Blacksheep's bit of the Web

Some Super Mail and a Flicker

2012-02-02T06:59:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends I was so happy to read in the comments that the little clip went over with a hoot - and there are so many fans of the show. I really enjoy Downton Abbey and was (still am ) a huge fan of Upstairs Downstairs - although of the same period and feeling they are different stories - one city one country - great acting and great looks about them both!!

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Yesterday the mails brought to super packages - the first one I opened was an Exchange piece from Marie - Creative Thread - she was my partner in the HOE Santa Ornament Exchange. Here is a snap ...

He is a real darling little guy - called "Wee Santa 2004" from Heart in Hand designs. As always it is perfectly stitched and finished and will look so cute on my stitching tree next year!! Thank you so very much Marie!!!! I'll be finishing up mine this weekend and getting it in the mail next week.

The second package has come from so very far and took the long way around the globe as it has taken it over a month to arrive. It is a sweet giftie from a Blogging Buddie from Greece!! It was from Ariadne - Ariadne From Greece - stop by her Blog and wish her a Happy Birthday!! Here is a snap...

She sent me a cute little stitched ornie for my stitching tree, a skein of lovely yellow silk and a bar of delicious Greek Chocolate!! Thank you so much for you thoughtfulness - and thank goodness it has finally arrived!! Isn't that a great stamp!

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The flicker was a one I saw last night - it was from my Netflix Queue and is a newer film - Midnight in Paris - 2011 - starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kurt Fuller and Mimi Kennedy -

I was hesitant to see this film and have avoided it since it first came out for many reasons - here are a few.... I am no fan of Woody Allen films (except "Radio Days - love this film!!), Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdmas' "acting ability" is lacking and so very wooden so often!!

But, what intrigued me about the film finally pushed me to see it... I love the idea of time travel and for Owen Wilson's character to travel back and forth from the present to the 1920's and then back even furthur to the 1890's and forward again - and to meet some of the most famous ex-pats living in Paris between the Wars - like a dream come true!! So, if you can get past Owen and Rachel and go along for the ride you will enjoy it as much as I did last night. It is not a long film at 94 minutes and the visuals are spectacular - Paris has never looked so good!!

That's it for today sports fans. Thanks for stopping by, do come again!

Take care,
edgar

A Hump Day Funny

2012-02-01T06:48:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends I haven't much at all to talk about this morning. I am still stitching away on my exchange pieces - I did put a few stitches into "Tis the Season" but not enough to show as there was very little progress.

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I have been watching and savouring every moment of Season 2 of "Downton Abbey."

I really enjoy Masterpiece Theatre and "Abby" has been great from the beginning. Now, a friend of mine that knows my love of MT and DA sent me a couple of clips from You Tube that had me laughing out loud!! If you are fan and like totally off the wall satire I think you will enjoy this clip of.....

"Uptown Downstairs Abbey"......

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That's about it for this morning. Thanks for stopping by - do come again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Quick Tuesday Post

2012-01-31T06:49:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thanks again for stopping by and for all the great comments on yesterdays post!!

I posted both the "Cabbage Roll" and the "White Chocolate Chip & Cranberry Cookie" recipes over at Blacksheep Bakes. You can click HERE to get there - and check them out. Both of the recipes are pretty straight forward, but if you have any questions please feel free to ask.

I wanted to thank you all for identifying the vegetable I bought on Sunday - a Romanesque Cauliflower. I cooked that sucker up last might - basically cutting it into florets and steaming it - then a pat of butter and serve - it was really very tasty. The mouth feel was very reminiscent of a cauliflower, but the flavour was less strong than either a cauliflower or a broccoli and a bit nutty - I will certainly buy one again - I found a great recipe for roasting one that looks easy that I want to try.

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I stitched quite a bit last night, but on Exchange things, so still no snap.

There you go - a quick post - wham bam! Do stop by again!

Take care,

edgar

Weekend Treats

2012-01-30T06:59:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends your great comments where so nice to read this morning!!! I do appreciate you all and love reading such nice things.

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The weekend unfolded into two sort of lazy "do what I want to" kind of days - I had some "might do" or "could do" plans but instead threw them into the bin and stitched, watched a bunch of flicks and cooked - I did get the vacuum pushed about and a couple of loads of laundry done, ironed and put up - and we did make a trip to the grocery store and farmers market- but none of that really cut into some quality "me time." I basically stitched for both days - but none can I show as all of it is for two upcoming Exchanges.

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So, what can I show you ...

here are some flowers Rico picked up 2 weeks ago - still looking pretty damn good! (This snap was taken on Saturday) He added some vodka and sugar to the water and it really has extended their life.

I got a great present in the mail on Friday - I'm doing a little favour for a sweet Blog Friend and she sent me a "A Present for a Deer Friend" - from "In the Company of Friends." They have some great things I have admired for a long time!!

I opened the box and out popped a lovely little note card and wrapped prezzie (isn't that super paper, I do love toile)...

Inside I found this darling tri-fold needle-keep with two marking pins, two needles and a gorgeous mother of pearl ruler - all of the pieces that "ItCoF's" do are hand made and just so sweet!! At some point I'll show you what I am doing... but not at the moment. It is a bit too soon!! :)

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I did get in the kitchen and rattled some pots and pans.... making....

cabbage rolls - hot and steamy right out of the oven... and....

... some, cranberry/white chocolate chip cookies - I'll get those recipes up in the morning.

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After Mass yesterday we headed out to Trader Joe's and the Mall "Farmer's Market." With it being winter there market was on the small side, but still vibrant... I got some snaperoos...

.. aren't these unusual - they are a hybrid between a cauliflower and broccoli - of course I bought one and will steam that sucker up tonight... how can it be bad being made from two super tasty veggies!!

... there was lots of root and winter type things to be found....

... and of course citrus - the Meyer lemons are pouring into the market - just lovely for pie and lemony things - and the little satsumas are super tasty - we got some and they are great!

The pretzel lady was there and so we needed a couple of these also - really delicious!!

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I think that about wraps it up for today sports fans. Thanks for stopping by, do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

"Tis the Season" Update and It's Chihuahua Friday....

2012-01-27T06:41:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends another week gone an we are once again sitting on Friday looking at two days off. Nothing planned on our end except the usual errands to the grocery store in the morning and the odd Estate sale - I really should run the vacuum and I am sure I'll do a load or two of laundry..... I am thinking of making some stuffed cabbage - sometimes you get a hankering for something comforting and filling and I think it would hit the spot!!

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I wanted to show and updated snaperoo of "Tis the Season" (please excuse the wrinkles...)

It is coming along nicely -

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and - since it is Friday we must have a snap of a chihuahua and I think it is little Miss Lolly's turn...

she was not going to take her eyes off of the "cookie" that Rico was holding - they never do when there might be a snack around!!

There you sports fans - thanks again for stopping by and for your sweet words!! i do appreciate them all!!!!! Stop buy again soon!

Take care,

edgar

A Few Films

2012-01-26T07:01:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends now we are on the slippery slide to the weekend - woo hoo!!! The wacky weather here in the City has again changed - we are now on the swing to the warm side... yesterday and for the next few days we are getting into the high 50's low 60's and with bright blue skies... very nice and moderate, just like I like it!!

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I thought today I would talk about a few films I have seen that are worth a mention...

First up would be a Christmas film I have had on my Netflix queue forever. "Midnight Clear" - 2006 - an ensemble film starring Stephen Baldwin, K Callahan, Kirk B.R. Woller, Mary Thornton Brown and Richard Fancy. The film taken from a short story by Jerry Jenkins is about... a recently homeless and jobless loser, a senior citizen estranged from her family, a mother of one dealing with her husband's brain damage, a gas station owner stuck in a job he hates, and a youth pastor feeling irrelevant face depression and loneliness on Christmas Eve. As they cross paths and experience random and minor acts of kindness, their lives are changed forever. I really enjoyed this film and the nice performances given.

Another film from 2006 - "Bonneville" - starring Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen - is a road trip type film.

The story is about a widow, along with her two best friends - driving her husbands ashes from Idaho to Santa Barbara and along the way learns about herself and others. Although the films ending was a little less than upbeat in the special features there where two alternate endings to watch - I liked the 2nd one and feel it was the best of the three - a much more satisfying one!

Last night there were two films - a short DVD from Netflix - again a Christmas one from my endless queue called "Holy Russia Celebrates the Festival of Christmas" - again from 2006 -

This 58 minutes of beauty has The Moscow Chamber Choir celebrating a Russian-style Christmas in this collection of performances filmed at some of the holiest sites in Moscow. Many of the scenes were shot in the historic Golden Ring region outside Moscow, which is considered the birthplace of the Russian Orthodox Church. Russia's spiritual history is often overlooked, but the beauty of these monasteries and cathedrals demonstrates the country's deeply religious foundation.

Here is a 3 minute You Tube Clip from the DVD -

It is a beautiful DVD - not just the visuals but the music is so gorgeous!!

Also last night on TCM in Celebration of Angela Lansbury - she is the Star of the Month - they showed a favorite film of mine- "Death on the Nile" - 1978 - another ensemble film starring Peter Ustinov, Jane Birkin, Angela Lansbury, Bette Davis, Maggie Smith, Mia Farrow, George Kennedy and Lois Chiles.

A great Agatha Christie story of who dunnit - about a boat floating down the Nile river loaded with rich folks who hate a single woman!!. Shot on location in Egypt - where everyone could have - "done it" a great destination film and well worth a look!

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There you sports fans - thanks again for stopping by and for your great comments - thanks for backing me up in my "floss" decisions!! Do stop by again.

Take care,

edgar

A Box and Some Bars

2012-01-25T07:09:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thanks again for stopping by and for your kind comments and emails!!! Especially about my colour/floss changes to the February Cottage - I know that I can be super butt-headed at times about things. I can also get on my high horse and just do my own thing - knowing that about me probably excuses my crazy need to change and adapt some of the floss choices that Designers make. I also know that some folks out there would consider it sacrilege to change anything, but I look at it like - I am stitching for me and I'm gonna be happy first and foremost - and it is a hobby and not the end all things to change something... so let it slide and be happy with what you are doing!! An odd statement I know, but I do get some odd emails occasionally.....

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The San Francisco Gift-a-way Box arrived at Tracey's all in good order with nothing broken or missing!!! So I can now post a snap of what I sent.

I always had in the back of my mind the basic contents of what I wanted to send, but I also wanted the Winner to get something tailored to their likes and be an SF Treat - hence the questions .... Tracey likes Milk chocolate - so the Lux Milk Chocolate from Ghiradelli was appropriate - she also likes ground lighter coffees so Blue Bottle (a local roaster we really like) was always in the mix (for coffee drinkers) and this is one of their fruitier medium/light roasts. I also wanted to include some very local things - I live in Noe Valley (a section of SF) and about 2 blocks from where I live is a great little restaurant called Lovejoy's Tea Room. They make and sell some really delicious Lemon curd and they also carry some honey gathered up right here in the Valley - so I knew I wanted to include those treats. We ran down to the Ferry Building and picked up the great pink salt and the caramels - the flavour ones are not from SF, but pretty tasty, the large sea-salt one is made locally. Tracey, like me, enjoys a more chewy candy so I picked up some of her faves to include in the box. I really enjoyed putting it all together and sending out a little bit of SF!!

I am thinking up another Gift-a-Way for the Spring so keep a look out!!

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I posted the Mud Hen Bar recipe over at Blacksheep Bakes - it got rave reviews from some of Rico's go-workers - so it is a real winner treat!!!

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I think about wraps up the day sports fans. Again, thank you for stopping by do come again!!!!

Take care,

edgar

A Cottage Finish

2012-01-24T06:52:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thank you for all your kind comments for yesterdays post - I really do appreciate them all!!

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I finished up February Cottage last night and got some less than great snaps of it. I did make quite a few changes in floss as I went along. When I first saw the colour palette I was not very enthused to say the least.... I got on my high horse and picked some much less bright shades of pink to stitch with.... then.. when it actually came to stitching the house my lightest shde of pink just faded into the linen and was sort of blah - so I went back to the stash heap and found some other choices to stitch with. I eventually landed with a brighter over dyed pink - WDW "Camellia" and kept one of my pink changes CC "Sea Shelley" - I also added a blue - WDW "Cadet" and another brownish/red WDW "Chrysanthemum." I did away with most of the white stitching (there was enough of that in January) and kind of did my own thing with this block.... here's a snap -

and here is a snap of both blocks....

I ordered the March Block - but the only over dyed floss called for is WDW "Pecan" the rest are DMC choices.... That makes me sad... i love stitching with over dyed floss.... I may just have to shift some of those floss' to bright green over dyed... I do like green!!

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

Take care,

edgar

A Finish, A Treat and a Smokie

2012-01-23T06:35:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends I wanted to thank you for all your kind comments and emails about the old photos of my Dad in my last post. I was asked about how big they are - they are all 8x10's which is a very large size, but nice to be so big. I did pop them out of not very nice metal frames and will look around for appropriate wooden or period frames so that I can get them up in my rogues gallery of family photos. The weekend brought lots and I mean lots of rain, wind and cold temps. Saturday morning found us running out to breakfast and then our weekly stop at the grocery store.... we where back home by 10:15 am and I settled in for some serious numb butt in the stitchity chair. It was the same after Mass yesterday - we ran to get some breakfast then a quick stop at Trader Joe's and back home by 10:45 am - then more numb butt!! I worked some on exchange stitching and I wanted to show off a finish -

La D Da "ABC" Travelling Chart

1/15/2012 - 1/21/2012

35ct WDW Havana - Belle Soie Silks - "Red Fox" and "Chester's Blue"

I really enjoyed this piece and will have it and the Journal in the mail in the morning to Teresa.

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Yesterday I baked up some "Mud Hen Bars" - I saw a picture over on "The Country Cook" and clicked over to "Cooking with K" for the recipe. Here is a snap of mine...

They remind me of a cake my Mom used to make called Mississippi Mud Cake, except where that cake is VERY chocolaty these are not - they are a little chewy and quite tasty, and I really like the brown sugared meringue on top. I will re-post up the recipe on Blacksheep Bakes in the morning.

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I got some snaps of the who-hounds and think I will leave off today with one of the Smokester....

He's pretty funny about those silly toys - and if you look closely he is standing on his favorite little teddy bear head that squeaks and has little ropes hanging down - he doesn't like anyone to touch this one!!

That's about it for toady sports fans. Thanks for stopping by - do come again!

Take care,

edgar

Old Photo's

2012-01-20T06:44:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends the rains they are a' fallin!! It started with a drizzle yesterday afternoon and sort of kept up on and off (more on) for the rest of the day and evening. Now, we are to expect the second "wave" of this first of the winter storms late this evening and through the weekend. Looks like a it will be a stay at home and stitch kind of couple of days!!! No complaints here!

