Birthday at the Z00

Yesterday was Frank's birthday.  he wanted to spend it at the Baton Rouge Zoo with Sawyer.  so we made it happen.












First I gave him a shirt I had purchased in the Virgin Islands on the cruise.  I had gotten Sawyer the same shirt and gave it to Carrie when they were at the house for the BBQ this weekend.

We met sawyer and Carrie at the donut shop across from her office.  the best donuts in town!!  When Sawyer walked in with his bright blue shirt, his smile was ear to ear!  Both of them looked great in their shirts.  So many people commented on the pair!









The zoo was preparing for their weekend gala called Zippity Zoo Days and the landscape was immaculate.  The Baton Rouge Zoo has been under a lot of pressure lately.  It has deteriorated in the last few years so there was a call to move the Zoo to a location closer to a growing section of town, where more people could access it from the east, such as a heavily populated corridor through the New Orleans area.

Unfortunately it was voted down, leaving the Zoo in one of the worst, crime filled areas of Baton Rouge, far away from the population centers.  Too bad.

When his momma was little we would bring her to this same zoo with her flash cards.  So I had a set of new cards for him.  He was a little confused about why I was handing him cards, but he held on to each one I gave to him.  He will catch on soon enough.

We had a perfect day for the Zoo.  There were only 3 other family groups strolling the zoo walks with us, so there were no lines anywhere.

Sawyer took his first train ride.  Seeing his eyes wide in amazement as we moved through the trees and through the tunnel was priceless.

Frank crawled in the Prairie Dog Exhibit to be with Sawyer.

And we brushed some goats.



The train ride took us through the Swamp as we tooted along the rails, clickety clack.  And of course there was the playground with its climbing and sliding things.

We finished the day with Mexican Food at Frank's favorite place and Carrie gave him his present.

She kept thinking, what is the perfect gift for the newly retired person?  And she saw an ad with this guy lounging in his hammock!

Assembly was easy, much easier than the first attempt at sitting in it!

Hopefully he will get the hang of it soon and will be relaxing and reading in it with ease!

Exciting Phone Call

I had a really exciting phone call from a friend of mine.  Mary curates the Denham Springs Art Council and has exhibited across several states through her work with CFAL.  CFAL is the Contemporary Fiber Artists of Louisiana.

She wanted to know if I was interested in being part of a 6 woman exhibit.  Well, hell yeah!  Is the Pope Catholic?  Does a bear......well, you know.

I don't have al the details just yet, but I will let you know.

I was definitely over the moon!

I can put some pieces I already have in the show, but I wanted to make a few more anyway for the February presentation I am doing in North Louisiana.  (Well, aren't I the popular girl this year, huh?)  Next thing you know, QuiltCon will be calling me to make me an offer I can't refuse!

Nothing like putting pressure on yourself, right?  What is life, if not lived at top speed.

So I have been wanting to do this picture of Frank in Nova Scotia.


I may add the lighthouse at Peggy's Cove to give him something to look at.  Although he was just staring out into the beauty of that vast ocean.

I will have to go back into my notes and see what the name was.  We had visited Valerie and Len while we were up there, but I don't remember whether it was before this or after this.

This is how far I got tonight.




I am having some trouble with his hair.  You really don't see his hair in the photos, but I think he needs something in the fabric one.

I tried two different versions, one of which required me to cut out an ear.  THAT was fun.

Another interesting thing is that I always forget that the fabric image will com out reversed from the photo unless you trace the back of the copy with a dark pen.

So here I was, lecture girl, all surprised that he is looking right rather than left.

And seeing him in the red jacket, I think I need to thin him down a bit.  His jacket makes him look like Arnold Schwarzenegger -- Muscle Man Frank.

I printed out that photo of Peggy's Cover that will fit dimensionally.

So I have some fabrics from Stonehenge that will be prefect for the rocks and water and grasses along his feet.

I am stoked......about everything.


Which is good because we have the Court Case coming up on Friday.  I am testifying for CAAWS hoping to win a judgment.  We had the meeting with the attorney this morning and feel pretty confident about our facts going in.  I am no stranger to the Courthouse with CAAWS.  Usually it is for some cruelty or animal dumping sleezebag.

Oh well, I will work on as much as I can in the next few months to get ready for show and lectures.

Art Girl Extraordinaire needs her beauty rest!

Papa Noel with Papa Frank

To view the pictures larger, just click on them.





Another South Louisiana tradition is the bonfires that are set up along the Mississippi River.  These fires are lit on Christmas Eve to guide Papa Noel into Cajun children's homes.











The Rural Life Museum is on part of the old Burden Plantation.  Click on the words to see their website.  The land is a working agricultural research station.  For example, the pointsettias you buy every year are researched, varieties tested and chosen for the next year's production.

Steel Burden,    whose family owned the land, worked as a landscape architect in Baton Rouge.  He created the city park system plantings, and was involved in the plantings at McIllhenny Plantation, which is the hot pepper sauce people.

