Happy First Day of April & Catch Up

   Wow the wind outdoors is total craziness. I was hoping to get back out and weed eat the grass along the lake front but too cold and very very strong winds out there. The sun is shining though-smiles.

  April Fool's day was my farmer Grandpa's birthday. So I have always thought of him on this day. I remember when I was in college I had written my parents a crazy letter and at the end I wrote April Fools-they were not happy haha. 

  There are some major storms going through the country again this week. Here in Missouri looks like floods will occur down by the rivers as we have 4-5 days of rain and storms. I am hoping you on the east coast will not see even more winter. I know my friend in Montana living on her homestead at the base of a mountain range is getting a rough winter with snow still coming down this year.

  I am mentally preparing myself for a very hot summer-which usually follows after a rough winter here in Missouri.

 I started hand stitching the second bag together today. I am doing it a bit different from the instructions that I followed for my first bag. That had left too much open after turned to stitch closed-including inserting the lining fabric. I just left the big curve open on top of bag this time.  Once this one is finished I will mail off the first bag to my slow mail friend in New York. I want to keep one finished bag for reference when I stitch up the next one.

  The photo to the lower right side shows a seam begun to get stitched.

 

 I have been planting a few more seeds in bottles this week. Chives, garlic chives, and from a very old seed stash poppies-which are tricky and what I think is nasturtiums  

  I found a cool site that you can identify seed pods, seeds and seedlings from here  I was surprised that the seeds in question-I forgot to mark a bunch of different seeds-seem to be nasturtiums but it makes sense to me as I used to plant these a lot-they are an edible flower too.

  With all this rain coming in I will probably bring my bottles indoors. The bee balm and snapdragons have popped up now I don't want them to get too water logged.

   I still have lavender seeds coming in the mail. I am not buying any plants at the nursery going forward. Two years ago I spent way too much money, especially on the nicer and larger petunias that I love for my big pots-but these don't do well during a very hot summer here in Missouri. I have never tried growing petunias from seed-any of you??

  After the cold period in the refrigerator I will have echinacea seeds to start and later the blue bells.

Before Larry's accident he mounded up some black dirt down by the lake front near our neighbor to the right. Once I get the weeds out of that I will plant some ornamental grass. Larry thought this might bring in some nesting ducks.

  I found plugs for this one on Ebay and they should arrive this week  I will plant these in a big pot for now when they come in this week This is variegated silver ornamental grass   I would like to put a bench down in this area. If I do the neighbors may use it-but that would be ok.

I haven't made an angel food cake in a very long time. I usually make two cakes-a wheat cake and a gluten free cake. Yesterday I was just up to making one cake so I baked up the gluten free cake-a little tricky with no gluten but it turned out really good. Served with fresh strawberries.

  I also made us a delicious beef soup yesterday. I don't go by a recipe I just (wing it) haha I start with a carton of no salt beef stock, and this time I added sliced thin leeks, potatoes, a dried veggie mix for soups. Then when those ingredients were cooked added a can of organic no salt three beans, fresh thin sliced cabbage, fresh mushrooms sliced-then at the end a can of usa  beef.

Today I am baking up cornbread to go with the left over soup. I have shared this recipe in the past-only uses corn meal no added white flour-sooo good. If you search there should be a link to the recipe here on my blog.

  Happy Fools Day and Happy April-Spring is nearing.

Happy New Week-BlueBells and Slow Stitches

  Happy new week everyone and Happy St Patrick's Day if you celebrate. 

  We are back to warm weather today and tomorrow before the next big storm comes through with lower temperatures.  We are safe here at the lake but many areas in Missouri were hit hard with tornadoes and a foot deep of hail-wow that's a lot.  A couple cities were hit with major damages not all that far from us so am very thankful.  This same storm is on it's way to the east coast now so hoping all of you will be safe.

  This is the first year in over 40 years maybe close to 50 years when I think about it-that I didn't pick up a corn beef and cabbage to boil up. We love the meal and I always buy rye bread for my husband to make reuben sandwiches the next day.  When I went food shopping a couple weeks ago the stores had very small packages with a high price tags so I passed on it. I need to go food shopping this week so will see what is available.

