks are still eating the tomatoes-sigh but I have two that have actually gotten to half size-hoping they will get a bit bigger and then I'll bring them in to ripen. Sunday morning I saw the groundhog that lives between us and the neighbor-actually there are two of them. They will need to be trapped out.
Calm at the lake for the most part but Wow the weekend was totally crazy again-another race boat event, Saturday boats for Trump parade and Sunday boats for Biden parade-although Biden only had about 24 boats.
I did finally get the piece of flannel that I had ordered first-I don't usually get white, but I really liked these cardinals and the wilderness theme, and I needed another light to go with dark for the 4 patch blocks
I had gotten this final piece on Saturday-so over the weekend I finished cutting all the pieces. A large queen for us and I have enough fabric to make a large lap quilt as a surprise gift from my friend.
I started sewing the smaller quilt on Sunday, so I can get this sewed up and quilted before winter arrives out west. I am thinking of hand quilting but with large stitches.
I have always made simple country type quilts, I never had the patience for those intricate patterns and very small pieces. My Mom loved those 1 inch squares-I can't even imagine all that work-and accuracy in cutting and sewing.
Here are photos from the lovely sunrise over the weekend and my cup of decaf coffee
Someone was fishing
and Monday morning-right now-the fog is very thick-can;t even see across the lake- this was taken indoors so ignore the dirty window-I am learning I need to wash these windows once a month do to the bugs.
You probably know I am an Outlander fan, I love the books-so much history in these books, and I started watching the show last season-very well done, acting and scene sets are amazing so I wanted something. Not a t shirt so looked at jewelry that wasn't too "corny" lol and found this bracelet on Etsy. A charm bracelet of the animals in Outlander. Not expensive, the whole bracelet was about the price of each sterling silver charm I bought a few years ago putting together a couple of charm bracelets-that was so fun to do.
She added a celtic heart for me-this is her photo from here
Larry went to the woods house on Sunday to load some things and to get his skid steer working again-he can use it here at the lake house-a friend that helps us-sent this along for a gift to me-isn't it amazing? Never seen anything like it. I actually found an outlet behind this dresser. This is in my computer-weaving-spinning room Larry just told me that my friend saw someone carry this out to the garbage and he said Oh No-- I know someone that would love this. Very thoughtful of him to think of me
Happy T everyone Update: please read my next post after this-me and a friend have discovered a security issue with Mr Linky-I do not think this is a blogger-google issue but Mr Linky--I am concerned and won't be linking up in the future-either that or would need to delete my blog which I don't think I need to do
We have been enjoying much cooler weather and some rain too. You are all welcome to join us for T with our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth-just share drink reference photo in your post.
I ended spending 3 full days making soap. These batches took much longer with the addition of the 30 minutes steep time with the herbs in the soaps. I am pleased with the results though. I also made rosemary-lavender a healing soap for the skin, lavender-rose, lavender, and I had enough soap base left to make two batches of soap for my friend's husband.
Lavender
Lavender- organic red rose
I also cut more quilt squares. Still waiting for one of the fabrics from Hancock's of Paducah in Kentucky. I am very disappointed in them, after I submitted the order I got an email that it would take at least 10 days before mailing and they don't answer their emails I have purchased from them quite often in the past. They are not set up well during this covid.
I ordered from two small business's and they both mailed the following day. I just found a print from a quilt-yarn shop that I purchased from when I was in Yellowstone 3 years ago-that will come next week.
Here is the newest-and I love these-I needed some lights for the 4 patch blocks
Yesterday I matched up this stack of 4 patches
I was hoping to have enough left over to put together a lap quilt for my author friend that lives outside of Yellowstone Park-we'll see how it goes.
That was my week-making soap and cutting quilt squares. Perhaps this week I can participate in the texture challenge.
Since we have had cooler mornings-finally-I am enjoying decaf coffee again. I make a pot and then put it in this thermos and it's good for a couple days. Remember when this was the coffee cup size?? I actually prefer this size.
