What Season...........

You Belong in Winter

Quiet, calm, and totally at peace... You're happy to be at home, wrapped in a blanket, completely snowed in Whether you're lighting a fire or having a snowball fight, you always feel best in the winter.

What Season Are You?


Isn't this the truth, as Winter/Fall are my favorite times of the year. I look forward to them through the long and HOT summers. Although here in San Francisco its about 65 to 68 degrees today with the fog just rolling over Twin Peaks. Most people would not call that hot by any stretch of the imagination. Originally I am from the deep south, born in Mississippi and lived for a long time in Ormond Beach FL, so I do know what hot and muggy weather can be and here in SF we do have our few days in the fall and spring when it can get into the 80's :)

My Mom would kick my butt

Just a quick little post today, no pics. Yesterday we needed to go to the store for the weekly stuff, dog food and "mama" food ( which is what we call the baby food that we by our 15+ year old Chihuahua Hunny, since she hasn't got a tooth in her head she can't chew so we get her a variety of Gerber's baby food. The turkey, lamb, beef, veal and ham variates. She really likes the ham and she gets a little jar of this each night. No, she is not spoiled :) ) We also got some really nice peaches and cherries, yogurt, shampoo, veggies a roast.... and since ice cream was 2 for one we had to get two different kinds, Neapolitan and Butter Pecan. Now what is so sad is that after getting home and taking a shower I really didn't want to fix dinner and so..... I just threw some Pizza rolls in the oven and called it a day. Woo-hoo Pizza rolls and a soda, my Mom would kick my butt if she even thought that was supposed to be dinner.......and after spending all that time, energy and money getting together real food stuff I just make some Pizza rolls. But, that's what you get to do when you are an grown up!!! :)

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by. I'll have an update pic of my RR tomorrow or at least a pic of the sugar sweet and NOT spoiled Hunny-licious.

edgar

Working on the RR

Here is a quick snap of my square progress from the Heartfelt Friends RR. The picture is a little wonky because I was running around like a crazy person before I took it and thought it was straight.....but......as you can see the both of the houses look like they lean a little to the right, they really don't. :) I have chosen a theme of trees for my RR. LHN charts have lots of tree type ideas that can be adapted by the stitchers in the RR. The chart I am using is called "Peace and Plenty." I have modified the piece in colour and text. I have dropped all the text and the alphabet from the stitching and the houses have gone dark Williamsburgy blue.
In fact I did try doing the house in the cream that was suggested but it was just way too lite for the linen. Then I tried a really nice pale blue and that just did not look right. I then settled on this nice dark blue an am very happy that I did. I have one more house on the right and the border that will finish the square. Then I will start to work on the border that will tie the entire piece together.

Hope all is well and thanks for visiting!!!

edgar

Comments always welcome!!!!

Buying More Stash and a really pretty evening

Well, I was already to get started on the stitching my section of the RR on Wednesday night but found I did not have the right colour floss' to begin where I wanted to begin. So.....I knew I needed to make a pilgrimage to my LNS, Needle in a Haystack over in Alameda and visit with Mary, she is soooo sweet. Mary had also wanted to see the progress on the BP sampler SAL. There is also a Michael's Fabric store that has DMC floss and other crafty stuff and we started off there. Low and behold they were having a sale on the DMC 4 for $1.00, well you can't beat that with a stick!! :)


So of course I had to buy extra colours that were pretty but not really needed, because it WAS a deal. At NIAH I found a couple of charts that I needed..?... surprise, surprise, "Black Sheep Sampler" by X's and O's, and "Fox Forest" by The Workbasket.

I also had changed my mind about something I had kitted out a while back. I really like Quaker things ( if you couldn't tell) and I had gotten "An Emblem of Love" by with my Needle, probably last fall, or at least a long time ago and had gotten all the recommended threads and a lovely piece of "aged "fabric so that I could start this whenever. After working on the BP Sampler in a monochromatic silk thread I wanted to do EOL also monochromatically. I went in there thinking I was going to do this in a Gentle Art's Sampler thread, either Brethren Blue or Dried Thyme, both really nice choices. Mary suggested I use a silk instead as they are so nice to work with and she had been working on a piece using Gloriana silks and I had admired that piece and the nice deep colour that the silk had. So, you see where this is going, I looked over the beautiful choices and went with a colour called Seaweed, which I think will be a great choice. I will work this into my nightly stitching. Now that I getting close to the end of Serenity I will need something else.

After we got home and dinner was over I settled into stitching and as the evening drew to a close the sky was really getting dramatically coloured and covered in clouds so I took this snap, this is looking NW over Noe Valley towards Downtown and the Bay Bridge would be to the right.....


