T Stands for Tuesday

 It's time again for T and it's the last one for November this year already. The months seem to be flying by way too fast for me. Tuesdays we gather over at Bleubeard and Elizbeth's and share a drink related photo. Find link in my sidebar.

Have you all shopped til you dropped?  That used to be the saying when I was much younger. Ha Ha In my 20's I would shop at the malls during good Friday weekend I don't have anyone to shop for anymore, but I do use these sales online to buy clothes if we need them. This year Larry really needed new warm insulated hoodies for when he works outdoors, and His River Driver shirts from LL Bean are all worn out so bought him one of those too. I have been buying these shirts for almost 50 years now they are wool on the outside and cotton on the inside-very warm and cozy. This year they are quite pricey. 

Not much happening here, the weather has been very up and down with lots of fog too. We have enjoyed lots of water fowl-loons, mallards, other diving ducks, the blue heron is still here, the eagle pair visits almost every day now too, also flocks of Canada geese fly by in the mornings. We had a dove visit the bird seed one morning.

I have been working on making this year's Christmas cards over the last week. I just mailed out the international cards, and hope to start mailing the rest end of this week. These have been a fun creative project for me over the years, and they are different each year.

I wanted to share my new favorite dip pen. I was not familiar with these, and one of the sites (The Postman's Knock) that I have enjoyed learning from her tutorials and also for buying a few things had this glass pen. It's so beautiful and writes well-I am in love with it. It is not for calligraphy but for general writing like journals or slow mail letters. It is recommended to use thin and non permanent inks like my black walnut ink and also iron gall ink. I did also pick up a bottle of the iron gall ink. Just rinse the tip in water to clean  If you use a permanent ink it will be more difficult to clean

 These glass dip pens are all one piece and they are really beautiful-I could see it would be easy to have a collection of these beauties. I tried it out yesterday on a slow mail letter and it glides on the paper really  nice. Had so  much enjoyment writing with this pretty pen.

I didn't get allot of photos this week but here are a couple very early before sunrises

I took this one below early this morning from indoors.

Do you like to bake or make candies for Christmas? I have always enjoyed it allot through the years. Lately I make allot of different things and then give most of it away. I was able to get the melting chocolate and almond bark at Wal mart today-online it has been just too expensive.

Over the weekend I was in the mood for French Press coffee-so good this way.

Happy T and new week everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving

 

T Stands for Tooo Cold and Pelicans

   Am posting again on Sunday, which is actually Monday for our overseas friends.  It continues to be very very cold here-in the low 20's for highs both evenings and during the day. brrrr Needless to say I haven't gone any where food shopping except online-smiles. We will begin a bit of a warm up on Monday.

   This post is for T Stands for Tuesday hosted by Bleubeard and Elizabeth-please find link in my sidebar, you are most welcome to join in just share a drink related photo.

  We are early risers, always have been, so just as it gets light we throw out a mixed song bird seed mix on to the deck railing and a bit on the floor. Throwing it out early gives the birds a chance before the squirrels decide to come in and eat it all-sigh. We  are enjoying watching the birds drop in and also we can view the sun as it rises for the day.

 A few days last week we have seen pelicans flying about, one day they stuck around to fish for food. We see flocks of them in the early spring, some will winter over here and then they all move on in the spring.   I needed to really zoom in to capture a photo as they were on the other side of the lake or in the middle.  I wasn't able to capture a photo of them flying-hunting for fish. I found this very interesting article about the pelicans here at the lake in the ozarks,  and how they fish as a group.  The way the group hunts for the fish was interesting to me.

  Those of you that visited last week read about good food and wine with our friends from Wisconsin. I made a journal page for Art Journal Journey and shared it here

  My husband has had a favorite  coffee travel mug for years now-really a long time now- a couple weeks ago when he was on his skid steer he dropped it and it got crushed.  sigh. So I searched online, and I usually end up on amazon just because they have more to choose from and better prices most of the time. Wow these are quite fancy and expensive now. I read reviews to help me decide and most had issues with bad lids. I found one by thermos-excellent reviews, so I bought that one. This one is soooo good that it stays hot for 8 hours or more-hot like right out of the coffee pot. Too hot for Larry as he drinks down allot of coffee in the mornings. Soooo since I am a very slow coffee drinker and my coffee is always cold too fast- this is now mostly my new coffee mug haha. Back to searching for Larry. I do have one that I got for a gift when I met one of my favorite authors in Yellowstone Park back in 2017-so at least he has that one to use for now. I highly recommend this Thermos travel mug.

