Better Than The Louvre

In our house, one of us is extremely laid back & the other is extremely high strung. Care to guess which is which?? I'm the high strung one. I worry, I plan & worry some more. Why am I telling you this? I'll get to that. When we went on our cruise in January we met some people from Michigan.  One guy, Daniel, was originally from Tennessee & graduated from the University of Tennessee. He told us he was coming to town for the LSU/Tenn. football game. We've kept in touch via email & were looking forward to the visit. Throughout the week we had emails & phone calls from several friends that live out of town that were coming to town for the game that wanted to get together. As of Friday, there were no definitive plans. This is where the high strungness (is that a word?) comes in to play. I get nervous when I don't know what's going on. I like to have plans. The Friday night tentative plans were for Dean & I, along with our friends Cliff & Sheri that were on the cruise with us, to bring Daniel & his friend, Tiffany to eat at a great restaurant that's off the beaten path. At 5:15 we got a call from Daniel saying that they left New Orleans later than planned & were stuck in traffic. Yeh, I think we forgot to mention Friday afternoon traffic to him when he was making his plans. Anyway, Dean, Cliff, Sheri & I went & ate & made plans to see Daniel Saturday. Well, I say made plans. By that I mean that Dean & Daniel agreed that they'd talk Saturday morning & figure out a "game plan".  See what I mean about being laid back? We went to dinner & it was fantastic! The restaurant is called Roberto's & it's in Sunshine for those of you around here. It's a really old general store that has been turned into a restaurant. I had Grouper with a buerre blanc sauce topped with fried coconut shrimp. Ahhh, it was delish!!! We decided to have dessert. There were lots of choices but we decided on the blueberry bread pudding with rum sauce. It was GREATNESS!!!! Loved, Loved, Loved it!!! When we got home it was such a nice night we walked over & sat on the patio with some other neighbors.

Saturday, I wasn't feeling well so I dropped Dean, Daniel & Tiffany off at LSU. Dean played tour guide & brought them all over campus. They visited a lot of different tailgate parties & ate until they couldn't eat anymore. Everything they ate was something they'd never had before & they loved it all.  Dean was able to meet up with one of the other friends on campus for a quick visit. Tiffany told me later that Dean was the best tour guide she'd ever had. "He was better than my tour guide at The Louvre". HAHAHA!!! I laughed but she was serious.

Right before kick off I went & picked Dean up & we came home to watch the game. It was the most awful thing I've ever seen. The bad part? As awful as it was LSU WON!! Have I said it was awful? I was so embarrassed at how it all went down. Anyway, plans were made to have Daniel & Tiffany & some of the neighbors over after the game to eat & watch Alabama & Florida play. Dean fried fish, crawfish & french fries, crawfish stew & grilled redfish. Everything was so good. We were hoping our other out of town friends would be able to stop by but traffic wouldn't allow it. We live about 3 miles from campus so getting to our house after a game takes hours sometimes.

Today is Amelia-Ann's birthday so one of her friends that lives next door to us, McKenzie, baked a birthday cake. McKenzie is a fabulous baker!

 Amelia-Ann getting ready to blow out the candles.

She's 12 now. I can't believe how fast time is going. Dean & I moved in our house a week after Amelia-Ann's family. She was 7 at the time & so little. We adore this little girl & I hate that she's growing up!

All the kids enjoying cake & gelato.

 I promise the kids weren't drinking the beer!!

 Amelia-Ann was worn out from the days festivities.

 She was sound asleep under that pillow!

We had a great weekend & as usual it was too short.

Toodles!

Dining Rooms

It's Friday so that means it's Show Us Your Life time at Kelly's Korner. This week is dining rooms. Our dining room is one of the few rooms in the house that we didn't paint when we moved it. I really like the color. This is a picture I took standing in the foyer.

I love my dining set & china cabinet. It took forever to get it. Apparently, coming from Indonesia causes all sorts of problems with customs. Who knew? Not me! I didn't even know it was coming from Indonesia but that's another story.

I'm thinking about taking down the grape plaques. I think I'm tired of them. The door just next to them goes into the kitchen. This is a vase that our friend brought us from Mexico. The picture came from Kirkland's.

I just bought the window treatment a couple of weeks ago. Yes, we've lived here 5 years. All of the windows are tall which means you can't find window treatments just anywhere.  I found these panels at a home decor store in town, Red Door Interiors. I was excited to find the right length. I've spent enough money on custom treatments. The panels are Dupioni Silk & they're shimmery. I really like how they look with the wall color.

You can see a little peek of the ceiling. I would really like to paint it something other than white so the crown molding shows up better but I don't know if I'm up for that.  I know Dean isn't. This is the table decorated for fall.

Another pic of the table from a different angle.

This print is by R.C. Davis. He's from Louisiana & all of his work is related to Louisiana. This one has a bowl of gumbo, oysters & all sorts of other good Louisiana food! Sorry about the glare. I obviously need to work on my photography skills. 

