Taking a Dip

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends wrapping up the week today - not too much going on this weekend.  No good Estate Sales - and probably just some ho-hum thrifty shopping.  I just can't get motivated to even think about it right now.  Usually when Friday rolls around I am pretty jazzed to see Saturday looming in the near future, but not today.  Don't get me wrong I am totally looking forward to two days "off."  But, what to do...  I will finish up my HOE PS Exchange so that I can get that into the mail on Monday - and try and complete the PS ornie piece - or at least the stitching.  I am having some issues with the Designer's floss choices - they just do not seem to be working with the linen I chose - as I stitch along I just do not like some of them, so I frog those bits out and back to the stash for other colours.  I am sure everything will work out just fine.  I also picked back up my stitching on the Mary Beale "Sampler Wreath."  What a super piece, I really want to get this sucked stitched up.  I only have all the bottom grassy area to do and with the slight shifting of green silks I am sure it will be no trouble.

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Yesterday they re-opened the pool where we live.  They were supposed to open it up 2 months ago, but there was all sorts of work that had to get done first.  They replaced the heating system, they pulled out all the tile surrounding and put in new.  They pulled up all the cement decks around the pool and put in new.  The also took down one of the trees so that now there is way more sun light hitting the pool and decks.  Overall it is a way better pool than it was, but the biggest hold up was the City of SF.  They took the longest time coming out to do an inspection to make sure everything was safe for us to start using it again.  Now everything is back to normal so we can start back to our daily dips - and swimming.  I did get a snap yesterday....

It was a beautiful afternoon and not too windy. 

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There you go sports fans.  Thanks for stopping by and for your kind comments.  

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Take care,

edgar

A Couple of Treats

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends welcome to Thursday and another beautiful day  - or at least we are told there is supposed to be a beautiful day here in the City by the Bay.  It has been in the mid 70's, bright and breezy for the last couple of days and it is supposed to stay that way for the next couple of days. I do love the change to good weather.

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Yesterday Rico brought home a delicious gift from a co-worker.  We where gifted by Jose (co-worker) some super yummy pupusas.  They where home made by his wife Gloria.  Originating in El Salvador, pupusas are some deliciousness I had never heard of until I moved out here to the wild and woolly west.  To get to enjoy  this treat we will usually have to stop off a a little El Salvadorian restaurant in the Mission and get them for take out, but getting some home made was super delicious!!  We did stop off at and get the cabbage salad, rice and beans that you have to have with them.  Here is a snap.....

It is good to have friends with great culinary skills!!!!  Thank you so much Gloria and Jose!!!!

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Earlier, on the way home after work we had to stop off for Rico's last follow up appointment for his Achilles heal issues.  His Doctor's office is near one of the Thrift Shops we usually stop off at on the weekends.....  well, it was still early, so after the appointment we made a quick stop.  I really didn't think there would be anything but I do like to look....  and low and behold I found a great little piece....

A really wonderful heavy piece of restaurant china.  I knew it was a piece from a restaurant just the way it looked and then I picked it up and it was thick and heavy and it was only $2 - woohoo!!  The mark on the back is this..

... and puts this little thing as being made between 1896 and 1906.  I also found out that Nathan-Dorhmann was a big china and porcelain dealer out here in SF - I had never heard of them and now I have added a little something to my knowledge of china.

Stitching last night was working some more on my HOE ornament exchange piece - so no snap, yet.

There you go sports fans.  Thanks again for stopping by and for your great comments!!  

Do stop by again.

Take care,

edgar

A Couple of Flickers

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends your comments where just super  for yesterday post and I do thank you for them and all the time you spent leaving them.  I am sorry to make mouths water and tummies grumble but I couldn't leave out the food snaps.  I love looking at other folks food snaps to see what is going on in the culinary world - just like I so enjoy seeing all the stitching progress and finishes. 

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Over the weekend I inflicted a few flickeroos on the Baby Sister and so today I will mention a couple.

First up will be "The Children of Huang Shi" - 2008 - starring - Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchel, Yun-Fat Chow and Michelle Yeoh.  In a nutshell the story revolves around a British journalist who with the help of an Australian nurse helps to save a group of orphaned children during the Japanese occupation of China in 1938.  A beautifully shot film with some really tough scenes to watch. 

We really enjoyed this film . 

It reminded me of the Ingrid Bergman film "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" - 1958.

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The second film was part of my ongoing Shirley Temple-fest.  What came was a later film called "The Blue Bird" - 1940 - a technicolor fantasy film that is closely related to the Wizard of Oz in theme - there's no place like home or the happiness you chase you can find right in your own back yard.  With a stellar cast that included Spring Byington, Nigel Bruce, Gale Sondergaard, Jessie Ralph and Laura Hope Crews.  The story revolves around two children who are looking for the Bluebird of Happiness and are led through the past , present a future looking for it.  Shirley is a bit on the bratty spoiled side - a break from her earlier films - but even at 12 years old she carries the film.  An interesting piece of film released at the beginning of WWII - if you like Shirley and haven't seen the film I would encourage you to get a copy and watch it.

