This past week has been a whirlwind of visitors. After Joanie and family left, Barry’s brother, Bobby, came to visit. Barry and Bobby were playing in a golf tournament together, a first for them. They discussed their various foot problems, put those neuromas and plantar fasciitis aside, and went on to come in third in their flight. 

Right before Bobby came to visit, he informed us that he was now a vegan. He doesn’t even eat dairy or fish. Well, that threw my Pioneer Woman cooking right out the window.  The cookbook just sat on the counter begging for a chocolate sheet cake to be prepared or chicken pot pie. 

I researched the menus of many restaurants and decided that the Blue Sushi Sake Grill in Fort Worth had vegetarian items and looked pretty hip. We picked up Brett, Shannon, Ben, and Scarlett and met Michelle and Miles at the restaurant. It was a fun place and although I do not eat sashimi, nigri, or sushi, nor am I hip, the lettuce wraps were very good. I must point out that Bobby, Barry and I were the oldest people in the restaurant and Ben and Scarlett were the youngest. There was no one between their late twenty-somethings and Ben and Scarlett. Brett says it is his and Shannon’s mission to provide this form of birth control to young couples.  Ben and Scarlett were very good. (No, I am not bias. I know that young couple at the sushi bar loved having Ben sitting next to them pointing out the shark in the tank! They were probably very sad when we realized he was not sitting with us and had him come back to the table.)

I don’t have any pictures from the dinner as it took all the creative energy I could muster to find a place to eat that would appeal to our guest and the other eight of us. That’s not to say some people didn’t just end up with white rice ( and it wasn’t Ben & Scarlett).

Here's a video about the Blue Sushi Sake Grill, in case you would like to see it.

Boy, She is Popular

Ree held a Q&A

Last night, I went to Dallas because the Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, was in town for a book signing. Yes, I have officially become one of those people that chases after people I don't even know, but that is the problem with blogs. You do know them. She communicates with me everyday. (I think my children are planning an intervention.)

I went early. Ree was scheduled to arrive at 6:00pm. I arrived at 5:00pm (which is early for a Brier), because I knew it would probably be well attended, and it was. I received a green bracelet. There were already a lot of people there. After visiting with some people in line to the bathroom, I figured out my bracelet color was way down the list, like in the five hundreds! Unbeknownst to me, they started handing bracelets out at 10:00am. (Just for the record, they handed out a 1000 bracelets.)

This is Jen and another friend mentioned in the credits of Ree's new book.

The whole Drummond family entered right on time. Ree spent about twenty minutes speaking and taking questions. She was pretty, funny, and not surprisingly, very smart and quick. Then she commenced signing books. I was seated (I had procured a stool) to her right and happened to meet two of her best friends. 

They were very nice, too, and said Ree was exactly like she is on her blog. They did mention that she has an extraordinary memory. That made me a little sad, because by this time I had decided to leave. I just knew if she met me she would remember me and invite me to the lodge one day.

I believe Ree is writing, "I wish it was Jan's turn" in this lady's book. 

On my way out, I realized other people were in line to have Marlboro Man and her children sign their books. I don't know if they were getting the whole families' autographs or just knew that they couldn't wait until 2:00am to get Ree's. I stealthily snapped a picture of MM, but left the children to their anonymity. The children were darling though. MM looked like he would give anything to be back at the ranch.

Knowing "green" was not going to be called until way after 10:00pm, I headed back to Mansfield. Although, my cookbook is not signed, it was fun to see Ree Drummond in person and find out she is the person you read about on the blog. 

But, Ree, I still want to come to the Lodge! 

Craft Idea

I read the Pioneer Woman blog everyday. My husband says I have a blogger crush on her. She does SO much. She cooks, writes books, schools her children, exercises, decorates, sounds like a terrific wife, and has great giveaways.  The only problem is that there are about 35,000 entries for every giveaway. Apparently, many others love her blog too.

One of her blogs was on blogging. She said that if you are going to blog, you should write something every day. I have failed at that and one of my few, dedicated readers is now complaining about the lack of blogs I am writing (bless your heart, Michelle). But in my defense, I think it is because I need a new camera. Yes, I know taking a picture is not writing, and I also know that my picture taking skills really don't warrant a new camera.

But I digress. Today is a craft idea for you all. I attended a demonstration day at Paper Planet one Saturday and came home so inspired. Then, my daughter-in-law, Shannon had a craft day at her house. More inspirations. I have begun a bowl made out of paper mache', but it is far from done. Paper Planet had made this cute one for Halloween.

Mine will not be a Halloween bowl as that ship has sailed. Right now I am thinking Christmas or just something general. I will keep you posted.

Paper Planet also made this cute little tree out of ribbon. Basically you get a cone shape, cut ribbon, fold it in half, and start  hot gluing. Start at the bottom and go to the top covering the piece where you glued below. If you look to the right of the picture you can barely see the beginning of one of these trees.  I believe this was user error on the photographer's part. I don't think she looked to see exactly what was in the picture. However, I feel a new camera would help her with that issue.

Then I saw this one in a magazine from Anthropologie made with feathers. I am sure it is the same process. Now that I have attended two craft days in one month, I know these things.

Downy Mini Tree

Do you have any craft ideas or camera techniques or any camera recommendations?