This picture was taken from the opposite end of the dining room looking into the foyer.  All the molding is one of my favorite parts of the house.

That's our dining room. Thanks for visiting!

Toodles!

Victory is Ours!!!

I sound like Les!! For those of you not in my area or familiar with LSU or Les Miles I'll explain. For whatever reason he uses the word "Victory".  A LOT. He can never say they won, or they need to win. It's always VICTORY! It's just weird. Anywho, No Thugs won this week!!! WOOOO HOOOO!!!! Some of you may be asking what I'm talking about? Others may be thinking, who cares what I'm talking about? Regardless, I'm talking about our fantasy football team, No Thugs. My friend Wendy & I are co-owners of the team. We haven't been very successful this season but it is only week 3. We are very excited to have won. Not only because it's our first win this season but we beat one of the guys that generally does ok AND we scored the most points of all the teams!! Granted, a few of our players had "career games" & will quite possibly never again play as well as they did Sunday but we'll take it! If nothing else, we're guaranteed to not go winless.

On another note, I need some help. I'm having a love/hate relationship with some birds. I guess technically it's a full on hate/hate relationship because there's just not much to like about them. We have columns across the front of our house &  as long as we've lived there birds are nesting on top of the columns in the small space between the porch ceiling & the top of the column. When I say nesting, I mean building a nest while dropping nest building materials in my pretty landscaping, then actually hanging out in the nest & laying eggs & then baby birds are actually born. Have you ever seen a baby bird after hatching??? EEEWWW! They're so not cute. They're also killing their babies before they're born because I often find cracked eggs when I'm pulling weeds. The main reason that I'm hating these birds is because they're doing their bird business all over my columns & even my front door occasionally. It's disgusting! 

The birds weren't happy with just defacing the front of my house, they've now moved into the patio. The spot of choice there is the ceiling fans. When this first started all you had to do was to flip the switch & turn the fans on & they'd take off. Not the ideal solution being that I can't stand around the light switch all day long. Well, now the birds apparently think the fans are a nice little carousel ride because they don't even flinch when you turn them on! So, now I have birds doing their bird  business on my ceiling fans, patio furniture & patio!  I've tried to find a solution & aside from sitting out there with a sling shot or a gun, I haven't been successful. Any ideas??

Before PETA hears about this, I'm not totally against the birds. I have no problem with them using the waterfall in the pool as a bird bath. Well, I have a little bit of a problem with it but I realize it's really hot & they need to cool off. What I really want is no more bird "stuff" all over my stuff!!!

Toodles!!

Met Monday

I've been working on fall wreaths for the last week. I was making 2 for my front doors & one for my friend Vicki. (Hey Vicki!!). Why has it taken a week?? Because it's still in the 90's here & doesn't feel the least bit like fall! I started out with this.

I worked on Vicki's during the LSU game last week. This is the final product.

The bow doesn't look very good in this picture. These are the ones I did for my doors. In fact these aren't very good pictures at all. Oh well. You get the idea.

I bought just about everything from Michael's. I'm usually a Hob Lob girl but I didn't find that they had as much stuff as usual. I really love the ribbon I used. I bought 2 different ones & mixed them together.  Here's a close up.

The orange ribbon is iridescent so it shimmers & looks different shades of orange. I didn't hang them yet because I forgot to buy wreath hangers. That's added to my to do list, along with decorating the rest of the house for fall. It's supposed to be cooler this week, meaning in the 80's instead of the 90's so hopefully I'll get into a fall frame of mind! 

I'm linking with Susan at Between Naps On The Porch for Metamorphosis Monday. Check it out!

I was invited by The Tablescaper to link up to Seasonal Sundays too!

Toodles!!

A Long Weekend

It's been a busy few days. Thursday night we went downtown to the United Way Jambalaya Cook Off. We had such a good time. There were a bunch of teams cooking & they were set up all around downtown. A lot of the bars had "specialty" drinks to sample. I don't eat jambalaya so Dean sampled it & I sampled drinks. Some of which were really good, others not so much. Since I don't eat jambalaya I picked up pizza at Schlitz & Giggles. It was DELISH!!!

Dean & I were both off yesterday & we had a lovely day. We started off at the Ashley store. 5 years ago when we moved into this house I had to buy a table, chairs & bar stools for our kitchen/breakfast area. I didn't know any better & bought it all at the Ashley store. I learned my lesson when I had issue after issue with the delivery of the furniture. Anyway, I also bought a protection plan that "covers EVERYTHING". Guess what? It doesn't cover everything. My lovely leather bar stools are tearing & I find out they're not leather but a "leather blend" meaning they're pleather, pretend leather. So, I contacted the protection plan people (say that 3 times fast) & I had to email pictures only to have them tell me that what's happening is normal wear & tear & that's not covered. However, if someone would've sliced into them with a knife, THAT would've been covered. Go figure. Looks like I have another recovering project in my future. The good news is since I wasn't able to use the warranty & the 5 years just expired I get a store credit for the price of the plan, $149. While I swore I would never, ever, ever buy anything else from the Ashley store I was not leaving $149 on the table. So, off we went with the hopes of finding some accessories or a picture. Something that would leave with us. You can't get much for $149 at a furniture store. Here's what I got.

and this

See, I didn't get a lot. Now, I just need to find some candles for this piece.

