T Stands for Tuesday-Photos

   Joining T over at Bleubeard and Elizabeath's-just share a drink related photo to join in, link in my sidebar.

   I am sharing a few photos this week.

 Some  of you may remember from last year a visit from  the "deck duck"  I had just been wondering if she/he would visit us again and the duck arrived the next day. Larry thinks this is the same duck just more mature.

   This was taken early morning, full sun with steam from the lake. We are dropping into the low 50's and high 40's F at night for several days now. By 11 am it warms up to the high 70's and low 80's F during the day so really perfect weather for this long weekend.

 

 Friday I baked up yellow angel food cakes for the both of us to go with the lovely fresh strawberries and blackberries I had picked up at the grocery store. They came out so good even the gluten free version. 

     The first photo is the wheat cake and the second is the gluten free version. I had extra egg whites after separating the eggs so added them to the gluten free cake-gave it the extra volume it needed.

   These rose so much this time I had a bit of difficulty getting them out of the pans.

Gluten free cake below. I froze most of mine in single servings, as gf baked goods will dry out faster than the wheat cakes do.

 Of course the lake was totally bonkers with many many  boats of all sizes. I am writing this up early Sunday evening and the lake is still full of boats going every which way.  I only got a couple photos, as I pretty much "hid" in the house with all the commotion. lol  I did get to enjoy fireworks from the neighbors Saturday evening. Am hoping the one straight across from us will display more fireworks again tonight-he is a professional so the show is amazing. I have such an amazing indoor view of his fireworks show.

This photo below is taken looking to the right of the deck-where the lake really opens up for a bit and where lots of boats come in at. It is fun to see all the different types of boats-all sizes and some very very expensive ones too.

   We had friends that came up to go fishing for a bit Sunday morning off our dock-In a couple hours they caught a large bucket full of crappie, bass, and catfish-good eats. The grandfather lives in Colorado and he loves to fish when he visits his family (our friends)

   I forgot to take photos but I did finish up the limincello recipe on Wednesday. I divided it into two gallon water bottles and stored them in the freezer. Each bottle was about half full-for expansion. Will be better tasting in another month or so.

  For my drink share-a cup of white tea that I had picked up at the Amish food store

and I will close  with this surprise-This really nice bird feeder was gifted to us by our lake friends for Christmas. Told us it was squirrel proof. I had to laugh at that because I have yet to find a bird feeder that is squirrel proof or raccoon proof.  Over this busy weekend-the new squirrel youngsters have been a handful, that I have had to bring in the seed feeders so they don't destroy them Sometimes there 6-8 youngsters eating all the bird seed.

  Yep this squirrel managed to get through the cage area that is suppose to protect the seed feeder. I don't think an adult squirrel could get in though.

Happy T and new week

Remember Our Fallen

 Here in the States Monday is Memorial Day-where we remember and honor our fallen.

Too many though mostly celebrate this weekend as the beginning of summer especially here at the lake where many business's will be re opening, lots of family activities being scheduled, large family and friends celebrating with cook outs and boating.

Larry and I never did much celebrating over Memorial Day weekend, more  reflecting of the soldiers that served our country and gave their lives, and because too my husband remembers and honors those fallen soldiers around him in the war he fought in. ( I can't even reflect on that without sorrow)

Reader's Digest had several quotes-I chose this one

Sunday evening    PBS always has a Memorial Day Show to honor our fallen. I watch it every year. It had me in tears tonight listening to the different stories.  They stated since 1776 over a million American soldiers have  lost their lives for our country. 

T Stands for Tuesday-Ice Cream

  Hello Friends,

This will be a short post this week. I am linking up with Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T for Tuesday where we also share a drink related photo in our post.

This past week I did get everything planted that came up from seed in my greenhouse bottles. I pushed to get it all in the garden with the forecast saying rain for several hours-We got missed-again sadly. A few sprinkles is all and then strong winds which pushed it all away from us-and no rain in the coming forecast. Typical Missouri though.

A few weeks ago we finished up the keto ice cream I had made back in the fall-that ice cream holds up really well in the freezer. The recipe I had been using is a long process. One makes a thick base first that takes 30 minutes of constant stirring, add the rest of the recipe. Cool for several hours,  and then put it in the ice cream maker. 

