Good Afternoon Tuesday & Photos

    Hello Friends,

Before the weekend I got all the Christmas treats made to give away. Was also able to get them all to friends except for one-she is having car problems and not able to drive up as of yet.. 

   This week I will make a few gluten free cookies and make up a couple batches of my chocolate popcorn for us and for our neighbor that lovesssss  all things chocolate..

I mixed up the gingerbread cut out cookies yesterday, so will bake those up tomorrow. Yesterday I made up a childhood memory cookie. I don't think I have ever made these cookies since leaving home after high school graduation.  These were always one of my favorites growing up. Large soft puffy cookies-so good. I made these gluten free, used half butter and half coconut oil, and there is allot of sugar in the recipe so I used half organic white sugar and half Splenda. This recipe also uses buttermilk-so I make some with milk and lemon juice. Once baked you sprinkle on sugar while warm. I just kept out a few and froze the rest.

  Smiles I have a working camera. This one is more of a learning curve so I need to get the book out to understand it. It also took Larry quite a bit of time to set it up to unload photos to the computer. I never would have been able to figure that out.

 

  We are back to warmer weather again for several days now.  We did have a light glazing of ice early this morning, so I waited for that to all thaw before heading to our small Wal mart for a few items.

  This year I have been buying the suet blocks for the birds-so far the squirrels have not bothered those-well as of yet haha.  I also dug out a large seed feeder that was a gift from our neighbor a couple years ago. Hopefully the squirrels will stay off of it this year.

  We have been enjoying a very awesome large full moon this week. Last night it was a deep yellow. So neat looking over the water. This camera did a better job with this night photo I took a few days ago,-still need to learn the different settings on this camera. I am used to just point and shoot-nothing else.

  Note: the blue and green lights in front of the photo-are under our dock and boat.

  One of the birds we really enjoy watching is  the shy wislet Note: I have been looking in our bird books and online and can't find this bird. do any of you know the spelling? Larry pronounces like I spelled it-but that must be wrong. His tail is flat and usually stands up like in this first photo.  He has been coming around most every day now since it has gotten cooler. He is here year round as well.

    Have a good rest of your week

Christmas in the Kitchen

   This week I have been making up Christmas treats to gift, Mostly for our workers that are friends and always there for us when we need them.

  I have made two batches of peanut brittle and one batch of cashew brittle early in the week. The cashew brittle is for Larry.

I made gingerbread and white sugar cut out cookies to gift-so those are wheat cookies. Will frost them tomorrow. I also made up three batches of dark chocolate bark with nuts and candied fruits for toppings.

  I guess do to my age now, my back really gets to me working in the kitchen over a few hours now. So  I take a break with the heating pad-smiles.

  I will make up a batch of the chex mix to gift most of it-I use gluten free cereals, crackers and pretzels. That freezes well too. I may also bake up a batch of my chocolate popcorn-so good-that freezes well too.

  I grew up making dozens of different Christmas cookies-always fun for me to dig out the now vintage cutters.

  Amazon just now put my camera in the mail-that was really slow for them to mail out almost 2 weeks. Hopefully it will come by end of this week and will work out better than the previous two cameras.

  I started watching the Mo Town Christmas music show tonight-I recorded it to skip through all the commercials. It was really good. Mo Town records started when I was 10 years old, but I remember enjoying the music into the '60's  The only Christmas music show I have enjoyed so far.

  We woke up to just a dusting of a little snow-that melted right off. We are back to pretty cold again though, but thankfully I have not had to dig us out of snow. Last year we didn't get any snow at all.

  I also got most of my Christmas cards into the mail. The international ones went out this past Monday so hoping those arrive in time. I do still enjoy sending out cards-I get very few in return but it is one thing I enjoy doing. I bought stamps before the last price hike. I usually make my own but I found really nice cards on Etsy that a watercolor artist turned into high quality cards with envelopes.

  Enjoy December and the Holidays my friends.

   I found Snoopy to share 

Good Morning Monday-This & That

   Happy Monday and New Week.

Do you shop online?  We live rural so I find it easier and less expensive to shop online for many household goods especially. and Today is Cyber Monday.  I don't have Amazon Prime but if you do they have loads of specials going on.

