Weekend Stuff

GR&DF thank you for stopping by and sharing a few moments with me and my Blog - I always appreciate the time and trouble you all take with commenting - thank you for Friday's comments. This past weekend was just beautiful here in City - it hovered in the mid 70's both days and there was a gorgeous cool breeze blowing in from the Ocean. I am always so grateful to be here enjoying this weather when I know that most of the country is just baking. We are surrounded with scorching temps - down in the central valley the temps where in the triple digits and stay there into the evening - on Saturday evening the fog rolled in and over Twin Peaks and I had to close the sliding door onto the balcony as it was actually getting chilly - and I was wearing sweats.

On the stitching front I got some more done on The Garden Path - here is a snap as it stood last night -

Sorry it is a bit wonky - I also got some more done on an exchange piece.

On Saturday we ran around to some estate sales and picked up a few things....

The gorgeous large mixing bowl is from the 50's as close as I can tell from the mark and is made by T.G. Green - the same company that makes one of my favorite kinds of pottery - CORNISHWARE - you never see Cornishware here in the states. It is a British product and if I had a pile of bucks I would have stacks of this stuff!! I really love the blue and white bands - go figure. Back to the bowl - it is in great condition and fits in so well with my pile of blue banded yelloware. The green pheasant is super de duper and probably from a California Pottery company and dates to around the 40's? The Madonna is Goebel and is also from the late 40's - so we did pretty well for a few dollars.

Also while running around we stopped for a visit at The Cathedral of St Mary of the Assumption. A newish building (and not my favorite) but the quite space that is the inside is really nice. I got a couple of snaps....

Looking straight up from where the congregation sits is this super giant space.


and here are the pipes for the organ - just magnificent. I always look for the organ and usually the pipes are hidden behind shutters or behind walls - but here they are right out in the sanctuary - Here is something you didn't know about me - I took years and years of organ and played at Our Lay of Lourdes church in Daytona - my organ teacher was a nun and music teacher there. I also played in my own church Christ Presbyterian in Ormond Beach. It was many years ago but I still love to hear organ music and always look for the organ in any church space I got to.

Here is a snap the jam I made this weekend - I may make one more batch as the peaches are just beautiful this year. I also....

.... made a batch of Rico's favorite cookies - peanut butter - also over the last couple of days..... vacuumed the house, picked up and dusted, did a bunch of laundry, hung out by the pool, took a nap, watched some movies, walked the who-hounds - just regular weekend stuff - nothing too strenuous.

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

Take care,
edgar

Weekend Plans

GR&DF the end of the week is here - and plans are coming together for a busy couple of days.

Top of the list is making some more jam - last Sunday I picked up a few pounds of rock hard, unripe peaches anticipating them ripening by this weekend ....

and I checked on them last night and they are right at perfect - so I know that I will get this bowl of fruit....

into these clean jars - a couple of hours of work but so worth it!!

I think we are also planning a run to the flower market. There are a couple of plants I want to replace in the house and we haven't been out there in the longest time - and - they have a great little restaurant out there so breakfast can be had at the same time!!

Last night I got together the stuff for another upcoming exchange - and was again flabbergasted that I could pull all the recommended fibers form my stash - me thinks I have too much! I also worked a little on the exchange I started the other day...... and I couldn't resist a little time on the Garden Path. I will have a nice shot of that piece on Monday.

The flicker last night was an older pick from the Disney Channel - an adaptation of Charles Dickens' book - "The Old Curiosity Shop" - 1995 - starring Peter Ustinov, Sally Walsh and Tom Courtney. I am a big fan of Dickens (as you already know) and try and see all the variations and adaptations out there of his work - and this was a very superior effort - great acting, great cinematography and it never seemed to bog down as some TV movies do. On a single DVD - this 2 part 3 Hour version is worth a look.

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

Take care,
edgar

A Very Full Weekend - and We Have a Winner

GR&DF here in SF we stayed pretty busy or at least it seems that we stayed busy and quite a few things where accomplished.

On the stitching front my Garden Path sampler is bee-bopping right along and here is a snap as it stood last night when I threw in the towel for sleep.....

It really doesn't feel that I am getting very far on this - but the border vine/leaves are completed - I heaved a real sign of relief when I came around the lower right corner to hit the spot where I had stopped near the top right corner. It was a bang on match. Now to the flowers, I will do those as I go along with the body of the sampler leaving the sawtooth interior border to the last.

On Saturday we ran around to few Estate and Garage sales and bought a pile of stuff....