If you come to Baton Rouge we can go tour the Hot Sauce factory in New Iberia and then check out the Windrush Gardens and Rural Life Museum in Baton Rouge.  

The Rural Life Museum here in Baton Rouge has Heritage Christmas Day ever December.  The museum consists of multiple buildings from homesteads, plantations and farms in the area that were part of the daily life .  They have a large museum of items from the period both agricultural implements and household items.

At the Heritage Days there are artisans doing things like chopping wood and quill pen writing.  Making candles and shoeing horses and mules.  Making cane syrup and frying chitlings.  Bagpipers and fiddlers.  Singers and dancers.

The end of the day at dusk they lit the bonfire built of logs and kindling.  And sure enough, Papa Noel showed up!  He distributed satsumas grown on the property to everyone.

We had Sawyer in his wagon.  He ran around for a while gathering sticks

with the other kids.  Then he found the bell.

That was it.  He wanted to ring the bell over and over.  It was heavy to pull and very loud.  I had to hold him and pull the bell with some considerable force.  I guess we will go back there every year and see if he is big and strong enough to pull that bell yet!

 Keep scrolling down and see the bonfire and Papa Noel as he was seen in the 1700s and 1800s here in Cajun Louisiana.

 

 

The Numbers Have it!

Yes! Numbers fabric win!

I have several things I need to work on this week, the Asterisk quilt being one of them.  I need to get it to the top stage at least.  I am hoping it can get further than that, but it may not make it by the River City meeting.

And I need to at least start on that Challenge quilt.  You won't believe what I pulled in the bag.  Me! The most modern person in the room.  I get the least modern fabric in the room.  I am going to need help that one for sure!


In preparation for retirement, Frank has been making some bold strides.  He bought a computer and I made him get the Geek Squad support package on it since I refuse to get frustrated with him trying to help him understand what he doesn't know and I don't know.  Now he can just call the Geek Squad 24/7 and he can be polite and they can be polite and they can have a sweet fest all night now with each other whilst they figure out his computer!

The other thing is to get Netflix.  And to practice, we are binge watching our first program.  OJ Simpson Trial.

 It took us a while to figure out how to get the controls to work. And we still have our moments.

The weather across the nation was bad for most of the weekend.  Ours was Saturday.  We had a tornado nearby between Carrie's house and ours.  No one was hurt.

This is where the flood waters came  up from.  You can see it is clear and nearly dry, so we are safe!  Barb made Dale go out and check it twice during the storm.  The rain was coming down so hard you could barely see the trees. 

Temperatures fell to 38 last night and will again tonight.  It
is almost May!

About 4 1/2 inches of  rain fell in 45 minutes.  Then for the rest of the afternoon we had another 1 1/2 inch on top of that.  We were never in danger, but the street in front of the house did have standing water.  Something we have not seen before.  I am guessing it is because of  the 4 inches in the 45 minutes.





After the weather cleared we were able to get to Denham Springs and spend a few minutes at the Artist Reception for the Juried and Emerging Artists Exhibition at Livingston Parish Art Council. 


Here is my piece called Speechless. 

Don't you love to see your work hanging in a gallery somewhere!

Frank Does Baby Curling For His Birthday

I have a quick post for you, only because it is an amusing one, of course.

Frank's birthday is today.  He is not having the best of days.

On Friday last, we went to Middendorf's to have that sinfully good Fried Catfish with my brother Kenny and sister-in-law Michelle.  Carrie, Andrew and the Baby joined us.  Frank kept saying he broke a tooth.  On catfish and cole slaw.  Soft things. 

He was never in any obvious pain, and I figured if you had broken a tooth, you would not be able to eat or enjoy yourself or drink cold drinks of any sort. 

He did all those things. 

For the entire weekend.  The dentist was not open for the whole of Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

I could have called the emergency line and gotten him in quickly on Friday but he seemed to be fine.  So I chalked it up to Drama King Frank.  You know I would have called the Emergency Dentist, don't you?  I would have.  Really.  In spite of the fact I thought he was just.....well, never mind. 

So the dentist says he is shocked Frank is not in horrible searing pain because the tooth is broken at the gumline and down to the root.  Obviously the root is already dead so he will need a root canal and a crown.

BABY CURLING

Don't feel too badly for him, this is the man who lost a crown 5 years ago and argued with the dentist saying he didn't have any crowns!

Well, Thursday he will have one more.

Tonight we had a nice dinner with Carrie and Andrew.  We also had a nice luncheon with Sawyer where we went to the Salad Station and tossed peas and beets and crackers on the floor with wild abandon!  It was quite embarrassing, too.  Everyone else in there was acting quite adult!

But this is best of all.  In between naps.......for both of them.....I was encouraging some exercise.  Frank was sweeping the driveway so Sawyer's feet wouldn't get dirty.

When I posted it to Instagram a friend of mine said Oh, Baby Curling!  I wish I had thought of that!  I love it!