  I have been buying a few flower seeds-will use them to fill up my big tubs mostly. Today I was looking at the perennial bluebells  I found these on Ebay  -- English bluebell seeds-hyacinthoides non scripta native englishe bluebell    Reading through the listings these are the more pure form of seed others are crossed with another seed.  One of those seeds you need to chill them first or they won't germinate.  Here are the photos from his site-   These need mostly sun and will fill an area so I like that-and Larry prefers I plant mostly perennials.

  Do you have these or have you grown them?? They look beautiful

Over the weekend I set up the water bottle "greenhouses" just a few so far. Larry loves snapdragons so I bought a package of those. I lost my bee balm plants so started those seeds and also blue salvia.

  I lost my echinacea plants too with that water issue from the well last year, so I also ordered those seeds-I find Ebay is a good source for seeds.

  I am making progress on my second slow stitch bag. I am almost finished with the last large piece on the one side of the bag and then just the handles to stitch-and I can work on putting another bag together. I am still enjoying this project very much. My stitches are not all even for sure but I am not going to concern myself with that.

I like how the stiches came out on the mimosa dyed yellow-click to enlarge for better viewing If you find them there are several square boxes within the stitches

Happy Monday and have a good week

More Winter & Slow Stitching

  I am thinking many of us are just sooooo ready for Spring. We woke up this morning to very very very strong winds with a little snow. The winds are to last all day today-I do not like listening to howling winds. I may just close up the blinds on the big windows today. We were supposed to get this last night but it arrived early this morning instead.

  Do you get into a slump and no longer have ideas as to what to make for your main meal? I have been going through that lately-just don't know what to make for something different.  We finished up the cake yesterday so may just bake some cookies today-get my mind off those winds.

 Have made more progress on my second slow stitch bag (photos will enlarge for better viewing just click on them)

This yellow was dyed with mimosa leaves. I stitched a few circles and squares and now filling in the rest-I should have used a bit darker yellow for those to stand out a bit more. I wanted this to stay soft with this natural dyed yellow. Hope to finish this area today or tomorrow

 

A peak out the window

Enjoy your day

Happy Weekend-Super Bowl Food & Slow Stitching Site

Good Morning and Happy Weekend Friends,

  Those of you that watch the Super Bowl-do you go to a party to watch the game and eat good foods, or stay home?   My husband is the "football Widow" here in my home-smiles.  I have always enjoyed watching sports-not golf or soccer though. My Mom only watched golf which I always thought was interesting being brought up on the farm with a woodstove and no electricity in the home. She first experienced electricity and more accessible running water when she went to college.

  I don't go overboard with the food but I did pick up salsa,  pico de gallo and corn chips, and I am making peperoncini beef sandwiches tomorrow.  I learned about this sandwich from a friend years ago that came down to visit us from Wisconsin one weekend and brought fixings for meals.  I have not made this in years so thinking Larry will love it. It has been over a year since I have eaten snack foods-so a treat for sure. 

   I am one of those people that prefer eating snack foods over real meals    haha

Here is a photo I found online from here

  When I went to the local grocery store I didn't like any of the buns they had. I did find a gluten free bun for me though. So I bought a whole grain thick bread instead-I will need to toast if first for this sandwich. I do have some quality hot dog buns in the freezer-I may just use those instead for Larry's sandwich

  I baked us a cheesecake this week-one of Larry's favorite desserts-It turned out really good.

I always keep a lot of eggs in the frig-just so I have them on hand when I want to bake. The local grocery store had mostly empty egg cases, but they did have a decent assortment to choose from I only buy brown eggs. I was so happy to find a new brand of eggs what were from local farmers from Missouri in cardboard containers-that I prefer and large brown eggs and were free range. The price was $6.00 not too bad for these eggs.  

  

  The other day I searched on the You Tube channel for Slow stitching tutorials. I found  Jo Mo link here to her channel    

     I am enjoying streaming tv service as I add the free app You Tube and all my subscriptions that I follow now are on my big screen tv to watch-much nicer.

 The Jo Mo site has so many different ideas and little projects to try. She has beginner as well. Here is  a  too fun one-a scroll-I love this idea-and in one of her scroll tutorials she uses a wooden plain clothes pin to close it.. This looks like a fun project after my bags project is completed-or perhaps mid way for a break from the bags.  Her site will give  me stitching ideas for my bags too.

Happy Weekend and if you watch-Enjoy Super Bowl Sunday

I made a Delicious Soup & Slow Stitching

Happy first day of February-I am so pleased to have January in the past now-what a rough month that was for us.

