A Whole Bunch of Weekend Stuff

GR&DF thank you for your kind comments - as always they warm the heart so much on a cold windy Monday morning!! I am also amazed at the request for the Stew recipe - as I usually get a less than enthusiastic reception when I mention it - I love the stuff!! The recipe is not written down as I make it up from memory so I will have to sit still and write down what I do to get a pot of the stuff - it is super easy and so deliciously warming.

This past weekend was a whirl of food, errands and some butt-numbing stitching!! My kind of 3 Day Break.

Lets start off with something I am really happy about. The day I was flying out of SF for Christmas I got a call from the framers that a piece I had in was finished. I was happy to hear that it was finished, but not very happy about not being able to get it until after I got back. We ran down and picked it up....

It was my Sheepish "Alpha Birds" piece - and I am really happy about the way it turned out. Being a longer than normal piece it was less than cooperative when getting a good snap - but you get the idea.

I also had my first finish for the new year....

Sheepish Designs "Rose Hill Sampler' - 12/23/10 - 1/1/11
LL 36ct Maple Sugar - Converted to HDF Silk

Its a bit wonky in the snap and I changed up the straight line along the bottom. It was a nice little stitch, but quite a bit of fill stitching. I also worked some on "Shores" - but not enough to warrant a snap.
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To the food portion of the post..... Last Thursday Rico turned "1/2 a Dinosaur" or as it is more commonly known "50." Being so close to the Holidays we are putting off a party until later on, but I wanted to do something on Thursday - so we decide to go out to dinner.
There is a new pizza place in our neighborhood that is getting some good publicity so we decided to try it out. Lets just say it was quite delicious. It is called Patxi's (say Paw-cheese). There are 3 of them in the city and this one is within 4 blocks of our house. Here are some snaps.....

We ordered 2 pizzas - one veggie and on meat lovers....

this is the veggie.....

this is the meat lovers....

Here is the veggie one with some slices removed....

and the meat lovers - less a few slices. We started off with some salads and an antipasto tray - but between the 4 of us there was still some slices left over - and we ordered the smallest pizzas. They were really delicious and I am certain we will be back!!. We got there on the early side at about 5:30pm and by the time we left there was a line out the door.
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While we were out running errands on Friday we stopped off at Krispy Kreme and picked these up....
It was so nice to have a donuts and coffee all weekend!! (can you guess what I thinking about as I write about them????)

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

Take care,
edgar

An Alpha Finish, Christmas Ornament, Flowers, Estate Finds and a Cake

GR&DF this past weekend was not as busy as other weekends - but I thoroughly enjoyed both days and did a bunch of fun things!!

Lets start off with the reveal of my Alpha Finish - Here is a snap of the entire piece -

Alpha Birds, Alpha Menagerie & Alpha Sheep - stitched as a single piece
by Sheepeish Designs
using my conversion on 36ct LL Vintage Exemplar
April 3 - May 23, 2010

This is such a long piece that getting a single snap was a bit odd so I also took separate snaps of each section.

Alpha Birds (with a lower band that I re-charted)


Alpha Menagerie (with a band that I charted)


Alpha Sheep (with the Alpha Menagerie Band)

This was such a fun piece to stitch!! I really like Sheepeish designs and now with my little pile of SD samplers I will have to get a stitching them up!! I have a couple of little pieces lined up to stitch next, but I am going to focus on my AEoL RR Piece this week and try to finish it up and get it back to Deb.

I heard from Mel that the ornament I stitched for her had arrived. It was a part of the HOE Early Christmas Ornament Exchange - here is a snap -

Prairie Schooler #117 - Prairie Stars - stitched on 30ct Angel Hair
using the recommended DMC floss.

On the way home on Friday we stopped off at the SF Flower Market to pick up some flowers for the house - we ended up with a couple of orchids and some Mexican tube roses - since I had my camera I got some shots of the flowers......

The orchid place we like has this great bromeliad tree - I have always like this thing - although I am not overly find of bromeliads - go figure.