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Last night I did next to no stitching so I didn't bother with a snaperoo

- but I'll have a couple of snaps on Monday I am sure!

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At my Mom's house over Christmas I was the first in town so I put up her tree. Which involved me climbing up a rickety pull down attic ladder - and a'scratching around in her attic looking for the damn thing AND the decorations - while I was up there I came across a ratty old box and because I was not happy to be dirty, dusty and sweaty - and I had banged my head twice - I sat there bitching a blue streak and thought I would take a look - I found some great old photos of my Dad as a child.

On the left is he is 4 months old so that would have Christmas of 1931 and on the right he is 7 - 1938

There are so few pictures of my Dad or for that matter my mom either, as a child that this was a real find. Knowing how we three ( my brother and sister and I) had been photographed almost daily (or so it seemed) it seems so strange to have so few photos of my parents as children. My Dad loved photography and even taught it for a while, so there are boxes upon boxes of our growing up and the minutia of our lives - I guess that's what sparked my interest in photography.

On the left he is 8 - 1939 and on the right he is 10 in 1941

So between these four photographs and when he was a Senior in High School - at Needham B. Broughton High School in Raleigh, NC - there are no pictures out there that I know.

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There you go sports fans - another week has flown by and we get two glorious days off!! Thanks for stopping by and for you great comments - How does everyone like the new Blogger Format?? I am getting used to it - I like being able to reply in the Comments section to things. Do stop by again.

Take care,

edgar

An "ABC" Update - and Some Smog

2012-01-19T06:42:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear friends.... sorry about yesterday, but they were some major computer melt downs here and that means no posting. It has stayed pretty chilly here in the Bay area and late this afternoon we are expecting some rain - which means in some of the higher elevations they will probably get some snow!!

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I wanted to get a little snap of my "ABC" piece - this is actually yesterdays snap and I am a it more along than this, but it will have to suffuice..

It is just moving along nicely and I can see having this completed and the chart on the road again by Monday....

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Yesterday on the way home from work we stopped off to get the car smogged (here in CA you have to pass a Smog Certification in order to get your registration sticker) We have been going to the same Smog Station for the past few times and we did so again - It is a 76 Station that is a "Test Only" which means if there is anything wrong with your car and it doesn't pass then you have to go some where else to fix it.. Well, while waiting I was staring off into oblivion and noticed this great piece of advertising...

It has a great retro look and I love the slogan "It Hasta be Shasta" - I can not remember the last time I had a Shasta drink, but now I am really craving one!!! So that painted wall worked on me!!! I'm a sucker for a good slogan or a good piece of advertising.

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That's about it for today sports fans. Thanks for stopping by, do come again.

Take care,

edgar

Some Estate Things

2012-01-17T06:39:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends (back to my normal salutation) I wanted to mention that in addition to our running around Saturday we did stop off at a couple of Estate Sales and I did find a few goodies....

.... A great book lavishly illustrated about the Christmas Story - with its original boxed cover to keep the cream linen clean, a very large tea diffuser, a little Worcester plate celebrating the Queens Silver Anniversary and two DVD's I didn't have. So for less than $6 I made out pretty well! You just can't beat the sales for finding some bargains.

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I was really surprised at the response to the sugared nuts - they are something delicious, but I think I forgot to mention the actual recipe I used - to one 22 ounce bag of RAW red skinned peanuts - you will need a 1 1/4 C white sugar and 3/4 cup water. The nuts have to start off raw as they will roast while they dry out during the cooking time. I have seen other variations - like 2 C raw peanuts, 1/2 C water and 1C white sugar - There are all sorts of slight variations, like adding a little salt when you spread them out etc... but you always end up with something delicious!!! Out west, for me the most difficult part is finding the raw peanuts!

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I worked a little tiny bit on the La D Da "ABC's", but not enough for a shot - I'll get one for tomorrow.

That's about it for today sports fans - thanks for stopping by, and for all your super comments!!! I do appreciate them - and you for your kindness!!! Do stop by again.

Take care,

edgar

We have a Winner!! Some Stitchin'and some Nuts

2012-01-16T07:03:00.000-08:00

Blogging Buddies it is a cold and breezy morning here in SF. The weather actually did drop quite a few degrees from Saturday to Sunday - so we are on track with what the weather magicians have predicted... now lets see if we get some of that rain later on this week.

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Friday evening after I gathered up all the entries in the Gift-a-way drawing - I hauled out the BOD (bowl of destiny) and had the Hag Claw (Rico) draw a name...

and from the depths he drew forth a name... Tracey!!!

She can be found over at "More than just Cross Stitching" a Blog that she hosts with a group of friends. We spent some time Saturday and Sunday gathering up everything. When I get her address off the box of goodies will fly.... Once Tracey has received it I will post a snap. Congrats to Tracey - I wanted to thank everyone for their interest and entries - there where over a 140 comments!!

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I did some stitching.... here is a small bit I did.....

... on "Tis the Season" - not much to show, but it is coming along nicely. I also started up the La D Da - travelling piece....

That snap looks odd - the piece is still in the q-snaps - I chose to stitch it on a piece of 35ct WDW "Havana" using Belle Soie silks - "Red Fox" with the accent "Chester's Blue."

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Remember last week , Dale sent me some peanuts... and so I had a hankering for some sugar nuts... and since they are super easy to make, I got my rear in gear and made some. The three ingredients are peanuts, sugar and water... et voila, something delicious to crunch on!! Here are some step by step photos .....

Throw the nuts, sugar and water in a pan - turn the heat to medium high.... stir and stir until all the water evaporates....

Pour the dry sugar coated nuts onto a pan ....

... put the pan into a pre-heated 300/325 degree oven - and about every 10 or so minutes stir them around - and after about half hour they are roasted and deliciously enrobed in a crunchy sweet coat. Let them cool off to room temp and enjoy!!

Easy peasy, they are really delicious - and should be stored in an airtight bag/container, they don't last long - so I am not sure how long they keep.

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I will leave you with a snap of the Bay Bridge,

After Mass we drove down to the Ferry Building at the foot of Market Street yesterday looking for breakfast, but there was nothing really open so we drove back to the Mission and had a great breakfast at The Pork Store.

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

Take care,

edgar

Travelling "ABC's" and Packing up the Tree

2012-01-13T07:02:00.000-08:00

Blogging Buddies... I'm still not got my head around this salutation and my just go back to my other one... I should give it the old college try first.... a few more days. Well the rain is holding of until next Wednesday, but the temps will be dropping 12 to 15 degrees by Sunday!! That will be nice a chilly!!

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Yesterday the mail brought me a wonderful package....

..... what can this be you might ask.... Well, I tossed my name in with a group of stitchers to be included in a "Travelling" pattern and it has arrived - along with a couple of great Christmas charts - thanks so much Sherry!!! Jennifer over at "Confessions of a Serial Starter" put together group to travel a pattern about and now its my turn. I got it from Sherry (click her name to see her finish) - it is really lovely!! Now, I need to get my act together and finally make a choice for the linen and the floss - I have some ideas but have put it off until the last moment!! Then once I finish - off I will send it to Teresa!!

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Well, finally last night I made myself not pick up a needle and silk and instead got out the rolling boxes that the Christmas Tree Ornaments get packed into..... I know it is practically Chinese New Year and my Tree is still up and flashing Christmas!!! I can't remember the last time I let the Tree stay up this long, but I have really enjoyed it immensely this year and now there is a big blank where just a day ago there was something pretty!! I had a question a while back about how I store my regular Christmas ornaments and so would like now to answer that now.... basically they live in covered rolling flat boxes under the second bedroom bed.... but to begin with... I haul the rolling boxes downstairs and unload the tissue paper on the floor...

The who-hounds enjoy this bit and I usually end up chasing some of this paper all over the house. I take each piece and flatten it out and make a pile - then as I take each ornament off the tree I can wrap it in tissue and then put it away in the box - here is an overall snap of the production...

You can see the pile of tissue and the boxes getting filled up. We have so many ornaments that these plastic boxes really bulge on top so I could never stack them - and may even have to break down and get a third box. This is how I store a majority of ornaments - I store my sterling ornaments each separately in Pacific Cloth pouches and in their own separate Christmas box - and my antique ornaments also get pack away double wrapped and in their own box. I know it seems kind of crazy - and a bit anal, but I have virtually no breakage and can put my hands on the pieces I am looking for - which for my cluttered and disorganized life is a shear miracle!!!!!

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Remember today is the very last day to enter my San Francisco Gift-a-way - you can click HERE to go to the Post to sign up - make sure to do this by 2:00 PM PST to make sure you are entered. I'll get the who-hounds to do the majick they so aptly do to pick a winner and announce it on Monday.

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That's about it for today sports fans. Thanks again for stopping by and for you kind comments about my stitching on "Tis the Season." Have a great weekend - and do stop by again!

Take care,

edgar

A Little Night Stitching

2012-01-12T07:04:00.000-08:00

Blogging Buddies, thanks for stopping by this morning. It will be a short post today - not very much going on at all - which is a good thing. I like routine and sameness!! The weather should be changing here in the Bay area very soon and we are to be getting rain in the next few days.... I'll believe that when I see it!

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Last night - it was a low key vegi/beef soup with cheese toast for dinner. Rico is coming down with something so he felt like crap - and even stayed home from work today!! Hope he feels better by the time I get home.

I stitched some on "Tis the Season" and even got out the camera for a snap before wrapping it up.

I had an email asking about the size of this piece and thought I would show it next to the Belle Soie so you can get an idea. As you can see it is on the smallish side, but the colours are just lovely. Digging around last night through the stash heap I came across another Cardinal/red bird chart I am thinking of kitting out to begin after I finish up this piece. It is amazing how many things one can start......

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For the past few days I have had a tune in playing my head - along with all those voices!! Does that ever happen to you? I found a clip on You Tube so that you may also enjoy my "ear worm."

This is from the film "Topsy-Turvy" - 1999 - starring Allan Corduner, Jim Broadbent - and a huge cast of excellent actors... The clip shows Shirley Henderson - an actress I really enjoy!! - as Leonore Braham playing Yum Yum in the Mikado. The film is all about the creation/production of the Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan in 1885. A really fun movie!!

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That's about it for toady sports fans. Do stop by again!!

Take care,

edgar

GO ECU!!!! or I Got Some Super Mail!!!

2012-01-11T06:55:00.000-08:00

Blogging Buddies thank you so much for your super comments about my less than stellar start. I did work some on "Tis the Season" last night, but there was also Edward VII to watch so again there was not much to show... and so no snperoo of that today.

I did want to show what came in the mail yesterday form my Friend in North Carolina - Dale - he knows what a nut I am about my Alma mater - East Carolina - and so he sent me some ECU stuff - and I got a snap...

he sent me a great new scarf, a reusable bag and some red skin peanuts. I always have my reusable bags when I go to the store and now I have an ECU to add to the bunch. I got a set of Envirosax about 7 years ago and they are still going strong, but I can always use another to help with the groceries. The peanuts are great, because we can not get them out here - and I do love a good crunchy/sugar nut to snack on. So easy to make, and you really miss them when you can't make then in the Fall when the peanut crops come in. - Thank you so much Dale!!

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The mail also brought me "February Cottage" and a few other bits and pieces for stitching - so I can get a little start on it at some point.

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Don't forget about the Great SF Gift-a-way - we are down to the last 3 days to sign up. You can click HERE to get to the post to sign up. I can't believe that there are way over 100 of you dear folks signed up!! Thanks!!!!!!

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

Take care,

edgar

A Slow Monday Evening

2012-01-10T07:07:00.000-08:00

Blogging Buddies it was a very quiet evening - thank goodness. I was super lazy and hauled out the enchilada leftover for dinner!! It was just as good on it's return engagement the second night. I plugged in the tree - yes, my tree is still up and blinking brightly!! With everything else gone it is only the tree and that is left and that must come down tonight. With the January Cottage completed and February chart in route I was sort of between projects - well, not really ... I guess I could of pulled out a WIP but why do that when I could here something new calling my name... start em.. start me... start me.......... So I gave in - after about a half second - and started something I kitted up for Christmas. If you cast your mind back a few months you might remember I had everything together to start BBD's "Tis the Season" so out it came and I made a pretty sad little start...

I am using the called for Belle Soie and stitching it on LL "Pear" - which looks mighty like a shade of khaki and not very greenish, but nice.

The reason not much stitching was getting done is that I started to watch - on DVD - the super costume drama "Edward the King" - 1975 - starring Timothy West as Edward VII and Annette Crosbie as his Mother, Victoria.

I got the first two discs last night and got through the first one and about half way through the second. I watch it up to the point just after Edward survives his attack of typhoid fever in 1871.

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The recipe for "Orange Blossoms" is posted over at Blacksheep Bakes so you can click HERE to go there.

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That's about it for today sports fans. Don't forget to sign up for my Gift-a-way on THIS Blog post. Thanks for stopping by today, do stop by again.

Take care,

edgar

A Small Finish and Some "Blossoms"

2012-01-09T07:01:00.000-08:00

Blogging Buddies our weekend was of the lowest of keys!! Estate Sales, errands, delicious Chinese food, some stitching and some baking. Friday evening started off the weekend with a great dinner at Alice's Restaurant (Chinese food) - I got the special "Alice's Chow Mien" - not very authentic, but certainly delicious!!! Then come Saturday I had our plan of attack for our Estate Sales and Thrift stops - and away we went... not too much out there that I wanted but it was fun looking and getting back into the swing of things. Sunday started off with Mass - and then we were off on a few more errands, a stop at Michael's, then a quick return at JC Penny - and back home for a restful afternoon - and I settled in for some stitching.

I worked on and finished up the January Cottage for the SAL.

Here is a snaperoo of what it looks like...

The snap is a bit wonky and I just couldn't get the colours right in the photo, but you get the idea. I have the February chart on order and it should arrive at some point this week.

In the afternoon I made up an enchilada casserole - it turned out pretty tasty - and I baked up some "Orange Blossoms." For some reason I have been craving these things for the last week. They are super easy to make -

- and I will post the recipe in the morning - I love a bite sized muffin!!

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I wanted to mention my "San Francisco Gift-a-way" that I have running. Thank you all again for your interest and remember it is super easy to enter - but it must be on the SF Gift-a-way Post and before this Friday afternoon. I am thinking I will do the drawing Friday Evening and then run around and get everything over the weekend!!

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That's about it for today sports fans. Thanks again for stopping by and commenting!!