   It has been foggy here with the change in temperatures-lake water colder than the air right now. It does make for pretty views. Today is cooler than they said it would be, but it did make it up to 50 degrees F Will not complain about that at all. Much warmer tomorrow.

  Started cleaning house this morning-it needs it. Only two days left of the steroids-thank goodness 

 I decided to make up a chicken soup today. I found a large container in the freezer of my own chicken stock along with lots of the white meat. Last fall when I was stocking up on some foods I picked up a new to me dried soup mix. Found it on Vitacost's online site. It is by Frontier, was gluten free, and no added anything like salt etc.  This was sooo delicious. As the dried veggies came to life in the stock there were nice slices of carrots-that tasted like they came right out of the garden, lots of herbs and rice etc. The dried corn was so delicious too-sweet and tender. At that time I also picked up their bean soup mix to try as well.

                                                     

 As this cooked up the broth was really thick so I added in salt free chicken stock in addition to what I had of my own.  I added in frozen peas and lots of chicken. This was a delicious hearty soup. It made a big pot so may freeze some of it so we don't get tired of it.

  I have started working on the second slow stitch bag-I am just making it up as I sew  along. Am liking it so far I have lots of embroidery threads in my stash-I inherited some from both of my Grandmas, my Mom, even some from my late sister's stash. I have picked up a few variegated colors recently Also friend Deb in Texas shared some of her threads with me as well. 

(oops ignore the time stamps-they don't seem to show up til I post them)

This fabric that I began stitching on first is the sun dyed piece from Pebeco sun dyes along with coarse salt thrown on top as it dries in the sun.

I have picked up a few templates. Each set goes from very small to large. I wish I knew about these when I was quilting.  Here is one of the sets-I bought a couple different shapes

Photo is from Amazon. these are packaged into a thick plastic bag with zipper, all pieces on a ring and includes a little bear charm I love this product

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. We have our workers coming to tomorrow to help Larry get the lift's motor figured out to work right.

A Bit Warmer-Shoveling and Future Bags

  Good morning Sunday,

  No Sunshine today which I could use for working the ice up, but we will be mid 30's up to low 40's. Hoping I can get a path up the hill-we will see how this goes today. My legs are a little shaky this morning after working on those steps. Thinking I will skip the top three steps if they don't clear easily and get on with a path to the top and clear where my car parks.

 I am loving my finished bag-so I am excited to be going on to the next one. I started pinning it yesterday-this room has no heat ducts so it gets pretty cold. I bought the little heater for this room when we get really cold, but Larry needed it more when the heat was not working. No issues so far thinking it is fixed right now.

  Before Larry's accident (October 2023) I had dug out all of my hand dyed fabrics and the larger pieces I cut for the linings. I think I cut for 9 or 10 bags. I also had yardage of good quality heavier muslin cotton as the foundation for the hand dyed layout. My plan is to mail out to my slow mail friends but I will have extra bags-if you would like one please contact me through the contact form on my page here. This was a project to use my hand dyes in a project and then share with my online friends.  I will make a list in order as I receive them. 

  I am off to eat something, and then get to work outdoors

Happy Sunday

New Furnace Woes and Slow Stitching Bag Finish--Bag Photo Update

   We were still having issues with our new furnace. Thursday morning I thought they figured out all of the issues, but early evening yesterday it was acting up again. Blowing cold air, fan not turning off. Then when the fan finally stopped the heat came on but was too warm.  So I had called right away and the repair person was to be here around 6:30 pm but came around 7:30 pm.  He checked all the wiring again, decided it must be the thermostat we have was not compatible. He said I really do not know why they didn't send you a new one with the heating unit.  He had one in his truck-that seems to have fixed things-hoping for sure now.  He did get his truck stuck up on top of the hill-right where the hill drops off-very steep there and he would have crashed into the house and more.   So it took him a bit to get himself dug out. This is a rough winter here so far. 

  I did manage to get a couple of the steps cleared of ice yesterday when we warmed up to the low 30's for just a couple of hours. The ice is so thick with the added 4 inches of snow. So I cleared snow and then put salt on the ice and after an hour or so,  was able to clear three steps. This afternoon we are to reach 40's F so I got to get us cleared out today-as the temps are dropping again tomorrow. I want to get my car back on Monday. So far our road still has not been plowed and the rural road to here is not real good either. I know main roads have priority first.

