Who says cats don't do tricks?

Purrkins is an expert at "playing dead."

We're back...

We were in Milwaukee last weekend for the wedding of the son of some friends. It was the first time Mike and I had been back together since moving away six years ago. I must admit that I had a twinge of homesickness, especially when we drove past our old house. It looks pretty much the same from the street (minus the snow), although the new owners have painted the front door a brick red. And the Mary Engelbreit mailbox was an exclusion when we sold the house, so it is safe here in Texas.

Also visiting Milwaukee were 70,000 Harley-Davidson owners celebrating the company's 105th anniversary.
Here are just a few of them, heading east on Wisconsin Avenue toward the Milwaukee Art Museum.
On Thursday we ate dinner at Three Brothers, a great old Serbian restaurant.


Not fancy, but lots of character and great food.


I had the Serbian salad

and the sarma, my favorite.


On Friday we wanted to go out for a fish fry and decided to head away from the bikers, so we went to the Golden Mast out on Okauchee Lake. I promised Mike I would stop taking pictures of our food, but I did snap this one of him in front of the lake.

The wedding was Saturday night. It turns out that we knew several people there, including Kate's third grade teacher, whose daughter is good friends with the bride's sister.

On Sunday we drove up to Minneapolis to visit the kids and flew back home yesterday. When we were checking our luggage the woman at the desk asked us if we had been at the convention. I said "No, visiting our children. And if we had been at a convention, it would have been the one in Denver!"

This is...my favorite fabric shop

Sorry for the small image, but it is the only one they have on their website. Cabbage Rose Quilting in Fort Worth is a place I have only been to few times, but it is a wonderfully cute place with an awesome assortment of fabrics and really friendly people working there. Here in Houston I like It's a Stitch, Quilt 'n Sew and Quakertown. Unfortunately, none of them are anywhere near me :-(

Thanks to handmaiden for this week’s topic, and three buttons for this is

this is...my favorite children's book

This was my favorite book as a child, and I am fortunate enough to still have it. I remember my mother reading it to me and me reading it to Kate. I could probably recite it from memory if I had to.




I'm sure that this book is part of the reason that Paris is my favorite city in the world and was why I chose to study French.


I look forward to reading it to a granddaughter some day...

Thanks to Potty Mouth Mama for this week’s topic, and three buttons for this is

I just can't help myself...

What happened to my no new projects mantra? My first real day off in ages and I had to start something. The good news is that I finished the same day! When I was in Minneapolis earlier this month, Kate and I went to Crafty Planet, a great little shop in northeast. We found this really cute fabric. Unbeknownst to me, my son-in-law Kyle apparently loves octopi. I myself am partial to mermaids. So I bought a piece of each of these and made them into pillowcases. I used the Amy Butler stripe that was the backing on their wedding quilt as the contrast. Okay, now back to machine quilting this, or binding this!

Bluebirds of happiness

I posted this last month on Thrift Thursday, but wanted to share it here as well. Isn't it just the sweetest thing you have ever seen? Something about it just makes me happy when I look at it.

Cool stuff (at least I think so...)

I'm not sure anyone else will get excited about this stuff, but I am (and after all it is my blog)! I had a jackpot end of the week. The quilter finished my quilt sooner than expected. I still need to put on a binding, but I hope to do that later this week. The labels I ordered from namemaker.com arrived. I saw them on someone's blog...I thought it was Pam Kitty Morning, but couldn't find the post. Whoever it was, please let me know and I will give you credit. I had been wanting something to sew on to my creations, and these really fit the bill. They are custom woven in Europe and are only 56¢ a piece! Aren't they just the cutest thing?

But what I'm really excited about...my iPhone came in! We ordered it at the AT&T store last Sunday and were told it would take 10 business days, but it came in on Friday. Getting it activated was rather complicated. We had an AT&T cell phone account through MD Anderson, but Mike's Blackberry was recently phone activated through Sprint. So he has a new Sprint cell number and we switched the AT&T number to my iPhone. Anyway...it is VERY cool! I am still learning all the things I can do with it...

This is...how I like to spend my weekend

Sunday morning that is...drinking coffee, listening to NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, reading the newspapers and starting the Times' crossword puzzle. Thanks to the bird bath for this week’s topic, and three buttons for this is.

Too busy to blog...

I have been working waaaay more than usual...I got home from MSP a week ago Wednesday night, worked Thursday and Friday (12 hours each day), spent Saturday unpacking, doing laundry, etc. and finally had a "day off" with Mike on Sunday. Then worked Monday and Tuesday (again 12 hours both days), was off on Wednesday when I had a dental appointment and spent 6 hours stuffing envelopes for the MDAnderson F2O, then worked two more 12 hour shifts yesterday and today. To sum it up...6 out of the last 9 days for a total of 72 hours. I will be happy when the paycheck comes, but I have more important things to do! I have three exciting things to show you...which I will do either tomorrow or Sunday...I promise!

This is...a work in progress

I was invited by Angela to join the This is... group. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but basically one of the group posts a theme on Wednesday, and on Sunday everyone posts a photo of that theme. I think most of the members are from Australia and the UK, so it should be interesting to get a more worldly perspective of things. And how appropriate is this week's theme? I could have chosen any of several works-in-progress, but this is the one I have been concentrating on as of late (also the one I have been working on for the longest time!) It is a quilt made of Mary Engelbreit fabric with applique and prairie points, two techniques I hadn't attempted before. If you are familiar with ME fabric, you will get some idea as to how long I have been working on this, although, in my defense, I had the kit for at least a year before I started it! I have actually started machine quilting it, which you can see in the middle two blocks if you click on the picture for a closer look.

