Hot Hot & Hotter

  Happy new week.

   We hit a 100 F degrees yesterday plus the high humidity, so I checked the weather forecast and Wow we will be in the 100's or 99 F for the next 10 days- September coming in with a major heat wave. The full moon was huge and gorgeous over the weekend.

   In the past we have had this kind of weather before, we are now lacking rain big time-not sure how this is effecting our farmers here getting hay made and bringing in the last of the crops.

  I had cut down the ugly dying lilac bushes and the one to the right looking out towards the steps here-has lots of shoots, the other side did not come back. So not sure if this will come back nicer or just a mess-anyone know?

  Over the weekend I stitched on the scroll and am almost finished to the end-this week I should be able to finish.  When finished I will go over it all and see if there are any edges that need to be stitched down. I am using a varigated thread for those areas. The body of the scroll is two rows in brown and two rows in blue threads and repeat. I am happy with it so far-it is calming too if you enjoy handwork.

  Enjoy your new week

  

Meat Box Arrived

   I get excited when my meat box arrives. I tried a couple companies and I really like Good Chop They now are offering  Pacific ocean fish and Florida shrimp. The shrimp looks really good.

  For about a year or so now,  I get two meat boxes a year and also fish from Alaska. The fish from Alaska sadly now is getting too expensive except if I buy just a salmon box-which is my favorite fish anyways.

  We are hot and humid again now, and the race boats are flying by our window haha. For some reason I think they changed the date to this last weekend in August-before it was the third weekend but perhaps just how the calendar worked out this year. They can get very very loud.

 It's amazing what can be done if you just ask-we sold some more land and our realtor is coming to us for Larry and I to sign stuff. I have been asking Larry for the last 15 years or so that we need to change some legal things-"don't worry about it" has been his answer- Yesterday he is in panic mode we must---yes I know--so we can hire a traveling rotary for that too-they will pick up the legal papers for us who knew?? 

  This morning when our nurse came-she must have just noticed the hummingbirds. The feeders are near the steps-she was mesmerized by them-had never seen them up close before. Her and her husband are downsizing to a new home so I told her about feeding the orioles first and then the hummingbirds. She was excited-had me smiling.  I started out this year with one pair and it has built up to around a dozen hummers now. I think a couple more pairs found us-and I refill them every morning so they know they can depend on it.

  I am stitching on my scroll this morning. I have been a bit tired-but looking it up we already have seasonal allergies going on here. Another reason to stay indoors.

  Wow can you believe that Labor Day is just around the corner??  Enjoy your weekend

 

Found a Gluten Free Cake Mix-and This & That

  Good afternoon Wednesday,

   We are back to the high humidity and 90's F again today, and looks like for most of the week too. I am preparing myself for a hot September here.

   I drove in this morning for a blood test, to make sure my thyroid wasn't off causing my loss of hair and weight that was happening or this is happening do to stress instead. The wall clock I use for the time for appt's etc stopped working correctly as I was at the doctor's office half an hour late-I left the house at 9 am for my 9:30 appt and got there at 10 am-they were understanding, but I needed to wait another half an hour for the test-glad they worked me in.

 On the way home I stopped at the family owned small grocery store to pick up some items-was looking for fresh veggies and fruits mostly, and to get more chicken stock-unsalted for Larry as he can't swallow much now-mostly proteins are an issue. Their store of course is more expensive than Wal Mart but it is closer and less traffic-and sometimes they have nice fresh items.

  I wanted to share the gluten free cake mix I found on Amazon. I don't care for cake mixes, but sometimes they bake up nicer than from scratch gluten free. I only bought this one to try as the ingredients were all good-no added ingredients with those long names. I don't think I have followers any more that need gluten free except for one friend whose husband has celiac I wanted to share this one as this is a new to me product-have not seen this in the stores here.

  I was very happy with this mix. Hoping that you can read the ingredients on the second photo-as there is nothing added except ingredients you would use at home to bake a cake

Click photo to enlarge to be able to read ingredient list-if interested

 
I went back to Amazon this morning to see if there were other products from this company. I found one that looked good but the ingredients had wheat for the flour and the package says gluten free-that was bad.  I will stick with this yellow cake mix.  I like them for upside down cakes or to make cupcakes with.