  We are still very cold here-in the 20's F  Some days with wind

The second camera has broke and doesn't work-sigh  I liked this one,  but didn't like that it used AA batteries instead of those flat lithium batteries. I could only take about 8 photos before I needed to change batteries-didn't think that made sense. The third time I took photos the camera stopped working. We tried different batteries to be sure. I bought this one on Walmart.com as they had the best online price I could find. Nice that I can take it into the store to get my money back right away. It needs to warm up a bit more though for me to get on the roads. We have had a thin glazing of ice here for a few days. Looks like mid week we will get out of the 20's F for a day or two.

 Soooo bummer I have spent lots of time looking at cameras-again over the weekend. I chose one that Larry thought looked good but it has no reviews-I always read reviews to help me choose a product, since I can send it back from Amazon I just ordered it.  Never have had so much difficulty with cameras before.   

  We are still enjoying watching pelicans and seagulls on the lake. and I am back to being aggravated by the squirrels eating all the bird food-sigh. They are funny to watch but if they would share I wouldn't mind so much-but No they stay and eat til  all the seeds are gone. Oh well that's squirrels haha  I did set up a suet feeder that they haven't bothered as of yet. That has been bringing in the woodpeckers.

  Do you watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Christmas parade?  I didn't enjoy that at all this year, perhaps do to  my age now. I recorded it so I could buzz through the too many commercials. I didn't know any of the singers except for a couple. When Santa arrived on his too cool float which I thought was the highlight of the parade-they only showed about a minute of it before they ended the show. I won't watch that again

  I did enjoy watching good football games including an exciting college Notre Dame game-they should end up in the top 10 with an at home playoff game. I recorded some of the new Hallmark Christmas movies-again to buzz off the too many commercials and was super disappointed with the film that was based on the KC Chiefs football game. It featured Kelce's Mom-who is always at the games but Wow this was major dork haha. It was really bad.   I find myself watching more Christmas movies on the Great American Family network now instead. The plots have more substance.

   On a happier note-I did finish most of the deep cleaning in our main living areas. I do still need to tackle my craft room with a good vacuum and dusting-and perhaps a bit of organizing. Soon I will need to downsize but am not ready for that yet., as I never know what craft I want to "play" with.  Now the house is in order, hoping to get back to my slow stitch bags.

Happy December Everyone

Browsing online for pelicans in Missouri-I found this one at Truman Lake

and this one taken in Sedalia Mo

 

Good Morning & Pelicans-Photos

   Good morning Friends,

     It is just the two of us for Thanksgiving, but that's ok with me.  This morning I made up a big batch of cranberry relish-I always make mine from scratch. This year I added fresh blueberries and organic canned mandarin oranges.

   I also just put a sweet potatoe pie in the oven. I used fresh sweet potatoes that I prepared last week and froze. For the crust I made a gluten free crust using organic raw walnuts and gluten free graham crackers with butter and splenda for the sweetener. My kitchen is smelling pretty good right now-smiles.

  For our Thanksgiving meal, I decided to make us Belgium waffles-which are a treat for us, and serve with our smoked turkey. The cranberries will go well with this too. Perhaps a green veggie as well.  We need to eat fairly healthy here, a few less carbs than potatoes, stuffing etc. 

  This week the pelicans have returned-really fun to watch. I also set up my luminaries with battery tea lights. My other bags were pretty worn out, these bags have snowflakes and are better quality bags too. Before retirement when we lived on the border of Illinois and Wisconsin we would get some pretty bitter winters. I would set up the luminaries with sand and real candles back then.  Now I enjoy them on the ledge of our wall of windows.

  The photos will enlarge if you click on them

We have rain coming in today so it is pretty cloudy outdoors. I couldn't get a clear close up as they are on the other side of the lake from us

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you that celebrate

Brrrr Feels Like Winter Here

   From lovely spring like temperatures, we are now in a very cold weather snap. Low 20's at night with winds during the day.  Perfect for baking though

   I decided to bake up a quick bread using a banana and a can of organic squash puree  It turned out delicious-I used coconut sugar, gluten free flour blend and added small dark chocolate chips. Very moist and not real sweet. A note when baking gluten free goods like this-to really know it is baked done use an instant read thermometer and test in the middle-205-210 degrees F to know it is baked.  In the past I had tossed out so many baked items not knowing this. This one took an extra 15 minutes. 

