THANKS, PREPPY NAPKIN

I love my monogrammed napkins, their own little tray, and the pretty cachepot that I bought from you! Couldn't believe they arrived so fast. What a great idea for Christmas gifts for friends- their own monogrammed napkins. Thanks so much!!

EVEN IF YOU ARE 20 A BOY STILL NEEDS HIS BATMAN CAPE

Cappie slept in this bed for 16 years after doing super hero duty. Son left for freshman year at Ole Miss. Katrina hit the next week. Cappie accidently was tossed in the trash pile. One month later the trash piled had to be dismantled to find Cappie at the bottom. Cappie's been at Ole Miss ever since.

I miss you, Son.

A PRINCESS STILL NEEDS HER PAD EVEN THOUGH SHE'S MOVED AWAY

The Princess bed complete with down feather bed.

and her bath.

Back from a mound of paperwork

Had to catch up on bills and all that paper junk that accumulates faster than I can get rid of it. I was behind on my part of the wedding planning process, so I caught up on that...just for you, Princess.

My kitchen looks just like it did BK. Had to rip out all bottom cabinets and replace.

I think I'm ready for a change. My problem is I just love every decorating style, sooo many colors, and every new thing that comes out. Just when Mr. thinks a room is done, I'm ready for something new.

What's For Lunch?

So Sunday early morning I was viewing P. Allen Smith on a local station. He featured Kent Rathbun, an awesome chef at Abacus, Dallas, TX. He used to be a Sous Chef at Mr. B's, a 4 star restaurant in New Orleans as well as many other notable places. As I watched the video of Kent preparing his "Fajita Grilled Chicken and Green Apple Salad".... I drooled in my coffee. I knew I just had to make that for Sunday nite. So later on Sunday I set off to our local Diamondhead Grocery Store. I must explain that BK (before Katrina) we had at least 7 grocery stores and 2 Super Walmarts in about a 30 mile radius. Now we have 1 Walmart and 1 grocery store. Thank goodness for these 2 stores but "You Can't Always Get What You Want". So I had to make a few substitutes. Well, Mr. and I dined on this yummy salad last night. I loved it, I adore an infusion of many flavors, textures, and aromas. Mr. was just glad to get yet another meal. LOL. So here is my lunch today, left over from last night. I treated myself to a sitdown instead of a grab and go. Even used my pretty "Dine on the Bayou" dishes from Artist friend Susan Lumpkin to celebrate Rotten Bayou ( yes, that is really the correct name) across the street. S'cuse me while I go eat.

Grilling chicken and red pepper Sunday night.

I marinated the chicken breasts in zip lock bag for about 4 hours. The pesto sauce is made. I could not get a yellow pepper, fresh cilantro (I used dried), cotija cheese (I used goat cheese), or pumpkins seeds(I used toasted pecans) no Ancho chiles..(used canned). Oh heck! Will it taste the same?

Fajita Gilled Chicken and Green Apple Salad
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Description
You know, they say they do everything bigger in Texas and chef Kent Rathbun took this to heart when he decided to grill up some chicken to make chicken salad. Here is a transcript from my cooking lesson with Kent that explains how he made his Fajita Gilled Chicken and Green Apple Salad.
Ingredients
boneless chicken breastChicken Marinade:soy sauceWorcestershire sauceolive oilfresh cilantro, choppedlime juicejalapeño, choppedCilantro Pumpkin Seed Pesto:fresh cilantrojalapeñoolive oilgarlictoasted pumpkin seedsCotija cheese, (Mexican crumbling cheese)Ancho Honey Sour Cream:Ancho chiliessour creamhoneySalad Garnishes:Granny Smith applecilantroroasted red and yellow peppers
Instructions
Hey, guys, today we’re pool-side out in my backyard. We’re going to do a little chicken salad, Texas style. So, this is a fajita-grilled chicken salad that's very easy. We're just going to take some boneless chicken breast, and we're going to marinate them in a bit of soy sauce, some Worcestershire sauce, a touch of olive oil, some fresh chopped cilantro, a little bit of limejuice, and don't forget that spice to life, the jalapeño. A couple hours in the marinade, no problem. Overnight is even okay. And then take them out; put them on your backyard grill - charcoal or gas either one is good. And then grill them, get them nice and done, and then once they cool down, what we're going to do is kind of start tearing them instead of cutting them. What this does is it gives this nice little texture of torn chicken instead of cut. It’s just a nicer way to present the salad.Okay, so once we've finished with our chicken, it's time to move on to our cilantro-pumpkin seed pesto.In the blender I have some cilantro, a fresh jalapeño, some olive oil, a little bit of garlic, some toasted pumpkin seeds, and a little bit of Cotija cheese, which is a Mexican crumbling cheese.And then we're going to start blending this just like we would a pesto. Pretty simple.Okay, so, now we have a nice, smooth, beautiful, green dressing.So it's time to move on to our ancho honey sour cream, which is going to kind of be our finishing dressing for the salad.The first thing we're going to do is create an ancho puree. Just take some ancho chilies, re-hydrated them in a little bit of water, put them into a blender and blended them smooth. Next add just a touch of sour cream.Now take the honey, and add it to the ancho chili and make a really nice sort of sweet, hot, creamy dressing, and this is really going to be a great finish off for the salad.Just whisk the ancho chili paste, sour cream and honey together.Now we have a few garnishes that we need– julienned Granny Smith apple, roasted yellow and red peppers, cilantro leaves.Now it’s just a matter of piling it all up on the plate. Start with the chicken, then add a little of the pumpkin seed pesto. Top this with the apple, roasted peppers, cilantro leaves and a dab of the ancho sour cream. Stack it nice and tall and that is a chicken salad, Texas style.
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Master Bath

