A Long Weekend and a Winner!!

GR&DF the weekend is sadly over and once again we - or at least I - am back to the grindstone. It could be worse I could have no stone to grind so I will bitch Little and write much!

Starting off with Friday evening - a friend of ours was having a birthday so we took him out to dinner. He wanted to go to Fattoush - a favorite restaurant of ours - that is about 2 mins from our house. We got there a bit early and found fast parking. So we stopped into a cute little shop -

they sell the best loose tea and fun tea antiques. Directly across the street is the Tea Room -

A really lovely space devoted to sitting and drinking tea and eating small sandwiches!!

Once we where seated at Fattoush and the food came I whipped out the camera and got snaps of our dinners -

Rico had what he always has - Shish Taouk - chicken shish kabob - or as he calls is middle eastern fajitas!

I was determined to have something I had never had before so I chose - Mansef - which is lamb cooked in aged yogurt with almonds and saffron rice - (the lamb is in the tangy yogurt saffron rice ball)

- and Don had M'sakhan - his was the chicken cooked with onions, almonds, sumac and allspice wrapped in filo. It was all very delicious as usual!!

On Saturday I ran around with Dale to some sales - not too much out there but I found some things...


I found a great old framed Christmas Post card a book - and...

this perfect set of Heisey "Greek Key" - cream and sugar. I usually can't afford this pattern on the secondary market (eBay) and seldom see it at any house sale, but this I found and it was totally cheap! Woo-Hoo for me!

On Saturday evening I met up with Roberta and her son Jeremy for dinner. We went to a new restaurant to me called Osha Thai - it was really delicious. I forgot my camera (can you believe it!!) so no snaps of our dinners - I had crab fried rice - something I had never had before and it was fresh and sweet and delicious!! I will certainly be back!! Roberta is out here for the EGA Conference taking place this week. Tomorrow we are meeting up again and spending some cash at the market they are having at the Marriott!! I can't wait as it should be a good time finding some totally necessary stash!!!!

On Sunday was 800th Post Drawing..... after the hag claw mixed up the entries in the BoD (Bowl of Destiny) the who-hounds got involved...

little Lolly wasn't too sure what to make of the BoD - and I think she thought there might be a snack or three in there some where. My little man-dog stepped right up ....

and was going to find a cookie if it killed him - In doing so he pulled out an entry... and the winner is Nancy from "Lovely in Chocolate!!"

Congrats to Nancy and thank you all for entering and for your kind words and thoughts!!!!!

Yesterday I hauled out the tube pan to bake another Holiday treat. Another favorite cake of mine - Pat's Holiday Rum Cake - this recipe came from a friend of my mothers and was a feature every year at the gigantic open house the held during the Holidays. Here is a snap -

I am running late this morning so I will post the recipe tomorrow.

That's about it for today sports fans! Thanks again for stopping by and for taking the time to leave a comment. I do appreciate them!!

Take care,
edgar

Wrapping Up the Week

GR&DF the week has come to a close and we have two - no THREE - days off!! WOO-HOO!!!! Now, should I be decisive and strong and do some Fall cleaning or acquire the numb butt that I really want and sit around like a bump on a lump and stitch???? A real quandary!

I think I will talk about few flicks this morning - since my stitching is almost non-existent this week for snaps. I started up another exchange piece and worked a bit on SoHRH, but I can't show the exchange and the Shores stitching is not very exciting to see.

Now, if you cast your mind back a few weeks or months ago I mentioned I was throwing the Shirley Temple films onto my NetFlix queue. Not all at once but sprinkled about. I have gotten to see two of them and if you look past the sugary sweet nature of the films it is truly amazing how much talent that little girl had. The first of the two Shirley films was - "Bright Eyes" - 1934 - starring Shirley Temple, James Dunn, Jane Darwell and ever evil little rich girl - Jane Withers. From this film we get a Shirley signature song "The Good Ship Lollypop."



This was really the first film to be tailored specifically to her talents and at 6 years old she made the most of every moment. The second film was "The Littlest Rebel" - 1935 - starring Shirley Temple, John Boles, Jack Holt and Bill Robinson. This film was the second time that Shirley and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson where brought together - and their songs and dance numbers are worth the whole picture.

