Wednesday, January 30, 2019

A Little Road Trip

Gentle Friends, over the weekend we headed south to Monterey Bay... 



and a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium...once again it was a super visit and I took some snaps...


... the first thing we headed for was the Jellies exhibit.... they are really beautiful!!  

Moon Jellies, Medusa luna del Pacifico

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 It was great to see the GPO out and moving around, we found out that they had added into this tank a female so there were three octopi moving about in the tank.  usually, they are huddled up in little crevices and quiet... that's how they were last time.


... some super anemone...
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... some clown fish...
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... looking out towards the Bay and the Pacific ocean...
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... I really love this life-sized model of a Gray Whale...
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There you go sports fans, thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,
edgar

Monday, January 28, 2019

A Little Stitchin'

Gentle Friends, still moving along with the 1798 Quaker.... here's a snap...


...sorry about the "q-snap" wrinkles, but it was late but you get the idea...it's a very relaxing piece to work on in the evening.  
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We went on a small road trip over the weekend...more about that later!!  That's about it for today sports fans, thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,
edgar

Thursday, January 24, 2019

A Little Thrifting

Gentle Friends, although I'm still out and about just about every weekend there's not been too much out there to bring home... so I've gathered up the things I've picked up in the past couple of months...

... so starting from the left... a leather bound with gilt decoration, 1921 "Rubaiyat," a 1st edition of "Homebodies" ( I do love the Addam's family!!) a great transferware pitcher with hand decoration and some gilding, a few silver pieces... 3 sterling bowls and an Italian made 800 silver Silent Butler...  these silver pieces were in sorry condition when I got them, basically black and filthy!!.....and wrapping up with a cute pink lusterware creamer, English c.1840.... not too much but, some fun things!!
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That wraps up today post, thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,
edgar

Monday, January 21, 2019

A Little Stitchin' Finish and a Stitchin' Start....

Gentle Friends, well, you all knew this day was fast approaching...and it arrived last week with a finish of my Christmas stitch...here's a snap...

Scandinavian Christmas Sampler 
11/17 - 1/15
40ct Vintage Navy Bean
"Poinsettia" Gloriana Silk

It was a super piece to stitch and was perfect for the season!!  I used just under two skeins of the 12 stranded silk and have quite a bit left over.... so I have my eye on another red monochromatic piece for stitching later in the year.  It was an easy peasy purchase from Jacob's sites.  The chart was easy to follow and I can highly recommend MFE and will be back for another project.
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I also started a new piece...I'm a "one at a time" type stitcher.  I've tried doing the rotation thing, but it just didn't work for me...so here's the new piece...


"1798 Quaker" Goode Huswife
40ct Vintage Pecan Butter 
Recommended NPI Silks

It's a pitiful little start but I'm plugging away and am really enjoying stitching a Quaker piece again.  I haven't stitched a Quaker in a really long time and this chart has been in the "to do" pile for years.  It moves to the top...it moves to the bottom, but it was always in the pile and one of the charts on the back burner to stitch.  I think the reason I never got this piece going was I wasn't sure if I was going to stitch in all the initials.  If your not familiar with this particular Quaker almost every spare space between the main motifs is filled in with dozens of initials...they meant something to the original stitcher, but not so much to me...so do I stitch them in or not??? 
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There you go sports fans, thanks for stopping by do stop again!!
Take care,
edgar

Monday, January 14, 2019

A Little Stitchin'

Gentle Friends,  still moving along on SCS... here's a snaperoo...


... I'm almost at the end of this row and then there is just one more row of large circles and the sampler will be a wrap.   

It's usually at this point I start thinking about picking a new project... so... with that in mind ...yesterday I pulled a bunch of things from my "I'm gonna stitch this before I die pile"... and pulled 3 samplers, then I started plowing through my stash notebooks.  I keep the bulk of my stash in 3" ring binders with the charts in clear pages.  It keeps them clean and sorted by either subject or designer.  While looking through a couple of binders I found another great sampler so I've narrowed it down to 4 projects... and before the end of this piece, I'll be able to pull things together and make a start sooner than later...
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There you go sports fans, thanks for stopping by do stop by again!!