  Soooo I have been pushing to get my first bag to the finish line. I did that last night. The outside of the bag is thicker than the lining with the layers of fabrics and stitches so the edges were not laying flat nice even after the ironing with steam. I decided to stitch a blanket stitch around the outside of the straps and then just a running stitch around the inside edges.  I am pleased with the finish.

  I began laying out the next bag last night and early this morning I finished the layout. It is ready to press and pin.

The next layout. This room is a bit dark so sorry not a great photo  The yellow piece in front with the white is not that bright as it shows up here. The little leaf cut out is one of my eco printed leaves.

   I will share a better photo once it is all pinned and I can take it into a room with more light.

  This is such a good way for me to use up my hand dyed fabrics into something useful to share as gifts. There are only two pieces in this layout that were gifted to me from a friend. That yellow and white piece-which is a light weight denim, and the strap on top of photo to the right-that blue piece was part of my gifted hand dyes.

Have a good weekend and hoping this winter is not too bad for any of you

Update: after looking at the layout photo above I decided I did not like that bright yellow piece. So I swapped it out for a more subtle piece. This one I had dyed with Pebeco sun paints and added allot of salt on top. These lay in the sun til dry to set the dye process-that was fun. I like this piece much better in this.

   When I was doing journal pages I always noticed something I didn't like or needed to be fixed after I took a photo. Same happened here. Wonder why that is?  Thoughts??

this is how this little bag closes-kinda clever

Slow Stitching

   Happy weekend,

Friday we  were fogged in til noon-that was unusual-usually it will burn off in a few hours. The weekend has been very cloudy and overcast but pretty warm for end of December. There are some wicked storms coming in over the US next month though. The warmer weather has brought in the fisherman this weekend-perfect weather for it.

  I am not a movie watcher usually, but the last couple of evenings I found really really good movies on the You Tube app for the tv. One I had not seen before. I am still amazed at the better choices  over what Directv streaming offers in movies-so glad I saved money and went with the free apps for movies. Last night Larry and I watched Popeye cartoons-a blast from the past haha.

  I am finally feeling a bit more calm and ready to get into crafts again.  I had started hand stitching my first little bag together and then had stopped to bake up a few Christmas goodies.  I picked it up today to work on. I almost thought I messed up but I didn't. These little bags have a lining so am figuring out how this goes together.  I used a heavier quality cotton muslin for the backing of the stitches-will give the bag more body and stabilize the hand stitches I am thinking. I am anxious to get this first one all figured out so I can go on to the next.  (Ignore the time stamp as I need to figure out how to get rid of that. It seems to only show up in the photos when I post it-strange)

  I decided to stitch a back stitch for a stronger seam

 Most instructors do not use knots to end with, but being this will be a bag I thought knots will keep everything more secure and not work their way out. I haven't seen anything yet that looks all that secure to me..

Any plans for New Years Eve?  I will be making us a shrimp boil-I will be staying up to watch the celebrations on the tv-I always do-looks like better hosting of shows this time

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

Slow Stitch Project-Ready to Go

   Good afternoon,  Today my allergies got the better of me, so I watched more videos from the slow stitch site I shared yesterday   I love listening to her and have learned a lot so far. I was working on the wolf embroidery panel at the same time. This second panel is almost finished.

  While watching her tutorial on how to make a fabric bag with slow stitches---- Wow it just all came together for me in my mind, on that project I started to put together almost 2 years ago now. 

  Remember when I shared a Sashiko book with a pattern for a little bag?  I had cut out probably enough for 10 bags from my hand dyed fabrics---that was kinda crazy to do, but  I remember now I decided it was time to get my hand dyes out of their bags and use and share them. My plan was to gift these to my slow mail friends. I have not kept up with my slow mail writing either this past year-so will see how that goes going forward. I do love mail in my mailbox, and I enjoy writing the letters too.

  So watching one of her videos, I remembered I had already laid out a pattern of my hand dyes for one of the bags-just had not decided how to stitch it all together so it would be a cohesive piece of fabric Inside, the bags will have one full cut piece of one of my hand dyes.

     This afternoon, I dug everything out, and looking at this piece now,  I will swap out a couple of the fabrics, but watching the video I now know how to slow stitch this.

