My Favorite Things: Cats, Food, Slow Stitching

Edited to say that a few of you have told me you can't see the pictures, and so I'm reloading them. Not sure what the problem is because I could see them after I posted. On the other hand, when I looked with my phone, I couldn't. Coronavirus, maybe? So...the show must go on. Let's try this again.

It rained most of the day yesterday. I'd complain except that I know these desert habitats really need the moisture. So I'll keep my whining to myself and focus on the things that went right. First, I finished the stitching on the seventh Snowflake.

Then I sewed the beads on.

My slow-stitching cat was extremely helpful in accomplishing this task.

After that, I threw it in the washer to rinse out the Sticky Fabri-Solvy and hung it to dry. Then, we took off to find the nearby French Bakery. I didn't know the name of the place, but a friend gave us good directions, and we found it easily.

As it turns out...this is the name of the place.

Inside...desserts that were little works of art, as promised.

Beside the pastry case was a "bakery" case, where we found these items.

Also, they served breakfast, lunch, and dinner. What a coincidence we arrived during the lunch hour, and well...don't mind if I do. I had the seafood crepe smothered in mornay sauce, which was delicious. Any menu item that includes the word "smothered" is always a good choice.

Mike had the chicken cordon bleu sandwich.

Of course we ordered dessert...it was kind of the point. We ordered lunch only to be polite. Mike's dessert was known as "opera." It was a sort of chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, mocha yumminess, all wrapped into one little cake.

Mine was a little lemon meringue tart. This might possibly be the best meringue I've ever eaten. It was sticky, sweet, and gooey...like the tastiest part of a perfectly toasted marshmallow.

After lunch, we went to a quilt shop. It was a really good one. I'll tell you about it in a separate post.

From there, we drove home. By then, the snowflake was ready for ironing and pictures, and here it is...all finished.

I've been telling myself I'll return to my hand quilting, but just in case I change my mind in the next five minutes, the eighth snowflake is ready for stitching. I really want to keep going on these. On the other hand, I love the self-flagellation that comes with the hand quilting project. I'm actually still undecided.

Oh, and you didn't think we'd leave the French bakery without last night's dessert did you? We brought home two of the eclairs of the day. These happen to be vanilla.

It took us a long time to decide to eat dinner. We were both surprisingly full from lunch even way past dinner time.

It's looking as if the weather will improve today, and we're hoping to get out to the Whitewater Preserve. Just now I checked the website for any updates about whether they are open or closed. The website looks the same as yesterday, noting it was closed yesterday over concerns about flooding from the rain. It continued to rain well into the evening last night, and it was raining when we went to bed. I suppose I'll need to hunt down a phone number and see if anyone answers. Possibly there is an outgoing voicemail message that will help. All I can say is my fingers are crossed. The rain is supposed to begin again tomorrow. If we can't visit the preserve today, we'll have to decide whether to stay a few more days. For now...it's all a mystery.