We went to Cabela's for Dean to buy a fishing thing. This isn't a place I'm very fond of. There are just too many dead animals looking at me. I bought fudge so that made it a little better. I've refrained from eating it. I'll have it for dessert tonight during the LSU game. Dean is frying fish & shrimp!!

Speaking of food....which is pretty much all I've done in this post....

Yep, that's what you think it is. A Chick fil A chocolate shake with whipped cream! We stopped there for lunch. This is the first time I've actually been to the restaurant. Normally, I eat at the one in the mall. I've seen the drive thru line before but I didn't really understand the madness. I do now! I've never seen such a thing! People were everywhere, the drive thru was wrapped around the building. The people at Chick fil A have a good thing going. I ordered & had my food in less than 5 minutes. It was sooo good!!!

We spent the afternoon watching stuff on the DVR that we missed Thursday night. I also managed to fit in a nap. Last night we went back downtown to Live After Five with our friends Cliff & Sheri. The band was good but it was much too hot. Amazing how comfortable the breeze was Thursday night but so hot last night. We listened for awhile & then made our way to dinner. We ate at Capital City Grill. They have the best crab cakes ever!!!  After dinner we had martini's at the rooftop bar at Tsunami. It's so pretty up there. You can see Tiger Stadium & the river. We took pictures with "someone's" brand new iPhone 4 but "someone" somehow managed to have it on video rather than just the camera so needless to say, no pics. By the way, that someone wasn't me.....

This morning we had a funeral to go to for our friends' dad. It was a very nice service with good music. This afternoon we went to Mass since the LSU game doesn't kick off until 8:15. We didn't want to get up early tomorrow.  That's been our long weekend!

Oh, thanks to everyone for the camera advice. It helped a lot!

Toodles!

Master Bedroom

This week at Kelly's Korner, Show Us Your Life is Master Bedrooms. This room is by no means the way I want it to be. It's just last on the never ending "to do list" because nobody sees it.  This is the view when you walk into the room. The door to the right goes out onto the patio. I have several pictures & frames I want to add to the picture wall to the right, I just haven't done it yet.

Yes, the TV is on the chest of drawers. That would be a temporary fix. Granted, 4 yrs. isn't really temporary for most people.  

Here's a pic from the opposit side of the room. We have a vaulted ceiling. It made for a very interesting painting experience!

I see that I need to fix the roman shade on my door. It's hanging funny. The door to the right in this picture is my beloved pocket door that goes into the bathroom. The oil painting is my favorite picture in the house & I keep thinking about moving it to the living room.

The bed. I bought the comforter set several months ago when I decided to switch up my color scheme.

Looking at this picture I see how boring the walls look. Again, this room hasn't been a priority. That stack of magazines on the left night stand are all of Dean's Louisiana Sportsman's . I was going to move them for the picture but then I decided to just keep it real.  That's the way it looks the majority of the time.

Here's a better view of the ceiling. See that nice pretty white beam in the middle? That was the interesting painting experience I spoke of. I do not plan to paint this room for a very long time.

I don't know how the paint looks on everyone's monitors but it's looking kinda orange on mine & the color is definitely not orange. It's the same color I painted my MBA. It's more of a peanut butter color I think. The ceiling is the same color just cut by 50%. In person it all looks the same color even though it doesn't in these pictures.

The window treatments also match in person. I see they look like they don't in the picture. They were a MUST in this room. That window is really big & a lot of light comes in. Especially early in the morning when you're trying to sleep.  The chair & a half is there because it's part of my old living room set & I didn't want to get rid of it. I could do without the ceiling fan but sadly, Dean could not.

This would be my most favorite part of the room.

 I love the view! It would be better if the window were a solid pane of glass but I'll take it like it is.

So that's our bedroom. I can't wait to look at everyone else's.

Toodles!

HELP!!

This is my camera.

In case you can't tell, this is a pencil.

What does one have to do with the other?? I have to use the pencil to use the camera. Yes, you read that right. I'll explain. I took my camera out of the case to take some pictures & part of the on/off button was missing. No biggie, it still works. The next time I took the camera out of the case the entire button was missing. It won't turn on. Here's where the pencil comes in. I have to use the pencil to stick into the hole to get it to turn on. Lovely. Here's the thing, when I'm hanging around taking pictures at my house it's fine to use the pencil but when we're on vacation or something I'm not going to want to pull out a pencil every time I want to take a picture!

So, I'm in the market for a camera. I'm not in a big rush but we go to Disney in December so I'd like to get something by then. I would love some recommendations. I don't need an SLR, just a good, regular digital camera. I'd like something smaller than the Fuji I have now but with a good size display. Any suggestions out there??

Toodles!!!