  I am kinda thinking of making us tamales from scratch for Thanksgiving, and serving a little bit of the smoked turkey on the side, along with my own cranberry dish 

    I had forgotten to pick up a Butterball breast to serve as the main meat and forgot to. Smoked meat is very rich-goes well with crackers and cheese or small rye breads.  I did buy us each a large potato to serve-a treat for us-so now not sure what I will prepare for the two of us on Thanksgiving day. It will be different for sure this year-smiles

  Stay warm and safe everyone

Smokin' Turkey

    We put the butterball turkey in the smoker yesterday morning.  This morning it is looking pretty good so far. We are using apple and cherry smoking wood chips.

   Somehow we misplaced the racks that go into the smoker-looked every where and have no  clue where they have gone to. So that is why the turkey is in a pan

Oh and blogger found my photos this time in my computer-cool

Brrrr It's Cold This Morning

   Good morning,

      Brrrrr we have had a lot of wind and cooler temperatures for a few days now. We have been very spoiled with warmer than normal weather this fall so far-so no complaints.

   I did get my camera really fast. Larry set it up for me a few days ago. I took a couple photos into a sunny lake just now. It took  me awhile to figure out where they were in my computer but found them. I think for the most part the pelicans have migrated on to their next destination. We are just seeing a few now. Lots of sea gulls though. This morning there are lots of small birds flying around over the lake-fishing with the high waves. This time of year until next year May we enjoy bird watching over a very peaceful lake.

  This camera is very similar to one I had before, just need to use it a bit to figure out zooming in etc-I am no tech person at all. 

  Well I will need Larry to help me with the photos-as they would not upload here, I found them and needed to  copy and pasted instead

  The birds really blend into the lake. If you click on photos they will enlarge lots more

  I ended up finding a small Butterball turkey-15 pounds. I wanted a smaller turkey but all they had were gigantic turkeys haha.   We decided to brine and smoke it. If the wind decreases we will set it up in the smoker later today. The butterball turkeys have less additives than the store brand turkeys.

 Since the house is cold this morning, I am drinking a cup of coffee with a splash of my homemade Kahlua which is 4 years old now., so t tastes like the real thing now  I found this instant coffee that is really good if I just want one cup

Enjoy your day.

Update: Larry says the photos are just set up different on the computer-so can't just upload them to my blog like I usually do. It does take a bit to find them but it will get easier-and we have photos smiles

Watching Pelicans over the Weekend

   We got a real treat over the weekend-watching the large white pelicans on the Lake in the Ozarks.

Saw singles fly by and then pairs over the weekend. Then late yesterday two large flocks of them. We watch them catch fish, one even went after a seagull 

 I found this video on Facebook from our conservation dept.

  Also found this photos online of the pelicans on Lake in the Ozarks

 

 Wen they fly you can see the black under their wings.

  Today was rainy in the morning but rest of our day has been cool, dreary and windy.

It has been a year since I have spent any time in my craft room. I have done a few things on the couch but not in my room. Needs a super good clean for sure.to rid the dust in there, but it felt good. I am setting myself up to make Thanksgiving cards to mail out to friends.  Will be something fun for me.

  Off to get up the steps and hill to check the  mail-it has gotten windy and quite cold out there now-feels like a cold fall day. we have been spoiled for sure.

  Happy Monday

Good Morning Friday & Camera Woes--Updated

   We are fogged in here at the lake again this morning. I did enjoy a glorious full moon over the lake last night-very bright.

   I did get my new camera in the mail on Tuesday, took a few photos. Yesterday got the booklet out on how to download the photos.  I am not a tech person at all. When I plug the camera into the computer it brings up a screen of three choices-I need to select the middle one to download. How do I do that, as of course it is not clickable.  So amazon had a chat help for my camera. He could not help me so he sent my issue to the seller.  Early this morning all I get is a photo of the page in the booklet.  Frustrating for sure I was told I would get a video and tutorial.  I wrote back and told them if they can't help me will be sending the camera back.

  Life as a senior with no tech knowledge can be quite frustrating. I have never had this kind of issue with a camera before. Usually you just plug it in and the photos download.

  End of gripe

  Yesterday I worked on cleaning the fronts of all the wood kitchen cabinets with a wood cleaner-and I got the window clean that is in front of the sink with the help of one of Larry's workers. That window gets so dirty for some reason.  Next up will be to clear off the coffee area and clean and put back. Scour the sink, clean the floor and the kitchen will be clean going into winter. Oh one more thing I need to do is empty the frig and clean that too. Hope to finish up the kitchen today.