   If you are back to these hot and humid temps too-stay safe and cool and I just discovered the big Shoot Out the speed boat races are this weekend and the events started today  so we'll see if we get a lot of boats still speeding by our windows   more here  The good thing about this event-they raise a lot of money for charities and rural fire departments in this area around the lake in the ozarks.

A New Week Ahead

   Good afternoon Monday,

We are nearing the end of August already. Usually by the end of August I am soooo ready for cooler weather and a break from the high humidity.

 The huge speed boat race was this weekend, but they moved it to another location on the lake-so we stayed much quieter here on this part of the lake where we live. We did see a handful of the speedboats which are always fun to watch-but not the constant weekend of them going back and forth in front of us-so that was really nice for a change. This is the first year that I did not watch it on the tv. I think they changed where they are broadcasting from so I would have needed to hunt out where to watch. Didn't miss it all that much. These are timed races that go on for two days with many different types and classes of boats. This does draw a huge crowd of people to the lake.  There was also another huge event going on as well.

  We had an oxygen crises early Sunday afternoon. The oxygen concentrator quit working-we have two tanks of oxygen but they each are barely two hours-so that was scary. Do to all the traffic on the highway with those lake events- the oxygen delivery was an hour late-I was on the phone with the fire department to see if they had oxygen or not when the delivery arrived-That was a bit frightening for sure.

  I have exceptional hearing, and these concentrators are noisy-this new one is sooo much louder-ugh-will take me several days to adjust to it so I can sleep. 

  I did get the cold press papers I ordered for the gelli plate-but I was in the mood to continue stitching on my civil war scroll. I am over half way finished now-and am enjoying the stitching.  Will share photos when finished.

  I got a huge surprise when I visited Angie's blog today, so am a bit leary to visit again. There are a lot of ads that pop up now that I need to close to read her blog-Not sure if everyone gets this or if it is the way my computer security is set up-but when I closed one of them down-I got warning warning attack-so I turned my computer off right away and restarted it.  Just wanted to pass this on in case any of you happened to get this as well. I do enjoy her site very much, but that was a bit scary for sure.

  Over the weekend I baked up a peach upside down cake with a new to me gluten free cake mix. It turned out so delicious. My camera does not take indoor photos well so I did not get a good enough one to share. I haven't baked in a long time so it was a nice sweet treat-perfect for breakfast too.

Happy Monday and new week

School starts soon here

 Afternoon update: Sadly Dolly Pardon has passed She will be missed by many

Geli Printing Soon & Watercolors

 Good morning, I feel like allergy season has begun already-ugh Checked online and only thing that is high is mold-so that explains in for me.

 After reading Erika's post on geli printing-I got excited again to try this. A bit before Larry's accident I bought a geli plate and brayer. I have a large set of acrylic colors and watercolors too.

 I bought a few pads of nicer papers off of Amazon yesterday, but will play around first with what I have. Reading online it seems hot press is the better option instead of cold press papers for this technique.

  I was browsing online for you tube videos on this subject-aren't these videos just the best for learning something new?  Ran into an artist using watercolors-am thinking of trying that out first.

 Here is the video

  Have any of you tried watercolors?  Larry's two nurses come today-so thinking I will get myself set up for tomorrow. They come at different times during the day and I find out when they call me that they are on their way.   

  Enjoy your day

Frozen Yogurt Making This Morning & Monday Update

   After searching online a bit for a recipe to make frozen yogurt-I ended up using the one from Cuisinart's recipe book that came with my machine. Nothing online seemed any better.

  I did change it up a bit to use what I had on hand. Also read online to add a tablespoon of vodka to keep the homemade version from getting very hard in the freezer. Which will happen so glad I found that tip.

I have three of the large Greek yogurt containers that were going out of date that I wanted to use up  The first batch turned out delicious. I made a second batch as the frozen bowl still seemed pretty frozen enough for a second batch.

