Hello, My Lovelies! Welcome to my Friends and Family Edition of Tales of the Traveling Tote! We have not been traveling much recently, only to visit friends and family in Louisiana and Michigan. We went to Louisiana in December because I was a hostess for our niece's baby shower. We stayed at the lovely Southern Hotel in Covington, Louisiana, which is one of my very favorite small hotels.
La Countess de Monet loves the Southern Hotel, too.
We visited Covington the first weekend in December, and the Southern was decorated for Christmas.
The gardens surrounding the hotel are so beautiful, even in December.
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Our niece Molly
I promise we did not coordinate outfits for the baby shower!
It was nice spending time with Molly and seeing her extended family and friends at the shower. Molly and Brandon welcomed a baby girl in late January. Shelley and I had such a nice time, and we love visiting Covington with its quaint shops and lovely restaurants.
In February we visited friends in New Orleans for a Mardi Gras ball and a couple of parties.
The weather was gorgeous while we were in New Orleans. We stayed by Audubon Park and took a couple of walks around the park. We loved our walks!
We did just a little shopping this trip, and one of our favorite stores is the Tasc flagship store on Magazine Street.
Tasc is a New Orleans based business that manufactures activewear made out of bamboo. My son-in-law loves their golf shirts, and I love their yoga pants. I wear them to my stretch and yoga classes.
One of our favorite Mardi Gras parades is presented by Le Krewe D’Etat, a highly satirical krewe that pokes fun at politics and pop culture. The male-only krewe is led by a "Dictator" (The Dic) whose identity is kept secret (I kid you not). We have several friends who are members of this krewe, and they invited us to their den party. A den party allows revelers to preview the floats before the parade. Below is one of my favorites. Keep in mind that no one is safe from this krewe's disdain: They are equal-opportunity lampooners.
Poor Elmo! He's on fire!
Last month, I went to Ann Arbor to visit our daughter and son-in-law. It was a working trip to help them redecorate a special room because:
We are so happy!
We are not really able to take big trips until our home renovation is complete. We are hoping to get away a little this summer to Lake Martin, and of course I will be flying to Ann Arbor a lot!
As far as our renovation goes, I'm still waiting on one project for the library to be finished, and a couple of tweaks in our kitchen. I'm hoping that in two weeks both will be DONE!
The Ferguson people delivered our new bath and bath fixtures for our bathroom today. The bathroom renovation will start soon, and I'm hoping it goes a little more smoothly than our kitchen. Our library went extremely well, though.
I have been doing a little bit of gardening. I planted our giant planters out back, and our New Dawn Rose was spectacular a couple of weeks ago.
Plumbago always performs well in this spot.
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Our New Dawn Rose
That's all I have to report for now, but I think I shared some pretty big news!
We are also giving away this lovely tote:
So please leave a comment here on my blog in order to win!
You must have a Google account to leave a comment on my blog; I do no allow anonymous comments.
Please visit the other participating blogs. Links are below!
Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths
Emily with Miss Courtney Childs@ The French Hutch
Patti with Miss Kenzie @ Pandora's Box
Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda
Rita with Miss Luna C @ Panoply
Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul
Jackie and Miss Madi K @ Purple Chocolat Home
Ricki Jill and Countess De Monet @ The Sketchy Reader (You're here!)
Until next time...
Blessings!
Ricki Jill
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