Les Petites Images: Dinner, Houston style

We are getting ready to go on our cruise, so I've been a bit busy. My daughter and son-in-law arrived yesterday and she documented last night's dinner on her blog...just in case you're interested.

Les Petites Images: Dinner, Houston style

I have a post in the works, honest!

More meat and a "new" bathroom

We received our third meat delivery from Jolie Vue Farms. There is enough meat for 12 meals and also, being from Louisiana, they always include a "lagniappe." We have been very pleased with the quantity and quality of the meat we have received, and are very happy that we are able to support a local, sustainable farm. This was our most recent delivery:


Boneless beef shoulder roast 2#
Whole chickens (2) 5#
Ground beef 3#
Bratwurst 1#
Ground pork 1#
Bone-in rib eyes (2) 1#
Pork back ribs 8 oz.
Fresh slab bacon 8 oz.
Smoked bacon 12 oz.
Beef bones (lagniappe) 2.5#

In anticipation of our children visiting us before we leave on our long awaited family vacation (a western Caribbean cruise), we decided to finally redo our ugly guest bathroom. I neglected to take a "before" picture until after Mike and Donesh had successfully removed the very ugly 70's aluminum and glass shower door over New Year's.


We then painted it in "Gingery" by Sherwin Williams. Actually, Mike painted and I critiqued. I hate to paint. I made a shower curtain and valance out of some fabric I had bought for that purpose on one of my trips to Italy (we had been planning to do this for quite some time). We are both pleased with the result, and I am happy to have one more piece of fabric out of my stash made up into something!

He can't do it alone

Back from New Orleans

We just returned from four days in New Orleans. Mike had an RTOG meeting to attend, and I just went along for the ride. Well, actually HE came along for the ride, since I drove the whole way. Yes, I have control issues, but he doesn't even like to drive, so it works out better for both of us this way. This was the first time we had been to New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. We stayed at the Sheraton on Canal Street, just across from the French Quarter. The quarter seems to have recovered well. There was no flooding there, just wind damage which, for the most part, has been repaired. Their biggest loss was personnel...many of the people in the service sector were displaced, so getting their staff back up to par was an issue that seems to have been resolved, 3 1/2 years later. We ate at many of our old favorites.

• K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen, where we had cajun martinis,
  

fried green tomatoes with shrimp remoulade

and bronzed swordfish with fried oysters.

• Acme Oyster House for oysters on the half shell,

• Central Grocery for muffalettas,

• and of course, Cafe du Monde for cafe au lait and beignets.

I did take a bus tour that went into the lower ninth ward. Three and a half years later, there is still much evidence of the devastation of Katrina, but also signs of reconstruction, albeit it very slow. Unfortunately I wasn't really able to get any pictures that show what it is like. Certainly the indomitable spirit of the city shone through, as evidenced by the ubiquitous Blue Dog.

This isn't a photography blog...

...but sometimes there are things I photograph for no particular reason that I want share. Like this rare Houston sunset last week. For whatever reason, we seldom get pretty sunsets here. When I saw this I just had to take some pictures.




As well as this one. Cats rarely pose for the camera, so when they do you must act quickly!

Hog heaven

My older stepson is a grad student in EE at UT-Dallas. We always see him on holidays when we go up to my mom's near Fort Worth, but he rarely comes down to visit us. We convinced him to come down with us after Christmas, and he flew back up on New Year's Day. He and Mike had some good father-son bonding which involved some yard work, several trips to Lowe's and starting a redo of our guest bath (which I have a feeling I may end up finishing). They took out an ugly old aluminum and glass shower door, which I am going to replace with a shower curtain made from some fabric I bought in Italy for just that purpose. We are also painting the room...a job I hate!

Another thing they did together was go to Fry's. They bought a wireless router and he installed it for me. This means that I can now be online in my sewing room...woohoo! This is especially nice when I am doing machine embroidery and have to sit here while the Bernina does its stuff. Does it get any bettter than that? I don't think so.

Speaking of sewing, here is picture of my mom and me on Christmas. She is wearing the jacket I made for her birthday. (And if you click on the photo for a close-up, you can see the Mary Engelbreit cross-stitch I made for my parents' 50th anniversary.)

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

If you haven't seen this before, it's hilarious, especially if you have both engineers and cats in your family!

Pink Penguin: Baby Shoes

Another unbelievably cute project!

Pink Penguin: Baby Shoes

Freda's Hive: "Doll House" Potholder Tutorial

These are the CUTEST things ever! They make me want to abandon all my other current works-in-progress and make some!

Freda's Hive: "Doll House" Potholder Tutorial

The ugliest one so far...

Well, I'm glad I didn't make any New Year's resolutions about being a better blogger, because I would have broken them already! Seems like someone has put my life on fast forward...how can it be the second week of January?

This is the fourth mystery block of the month from Cabbage Rose Quilting. It goes with this one and these two.

I was in the shop the day after Christmas. Since I was at my mom's and they were having a big sale, I dragged my sister and niece along to ooh and aah over all their pretty stuff and their cute, cute shop. I mentioned to the owner (I think) that the Kaffe Fassett fabrics were not something I would have ever chosen for myself and alluded to the similarity between them and my grandmother's old slipcovers. She said, "Oh, you aren't familiar with his designs?" Me: "I guess not...I am more drawn to Mary Engelbreit and Amy Butler" (of which this shop has a boatload!) But being as O/C as I am, I will continue to make these "free" blocks. I did buy some pretty fabric and a pattern to use them in...


They are really calling to me...but I am trying to be disciplined enough to finish up a few other works in progress before starting something else. Wish me luck!