Has started. Sorry for the short post! Brunch at Blue Heaven is always a treat. Amazing shrimp eggs Benedict with key lime hollandaise. I know sounds terrible but oh so good. 

And the atmosphere is just fun and whacky. Breakfast with the chickens lunch in the shade is their motto. Actually I fed the chickens some of mine. They LOVE blueberries. 

This is the view from our table. Even during high summer it’s so wonderfully cool under their trees. 

Bytw Hemingway used to box on this property. Famous people are never far away in Key West. 

Back to my Christmas stocking knitting crisis. Oh wait I have to bake cookies and pack the car and finish wrapping and. Sigh. Helllppp. 

Third attempt at stocking is the charm.   

This one which I stayed up til one knitting would turn out to be THREE feet long. So this morning I decided to use the old pattern that my mom first used for our stockings in the late 50s. So far so good. Santas about half done. The first attempt was not even a third done and already 11 inches long. Eekk. 

Ttyl 

Margaret who is oh so busy. Xoxoxo 

The view from where we ate at Buzzards Roost. 
Well usually. Generally we sit waterside with this great view of the marina but it was Sunday brunch time and so busy we couldn’t see it from our table. 

 HOWEVER I did get up and take a this photo of it. It’s so lovely a picture does not  do it justice. 

The tropical breezes when fleeing south are always a treat.  

I did draw the pelicans which I had not seen in all my previous trips to Buzzards Roost.  The pelicans were actually lined up when I drew them but I turned one around. Thought three in a line would be boring. 

Hard to see but the pelicans are lined up on the boat rails. 

Colors used marine blue, ultramarine blue, indigo, cerulean,  Winsor yellow, purple. I seem to use a lot of purple as a dark lately. 

Some white gouache  because I forgot to leave their reflection in the water. A lot of splattering with soupy ultramarine blue and indigo. 

Ttyl 

Margaret babysitting the grandkids. 

As I have said before we start and end our trip thru the Keys at Buzzards Roost. After a 14 hour drive from Atlanta it was dark when we got there this trip. The restaurant sits in the middle of a marina on a canal in Key Largo. This was the view from our table complete with Christmas lights. 

Only had 125 miles left to go of Overseas Highway including the seven mile bridge left.  Hate doing it at night because the views of the blue green water are spectacular in the day time. 

Colors used : quin gold. Seems to be my fav color lately. Under the palms and the lights and on the boats. 

Purple and indigo for darks. Cerulean blue and quin burnt orange for greys on the boats.  And a bit of burnt umber and ultramarine blue. And white gouache for the Christmas lights. 

Anyway Henry and Livia time. 

Try Margaret xoxoxo

I am working on a hand bound memory journal book for my grandkids. This is page three. They are painted on sheets of 8×10″ 280# arches. Sooner or later I hope to bind them into a book. 
The tree is their tree and the toys their two favorites Santa brought. Of course those are their stockings that I knitted for each of them the year they were born. 
Colors -Ted Nuttalls transparent colors plus cerulean. The two colors I can paint without are Daniel Smith Quin gold and cerulean. Well there are a few others but use those a lot. 
I did a base coat on the tree of quin gold before painting it with greens. It alway shows as a nice glow. 

Lettering is done with a small 6 Isabey sable brush which has a wonderful point. 

Busy day. Off to binders to buy more quin gold And cerulean. 
Ttyl 
Margaret not looking forward to Atlanta traffic but hearing the call of her Binders gift card aka spend spend spend. 

LLoyd of Lloyds Tropical Bike Tour with his herd of ibis 
When we ride Lloyds Tropical bike tour the highlight for me is always the Key West Wildlife Rescue where he calls the ibis. 

I love drawing them as much as I love drawing the chickens. No Key West sketchbook is complete without the ibis and the chickens.  

These ibis were very intent on Lloyd who had been feeding them. Hoping for more food they follow him like trained dogs. 

Trying to decide whether or not to go back and splatter the brush. Mostly painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent colors in my Stillman and Birn Zeta. 

I laid down a light wash of Daniel Smith Quin gold adding burnt umber and ultramarine blue in the dark areas and quin burnt orange in the light areas. The water is Daniel Smith hematite green and Marine blue with bits of ultramarine blue. The legs and beaks are pyrrole red and aureolin yellow. 

​

​​Ttyl Atlanta awaits. 

Margaret xoxox 

I don’t think I have published this page from the Key West sketchbook. THE Buzzard at Buzzards Roost hides in the beautiful flowered hedges which I have forgotten the name of. Here’s what he looked like as I drew him but I pulled the bush back so I could photograph him. A lot of peeking around the bushes went on while I quickly sketched him. 

Here’s the flower on the bush. I actually drew our view too but yet to paint it. What to do with those lights?! Eeek. 

Our view to the left. 

Ttyl 

Back to Call the Midwives Christmas show. Pass the Kleenex! 

Margaret xoxoxo also doing battle with a programmable thermostat. Tired of being chilly on this rainy foggy day. 

I have spent the last few days madly working on this stocking to get it done in time for Christmas. I am posting the pattern for it at the end of this edition. 

If you decide to knit this stocking it is not quite two feet long. Difficulty.  Similar to knitting an easy  sock decorated with cross stitch. 

Once you get to the heel you are close to done because it’s knitted on size six needles. 

These Christmas hats are a big hit and very easy to knit. Just a regular knitted cap decreased at the top to a point. The green one is decorated with icord. 

All of the socks look great hung on the fireplace ready for Santa. 

Knitted from a great Christmas sock book called Knit Christmas Stockings!: 19 Patterns for Stockings and Ornaments (September 4, 2003) available on Amazon. Comes in a Santa version. 

We have a Snowman theme going on. 

Same sock Henry’s version. 

My mother knitted this for my younger son using the following pattern. One of her most creative socks. 

This is the original sock pattern that my mom knitted all our socks from when we were kids. Nobody knows where it came from or who copied it it’s been around so long. Knowing my mom it was some freebee you got when you bought yarn from Columbia Minerva yarn corporation. 

Santa too hard. Substitute something like a snowman or a train. Both much easier to knit. 

This stocking is knitted from pattern. It’s easy to choose a simple crossstitch pattern and add it to the sock instead of the very complicated Santa. 

My dad knitted this one for his mom in 1970 or so. Instead of knitting in the letters he actually whip stitched them on. A quirky fun effect. Now it’s my stocking. 

Knit them from wool and they will last a long time. 

Merry Christmas. Get those needles clicking so you will have them done for next year. 

Margaret whose going to play with the grandkids now. Hohoho 

What can I say?! It’s my favorite. The food is wonderful. And sitting under the trees with a view of the Atlantic is hard to beat. 

Here’s our first trip. Here’s our second. 

Gotta run. Decorating a cupcake Christmas tree with the elves help soon.

Margaret who also has to make mac n cheese from Scratch  xoxoxox

The original tiny house is in Key West and everybody wants one. Well if you have a spare million or two laying around.

 Just off the Main Street duval and a block down the street from the cemetery. No we were in modern condos on the ocean. 

This house was so tiny the door was narrower than a regular door and the palms were that tall and skinny. Adorable tiny house.

I drew it in standing in the palm shaded road which was a nice respite  on my four mile self guided historic house tour.  Very interesting but takes longer than the two hours it says. 

Ttyl off to Atlanta. Down to the heel on the stocking. Christmas is coming. 

Margaret off to finish loading the car. Xoxoxo