Today I decided to try a simple vanilla recipe that came with the ice cream maker and just substitute Splenda for the sugar. I almost thought of  using half Splenda and half keto powdered sweetener but decided to see how the Splenda would work out. Much faster for sure, just mix up the base and put it right into the machine. I churned it the full 25 minutes and it came out a bit over churned but tastes good.

     I did get my wool sock slippers mended with that little loom I shared. Sorry didn't get photos. The video I had shared was excellent for setting it up-I wanted to use wool threads for this to mend that large hole, but since the bottoms of the socks had little rubber alpacas that was hard to set up so the wool threads on the loom would seperate out to weave-so I gave up on that and used cotton weaving yarn instead-that worked out well. The one thing I did not care for, on the bottom of the patch are lots of loose strings from setting up the loom-when finished weaving the patch those all need to be brought to the back and then woven in. with the big hole in the socks that I was covering that was a challenge.   I don't wear shoes in the house, instead wear socks or I love these thick wool socks. Will see how long the mend lasts

   In the garden the bee balm started blooming Sunday morning

   This is my cup of tea Sunday morning while making the ice cream-my Ticket for T    I had picked up this large mug one year at the Fiber U event I used to attend classes at in July.

Here is one of those smaller ocean boats that are taking over the lake-too large for this lake but they allow it for some reason

Sunday morning early--we have dropped into the low 40's F this past week in the evenings-so quite chilly in the mornings

Happy T and new week

Something I Just Learned About--Making Watercolor Paints from Eye Shadow

   Hi Everyone, have any of you heard of this or made your own watercolor paints from eye shadow??

   I found an artist over on Instagram that makes her own botanical inks and watercolor paints-she has made Lots. I find this all so fun to learn more of what works and what colors you get. She doesn't always share her recipes, but searching online one can figure it out.

  The other day when she was visiting her local thrift store she found lots of eye shadows-and decided why not try to make watercolor paint. She also finds old eye shadow tins that she cleans up and uses for her paints. This is her Instagram page      and her web pages

    If you are interested in making your own natural inks and watercolor paints she has done allot, I find her very inspiring to keep trying new things.

  I was curious about the eye shadows used for making watercolor paints and found the following video from someone else.  I have never used  make up at all-my parents were against it when I was growing up so I just never bothered, but found it interesting the first artist found it at thrift shops or the dollar store-so that would make in inexpensive.

  

   Today I finished up planting the rest of my plants that I grew from seeds. Pushed to get it done since we are suppose to have rain today. A little bit, but so far we are getting missed-hoping we end up getting more. I also did allot of weeding in an area behind where the goldenseal and bloodroot is planted. That  is a neat little area-It has a very old red bud tree that is half dead but provides the shade I need there-and it has sections of the huge slate rock that this area of the lake has allot of.  I am going to wait til early fall to plant the sweet woodruff seeds in that area. I am also going to online shop for a St Francis statue for that area.

   I also wanted to pop in to wish you all an awesome weekend

   

T Stands for Tuesday-more gardening

   Hoping all you mothers had a wonderful Mother's Day here in the States last Sunday. The lake was very busy all weekend despite the off and on rain with boats and those noisy personal watercrafts. The sailboat was out again too on Sunday and he had the perfect wind for his sailboat. We had a warm and very humid long weekend

  This brings us to Bluebeard and Elizabeath's T for Tuesday where we share a post with a drink related photo. Find link in my side bar to join in 

   

  I have been outdoors every day either weeding, planting or weed eating our yard. The weed eating was done in between small spurts of rain for three days now, I have one more area to finish. I use up 3 to 4 batteries at a time which is close to 2 hours-that's enough for my back in one day. Then I charge them back up for the next day. I know it's allot of hours, but the lawn service people are just too expensive, and I don't want to buy a lawn mower either-knowing me I would end in the lake haha.  We are also working on bringing in rock to get rid of most of this grass

  We had a lovely surprise down by our lake front. When we first moved here I dug up a few plants including our blue flag iris that love wet feet. They love being near a pond so they can get their feet wet. Larry thought they would grow well here at the lake by stuffing them in cracks into the rocks that is our natural sea wall here where we live.  A  couple years ago the lawn service continued to cut them down even after telling them not to-I finally fired them.  Last year we thought we lost them since they had been cut down so many times the previous year.  When I was weed eating grass over the weekend in that area-Wow so happy to see them again!!