Oh and I just found out from one of my Outlander facebook groups of all places that Stephanie Meyer has finally finished and published her latest Twilight book Of course I had to get it-found the better price on ebay. A few years ago I had read that part of her manuscript for this book was stolen from her computer-I don't know if she ever prosecuted or what happened but she didn't finish the book til now. This is the first book Twilight but instead of being narrated by Bella it is from Edward. I have re read these books several times-such a gifted writer.
I took a little video one early morning on 9-11 of how peaceful the lake now is.
Happy T everyone-a bit early as I may be working at the woods house this upcoming week
The first day of September-Wow-and the first Tuesday of the new month. I am really happy to see fall approaching. This also brings us to T with our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth where we share a drink related photo and "chat" with friends.
I worked every day on the wool quilt and got it finished late Sunday afternoon. I had some ups and downs but am happy with the finish.
The hand stitching around the edges with the blanket stitch took me a bit to get a rhythm going so I could work faster. This was allot of fabric to hang on to, try to get mostly even stitches (front and back) and get the knots hidden. It came out well and I decided to just use one of the colors of wool.
I got the quilt frame set up and got the quilt on it-which was heavy to get on there-started to knot-and what??? I totally forgot that I needed to baste large stitches all over the quilt to keep the three layers flat together-could not believe I did that haha It's been awhile I guess. So I took it off the frame, did the basting on the wood floor in front of the windows and decided easier to just knot the quilt there on the floor-it took most of the day on Sunday. In the process I discovered a huge flaw on the flannel fabric I just purchased-a large knot of fibers where the machine must have skipped or something, well it was already in the completed quilt-was not going to take everything apart-so I cut out a fish and sewed in over this area.
When I got into sewing this on the machine-I said to myself what was I thinking putting this finished quilt into the machine to zig zag this-allot of turns. It came out better than I thought it would but thinking I may hand embroider over the edges as well
for some reason I can't delete photos once there in my blog-and my labels are not showing up either will see if I can still add them after I post
When I finished with all the ties I put the quilt into the dryer on no heat for about 40 minutes that just kinda put it all in place
My new couch quilt-ready for the cooler weather
Larry has been noticing a lady walking in the early mornings going past our home. So one day he stopped her and asked if she would like a walking partner-she says yes. Soo for the last several days I have gone from walking 4000 steps (around 2 miles) on my own to 8000 steps (around 4 miles) with my new friend. I told her its been too hot and humid for me, so I haven't walked much the last couple of months and she says she has been getting out super early walking around her home in the dark and when it gets light works up to 3 to 4 miles total. So Larry said I needed to be ready early and she has been arriving around 6:30 am all of a sudden now this past week it's dark later in the mornings.
Talking and learning about my new friend (Karen) (Oops Update correction: I keep thinking my new friend's name is Karen for some reason but her name is Nancy (she doesn't seem like a Nancy to me) makes the walking go really fast-I get back home around 8 am She is of the Lakota nation in the Dakotas lived on a huge ranch with horses and misses it so much-marriage has taken her to this area. I asked her if she had any hobbies-yes I am painter her prefered medium is acrylics. I told her I had decided I wanted to try painting not knowing anything about it and that I had been too hard on myself trying to make my painting too realistic. She told me that she can paint to look like a photograph or her preference is primitive and whimsy. So I am quite anxious to hopefully see her work and she said she would help me as well.
My drink reference It's been much cooler in the mornings-finally-so when I finish with my walk I have a bowl of granola with a nut milk and my decaf coffee out on the deck.
We are sooooo dry here no amounts of rainfall for at least 2 months-so everything is drying up and the leaves are falling-already. very few nuts, acorns on the trees do to this drought.
and one morning I had a chicory "coffee" and made more keto donuts-these are so good
a little messy getting the chocolate on them-these cupcake liners worked out nice though
That's my catch up-Happy T everyone and have a good new week and month
Good morning everyone,
Posting for T where we gather for T with Bleubeard and Elizabeth and share a drink reference in our posts.
I guess we ended up with an exciting week after the 4th-compared to others here at the lake.