and here is another photo with my gluten free oatmeal-dried rainier cherries, and almond milk from this morning

This past week I have been drinking cups of teas and one evening made hot cocoa from my mix from last year

 That's it for me this week. I have started working on my handmade Christmas cards over the weekend, always fun for me to do, and I finally have it designed out for this year's cards. If any of you would enjoy swapping Christmas cards send me a message on the contact form (side bar) with your address.

  Happy T and have an awesome new week and those that celebrate: Thanksgiving Blessings

Collage Fodder for Art Journal Journey

   I had an idea for this page to remember the fun weekend we had with friends. I like the way it came together.  I am sharing this collage fodder journal page for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's theme collage fodder, food and drink or both for this month's theme at Art Journal Journey

  Last weekend was opening hunting season for deer. When we were living at our woods home we held deer camp with lots of friends and lots and lots of good foods-so fun.  We had forgotten about that til I went with our friends for wine tasting events, as the first winery had live music and invited all the hunter's wives to come out for the day.

   I found a perfect magazine page with a deer so used that for the background. Grabbed the wine and friends stamps, a label from one of the wineries we liked the best plus the top of a wine tasting sheet, a little cut out with a leaf, also a scrap of dark brown eco printed paper, and then I grabbed the snowflake stamp and silver metallic ink (I forgot that ink takes forever to dry)  We were in the 20's and very low 30's all last weekend and the day they left this area got allot of snow. We just got a few flurries here at the lake

  I am still using the old German cookbook for my mixed media journal pages

T Stands for Tuesday A This and That Catch Up (long)

   Tuesday is T Day over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's. Find link in my sidebar. We gather to share with each other along with a photo of a drink reference.

  It was busy days for me last week. I drove in three mornings to the woods house to continue packing up Larry's scope repair shop. A friend that lives near there meets me to help-we do pay her for her time. Got allot accomplished. The second day I decided since bitter temperatures were coming in I better check on the thermostat in the house. Good thing I did as the wall thermostat went out. So the next morning early I picked up a new one along with batteries and met another friend that changed it up for me. He would not take any money but he did say "I will be visiting you December to pick up my Christmas goody package though"  That had me smiling. 

  I like to bake and cook etc and since I don't really have anyone to gift with goodies anymore I started making cookies and candy etc to gift this friend and a few of his friends for Christmas. They always enjoy the peanut brittle especially.

  When I got home I needed to clean house as our Wisconsin friends were coming down on Friday to visit us and check out wineries.  Marie always bakes Larry a "real" cheesecake (he gets a keto one from me haha)  As always we had a good visit. We've been friends for around 30 years or so now.  I drank more wine over the weekend with them then I do in 6 months or more. 😀 There are two wineries in Stover Missouri that I have shared in the past-wow they have both really grown. They also went to one on their way down to us and they didn't care for that one at all.

  Here is just some of the bottles we drank-I am wanting to save the labels on these. These are my ticket into T

Our favorite winery this trip was Dale Hollow in Stover, Missouri. on their site is this video

   The last time we visited was two years ago and it was very chaotic at the time. Covid was still around, so everyone was masked, they had an outdoors band at that time and people were coming into the small building to buy bottles of wine to enjoy. So the place was very hectic. I had bought a bottle there and really loved it. My friends had bought a case but their experience was that it was too crazy busy. 

   I really wanted to go again this weekend because I just really liked the wine there.  Wow what a difference 2 years has made. They built a beautiful large building to showcase their wines, have tastings, and/or sit and enjoy wine with friends. They had expanded their vineyards too-Very professional winery. They have won ribbons on some of their wines too. My friends said wow what a difference from last year and they loved the wine more this trip.