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

Take care,

edgar

Weekend Posting and Tortilla Press

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thank you so much for your overwhelming kind comments regarding my 4th Blogoversary Gift-a-way.  I so enjoyed them and emails that you wrote.  I do like this stitching stuff and gifting it away is a big part of it - we all have way to many finished things stacking up - or at least I have in my completed box - finished things waiting for frames.  The smaller things that quickly stitch up are so nice for gifts and I do love knowing that the things I make and send off into the world go to good homes.  Now I need to focus on my PIF - I am running out of time since they a due out by this October.....  the clock is ticking.

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Now to the weekend stuff.......

The weekend started off Thursday after work with a quick run down to South SF to the airport to pick up the baby sister - and of course the rare occasion that United is on time is almost nonexistent and last Thursday they did the unheard of and where actually early - so of course the traffic was stupid crazy so that slowed us down.  But, it all worked out and she was waiting for us to just swoop in - she jumped in the car and we where off.....

Driving back to the city we talked about what we would do for dinner and decided on delicious sushi - both she and I love the stuff - and they have other Japanese type things so Rico could have a Bento box of chicken katsu and vegetable tempura.  There are loads of sushi places in SF to choose from - we drove over to Kitaro a place I've talked about here frequently.  You can click HERE and go to the site to look at the menu.

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Friday we spent walking around the Haight/Ashbury area.

There are lots of shops and cafes and places to look at and things to see.  

Here is one of the more elaborately painted walls.....

she is a great Medusa mural - on the side of a dress shop.

We also stopped at a really great knitting shop over in the Castro called ImagiKnit.

You can click HERE and visit the web site.  

I took a snap of the shop as it was really bright with lovely yarn everywhere...

This is only the first part of the shop they are actually two shops that a doorway has been cut through - you can not really tell but the doorway is right at where those hats are on the left - you step down into another gigantic space of lovely yarns and knitting paraphernalia.  I picked up a brochure of the classes they offer - I am seriously contemplating taking up knitting or crochet as they offer classes in both.

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On Saturday we did the running around to the Thrift/Consignment shops - In the early afternoon we stopped off for a quick bite at Frjtz on Valencia Street.

You can click HERE to see some snaps and read their menu.  There they serve delicious crepes and Belgium fries.  We shared a couple of crepes - the Munch and the de Vinci and a large order of the delicious fries with dipping sauce.

This is the da Vinci crepe and fries.  From this light lunch we where on the way home and stopped off at Liberty Cafe for a loaf of their lovely bread.

As usual the had the case of goodies full of tempting treats.  You can click HERE to read about The Liberty Cafe.  You can also see through the case to the kitchen where one of the bakers was whipping up something tasty - I love it when you can actually see that what they sell is made where they sell it.

We hooked up with Martin for dinner at Patxi's Pizza.  You know I love me some of this pizza!!

We got one of the Chicago style meat pizza's and we got....

a regular Special Combo Pizza on flat crust - and it was just as delicious!!  

You can click HERE to see their web site.

Sunday Rico and I went to early Mass and Cissy did some walking about the neighborhood - we stayed in and watched movies during the afternoon and I made fried chicken for dinner - and - that was our weekend.

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It was lots of fun and could have gone on for many days more - but she had to get back to her "mama" life and I to mine.  But, there will be other visits!!

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I did have some questions about the tortilla press and what exactly it is - you use this gadget to make fresh tortillas.  They are available all over the place in the Mission for about $12/$15 but I was bound and determined to find an older more substantial one than the newer flimsy ones.  I have wanted to be able to make fresh tortillas for the longest time.  We go through many of them a week - and by making them myself it will cut the costs to just pennies per tortilla and fresh made are so much better than store bought!! You can click HERE to read a good basic recipe on how to make tortillas at home.  I can't wait to get a hold of some Masa Harina (corn flour) and get to pressing!!

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

Take care,

edgar

A Package Arrived and Some Thrifty Finds

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends it is a wonderful Monday morning here in SF for many reasons!!  First and foremost was the wonderful visit we had with just had with my sister.  She flew down from Portland and spent the last few days relaxing and decompressing from her very hectic "motherly" life - and all we did was fun stuff!!  Running all over the city, eating out and then laying around like great lumps watching films.  Who could ask for anything better.  Secondly, on this cool Monday I find that my little Blog has passed the 500 Follower mark - and now I  actually have 502 followers - you love me, you really love me!!  I am having my Sally Field flash back - reveling in the moment and dancing a jig!!  Thirdly, I did quite a bit of stitching over the past few days and finished up my HOE PS Exchange - or at least I have finished up the stitching part.  I just love being ahead of the game and not behind playing catch up.