Larry has been looking for a used dock that is better and safer for fishing off of opposed to the one that came with the house. ( we will keep both as the one is mostly for his boat)
Since so many boats fly by and way too close to our dock-we needed something safer. (boats are suppose to be at no wake for 100 feet from docks-they don't do that here-so close they can touch our boat-and the huge waves they make on the weekends is beyond crazy).
He located one the week before the 4th but the lady kept sending him to the wrong area of the lake, wouldn't share her address or phone number to clarify. She started out asking $1000.00 for it, but when the roof started to collapse she wanted it gone Now for free. So long story short our friend and his two teenage sons came to help. I got one photo as they got closer to home.
They managed to get it here-Larry had to tow it with his fishing boat, got it tied to our dock.
Sunday our other helper friend (that we pay to help us with things that Larry should not be doing any more) came to secure the roof-he needed to cut off a large chunk of it, secure the rest down, and tie up the old broken boat lift more securely. I didn't get newest photos yet.
I had no idea that a brand new dock this size starts at $40,000 and goes up. This one also has a professional diving board on it, and I cleaned up a plastic lounge chair that was on it. The newer styles use cement pavers for the floor instead of the wood.This dock is much wider and feels more secure and safe for fishing or just hanging out on the dock-which I think we will be doing now.
So I am thinking that I will need to learn how to fish now for sure haha.
This dock has the old style of cement pavers-a couple need to be replaced. Something I can do-once it gets cooler and Larry makes the mold and shows me how.
I did get more of my watercolor paints in, have been reading allot from the new book I shared last week (which is excellent) so decided to just try the scene again that I had in my head-with the hills in the distance, lake in front, a few trees.
I am happy with this painting and I can see I am improving
I painted this on mixed media paper because of the size-and I can see that I need to paint on actual watercolor papers. So I just ordered smaller papers
I forgot to cut my paper down again so it would fit into my smaller journal-so I cut down the sky a bit.
I am sharing on Paint Party Friday
I can't even remember the last time I fried anything. I just never fried foods. My farmgirl Grandma fried mostly sliced potatoes in a big cast iron skillet but she didn't deep fry meats that I can remember. My Mom never fried meats either but did most things in the oven,
We had a catfish that Larry had caught and we had a small bag of filets that we were gifted from a friend's fishing his pond. Soooo I thought I would give frying fish a go--and was very happy.
I found a very simple recipe online-it was a southern style and she said never dip your catfish in egg or anything wet-instead just dust well with cornmeal-a little flour-spices of choice. She says doing it this way keeps your fish from being soggy.
I grabbed the perfect cast iron pot-used just enough avocado and grapeseed oil to just cover the fish. (these two oils can handle High temperatures-and thought they would be a healthier oil to use as well) The cast iron was perfect as it holds the heat well and I didn't have to wait for the oil to come back to temperature-it just stays the same through the whole process.
I am still amazed how simple this was, and the batter was perfect to our liking.
I also snipped some oregano to dry as it was just starting to seed with this hot weather, as was the mints. These mints are spearmint and peppermint. Once these are dry and bagged I will dry some of the grapefruit mint.
Monday I am off finally to get set up for my crown. I had been scheduled before all this covid happened. Just last week this old crown popped off-time to get to the dentist and they were able to get me in pretty soon-he was on vacation all last week too.
For my beverage share this week
We have been drinking allot of ice tea this week around 1/2 gallon a day between the two of us-we work on projects outdoors in the mornings before it gets super hot and come in really thirsty.
Both of these pottery glasses are handmade, from two different potterers I used to buy pieces from. The glass on the right was from a potterer I loved but couldn't afford his dinner ware. Several artists were having an autumn get together with art and craft sales-these glasses were out on sale for a dollar-Wow I bought a dozen of them 😀 (this was back in the '90s probably)
I took this photo Sunday afternoon-the lake was full of "diamonds"-as the sun was out most of the day.
Happy T Stands for Tuesday
We share a drink related photo in our post with friends and our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth-you are most welcome to join us for T(ea) or any beverage.