Take care,

edgar

A San Francisco Gift-A-Way

2012-01-06T06:37:00.000-08:00

Good Morning Blogging Buddies thank you for your kind words about my "Exchange Collection." I am delighted that you enjoyed the snaps of them and how I have them displayed. This morning it is a cool and damp - and we are going into an cool overcast weekend - or so the news this morning reports - we shall see tomorrow. I think our plans are to get back into the swing of Estate Sales and Thrifting. I really miss the search, even if I don't find anything, I do enjoy looking.

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Now on to the Gift-a-Way drawing - I have been thinking the last few days how nice it was to turn over the 600 Follower Mark and I think a Gift-a-Way is just the ticket...

Anyone from any where may enter - just be a Follower (that's the reason for the GaW) and answer these questions in your entry on this POST Only....

1. Do you Like Coffee or Tea?

2. If its coffee you like - Light, Medium or Dark roast? - and - beans or ground?

3. If it's tea you like, would that be Loose or Bagged? - and - any particular flavour?

4. If its some Chocolate - would it be Dark or Milk? With nuts and fruits or without?

5. Do you have a Favourite Colour?

6. Do you Like Pink, Grey or White Salt?

7. Your Favorite Non-chocolate candy would be?

Easy-peasy - I am going to tweak the package to be a....

.....very San Francisco-esque Collection of things - so don't be afraid to enter. I will take entries from today 1/6/2012 until next Friday, 1/13/2012 at about 2:00 PM PST - and then announce the winner on Monday, 1/13/2012. Make sure that in your entry I have a way to connect with you if you win.

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I think that about wraps up the week. Thanks for stopping by and for being such great folks!!!!!

Take care,

edgar

Exchange Displaying

2012-01-05T07:07:00.000-08:00

Blogging Buddies - good morning.... yesterday the computers went kaput and I didn't even get online until after 9:30am... so I was a bit behind in my daily stuff and just did not make it to the Blog to post. I wanted to thank you all for your super comments about Tuesday's post. The emails and comments where so nice and warm - I read many of them at lunch and it was a good lunchtime!! I have tried to get to all the emails - and will finish them up later on.. so do not despair.

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I have had quite a few enquires about my stitching tree and all my little ornaments - I think I can distill the different questions down to a this question "Where do I keep my stitched Exchanges during the year?" As you know abut 98% of the small stitched things I have came from Stitching Friends and Exchanges I have participated in over the last few years. I took down the ST the other day and took some snaps of how I display many of them. Since I do not have a wonderful craft-room I make do with shelves in my second bedroom.

These are my shelves, I found them at different estate sales, and they work really well. About every other month or so I clean them off and dust everything. Here they are with everything removed and dusted.

I took everything off and got all my ornaments together and took this and the next two shots with them all on the bed...

- I can get most things up on the shelves - but many of my medium sized ornaments I keep in a basket on the bureau - so they are not as well displayed. Here are the shelves fully loaded from l to r......

and here they all are .....

I do enjoy seeing all of the pieces out looking so great!!! It takes about 30 to 40 minutes to take everything down dust things off and get it back together.

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I have been stitching away on Cottages, but not enough to show any real progress... so I will hold off until Monday. There you go sports fans - thanks again for stopping by and for your kind comments!!!!! Do stop by again!

Take care,

edgar

A Finish, a Start and some Stashing....

2012-01-03T06:39:00.000-08:00

Blogging Buddies..... I wanted to start off the new year with a new salutation and this I think is all encompassing.... First let me thank all my Followers - new and old - and thank you for pushing me over the 600 mark. I was wondering when that might happen!! The weekend was very low key - we ran some errands, did some laundry, push around the vacuum, took down some (not all) of Christmas, and I did some stitching.
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Let me show you the first completed piece of the New Year, you might guess it...

... "A la Belle Etoile"

32ct "Smokey Pearl" -

11/12/11 to 01/01/12

I used my own conversion and added some extra colours...

Here is my conversion:

Beige DMC842 to Belle Soie "Sandy Beach"

Green DMC934 to Belle Soie "Attic Tea"

Red DMC 3685 to Gloriana "Cranberry"

Blue DMC 3768 to Belle Soie "Chester's Blue"

Pink DMC3774 to Belle Soie "Pink Quartz"

White DMC3865 to Belle Soie "Oatmeal Scone"

added colours...

Brown - NPI 955

Orange - Belle Soie "Carrot Cake"

Black - Belle Soie "Noir"

This was a really fun piece to stitch - I stitched my initials and date in that little circle, I had seen others do that and thought it was a good idea, I also stitched the berries as Rhodes Stitches and think that was also the right thing to do.

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We made a quick trip over to Needle in a Haystack on Saturday - I needed to finally decide what linen I was going to do the Cottage SAL on and I needed a couple of skeins of floss. I took some snaps....

the "wall of silks..." I love it!!

and there are spinning racks of lovely floss also....

a sort of overview of the shop. It is a great place to just look around!! I eventually got my linen and my floss - I was a happy camper!!

I have decided to make a start of the BBD "Anniversaries of the Heart" so with Kathe's help I picked out a great 36ct LL Vintage Light Exemplar, which I think will work very well.

I also picked up my linen for the Cottage SAL - again with Kathe's help - I chose 36ct LL Vintage Buttercreme, you can't really see it here but it does have a very pale yellow cast. On the linen you see all the floss for January and February. I have converted the February Pink floss. The called for floss is VERY pink - just too pink for me - so I changed the called for CC Pink Champagne and CC Pink Posey to CC Sea Shelley and CC Cobbled Peach, I kept the CC Poblano Pepper and the DMC's, but those pinks had to go. I kind of like the bright blues of January. I started it on 1/1/12 and here is my tiny bit of stitched...

not much , but these charts are small and they should work up quickly.

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There you go sports fans. Thanks again for stopping y and for you great comments!!!! Do stop by again!!

Take care,

edgar

Wrapping Up My Trip, Some Gifts a WIP and a Finish - Lots of Snaps

2011-12-30T07:02:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends, well, today will be the last post of the year. It is really nice to end on a high note. I have so enjoyed the past year and look forward to another year of fun stitching and posting!!

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I am going to wrap up my trip with Christmas day - not only was it the hottest of all the days I was home, but I left late in the afternoon so it was my last day there. We did our usual breakfast buffet of "Tortilla Breakfast Casserole," "Sausage Pinwheels" and assorted pastries, egg nog, juice and coffee. We opened up gifts and it was so very nice and quiet with just the family and Christmas music playing. It was also getting very warm... I said hot.... so we took off for the beach and a few hours of lovely breezy sunshine and sand. I had my camera and got some nice snaps..

This is a shot looking south. We stopped a little north of the Granada approach, where no cars are on the beach. I know the snap is a bit hot but I really liked the reflection on the water and the sky.

There were a ton of birds just hanging out, I guess since the tide was going out they where looking for snacks.

This is one of the smaller older beach house left along this stretch - most of the older homes have been pulled down and replaced with mini-mac-mansions - a real pity, but I guess progress is progress...

This last shot is looking north - I just liked the way it looks.

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When I got back home (SF) I had a couple of presents waiting for me....

from Faye - Carolina Stitcher - stitched me this wonderful pyn keeper....

.... I saw a lovely ornament ( I attached a tiny eye-screw to the back et voila) on my stitching tree!!

and Marie - Creative Thread - sent me a gorgeous skein of forest green floss.

- and - a friend of Rico's had this wonderful ornament made for us.

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I have also been working a bit on the "A la Belle Etoile" Sal and here is an updated snaperoo -

On this piece I did change all the recommended DMC floss over to silks and am really enjoying them!! I even went back and changed my conversion of the Gloriana "Elizabethan Green" I had originally chosen - I changed it to Belle Soie "Attic Tea" and am really happy about that!! This is working up nicely and I should have it "off the snap" soon.

While I was home I finished up the ABC Noel - and here is the completed piece....

"ABC Noel" - Les Ambrosales

36 ct LL Vintage Meadow Rue

Recommended DMC

October 11 - December 24, 2011

I did drag out the stitching a bit to make a Christmas Eve finish, but it was worth it. It was a fun stitch and although all the DMC I used were the recommended colours I did change up some of the colour placements to fit what I though looked best - I am stubborn that way.

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That's about it for today - I wanted to wish everyone a very Happy New year......

Isn't this a great older Dutch card!! - Have a safe weekend!!!!

I'll be back on next Tuesday - woo hoo for the three day weekend!!!!!!!

Take care,

edgar

A Christmas Day Trip

2011-12-29T07:11:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thanks again for stopping by, I do appreciate your visits, comments and emails. I wasn't too sure about mentioning eating gator, but it is one of the things I get when I can. There is a "southern" restaurant here in SF that I have even been able to get gator at!! I first had gator in Louisiana, and found it delicious!! If over cooked it can be a bit on the chewy side, but when done correctly it is a juicy "sweet" meat - to me it has a very distinct flavour not very chickeny - I love trying new things - food, experiences, places and people - life is to be lived and experienced... and you can't do that from the sidelines!! A little pep talk on this cold Thursday morning!!

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More about my Christmas....... We took a day off from the Christmas fa-la-la and took a family day trip - since my mom lives so very close to St Augustine, everyone thought it would be nice to take a drive north and make a visit. If you remember I was just there this past summer, but it is a super place and I was all up for another trip.

John, had rented a Harley the evening before and to make it a nice ride for him we took A1A along the ocean, it takes a little longer but the ride is so much nicer!! We crossed over the Granada Bridge heading toward A1A and I took this picture from our car.....

This is John and niece on the Harley he got... In Florida it is at the riders discretion whether or not to wear a helmet. It was another lovely warm breezy, bright day - so the drive was really great... we headed north and after an hour or so ended up here...

The Castillo is a low lying fort but as you get closer you see how very big it really is....

The flag they fly over the fort is the "Cross of Burgundy" Flag (1506-1701) - this is the flag that the conquistadors carried with them in their conquest of the Americas. We visited the Castillo first then went down into the old town.... I took a bunch of snaps....

There are lots of courtyards behind the houses, and I got this snap by poking my head through a fence.

This is The Pena-Peck House and was constructed c. 1750 by order of the King of Spain to be the residence of his royal Treasurer, Juan Esteban de Pena.

is the inside of the Cathedral Basilica of St Augustine or you can click HERE to read more about the Parish - I love the ceiling painted such a vibrant red.

This is the main alter all decorated in evergreen for the season - even in this large space the scent of pine was wonderful!!

This large mural depicts the spreading of the faith in Florida by the Spanish.

.. and they had up a lovely large Nativity for the season.

Here is a snap of the street the runs along beside The Columbia Restaurant. A really nice place for a leisurely sit down type meal. We got a great lunch The Bunnery Cafe on St George Street.

John took this snap of me - looking all sweaty and red from the sun.....

Here is another street shot - with typical houses and palm trees.... We had a super visit and I would totally recommend it to anyone who wants a little history and a break from the bigger attractions in central Florida.

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That's about it for today sports fans. More to come tomorrow, do stop by again!!

Take care,

edgar

Florida Food - or how's that Gator Tail??

2011-12-28T07:13:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends your warm sweet welcoming comments are just great and I do thank you all so very much!!

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Our Christmas Trip Home was really super, we didn't do anything spectacular, but just sort of enjoyed each others company. I got in Friday and over the weekend helped with the decorating of my Mom's house. At 85 she ain't as spry as she once was!! My sister and niece came in on Monday evening so I drove over to Orlando to pick them up - and Interstate 4 between Daytona and Orlando is a complete free for all - even going 75 or 80 miles and hour - I was being passed up like I was putting along at 20! It was a super gorgeous day and I had my Mom's convertible - so I was jut tooling along with the top down enjoying the drive. As dusk settled in it was less glamorous and a bit chilly - so when I arrived at the airport I pulled the top back up.

John and my nephew got in on Wednesday - also into Orlando - but rented a car so he drove himself over to Daytona. We did a lot of running around and went down to pick up some lunch - we headed over to Caribbean Jacks - which is right on the Halifax River with docks for landing boats. I got some snaps....

This is the front - a little non plain...

sitting next to a sweet niece I had a great view!!

Some of the great boats moored up along side of the restaurant


more great boats..

and I ordered some delicious fried gator tail - love the stuff!!! It came with a delicious spicy Creole mayonnaise dipping sauce..

John had some crazy Caribbean burger and rings

another super boat!!

It was a really lovely lunch. The tables where all covered and the double seats acted like gliders so you could eat, glide and catch the wonderful balmy breezes off the water -
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There you go for today sports fans -

check back tomorrow for more of the continuing Christmas Trip.

Take care,

edgar

Back from Christmas Travels

2011-12-27T06:55:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends I am back - actually I got back about 11:50 pm Sunday night - and then I spent a day (Monday) being a big old lump and decompressing from my familial Christmas a la Florida. I am now back to work and there are piles on piles of things to do......

I have also gone through my two main email accounts and have been dumping the hundreds of the odder emails - I am certain I am not ready for Viagra and I am not in the market for a lift on any part of my person so there goes about 200 of the emails right off the top!!!

The Christmas Holiday was great fun - it was super to see my mom - or I should rephrase that... deal with my sweet mama. I loved seeing my sister and her family - although, with my BIL and both my nephew (13) and niece (12) taller than I - it does feel like I should pop on a munchkin hat/wig and start to sing....

...... but I refrain, and I just look up!! We had some adventures, and the weather was perfect for most of the time... until it climbed above 80 degrees Christmas day..... after a fun prezzie exchange - we took off to the beach.

I have quite a few snaps (over 100) and will be showing a bunch of those over the next few days, so gird your loins for that thrill!!!! I did miss writing everyday, even when I type out lots of drivel - I still enjoy the contact with my stitching friends, buddies and comrades!!!!

I do hope everyone had a super Christmas and a lovely Holiday!! Do stop back by for more of my shenanigans tomorrow.

Take care,

edgar

Merry Christmas to One and All

2011-12-15T07:02:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends today is my last post for about12 or so days. Tomorrow morning before the "crack of jack" (can we say 3:45 AM) will be picking me up for my early morning flight to Florida we we will gather together a celebrate Christmas a la familia. Living here on the West coast and time change I will not get into Daytona Beach until late afternoon - but I guess thems the breaks.

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Let me start of today's post with a super gift I got in the mail yesterday - my dear stitching buddy, Vera, sent me some Christmas goodies....

.... a darling reindeer ornament and some delicious homemade applesauce, from her own trees!! The ornament looks stupendous with the rest on my "Stitching Tree" and I am saving the applesauce for when I come back from my "Holiday." Thank you so much Vera for thinking of me!!

.....and talking about my "Stitching Tree" I sort of looked around at some larger more traditional feather trees out there and boy they can get really pricey!! Gotta start saving my pennies!