Isn't this a beautiful orchid. Some of the flowers this guy has are just magnificent - and way less expensive than going to a florist of specialty shop.

some pretty flowers...


buckets of roses....

I look at these mounds of flowers and it looks like they mowed down a garden. I really enjoy visiting the market - especially in the Fall when all the Holiday stuff is out.

Rico and I also got to some Estate Sales on Saturday before his mom and nieces got into town. Here is a snap of my new bits and pieces -

I picked up some more frogs a couple of books a new flipper (I love the green handle) a great old frame and a super Weller vase. It would seem that I am cornering the market on frogs, but I picked up a couple of these for other stitchers that had asked me to if I ran into anymore. I asked Joan (one of the Estate sales worker that we always see) about these glass frogs and her take on it was that they are becoming harder and harder to find. She has been at this "sales" thing for about 30 years here in the Bay area so I kind of trust what she has to say.

Since Rico's Mom was coming up I made a coffee cake to eat on Sunday Morning -

The recipe made one gigantic pecan monster - but it was pretty tasty and there was plenty to take into the office this morning.

There you go sports fans - another week begins, but we are looking at an upcoming 3 Day weekend - so woohoo!!!!! Thanks you for stopping by, do come again.

Take care,
edgar

A Stitchity Posting

GR&DF it warms the heart to read such positive things about my little efforts. I do so enjoy stitching away on something in the evenings. The only downside is when you come to the end of something. Although wonderful to have a beautiful thing - it is an emptiness to not pick up that old friend you have had in your hands working on. I guess I am getting a bit melancholy because I finished up another section of the Alph Birds Sampler last night. Here is a snap of the two sections completed -

As you can see I am at the double gold band that separates the sections. I think I am going to fill these bands with motifs from the section, but that may change. Here is a close up of the completed section -

This section is called Alpha Menagerie - and for the life of me some of these animals are just beyond anything I can identify - but as a group they really work. This is a totally fun piece to work on and so much different than what I usually stitch. Only one more section to do - Alpha Sheep - then it is on to a sampler piece.

The header snap has 15 of my stitched pieces. The list of pieces moving counter clockwise from the 5 o'clock position..... "Quaker Christmas" - Bygone Stitches, "Sail Away" - Shepard's Bush, my LHN/CCN RR, "AphaBlocks" - Carriage House, "Flower Basket" - La-D-Da, "Serenity" - Examplar Dames, a stamped linen sampler (my very first linen piece), my Halloween RR (the skeleton comes from a BOAF chart "Remember me on Halloween"), a French Sampler from a magazine, "Beatrix Potter Companion Sampler" WIP, Loose Feathers Mystery Sampler - BBD, "Quaker Garden" - BBD, "Village of Hawk Run Hollow" - CHS, "Memorial Sampler" - Midsummer Night Designs and the center is "Gentle Words" - La-D-Da I wrapped it around a stitching tomato to make it bit more round. There you go - I hope that helps, but if you have any questions about any piece I will certainly try to get an answer.

I think that's about it up for today.
Thank you for stopping by and for the kind comments.
Do come again!!

Take care,
edgar

Alpha Sampler Conversion

GR&DF Jan asked on Wednesday about the floss conversion I did for Alpha Sampler
- here goes...

NPI 352 - GAST Green Apple
NPI 353 - GAST Shutter Green
NPI 293 - WDW Collards
NPI 562 - GAST Cornflower
NPI 462 - GAST Blue Jay
NPI 746 - GAST Midnight
NPI 474 - GAST Gold Leaf
NPI 694 - CC Copper Penny
NPI 224 - CC Apple Fritter
NPI 222 - WDW Red Pear
NPI 707 - WDW Chablis
NPI 971 - GAST Roasted Marshmallow
NPI 963 - CC River Rocks
NPI 882 - WDW Cherub
NPI 184 - CC Cocoa Bean

This is my conversion - not saying its perfect or anything but I am liking it
- any other questions please feel free to ask.

Have a great weekend!!