  Next up will be to clean the rest of the wood in the house and do the floors, wash rugs.  I only have rubber backed rugs now in the kitchen, and in front of the two doors-can't risk falls with my handwoven rugs any more. 

  With cleaning I have not gotten back to my sewing my little bag together. Hope to this weekend.

I made a pork loin roast in the oven yesterday. I used one of my cast iron skillets This was so delicious. I rubbed rosemary all over the roast and then added Mrs Dash garlic and herbs.   I used this recipe as a guide

  Happy Friday

 Update: Larry played around with the camera, the computer won't recognize it, after a half an hour or more-I said enough is enough I am sending it back to Amazon. That is a good thing with Amazon very easy to return items with a free shipping label. I do have to drive in to our bank where they have a UPS and Fedex drop off

  We searched for a different camera and went on Walmart.com They had a Kodak digital that uses regular batteries and got good reviews-they were a lot cheaper too than what Amazon was selling this one for-pays to take the time to shop around online.  We did also see a Minolta digital that was very impressive for just a little bit more money. Could not find what the battery was though. Had Japanese lens and a big upgrade overall. I went on Amazon they had the same camera again for more money, but in reviews one said this was not a point and shoot camera needed to set dials-not for me. so ordered the Kodak

 

Veteran's Day

  Wishing all of those that have served in the military a happy Veteran's Day

  (photo found online)

Brrrr A Fall Day is Upon Us

   Good Afternoon Saturday,

        Lots of rain last night, Missouri does need rain though. Since this is also a windy chilly day soup is just the perfect meal for us today. I am making us a beef soup from scratch-no salt beef broth, a can of USA canned beef, and I will also add potatoes, fresh green beans and some peas, a can of diced tomatoes with garlic, and a big handful of dried soup mix that I get from the Amish store.  I usually make chicken soup so I will need to adjust spices on this one..

   I so need to go through my kitchen cabinets as the spice cabinets are packed and I can't find what I am looking for-ugh.  It needs to be done. I bought some organic dried soup mixes that include most everything but the meat but can't locate them any where sigh. Oh well I have decided this month to really clean house here-going through cabinets is my first priority before winter.

  The other day I went through buckets (with tight lids) of  my rice and beans.  I don't have the extra freezer space any more to keep everything in there so these buckets have been in the basement since we moved to the lake.  I brought up 4 buckets so I can get to them easier. All sorts of different rice and beans.  Yep I am just used to always storing foods that I can make into dishes. and if the weather is really bad and I can not get to the food store I can always make us something.

  I still have fresh apples and I bought a bag of fresh cranberries recently so I think I will bake us up a crisp-have not done that in awhile Larry and a friend that comes by to visit us love this too.

    I did just order a digital camera this morning so I can post photos again. Hoping this one will work out as I upped the price a bit on this camera Supposed to be here on  Thursday

  Recently I was not happy that another wind up kitchen timer stopped working  I was telling Larry these always lasted at least 10 years or more-not now. So he says why don't you check out the digital timers. Me-"what??"  So I chose one-and I Love it! A simple thing but never knew of these before. They are more accurate and very loud.  Do you have one of these? You can tell I don't get out and about much any more smiles.

  I have started sewing my slow stitch piece into a bag. Doing this by hand as well and it is slow go with the thickness of the muslin fabric I put behind the stitches. I need to look in my stash for a thinner needle I think.

  That's about it for me. I am hoping to find the Notre Dame game on the tv later today

I found this Snoopy soup mug online

Oh and my author friend that lives near Yellowstone Park posted this video about Yellowstone Park with soothing music in the background. It is not hers but I really enjoyed the scenery and the music so wanted to share as well

Have a good weekend

It's a New Day (political thoughts)

   I took the duck out of the smoker yesterday morning. I was really pleased with it. This ended up being pretty expensive though The duck was around $20.00 plus the brine ingredients and we did still have the smoking wood chips. When you smoke -- the meat really shrinks- a lot and there is not a lot of meat on a duck to begin with-but I was happy with the result.

  I know most of my American friends here on my blog are on the far left liberal side but I hope every American comes together as one nation. 