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I also heard from Lisa over at Lisa's Cross Stitch Paradise - that she received the ornament I stitched for her in the HOE Stitchers Choice Ornament Exchange. Here is a snap I took before I sent it out...

... it is called "Noel" and is part of a small sampler from Beth Twist's booklet of Christmas samplers "Tidings of Great Joy." I wanted something a bit different and this fit the bill. I have stitched for Lisa quite a few times and she is always so sweet when she sees another of my parcels coming into her house!! :)

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I think that about wraps up the post for today. I wanted to wish everyone near and far a very Happy , and Merry Christmas!!

I'll be back in a few days!!

Take care,

edgar

A Lovely Present, An Exchange and I just couldn't helpit!!

2011-12-14T07:04:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends I did want to thank you for all your warm comments and emails about yesterdays post. Being a raving sentimentalist it is hard for me not to get a "verklumpt" about Christmas and my decorations. I love the old and ratty over the new and shiny every time!! I love the handmade over store bought, I am the biggest sucker for sweet and simple, and I haul out every year my steamer trunk of things from the past - as the Holiday season is a time to look back and remember.

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Yesterday the Mail brought me something really wonderful - Becky, who many of us know from the Blog world - is one to of the dearest people and I have been blessed to call her a dear friend for the past few years!! She sent me a lovely gift from her heart -

Here it is nestled in with my other stitched pieces - a darling reindeer pillow-ette. She knows how I love reindeer and this piece fits in so well with everything - it is stitched and finished superbly!! Thank you so much!!!!

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As you all know I am a big Exchange Lover and I did a Private one with sweet Charity from over at "Lover of Cross Stitch." We did an ornament exchange and here is a snap of the piece I made for her...

.... it is a Prairie Schooler chart from Book 10 "Prairie Christmas." I just love Cardinals and red birds and this piece really spoke to me. I included some treats along with the exchange and everything arrived safe and sound.

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Last night we ran out to do some last minute shopping and ended up at the Stonestown Mall. We stopped by Macy's as they where having a super sale all over the store and ended up looking in the Christmas Decorations area. With ornaments at 60% off how could I not look, not that I needed any more.... but I was jut looking..... which turned into "I must have that!!" Here is what I picked up...

.... a super Jim Shore Christmas Noah Santa. When I got him home up on the tree he went. I do love the Noah story and Jim Shore has some really great ornaments and things!! Isn't he great... next to him on the right is a little blue booty with the year 1996 - I bought that when my nephew was born. To the left is a Santa Grinch ornament - I do love Dr Seuss and the Grinch story is a seasonal favorite.... and behind Noah is a blown glass chicken ornament - who doesn't love a sparkly chicken on a Christmas tree.... Yes I'm nuts!!! Go figure!!

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

Take care,

edgar

A Super Exchange and More Christmas Snaps

2011-12-13T07:12:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends again I must thank you so very much for all your kind comments and emails. Warming up another cold morning with such kindness - thank you!!

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I wanted to start off today's post with an exchange I received yesterday - I took part in the last round of the Ornament Exchange over at the HOE - it was a Stitchers Choice Exchange and I was lucky enough to have as my partner Marie from Tirilluim Creates. Her stitching and finishing are top notch and the ornament she sent me was another super job!! Here is a snap...

The chart was a freebie, but I left the info at home - isn't he just darling!! I do love reindeer and he is a winner. Thank you so much, Marie!! He went right on to my "Tree of Stitching."

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Last night we finished getting up both our big Christmas tree and my smaller "Tree of Stitching." Let me start off with the smaller but more important of the two trees. By our front door we set up my faux feather tree and mercury glass Snow Family and this year was no different. Here are some snaps...

from the front door you see the tree from this side.... and.....

from the other side you see more lovelies.

I have so many great stitching friends, buddies, comrades of the needle everywhere - and have done quite a few exchanges that I have quite a collection of super ornaments and pieces of Christmas Stitching that I do love to pull together and decorate a tree. We where talking last night and think it is time for a bigger tree!!... so I am now on the hunt for a more traditional and bigger feather tree, and by next year I'll have one!! I love seeing and thinking about everyone that stitched these for me - and that's what Christmas is all about Family and Friends - and although we can't all get together - I can get together my wonderful tokens of friendship!!!! Thank you all so much!!!

I also put up my Nativity that my Grandmother made for me when I was a mear baby - about a bazillion years ago!!

I love having this out and seeing it every year!! Not only because my Granny made it but because it is the reason for the season!!!

I also wanted to show some shots of our tree. We went with our faux tree instead of getting a live one - so it went up easy and there will be not all that needle fall out in a few weeks!!
Here are some snaps....

An overall shot of the tree - with my creche to the lower left..... and some close ups....

I really like this ornament - since I love magnolia and it sparkles, who could ask for more!!
and another snap...

One of my favorite Santa ornaments and you can see my reflection in the purple ball - I love putting up a tree and seeing all the old ornaments come out - we have such a mish mash of things to go on the tree - I love them all - the funny ones, the old and scratched ones , the home made and the store bought ones - its all lovely Christmas - to me at least!! Even as laden as the tree is I still have a ton of ornaments left over that I had to pack up and put away - I could have decorated this tree over again and still had some left over!! One of my favorite things to put on the tree is the star - it is old and plastic, and has been around since I was a toddler - and although some people do not like it (not mentioning any names... begins with R) I like it and it goes on the top of the tree!!!!

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Well, I think I have droned on enough today sports fans!!
Thanks for stopping by, do come again!!

Take care,

edgar

Christmas Snaps

2011-12-12T07:12:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thank you all so much for your kind comments and emails - I do love reading them in the morning and they do brighten up an otherwise dreary cold Monday!!

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Over the weekend there was lots of Christmas cheer in our lives..... on Saturday evening we had quite a few parties to attend. I carried my camera, it is small and fits in my pocket. I think the prettiest party we got to was one I look forward to every year - giving by our friends Chris and Mo. They have a great old San Francisco painted lady and so the Christmas party is always has such an old fashioned feeling and is really just beautiful... here are some snaps

There was a lovely tree in the front parlor. It has both electric light and candles - which they lit later in the evening, and no matter how many pictures I take I just can not get a good candlelit one - but trust me it is a sight to warm the coldest heart!!

There were banks of poinsettias all over the house.

and of course there was Humphrey the Christmas camel. Chris has him out every year.

After leaving Chris and Mo's we had one more party to get to, but stayed only a little while. The city was busy all over and traffic was terrible - and parking was worse!

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We put our tree yesterday - I'll get some snaps of that tomorrow - and of course there was the Christmas cheer to have while decorating....

..... a big old glass of the PA Dutch Egg Nog (at almost 30 proof, which is a bit on the strong side) I will cut it with some Bud's. Now I like a good kick to my Egg Nog and the blend of these two is almost perfect!! Here in the Bay area Bud's is about the best there is to be had, IMHO - simply delicious!!!!!!

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I finished up my last Exchange for the year and will have that in the mail today - so I got to work a bit on my ABC Noel - I bet you forgot about that didn't you!!! Here is a snap..

I finally finished up the little Santa type elf on "V" and am now on to "W." As you can see each of the letters are sort of striped with the shades of red, here I have stitched in the brighter of the two and will fill with the darker. It is hard to tell in my craptastic snaps but the two reds together look rather nice.

I think that about wraps it up for today sports fans. Thanks again for stopping by, do come again!!!

Take care,

edgar

A Christmas Carol

2011-12-09T06:43:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thank you all so much for all the kind comments and emails about the Christmas Box I sent to Diana. The stitching community is so kind and such an ego boost!!!

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By the Post Title you might think I'm going to talk about the story by Dickens, again... not today - I am sort of short of things stitchity to write about as I am still secret stitching - I think I will post about a favorite Carol of mine and make it another musical Friday Posting.

I love Christmas music, all kinds from all times, and another favorite pieces of music from the season would have to be "In the Bleak Midwinter." Here are the King's College Cambridge Choir from 2005 singing this lovely song...

The song is based on a poem written by Christina Rossetti one of the 19th centuries most important poets. The poem was set to music written by Gustav Holst in about 1904/1906. If you would like to read a bit more about this song you may click HERE. Enjoy!!

Thanks for stopping by - do come again!

Take care,

edgar

A Christmas Exchange Arrived

2011-12-08T06:42:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends I do thank you for the warm comments and emails about yesterdays posting. I think it is very important that we always remember the sacrifices both art home and abroad everyone makes and has made for the last 400 or so years....

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If you recall I took part in the HOE Christmas box Exchange - and I receive a wonderful Box from Michelle. This morning I heard from my partner that I sent to - Diana from over at Log Cabin Life, she received the Christmas Box I made for her. Here are a couple of snaps...

I stitched up a Prairie Schooler piece. Book #32, "Christmas Ark" - using the called for DMC Floss on 32ct linen. I first painted the unfinished box attached the stitching and then lined it with a green satin like fabric.... and here is the inside and the goodies ...

I really enjoyed stitching this piece as I always do when making something for an Exchange.

Last night I was stitching away on another Exchange piece so no snaps of that piece... yet.

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

Take care,

edgar

"A date which will live in infamy"

2011-12-07T07:07:00.000-08:00

Gentle readers and Dear Friends the post title says it all - the words are from the Presidential speech to Congress on December 8, 1941, by Franklin D Roosevelt. The history can be read HERE about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Here is a snap of the USS Arizona memorial...

We should never forget the fallen soldiers then and the falling soldiers now protecting our rights and freedoms. It is not often that I wave the flag, but I didn't want the day to pass without a moment to reflect on the sacrifices made over the years... 1675-1676, 1689-1697, 1702-1713, 1756-1763 1775-1783, 1812, 1836, 1861-1865, 1898, 1914-1918, 1939-1945, 1950-1953, 1960-1975, 1983, 1989, 1990-1991, 2001-?, 2003 -? . That is lots of History but important...

I will leave you with a favorite quote of mine...

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

George Santayana (1863-1952)

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Thanks for stopping by -

take care,

edgar

Some treats

2011-12-06T07:07:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends only a couple of things today - the mail brought me two little treats...

... and they are totally cute!! I loved the "Warm, Winter Woolens " since I first saw it a few weeks ago and knew I would have a copy at some point and when I need to get the 1st in the new Country Cottages Series I knew it was time. I joined up over on sweet Vonna's SAL Blog - "The Cottages Stitch -a-Long." This will be a year long SAL and I will start it on the 1st of January. They a smallish at 77 x 77 square so they will work up quickly. I have the floss already from my stash and I am planning on pulling a piece of linen from there also, but which piece has me stumped... something at a 36ct I would think!!

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I also posted "Granny Kat's Pumpkin Roll" over at Blacksheep Bakes - click HERE to go there.

It comes together quickly and is really tasty!!

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Did you catch the 1938 "A Christmas Carol" on TCM last night??

They were celebrating the Bicentennial of Charles Dickens birth and it was a night of book to film fun fest!!! It is a bit early as he was born February 7, 2012. This film is out on DVD and is worth a look!!

There you go sports fans!! Thanks for stopping by and for your super comments!!

Take care,

edgar

Another Busy Weekend

2011-12-05T06:09:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends what a busy weekend we had. This time of year it is so hard to step back and reflect on the "Reason for the Season." Getting caught up in the countdown - ... 19 days BTW.... - so many specials to see, so many sales to try and get to, the crowds, the lights, the everything. I am not immune to them, I do enjoy many aspects of the whirlwind that our Christmas has become. We dad make it to the "Mall" and finished up that kind of shopping. I still need to run to some Neighborhood shops to pick up a few things. I am planning on doing that after work, when I can actually find some street parking.

Weekend street parking here in the city can just bite sometimes - no, actually all the time, but this time of year it gets even worse!! (Isn't this a great snap!!)

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I spent a majority of weekend working on little gifts - the plan is to get these out this week. I also did quite a bit of "secret " stitching, and after they arrive at new destinations I'll get snaps posted for you to see. I have actually gotten everything done down to a single piece that needs a little more work and then some finishing - then I can get back to "ABC Noel" - remember that?? :)

I whipped up a tasty Pumpkin Roll yesterday I will post about that tomorrow.

That's about it for today sports fans - short and sweet.

Take care,

edgar

A Wonderful Piece of Music....

2011-12-02T07:13:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends as you may remember one of my favorite writers is Charles Dickens and probably my favorite short story ever is "A Christmas Carol." I thought about talking about one of the filmed versions that although has some very questionable casting choices.... has some of the loveliest music. The version is "A Christmas Carol: The Musical" - 2004 -

starring Kelsey Grammer, Jesse L Martin, Jane Krakowski, Jason Alexander, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Geraldine Chaplin. One of the nicest songs to come out of this film is "God Bless us Everyone" written by Alan Menken. Here is a clip from You Tube using the music track the from the film with a slide show and superimposing the words over the visuals... expressing what I think is the true meaning of the song......

A super piece of music for the Season and everyday.

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There you go sports fans - have a great weekend!!

Take care,

edgar

A Wonderful Christmas Exchange

2011-12-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends the winds where and still are fierce and blowing here in the Bay area - with some very heavy gusts... all this brought in the cool/cold temps over night and now we shiver and the four hairs on my head or all over the place!!

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Today I wanted to talk about a wonderful package that came in the mail yesterday. As many of you know I am one of the Moderators over on the HOE/HOE II - I really enjoy exchanging with other stitchers and always have. Well, I got a wild hair about Christmas coming up so quickly a month or so ago and so I got an exchange up and running to make Christmas Boxes. The mail date is today, and mine will be going out this morning, but I was on the receiving end yesterday. My Stitching Partner was Michelle and she sent me a wonderful package.

I opened the box.....

and peeking out was a really cute Snowman. After taking everything out I found that Michelle had sent a great exchange.....

Out tumbled some totally cute "candy"soaps, a Star ornament, some delicious chocolates, Mr. Cute Snowman, some Snowman tags and a wonderfully stitched and finished Christmas Box!! The pattern is from Lizzy Kate called "Fa La la la." Perfect for Christmas!! But, that was not all, I opened up the stitched box and found....

.. that she had lined it with some cute Christmas fabric and had also included and lovely floss minder and measuring tape! It is a wonderful exchange and I do thank you so very much Michelle!!!!

Now I have two more exchanges to finish up and send out. Also on the Christmas countdown Agenda.... we need get our Christmas cards finished up and out....... and I still need to get some little presents "from the kitchen" finished up and mailed out.... I will have a busy next few evenings and this weekend I'll be busy,busy,busy!!!!!

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There you go sports fans. Thanks again for stopping by, do come again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Few Family Days

2011-11-30T06:41:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends I am back up and running and "seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!!" There are still piles of things to do but I am making some head way through the heaps.