For years, we talked about updating the Master Bath. We had the house built in 1991 and the bathrooms sure represented that time. We had grey faux marble whirlpool and sink top, grey toilet, and small grey shower with shiny brass on the glass door. Vinyl sheet flooring. What was I thinking in 1991 when I picked all that out?? Katrina gave us the perfect opportunity since we were not living in the house during the rebuilding. We had a partial wall removed that enclosed the old shower. Then the space allowed us to make a larger shower.

I put the tile all around the 15' X 15' space. No more water spots on painted sheetrock. I was all ways repainting by hand towel at sink. Mr. loves to splash water everywhere.

I chose a large porcelain tile that looks like travertine for the floor and around the walls. I priced real travertine, it was so costly. This was a nice substitute.

I found this great company http://eshowerdoor.com/ out of CA. We had fellow that was doing the repairs to house take the measurements after the new tile was put in. Eshowerdoor made and shipped the 3 glass panels. They actually made a 1/16 of an inch mistake on one of the panels. Shipped us a new, correctly sized panel at no extra charge.

The tub deck and vanity countertop are Breccia Onicita marble. I think it is so pretty, even has some aqua veins in it. Look at www.marbleslabs.org/Breccia-Oniciata.htm.

All the cabinets had to be replaced. They had black mold growing on them.

Undies Matter

This nice little cherry chest survived Katrina. Obviously, all parts were solid wood. Funny story, this came from that Clock Company in Fairhope, AL. It was a kit and we purchased that kit I think maybe 28 years ago. We paid a lot of money for us at that time. Maybe $400.00 I've painted it different colors through the years to match where ever I thought it needed to be. Then I've stripped it back to the beautiful cherry wood. Like a tried and true friend, it looks beautiful today, and everything it held within it's drawers was taken out and salvaged. Word to the wise, be careful when buying new furniture.

This is my most favorite purchase after Katrina. It is a Gentlemen's Chest on Chest from

http://www.johnrichard.com/. I bought it from a great new furniture store that opened up after Katrina. It is a George II style, burl walnut chest on chest, with heavy cornise mould and ogee bracket feet. The lights and darks in the wood are beautiful. It is very tall, I have to get my step ladder out to get to the 2 top drawers. Johnrichard makes beautiful things, I would like to special order some more items. They have a factory in Greenwood MS, which is about 5-6 hours from us. But they only sell their items through design shops, furniture showrooms, or interior designers.

