Suggestions

Hi Friends! I have two quick things that I need help with today. I am leaving in the morning to drive to Baton Rouge to spend a few days with my Dad. During my trip to BR this summer, I tried to visit a quilt shop that I had previously visited only to find it closed. Anyone have a suggestion or two of a quilt shop that I can "visit" on Friday or Saturday? Thanks for any and all input!


Secondly, I have had e-mail from a wonderful blogging friend who works at the War Veterans Home in Reserve, Louisiana. I can't find your e-mail address.  Please e-mail me again. Your information on the veterans home was invaluable. I plan to visit the facility while in Louisiana this week.

Home, Again

Knowing that my Summer break will soon be over, last week we headed to Louisiana to visit with my Dad and Marion's Mom. They both live in assisted-living facilities, but in different areas of Louisiana. We spent a bit of time in both places wishing we had more time to visit. Michael made the trip with us, too. With his college schedule, it may be some time before he is able to visit again. We were blessed with my cousins who helped us during our visit. Many thanks to Bob and Niki (also a quilter) who introduced us to an awesome pizza restaurant very near Dad's facility. It was wonderful visiting with them again. They had never met our son, Michael. He loved connecting with family. Bob's brother and my cousin, Glen, welcomed us into his home. We normally have to sleep at a local motel because Dad no longer lives in his home. Relaxing at Glen and Mary's home was absolutely perfect. It helped us to feel connected to family. We talked, laughed and ate lots.

While in Lafayette, I made a quick detour to Bourne Quilters. It is one super shop! I visited with Renee, the owner. They are in the process of moving to a larger location (wonderful news) in the same strip shopping center. The week previous to my visit, they celebrated their first year anniversary. Many bolts of fabric were on sale for 40% off. Because of their anticipated move, the sale was still in process. I purchased a white with black dot print from Lakehouse and Beatles fabric to make Michael a pillowcase. He is enamored with the music of The Beatles. He's also anxiously awaiting the new Rock Band video game featuring the music of The Beatles.


While visiting Marion's Mom, we were also able to visit his childhood friend. Mike was best man at our wedding. Most trips we're not successful in coordinating a visit so this was a treat for all of us. We normally book rooms at the Casino that is near his Mom's place, but the Casino was completely booked. We tried a local bed and breakfast. This was a first for us, staying at a B & B. Honeysuckle B & B was quite nice. It was very quiet which is not the case at the Casino. It was truly in the Country. I don't think I could find the place on my own.

Our Rusty stayed home with our oldest son, Jason. He was over-joyed to have us return. He's a bit neurotic. I'm hoping that he relaxes. I don't think he ate the entire time we were gone. He's definitely off his schedule. I found it rather amusing that the pastor of the local church near Marion's Mom's assisted living has the same name as our dog, both first and last name :)

Alabama and Mississippi Quilt Shops

This weekend, I'm driving to Lafayette, Louisiana (my hometown) to spend a couple of days with my Dad. This is the first time in a very long time that I'll not have "my boys" with me. I'm thinking it would be fun to visit a shop or two on my long drive from Atlanta. I usually drive I85 to Montgomery, then Mobile, through Mississippi to Slidell, Baton Rouge then Lafayette, but will probably return the other way going through Meridian and Birmingham. Can anyone suggest a quilt shop that you have visited or know of that would make for a good break during my drive? I do plan on visiting Ginger's Needleworks in Lafayette while I'm there. It also looks like another quilt shop has opened in the last couple of years, too. 

Back Home

How good it is to be home. We spent most of yesterday driving home from Louisiana. Marion, Michael and I arrived home about 7:00.  Our oldest son was not able to travel with us. He had bar-b-que chicken wings and fries waiting for us when we drove in the drive-way. 

Today, I've spent most of the time dealing with clutter. We still had remainders from opening presents in our family room Christmas morning. There was luggage to unpack. Clothes to wash, dry and fold.  I've begun collecting some of the Christmas decorations, but will probably wait until this weekend to put it all away. Rusty needed lots of cuddle time. We (Rusty and I) took an extra long nap. That should hold us over until bedtime. 

This was a difficult trip.  My Dad is in an assisted living in our hometown. He is having health problems, physical and mental. He sleeps lots. I did sit with him in his apartment most of the time that we were there. Marion and Michael ran errands. We picked up meals and ate it with him. It is a blessing that he doesn't realize that things are not good. 

 I did get to work on a wool applique project while visiting Dad. It is one of our Sisters projects, Antique Pomegranates. This is my first wool applique project. Looking at my work, you can see some improvement from one  section to the other. In fact, I made sure I didn't work from left to right on the project so that my work would be a bit even. I'm really liking this project. 

Home Again

I can't believe that we've been home a week from our grueling trip to Louisiana. It just wasn't a Fun trip.  Dad and my MIL are each  in an assisted living home in different parts of South Louisiana. They have very limited mobility. Each has some ageing issues. It's so hard seeing our parents so alone. They want to stay in Louisiana, but there is so little family/friends around for them. I know our trip did them some good. Wish it wasn't so far to visit.

I had Homework when I returned home that I needed to do. Yes, teacher/librarians have homework in the Summer. I am scheduled for a "professional learning" (new term for staff development ) class next week. I had to read 4 middle grade novels and write questions for each book. The questions are for our annual Reader's Rally held in early Winter. I had four wonderful books.