This is the majority of the stuff - starting from left to right - two DVD's - a special addition of "Carrie" - 1976 - a favorite flick of Rico's, "Too Hot to Handle" - 1960 - a travel book about France, a c. 1900 Baedeker Guide and a Citipack of Paris. I also picked up this nice seasonal Cookbook - then we also collected from different sales some great books for Rico's g-niece - and a fun Phonics machine thing. Moving along to the right there are three Christmas books I got for myself to add to my collection - "The Eleves of Cologne" - I really enjoyed this city when I visited Germany and this was such a great little book, I also picked up "Robin Finds Christmas" - 1961 and a great old Golden Book called the "First Noel" - 1959. I really love Christmas books and the older the better. We also picked up a couple of ornaments and the old star topper - which is an exact duplicate to the one the sat on my family tree from my earliest recollection - I also have the old family one but the based is cracked and this one is totally perfect - it is only a shiny plastic star but it brings back such great memories!!

Here is some more stuff I picked up..

A great older - c 1940 - Griswold hinged chicken fry pan - yes, I do have another one, but that one does not have its lid - two cookie cutters, and old peeler and a super piece of blue transfer ware pitcher- c 1880. Over all a very productive Estate Sale running around.

We visited the little Farmers Market yesterday and I got a few snaps....

These are some beautiful heirloom tomatoes...





This is such a nice little FM - and now that everything is coming in the booths are overflowing with a variety of things.

Yesterday I got to my summer jam making.... getting together the jars and stuff I had on hand -

and starting the small batch I planned on making...

and then getting the stuff into jars and running them through the water bath - I ended up with some pretty tasty jam.....

I will run by and pick up another case of jars for another couple of batches of jam I plan on making next weekend. I gave away quiet a few jars last year and the word got out so I now have requests for my jam - which I think is crazy as this stuff is not very hard to make - lord knows if I can do it anyone can!! I really enjoy making it and next winter I will certainly enjoy cracking open a jar of summer.

The baking yesterday was a summer cake my Mom used to make - it is from a recipe from my Great Aunt Sue - but I found many versions and variations on the Internet so it is far from secret, but really delicious -

...called Apricot Nectar Cake - super light and totally moist this is a great summer cake!! IMHO

I think I will wrap it up today with the winner of the Squirrel Sampler chart - I cut all the names into strips last night - and got out the yellow BOD - and had the monkey who-hound - Lolly pick a winner.....

This is a total "deer in the headlights" look if I ever saw one....

she stuck her little paw in and moved around the entrants and then flicked out a name.... and the winner is..... Rhonda B in Auburn. Woo-Hoo!!!! Rhonda please send me your snail mail address and I will get the chart in the mail. Thank you all for participating in my little drawing - there are others coming up so stop back in!!

There you go sports fans - thank you all for stopping by and for you continued kind comments - they are always making my day!!

Take care,
edgar

The Last of the Summer Sunshine

GR&DF thank you all for the comments on yesterdays post about "Oscar outfits." Mary mentioned Sarah Jessica Parker - now she usually does a much better job with her gowns, this one was nice but not a knock out like we are used to seeing her in - and I do agree about her hair - it was a mighty "coif-o-saurus" that really didn't photograph that well when she was on stage. It was only later when we got a all over look that it popped and showed off just how huge and fixed it was. The jewellery - some of it was just magnificent!! If there is one night to wear a sparkly - then Oscar Night is it - even if most of the stuff is borrowed and loaned those diamonds still catch the light very well!!

The post title is in reference to our opening up the last of peach jam I made last summer.


I am going to eek this stuff out as long as I can. I could make more since I can get peaches at the Safeway, but they are from Chile. They are adequate, but not "local" fruit so I am going to have to wait until the new crop comes into make more.

More stitching on my Easter piece.

The flicker last night was an oldie but a goodie - "Calamity Jane" - 1953 - starring Doris Day and Howard Keel. I totally love this movie and have seen it dozens of times. It wasn't a DVD but actually came on the Encore Western movie station so I had to watch. What was so great is that we got home from dinner at "Alice's" and this was coming on - such perfect timing!! Alice's is a great neighborhood Chinese place that we think is pretty tasty!!

I wanted to mention that tonight starts the month long TCM tribute to a wonderful actress - Ginger Rogers - 1911- 1995. She was much more than a dance partner to Fred Astaire - she could do comedy, drama, sing and dance. The month long tribute will showcase 43 of her movies on Wednesday nights - tonight they are showing 5 films starting off with... "The Gay Divorcee" - 1934, this is followed by "Top Hat" - 1935 , then it is "Swing Time" - 1936, next is "Roberta" - 1935 and the final film of the evening will be - "Follow the Fleet" - 1936.

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

Take care,
edgar