   As soon as the winner was announced--  Hamas says they are ending their wars. Putin called Trump to talk about ending his war with Ukraine.  I think the biggest problem in our country is the lies from main stream media. Once people stop listening to the main news networks or at least compare them to the honest networks and compare information and then make a decision for yourself as to what is the truth everyone will be better informed.  The meltdown of the mainstream media was something to watch-and the big movie stars and singers-why should anyone care about what they think??

  Common sense, ranchers, farmers, the Amish communities, our younger generation, legal immigrants that fled communist countries gave Trump the win. Looking at the map pretty much only areas of blue were the large cities. I am happy common sense prevailed to save our country.. Also Trump donates his salary back-he does Not line his pockets with money during his Presidency as so many have done in the past.   Trump loves America and doesn't need the money-too many in the past get richer being President.

  Before Obama,  Americans came together after Presidential elections  I hope we can again and be one nation. Why does anyone want an open border for the world to come in unvetted??  Right now they are pouring in-none of us are safe with this going on.  Not fair to all of those that came in legally and went through  the long process to become Americans. Biden is using our Social Security and Medicare to pay these non Americans.

and Wow I saw last night that Harris copied Hillary's speech pretty much word for word in the beginning of it.. She has plagiarized in the past as well.

  I am deciding if I want to keep my blog or not, I have enjoyed sharing my crafts etc in the past but not sure about going forward  Perhaps a blog break just not sure yet.  I need to decide what to do about a camera-as I don't have a working camera any more.  

  Update: I do enjoy my blog and visiting friends, so I will be keeping my blog going forward. I just ordered a digital camera from online so hopefully this will work out well  if not I will send it back and try again

  Have a good Friday Hugs from the Lake

Duck in the Smoker

   We set up the duck I bought in the smoker early yesterday morning.  It was in the salt-brown sugar-pickling spice brine for several days.

  Some how we misplaced the racks that go into the smoker-have no idea where they could have gone-and I looked everywhere I could think of---so Larry turned a foil pan into a rack of sorts.

   Since I was up late last night I continued to add the smoking chips every 4-5 hours. We are using cherry and also Jack Daniels chips made from aged barrels

  I flipped the duck over early this morning.  Larry set up his cell phone so I could take a photo to share

This will need to go all day and perhaps tonight as well. I forgot that the smoking also really shrinks the meat-smells good

Gob Bless the USA (Thoughts Added to this Post)

 One Nation Under God 

   Americans of all races and religions have spoken and taken our country back at the polls. 

     Now is the time to unite as Americans and together bring back our country to it's former Glory.

   

  

When I was much younger (now 75) after an election we were all united as a country and with each other being fellow Americans.

   In my opinion this all changed with President Obama 

Since that time the far left ideology and lies by the media wants to change us to a far left socialist country. 

  When I was watching the stats from the election last night-the majority of voters that saved our great country were legal immigrants that became citizens because they fled a socialist-communist country to be free. Also the rural vote with farmers and the Amish came in to vote to save our Republic. 

Found this photo on facebook

  I saw today where a huge crowd of Harris supporters waited for hours and hours for Harris to appear-She never showed up-she didn't care enough. I feel for those Americans with their disappointment and loss. 

 All Americans are welcome in to the common sense Republican party. 

Over Reach of the Feds in New York

 This is another example of over reach by the present party in power right now.  I am sharing this story as it is heart wrenching and un excusable 

   This was a beloved squirrel that made  millions of followers happy and entertained. This couple rehabs and helps animals and "Peanut" was happier indoors as a pet then being turned back into the wild.  He was a family fur friend for 7 years.        

   A few day ago the Feds showed up and treated them like criminals or drug dealers and  took Peanuts and a raccoon and murdered them  Can you even imagine having this happen to You??    

  Our country is pretty evil right now but tomorrow is our Liberation Day  

Here is an article from a newspaper

And below is a video about this

 

  I do allow comments-but if they are full of hatred for our country they will not be published  

    I try not to publish too much politics as the majority of my online friends are far left liberal-which in the past was never an issue, so why is this even an issue now???  Those of us that are American citizens-we are Americans and One nation under God. Period and we need to get back to loving each other again. (end of rant)

Welcome November-Updated

 Wow we are closing in on the end of this year with holidays and soon to welcome in a new year-Wow is right Smiles

    This has been a long year for me being Larry's caregiver since October 2023 but it has also gone fast too.  I have just three more blocks on the bag handles to finish slow stitching-and then I can hand sew the bag together to see how it looks. I am looking forward to the finish to see how this will turn out.

