RIP Jonathan Winters

Gentle Friends, last night passed a top comedian of the 20th Century - 

Jonathan Winters

1925-2013

One of the great funny men of our time he was known for and got his start in TV.  He was also a superb actor in Films -  One of his best films was the classic 1963 ensemble piece "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World."  The cast was full of big names and is a fun film to see.  He was also a writer, produced and recording artist and a painter... he will be missed.

A great quote of his....   "If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it."

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A Couple of Fun Films

Gentle Friends I thought I would leave you with some film thoughts today.  Since I watch lots of different films from all periods and styles I think these two films, which have absolutely nothing to do with each other (except I viewed them recently) would make for some nice viewing for others...

First up will be the Noir Classic "Gun Crazy" 1950 - directed by Joseph Lewis, original called "Deadly is the Female" - starring Peggy Cummins and John Dall.  

The film is about the life of a man we see grow from a child to an adult obsessed with guns... then guns and a woman!!  Not only obsessed but willing to do anything for his beautiful but "bad girl" turned wife.  His willingness to please and do anything turns into a crime spree for the gun-toting husband and wife team.

The second film is a much newer one - "Rise of the Guardians" - 2012 - a 3D computer generated film from the books by William Joyce.  

The Band of Guardians include Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman and the newest Guardian, Jack Frost - their mission is to protect the children of the world.  The film revolves around their fight against Pitch, the Bogeyman.  A really wonderful film, both visually and story wise.  It seemed a bit intense at moments and I would not recommend it for really small kids, but for most kids I would think it would be fine.

Both of these are worth a look and both are on DVD so rentable.  That's about it for today sports fans.  Check in on Monday to see who is the winner of my Book Gift-a-way (see last post).  Thanks for stopping by, do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Sparkly Read...

Gentle Friends as with most new fangled inventions, I fight most of them tooth and nail until finally giving in...  I am still fighting the "Book battle" and just refuse to accept a Kindle or any other plastic book.... I just refuse to give up my tangible, touchable, turn pageable books.  

With that said, I finished up a really terrific paperback book at lunch today and thought I should pass it on.  Called "Jewels: A Secret History" by Victoria Finlay, it covers in great detail 9 precious gems from the softest Amber to the hardest Diamond.  Here's what the cover looks like......

So, if you would like to read this super "book" - let me know, I'll have a little drawaing over the weekend, leave a comment on this post of your interest and I will annouce the new owner on Monday.

Take care,

edgar

A Quick Update on Elizabeth

Gentle Friends I think today would be a nice day to post a snap of the progress on Elizabeth...

Sorry that the dark green and brown really don't show well - I am leaving off the letters and date until the end, better safe than sorry - and - I'm not sure if I going to go totally down the repro road or not....... decisions, decisions!!   

I am already eying my next new start, and it will be a totally Christmas one, Ho Ho Ho!! 

Thanks for stopping by, do stop again!

Take care,

edgar

Palmiers

Gentle Friends as usual I got a wild hair about baking something and thought to myself - "hey, self... you like palmiers so why not make some."  So I spent about a millisecond on the Internet and found Ina Garten's super easy recipe for them.  Don't you just love Ina, we do at our house.  And, when she came to SF for a book signing you couldn't stir the crowd with a stick there were so many fans there!!  But, back to the cookie...

So, I hauled it to the store and picked up some puff pastry (that's all there is to this) I already had the sugar - It comes frozen so I let it thaw out over night and made up a double batch of them yesterday.  Here's some snaps....

... after rolling out the puff pastry on sugar and covering with sugar I sliced off pieces and they look kind of sad all pale and anemic on the baking sheet.

After about 2/3's of the baking time in the oven you flip them over to caramelize the sugar on the other side.... yes, they do stick to the flipper!!  I found that tongs worked lots better to flip them.

After cooling off here they are - all crunchy deliciousness!!  They go great with a cup of coffee.  You can add a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg to jazz them up a bit or use Parmesan cheese instead of sugar for savory palmiers.  You just can't beat a super easy cookie like these !! 

That's about it for today sports fans - thanks again for stopping by, do stop again!

Take care,

edgar

The Colours of India - a Picture Heavy Post

Gentle Friends I have wanted to post these snaps all week.  They are from last weekend.  Although it was a very low key three days of movie watching and doing our usual stuff around the house - we did make it out and downtown to Union Square.  Why, you might ask did I, a non-shopping type, want to  make a trek down to a shopping Mecca like Union Square.....  it was to visit Macy's..

....  they were in full swing with their annual Flower Show....

This year the theme was "The Painted Garden" and was all about the lovely colours of India!!!  All the front windows where just full of floral displays ....

This is a free event and the show is all over on the ground floor..... in the makeup, perfume, jewelry and handbag departments....  here are the snaps...

It is really hard to show in a few snaps the lovely flower displays and the impact they made - but -  It was a super time and we'll be going again next year!

Thanks for stopping by, do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

An Elizabeth Update

Gentle Friends we had a great Holiday weekend and I have a bunch of snaps to show, but for now I am just going to post some stitching...  I have been working slowly on Elizabeth and here is an updated snperoo...

I got this picture in daylight so that the pink and brown shows a bit better - as do the wrinkles in the linen.  That's about it for today, thanks for stopping by, do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar