Thursday, April 30, 2015

Thrifty Thursday

Gentle Friends... we found a few things over the weekend out thrifting......

...... a nice mid-century painting o/c by a California artist based in Fresno, a great pewter teapot from Colonial Williamsburg Restoration by Stieff, a DVD of "The Iron Lady" with Meryl Streep playing Margaret Thatcher, a role for which she won the 2011 Best Actress Oscar, and a nice little Icon.
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That's about it for today sports fans thanks for stopping by, do stop again!!

Take care,
edgar

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

A Sunday Breakfast

Gentle Friends... we stayed close to home finding breakfast down on 24th Street just a couple of blocks away.... since it was on the early side (this place packs out with long lines by mid morning) we headed for "Toast."


....  I had French Toast made with challah and a side of Canadian bacon........

......... and Rico had the Noe Valley Scramble......
..... as usual the Toast breakfast was a very good start to a low key laid back Sunday!!!  Just the way I like things.......
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There you go sports fans, short and tasty!! Thanks for stopping by, do stop again!!

Take care,
edgar

Monday, April 27, 2015

A Little Stitchin'

Gentle Friends, I've been working on "Sojourner" the past few days and here's where
 I left off last night.....

....  I wanted to get the outside of the center saw-tooth border completed and when it
 met I was ecstatic!! 
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That's about it for today sports fans.....  thanks for stopping by, do stop again!!

Take care,
edgar 

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Thrifty Thursday... and a Flick

Gentle Friends... thrifting on Saturday was basically a bust... there were no Estate Sales and very little in the shops.... I did however find one little treasure....

......  a great book about the making of one of my favorite Holiday Specials.......  the book goes into great depth about the "behind the scenes" and even discusses how it came to be in the first place....lovin' it!!!!
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I know I've not talked about films in a while, but this one I gotta mention - "Into the Woods" - 2014 -   It was a Netflix DVD last night and I was really looking forward to seeing it.....  I do love Sondheim and this is a real favorite of mine...... 
.........it didn't disappoint - even going beyond expectations in some instances.....


... there were quite a few super performances - one of them was given by Meryl Streep, and it was her performance I was most leery of - after seeing (and hearing) her in "Mama Mia" that unwatchable fiasco - I was worried she would be unable to carry the roll of The Witch.  I shouldn't have even given it a thought as she completely outdid herself and was simply stunning.( the roll of The Witch was originated by Bernadette Peters so there were some large shoes to fill)  Other stand outs include... Emily Blunt as The Bakers Wife - superb!!, Anna Kendrick as Cinderella - perfection and Johnny Depp as The Wolf - to funny and his song "Hello, little Girl" was perfect!!  If you like Sondheim - and many don;t - then this is a movie you will certainly enjoy!!

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

Take care,
edgar

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Sunday Brunchin'

Gentle Friends, we had a house guest up from Monterey over the weekend so Sunday morning we went out to breakfast - because the weekends are for eatin' out!!

We decided to try a place we go to occasionally - it's pretty close but if you don't get there early then the crowds usually mean an easy 45+ minute wait for a table..... it's is a refurbished drug store and is called Boogaloo's........


...... it was a cold and grey outside so we chose to get a table inside..........

.......  they have won quite a few Local "Best of" type awards - and they do some great dishes, but some of them are total misses, so it is good to know what to order and what to steer clear of.......

.... I've always meant try their "famous" Lemon Cornmeal Cakes, and finally got me some - while they were excellent pancakes, none of us could taste any lemon, we all tried them and not a smidgen of lemon could we find - aside from the non-lemon they were excellent! I got them with a side a andouille sausage....

...... Teresa got "the basic" over hard with sourdough toast......

...... and Rico had the Burrito Desyuno with a side of fruit.....  they kept the coffee cups full and it was super fast service.  I think next time I'll just go back to my usual Eggs Benedict - because you just can't beat Hollandaise with eggs!!!
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There you go sports fans - thanks for stopping by, do stop again!!

Take care,
edgar

Monday, April 20, 2015

A Little Stitchin'

Gentle Friends, it was a fun low key weekend here by the Bay.  The weather was perfect - bright sunny and on the cool side then the fog rolled in Saturday evening and stayed with us all through Sunday - just perfect!!  Like Summer!!  I got a bit more stitching done on Sojourner Sampler.....  here's a snap.....

.... can you see the dog hair??  :)
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There you go sports fans - short and sweet!!  Thanks for stopping by, do stop again.

Take care,
edgar

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Thrifty Thursday....and a Pottery Question?????

Gentle Friends... we found some fun things thrifting and here's some snaps......