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Over the last few days - although there where 5 of them away from work they still just flew by - my sister and her family came in Thursday morning and after settling in I knew it would be a great Thanksgiving. We had some other friends over so I had two tables - one for the "old" adults and a table for the "young" adults - and everything worked out well. After a few hours of completely over eating and hanging out we just all plopped down to watch some movies - and that was basically our Thanksgiving!!

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Friday came and we headed out to run around San Francisco. I let them make the decisions as to where we are going and what they wanted to do - they are the guests from out of town - and I live here - and we had a great time!!

We started off with a visit to Dudley Perkins Harley Davidson showroom/shop. They are great fans of the motorcycle and Harley is the brand of choice. I had my camera and got some snaps....

This is the front of the place..

.. and there is this old picture you can be a part of, that is Katie and Cissy being part of it and John looking over the top..

Inside on the first floor are some classic bikes and some racing/biking memorabilia

The showroom is upstairs on the second floor..

A bigger snap of the showroom

.. and a bike I thought looked great. From here we went and got a late breakfast at a place called "The Pork Store."

A great place for a tasty breakfast or lunch.

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From there we headed to the Haight/Ashbury area....

and passed the Ben Jerry's shop, where I got this snap of the seasonal flavour offerings....

We walked in and out of the shops along Haight Street and made a big stop at Amoeba Records. We rounded out the day with a tasty dinner from Patci's Pizza- they deliver!!!

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They packed up and left Saturday morning and we had our quiet afternoon cleaning and putting everything away. On Sunday we got to early Mass where Father Steve and all of us used the new Roman Missal, 3rd Edition, translation - there was some stumbling, but eventually everything will run smoothly again. Thank goodness there was a fold out card with the step by step new responses and changes spelled out!!

I finished up the stitching and finishing of an Exchange piece that I will send out tomorrow.

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There you go - our little weekend of Family, food and fun!! Thanks for stopping by, do come again!

Take care,

edgar

A Quick Hello

2011-11-29T06:50:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends after being gone for 5 days the work piled up so much there is still a

ton of things to get done - so I am just popping in to say Hi!!

We had a great Thanksgiving here in SF - I have some snaps of our Friday adventures, and hope to get a good post about everything up tomorrow.

Take care,

edgar

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

2011-11-22T06:46:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends just stopping by quickly and thought I would show some of the great Norman Rockwell images of Thanksgiving.....

and probably one of the most famous Thanksgiving images ever.....

Have a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Take care,

edgar

A Rambling Monday Morning

2011-11-21T07:20:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends it was a wet and cold weekend here in the Bay area!! I guess the storms are here and we will be having our usual Winter cycles of rain. Aside from the wet weather we had a pretty terrific couple of days.

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Friday evening Rico's sister called to see if we could put her and her husband up Saturday night - they had gotten some great tickets for the 49er game against the Cardinals on Sunday. Well, we have the second bedroom so of course we wanted them to come.

Our Saturday morning started off as usual - our weekly trek to the Safeway via Noah's bagels - yummy!! - Now, try and get to the store early every Saturday - usually around 8ish. It was no different this past Saturday, but the store was already really full of shoppers, I guess everyone else was doing the same thing...shopping early before the crowds.... I can imagine what it was like later on in the day. The weekend before a Holiday are always busy shopping days. We finished up with Safeway - dropped off the groceries and then headed to Michael's and Target in south SF. Once again packed stores, but we found everything we wanted!!

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I wrapped up the afternoon with a fun cleaning job..... the oven!! A job a day, remember - and its all getting done!! I also started on Thanksgiving - I made up the cranberry sauce on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon I made a giant pot of Turkey stock for gravy and anything else that need some stock. Tonight I will make my big old cornbread so that it can sit a few days to dry out - I do love a good cornbread/sausage dressing!!

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We had a super evening out Saturday night with Mindi and Tom - we went to a delicious Japanese dinner at Kitaro and then walked a couple of blocks to get ice cream at Joe's Ice Cream. It was a great evening and the rum/raisin ice cream hit the spot!!! I do love me some rum!!

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Yesterday we went to Mass - it was pouring rain, then went back to the house and picked up Misty and Isaac and it was on to a tasty breakfast at San Jalisco. After breakfast we stopped off at Trader Joe's (what would a weekend be if we didn't get to TJ). Then they took off for the football game. The 49'ers won BTW!!

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I spent my stitching time working on my exchange piece, so still no snaps of that... but I did take some snaps of the Christmas Cactus' that are in bloom...

This small cactus was a gift to Rico and is blooming for all its worth - the deep red colour of the blooms is really nice.

... and the larger pale peachy cactus is also blooming, not as many, but still pretty.

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I wanted to mention a new Blogger to our ranks - Sharon over at TaylorsNana - stop by and say Hi!!

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There you go sports fans. It is a short week this week, just today and tomorrow and then I'm off for 5 days!! WooHoo!!!! Thanks for stopping by today, do stop again.

Take care,

edgar

A Delicious Buttered Rum Pound Cake

2011-11-18T07:13:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends so sorry to have missed a post yesterday, but after I had gotten to all my emails and things I just run out of time. I did want to get this recipe up this week, better late than never!! So, if you click HERE you will be taken to Blakcsheep Bakes and the recipe for this super cake...

On the stitching front I am working at getting an Exchange piece completed - so there are no snaperoos today of any stitching. :(

That's about it for the week - the weekend is supposed to by stormy and wet - so we will stay indoors and keep at the Holiday cleaning schedule. Last night we did the carpets and the stair carpet - what joy!! I am amazed every time we shampoo things at the dirt and filth that comes out .... yuckeroonie!! Although I must say I do enjoy opening up the refrigerator or the freezer and seeing it sparkly clean!!

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There you go sports fans! Thanks again for stopping by, do come again!

Take care,

edgar

An AMAZON Delivery

2011-11-16T07:09:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends here we sit on the hump of the week - with one little old weekend between us and Thanksgiving!! I now have a written daily schedule of things I want to accomplish before next Tuesday - I like to make a list of a lot of little projects which keeps them from turning into just one big killer day of drudgery. Tonight's activity will be to clean out and scrub down the refrigerator - such a fun task!! I put this up first so that it will have lots of room for next week.

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Last night - or I should say yesterday the mail brought me an AMAZON purchase - I got the new "Deathly Hallows, Part II"

It was really great and the BluRay picture is top notch. I watched it through once and then started to watch it again in "Maximum Movie Mode" - a special feature that has deleted scenes and extra commentary about the film as it plays. I really enjoyed all the back stuff.

I also picked up a copy of the new BluRay release of an old favorite of mine "Scrooge" - 1970 - starring Albert Finney. The picture transfer is so much better than the old DVD release and the sound quality is also top notch!!!

This film is the musical version of the story and although not as faithful to the original as other versions... it is one of my top 5 Favorite Christmas films!! Here is a great clip of the opening titles of the film with a gorgeous piece of music written by Leslie Bricusse, who BTW wrote all the music for the film... enjoy

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I had my SAL out and put about 4 stitches into it as I watched these films. I got really caught up in the movies last night!! So no snaps of that today!!

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There you sports fans - thanks for stopping by - do come again!!

Take care,

edgar

Ding-Dong Tuesday

2011-11-15T06:53:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends... the warm kind comments and emails are so nice this morning - I do thank you!!! Again I love reading them and answering questions. Although some of the comments I can't answer directly - being of the "no-reply" type comment - I thought I should answer a question from Jennifer from "Ohio is my Dwelling Place" this morning.. she asks about my little Time/Date app in the column to the right - "Why is it always snowing?' I slapped that sucker up there almost when I began this Blog and the only reason I have is that I really like the snowy picture and white winters - simple me with a simple answer. I love the Fall and Winter time so much more the Spring and Summer - so I have this little reminder there just for fun.

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Being the ding that I can be - I forgot the recipe book for the pound cake so that will have to wait until tomorrow.... but I did want to put this little piece of "Claymation" ding-dong up for you to enjoy.....

This little bit is from "A Claymation Christmas Celebration" - 1987 - one of my favorite TV specials that I haven't seen run on the boob tube in a really long time. I found the DVD last year and totally love watching it!!!!

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I think that about wraps it up for today sports fans. Thanks for stopping by, do come again!!

Take care,

edgar

Two Stitches, Some Books and a Cake

2011-11-14T07:07:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends welcome back to Monday morning - another week closer to Turkey Day!! I think our menu is set and the tables are full!! We have both family and friends coming over so our house will be full!

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Over the weekend I caught up on some stitching - some I can show and some I can't. I can show my progress on the ABC Noel piece...

As you can see I finished up the lettres "T" and "U." The stocking on "T" had about all the colours that this piece uses - not that you can see them, but they are there. Then the Goose/Duck on "U" uses only about three colours - loved that one!! The letter "V" has a little Santa like figure so he will get done in the next day or so.

I finished up the first part of the "A La Belle Etoile" SAL - and - I changed the linen.... The piece I had intended to use had a slight, but noticeable line through the middle - it looked like it was a fade line I had not noticed earlier. So that piece was out and I will use it for small ornaments. I pulled piece of 32ct "Smokey Pearl" from the stash box and it works a dream. Here is a snap of it as it stands...

It looks kind of lopsided, but there you go. I am now waiting for the second part to move on. The stitching piece I can't show is and exchange piece I am working on - but you will see it eventually.

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We got to a couple of estate sales on Saturday and I pick up some great older books...

From l to r - "The Verney's" and newish book about an aristocratic English family. The older books are..."Treasures from Fairyland," inscribed to Leila Christmas 1893, a leather bound "Poems of Tennyson" and a great copy of "Wuthering Heights" by Bronte. - so for less that $5 I think I did pretty well!!

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Yesterday I was in the mood for an old fashioned pound cake - so I looked through a few cookbooks and found a nice recipe in a Southern Living 1983 Annual Recipes book for this...

... "Rum Glazed Lemon Pound Cake" - pretty tasty I must say!! I'll get that recipe up tomorrow.

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There you go sports fans - another nice weekend doing fun stuff!!

Thanks for stopping by, do come again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Quickie Posting

2011-11-11T06:17:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thanks so much for answering my question about the SAL title - no matter the translation it will still be a great piece to stitch.

I did remember the silly cord this morning so here is the snap of my conversion...

On the left is the DMC floss that the chart calls for... and on the left are the silks I pulled to replace them. I didn't stray too far from the original choices. The blue/grey linen they are on is the 32ct piece I will try and use - I may not stick to it, but for right now it is the choice. I did stitch a little bit, but not enough to warrant a snap.

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I wanted to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy Veterans Day. You can click HERE to read a little of the History of the Day. Go out and thank a Veteran!

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There you go sports fans - this wraps up another week - and we creep closer to Christmas - only 43 more days......

Take care,

edgar

A Little Converting

2011-11-10T07:06:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends what kind comments about my old "Monthlies" finish. I am thinking that for "Cottages" I will have it be 4 across and 3 down just to shake it up a bit. I am totally stoked about the new "Cottages" piece and can't wait to get started.

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So, last night ... did the usual... got home, took the who-hounds out, then fed the who hounds (I just know that it is the highpoint of their day!!) Tossed a couple of loads of laundry in the wash - and made dinner... a pot of Matzo Ball Soup (one of my favorites)

I had gotten a great film from Netflix - I wasn't sure how good it would be until I got into it but it had potential!! ....and I finally got my butt in gear and made some decisions about the C Mon Monde SAL - it does have a name "A La Belle Etoile" - which I think translates to "A Beautiful Star" but Bablefish translates it to "With Open Air." Anyone else have a better translation?? It matters not - as the piece it really nice for this time of year.

From now on I will refer to it by its proper name. In this spot is where I would normally slap a snap of my conversion - and I did take a picture, but I forgot the dumb cord for the camera so I have no way to download the picture I set up and took - what a bummer!!

My conversion is as follows (without illustration):

DMC 842 to Belle Soie - Sandy Beach

DMC 934 to Gloriana - Elizabethan Green

DMC 3685 to Gloriana - Cranberry

DMC 3768 to Belle Soie - Chester's Blue

DMC 3774 to Belle Soie - Pink Quartz

DMC 3865 to Belle Soie Oatmeal Scone

and I found in my box o'linen stash a nice piece of grey/blue 32ct mystery linen that I will stitch this sucker on. (I may just have to age up that piece of linen). I hate it that there is no snap, but I'll post that in the morning!! ... come hell or high water!!....

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The Netflix DVD was "Captain Horatio Hornblower" - 1951 -

starring Gregory Peck and Virginia Mayo.

A great swashbuckling /adventure film. Set during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century. Most of the film revolves around the HMS Lydia, Hornblower's ship and his secret mission in the Pacific ocean. After handling the mission he then finds he has to bring Lady Barbara Wellesley back to England. The battle scenes are superbly done and the sets and technicolour couldn't have been any better!!

I really enjoy these adventure films of the 50's - directed by Raoul Walsh the film is 117 minutes of high seas adventure!!

I wanted to mention again about TCM's November marathon called "All Aboard" - all kinds of films having to do with ships and the sea - that tonight is the second installment and the line up includes..... "Love Affair" - 1939 (8pm EST/5pm PST)an Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer vehicle, then a great Kay Francis/William Powell film "One Way Passage" - 1932 - (9:30pm EST/6:30pm PST) wrapping up the evening is a super Bette Davis film.. "Now Voyager" - 1942 - (10:45pm EST/7:45pm PST). All three great films, a little weepy with lots of emotion!!

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

Take care,

edgar

A couple of SAL's and a WWII Film

2011-11-09T07:12:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thanks so much for your kind comments yesterday!! At this point I am not too sure how I will finish up the SAL piece. I hadn't really thought of the finishing as I was really taken with the piece and the stitching. I am thinking it might be a nice little framed piece instead of something else, but there is plenty of time to get that done.

I wanted to mention a couple of SAL's out there that you will be seeing me stitch here at Blacksheep. The first is one that I got in on after the fact and am in the second round of stitching. It is a really cute Winter sampler SAL that is a joint effort between The Thread Basket and C Mon Monde. I just got the first piece the other day and have yet to pick out some linen - or do my usual changing of DMC to Belle Soie - I think this will be really lovely in silks. The other SAL is being gathered together by sweet Vonna. She has started up a great SAL Blog for us to work on the NEW CCN Monthly Cottages. They are really great looking and should prove to be a great stitch. If you remember I stitched up the LHN Monthlies last year as a single piece....

I really enjoyed this piece and must take a moment to thank once again Ma Teakettle as it was due to her generosity that I got my sticky little claws on the charts in her Gift-a-way and so was able to stitch this up. It will be a gift this Christmas and hope it will be well received. Soooo... with all that said I plan on doing these New Country Cottages as a single piece and you can watch that progress here over the next year as the charts are released.