 My favorite was The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. It's actually a fantasty/adventure series. Once our class meets, I'd like to read the others in the series. Percy Jackson discovers that his father is a Greek god. The human portrayls of the classic Greek gods was amusing. I loved that Area, god of war, was a biker on a Harley motorcycle. My favorite was probably Poseidon as a beach bum. My fourth and fifth graders who love fantasy will like this title.  I also enjoyed The Amazing Flight of Darius Frobisher.  I loved all the bicycles in this book.  

My son swims in a Summer swim league. The past two days we've been involved in swim meets. We've had wonderful thunderstorms to help our drought, but the storms made swimming difficult. It's made for lots of wet towels and laundry, packing ice chests with drinks and meals. Finally, the folks in charge had to call the  event off. Our event was at another neighborhood pool. It happened to be in the neighborhood that my principal, my boss, lives. I am so blessed to have this woman for a "boss" - for a friend. She spent a couple of hours with me in my car while we wait for the thunderstorms to end. 

We changed cell phone providers this week. Thankfully, we have a teenage computer geek at home. He is helping us "learn" our new phones. I think I can check for messages:)  It's been fun choosing new ring tones. I chose "Summon the Heroes" for my main ringtone. Of course, I've missed more calls because I can't remember that means to answer the telephone. We found a sound bite with the LSU Fight Song for my husband. My son, the passionate videogamer, is using snippets from his favorite videogame. Fun:)

After "lots of togetherness" on our trip, in the hotel, in the car, I jumped at the chance to attend a quilting class on Saturday. My hubby seem glad to have me gone, too.  Melisa, at Sweet Home, had a Stash Class. She provided the stash and taught us a new technique. It was sanity for me. It doesn't matter if I ever finish these blocks. It was fun being in a different quilting classroom. I met some new ladies. I was even pretty restrained around all the luscious fabrics. I do hear that she has the new Portugal line by April Cornel. Oh no.....  I still haven't use the Maypole fat quarters that I purchased at Quilt Market.

On the Road .....

I've completed my to do list for today. We leave early in the morning for Louisiana to visit my MIL for a couple of days then visit my Dad for a day or two. Both of our parents are in assisted living facilities so we having to do the hotel and restaurant bit for the entire trip. In fact the only hotel in Central Louisiana where my MIL is living is in a  Casino. It's weird having to walk through the area with the slot machines to get to the hotel lobby. Since it is Louisiana, we are guaranteed to have great food the entire trip. We are hoping to have a good visit, but both our parents are having some "ageing" issues. I have binding to sew, stitchery prepared, books, magazines, and books on my Ipod for the LONG drive. It's an 11 or 12 hour drive from Atlanta.

I didn't get much sewing done this week, but I had lots of quilt ystimulation. I visited Sweet Home Quilt shop with my friend Brenda on Monday. Tuesday, I was able to attend the Gwinnett  Guild meeting (since I'm home for the Summer)  Visited with many wonderful friends. Thursday, I shopped at Intown Quilters with a friend looking for fabric for her daughtter's T-shirt quilt.  I just looked. I actually didn't purchase anything.

I did finish two projects last weekend. I completed the quilt top of the neutral quilt for my SIL for Christmas. I have to piece the back, then it's ready for quilting. I just love this quilt. It will look even better quilted.

I pulled an old UFO out of a bin. I worked on my Good to Go bag last Friday at Sisters. It's string pieced. I used Chelsea Lane fabric by Pat Sloan. I just love the autumn colors in this bag. The bag is a design by my friend Pat of  Silver Thimble Quilt Company.       I even used it a couple of times this week. That's another project off my extensive UFO list. DONE!

I'll have limited internet access until we return home next Wednesday. Have a great weekend! 

Rusty, the Dachshund Meets Clovis

Yesterday, we celebrated my husband's birthday which is actually on Monday with a crawfish boil. Both Marion and I grew up in South Louisiana (Cajun country). Springtime especially 

Easter or Mother's Day  was crawfish (pronounced craw fish not crayfish) time. We'd buy crawfish by the sack. I can remember Dad buying 75 pounds and boiling them for our family. Here in the Atlanta area we are fortunate to have a seafood market that makes weekly runs to Louisiana for fresh seafood. Marion called "Boudreaux" earlier in the week and reserved a forty pounnd sack of live crawfish. 

 

Crawfish are boiled outdoors.  We  have a special pot and burner to boil them. Red peper, salt, onions, corn, potatoes are all boiled at the same time.

 Rusty, our minature dachshund loved the smell. We had to keep him indoors so that he didn't get too close to the gas burner. We served the crawfish in aluminum pans. Here they are cooling a bit so that we could eat them.

Rusty actually took one out of the pan and tried to eat it hard shell and all. 

Who may you ask is Clovis? Clovis was the star and main character in a series of books written by Mary Alice Fonenot. The first book was printed in 1961. Here is the Wikopedia entry on Clovis the Crawfish:

Clovis Crawfish is the lead character in a series of nineteen children's books written by Mary Alice Fontenot published between 1961 and 2004.

"Clovis Crawfish and His Friends" by Mary Alice Fontenot, illustrated by Keith Graves, Pelican Press, 1961

Clovis is a crawfish who lives in the bayous of Louisiana who speaks in English with occasional Cajun words or phrases. Several volumes have also been published in French editions, usually translated by Fontenot's daughter, Julie Fontenot Landry.

The Clovis Crawfish books are beloved by generations of Louisiana children and have a following throughout the world as well.