T Stands for Tuesday & Greetings to the T Gang

   Hello Friends,

    Dropping in this week for Bleubeard & Elizabeth's T link up. It has been awhile. Life has been more busy and a bit crazy here, so I don't link up if I don't have proper time to visit everyone, read and reply. I did want to visit and say hi to everyone this week.

  Tuesday is the beginning of a new month. I have really enjoyed our October this year.  For the  most  part lovely weather here most of the month. We did get needed rain and also had two days of hard freezes in the 20's f, since then no more freezes. The sunrises have been spectacular this month with lots of reds, purples, and sometimes bright yellows.

 Every new morning brings us joy to see a new sunrise. I took this video over the weekend. Better viewing at full screen.

FYI That was the screen door shutting you just heard

  I haven't done any crafts really since I mailed out the Fall postcards which I believe were towards the end of August or early September-so it's been awhile. Today (Sunday) I decided to be lazy (while washing-drying clothes) and play with watercolors. My first attempt with the watercolor crayons I didn't care much for, and tossed out that page. I used the water brushes to take off the paint from the crayons and that resulted in lots of splatters over my page. Next time I try I will make paint from them on a pallet.  Today I dug out my watercolor paints and for inspiration I am looking at a fall photo with lots of rocks and water. ahhh so so, I need to really set up a regular practice day each week for painting to try to improve.  It is fun for me so for now this is a good thing, but I would like to paint better. I am on Craftsy and just found a really good teacher for watercolors and mixing colors So am hoping this will help me.

  We invited our new friends over for another pizza dinner-they loved the last one. These pizzas turned out even better. Didn't get photos, but I also made chocolate cupcakes as our new friend Mary lovesssss chocolate-anything chocolate.  These turned out really good. I turned a Bob's red mill gluten free yellow cake mix into chocolate, and searched online for a keto frosting to not add more sugar to these. Yummm sooo good. This frosting recipe is a keeper, and you can freeze the left over frosting for up to two months. These needed to be stored in the refrigerator with this frosting, and I had the perfect containers for that. I even found Halloween cupcake liners in my pantry.

I also found Halloween sprinkles in my spice cabinet So I served these after the pizza 

  We opened up a bottle of red wine to go with the pizza-of course forgot to take photos but this is the last of it. This was a really nice red. We have had this bottle for quite awhile. Back when Lilburn was still with us he bought the rest of a liquor and bait shop at an auction. Most of the labels were a bit dirty-I just washed them off with soap and water

I haven't been reading much either, which I usually do allot of in the evenings especially if nothing much is on the tv. I do have books waiting for me though.

  We have always loved birds and watching them, and we are up close and personal now as we are feeding seed on our deck. One day last week, Larry was so excited as a Hawk landed on the railing-we are thinking he wanted one of those little birds for his lunch. We haven't seen him again.

  I will be driving back to the woods house again this week, but I will be around to visit.

  The beauty of autumn was at it's peak here in the Ozarks this past week-so beautiful. This is looking out at the lake on the deck. They have been doing allot of work there where the smoke is.

   Enjoy your new week-and looks like also Welcoming in a new month. I don't think I am ready for November just yet.

  

   

Just a Quick Post of My Day

   This morning we had a gorgeous-pre sunrise, so I took a video

We were 75 degrees f again today once it warmed up.  I did start early though, and dug up grass in the area I wanted to plant the roots. It went well, late in the day when the sun was not hot, I decided to plant the roots (30 of them) since tomorrow brings rains and cooler temps. Quite pleased but I can feel the soreness tonight.  Hot shower and a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows was perfect. 😀

 It worked out that I had dug up the right amount of area too. Where the grass begins in the photo in front that is near the second rock project I worked on last year.   These plants need to be in the shade, and there are no leaves on the trees yet, so I may need to figure out how to  cover them when the sun gets hot again on Sunday  I put a little of the soil seed starting mix on top of them so I would know where they are planted til they get established. That pipe is for drainage that Larry has not put in place yet.

I was a little disappointed as some of the roots were very small and some large. I had planted them in the seed starting soil when I got them in yesterday and ended up losing two of the goldenseal-I  may tell the seller and see if he will send me replacements.

   Happy Friday and weekend   Tomorrow I will be making us reuben sandwiches with the corned beef left overs a favorite that we don't eat often.

and the sunrise from this morning-all the red was gone

T Stands for Tuesday-Quilts and Sunrises

 Hi Everyone,  I can see this month is going by slow and then again also fast.

    It is still soooo dreary here with very little sun. With my husband's ptsd this is not good weather for him, and it's too cold for his outdoor projects-mostly trying to finish the dock project, and still needing to stay away from people.  He has been working on upgrading the very very bad electric here and making progress. A really big job-we knew the electric was in bad shape here when we bought this lake home-but when we bought it Hubs was feeling healthier and then the following spring he needed a heart valve transplant-it has been a very slow recovery for him.  We are always grateful for every day we have.

   I have been as you know engrossed in my quilting since early autumn. Most of you mixed media artists are probably tired of reading about it haha-hope not too bored 😀   I did get the quilt onto the frame over the weekend, it's a vintage Sears we picked up at a garage sale and Hubs swapped out the poles for a queen size quilt.   My mixed media journals have been calling me lately so that may be a nice break while I wait for supplies.

   I  ordered the perle cotton size 8 thread and I needed new needles-I have allot of needle choices but I don't have quite what I needed for this project, so I ordered a set designed by Sue Spargo on Etsy. She creates gorgeous wool appliqued quilts if you are not familiar.

Sunday I searched online for pattern ideas for big stitch quilting. I found out this is very popular right now, and it looks really nice. I probably won't be able to get perfectly even stitches any more, but I am going to give this a go. This is really a huge hand quilting project for me now so I will need to pace myself.  

    I saw allot of straight line ideas sashiko style which I liked but I don't want this to be heavily quilted-sometimes that takes away from the coziness of this type of quilt-flannels and wool.

    Then I remembered I had a few stencils I had made for other quilts when I first retired, and I made a few more from my yellowstone animal cookie cutter collection.  I now have a bison, wolf, bear, star, two oak leaves and some small oak leaves. I think I will give this idea a go They fit perfectly in the smaller blocks and may just do the sashiko style in the large 12 inch blocks  At least I now have the start of a plan  Hoping it won't take super long to get my threads and needles in the mail.

   We enjoyed a lovely sunrise over the lake

  

   T for Tuesdays are when we gather together for T over at our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth and share a post with a drink related photo.  I have a couple to share.

   I have been enjoying cups of my decaf coffee with whipped cream in the mornings. I like using the whipped cream as it stays fresh in the frig longer-and I love how it melts into the hot coffee

and in the afternoons, I brought out another one of my single serve tea pots. I have a few of these made in Japan. I love them and haven't used them in awhile. I don't remember now which one is which and they are all different-I used one for black teas, one for green teas, and the third for white teas.

   Some of you may remember when I bought several teas from this company-these got buried in the cupboard and just got them out so I can see them.

The cup is a hand thrown pottery cup-perfect size for a cup of hot tea

and I will leave you with this Sunday morning's pretty sunrise

Happy T and new week to all my readers

Good morning Beautiful Sunrise at the Lake