  Back then. I was looking at Sashiko stitch patterns to use, but I am going to do this piece all over in a running stitch, and then perhaps add Sashiko patterns in some areas-I will see how this goes. Stitching like the fiber artist has shared-this will be a more durable bag.

  That carpenter's table I really wanted to bring home-Larry still thinks I was crazy-but it gives me a long narrow table now to work on and this being in my computer-weaving -storage room it is not in the way either.

This is a bag full of my hand dyes, rust dyes, and some gift hand dyes from my friend Mary

My Mom was a master seamstress, and loved making bags of all sorts. This is one of hers that I have full of Sashiko threads and other threads plus an assortment of Japanese needles for hand sewing. My Mom liked this little bag for her purse, she made them for all the different seasons. She included several zippered pockets too.

This is another bag my Mom made-using vintage buttons. she kept this one in her car and it holds an umbrella in the back as well  I use it now for sewing projects.

 It does feel good to have a plan haha  This project has been on my mind for awhile too.

    I think the rain has stopped for now, we had sunshine this afternoon, so hoping I can finish up the grass cutting in the next day or two.

  Enjoy the rest of your week!

Good Morning & Life's This and That

  Autumn has arrived here for sure this week-cooler weather, a little rain, more water fowl on the lake-loving it. The oaks are dropping their leaves and their acorns. Still not much in fall colors though.

  Last week Thursday was our 6 month appointment with our family doctor. Larry's suburban has not been driven for months-our friend helped us get and put in a new battery, I washed up all the windows, and our friend drove us. I love the suburban-has such a nice ride but it is just too big for me so I haven't tried driving it.  The doctor's office had wheel chairs there-so the appt went pretty smooth.  I was happy our doctor offered to request more physical therapy at home. Larry was due to re apply for that a month ago. Have not heard from them as of yet. For some reason this office does not have the shots-so I need to get Larry into the drug store near us for the flu shot and that new one for seniors with the three letters. I had talked with them when I got my last shingles shot if they could give Larry the shots in his car do to their steps-and they said they would.

   Yesterday I got my renewed drivers license in about 15 minutes. It was raining all morning so not many people there. No matter what I do my photo is always so horrible on my license-ugh. Oh well I am good now for another 4 years.  Close by I had  my dentist appt. After that I needed a couple fresh items from Wal mart so I drove there and also got my flu shot there.  This Wal mart is not a super Wal mart but a much smaller one. This summer they did a redo to add more merchandise. To achieve that, they made all the aisles smaller, they also added a deli. They had the space for a deli but never used it. They have some interesting things there now. They also upgraded the produce-more local and organic produce which I like. I found huge mangos so had to bring two home with me. My preferred fruits are berries and those are now way too expensive to buy fresh.

  It rained lightly most of the day yesterday-this area really needed the rain. More rain today too.

For those of you that enjoy slow stitching- I found someone I really enjoy watching and learning new things on her You Tube channel-k3n clothtales   She is doing a series right now that she is adding to her cloth journal-I will start from the beginning now as she is up to week 39.  Listening to her is like being right there with her as she talks about her cat etc while creating a block and slow stitching. I think she lives in England and is a fiber artist that displays her work. I originally found here on Instagram here

  I find a lot of inspiration for my crafts on Instagram-many artists and craftsman there, just have to sift through things there and put in topics you are interested in. 

  In a couple weeks it will be one year since Larry's bad fall from the stone wall. I have been an emotional wreck most of this year, and not able to concentrate on my letter writing or my crafts. I am working on getting back to "normal" again.

  Wal mart had big bags of fresh green beans that looked really nice and were fresh-they snapped-so will be blanching and freezing those this morning. I am having issues with my directv streaming on my tv-so need to get "in the mood" to contact them this week. I don't use cell phones so couldn't find their text on Larry's phone-ugh. They connect with you through the text somehow so they can see your tv and what is going on.  The nice thing about streaming is that I can watch any of my shows on the computer-so I did that last night.

  I have rambled on enough already-Have an awesome day!

  

Update: Just finished steam blanching the green beans. Really surprised how nice these were coming from a Wal mart store. We have been married over 40 years now and Larry did a lot of Japanese cooking way back when we first got together. He had a very large steamer he would use for different dishes. I also used it for steam blanching lots of fresh veggies for the freezer. On one of our garage sale shopping trips  I found this matching small steamer which I use for small batches.  I prefer the steam blanching over the veggies in the boiling water to prepare for the freezer.  I steamed for 4 minutes and dropped into ice water to cool fast  Then freeze.

