Stitches-A Painting-Food Saver

  Hello Friends,

   Happy weekend. We ended up with a pretty day and sunshine with temps in the low 70's-perfect.

I haven't been feeling great again so I didn't end up taking a walk, but I did enjoy watching on the tv a big StPatricks Day parade held at the Bagnell Dam strip here on Lake in the Ozarks. We have a local channel-Lake TV- where we can watch events like this live on the tv.  They had over 50 thousand people in attendance at the parade. This is mostly a parade of just all the different business's on the lake-most toss out lots of candy to the spectators.  So that was fun to watch.

  There were lots of boats on the lake today too-getting ready for the spoonbill fishing.

I have been helping Larry go through his room-to sort things out and see what he wants to sell-I have my  own craft room, and he has his extra room too- mostly tools for a home business he has had off and on for many years.

Going through things he gave me a huge set of acrylic paints-he needed a few colors so most have not been used. I have not dug out my acrylics in a long time-so I thought I haven't painted in awhile-let's do it haha

This was my inspiration photo

My flowers turned out totally different, I didn't use a fine enough brush for the black line around the petals-so I just changed that up a bit This painting went fairly well considering I have always had a difficult time with acrylics-need less water.  I also found the pads that you soak in water-lay in the container that goes with it-place a pallet paper on top which keeps the acrylics damp for a day or two-there is a lid that goes on top. So I will do another painting in a day or two.

 (photos will enlarge for better viewing)

I finished another section on the next slow stitch bag. I am really pleased with it. Instead of just one color embroidery thread for the entire piece I was working on-I matched the threads to the different dyed areas-I really like the results. Next up is that eco print to the right that I did years ago

   This past week I was working on getting my freeze dried foods into jars with the vacuum packer. I have not had issues with this product before-but this time I had major issues-took forever to get jars sealed.  So I looked for you tube videos, read reviews on amazon-and came to the conclusion-these do not work long term-and many complained that the lids did not stay sealed after a month. I have not had that issue so far-thank goodness.

   I found a very informative video, where she preserves lots of food and uses this vacuum seal for dry goods-I really love this as well. She explained all the issues with the other small sealers I have had-and says she uses her food saver and then bought the kit to vacuum the jars.  So I splurged and got one as I have lots of foods I want to vacuum seal in jars. 

  I mentioned it to Larry and he said you know years ago when we were harvesting venison I wanted to get one of these but you decided against it. Back then I was not sure of the food safety of the plastic used with these. Doing research before I bought it now-their plastics is the same product as ziploc bags. I mostly want it for the vacuum sealer, but if I use it for meat or fist I would wrap it in freezer paper first.

  So now I need to learn how to work this haha

Come Monday we have very frigid weather blowing in-down in the single digits with snow. or ice  After a few days of that warm weather returns-so I shouldn't need to shovel or deal with clearing out snow or ice.

Stay safe everyone if you are getting this newest storm as well