Take care,
edgar

Weekend Stuff

GR&DF I wanted to start off the week with a warm thanks to everyone for your kind comments!! They were so nice to read this morning. It is a bit chilly here in the Bay Area and it is supposed to start raining again, but like I always a say "believe it when you see it!!" I never buy into the weather "forecaster" prediction - as the forecasters are little more than guessing at best - and I can see the weather myself moving in on radar over the Internet. I really like Weather Underground - as I can see what is happening here and where others I love are. It was a beautiful weekend here - bright and sunny and a little breezy both days so what have I got to complain about!!

The three of us - Dale, Rico and I - did the usual running around to the estate and house sales - and there was a pile of them out there. I scored pretty well on some little things....

Starting from the left - a giant restaurant pizza wheel - to replace the crappy plastic piece of mess we have now - a repro pop-up children's book - a large two piece flower frog another pop book of Robert Sabuda's and three little icons - the little square one in enamelled bronze - all of this cool stuff for less than $9!!

Pop-up books are a crazy something I have collected for a while - but the really nice ones are totally expensive - these two I got for .50 a piece and they are in perfect condition!! I especially like Robert Sabuda. Go check out his site.....

For our lunch break we stopped at a new place - for us at least -

Rico had seen it reviewed on Check Please and so we stopped off for a super lunch!! Here is a snap of mine...

I had the Italian combo and it was a toasty delicious sub - and chips they make as you order. All washed down with a cream soda - which makes Rico gag, but I do love a good cream soda.

I think the deal of the day was a bookcase I found. We where zooming through the Haight and on the sidewalk was a sort of yard sale - so of course we stopped. I spied this beautiful bookcase and immediately went over to it expecting it to be $100+ dollars - and the piece of tape with the price was only $5 - I said "who do I give my fiver to??" and it was mine. We loaded it into Dale's jeep (we had the roof off it was so nice) and ran it home. So now in the second bedroom a pile of books...

... went from this ..... to....

.... this. I have been looking for a bookcase for months and months and knew I would find one. I have passed on so many way overpriced ones and cheap crappy ones and now to get this solid oak c. 1890-1910 - beauty, I couldn't be happier - and for $5 I am simply ecstatic!!! That piece of walnut is the foot board to my G-G-grandmothers bedroom set I have in the second bedroom - the prettiest part is on the headboard....

I didn't realize how dusty it was up there - but you get the idea.

Rico worked on the balcony plants and now there is some colour out there -


and I will leave off today with a snap of the tiny bit of stitching I did over the last couple of days....


Pretty pathetic - but on Friday evening I spent starting to make a list of every piece of stash I have and it is a much bigger job than I thought. Then on Saturday evening I just couldn't focus on it and last night I felt pretty crappity so not much again!! Oh well. there is no deadline for Alpha Sampler.

There you go sports fans!! Thank you for stopping by!! Do come again!! Tomorrow I am talking weekend flicks.

Take care,
edgar

Some Weekend stuff - with Snaps!!

GR&DF it was a glorious blue, breezy and warmish weekend!! We don't get too many of those around here. Not that I am complaining mind you, but I do like the change occasionally.

Saturday was spent with Dale over at his house in the Sunset helping out with his yard/garage sale. I got there about 7:30am and there was already a couple of vultures hovering about and nothing was even out yet. I guess it is the early bird that gets the worm!! The sale did about what he wanted and so everything worked out fine.

Sunday was spent as we always do - with getting out and over to Eddie's Cafe for breakfast. Then popping over to our little Farmers Market.... here is a snap...

Taken from almost the same spot as last week - but with it being a lovely day!!
Here are some more shots....


Some beautiful flowers were out - we picked up some yellow tulips and some purple flowers... here is Rico getting them together...

and the final lovely result..

Kind of asymmetrical on the Hunny table.

Here is a snap of the haul from the market...

The mushrooms I sauteed up in some of that butter and served with chops last night. The organic butter was a new both and so I had to try it and was so glad I did!! Delicious!! That broccoli I will turn into salad tonight!

We also ran over to the Mission to pick up some things at Dianda's - and here is a killer shot of some of that....