.... an over sized Santa mug (like we needed another coffee mug - but it is over sized and has Santa on it!!) some great DVD"s, a nice Christmas CD and a super piece of pottery!! - I found this "Tyg" - or three handled loving cup at the Goodwill - on each side is a proverb/motto done by hand using a technique called "slip trailing"........  it has a drab green  glaze and the body is cream coloured..... there are no marks on the piece anywhere.... I've spent quite a bit of time looking on line trying to identify what company made this piece and when, but without any luck........

...... here's another side with it's proverb/motto.....

..... and the third side's proverb/motto - the motto's are all of Scottish origin so it could be from Scotland or I am thinking English manufacture - but I really don't know....... any thoughts out there???????
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That's about it for today sports fans, thanks for stopping by, dos top again!!

Take care,
edgar

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Yummy German Food....

Gentle Friends..... my dear Blog/Stitching Friend, Roberta, was wrapping up her trip with her daughter to Japan with a stop off in SF on her way back to the East Coast. The trip was spectacular and she will be posting snaps and descriptions at her blog "Simply Stitching in the Garden" soon.  They were staying with her son who lives here - and we all got together Sunday morning for brunch at a new to me place......  Schmidt's.

When I say we -  it was a little group of us.... including Roberta, Lindsey, her daughter, Jeremy, her son, Michael, his partner, Rico my other half and me.  They have communal seating at big tables and we had a whole end to ourselves......

.... you can click HERE to go to the Brunch Menu to see what we could have ordered......  what we ended up having was the following.......

..... Roberta and Rico had -  "Armer Ritter - battered hefezopf french toast with maple syrup and fruit.... with crispy bacon on a side plate.....

.... since I am a big fan of the German Wurst I ordered the Wurst Platte - with two wursts.... the Nurnberger Bratwurst  (skinny light coloured one)and a Berliner Currywurst (the fat one with the curry/ketchup sauce on it)  When I was traveling in Germany at almost every Town and Village I tried the wurst - and remember fondly the little white wurst from Nuremberg so I had to get them.....and if I could find a tour just riding around Germany/Austria eating different Wursts I think it would be wonderful!!!

.... Michael got the Kalbsschnitzel Sandwich - veal schnitzel on toast with chive cream, fried egg and mixed greens..... and.....

.....Jeremy and Lindsey got Waffeln Lingonberry-Quark with a Wurst.   

Everything was really delicious and it will be on our list of places to go on the weekends for breakfast/dinner!!!
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That's about it for today sports fans. Thanks again for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,
edgar

Monday, April 13, 2015

A Little Stitchin'

Gentle Friends... I got a little stitching done over the weekend....  I finished up the hen/duck for June and got the border for July completely before starting........

.... to stitch on "Sojourner Sampler"....

.... it's not much but it's a start.
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That's about it for today (or I should say tonight) sports fans, thanks for stopping by, do stop again!!

Take care,
edgar

Friday, April 10, 2015

"Art in Bloom" - Macy's Flower Show 2015 (Lots of Snaps)

Gentle Friends, once again we made the trek down to Union Square and a visit to the Macy's Annual Flower Show - you can click on either year 2013, 2014 - to see past Flower shows.  This year the theme was "Art in Bloom - and the flower displays were to be inspired by art and artists.......

.....  the front windows were once again filled with lovely things......


......  a little Picasso......

...... the main hall through the make-up and perfume area....

....... a little Matisse......

......  a little Calder (I think)..... it was hard to tell sometimes what art or artist was being interpreted....

..... this was in the main perfume area and I made a stab at whom may have been the inspiration...... Chihuly - since these were blown glass pieces in bunches at either end of the "BLOOM", but once again it was just a stab in the dark...

.......  in the watches area was this wonderful succulent display - lovely but I couldn't figure out from whence the inspiration came.....

..... and in the fine and costume jewelry was this main pedestal with a copy of Michelangelo's "David" .  One of my pet peeves and something that just sets my teeth on edge is censorship - and that little leaf just got me going - if a nude statue is so offensive to the general public then don't use the piece - I've been to Florence and seen the real David and it's magnificent, so when some fool decorator starts messing with such important pieces of Western Art then something is desperately wrong. 

... more floral displays - again I couldn't even hazard a guess.........

......  this one I felt could have had a little van Gogh going on .....

.......  another guess....  maybe Manet "Dejuener sur l'Herbe"...... Overall a lovely display, but a bit disjointed  and confusing with very little information.  I hope you enjoyed a little Macy's trip!!

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

Take care,
edgar

Flowers and Fruit

 Gentle Friends, I wrapped up the centre square stitching... here's a snaperooo... ... I thought about straightening up the baskets and ...