Sunday morning the first bloom. These are Larry's favorite flowers-so I was thrilled to see them again. 

    They look like an inspiration for a painting

The electric company here that uses the lake to make power lowers the lake after summer and then brings the water back up by Memorial Day weekend. Once the water is back up-it will rise up to these plants but not totally cover their roots-just keeps them moist. So the lake will be much deeper here on the edge when that happens

  Last year I learned about hummingbird plants from one of my blog and slow mail friends  They are a perennial and the butterflies and hummingbirds love them-so thought perfect for my garden.  I bought 3 plants that were quite small when I received them in the mail and this spring I had lost two and then accidently pulled the third one out when weeding grrrrr  So I went back on Ebay and bought a different color and from a different seller-this is the seller's photo 

This is the name of this perennial   Agastache kudos silver blue hyssop mint  This was a different seller and the plants came so well packaged, were large and healthy. I gave him an excellent review I was so happy. This is a photo of them. The box even had a couple air holes for the plants.  I planted them early Sunday morning-in front of a rocked area I have been working on-to the right of the big copper pot. They will have room to spread up there and they will be tall with the rocks behind them-should look nice.

                                 

   I also got the area in front all weeded-saved the wild violets, and brought over allot of those chocolate mint plants which will then turn this area into a ground cover.   

   Behind that area I finished more of the weeding where the goldenseal plants are that I had planted last year and Monday the bloodroot plants should arrive so I can get those planted. There is just enough shade for those two plants in this area-they naturally live in the woods where it is shady. I will place bark around those plants too.  

 So the off and on rain the last couple of days has been perfect for gardening.

    I have a couple drink shares.  A couple weeks ago I started a batch of limoncello which is so refreshing on a hot summer day.  I used around 12 large lemons-peeled the peels into vodka, where it will sit for a month. Strain add sugar and a little lavender, can't remember now if water is also added. If interested in the recipe tell me in comments. We keep the finished limoncello in a plastic jug in the freezer where it stays nice and cold.

   So now I had a dozen lemons with no peels on them, so I made us fresh lemonade and used splenda instead of sugar to sweeten it up.

  The pottery lemon juicer is one of my first handmade pottery purchases-back in the early '70s. I love using it and have not seen another one as nice. I think I bought this one in North Carolina where I lived for awhile back then.

I also brewed up a flavored decaf coffee for something different, I decided to bring out another very favorite handmade pottery piece of mine. This was a 4 piece set of cups and I also bought the pretty pitcher that matches-which I need to bring out and use this summer. These pieces are soooo light weight. I had asked the potter how she did that and she told me her pieces are electric fired.

  I baked us up a big cast iron skillet full of apple crisp with the fresh rhubarb I had found at the Amish store a couple weekends ago. Makes a nice snack in the evening or I like it for breakfast too.

    Saturday I received the little mending loom in the mail, it is a cute little piece, will try it soon.  This is already long so will share a book next week

  Happy T and new week

Little Darning-Weaving Looms & Craft Catch Up

 Have any of you used one of these little darning-weaving  looms?

    I had never seen or heard of these before, so when I did I looked around the net and settled on this one. Thought better to start with a small loom first and usually mending socks or jeans etc a small size would be nicer to use for mending too.

  There are soooo many different ones of these to choose from, some include many items and some have no extras-for almost the same price too. In comments on all of them-no instructions are included. I did find several you tube videos, including this one

Here is a photo of the one I just ordered-for the price it is a nice size and included lots of other items  I found this one on Amazon. I also like that they had the pink cat tool to pack in the warp threads, most kits did not have that. I didn't need the threads but this little kit came with everything. I have a favorite wool sock that I use for slippers (they have little rubber llamas on the bottoms) around the house that I will try first.

  I have been thinking of the little bags I had cut out last year from my hand dyed fabrics. I have such a difficult time getting patterns on to the cloth for the stitching. So it has been sitting awhile so I don't get myself too frustrated.  I found someone that has a shop on Etsy with mending stitch patterns that are on soluble stabilizer fabric. Will give that a go and see how it works. They were half off but still too expensive so hoping I can trace these patterns onto another soluble stabilizer before I stitch with them  Hoping that will work as I have never used a soluble stabilizer before. Have any of you worked with this product before?