Four down, forty-six to go

The other night, as a belated birthday treat, Kate had a friend (who is in training to become a massage therapist) come over to the house and give us massages. Then we went for a late dinner to La Belle Vie. We had the bar tasting menu with the accompanying wine flight...
delightful. She reminded me that this restaurant is on the same list as DaMarco's. Wonder how far throught the list I can make it before they come out with a new one...

Oldie but goodie

This is the quilt I made my daughter for her college graduation in 2004. I realized that I had never actually taken a picture of it, so on my visit I took advantage of the chance to do that. It is made from t-shirts that belonged to her from grade school (the Ruby Slippers from our visit to the Smithsonian when she was nine) through college (New Student Weekend and the Caffe del Sole from her junior year in Italy.) The sashing and backing are U of M fabric I found online at J & O Fabrics. (I have lots of scraps of it if you know anyone who needs some :-)

Sunday morning with the grandkids, I mean kitties

Kate and Kyle had to work this morning, so Sam and Rosie and I spent some quality time on the screen porch, them watching the birds, me reading the Star Tribune. It was great to be outside in the fresh air. I will get to do this in Houston some time in October.

I had their attention for a moment...


...but the birds won out!

Excedrin headache #35 Your in-laws are coming for dinner

I am on my way up to MSP to visit my daughter and son-in-law and to see the progress they have made on their "new" 108 year old house. This is what it looked like when they first bought it and when I was up to see them in May. I hope to have some "after" pictures when I get back.

Kreativ Blogger Award

Yesterday Andrea let me know she'd given me the Kreativ Blogger Award. Thank you! There are so many people out there who are way more creative than I am, but I am honored and will play along. Sort of an mutual admiration society I think :-)



Here are the rules:

1 The winner may put the logo on her blog.
2 Put a link to the person you got the award from.
3 Nominate 5 blogs.
4 Put links to the blogs.
5 Leave a message for your nominees.

My nominees are:
Amy Angry Chicken
Ayumi Pink Penguin
Jennifer Mama Urchin
Jenny Allsorts
Pam Pam Kitty Morning

Like I said, way more creative than me...

Yet another vintage pattern

I ran across this pattern from 1982 (is that vintage?) My mother made it for my daughter's first birthday. I have never done any smocking, but might be tempted if I ever have a granddaughter. My mother used to do lots of handwork (knitting, embroidery, smocking, etc.) which could be why I am drawn to such things. She never did teach me how to darn socks, though.

Here is a picture of Kate in the dress. She's still that cute :-)

It's a cat's life

It's really hard work trying to find a pool of sunshine, especially when Mom keeps the blinds drawn to keep the house cool.

But that's okay...when I do find one, it's the perfect place for a catnap.

=^..^=

Houston, we have a problem

It's called the weather. We have been here 6 years this month, and for the most part we like everything about the city except the weather. This is the indoor/outdoor thermometer at 8:10 yesterday morning. I can't figure out why the little face is smiling. I guess because it's only outside that it's 81º and 80% humidity. What bothers me the most is that we are only two months into summer, with at least three months to go.

Birthday goodies

I hinted, well more than hinted, that I wanted a new iPhone for my birthday, the day after it was released. I must give Mike credit for even trying to get me one. He went to the Apple Store in the Galleria, but said that the wait in line was 4 hours. The next day he went to an AT&T store where they had 16 phones for the 25+ people in line. I guess I will be buying my own when all the hype dies down. He did bring me these gorgeous star gazer lilies, one of my favorites.

And while he was at the Galleria he bought me some more of my new dishes, so I now have 8 dinner plates, 8 salad plates and 6 pasta/soup bowls. I thought it would be easier to take a picture of them on the floor. The cats were interested, wondering why there were empty dishes on the floor.

Marjorie, my dear friend of 40+ years, sent me these delights. Her very talented husband Peter made the ladybug house. It is just too cute! I told her that I can't actually use it, because the sun down here would fade the paint, but I am going to find a shady spot for it on my screen porch. And look at those cherry boots...I can't wait for it to rain!

She is very artistic and talented as well. She made these adorable earrings for me.

No iPhone, but lots of other treasures!

Birthday dinner and breakfast the next morning

My birthday was yesterday and we went for the first time to DaMarco. We had heard good things about it and our foodie daughter had told us that is was listed in Gourmet's America's Top 50 Restaurants (the only other two on the list we have eaten at are Zuni Cafe and Sanford). The food and service were both great. The menu has changed a bit from the one on their website. I had branzino carpaccio with pine nuts and seared foie gras, gnocchi with wild boar sausage and fava beans, the veal chop and a cheese course. Mike had a yellow beefsteak, arugula, goat cheese and salami salad, the papardelle with rabbit, roasted swordfish and panna cotta. I had thought about taking my camera, as Kate had requested pictures, but I decided that I would just enjoy my dinner. (I later regretted not having my camera when we were leaving and outside was parked a humongous Rolls-Royce with a baby carseat in the back...that I would have taken a picture of!) I did find this picture of the fabulous wine we had with dinner, though.


We were so full last night, even with bringing home half of our secondi, that I didn't think I would ever be hungry again. But around 10 this morning we were both ready for breakfast. I remember having seen this recipe in the new Bon Appetit.

Poached Eggs and Parmesan Cheese over Toasted Brioche with Pistou

We had all the ingredients (except the brioche bread, so I substituted some sourdough I had in the freezer), and it was delicious! I was actually going to take my own picture, but had inadvertently left my camera on and the battery was dead as a doornail, so I stole this one from the Bon Appetit website. Mine looked pretty much like this, except greener because I used all of the pistou. We will definitely make this again.


Mike is off to DC for a few days, so I am off to leftovers for dinner...his swordfish as a primi and my veal shank as a secondi.