I thought I would also post a snap of our balcony. After seeing the lovely flowers that lots of bloggers showing from their yards I am mighty jealous. Our 5 x 3 balcony is juts out into a wind tunnel caused by the wind/breezes coming over and across from Twin Peaks and down the hills daily, often at gale force speed. It is so bad that we have a piece of plexi-glass shield on one end to protect the few things that we can get to grow out there. The petunias have done really well for the past few months. The fill flash makes it look like midnight, it really wasn't.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by, comments always appreciated!!

edgar

How COOL is this!!!!

On its trip around the country advertising the upcoming Movie - "Order of the Phoenix" and the release of the last book "Deathly Hallows," the Knight bus from the Harry Potter movies made a stop in my fair city of San Francisco....... Here are some snaps I just took:


Along with the lines of kids waiting to get into the bus. There was a contest to win tickets to get to go on the bus, I did not enter (I had to draw the line somewhere in my obsession with HP), that was really for children. Here is the front:

And here is the rear:

I have had it on the calendar since I first read about it on Mugglenet, which by the way is a great source for HP info. Thanks for looking....anybody else out there that is as excited about this stuff as I am???? Leave a comment..........

Take care,
edgar

South Dakota, Pine Ridge, and a little stitching

And I am finally getting back to the blog and posting some more pictures. One of the things that I was amazed at were the wide open spaces and the vast skies that surround everything on the prairie, reservation and badlands. Being raised int he deep south there is lots of cultivated farmland and plenty of dense forests but the miles and miles of wide open space does not happen. The only exception I can think of would be the southern part of Florida and Lake Okeechobee and the vast grass and swamp land that surround it, or I should say what is left if this area as it is a truly threatened area. But, back to South Dakota and the pics....

and here is Custer State Park again.....

and a couple taken at Pine Ridge at Big Bats ( if you ever get here stop and have a corn dog, yummo!!!)

These nest two were taken back in Rapid City showing a thunderstorm blowing in, these gorgeous clouds and the quickly moving system reminded me on north Texas and the way storms and tornado's blow through in the spring......

When we were at Pine Ridge Reservation we visited the Red Cloud Indian School. They were in the middle of their annual Art Exhibition, which is well worth the visit!! At the school which was founded by Jesuits as Holy Rosary Mission in 1888, we also visited the Church. The new church replaced the original on the burned, mysteriously on Good Friday, 1996. The interior reflects the local Ogallala/Lakota traditional arts in the windows.....

In a side chapel even the even the Holy Mother reflects this artistic influence beautifully....

The little stitching that I have done is not that exciting but......I am plugging away at BP piece and the border for Serenity

I think I will start another piece as I have a few projects kitted up, just to break into the rotation. I am afraid of having too many things going as I do not want a bunch of WIP/UFO out there....... :)

Thanks for stopping by, comments are always appreciated.

Take care,
edgar

More pictures form the Vacation

While we were visiting Custer State park, just south of Rapid City, we came across a herd of Buffalo crossing the highway. Since they have the right of way we stopped. Then we pulled over and just let them wander across the street.


You have to give them credit. They are big, they are the boss and they really know it. As they will just sort of saunter across the road.

We also saw lots of other animals when we visited a place called "Bear Country." We saw wolves, I think this is an Arctic Timber Wolf. Sorry about the blurry picture.

Here is another just regular Tiber Wolf, I think....

Then were the Bobcat, he was pretty far from me and the camera.

Then there were the Bears, and there were lots of Bears..... here is a bear eating

Here is a bear cub just a hanging in a tree

And here is a couple of Bears doing what comes naturally

Here is a Bear walking around and another one lounging about...


Overlooking all of Rapid City is a Mountain called Dinosaur Hill. The views are spectacular. The Dinosaurs where built int he 1930's by the WPA. Here are a couple shots.

And overlooking downtown Rapid City

On the way into Pine Ridge Reservation we stopped at the White River Visitor Center which was well worth the stop. At the center they give an overall introduction to the reservation and the traditional Ogalaga/Lakota Sioux way of life. Here is the view from the Center.


And here are two sweet girls, our Nieces, Leslie and Ashleigh. Ecstatic about having their pictures taken!!


Last night I did a little x-stitching and working on griding out my linen for the Heartfelt Friends RR. The fabric is by Weichlet and called Lambs Wool, sorry it looks pretty boring but here it is....

And I worked some on the border of Serenity, which I think is turning out really nice. I like the way the Sassy Brass overdyed is streaking the colour back and forth.


Thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate it, and leave a comment if you have the time.
Take care, and have a great weekend!!!!!!

edgar