Jamming Summer, Bigger Pidges and a Sailing SAL

Dear Friends - it is once again a foggy Monday here in SF - so nice - so cool - so damp!! I love it!!

Enough of that - it was a quiet stay at home weekend. Rico took off on Thursday for the Russian River to attend a softball drunkfest!! At least that's what I call it - I am sure it had a nicer name but I haven't a clue what it might be. He stayed with a friend of ours that has a house up there so was out of the main hubbub - he got home yesterday and our home has settled back into it usual routine.

Now, my weekend started off with going over to a friends house - they BBQ'd and we watched a new BluRay in their home theater - what a super experience seeing the new "Gigi" in full movie viewing size. It was incredible!!! So big and such colour - BluRay is just gorgeous!!

There was no garage saleing - Dale was doing a training in Monetary I think. This means I didn't leave the house either Saturday or Sunday. On Saturday I made couple of batches of jam - the first was the black cherries -

Here it is bubbling away.....


and after that I made up some peach preserve -

It looked like liquid sunshine ....

...then into a water bath -


I can only do two at a time in my rigged up bath system!! In the end I had quite a few jars of jam/preserve for the upcoming fall/winter...


I really enjoyed making this stuff up and will try for some plum this coming weekend.

I wanted to show you how big the pidgelettes have gotten...

They have lost all of the yellow pin feathers from their heads and are hopping about. Both are getting loud and aggressive. Jumping back and forth to the other window box where the mama-stinkeye is still sitting on the two new eggs. I think they a picking at her for food. As we where leaving this morning one of the pidgelettes was in the hall sitting on the window sill looking quite guilty about something - we just hurried past and left him there. I don't think it will be much longer before they take off for places unknown on their own.

The stitching this weekend was a finish on an exchange and other secret stitching. I also called about the framing - not done yet. Another week on that sucker! I did however get my ducks in a row over the upcoming "Sail Away" SAL that Terri is starting on August 5th.

The SB - kit is all inclusive and I wanted to separate the floss' now instead of later - the kit includes all the over dyed floss' you need but you have to figure out the difference between soft black and dark blue and the different greens - it isn't always as easy as you would think - but now I am ready to go. I am feeling really great being able to do this SAL - since the kit was a gift from my friend Becky - and now I am stitching it along with other friends - how great is that!!

I did want to answer a couple of comment questions - Janice is coming to the Bay area and wanted to know about any local LNS's - there is no true cross stitch shop in the city at all - In Union Square is the Needlepoint Inc shop - they have the entire range of silks - but, this shop caters strictly to the needlepoint trade and the silks are very expensive - you can get them much cheaper online or even just across the Bay at NiaH. The only cross stitch shop near the city would have to be Needle in a Haystack in Alameda. It is a super shop with just about everything. The people who work there are just great and very helpful!! It is very easy to get to either from the city or the East Bay. If in doubt you can call them and they will give you directions. There are a couple of other shops further down the peninsula but I have never been to any of them. I also had another question from Colleen - about the fabric I picked out for my Halloween RR - I will have to look that up and get back to you as I really do not remember - I think it was a BOF - maybe Meadowlark? 36ct? I just don't know - check back in the morning.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Take care,
edgar