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The movie I wanted to mention I saw a couple of days ago is called "In Tranzit" - 2008 - starring Vera Farmiga, John Malkovich, Thomas Kretschmann, Daniel Bruhl and Natalie Press.

The film, although very harsh, is wonderfully shot and although not typically "beautiful" there is some really great cinematography!! Set in the winter of 1946 after the end of WWII a group of German POW's are sent mistakenly to a women's transit camp in Leningrad. Based on a true story it is really the acting and NOT the script that makes this film worth seeing. There are three super performances - 1st - Farmiga as the Doctor trying to keep her shell shocked husband close by while doing what is required of her. 2nd - Malkovich as the cruel Pavlov trying to root out the SS Officers that are mixed in with the prisoners - and 3rd - Kretschmann as Max - trying to hide his identity by flying under the radar while at the same time falling for the kind Dr. - his subtle performance was worth the whole film. At 113 Minutes it is not too long - this is an adult film for sure.

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There you go sports fans. Thanks again for stopping by and for the great comments!! Stop by again!

Take care,

edgar

A SAL Finish and a Recipe

2011-11-08T07:00:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thank you all so much for the great comments - I think it has been decided - I'm gonna call him Peanut the Christmas Squirrel - sitting on the letter "S" - That totally made the morning!! Now, to market him to the masses and make a bazillion buckaroos!!! :)

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Last night I finished up the wonderful Mystery SAL that Carol R was having over at iStitch.

Here is my version....

I used HDF silk - Oxblood and Blueberry Soup

stitched on a mystery piece of 32ct Sand coloured linen

It was a great piece to work on. Thank you so much carol for putting it all together and keeping us motivated and stitching!!!

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I also posted at Blacksheep bakes the recipe for the Holiday Gingerbread I baked up this weekend. I included the frosting recipe I used, but don't feel constrained to it and use whatever or none if you wish!! You can click HERE to get there.

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That's about it for today sports fans. I must thank everyone again for stopping by, also to my New Followers and my Old Followers.... I am thinking I need to have a Gift-a-Way for the Holidays!!! Stop by again soon!

Take care,

edgar

Some Weekend Things

2011-11-07T07:04:00.000-08:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends didn't you love having the extra hour to sleep yesterday - but the down side it was pitch dark by 6:15 last night. As with everything else in life we will adjust to the time change once again.

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We eventually got some rain on Saturday evening - not the horrendous storms that were predicted (those never materialize) but a nice wet evening. It has stayed pretty cold the last few days so we all know that winter is upon us. With the weather so chilly we stayed pretty close to home - only venturing out to run to the Safeway Saturday morning - and our weekly stop at Noah's Bagels - gotta have my fix of challah and bacon!! Saturday evening we had some friends over and I fixed Chicken Marsala with some sides, but the highlight of the meal was of course desert.... I made some....

.....pretty tasty Brownies - and although only a box mix, they really hit the spot, with some vanilla bean ice cream.
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Sunday morning we headed out to Mass - we get there early and so we get the practice with the new Mass responses and bits of music that are changing. You can read HERE all about that. After Mass we headed over to Eddie's for some breakfast - and then on to our little Farmers market. I had my camera and took some snaps..

There were some great grapes and lovely Asian pears...

.....tons of beautiful Fuyu persimmons

....there were lovely sweet potatoes

....and we are still bale to get heirloom tomatoes

and the flower lady always has beautiful bunches of flowers. Unlike last year when this little market closed down for a few months during the winter, they are staying open the whole year - so we will continue to support our little market through the cold wet months ahead....

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I did some stitching on "ABC Noel" and here is a wrinkled snap of it so far....

It is just zooming along - but, I must have missed the story of the "Christmas Badger/Beaver" - or whatever animal that might be at the letter "S." Any suggestions???

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Yesterday I baked up a gingerbread - I sort of worked out the recipe from a couple of sources and made my own.

I covered it in a lemony cream cheese frosting. I'll post the recipe tomorrow. It turned out pretty tasty I must say!! I do love gingerbread and things like it for the Holidays. I am even getting the itch to construct a Gingerbread house - how fun would that be!!

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There you go sports fans. Thanks for stopping by, do come again!!

Take care,

edgar

Friday Wrap Up

2011-11-04T07:14:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends I was so happy that you enjoyed the "Day of the Dead" posting. The rains they came - and it has gotten pretty chilly here with the temps hovering at about 48 degrees. The wet makes it seem colder!!

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So last night while watching TCM, they are having a Month long tribute called "All Aboard" - featuring films with romances and or dramas on the high seas!! I really enjoyed last nights selection - starting off the evening was "Romance on the High Seas" - 1948 - then they showed "April in Paris" - 1952 - both Doris Day vehicles that are really charming. I have talked about them before and both are worth a look. The next film was a Jane Powell film called "Luxury Liner" - 1948 - another great little film. All three fun romantic films!! Since it was cold and wet I was in no mood for the kitchen... I made us a ....

...real comfort dinner of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches!! Easy to make, easy to eat and a quick clean up - who could ask for anything more!!

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We are coming up on elections so I need to get on my soap box a moment!! Here in California we get about a bazillion pieces of crappity junk mail...

... for everything on the ballot - every candidate and every proposition for and against gets its own shiny piece of advertising... and them some - it would seem that at least the printing businesses are doing a brisk business!! Here is 1 weeks worth of mailers - 52 pieces of shiny, heavy 4 colour printed pieces of crap - that I did not read, did not look at and did not hesitate to toss into file 13! This is ludicrous and there is no way to stop it.

We already do the mail in voting ..

... thing, since our voting places changes every single year - and is usually so inconvenient to try and find parking that I have been "mail voting " for quite a few years. I vote every single year - and this is one of the projects for this weekend - going through the voting booklet and filling out the forms. I figure I can't bitch about things if I don't vote!!

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There you go sports fans - another week goes by and we are now less than 3 short weeks from Thanksgiving!! Gobble Gobble....

Take care,

edgar

Dia de los Muertos

2011-11-03T07:02:00.000-07:00

Gentle readers and Dear Friends - no rain yet... but it is on the way - and - the temps have dropped noticeably.

I spent last night working out some upcoming Exchange pieces and boy once again I find that my stash heap is just OOC (out of control!!) Thank goodness I have some size requirements, but I was finding things that I had totally forgotten I had - and now want to go and start. I refrained from any crazy new starts and after I had spent a good portion of the evening fiddling with stash I picked up my "ABC Noel" and worked an little on it - but not enough to warrant a snap.

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Last night in the Mission the celebration of Dia de los Muertos was held. Rico went down with a friend and took my camera so I have some snaps of the festival of the Altars held in Garfield Park. Here are his snaps...

and for Steve jobs....

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I found this great traditional Day of the Dead Procession on You Tube -

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

Take care,

edgar

A Great Pre-Code Film!!!

2011-11-02T07:04:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends things are bee bopping along as always here by the Bay. The weather is a'changing and it is going to be a cold and wet weekend..... which means many movies and ordering food delivered!! I do love that there are so many places that will delivery tasty treats so that I don't have to leave my house.

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Last weekend I was in a kind of musical/dance movie mode and so I hauled out my box of Busby Berkeley DVD's....

(a borrowed snaperoo)

I love these films and they are all so much fun to watch. One of my favorites is "Dames" - 1934 - starring Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Zasu Pitts and Guy Kibbee.

In a nutshell from IMBD the story line is......"Multi-millionaire Ezra Ounce wants to start a campaign against 'filthy' forms of entertainment, like Broadway-Shows. He comes to his relatives families and makes them members of his morale-boosting campaign. But Jimmy, another relative is producing a show, starring Ezra's niece Barbara. But he had bad luck with his backer, this person has given him an invalid check. Another of his victims, the show-girl Mabel has the idea of blackmailing Horace, Barbara's father, whom she has met before in a slightly compromising situation to get the money."

One of the musical numbers from the film by that musical genius Busby Berkeley

....the title sequence in fact.....

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There you go sports fans. Thanks for stopping by and for all the great films you have been mentioning in your comments!!

Take care,

edgar

Three Great Hallowe'en Films

2011-11-01T07:14:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thanks so much for your kind comments about yesterdays post. It was a fun foodie weekend for sure!!

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I had today's post mulling over in the back of my mind for a week or so but just never got to getting it written and posted. Now with Hallowe'en over and today being the 1st of November - that seems incredible!! I better get to mentioning these films - and although worth seeing anytime of the year they lend themselves to the Fall and Hallowe'en especially.

First up will be a film from my childhood - that I have seen many times over the years and always enjoy!! "Mad Monster Party" - 1967 - starring the voices of Boris Karloff, Allen Swift, Gale Garnett and Phyllis Diller.

Set on the Isle of Evil the Baron von Frankenstein, Karloff, as head of The Worldwide Organization of Monsters invites all the classic monsters to his retirement party - they include Dracula, the Wolfman, the Invisible Man, the Mummy, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, King Kong and Igor, inspired by Peter Lorre. This retirement involves the Baron turning over his fantastic inventions and "secrets' to his nerdy nephew Felix. The Baron's outrageously gorgeous secretary/assistant is outraged and plans to foil this giving away of the secrets to the nephew. Although not really a Hallowe'en film it always played during the Holiday as I was growing up so I always think of it as a Hallowe'en film.

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The next two films are much more recent - "Hocus Pocus" - 1993 - starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, Omir Katz and Thora Birch -

On Hallowe'en night three witches dead 300 years are brought back to life in modern day Salem and it is up to two teenagers an eight year old and an immortal Black cat to keep them from their evil plans. I love this movie and have seen it many times. Bette Midler absolutely steals the show at the Hallowe'en dance when she sings "I put a Spell on You" - Here is a You Tube Clip of the Midler singing the song...

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The last film I wanted to mention is "Sleepy Hollow" - 1999 - starring Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Casper Van Dien, Jeffrey Jones and Richard Griffiths.

This truly American ghost story is a short story by Washington Irving and first published in 1820. This version of the story uses the basic outline set down by Irving while expanding on some of the more gruesome aspects. Set in 1799 New York, Ichabod Crane is sent to the small hamlet of Sleepy Hollow to investigate 3 murders. The murders are all decapitations by the notorious ghost of the Headless Horseman. As the murders escalate the story unfolds and culminates is some great action along with some twists to the story. Here is the trailer from the film....

I really enjoy this film, on may levels. First, the wonderful vision and touch of Tim Burton is all over this film - as Director of many fine films he brings to this film a great artistic sensibility that is top notch!! The ensemble cast couldn't have been better - everyone is perfectly chosen and all work in unison as a group perfectly - I couldn't recommend this film highly enough!! It is a bit gory and bloody at times, but not unnecessarily so and not too over the top.

There you go sports fans - 3 Fall/Hallowe'en films that are worth seeing anytime of the year - but are especially great treats at this time of the year. In a week or so I will talk about Holiday films..... I do love my Christmas movies, any suggestions??? Thanks for stopping by, do come again!

Take care,

edgar

A Great Weekend of Fun Stuff

2011-10-31T07:14:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends it was a lovely weekend here San Francisco - the weather was great low 70's bright and sunny - we got lots cleaned around the house and a bunch of errands run!!

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We started the weekend off Friday evening going out for Sushi to Kitaro in the Richmond. I have mentioned this place before so I didn't bother to take any snaps.

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Then on Saturday evening we had a special treat!! You remember the kitties we watched a while back - their mommy and daddy wanted to take us out to dinner as a Thank You - how great was that!!! We went to a San Francisco institution called "The House of Prime Rib." I had never been here so I was really excited to go, as I had heard some super things about this place.

Reservations are terribly hard to get but Tom got us one and so our evening was secured!! The menu is very small as they do one thing and do it superbly!! They make prime rib! You start of with a super salad that they dress at table side...

They use a special creamy house dressing - Then for dinner you decide which cut you would like of prime rib... from a small, City Cut (which ain't so small) to a King Henry VIII Cut ( a monster piece of prime rib!). Then you have to decide what sides, mashed or baked potato, and either creamed spinach or creamed corn and there you go. I had the City Cut... really rare, and going MOOOOO -

with mashed and spinach - absolutely delicious!!!!

The other three went for the English Cut with baked potato and spinach..

the potatoes where just heaped with toppings.....

Also with each dinner was a piece of Yorkshire pudding - and the sourdough and corn sticks kept coming - lets just say they filled you up with some super delicious food!!!! The HoPR also has deserts but by the time that came around nobody could look at another bit of food. In fact I took home a piece of mine a some of Rico's for the who-hounds and they loved their bites of prime rib!!!! It was super evening, great food and some super friends!!!!!! Thanks Tom and Mindy!!!!!!

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Yesterday after Mass we stopped off for some breakfast and a quick visit to Trader Joe's and then it was home. I spent the rest of the day watching films, stitching some and baking some.

I stitched some on my "ABC Noel" piece and am now at the half way point on the letter "M." Here is a pretty bad snap of how it looks at the moment -

The only major change I have made - aside from a small miscount - that I am leaving - is the Teddy Bear at "L" - it is charted as white, but after a few rows I did not like that so I frogged them out and switched to the golden brown colour I like much better!!

- and - in the kitchen I whipped up some enchiladas and I baked up this great Fall Apple cake.

the recipe I found over at Amish Stories - click HERE to go there. The recipe can be found on this Blog Posting. The only changes I made to the recipe was to add some spices (if you would like my additions just ask) - the recipe called for none and I thought it would help the cake immensely - and I was not wrong.

It turned out to be a delicious moist cake the brown sugar topping is just perfect!! It has great apple chunks and flavour, just perfect for the Fall!!! Thanks so much Richard for the BLOG and for the great reading!!!

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There you go sports fans. I'm gonna talk movies tomorrow so get ready!!

Thanks for stopping by do come again.

Take care,

edgar

A Film for Thursday

2011-10-27T07:26:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thank you for the kind comments and wonderful emails about my version of Carol's SAL!! I am really enjoying the whole piece and will certainly miss the SAL once it is over.

Last night I worked on getting my "Christmas Rules" completed. If you remember I finished this piece last year, but was not happy with the way the button accents looking so big on 36ct linen I used. I got them off and then decided to accent mine with some beads - well, that is what I worked on doing and finished getting the beads on. What may you ask lit a fire to get me moving on that piece??? Two reasons - firstly - this great piece had languished in the "stitching basket" far too long and secondly - it is going off to be framed.

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Last night the film was "Half a Sixpence" - 1967 - starring Tommy Steele and Julia Foster

A nice story about an orphan, Arthur Kipps, who works for and tyrannical boss. His life turns upside down when he inherits a fortune at his grandfather's death. The songs overall are bright a cheerful - the musical numbers do tend to the long side. Originally a stage play the movie version often suffers and has a stagy feel about it. Overall a pleasant film. Here is a You Tube "clip of clips" from the film....

