A Few Family Days

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

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!!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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