These come with two trays but I use one at a time for blanching That way the veggies are just above the boiling water. 

Below-green beans now ready to bag up and into the freezer

Books & a Journal Page Just for Fun

   Hi Everyone, Yesterday morning (Monday) began our string of extreme hot and humid days here in the Ozarks. It's close to 80 f degrees already by 6-7 am so just not healthy for either of us to be working outdoors.

  I got out my watercolors and tried again for a mountain scene in the back with a meadow in the front. I made the mistake of adding in a wide path with rocks that just really ruined my painting.  I used my black walnut ink for the mountains-and I loved it-will work with that again for sure. I need to remind myself all the time that I Must let it dry first before I can move on.

  So this morning instead of tossing the whole piece in the trash, I cut out what I liked and made a mixed media journal page with it and stamped on my only fish-I need to look for a smaller fish stamp.

  I decided to add on the opposite page a few other components of my painting to remind me about using the black walnut ink. The back of this journal page is a sheet of textured paper.

These rocks are not quite the right shape, will be working on that I did like my sky this time, I stamped the fish on a piece of the sky

 I am not going to share this one on AJJ, I mostly put a page together because I love those black walnut ink mountains.

  With being "stuck" in the house all day I got out some books that I bought over a year ago and had gotten side tracked with other books to read.

   I enjoy the 1700's-1800's period of time in our country. When I had finished reading a book about the Oregon Trail-a modern day adventure, I started looking for a few other books. This 3 book series includes actual letters written that were sent back home or diary entries. Before each actual writing the editors give us the history of the person and time period.  I have finished the first book and started on the second. This was a real eye opener for me of what really happened on the trail to Oregon or California. Hadn't realized all the deaths that occurred so many babies and young children lost their lives. Also the living conditions one doesn't think about during bad storms etc. they had to deal with. At the close of the first book one of the daughters later married John Muir. I recommend these if you are interested in this history.

In one of my last posts I mentioned sashiko and boro slow stitching.  I got two books in last week.

  If interested in the history (rural Japan mending clothing)  and how to-I highly recommend this one. I had to search online a bit to find a price I would pay.  This book really covers everything about this subject. I knew this was for mending but hadn't realized the history that was involved-the book is worth reading for that alone.

  The two authors go into detail about the supplies and how to's with projects at the end of book

This next book I just got in yesterday. There are quite a few books out on this subject. This one got really good reviews, the bad reviews-the readers just didn't "get it" haha.  I haven't started reading it yet but looking through it I love it already-lots of photos.  This is another one I needed to search around for a lower price-I ended up winning with a low bid and free shipping on Ebay.

  Years ago when I was much younger I would do allot of mending with patches on my jeans-I wish this book would have been available back then

  I have a cotton piece of fabric that was a skirt that I had already taken off the waistband and opened up all the seems.  It was a patchwork of India type prints or hippy era prints-so I think I will play with the stitches on that piece. I am waiting for marking pens that will wash out of fabrics and a stencil to get started on that. more later.  I am thinking of adding patches to it, turn it into a shawl or pillow, we'll see what happens.

  Another new book I bought as a suggestion from one of my blog and slow mail friends is about Soups. This is a huge book by Reader's Digest. I don't have a soup book so thought I would do a search. The price was all over the place for this one too, but I found one for $4.00 free shipping in like new condition-amazing for a very old book. Scanning through it-everything about soup I think is in here. haha

When I search online to buy books I compare prices on Ebay-which usually has free shipping, and Amazon.  I usually do better on Ebay for most books I am looking for.  I do a search at other online book sites too but they usually have shipping costs added.  I buy books since we live so rural, no close access to a library. I do love books though so it's ok.  

  I got one more book in that was suggested to me from Amazon. It is an historical fiction about Hamilton's wife. I hadn't realized that I have the author's other book in my library to read yet. This got really good reviews, and I have read a few books already on Hamilton.  Again the price was all over the place on this book too, but I found a really nice soft cover (not the cheap mass produced small print paperbacks) for $4.00 free shipping. I am excited to get into this book, but will finish the covered wagon women books first and then dig out the other historical book by this author.

I will close with "diamonds on the lake" a quote from our dear friend Eileen