  Larry loved it so that's a win-smiles.

  This recipe filled a quart freezer container with an extra cup

If interested in the recipe let me know and I will add it here

Update: Using the base that gets frozen for a second batch is Not a good idea. The churning time is almost up and it has not solidified yet.  I didn't hear any thawing in bowl-so thought I would try the second batch-now I know need to refreeze it again after one batch.

  My area in the Ozarks-Missouri is still very hot and humid-hope this breaks soon

Monday Morning Update: I did make up the chocolate frozen yogurt-used the same recipe but added Hershey's special dark cocoa-a cup-and added in more Splenda for the sweetener. It turned out so delicious-but for some reason I couldn't get a photo of it Too much light I guess-I have never liked this camera-took over a dozen photos.  So we have plenty of cold treats in the freezer  Smiles

I Think This is a Good Weekend for Making--

    Larry is eating less and less these days, and just realized I have several Fage Greek Yogurt-no fat large containers in the refrigerator that needs to get used up like very soon as it just went out of date..

  Got to thinking I could make up some batches of frozen Greek yogurt in my ice cream maker-that has not been used in some time-so I just placed that insert into the freezer so I can make this tomorrow. 

  This yogurt is getting more expensive too so I don't want to throw it out. Last month I had to throw out several containers that went bad. I don't eat much of this, and Larry no longer eats much of anything these days-so frozen yogurt in the freezer sounds like a good save for this yogurt..  

  I have been keeping ice cream in the freezer that Larry likes once in awhile, and a bowl of ice cream in this hot weather has helped me gain weight I think too.

 The recipes online are pretty simple-do any of you have a favorite frozen yogurt recipe?  I probably have enough yogurt to make two batches.

 

We Hit 100 F Degrees

   I went up to get the mail and Wow felt like it was even hotter along with the still very high humidity And it was-we just hit 100 F degrees  At this point it is a waste of well water to hand water my garden flowers-sadly Being perennials the plants should survive going into next year though.

  I am enjoying stitching on my civil war era reproduction fabrics on the scroll. A really nice way to enjoy the fabrics as I hand stitch. Probably stitched another 8 inches today and yesterday.

  The weather here is really extreme. I have the thermostat set at 78 and the a/c is running more now with this hot and humid weather-hopefully by September or at least by October the temps will drop and get rid of the high humidity. Some hot summers like this one will carry into September

 A lot of boat activity on the lake though-many enjoy hot summers on the water.

     For the last two years I have had a hard time getting my weight back up to 110 or higher. This week, after making myself eat more food through out the day my weight  has made it to 111-so happy dance haha.  Now working on getting my hair to grow again. Stress is hard on the body for sure. My hair is soooo thin now. Trying a couple herbal oils to help with hair growth and breakage. 

 This might be the weekend for that big speed boat race event. More going on at the other end of the lake, so we are enjoying a more peaceful lake this summer-loving that. Parts of this lake have gone way too commercial now-sad to see-as this was always a family & fishing lake.

 Happy weekend

Hot Hot and Hotter & Crafts Update

   Good morning,

   This morning I grabbed my -not so good-camera to see if I could catch the sunrise.

We have a very dead tree that needs to be cut down that shows up in these photos.

Below photo the clouds began to cover the sun

Another week or more of extreme heat and humidity here at Lake in the Ozarks and surrounding areas. We were do for a hot summer though-we get these every couple of years or so.

I made a dental appt on Monday as over the weekend-one of the bad areas on the bottom with fillings was giving me issues. My car is a 1999 Mountainer  and I just do not feel comfortable driving it in these extreme weather conditions, especially since I couldn't get an early appt. So this morning I called and cancelled-will see how this goes. To keep things in check I take an herbal antibiotic Oreganol. 

 I have done some more hooking on the rug. Have been struggling with the white wool as it is really too thick-don't remember this being such a struggle. So I dug through my wool stash and found a much thinner white wool. I think I will mix it with the thicker wool so it will not be so noticeable-it is a different shade of white as well. I may need to think more on this as the photo really shows up the difference in the whites

Yesterday I worked on the civil war era meditative scroll. Am liking it so far Most stitch this across the length not the width-decided this direction would be easier to stitch and it is-I may go back and add some decorative stitches to some of the edges.