  The day before they go back home, we almost always make a steak and shrimp dinner for all of us.  We went into a small supermarket-the same company that bought up the small store nearest me to check out the meat options. Neither one of us took the time to take photos but oh my gosh what a delicious meal She spotted two huge tomahawk steaks.  Larry and I have never been big meat eaters, but it is a treat for us when they come down. Marie and I are both good in the kitchen but I said I have noooo clue how to grill these so this is up to you how to prepare the steaks.  She said she just learned about doing a reverse sear on these-you bake them to a certain temperature and then grill them on a hot grill pan to the desired temperature. They were perfect-Larry and I want just before well done and they eat theirs on the rare side.  I can't even describe how good these were. Marie "nailed it" on the steaks.   I picked up a small bag of mini potatoes and I had frozen green beans in the freezer to complete the meal.

  Then we had the cheesecake 

 Here is a photo from online I found-I have never heard of these steaks before I really wish we would have gotten a photo of ours, as they were bigger than this photo. We each bought one for two people.  I saved the trimmings and bones to make beef broth for later.

As the weather people promised we went to bitter cold with low 20's f Friday evening-that will continue for the next couple of weeks.

   Before our friends arrived I had been working on a page for my journal for AJJ's theme of collage fodder with hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth. I finished it today (Sunday morning) Hoping this is considered a collage fodder page

clicking on photos will enlarge for better viewing.

  I decided to make a two page spread in my German cookbook mixed media journal and titled these pages November

I used a dried wet wipe that I use when I am painting for the background, added a practice sashiko piece I stitched on one of my hand dyed fabric scraps, stamped trees, stamps, birch bark-one of my last pieces, an eco printed piece I did on paper, November words from the farmer's almanac, and a little leaf in handmade paper from Mia 

   I have a friend that told me once, to know when to stop-and not over do. I decided to use from Crayola a brown watercolor crayon and go over the two tree stampings, a little bit over the bison stamp, and Mia's leaf. I then decided to go over the page that was showing (on the top of journal) and forgot that cookbook pages are Not watercolor papers-lol  I think it did work out ok in the end I also added the green ribbon that came from a liqueur bottle 

   

This page shows the cut out script from the Farmer's Almanac, stamped trees, eco print on paper, the birch bark, little leaf in paper, and I had saved a stack of these utility bills when we lived in Illinois-they used cool stamps on postcards This page I had covered it first with a scrapbook type paper then the cloth I used when painting.

This page has a cut out bear foot print and a cut out leaf from magazines, the stamped tree, a stamp, the sashiko on my hand dyed fabric and the paint cloth.

  A few views here at the lake house.

Sunday morning geese

We love winter squash and this area in Missouri the summers are too hot to find good ones-our friends brought us down these from a market Little things are just special aren't they?

Happy T and new week

We Honor our Veterans-Day

 

   My husband gets an extra hug and thank you today for serving our country and being a veteran of the Viet Nam war

T Stands for Tuesday-Voting Day

  Hello Friends,

    Not sure why but this last week has gone by pretty fast. I think sometimes when you have allot to accomplish and still more to do it just feels like time is flying by.

  We have enjoyed more beautiful weather with a few cold nights and storms in the mix. Same this week fall weather and then two days of 70's f-loving that especially for November. and Here in the States we have a huge mid term election on Tuesday-this one is more important than most so hoping the polls are flooded with Americans voting.

  I finally spent some time in my craft room these past few days. I have been intrigued with Bleubeard and Elizabeth's challenge for Art Journal Journey this month, I needed to ask her what collage fodder was-I am liking this and I think I will enjoy this month's challenge.

   I did make up eight Thanksgiving cards over several days last week. Totally different than what I have made before. These took more time so I only made the eight. They are already in their envelopes for mailing-and then I realized this morning I totally forgot to take any photos. Oh well

  We are enjoying lovely sunrises early every morning

This one taken from indoors

This one was interesting looks like two photos overlapped

 

One day I washed the large windows and kept seeing my reflection in the glass so took a photo You can see reflections from inside the house too-This photo makes me look way overweight-ugh-I am wearing super baggy jeans Interesting this photo shows the front door in the house too

I have been drinking lots of teas the last few weeks. This up and down weather really brings out the asthma symptoms This cup has a decaf green tea and also constant comment  green tea bags-I needed something different besides the herbal teas

I was messaging with a friend and we were saying remember when we use to iron the leaves to preserve them for awhile? I did some this last week as I have an idea for using them as a stamp-will see how that works

  Last night (Sunday) while watching the Kansas City Chiefs play (awesome game and win)  I smiled to see the moon I usually can not capture a good night photo- this one not too bad

Happy T and new week