Tales of the Traveling Tote: Friends and Family Edition

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.

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.

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

Tales of the Traveling Tote: Friends and Family Edition

Friday, May 15, 2026

Tales of the Traveling Tote: My Motherships

 

Hello, My Lovelies!  Welcome to the 44th Tales of the Traveling Tote.  I have not been traveling much or even going to the lake recently.  I have had family obligations keeping me busy, but my family held an intervention a couple of weeks ago and insisted that I get away for a quick weekend to my favorite city, Chicago.  We planned to visit my two motherships:  Wrigley Field and The Art Institute of Chicago.

We enjoy staying at the historic Palmer House because it's within walking distance to the Art Institute.  Below is the pretty ceiling in the lobby.

On Friday night we ate at a fantastic Mediterranean restaurant called Avec.  Everyone loved it, and we particularly enjoyed the family-style presentation.

Saturday morning, we ate breakfast at our favorite bakery and coffee shop, The Goddess and the Baker.  They have the best breakfast pastries in Chicago!  Then we headed to Wrigleyville.  Shanley Belle and I visited a romance-only bookshop called The Last Chapter and had a ball.  We like visiting Indie Bookshops while traveling.

After the bookshop, we met up with Christopher and Trip at the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field.

Unfortunately, La Countess de Monet is too large to get into the stadium.  Miss Square Peggy and Miss Candy Max are also too large.  The dimensions must be no larger than 16" X 16" X 8".  So I carried Miss Check You're Out! because she is petite at 16" X 11.5" X 4".  She loved the game!

Clark the Cubbies' mascot before the game.  We had great seats behind the dugout on the third base side.

The Cubbies beat the Pirates 3-1, so the W flag was flown!

Saturday night after the game we ate dinner at our favorite pizza place in the city, Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinders.  They have the best pizza pie in the world!  I always order the individual mushroom one.

Sunday morning we ate breakfast at The Goddess and the Baker again because we love it so much.  Then we walked to the Art Institute for the Gustave Caillebotte:  Painting His World exhibit.   Since we're members, we were able to visit an hour earlier than the general public, so we saw the exhibit almost by ourselves.  For the Sunday before school started on Monday, there were few people at the museum.  I think it might have had something to do with the flooding rains on Saturday night.  

Gustave Caillebotte was an independently wealthy Impressionist.  He was good friends with Renoir, and he painted pretty much what he wanted to paint.  During this time, painters usually painted lovely young women, but Caillebotte preferred painting men.  

One of the lions in front of the museum.

I wanted to share with you two paintings, one by Renoir and one by Caillebotte.

I chose the mums by Renoir for autumn.

Chrysanthemums

Pierre August Renoir (French, 1841–1919)

1881-1882

Oil on canvas

21 5/8" × 25 7/8 "

I chose the Caillebotte painting (below) because I thought the perspective was neat.

The Boulevard Seen From Above

Gustave Caillebotte (French, 1848-1894)

1880

Oil on canvas

25 3/5" × 21 3/10"

We enjoyed the member's lounge and a late lunch of Giordano's Pizza.  Before heading to the airport, we went to the world's largest Starbucks, the Starbucks Reserve.  The four-story shop is truly something.  We had the Chicago blend, and I brought some home with me.

I also purchased a beautiful book of the Van Gogh bedrooms because we saw the exhibit in 2016 at the Art Institute.  I was so happy to have a lovely reminder of that trip, too.  The Caillebotte brochures were really large, so I didn't buy one of them.

I love how the page folds out to show all three bedroom paintings.

This book is so nice, and it also features other paintings shown at the exhibit.

I hope you enjoyed my post on my whirlwind trip to Chicago.  I literally have nothing else to share!  

I'm sure the other Traveling Tote Ladies have much more interesting posts than mine, so give them a visit using the links below!

Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths 

Emily with Miss Courtney Childs@ The French Hutch   

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Patti with Miss Kenzie @ Pandora's Box  

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 Bookish Dilettante  

This TTT giveaway is hosted by Sarah.  Please make sure to leave a comment on her post in order to be entered.

Join us for our next adventures in December!

Until next time...