The next film was "It's a Pleasure" - 1945 - starring Sonja Henie, Michael O'Shea and Marie MacDonald. Lovely Henie plays an ice skater in love with a Hockey player that has problems with anger and the bottle - but she overlooks both issues and marries him anyway. Eventually she goes on to become a star while his career falters and ends. The story is thin but the technicolour is thick and rich with some really nice musical numbers.

Next up would be "The West Point Story" -1950- starring James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Doris Day, Gordon MacRae and Alan Hale, Jr. This is a great song and dance film that takes place at West point - as IMBD says about the story "a Broadway director helps the cadets put on a show, aided by two lovely ladies and assorted complications." A huge amount of talent and although the film is a bit silly the musical numbers are top notch, great singing and great dancing - that's the reason to see the film.

Last up would be a Holiday film I had never heard of - "An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving" - 2008 - starring Jacqueline Bisset, Tatiana Maslany and Helen Joy. This Hallmark TV film was taken from a Louisa May Alcott short story and revolves around a poor widow who is trying to raise her three children on a hard scrabble farm in New Hampshire. There is a mystery about the mother's past and when her very wealthy mother arrives from New York the story starts to unfold with a nice and happy ending for all. This is not Masterpiece theatre, but then not everything is - this film is a pleasant family film that has a good story (very reminiscent of Little Women) with nice cinematography, sets and costumes.

There you go sports fans - I think that about does it for today. Don't forget to put a comment on this POST to be entered in the 800 Post Drawing. I'll be back on Tuesday with another posting and to announce the winner. Have a great weekend!!

Take Care,
edgar

An 800th Drawing - and One Less Friend in the World

GR&DF I do thank you all for the kind comments about yesterdays post. I was so happy to read all your words regarding Garden Path - Even with the issues SD charts have, they are lots of fun - I guess the word I am searching for is quirky - although many of them are based in and on traditional x-stitching forms there is always a little surprise or difference in each one.

I never mind answering questions - the linen I am using is a piece of 36ct something - after I figured what size I would need I just dug around in the stash and found a piece. It was missing its label but not its beauty. I am thinking it is one of the dyed lovelies from PTP - but who really knows. It is stitching a dream and I love the colour. For the floss I shifted it all to various silks I had in my stash. The piece is only charted for DMC - so I pulled all of the recommended DMC cottons and then sort of matched them up with silks I already had - theses included Belle Soie (like butter soooo delicious!!), NPI and HDK. Although pink is far from a favorite colour of mine I kept in the pinks as I so liked the overall look of the finished piece in the photo. I may just save the grassy fill and the satin interior border for the plane trip in November.....

Mary asked about "onion packs." They are just a name we give foil wrapped veggies - the ones we made on Saturday Rico concocted and only had three ingredients - Summer squash, sliced white onion and some chopped garlic. Sealed up in foil they create their own juice and are super yummy without the guilt - I love that!!

Now for my 800th Post Drawing - all you need do is Comment on this Post only before Midnight on this Sunday - September 5, 2010. I will take all the names and throw them into the BoD (Bowl of Destiny) and then have the Hag Claw draw a lucky winner....... and what will the winner win you might ask...... It will be a two part win. The First part of the win will be -

This sweet Glass Frog for your scissors or you could even be more radical and actually use it for flowers! The second part will be a San Francisco treat - sooooo - in the comment you leave to enter you will have to tell me either what you would prefer "Dark" or "Milk" - if no choice is made then I will have to pick and you know what I like!! Hee Hee!! With that all said it is super easy to get entered, you need not live in the US, the drawing is open to everyone. It is just my way of saying thanks for reading and commenting for these past 800 posts!!

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This morning I did get some sad news - which got me to thinking about friendships - we all have people in our lives that come and go and that are good or bad. They can be super friends for a few years and then drift on along and we loose touch or have infrequent connections through the year. I can count quite a few folks in my life that would fit this description. Through mutual friends I found out that I lost one such person from my life. Bringing to mind a favorite poem of mine......


The Bustle in the House

The Bustle in the house
The morning after death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted upon earth, -

The Sweeping up the heart,
And putting love away
We shall not want to use again
Until Eternity.

Emily Dickinson


I especially like the line "putting love away" - like something you can reach for on a shelf. I just love her poems and have turned to them again and again throughout my life.

There you go sports fans, sorry to end on a low note. Do stop by again tomorrow.

Take care,
edgar