Take care,
edgar

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

A Little Christmas Wrap-Up

Gentle Friends, it was a really lovely Christmas, we had a friend up from Monterey again to spend Christmas with us...  starting off the evening with a Chinese dinner for a change then it was off to Mass... which was just beautiful... we got there on the early side so we could do the Caroling thing beforehand... the Choir and congregation sing carols before Mass... then Christmas morning I had made some sausage pinwheels, and we also had some really delicious pumpkin bread, a gift from a dear friend... and we opened up some presents... probably my favourite of the day was one from Rico...


... this great cookie jar of Jack Skelington wearing his Santa hat!!  So now I will go from Oogie Boogie in the Fall to Jack for Christmas!!!  I do love Nightmare before Christmas!!
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Then I had to get started on Christmas dinner...we had a tableful of folks coming so I had some snacks for when they arrive...


... there were deviled eggs, my great Aunt Sue's sausage Balls and Nuts and Bolts!!

... here is the table set and read for dinner...

... Rico made another stupendous arrangement... this sucker lasted until New Years with a little futzing so we had some pretty flowers on the table during the Holidays!!  I forgot to take a snap of dinner.  For dinner we had baked ham, "Luxury" Mashed Potatoes, brocoli with hollandaise sauce some homade pickle and Parker House rolls... nothing hard and what made the potatoes Luxury, the name on the recipe, not my word, was the addition of chives, roated garlic and some cream cheese, they were really tatsy.  It was a pretty basic dinner, but I had asked everyone in advance for some input, my first mistake, and got their opinions, lordy what a can of worms!!... so I tried to please everyone and everyone seemd very happy!!
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One of our guests was very insistent about bringing dessert, so I said whatever he brought that it had to be cake, I always have a Birthday cake on Christmas... it is Jesus' birthday and its something my family has done my whole life... so he brought a delicious Oreo Cake, it was a super light textured cake with a whipped icing, so good and so very diffent than any other kind of cake I ever made.
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Later on during the week, that both Rico and had taken off, we headed over to St Ignatius a lovely church I'm sure I've talked about before.  It's over in the Richmond District on the corner of Parker and Fulton Streets...

... there is a small display of the history of this church... its the fifth incarnation of St Ignatius in the City.  This building was begun in 1912 and dedicated in 1914...

... this is a snap of a snap of the iron skeleton ...
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... the Christmas decorations are always lovely ...



... the Blessed Virgin Chapel... the alter was blessed on the feast of the Assumption in 1924.  The chapel was built and renovated in 1935.  Antonio Dolfi's year 2000 reproduction of the c. 1475 Andrea Della Robbia blue and white glazed terracotta "Annunciation" is above the western side door.  The brass kneeler was added during the 2001 restoration/renovation.

... the side chapel of the Virgin of Guadalupe...

... and I'll wrap up this Post with a shot of the Creche at St Ignatius...  yes, that camel is really small!!
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There you go sports fans, thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,
edgar

Monday, January 7, 2019

A Little More Stitchin'

Gentle Friends, here's a snap of where I am at the moment on SCS...


...just moving along with these three "chickens."
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That's about it for today sports fans, thanks again for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,
edgar

UPDATE:  I had a question about this stitch a couple of weeks ago and forgot to answer it... and now the same question came up again about this... the particulars about this stitch are... I'm stitching it on 40ct Navy Bean, stitching 1 over 2 using "Poinsettia" overdyed silk by Glorianna... I looked through my stash before I started but didn't have enough of any  "good Christmas " red silk on hand so I made a trip over and bought this silk for this piece from Needle in a Haystack, my LNS over in Alameda. 

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

A Little Stitchin'

Gentle Friends, over the Christmas break I got a bit of stitching done... however, the picture I took is a few days old... like 4 or so... here you go, an oldish snaperoo...

... although the photo shows some progress... I am a bit further along than this... I think staying up late watching movies and staying close to home has helped my stitching and this sampler along.  
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That's about it for today sports fans.  I have a Christmas Post to finish up so stay tuned!!  

Take care,
edgar

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

A Happy New Year!!!

Gentle Friends, here's a lovely song so identified with this time of year...
in fact, it's my favourite version!!  
May we all have a wonderful New year!!

Take care,
edgar

It's Spring!!

Gentle Friends, a lovely variation of Vivaldis's first movement of Spring....  bright and cheerful........ ________________ The year mov...