Jeez - you would think I was hanging from the ceiling to get this shot -I really wasn't!! Across the street from Dianda's is the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts - and I thought you might like to see the great mural on the building...

and here is a shot of one of the side doors - a great kitty-kat!

We did stop off at a thrift shop and the only thing I got was this...

a great pan to make Madeleines!!

I will leave off today with a shot of the Alpha Sampler as I left it last night....

Its a bit crooked but you get the idea. This is a great little piece to stitch!!

There you go sports fans - another weekend gone!! Thank you for stopping by - do come again!!!

Take care,
edgar

It was a Dark and Stormy Weekend....

GR&DF thank you for once again sharing a bit of your day with we me .... I can not believe that I am now have over 200 followers!! THANK YOU all for that.

I also wanted to mention how flabbergasted I am at the number of commentors in for the Blogiversary Drawing. I am not sure at the moment what the prizes will be - but I did spend some time mulling it over and I have come up with some ideas. Now to get in gear and get them together. Just the whole idea that I have been blogging for three years astounds me. I just think - if it wasn't for dear Carol S's encouragement I would have never come out of the shadows of lurk and started this blog.

This past weekend was totally rainy - and you would think I would lock the doors and stay in - but we did get out and about a bit - On Saturday there where no Estate sales in the city. But, Rico and I did go out to Breakfast at Flippers in Hayes Valley - of course I ordered what I always order there - eggs Benedict - no snap - but they are good there and I was in the mood for some Hollandaise!! We stopped off for some coffee beans - we think it is some of the best on the city!!


Blue Bottle Coffee does this great three bean dark roasted coffee - It is delicious!!!!! I also like that they are a micro-roaster and take lots of time making the different coffees. From Hayes Valley we ventured on over to the Antique Mall - we hadn't been in a while and it is always fun to seen some fancy expensive things I can't afford!! On this trip I did find something I couldn't pass on. Here is a snap of the what I got.

What the picture shows is three things - I already had the platter, I bought that in NC at an Antique shop over 20 years ago.... what I found on Saturday at the AM was the open vegetable bowl that matched!! I couldn't believe it. The pattern is called Ceilia and is by Wedgwood. It is from about 1900 and is heavy transferware - and you know I love me some transferware. I really didn't need another bowl but how could I pass?? The little commemorative mug I picked up at the Goodwill on the way back home from the AM. It is a piece of bone china and was made for the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

Sunday was even more rainy and windy, but once again we ventured out to breakfast at Eddie's Cafe this time and so we could visit our little farmers market. We needed some funions so we stopped at an ATM - I saw this bumper sticker...

I always am reading bumper stickers and found this one laugh out loud funny - with my twisted since of humor I couldn't resist a snap to share!!

After breakfast we found the farmers market deserted...

.... rainy and windy... we picked up some veggies and then stopped at the flower stand for some spring brightness....

Then it was off to home to stay in for the rest of the day!!

That was the weekend - I spent my stitching time on Alpha Birds... here is a snap....


It is a bit crooked but you get the idea. The birds and bits are working up pretty fast compared to the letters - and there are some symbol problems I am having to fix along the way - not too bad but just kind of missed here and there. There are two bands and a space that separate each section and I am thinking of doing something different in them than what is charted. Not sure yet about what but I certainly can't see myself putting my initials and date on this three times!!

I also heard that two exchange pieces that I made have gotten to there destinations. Fist to arrive was a piece I made for my partner Janet in the Winter House Exchange over at HOE - here is a snap -

It is a wintery themed photo album -

I thought it would be a nice place to keep wintery snaps and was a totally fun piece to make!! The second piece to arrive was a piece I made for the Arbor Day Exchange on the Holiday Blog. My partner was Lisa and here is a snap of the Pyn Keepe I made...

The only requirement was that the piece have a tree in it and I chose this Workbasket chart with pine trees.

That's about it for today sports fans!! Thank again for your kind comments - and for stopping by, do come again!!

Take care,
edgar