  Last week I also had a major break through moment with my spinning. I finally just stopped and said my yarn is not improving-I am doing something that is not right.  So I looked for a you tube video and finally found one that explained what I was doing wrong. after all these years and lots of yarns spun-it was really a Wow moment.  Does that happen to you too-finally get something figured out?

   Today I finally got all the plants I purchased into the garden, and I also planted zinnias and marigolds that I grew in the bottles.  It is very hot out there after 11 am so had to stop. I did get another large area weeded and I found the goldenseal plants I planted last year spring but the bloodroot did not survive. I may order more of those-will be good for dyeing.

  I am really enjoying Instagram-I can just scan through photos of all the things I am interested in-Yellowstone Park, birds, weaving, spinning, nature and more.

  

T Stands for Tuesday-Gardening

   It's time for T over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's-find link in my sidebar to visit or join in with a drink related photo.

 I spent a 3-day weekend in the garden-weeding and planting. I bought way too many plants this year. I have decided except for the petunias I will grow annuals from seeds next year-which will give me a big savings in the end.

  Friday I spent most of the day adding more garden soil and planting ground cover thyme and a few flowers up on top of the hill. That ended up being quite the job-once it fills in will be nicer than the weeds that grew there

  Here is a look from the top down to a row of bushes-the lake is on the left-down hill and to the right is the driveway

  Saturday morning though I shopped around outside of Versailles, Mo visiting Amish greenhouses and stores. I had bought my plants last week Monday but our friend that comes over to visit and join Larry for a cup of coffee said him and his wife knew of several different nurseries. So his wife called and wanted to know if I wanted to go with her-Yes. Which is a big treat for me to get out of the house with someone else driving-smiles-I never enjoyed driving even when I had to commute to work

     I did not grab my camera as the Amish do not want their photo taken, so out of respect I didn't want to take any photos in the greenhouses either. I think after this trip I have it my mind finally how to find things without bringing along my GPS.

    We did start out at Zimmerman's greenhouse as my friend wanted several annuals. She thought the same as me, that the plants were not as nice as last year, and much more expensive than last year too.  I did find several nice herbs when I shopped before along with new to me mints. 

   The next stop was a huge nursery and greenhouse. I think I will visit this business first next year as they had lots of perennial plants and in nice size pots. I bought two lovely lavender plants and one columbine.

 

    These are the nicest lavender plants I have seen. The columbine was gorgeous too. Late Sunday after weeding and getting most things planted-here are a couple photos

I had planted fennel seed last year for the butterflies-nothing came up-but surprise here is one large plant from the seed-it is to the right of the daffodil plants and in the back by the stone wall-would you believe that is a huge plant of chocolate mint? I will need to pull some of this out as from two little plants it is everywhere now.

Another view-in the back right is a new to me weed that grows crazy here-easy to pull out too-that's my next project-clear all that out-add some bags of garden soil and plant sweet woodruff from seed-as an aromatic ground cover there. More rocks need to be hauled up to these hills as well

These stone pots were here when we bought the lake house. I moved them here and usually plant geraniums in them

  I started from seeds German Chamomile which you can see in the middle, and I planted vinca with the pink flowers In front of this photo I planted red yarrow from seeds (in the bottles too) which is at the corner coming down the steps. That green patch in front is chocolate mint

I will take a photo to share next time of the columbine as I see it wasn't in these photos.

  Our last stop was at the very large Amish Dutch Country Store-which is on the same highway as the perennial nursery. In front of the store they had a small greenhouse full of plants -they were gorgeous and the best we had seen so far. I only bought a garlic chive plant as I spent my limit already.

  

 Sunday was pancake day-Larry has his breakfasts planned out now-pancakes-then omelet-and then yogurt & granola day haha  Here is my gluten free version with fresh blueberries in the pancakes, topped with fresh strawberries from the Amish grocery store-soooo delicious-and a little whipped cream for fun In the back is my decaf coffee

We still have had no rain, it keeps missing us here in our area of the lake. Saturday and Sunday we were in the 90's-ugh so not ready for the heat just yet. I think it is at least a month since we have had any rain.

   So please send us some rain if you have extra-smiles

Happy T and new week everyone Yes the lake was packed with boaters over the weekend-enjoying the first hot days of the year