At about 143 minutes it gets a bit long winded, but just push through the Intermission.

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There you go sports fans. Thanks for stopping by, do come again.

Take care,

edgar

Carol's Mystery SAL - Part 7

2011-10-26T06:50:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends it is a cool morning here in the city... I am so grateful that the weather is holding in the cool zones - and will hold that way for a few more days. I have become so accustomed to being chilly/cool that when the temps start to go up, like they did over the weekend, I just start to swelter. I just can not take the heat or hot weather - or warmish weather either.

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I finished up the 7th part of the ongoing SAL that Carol is having over at iStitch - here is a snap of my piece as it stands at the moment....

I am using HDF Silks - the main colour is Oxblood - I am adding in bits of "Blueberry Soup" and for this section it was the little harebell flowers that are blue - since they are a type of bluebell, I thought it was appropriate. Only one more section and this Mystery will be finished. I love doing mystery SAL's they keep stitching so interesting and as a group project they can't be beat!!

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There you go sports fans - Thank you for your kind comments and emails!! Do stop by again.

Take care,

edgar

An Estate Find and a Fine Film

2011-10-25T06:59:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thank you so much for all your kind comments about yesterdays post. I mentioned yesterday about the framed piece I picked up on Saturday - I got a couple of snaps of it last night and here they are...

and here is a detail of the actual frame...

You can see the Victorian print is kind of sappy - and had a run in with some water, but that was not what I was buying - the frame is in perfect condition with and opening of 17 1/2 x 19 1/2 this will fit a good sized sampler at some point. I tried a couple of my completed pieces and they just do not fit. Which is a shame as I really like this frame and wish I had something that would fit sot hat I could hang it up. I was surprised that such a great frame was even left by Saturday afternoon as the house was pretty well picked over by the time we got there. It might be that this was hanging sort of high up and in a dark little hall near a laundry room - I just snatched it off the wall - and $5 later I had a great old frame.

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If you remember one of my favorite stories is "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens and since we are coming up on Christmas ( Only 60 More Days!!) I thought I should start my annual re-watching of the different film versions that have been made over the years - I started out this past weekend with a favorite version of mine -

The 1951 B&W versions starring Alastair Sim - I have always enjoyed this version so much and would recommend it to anyone. It is out on both DVD and BluRay. The movie hinges on the Scrooge performance and Sim is really wonderful!! The supporting cast is also excellent with Kathleen Harrison playing Scrooges charlady - and Mervyn Jones and Hermione Baddeley as the Cratchits - this Holiday classic is well worth a look.

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There you go sports fans! Thanks for stopping by do come again.

Take care,

edgar

Seasonal Things....

2011-10-24T06:57:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends no big quakes over the weekend - lots of little ones - but nothing that you could really feel. I guess here in the Bay area we become immune to any quake that doesn't shake the buildings. You hear all the time about "the big one" that's coming - and not that I doubt it for a moment, I just hope it comes after my time here.

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On to nicer things.... I heard from Roberta that the ornament I made her for the HOE "Words of Christmas" Ornament Exchange arrived safe and sound. Here is a snap...

"Christmas Angel" by Midsummer Night Designs

from the 2007 JCS Ornament Issue

Although I got off to a rocky start with this exchange - I am really pleased with the way she turned out. I have stitched her before and just love the whole design!! It was a super Exchange and now with the HOE Ornament exchanges wrapping up with a "Stitchers Choice" it has been a great year of stitching ornaments!!

I also worked some on my "ABC Noel" - here is a snap, ignore the wrinkles!!

It is coming along nicely - I am finding small missing stitches in the chart that I am adding as I go - either they didn't make it to the chart, but appear in the picture or I like it better with my additions, whatever, it is still a great piece to work on!!

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On Saturday we ran around to some Estate sales, I picked up a framed Victorian print, I bought it for the frame and not the print. I forgot to get a snap, I'll get one up in the morning. While out and about we ran by the Mall. Now why would we go the Mall you might ask... for a couple of reasons - to stop off a Trader Joe's, to stop off a Macy's for a Birthday Present for my Nephew and to make a stop off at William Sanoma's. I make a trip to WS every Fall to pick up this stuff.......

I buy this every Fall and have for years - they only carry it during the Fall and usually run out by Thanksgiving. I keep this soap in my refillable soap thing on the kitchen sink and every time I wash my hands during the year I get a flash of Christmas and the woods - Call me odd, call my weird but when I start to run low come August I start to get very nervous to see whether my last dribble of soap will last until I can get more!! We also stopped to get lunch at Micky D's as they have for a limited time the.......

McRib - they hardly ever get these here in SF and when they do I must have one!! All BBQ sauced and delicious!!

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I baked up a really great cake that Coni over at Spinster Stitcher posted about. Called "Claudia's Root Beer Bundt Cake" you can click HERE to go to the recipe. Here is a snap of mine...

The changes I made were... to replace the allspice with some nutmeg and clove and instead of using a Bundt pan I used a tube pan and instead of butter and flour in the pan I used butter and cocoa powder, I think that turns out a nicer finish on the outside of a chocolate cake than flour. The actual cake is a nicely dense, chocolaty, brownie type of cake that goes super with a cup of coffee!!

Thanks so much Coni for sharing this great recipe!!

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There you go sports fans - thanks for stopping by and for your great comments - I do love reading them!!

Take care,

edgar

Shake, Shake Friday

2011-10-21T06:21:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends just checking in to let you know that I'm still here. Still working on "ABC Noel" - I'll get a snap up next week.

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Yesterday we had a little excitement - two - count em' two earthquakes. Well, we have them all the time every day, but usually they are so small they go unfelt or you think a bus is rumbling by. But, yesterday as I was getting ready to leave to go home the entire building lurched back and forth and back and forth and back and then settled out. It is an odd felling - after a quake - you sort of stand there (or sit) waiting to see if that is it or if that is just the beginning....... so I sat and waited about 5 minutes and then met up with Rico to go home. That first quake was 3.9 - 4.0 in size, so not gigantic, but big enough.

Then last nigh at about 8:16pm the whole house sort of rumbled and then went bang and shudder.... we had had another one!! This one at about 4.1 or so - well that got Smokie yapping and running around in circles and the girls sporadically barking and Pete shaking - again you sort of sit and wait it out to see if that is the beginning of something much worse. Both quakes were quick, but unnerving and both quakes where on the Hayward fault over in Berkeley. This morning the news (and they are always so right!!) explained that the first one was the quake and the second and after shock.... so who knows!!

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Thanks again for stopping by - have a great weekend!!

Take care,

edgar

A Movie Post

2011-10-19T06:29:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thank you so much for your kind comments about my stitching story and how I came to really enjoy this hobby. I had a couple of emails asking if my mom or grandmother stitched - and the answer is yes and sort of. My mom used to stitch much more, usually needlepoint pieces and the cross stitching she did was the printed linen kits - and my paternal grandmother was more a crafter than a sitcher. She could turn her hand to just about anything she set her mind to - her favorite hobby was ceramics and even taught classes in Raleigh for a few years in the late 50's early 60's. I have a couple of pieces of her stitching that I haul out every year during the Holidays that I love - I have posted snaps in the past of them and will again this year.... but not today. :)

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Last night I caught a great little film called "Vivacious Lady" - 1938 - starring Ginger Rogers, James Stewart, Beulah Bondi and Charles Coburn.

The basic story is about a Professor from a very conservative college, played by Stewart, is visiting New York to fetch his happy go lucky cousin home. Finding the cousin in a nightclub the professor runs into Francey, a headliner from the Club played by Rogers. After a whirlwind romance they are married and on their way home to break it to his parents - The Professors father is President of the College, played by Coburn and his mother is played by that wonderful actress Bondi. At the Station waiting is the Father and the Professors Fiance!! Some quick shuffling and the cousin leaves with Francey and the Professor with father and Fiance! The rest of the movie details the ins and outs of telling the parents about his new wife. A fun film at about 90 mins - shown on TCM frequently. An interesting tid bit about this film is that this was Stewart's first starring roll in a top film.

There you go sports fans - not much else going on. Thanks for stopping by - do come again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Busy Couple of Weeks

2011-10-17T06:48:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends we did absolutely nothing over the last two days so nothing to report there.

I did want to let you all know about the next 10 or so days....Posting here on the Blacksheep will be sporadic at best for the next couple of weeks. My usual thing to do in the morning is get in to work, make a pot of coffee and post here - but we will be very short handed here so I will have lots more to do and my little bits of "morning downtime" I use here will evaporate. I will try and post as I am able - I may even get on the computer at home and post, you just never know. So, with that all said don't think I am gone, but just on an odd vacation - where I am still checking in!!

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I had a question from Sharon about "How did I start stitching" a super question I may have talked about a long time ago, but can certainly talk about again - ........... Picture it Sicily 1921 - there I was a lone goat herder.... whoops, not my story, but a Sophia story.. :)

My stitching story really starts back when I went away to school. My first year at ECU (Go Pirates!!!) I rented a room from a really nice widow woman. She has a gigantic house with many bedrooms and all her children had moved on so she rented to University students. She was also a friend of my moms so I had an in with her already!! One of the bedrooms was rented to a great gal named Louann with whom I became great friends. Well, my first two semesters my classes fell so that we both where home at about the same time and usually that meant around the time that "As the World Turns" came on the tube. So I fell into watching the show with Louann - and she was an avid stitcher who continuously stitched away while watching the goings and coming in Oakdale - and eventually she taught me to cross stitch. I learned on Aida cloth - and for the longest time had no idea that linen even existed. Eventually I switched from cross stitching to needlepoint and did that for a few years. Then for some reason I just stopped stitching altogether - for about 10 years or so. Then in about 2005 I pulled out some old projects I had kept and stitched a bit, but was completely unenthusiastic - I thought what I needed was something new and or interesting so, I got on the Internet and found a bonanza of cross stitching stuff - and the Blog World! I bought some things, started to stitch again and coasted about lurking for a couple of years before I started to Blog. Here we are 4+ years later and I am still stitching and really enjoying it along with the Blogging it sort of rounds out the Hobby, for me at least. So there you go. My story in a rather large nutshell.

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

Take care,

edgar

A Lovely Piece of Mail

2011-10-14T06:49:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends once again I thank you for your kindness and ego boosting!! I do love getting your comments and emails about my little projects and stitching. I had a few emails and questions about the "ABC Noel" chart - I bought this a really long time ago when I first saw it and just do not remember where it came from. I did a quickie search and found it HERE - I think that part of the expense is that there is a largish edelweiss bauble/charm as part of the design - so that may be why it is a bit on the high side. I didn't work on it a bit last night - instead I was Mr frustrated stitcher as I am working on a ornament - or I should say I was working on an ornament - now I shifted gears and am working on another ornament - and leave it at that. It will be my focus for the next couple of days and be in the mail on Monday - "Lord willing and the creek don't rise!!!!"

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I wanted to show you a snap of the lovely ornament that I received from Ellen S as part of the "Words of Christmas" HOE Exchange we took part in -

It is a really cute little pocket ornament from Bent Creek - 1998 - I filled it with a bit of excelsior to fill it out as I am without any Christmas candy at the moment. It will look super de duper on my little stitching tree I put up every year. Thank you Ellen!!!

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... and that about wraps up the week for me - do stop back again!! Have a great weekend!

Take care,

edgar

Mistletoe and Mail

2011-10-13T06:53:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thank you so much for your input on the "ABC Noel" Sampler - I agree with the consensus that the letters and pictures do not correspond and are just red letters with seasonal images. One super thing about this sampler is that I can finish up a letter in an evening stitching - it is like a little mini finish!! That is a real jolt to the ego! Last night was the lettre "C" - here is a snap of the the entire piece as it stands...

That looks like mistletoe to me - later on there is a bunch of what I presume to be holly - and not on the "H". The start of the lettre "D" is a dark green fir tree. . It is a great sampler so far - and you know me - I do love stitching the alphabet!! I will have to put this down for a day or so as I need to finish up an exchange piece I am working on so that I can get it in the mail on Monday.

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Yesterday the mail brought a really lovely Birthday prezzie from Berit. When I opened up the box I found....

....everything all beautifully wrapped with a gorgeous card!! And, here are all the treats....

...starting in the lower left corner some really delightful incense, a micro-planer for ginger and citrus rind, and some tasty cookies!! Thank you so much Berit!!

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That about wraps it up for today sports fans - thanks again for stopping by and for your comments!!

Take care,

edgar

"B" is for Stag? or What a Big Rack You've Got!

2011-10-12T06:48:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thank you so much for all the kind comments about my post yesterday. "Harvest Blessing" was a fun sampler to stitch - and I have a few more Pocketbook Needlebook newsletters so there will be more of these little samplers in the future.

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I got the letter "B" stitched up and started on "C" - these letters really do stitch up very fast.

Here is a snap..

"ABC Noel" by Les Ambrosales

36 LL Vintage Meadow Rue

Recommended DMC Floss

Here's a thought about this sampler that has been working in my brain......usually when an alphabet sampler has images along with the letters - typically the image begins with the corresponding letter, but with this sampler I think that the images are just Christmas/Holiday/Winter things that have nothing to do with the letter. I realize this is a French chart and the french words are different than the English words - but my French is good enough to sort out what the translation could be and I don't see any correlation. Not that it matters - just a thought. Any other thoughts out there readers????

I am really not liking the way the flash makes the stitching look so sparse - I am doing this 1 over 2 on 36ct and the coverage looks fine to me - except when I see a snap - then the linen seems to just shine through - oh well, IRL it doesn't look so sparse.

There you go sports fans. Thanks again for stopping by and leaving a comment!! Until tomorrow....

Take care,

edgar

"A" New Start and a Finish...

2011-10-11T06:44:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thanks for stopping by and for sharing a minute with me and my Blog. I only have a couple of little things today. I started one of my Christmas Stitches - here is a snap...

"ABC Noel" - from AMBR

stitched on 36 ct LL using the recommended DMC Floss

The letter "A" worked up pretty quickly and so I am imagining that the rest of the Alphabet will also.

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I also framed up the finish I had over the weekend -

"Harvest Blessing" by Mary Beale

from Pocketbook Needlework No. 8 Fall 1990

Stitched on 28ct "Fresco" using the recommended DMC Floss

This is framed in one of the old frames I picked up at an estate sale - and fits it like a glove. I really enjoyed this stitch - I have other Mary Beale charts that I will have to get to stitching.

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There you go sports fans - short and sweet!! Do stop back again!

