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

Blogger is acting up again and will not let me comment back this morning-will try again this afternoon