  Well I am off to eat my bowl of oatmeal with added freeze dried blueberries and strawberries.

Enjoy your day!

For Deb-I love these wooden vintage ones I had one already and bought two more off of etsy-had to hunt for a good price  You may be able to find one there at a resale shop  I set up for a few wooden sewing thread spools too

Rain & Catch Up

 Isn't rain and cooler weather just the best after days of near 100 F with high humidity?

   I did get a big food shopping trip accomplished yesterday morning, by the time I got every thing down into the house and put away I was exhausted-and Larry needed help as well. I have not been able to get a good sleep most of this week so far

    Last night though, I slept all night which is a huge plus for me as either I wake up in the middle of the night or Larry needs me.  So I even slept through all the hard rain and thunder and lightening last night as well-so I must have been in a very deep sleep.

  We really needed a good soaking, my perennials really needed this rain so am very grateful. When things dry out I will need to see if I can tackle some lawn mowing or weed eating. I will be welcoming fall so I won't need to concern myself about the grass cutting.

I finished a good book this morning. I have been reading several Dorothy Garlock books when they come up on sale-otherwise they are just too expensive for me to spend on a kindle book. She writes a lot of books and they are all different. I like that about an author, 

 Do you like to shop on Amazon?  I don't like giving one company most of my online business, but if there is a problem with an order they fix things every time. I closed my Ebay account awhile back as I ran into too many not honest sellers. I do check Wal mart online for some things too.

  This morning I will see if I can make progress on the rug hooking rug. I have a difficult time with that sometimes-but am close to a finish just having the borders to finish. Hoping I have enough wool strips left-as I am not sure if I have more of these colors or not-will need to check on that. I do have quite a wool stash still.

   Enjoy your day

A Cool Day & and a Very Old Project

   Good morning Saturday & Weekend

So nice to have a cool day, no bright sun and so far no humidity. We did get a bit of rain early this morning and last night. Happy first day of August!!

  I have enjoyed seeing lots and lots of hummingbirds buzzing around the feeders I have out. I so enjoy them, and I still see orioles once in awhile too-they are mostly on the insect diet now.

  I had a taste for some home baked cookies so I decided on peanut butter cookies. A childhood favorite I only use an all natural peanut butter not the ones like Skippy etc-after checking those ingredients years ago. Looking for a small batch recipe they said an all natural peanut butter would not work in most recipes-come out too crumbly and softer. so I found a recipe online using natural peanut butter, and then I also changed to gluten free flour, and no sugar options. These baked up pretty good-a softer cookie but not falling apart so happy with the results.

I was not in the mood for one of my slow stitch projects for some reason this morning, and then I remembered I had a rug hooking project waiting to get completed. I can't remember when I first started this-it has been many years for sure. 

My Mom was a rug hooker back when I was growing up in the '50's and '60's. She made amazing items. Hooked seats for the formal dining room chairs (does anyone even have a formal dining room any more??), many rugs and also a long staircase with two landings with rugs to get to the bedrooms. My brother got most of her pieces-sigh

I wanted to make at least one hooked piece, as I had inherited her rug strip cutter and hooks. I had found another rug cutter at a garage sale-cheap they didn't know what they had, so at the time I bought different sizes of the discs for cutting. Mom's were totally worn out.

I had gotten frustrated with this project because I had put in too many loops so quite tight-hoping it will steam out a bit when finished. There is only the border to finish, and then decide how I want to use this piece. If it doesn't steam out flat will make into a pillow.

The wool is all from recycled wool-from 100% wool clothes found at consignment shops and garage sales. I remember going with Mom to Goodwill stores looking for 100% wool and then watching her dying all of her colors.

  My Mom only hooked with very very narrow strips-now most seem to hook with 1/4" wide strips. I had cut these the 1/4"

Enjoy your day