  Today we will be much cooler-in the low '60's F We had gotten spoiled with a warm October Most of the leaves are down now do to a lot of windy days and we did get one night of hard rain this week.

  On a sad note:  it is good that I am still approving comments as I have been getting hate comments now for a few weeks-so if that person is reading this --your comments will Not be published-and I don't read them in their entirety   No reason for this hatred and you hide behind anonymous .  I am thinking this person is not reading my blog posts but decided to choose me for their hate speech-I needed to let this be known was happening.

  Oh and I wanted to also share that I just set up a duck-grown in the USA with nothing added-in a brine this morning-after this it will go into the smoker. Larry enjoys doing that, he'll need to show me how to work the smoker though. 

   The last few whole chickens and turkeys I have purchased are not worth eating any more unless you can find a local farmer that raises them.  I looked at the ingredients in the turkeys recently and the store brand had two lines of chemicals added, and the whole chickens are really horrible eats these days as well. This duck I found at Wal mart was raised in the USA nothing added but a low salt water solution. It looked really good out of the bag. .So now it is in the brine of water, canning salt, pickling spice, and organic brown sugar.  Will keep you posted how this turned out. 

   Welcome November Everyone

Last Day of October

 Wow another month that flew by

God Bless America

Brown Bag Cookie Molds

 Are any of you that collect baking items--Are you  familiar with Brown Bag Cookie Molds?

   Back in the late '80s when we had our wholesale/retail Bird business we had a booth in Chicago at a trade show.

  When I was walking around I spotted this company and fell in love. This was a wholesale trade show-so all the prices reflected that. Of course I went crazy and bought lots of different molds at wholesale prices. These are pottery molds that make large cookies, they also had several small square or round shortbread molds.  Each mold was inserted into a brown bag-thus the name-Brown Bag Cookie Molds.  Over the years I bought several more pieces.

  I love all things kitchen items and I have a pretty huge collection of molds, cutters, stamps for cookies.

Anyways the instructions were not to bake in the molds. but form the cookie in the mold and then take out and bake. I didn't always have great success-especially with a gluten free dough.

 I dug out a Halloween shortbread mold and was looking for a recipe.  I found this awesome video and she bakes in the molds. Wow game changer haha. 

Here is the video sorry the video showed up but then when I posted said not available-strange.

   Here is the link 

   In the video you can see the molds. I looked online-Ebay and Etsy- and molds from this company are now considered vintage-so I guess I am more vintage than I thought-haha

  I looked online for a photo of my Halloween mold but couldn't find one-so here is a photo of mine

We finally got rain last night-lots of it with wind lightening and thunder. It  has been close to two months I think with no rain here.

Happy Friday and weekend

Good Morning

  We have had such a beautiful October month so far. Monday we were almost 90 degrees F. Wow and the leaves are beginning to fall now. We will start cooling back down rest of this week.

  I did get the last of this year's grass cutting done-what a relief that is. The guys have gotten the water projects fixed-sadly we got ripped off with the lift-wires were burned off or broken. Of course when Larry contacted the seller no reply. Larry is working on figuring it out. Since the lift goes up ad down it is a complicated motor-and expensive if he could fine one.

  Larry starts back on physical therapy this week-hoping that helps him get stronger. He still has one leg that will just go out on him with no notice..

 My slow stitched first bag is getting closer to having the stitching finished. In another day or two  I will be sewing the other panel to it and completing the first bag. Enjoying this project, and I think it will go faster going forward.

and----- today is a big one for me-I turn 75 today-haven't wrapped my head around this yet-smiles.

   I did bake up a cheesecake last night to celebrate both of our October birthdays. This time I swirled in blueberry preserves-it baked up pretty.. I always seem to end up with a big crack on top of my cheesecakes.

  Enjoy the last of these autumn days

Gorgeous Day Today

 I had a busy day today. Had to go to town this morning for a part for our water, cut some grass, and spent an hour pulling that mint that totally took over my perennial garden. Turned out the abundance of water was coming from the well-after fixing everything else about the too much water issue--  it was the well.