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... and the fourth thing, and what I will lead off with this morning.....I came and found a wonderful email from sweet Carolyn  - she received the package I sent her for winning the 4th Blogoversary drawing.  Her Blog is "...just one more stitch" and she has posted a  couple of snaps.  I took a snap of the stitched piece, but forgot to get one of the goodies.  You can click on over to Carolyn's Blog to see them.  But, here is a snap of the piece I made....

The pattern is a Blackbird Design and I do love me some BBD!!  It is from an older booklet called "With Needle and Thread."  I have loved this little sampler for the longest time, as I told Carolyn, and just knew this was the right time to stitch it up.  I used the recommended WDW floss and stitched it up on a piece of 36ct something or other form the stash heap.  The box I painted using a mixture of three colours - I wanted it to be dark but with undertones of the red/raspberry colour.  It was a joy to stitch and now it has a wonderful place to live.

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I will save the main weekend post until tomorrow as I have come back to a pile of work on my desk.  I did want to post a snap of my Thrift Store Finds.  There were no Estate Sales but we did make it to a few Consignment/Thrift/2nd hand Stores.  I found these things.....

From the upper left...  I found two super Victorian frames - for less that $2 for both, the metal thing is a tortilla press, I also found a great older Oregon plate, and a lovely small Nippon ware hand painted plate c1880.  I do love me some Paula and this little Christmas book was a buck so how could I pass.  I found a couple of other things but they are meant for others so I can't show them here.  

We had a great time running around over the weekend and there will be a post about that in the morning.

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There you go sports fans.  I do thank you all for stopping by and for your great comments.  Do stop back by again!!  Hope your weekend was as super de duper as mine!!

Take care,

edgar

A Tasty Cake Recipe

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends this is the wrap up post for the week.  I will be out tomorrow but I will be back on Monday morning.  We really do not have any solid plans for the next three days - just keeping things on the less structured side - I think it will be more relaxing for the Baby Sister.  She spends her life running here, there and yonder - with one teenager and one preteen it is a very busy household!!  She comes in this afternoon and we are running out to the airport to get her - I can't wait... it should be lots of  fun.  I know that on the agenda are visits to a few of the knitting stores here in the city.  While SF really has no cross stitching places there are quite a few knitting and yarn places.  Since I do not knit or crochet I never go, so this will be a learning experience for me.  I think the biggest decision this evening is where to eat - shall we do the deliciousness that is Patxi's Pizza or the deliciousness that is Alice's Chinese yummniess????  Such hard decisions!!!

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I posted the recipe for the Pineapple Upside Down cake this morning over at Blacksheep Bakes.  You can click HERE to get over to there.  I found the recipe by just doing a quick search online.  I had a recipe that I liked but I thought there might be a better one out there somewhere.  The site I found was the PA Farm Show Site - 2011.  

Judging the Pineapple Upside Down Cakes - 2011 - PA Farm Show

I just love good old fashioned tried and true recipes and since this was the 1st Place Winner of the Pineapple Upside Down Cakes there must be something to it.  The baker who entered this cake was  Sally Reinoehl  from Valley View Pennsylvania.  She hit a home run IMHO!!!!  It is an easy recipe that uses things that are found in most cupboards.  Kudos and my hat is off to Miss Sally!!!!  The only thing I would do different is to throw some walnuts around in the topping, but that's because I love me some walnuts!!
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There you go sports fans.  Thank you once again for stopping by and for leaving such super comments!!!  Have a great weekend!!

Take Care,

edgar

Mid Week Post

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends here we sit at the middle of the week looking forward to the weekend - I am actually looking at only one more day and a super three day weekend.  

How did I wangle that - you may ask????

I took off this Friday because my little sister is coming into town for a visit.  Her Birthday is Monday and since she is turning the delicate age of "29" once again, she is coming for a little break from her life and spending it here with us.  It should be lots of fun -and we already have a few things planned to do - one request she made was to eat at some "fun" restaurants - well if San Francisco has anything it's lots of fun places to eat!!

Yesterday's post stirred up some great comments and emails - and I do appreciate them.  After I write a post I am never sure how some of things I am posting will go over - and it is always nice to get some feed back.  Yvonne mentioned one of my favorite flickers "A Christmas Story" and likened the "Snow Garden" to the restaurant that they eat Christmas dinner in after the turkey is gobbled up by the Bumpass' dogs.  I never thought about it but how accurate - and I got a laugh thinking about the similarities!!

Judes asked about the french commode that I snapped a picture of - I have no idea of the price, but next time I see one in the window I will check it out and let you know - I am sure they are terribly expensive - those shops usually are.
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If you remember an earlier posting about Icee Pops - and my crazy love of them - 

I was at Walgreen's and I found these.....

They are pretty tasty - and unlike those super sour ones from last time these are delicately sweet - not much marshmallow taste, but a pastel like taste - if pastel had a flavour.  I know, I'm a nut, but you gotta try everything, right??

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

Take care,

edgar