Up The Side

Why is it that so many patterns that come in pieces start from the bottom up?  This drives me nuts.  I prefer to work top down, left to right.  A lot of these are bottom up, right to left.  I guess I could just work the pattern upside down, but that feels wrong to me, too.  Ah well.  On a brighter note, I've made a good start on part eight of Sweet Flowers and hope to have it done in time for the next part out later this month.

Lunch At Bailey's

 Our last real lunch in the US was at Bailey's in the West Seventh Corridor in Fort Worth.  It's a somewhat upscale place on the verge of closing - there are just too many restaurants for the population in the area now.  They're evidently known for their hamburgers, but I had a steak sandwich.  It was great!  Mom had the scallop lunch special, and Andreas had the burger.  His burger was huge and came with condiments that looked like they belonged in such an upscale place.


My steak sandwich was on a good Italian bread and the steak was perfectly done.   It was pre-sliced too, so it was less messy to eat than some I've had.  

Spindle Practice

My students wanted some spindle practice before putting them into the wraps and spindles temari, so we did one with just spindles.  This is mine!

Second Challenge Ornament Done

A second ornament of three done on the Winter in July challenge.  Yay!  This one was fairly quick to stitch.  I won't get the third done - it's only about halfway, but it's very big for an ornament.

Do You Fondue?

 As a splurge, our penultimate evening in Fort Worth was spent at The Melting Pot, a fondue place downtown.  It was definitely worth the price.  They have a prix fixe menu for three courses - cheese fondue, oil fondue, and chocolate dessert.  It also comes with a salad.  If you get a chance to go, do so!  Thank you, Mom, for taking us.


Each of the three of us had a different salad.  All were fresh and well presented.  I had a mango martini; that's the drink picture.  I''d definitely get it again.  It had mango bits in it.  Mom had a flight of wines to accompany her dinner, too.

Our cheese fondue came with an assortment of breads and veggies.  There was a choice of five or different kinds of cheese to dip them into.  You pick one for the table.  The cheese was great - it had some beer and garlic in the cheddar - and dipping things in was fun.

For the main course, you order three kinds of meat and each person gets his or her own plate, although I recommend mixing and matching between plates.  I had two kinds of steak (the bacon wrapped was best) and a chicken.  Andreas's special thing was gator meat, and Mom got coconut shrimp on hers.  They also come with dipping sauce and a breading sauce for the mushrooms.  It took about two to three minutes to cook each bit of food, allowing plenty of time for conversation and digestion.  Even then, none of us could finish our plates.

For dessert, we chose the Bailey's chocolate dip.  It was fabulous.  We got an assortment of fruit and pastries to put into it, an even got to toast marshmallows as the fondue was initially set alight.  Definitely a place I would go to again.

Spindles And Wraps

 Here's the finished teaching temari I made last month.  Andreas thought it came out well enough he wants to keep it.  That's rather unusual because it's in colors neither of us normally are attracted to.  On the other hand, it looks very good all put together.

Caught Up Again

Except for the beads, which I put on last, this piece is all caught up again.  This last part was easy and quick!