Blessings!
Ricki Jill

Tales of the Traveling Tote: My Motherships

Monday, September 1, 2025

Tales of the Traveling Tote: Rhine River Cruise and Amsterdam

 

Happy June, My Lovelies!  This edition of the Tales of the traveling Tote will feature our anniversary trip to Amsterdam and our river cruise on the Rhine.  I could write a dissertation about our trip because we saw and learned so much.  But instead I'm featuring my favorite things about the trip.  We left Birmingham on our anniversary (March 19th) which was the opening day of tulip season.

My favorite thing about Amsterdam was the Van Gogh Museum.  We had special tickets and went early.  There were very few people around, so we were able to take our time in the galleries.  Here are some favorites:

The Bedroom

Arles, October 1888

oil on canvas

28.5" X 36"

We had seen this one before when it was on loan at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016.

Sprig of Flowering Almond In a Glass

Arles, March 1888

oil on canvas

9.6" X  7.6"

Below is one of my favorite paintings.  Van Gogh's Almond Blossoms was the most cherished paintings by his family, and it was heavily influenced by his interest in Japanese print making.  The perspective is looking up through the branches toward the sky.  This perspective loses the view of the tree in its entirety. 

Almond Blossom

Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, February 1890

oil on canvas

29" X 36"

We also visited the Rijksmuseum which is located on the same campus.  It was slightly crowded, but we really didn't have much trouble seeing everything in the galleries.  I think most people were outside because it was the first pretty weekend after a cold, rainy winter.  They were in the process of restoring The Night Watch which is Rembrandt's most celebrated painting.  It shows citizens of Amsterdam protecting the city. 

We enjoyed one of our best meals in Amsterdam at the Rijksmuseum.  In the café they had these gorgeous (and huge) Delft tulipieres.

Our first stop on our cruise included an eBike tour of Kinderdijk windmills.  We saw nineteen windmills in all, and we were able to tour one that is a working museum.  It was very interesting seeing the millers go about their day and moving the windmills to catch the wind.

Kinderdijk windmills

One thing that has been on my bucket list as an adult is to see the Cologne Cathedral in all her gothic splendor.  She did not disappoint, and I might have been slightly overhwelmed.

Another favorite activity one afternoon was viewing many, many castles along the Rhine from the boat.  I sketched several of them while enjoying afternoon tea.

Ehrensfels Castle

near Rüdesheim, Hesse, Germany

This castle was actually rebuilt in 1212

One of my favorite places in Germany is Heidelberg.  I've visited there several times, and I wanted Shanley Belle and Christopher to experience it, so we took a little side trip there.  This was the only day without sunshine; it was very foggy for almost the entire day.

This is one of my favorite views at Heidelberg Castle.  This is the moat, and at one time, it was a zoo for a very spoiled queen.

We were a little early in the season, but this area as well as many of the walls and ruins at the castle become covered in wildflowers in spring and summer.

My new favorite region of France is The Alsace, and we visited several World War II sites and villages.  Below is a panorama view of Strasbourg.  This region is known for its gingerbread, and it's enjoyed year round.  

The last thing I want to share about our trip was a visit and hike in the Black Forest of Germany.  This area is known for cuckoo clocks and Black Forest Cake.  We took a class to learn how to make and assemble the cakes.  It was a lot of fun!  After sampling the cakes, it was nice that we had the opportunity to go on a little hike.

Mountainside brook in the Black Forest of Germany

Disclosure:  La Countess de Monet was unable to make this trip because I needed a backpack for many of the biking and hiking tours we did.  She was not happy, I tell ya!  So in order to make it up to her, I took her to a flower arrangement class at a beautiful local farm here in Central Alabama.  You can read about our adventure HERE.

La Countess de Monet at Stone Hollow Farmstead learning about floral arranging

Please visit the other ladies' blogs and read about their travels using the links below.  Rita is hosting our giveaway!

Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths 

Emily with Miss Courtney Childs@ The French Hutch   

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Patti with Miss Kenzie @ Pandora's Box  

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 Bookish Dilettante  

Please join me Wednesday, June 4th for my review of this new Civil War historical fiction novel.

Until next time...

Blessings!
Ricki Jill

Tales of the Traveling Tote: Rhine River Cruise and Amsterdam

Sunday, June 1, 2025