Thrifty Thursday

Gentle Freinds, even with the heat we were able to ride around and find some fun things...

... from the bottom up...  a copy of the Smashing Pumpkins 1995 double album release, "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" a BluRay of "Dinosaur", a 1968 Heritage Press of Oscar Wildes short stories and a super "doggie" tea cosy, I've put one of my "brown betty's" in it to show how it works. 

In case you've forgotten or are unfamiliar with the Smashing Pumpkins here's the music video of "Tonight Tonight" that was released when the album came out....  all those years ago...

... it's got to be one of my all time favourite videos.... probably because of the inspiration from the early silent  film by Georges Melies "Trip to the Moon"....

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There you go sports fans, more great stuff!!  Thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little Bakin'

Gentle Friends, last week Sally, over at "Sally's Baking Addiction," posted what looked to be a super recipe for a lovely Fall cake.  I had all the ingredients on hand so I whipped one up Sunday afternoon... 

... the only changes I made were to use 3 teaspoons of my Pumpkin Spice Blend instead of the called for spices, and I used Bourbon Vanilla in both the cake and icing.... delicious!!!!  Thank you once again, Sally, for a delicious cake!!!!

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We're coming off a 3-day "heat wave" here by the Bay so the temps will drop from the low 80's back to normal in the mid 60's in the next day or so.....  and I think that's about all for today sports fans, thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little Stitchin'

Gentle Friends, still working on Plantation Sampler.... here's a snap of where I left off last night...

...  I finished up the large multi-coloured willow tree... one more tree and then it's on to the house...

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That's about it for today sports fans, thanks for stopping by, do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Beautiful Fall Welcome

Gentle Freinds in honor of the first Day of Fall (yesterday) I wanted to wrap up the week with a little something lovely......  a bit of music that I really enjoy...

...  from the Four Season by Antonio Vivaldi - "FALL" shot in and around Venice - and the 16th century Palazzo Barbarigo on the Grand Canal - it last about 12 minutes, enjoy!!

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That's about it for today sports fans, thanks again for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

Thrifty Thursday

Gentle Friends, it was slim pickins' in the shops over the weekend, but I did find one fun piece...

...  a super bright cut silverplate syrup jug.... here's how I found it, pretty dismal and tarnished... and with quite a bit of dried silver polish in the decoration...

... after a little bit of elbow grease, some running water and out popped a lovely piece of Victorian silver!!  It took a bit of doing to get all the dried polish off but off it came!!

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That's about it for today sports fans, thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgart

A Little Frickin' Chickin'

Gentle Friends, last night a friend was in town for a conference so we took her out to dinner....  we headed over to Buttermilk Southern Kitchen....  you can click HERE for a past review of the restaurant...  here are some snaps from last night...

 ...  Teresa had the fried chicken with two sides, mashed potato's and mac and cheese...

 ... I had fried chicken/biscuits and gravy....

... and Rico had fried chicken with two sides, coleslaw and mashed potato's without gravy (Rico doesn't like gravy... on anything!!)

It was a fun evening and a super dinner... once again Buttermilk was a winner!!

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That's about it for today sports fans!!  Thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little Stitchin'

Gentle Friends, still working on Plantation Sampler...  here's a snap where I left off last night...

...  I've gotten to the trees and some of the sheep.  The floss used for these animals and plants in this area seems to all be sort of on the lighter side, but I guess they'll all stand out quite a bit once all the dark green grass gets stitched in.

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That's about it for today sports fans.  Thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

And now for something cute......

Gentle Friends, our little house guests have gone back home, and I wanted to share a snap of ...

... sweet Tasha.  She loved perching up high on the back of the couch... they were super sweet and our four who hounds miss them... I think...  but we've all settled back into our regular routine and all's well at the homestead!!

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That wraps up the week.  Thanks again for stopping by, do stop again next week for more of the bleating of the Blacksheep!!!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little Thriftin'

Gentle Friends, once again we were out and about Saturday - I was looking for fun stuff and Rico was on his phone...we hit the usual places... and an estate sale where I did find one really great piece...

... this really big, really heavy, bright cut glass bowl/centerpiece.  It's beautifully cut and since it's such thick glass the deep cut work is really sharp and sparkles nicely.  When I picked it up it was pretty dirty and hadn't been cleaned in a long time.  When I got it home, I soaked it in hot soapy water for a while then scrubbed it and rinsed it with ammonia water so now really shines. 