This armoire belongs to the Princess. When her fiance gets back from Iraq, they'll move it as well as her High Boy. I had a beautiful Yew wood chest from Drexel Heritage that sat in that spot. I paid good money for it, assumed it was all solid wood. Well, low and behold, it had particle board parts in the drawers. It held my unmentionables. By the time we came to open the drawers, they were so swelled up with my undies that we couldn't budge the drawers. The chest was thrown into one of our many Katrina trash piles with my unmentionables inside. .. .The worst thing was that I had only packed enough undies for 3 days when we evacuated. We were living at Mr's work, traveling back to flooded house every day to throw things out. Mr's company sent tractor trailor loads of every possible item that we could use. It was in a huge warehouse, mostly on pallettes or in boxes. Sorta like Costco or Sam's but worse. But thank God, it was free, no one had money for weeks. Even if you had cash, there was no where to spend it for many weeks. So I "shopped" for donated undies, so greatful to everyone all over our great USA for the donations of the much needed items so we could live. There was no way to wash any of these clothes for at least 3 weeks, I prayed that they were clean before I wore them. But guess what, at that time it did not matter. I've realized that when your every day life is a moment to moment, no-control situation....get down on your knees and thank God for your blessings!!!!! Lesson learned...undies matter, what you think are your most prized possesions for your beautiful home...DO NOT.

I bought this "Accents Beyond" cherry chest in Mobile, AL last year. On it sits 1 of a beautiful pair of lamps that I bought from Up Town, a new shop in Bay St Louis, MS that opened up after Katrina.
These silk duponi drapes are really a wash of pale aqua/goldish-green. Not sure why they look so dark in pics. I had run the pic/fix from Adobe when I added pics, but maybe that was a mistake. Even my bedroom looks blueishhh.....which it is not. I need to work on this.

With an attempt to be a better blogger while learning how to, I hope I can take you on this tour. As you all know, with 4 feet of water certain things like mattresses, bedding, and chests of drawers filled with clothes had to be thrown out. 2 years ago, I never thought I would have what we do now. The pencil post bed survived. Any quality wood especially things with legs made it. I love this bed, we bought it 20 years ago. It is from Hickory Chair, still looks good despite Katrina and Son who at 2 years of age took a nail file and left his mark on the post that is on my side. Now, when I see those lines, that made me see RED 18 years ago, I see wonderful Son that now makes me PROUD. The new duvet cover is from Restoration Hardware.

Backyard

3 Dining Room peices waiting to be refinished

This is the highboy and lowboy from Great Grammie. She lived in Longmeadow, MA and enjoyed 104 years of life. Our house flooded with 4 feet of Katrina water. Most solid wood peices of furniture could be saved. I tried stripping the lowboy. Decided I needed to leave this job to a professional. This cherry hutch was my MIL's. We inherited when she left Clinton, CN to move here to community we live in.

My 3 new chairs arrived yesterday. Had them made at Hunt Galleries in North Carolina. 2 Hostess chairs are easy to move to dining table when needed. The Alexandra arm chair has such pretty wood ball and claw feet.

More Lamp Pairs

This is a new Drexel Heritage piece that sits in front hall. It replaced a beautiful antique French yew wood chest. We held on to the Yew wood chest for a year. Finally gave it away, there was no hope to get to professionally refinished from the flooding it took on. Because I kept I my paper goods, stationary wrapping paper, ribbons and what not, everything swelled to huge proportions. Not a pretty site. The mirror and lamps are new

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	All Labels: Looks green again. We had a pond and waterfall put in after the 25 trees were blown down. I have 4 Koi in my pond. Silk duponi drapes

since Katrina.

The poor lowboy is waiting to be refinsihed. Finally found someone to refinish furniture. He took 4 dining room chairs and a mahogany pie crust top table that we accidentally threw the draw front out into the huge trash pile. He can replace and make beautiful again. This lowboy and matching highboy comes from Great Grammie of Longmeadow, MA. They sit in my dinning room along with a beautiful cherry hutch that we inherited from MIL. All of these pieces are waiting patiently for a wonderful furniture doctor. I think I've found him after 2 years. I'll update.

Lamp Pairs

This is a pair of lamps in guest room/daughter's room. Curtains and bedding new since Katrina.

A pair of lamps on antique chest in living room

This beautiful chest is one of my best finds. It dates back to 1850. I think the joints are the old right angle joints. Not sure the furniture Doc had a different theory. This beautiful chest was floated over during Katrina, since it was in our sunroom...which took on the last of the huge wave. It floated. Thank God, I did not have a lot of paper or material in it's 4 drawers. We lifted it up, took out the wet things in the 4 drawers, and it looks great. I'll try to post a better pic. The furniture Doc said the drawers need to be reset but he and I felt we should not do anything else to this awesome chest.

I'll try to get a better picture of this awesome chest.

Front of Home 2 years after Katrina...all most done

Happiness

My begining...happiness is being back home after losing almost everything you own. Happiness is feeling safe and warm. Happiness is knowing my DH and children are safe. Happiness is the chance to start over.