   So the mint took over everything and pretty much choked out most all of my perennial plants that I had started from seed. Such a bummer for me.  I did find our shallots-the last of what Larry's Grandpa brought back from Israel-so happy we didn't lose those.

    This photo you can see the shallots, and a couple of perennials on either side that I don't know what they are

The green spot in the middle is more mint to get pulled out

This is the big pile of pulled mint

I always liked this area-the big copper pot on top, old tree stump and I had planted a lot of perennials in this area. . Those red stalks are probably poke weed that needs to come out

Surprise found this blooming plant that has been hidden with tall weeds

a couple little blooms that came up from fallen seed of last years' plants

Larry bought this used lift to help get him up to the top-hoping it works. We paid one of our workers to drive to get it for us-if it works I am thinking I can put heavy groceries in this instead of getting it all down the steps

Happy new week

Is it Really Friday Already?? Slow Stich Update

    We woke up with a bit warmer weather this morning, and full sunshine-Nice. I may try to get some outdoor work done this afternoon. This morning I thought I would make us lasagna for our main meal at 2 PM -something I have not made in a long time

  I did bake us up fall cut out cookies-everyone loved them-we had our friend and the two workers that have been helping us here yesterday-along with one of their Moms, so I shared the wheat cookies They were a big "hit" with their coffees

  This photo is of  my gluten free cookies.  I was happy with the frosting as it hardened up in a couple hours. I used butter, milk, vanilla extract, meringue powder and half confectionary sugar and half keto powdered sweetener-turned out really well.  So the frosting was half the sugar as were the cookies I made for the wheat version-half organic sugar and half Splenda. I wanted to cut the sugar a bit

Note: All photos will enlarge for better viewing-just click on them

I did get more stiches done. This is going well, and I think each bag will stitch up a little faster now This orange hand  dye is now all stitched. I may consider stitching across this-not sure yet

Last night I stitched this section. 

   This piece was dyed with Pebeco sun dyes that I had added coarse salt to as it dried in the sun. That was a fun sun dye day with a neighbor that had never hand dyed before. The sun dyes are fun as you can put leaves or a flat object on top and after being in the sun it will leave the impression on to the fabric I made different things with those pieces already.  

  I have not removed the chalk lines yet-so that is what the white is. I went to my embroidery thread stash and found one that blends into the fabric

 The pretty clear yellow piece was hand dyed with mimosa leaves. In my opinion it gives the most lovely yellows from natural materials.  The goldenrod is a bit tricky or at least it was for me-it took me three seasons to realize as soon as you see yellow-must pull it out of the dye bath-or it will turn cloudy and a bit brown instead of yellow.

   At the woods house we had a beautiful mimosa tree-so I had looked up to see if it would dye or not. Once the tree is in bloom with their pretty flowers-that's when to collect the leaves and dry them for future dye.  Once dry-I pulled off those tiny leaves into a paper bag-as you do not want the stems in the dye.

Happy Friday and weekend 

    Any plans for the weekend?? We will have beautiful weather here at the lake

My Slow Stitch Progress & Mail Surprise

 Good morning Sunday,

  I have been slow stitching on my first bag, and am enjoying it so far. Nothing planned out til I start on a new block of my hand dyed fabrics.

   Some of the threads I am using are hand dyed variegated DNC embroidery threads that were a gift from one of my slow mail friends. I really like them a lot, so found out who the artist was and just ordered her Rockies collection.

  I finished that blue block first and last couple of days working on the rust dyed piece.

     I decided I did not want to stitch over the heavier rust dyed areas so stitching around those.

Photos will enlarge for better viewing

  There are some white chalk lines still showing up on the blue block

I really like these pins-they stay in place while handling the fabric when stitching. The straight pins would be coming out and stabbing me as well haha. These are special safety pins as they don't have that big curl on the bottom which would damage the fabrics-these lay flat and if that rounded end goes into the fabric-not an issue.

ooops I should have turned the photos on the next two as that will be the direction on the finished bag

This one below is the variegated hand dyed thread, as is the threads in the blue dyed block  I had started stitching this first to see how the threads would look on the orange-I like it-then decided I needed to stitch up the rust dyed block below it first

I just love getting slow mail and surprises in my mailbox-don't your??

  This handmade card is from Deb--I love it!!  I am enjoying it on the mantel with my gnomes

Update  around 1 pm  just finished the rust dyed block-  am happy with it