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There you go sports fans, thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little Bakin'

Gentle Friends, I found that I was out of "Pumpkin Pie Spice" and you know I make my own blend....  most blends from the store are mostly just cinnamon and a little nutmeg.... I like to be able to control and tweak it to our taste... so I found a few recipes that were a jumping off point... and now just make my own.  I looked back and in October of 2014 I talked about making PPS and since then I made a few more tweaks.....

Here's about what I use to make my PPS ...

2 Tbls Ground Cinnamon

2 Teas Ground Ginger

1 Teas Ground Allspice

1Teas Ground Clove

1/2 Teas Ground Mace

1/2 Teas Ground Cardamon

and 1/2 to 3/4  Grated Nutmeg seed - 

I tend to use more than less Nutmeg, as I like this spice a lot!!

Now, all those measurements are heaping  and you can adjust more or less as you like, but more times than not I use this in place of just plain cinnamon in recipes.  So, since it is Fall and I had a new little jar of PPS I needed to make something that called for the stuff... and ....

... thought there's nothing better than a good Apple Cake, and my MIL gave me a super recipe a few years ago - you can click HERE for the recipe.

... you can frost the cake, and I have done that, but I do prefer just a dusting of powdered sugar.... delicious!!

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That's about it for today sports fans, thanks for stopping by, do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little Stitchin'

Gentle Friends, I missed yesterday posting the stitching I've gotten done on "Plantation Sampler"... 

so here's a snaperoo...

... I took this shot of the sampler during the day with mostly filtered foggy daylight.  We were overcast all weekend so there was no bright sunlight.  To last weeks "Stitchin' " post the question came up about some of the lighter colours I'm using- for the letters"L" "M" and "N" - the silk colour is "Apricot."  It is very light and does not show very well in a photo.  It's like the big "Z" and the small "a" - that colour is "Sagebrush," another very light colour.  I'm going to just leave them until the end and then I may change out the colours for something a little darker.  Sorry about the wrinkles, but they really show in natural light!!  :)

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That's about it for today sports fans, thanks for stopping by, do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

....be careful out there and have a super rest of the weekend!!!

edgar

A Herd of Hounds

Gentle Friends, over the weekend we had some friends over for dinner and they brought their hounds with them....

... it's amazing how a snick-snak gets every body's attention!!  From L to R  there is Smokie, Tasha, Ducky, Peaches, Whaumpa, Mattie and little Lolly almost out of the snap.  When they first arrived we had about 10 minutes of barking and the usual hound grab-assing, but, eventually they all settled down and it was a super evening.  We wanted to get the dogs together since we are watching them next week for a few days while John and Mike take a short trip to Yosemite.

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That wraps up this short week, thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

Thrifty Thursday

Gentle Friends, even though we did a whole lot of nothing over the weekend, we did make it out thrifting and to a couple of estate sales...  I found some things...

... a nice copy of a great little Christmas book and a nice pair of sterling candlesticks - although made in the 1930's they are 18th-century reproductions... and they cleaned up really well!!

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That's about it for today sports fans, thanks again for stopping by, dos top again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little Framing

Gentle Friends, over the weekend I picked up a couple of pieces I had being framed.  

Here are some snaps... first up...

... I chose a black old-fashioned looking frame for the piece, I liked the way it makes the crows sort of "pop."  This was a fun stitch, as are all the BBD pieces I've ever worked on...  some info I found on an older post about the piece... "Winter Wonderland" by BBD, stitched on a mystery piece of 36ct linen using mostly the called for floss - and between August and October 20014...  the second piece.....

...  this great Christmas alphabet is still one of my favorite pieces I've ever stitched.  I chose a very plain, dark blue frame.  Here is some info about the piece...  "ABC Noel" by Les Ambrodales, stitched on a piece of 36ct LL Vintage Meadow Rue using the recommended DMC, stitched between October and December 2011.  The one major thing I left off is a snowflake charm that came with the chart.  It should be in the space between the L and the J.  The charm is silver and I didn't really care for it, I tried it, and like it better off.

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There you go sports fans... thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little Stitchin'

Gentle Friends, it was a long lazy weekend.... and I did a little stitchin'....here's a snap...

... I've finished up the rose vine and the alphabets... now on to the rest of the body of the piece.

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That's about it for today sports fans.  Thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar