I got a new job at a dental office near the Galleria! Well, last week during some down time, I flipped through the latest Ikea catalog and decided that I had to go check out their fabric among other things.  (Ikea is only 3 miles from work now!) Since there was nobody at the cutting table, I decided to flip through the pre-cut fabric bin, and found some cute upholstery fabric for super cheap. I found some cute cotton prints as well, and just as I was about to cut it myself, an Ikea employee showed up and did it for me.  Lucky for me, he was very generous (not like the mean guy at Jo-Ann’s that didn’t even offer me the end of the bolt…it was only 3 inches!).

Well, last month or so, I found this $10 purse at Target that looked super easy to copy:

So, I traced around the Target purse, cut into my fabric and started sewing. I even started making a tutorial, but decided it was way too easy to just use the pattern from an old purse. Upholstery fabric is great for totes and bags, because you don’t even need to use stabilizer if you don’t want.

My favorite part is that the inside is lime green!

The outcome: The Ikea purse cost a mere $3. And it’s better quality, (the inside of the Target purse ripped after a couple of days, but its nothing that can’t be repaired.) FYI, my friend said she saw the Target purse on sale for $5, so go get one and make a bunch of purses for yourself!

Need I say more?

(Pardon the dusty dash, it has been cleaned since I took this pic.)

Every now and then, I get sent off on an adventure to some far away land. Recently, my adventures took me to Cameroon–West Africa for those who don’t know where this is. I flew international business class–which I love–and took some pictures to show others how wonderful it is. Sure, you might think it’s silly of me to be so excited about traveling, but I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth, so I still look forward to the perks of int’l business class.

Not a lay-flat seat, but I still managed to sleep well

(Frequent travel sometimes complain about the downward incline)

Built-in back massage was nice during the long flight

Air France’s smaller lounge, but it still had a shower

The accommodations in Douala were not as nice as Nigeria. It’s not that they were terrible, but I didn’t enjoy sharing an apartment with 3 random strangers. There was one communal shower, a kitchen, dining room, and living area. I was mostly displeased with the fact that there was no Internet (it was turned off for visitor apartments) and no phone. In Eket, Nigeria, I at least had WiFi (which I could use for Skype) and a private room.

I was a bit naive and didn’t realize I’d be sleeping in an apartment that required mosquito nets

View from COTCO HQ

My daily  walk down the street to “home”

Lots of slums around town

African Market

Market when it wasn’t raining (as much)

Reasonably good traffic, but when it gets bad, people *create* lanes as needed

Wood carvings at a hotel in the countryside

I like my shrimp with Cajun seasoning…none to be found, though

The people of Cameroon are very nice and pleasant to be around. I enjoyed walking around the neighborhood and eating out at local restaurants (all pretty good). Across the street from the company apartments is a delicious bakery and small grocery store. I had my share of chocolate croissants and other goodies.

I spent the 2nd week on August in a small village called Dompta. Technically, I never saw was in the village from the ground–just from the air. I stayed at our pump station. It’s a relatively small processing area where crude flows through, gets sorted out into various products and then put back into the pipeline.

Me at one of the airstrips

Somewhere near Dompta

If you look closely, you’ll see some traditional African huts that people continue to live in

Sanaga River goes spans the whole country, all the way down to the hotel where I had shrimp

After about two weeks, I was ready to return home. However, I had one last stop in Charles De Gaulle where I enjoyed endless quantities of chocolate croissants and cookies among other things.

One of my staples

Cookies at 6:00 AM? Yes, please!

So good!

My friend Kristen told me about this place called Sparkles in downtown Houston known for their burgers and shakes. It’s in a strange area of town, (1515 Dowling Street) which is a little more run down. We had already eaten lunch but it was a super hot day and wanted to get something cold, so Ferd and I split a vanilla shake.  The choices are vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.  Mixed by hand with real ice cream. It was 15oz for $2.50. Pretty thick, but you can still suck it up through a straw, it just forces you to take your time. You know when you feel like you’ve been sucking forever and you open the lid to see how much you have left and you’ve hardly made a dent? Love that.  Overall, we’d give the shake an 8 out of 10.

We’ll be coming back to explore the other items offered on the menu.  Their breakfast menu looks super yummy.  Chicken and waffles which are my new southern favorite. Breakfast tacos, and pork chop and waffles…never seen that combo before.

After one day of being alone after Fernando went to Camaroon, and since I’m still pretty much unemployed, I decided that I couldn’t handle two more weeks of lonliness. I called up my padres and they told me to come party hardy in Chelan with them. My only reservation about going…tickets cost over $800! Luckily, I have a very nice daddy with alot of frequent flyer miles who hooked me up with first class tickets! (my very first time ever flying first class. Did you know they get hot nuts as a snack?)

So the next day…after a slight mishap–sleeping in and missing my 7 am direct flight to Seattle (I accidentally set the weekend alarm…stupid iHome), I was able to leave Houston at noon and make it to Seattle by nightfall by way of a 5 hour layover in Minneapolis (which by the way, is where I regrettably splurged and bought a book in a store other than Amazon or Half Price…The Host by Stephenie Meyer…a most unfortunate waste of time and money.)

I then continued my 3 hour journey to Lake Chelan by car (the bum was definitely tired of being sat on).

We went golfing up at Bear Mountain and for only golfing once a year, I wasn’t half bad if I might say so myself.

I moved the sewing machine outside and sewed in my swimsuit and got tan at the same time. The best of both worlds. Here is the completed charm quilt. Momo’s Freebird.

My mom requested some pot holders for her kitchen, so I made some hexagons with the quilt scraps. I don’t know how many of these I’ll make. They are extremely time consuming, and I’m not a huge fan of hand stitching.

Well, I’m off to the fabric store for some cute prints that I can’t go back to Houston without.

Last month while Fernando and I were visiting my family in Chelan, we wanted to go to Blueberry Hill for breakfast, but we never made it. This time around I’m happy to report its still as good as I remember.

What we go for: blintzes smothered with peach pie filling.

For those of you who haven’t had a blintze, they are crepes filled with a sweet ricotta cheese filling.

The view from our table

We decided to pick a few blueberries while we were there. They were huge!

I’m sure my mom has some delicious plans for these babies

This past weekend, we checked out a new BBQ joint located in the Heights called Hickory Hollow.

It was a cute small town diner type atmosphere, with live music on the weekends.  They are especially known for their chicken fried steak. We decided to get a sample platter with the chicken fried steak, ribs, sausage, and brisket with two sides.  The coleslaw, brisket, and chicken fried steak were excellent, as was the hickory BBQ sauce. They had pretty good onion rings too.  The ribs and sausage were sub par.  My favorite part was drinking out of the mason jars.  Overall we’d give it a 7/10.  Compared to Rudy’s BBQ, the meat was more moist but you can’t beat the delicious sides at Rudy’s. And I would rate it slightly better than Goode Company BBQ, because I don’t think their sides are very good at all.  The search continues…

 

The first fabric sale I’ve ever seen at Houston’s one and only designer fabric store, It’s a Stitch. I went with my good friend Erin and her little one.  We were by far the youngest by twenty years or so, but it was great fun, that is until we waited in line for over 40 min to check out…

Of course the fabric I wanted was only 15% off. Mere dimes lower than the online stores (since it’s overpriced to begin with), but I didn’t have to pay for shipping!

The steal of the day. Only $3.36/yd

The Rosemarie Lavin Spa collection

Momo’s Freebird

A new patchwork quilt in the making