Take care,

edgar

Monday Musings

2011-10-10T07:34:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends the weekend once again flew by..... and although it seemed relaxing we got quite a bit done.

Let me start off with a snap of Part 6 of the Mystery SAL from Carol

I really love the scissors in this square. This is a really fun piece to do and I am so happy that I jumped right in!! Thanks again Carol!!!

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One thing we did do that was sort of out of the ordinary was a quickie visit to the Flower Market..

You can really tell that Autumn/Fall was winding down and Christmas was winding up... here are some snaps from our visit....

There were a few chrysanthemums - and these where really pretty.

Unlike Madonna - I love Hydrangeas!! and this colour is great!!

These orchids look almost like silk in their perfection.

I do love a bromeliad - and these where really pretty

at Fantastico's (yes that is the name of the store) They have lots of Christmas out already...

and they even have this very pretty Fall Tree in the middle of all the Christmas ones!.

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Speaking of Christmas - one of my favorite things to get are these -

Lebkuchen- a totally seasonal thing that our little German Store only gets during the Holidays - we stopped in not thinking they would have any and she had gotten some in!! Woo-Hoo!!! I was introduced to them when I travelled in Germany - this cookie originated in Nuremberg=- and you can get the there all the year.

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Keeping with the foodie theme... we had a great end of weekend dinner last night - I fixed us some onion rings and Rico grilled us a steak....

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Yesterday afternoon I baked up a Pumpkin Bread with a brown Sugar glaze....

This recipe was posted last week over at The Country Cook - and it is simply delicious!!!!! I'll re post it over a Blacksheep Bakes with my changes. I did finally post the Taco Won Tons - let me know if you have any questions!!
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I think I'll leave off today with a snap of Smokie - he has really taken to the Big Girls bed....

There you go sports fans - thanks for stopping by and for taking the time to leave a comment!!

Take care,

edgar

Bang, Bang, Bang went the Bats

2011-10-07T06:44:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends here in the Bay area we are going to have two super nice days off - the weather is supposed to be perfect - no rain, no cold, just right..... or at least that is the word form the weather magicians. For the last couple of days it has rained and yesterday we had a super downpour mixed with hail. So, two nice days - I'll take 'em!

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I forgot the recipes at home so that will have to wait until Monday - whoops.

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On the right side of the Blog I added a flicker account of some of my stitching. Over the last few years I have gotten quite a few emails about "why I didn't have an album of my work" and getting that together came down to two things - ignorance and laziness. A very bad combination for me! So I got some help, thanks Sweet Coni!! - and got my rear in gear and got some snaps taken - et voila - pictures of my stitching in one place. As time goes along I will get info about each piece with each piece but for now I think I'm doing good to get this much done. I love looking at all the stitching on the Blogs and think it only fair you should see mine in one place, so enjoy!

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Yesterday I got another little prezzie in the mail - that is where the title of this post comes from

- my friend in NC sent me these...

I immediately blew them up and was not too sure what they where for exactly until Rico told me you are to hit them together at sporting events to throw the opponents off - they do make an odd sound when hit and I guess if enough people have them and are hitting then in unison they would make a sound that could be construed as a distraction - the best part is the ECU logo - GO PIRATES!!!! As you might remember it's my Alma mater!! So when I next find myself at a sporting event I will be prepared (insert chuckle HERE). Thanks Dale!!

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There you go sports fans - another week gone!! Thanks for stopping by, do come again!!

Have a great weekend!

Take care,

edgar

Some Super Mail

2011-10-06T07:01:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends - Happy almost weekend dancing....

..........woo hoo!!!

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The last couple of days have brought some great mail - Birthdays are great and prezzies make it that much more special.... from my sister and her family.....

some gigantic Shari's Berries - so delectable!!!

......the mail also brought some great Birthday cards, and great PS pyn pillow from Vera - I just love this chart from PS, I have stitched it a few times for others but never got around to doing one for myself, now I have this great piece!!! and a GC to NIAH from Dale!! Thank you guys so much!!!

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I was the winner of Kathy's Feel Good Drawing" over at Kathy's Sit and Stitch - and this wonderful package arrived -

"Snowflake Serenade" from CHN, and great cut of linen, some floss - and - a really cute scissor fob with a little de-frog froggie charm on the end - I attached it to some scissors I had it it looks great!!! And, if that was a great package Kathy also included a really cute Birthday card!! Thanks so much Kathy!!

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That about wraps it up for today sports fans - thanks for stopping by, do stop by again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Food Post.....

2011-10-05T07:04:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends - I wanted to thank everyone for their kind Birthday wishes - I opened up the Blog and comments this morning and was so moved by them all - thank you, thank you!!! It was just raining a bit too much so we stayed in last night and order Chinese Take out for dinner from Alice's - we really enjoy this place and they are super quick with getting an order together. You can click HERE to go to their website. There was enough leftovers so that we got lunch out of it for today!! Woo - Hoo I love it when a dinner can do double duty!!

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Over the weekend we did run some errands and one of them was to Trader Joe's .....

..... and they had a gigantic display of canned pumpkin - there had to be 200 + cans of the stuff, so I picked up a couple of cans. If you live near a TJ's check them out as I think this stuff will go pretty fast. The supermarkets in the city are still bare shelved when it comes to canned pumpkin. I also picked up a Dark chocolate bar with caramel and black sea salt - how tasty!! And, we stopped at a Walgreen's and what else would I be getting but some candy corn - love this stuff!!

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We often go out either Saturday or Sunday or both nights for dinner - but not feeling like going out we made a nice little dinner -

.... I made some biscuits and mashed "taters and Rico fried some chicken and made some almond string beans. I made enough biscuits that the lasted for a few meals - and we had enough chicken for lunch the next day.
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Also in the kitchen......I found a few years ago on the Internet a recipe I have wanted to try and this past weekend I whipped up some.....

..... Taco Won-tons - they turned out really tasty and the recipe made enough that I froze a bunch of them to have later. Rico made some Spanish rice et voila, dinner!!

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I also baked up this....

.... cranberry coffee cake - I made this before, but might not have posted the recipe. I'll get the recipe for everything up on Blacksheep Bakes in the morning - everything is pretty easy to make!! And, I found them all just surfing around and from others sharing!!! I love the Internet!!!!!

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I will post a birthday snap tomorrow as I left my camera at home this morning

- something I just never do!!

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There you go sports fans.

Thanks again for you kindnesses and for stopping by.

Do come again!!!

Take care,

edgar

48 and Not 49

2011-10-04T06:50:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends - OMGoodness when I opened up my gmails I was astounded at your kind thoughts for me and my "under the weather day." I was feeling "puny" (as my granny would say) all weekend and we pretty much stayed close to home. Now on to today - I turned 48....

What's so odd is that for the past few days I had really thought I was turning 49 - I am such a ding sometimes.... walking around in a total haze. Then this morning I thought I can't be 49 I have to be 48 and so I hauled out all my fingers and toes for the recount..... darned if the numbers and years (year?) just fell away like last years ratty hairpiece!!! So, now I have two more years in my 40's until I click over to my 50's. In fact I never think of how old I am or am I getting old as it is so irrelevant to my life - its a number that will not stop going up so who cares!! I have never understood those folks that are so completely obsessed with the year and time moving forward that they forget that this little bit of time we are given is for living and not brooding!!

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I am going to keep it shortish today - and only show the stitching I got done on "Harvest Blessing" -

I am really enjoying this piece but the 28 ct linen is so "open" woven and using two strand of floss feels very clunky. But, this will look great in the frame I have for it, so 28 ct it is to be the size I need! Notice that cow? Lower left - kind of an odd little fellow. At first I thought it might be a dog, but he has some horns - so cow it is.

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There you sports fans - thanks again for your kind comments. Look for my Birthday/Hallowe'en Gift-a-way in the next week or so!!

Take care,

edgar

Feeling Poorly...

2011-10-03T06:25:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends - I am feeling very craptastic this morning so I am packing it in - and - going home so I can get to feeling better.

Why I came in is beyond me at the moment!!!

Take care,

edgar

Friday Flicks...

2011-09-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends I'll wrap up the week with a couple of really fine films I had the chance to view this week.

Now, I know that you probably think I can't watch anything after about 1966....67..... but that just isn't so. I can watch almost anything, but my preference is for old film from the "golden Age" of film making. I do not care for those two words and think they are used way too much!! the two films today where both made in the last 10 years and both of these films I had never seen before nor had I heard about them - but found them just searching around looking at different acoptrs bios.

First up would be "The Straight Story" - 1999 - starring Sissy Spacek and Richard Farnsworth. Directed by David Lynch - this is not a movie for fans of the usual eerie Lynch stuff. Rather, it's for those who appreciate a good story. The story unfolds flawlessly, and we are taken along a journey that, I believe, most of us will come to recognize at some time. A compassionate journey where we make amends for our past when approaching our inevitable demise. Acting is without faults, cinematography likewise (occasionally quite brilliant!), and the dialogue is spare enough for the viewer to grasp the details of the story. A really good movie that develops slowly.

The second film I want to mention is "Noel" - 2004 - starring Susan Sarandon, Penelope Cruz, Paul Walker, Alan Arkin and Robin Willimas. I love Christmas films but I had never seen this one - nor had I heard much about it either.

With an all-star cast and a story written with such complex layer and beauty, it is hard to not fall deep into the spirit of this movie. As we watch each character move through the day and night before Christmas Day, we see their stories woven into an interconnected pattern which ultimately proves the magical power of the Holiday. Each story different, each life full of pain and love; both sides of the Christmas holiday are shown in this film. The lonely and the loved, the heartsick and the passionate, the joyful and the sad - Noel is a Christmas story which speaks to the truth of the magic of Holiday Season. All actors shine in this touching film, with the performances of Susan Sarandon, Penelope Cruz, Paul Walker, Alan Arkin, and Robin Williams encompassing intense, simple, and artful portraits of the human condition. If you are looking for a modern Holiday movie full of the rich character and story detail found in the great reels of the past - do not turn to the numerous "Seasonal flicks" found on cable TV - but rather, discover and rediscover the magic found in Noel.

I thoroughly enjoyed these two films and with each running about 100 minutes they move along telling great stories!! I hope you check them out.

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There you go sports fans. Thanks again for stopping by - and for your great comments!!

Do come again!

Take care,

edgar

Two Kitties, Two Stitches and some Wings!!!!!

2011-09-28T06:44:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends we are now in the throws of our "summer weather." Last week we had a couple of days of warm weather and this week we are into our third day of "heat." Now, heat is relative and here in SF when the temps rise into the upper 70's low 80's it is defined as "hot" weather - Tomorrow and every day until Sunday the high temps will begin to drop 6+ degrees a day and we should get a sprinkle of rain or two at the end of the four days. That's about it for the Summer type of anything - and I am not going to complain!!

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I mentioned yesterday that we are taking care of a couple f kitties - so I thought you might like to see Nikita and Chauncey - they are very sweet kitties.

They used to be very skittish when we first met them a few years ago - but now they both come running for rubs and scratches and some play time.

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I finished up Part 5 of the Mystery SAL Sampler that Carol is running - Here is where mine stands as of last night..

and , I also worked a bit on the Mary Beale Sampler.....

My flash was way too hot and I tired to compensate with a colour fix and so I got this craptastic snaperoo. You get the idea.

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Last night Rico brought home some delicious wings - lemon/pepper and Hickory Smoked BBQ!! From a place called "Wing Stop." He was introduced to this place by a coworker - thanks Prisma!!

.......so, we stopped on the way home at the Safeway and picked up some Loaded Skins and cole slaw - the beer we already had - and it was one terrific dinner!!!!! I do love me some Japanese beer!
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That's about it for today sports fans - thanks for stopping by!! Do come again!

Take care,

edgar

Baking Tuesday and Two Sweet Kitties

2011-09-27T06:58:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thanks for stopping by - also, thanks for all the nice comments about the stitching stuff in yesterdays post. I do love Mary Beale project/charts and even though they are older, OOP, HTF and only available on the secondary market - eBay - it does not not make them any less good or fun or clever and certainly worth stitching. I think they have a sort of timelessness about them. You know how some charts look dated within 3 minutes of publication. Then there are the "styles" of stitching or charts that come and go so quickly - I think that MB has staying power and I like doing them - they are just hard to find and are only ever charted for DMC. I did work a bit on HB, and also some on Part 5 of the Mystery Sampler, but do not have a snap of either piece.... I spent most of the evening playing "dog chew toy" with the hounds. Why is it that I am more fun to chew than the dozens of toys littering the floor???

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I posted the recipe for the Spice Cake I made on Sunday. The original recipe came from the "Mennonite Girls can Cook" Blog. You can click HERE to go there, it is a great Blog, so you should check it out. I also included the little tweaks I made to the recipe. For my version and to go to Blacksheep Bakes click HERE. Here is a snap of my cake.....

It has a great flavour and is a real Fall treat!!
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Some friends/neighbors of ours are travelling in Sicily for the next 10 days and we are babysitting their two kitties. Now, I am a dog person through and trough but these two kitties are totally sweet!! I am really enjoying the "Kitty Play" I am getting in the morning and evening! I'll get some snaps of those sweet kitties posted in the next day or so.

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I think that about wraps it up for today sports fans. Thanks again for stopping by - do stop by again!!

Take care,

edgar

A New Stitch and an Old Stitch

2011-09-26T06:49:00.000-07:00

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends it seems that this past weekend was busy or was it? Although there was two days off we stayed pretty busy just catching up on the day to day things. I did accomplish one thing I had on my list that I thought I wouldn't get to - I made it to the Serramonte Center - a big Mall just south of the city and picked up a Birthday Present for my Niece. Her Birthday is coming up - the day after mine - so there is no excuses to forget. Thank goodness I asked my sister ahead of time what I could get for her - I would have had no idea as to size - or even what department to start looking in. The sales girl was very helpful at the Macy's and I left with a mission accomplished!! But, boy did I feel old and clueless!!

I went to that Mall instead of the Mall I usually go to because I needed to stop in to Michael's for a skein of DMC 371 I was missing - which was making me nuts!! It always seems that out of the 25 skeins you have there is always one that you don't - AND - that one is the one that you need to get a new start moving along. Here is a snap of my new start .....

"Harvest Blessing" by Mary Beale,

from Notebook Pocketbook, Fall 1990

28ct PT Fresco - recommended DMC

It is zooming along nicely - and is a smallish piece that I already have a frame lined up from the "frame heap.".

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I also got some stitching in on Shores - and here is where I left off on that piece....

Even though the picture is wonky as all get out - you get the idea. Now that I have the house all filled in this will be a much nicer Block as I really love the way the pine tress look.

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There you go sports fans - I did bake a treat but will save that for tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by and for your great comments!!

Take care,

edgar