I hope all of you in the States had a wonderful 4th of July-our Nation's birthday.
We have been very hot and humid here-most of last week and it continues.
Our friends had planned on staying over nite for the 4th like they did last year so I extra cleaned the house and made lots of food. When they got here they said they decided to not stay over.
That was a shame as their grandson came up from a southern state and he loves fireworks-he was here last year too. He just graduated from high school and is getting ready to enlist in the military-so it was good to see him again. He is a very nice young man.
I made 2 large racks of baby back bbq ribs, a shrimp boil, German brats, keto cheesecake with a pecan crust this time, a huge veggie salad and she brought the sides.
Larry and I have really cut back on starches and carbs this year-so I just had no wanting to eat what she brought. A sweet corn salad, a taco side dish that she put a half a bag of crunched doritos into it, and a very sweet dessert loaded with marshmallows-I just couldn't eat any of that-I did eat a couple of her deviled eggs. I had our usual the proteins and a big salad.
Last year we really enjoyed watching the fireworks from our deck-but this year was Wow!!!
I was so tired from the day, that I had fallen asleep just before dark-So glad Larry woke me up as he knows I love to watch the fireworks.
They went on constantly all around us-even behind us for 4 hours at least. I never get tired of watching fireworks but I almost did this time haha It was really amazing to watch. and the smoke from the fireworks afterwards? that was quite amazing too lol.
The lake was also loaded with ignorant boaters-not so bad on Sunday though.
There were a few fireworks every day for a week leading up to the 4th.
If my little camera would take photos in the dark I would have shared a video-it was quite spectacular over the lake.
A couple Tuesdays ago Eileen shared a class with us by Art Sparks It was watercolors, making little books, and lettering (not calligraphy)
I had been waiting for my watercolor paints to arrive all this time. The price for her class was greatly reduced, and listening to her tutorials I got the impression this was a thank you to her students during Covid.
I decided to start watching the videos first, and After watching the watercolor segment I for sure would not have wanted to use the good watercolor paints for this project.
I decided to make just two watercolor pages instead of the four. Also decided to use mixed media paper for the second paper instead of using the better quality watercolor paper. And I used my watercolor pencils and water brushes.-I am getting better at using those.
I didn't realize when I bought the class, that she wanted bold shapes, bold colors and she said "I don't want to see small watercolor flowers" and on the back of the papers we were to paint abstract something. Leaving room on both pages for writing. She then cut up the papers in different sizes to make several books.
I didn't do all of that I just made two small books-I did like the way she showed us how to stitch the little books together-which was quite clever for me to learn that. and it was kinda fun in the end.
I did a little video-It was late Friday evening when I did this, and I guess you can tell I tired and mumbling as I had cleaned and done laundry all day I had done 3 videos and this one was the best of them. I would do this project again but paint the pages differently. I think these would make nice little gifts, with blank pages for writing.
On my you tube there is another video that ended up a little longer but was a bit blurry, and I took photos of the two books covers.
I am thinking I may just cut the yarns off of these books and do them a bit different
I ordered a watercolor book after reading all the excellent reviews on several sites. I compared all over the net for a reduced price and found a used one-like new except for the spine is not perfect, from a Goodwill seller on Ebay. I got it Saturday and is excellent for learning, Thought I would share this one. He is accomplished artist and also an instructor This is two of his books in one volume.
I also wanted to share the watercolor artist I am following for her tutorials of flowers on You Tube they are here I really like her.
My beverage shares for this week
A little pot of tea instead of coffee Sunday morning
and Late Sunday a mango margarita-I had a taste for one on the 4th but I was too tired for it then-so made us one late afternoon Sunday
to close a couple lake views
There are always herons around-fun to watch-he likes this fishing spot and the other day I looked out and he had caught a fish.
Duck and a heron sitting on the railing down to the dock
a better view
I stepped out on the deck with my camera and the duck flew off-along with the rest of the family that were sitting to the right on a float
Happy T everyone Hope you have an awesome new week.
