Linen blend towel with hemstitching and machine embroidered berries - $14.00

These purple berries (raspberries or blackberries) are stitched on a lovely hemstitched oatmeal colored tea towel Perfect house warming or hostess gift! The towel is an elegant linen blend towel. Beautiful!

I have a new app for my Seaux Southern business...I am testing it out to see how this will work with my blog.

And this towel makes me want to go blackberry picking!!

Click Here to Visit My Etsy Shop!

It's Mardi Gras Weekend!!

This is the BIG Mardi Gras Weekend here in Louisiana! Last week we walked in the 

Krewe de Paws dog parade! This weekend the big parades will be rolling. The weather here is not looking great but I know there will still be tons of people out this weekend waiting for the beautiful floats to ride by and throw beads, cups, doubloons and other various items!

I have been pretty busy stitching up some Mardi Gras items for the past few weeks.

~~~Here are a few of the designs I stitched up this year~~~

I have a few new ideas for next year but for now it's time to enjoy the parades!!

Although with this weather I may just be watching them on t. v. !!!

HAPPY MARDI GRAS Y'ALL

A Dog's Life

What a fun day we had yesterday! Our 2 fur babies got to walk in a Mardi Gras Parade!! A parade for dogs!!

The Krewe de Paws parade was yesterday and we decided at the last minute that we would participate in it with our pups!! We had no "float", no costumes and no throws so we scrambled to get something together quick. I bought 100 dog biscuits and 4 bags of Valentine candy. The parade took about 1 1/2 hours to walk but we were out of throws within the 1st 20 minutes!!! We know now that we need a whole lot more for next year!! But we had such a great time!! Our dogs had a great time too!! Here are a few pics from yesterday~~~

Lining up to start the parade

A pic of the King and Queen

This is Macy~ last years Queen

And here we go!!!

Laura Buchtel (one of our favorite local meteorologist) was the Grand Marshall

Gracie and Sabrina getting a pre-parade treat before we got started

Sabrina liked it...

...see how she is smiling now!

There were so many people!!

I really think that they walked us instead of us walking them!

Local grocery stores will let you borrow one of their grocery carts to decorate and use as a float.

Gotta remember that for next year!

Gracie had so much fun!! But every time she saw a car parked on the side of the road she ran towards it because she thought she was going for a ride!!

Our baby (big baby) Sabrina. She got so much attention!! And way to many dog treats!!

Elaborate floats!

This one looked like a pirate ship

The theme was "Canines of the Caribbean"

There was even a horse in the parade!!

YES...A HORSE!!! 

And here is a group picture of the Royal Court

It was such a beautiful day for a parade!!

We can't wait to do this again next year...

maybe Gracie or Sabrina will be the Queen!

Yardware Hardware and A Taste of Spring!

I don't really know what happened. I feel a little cheated really. Winter is not my favorite season but I feel like I was suppose to get something and it never showed up!! But...it is what it is and now I am so looking forward to Spring!!
I took a walk around the yard today and these are the pretty things I found~~~


First~
The "hardware" I have in my yard. The ornamental elements that I have in my flower beds that I plant around. Or as I affectionately refer to it as my "Yardware~Hardware"

Bell hanging on a post at my front door.

We never use it but I thought it looked cute!! 

Fleur de Lis yard decoration. I move this around but for right now it is in front of my Mardi Gras yard flag.

My bird trellis which started out green but got spray painted black last spring. I'm liking the black better. It just kinda disappeared in the flower bed when it was green.

My pelican weather vane. Love this one!!

And my favorite is my Blessed Mother Statue.

And here are a few of the flowers that are blooming right now!!

Pansies

Lots of Azalea buds

And lots of Azaleas

Day Lillies are coming back

Banana Magnolias. Love the smell!!

Camillias

Vine growing on a wrought iron trellis

Love the color of new leaves on my Indian Hawthorn

Mexican Heather

Can't wait to get in the yard and clean up flower beds and plant more flowers!!

What's growing in your yard?

Red Velvet Cakes!

I found this fun, cute recipe in the Jan./ Feb. 2012 issue of Phyllis Hoffman CELEBRATE magazine. I attempted to make them exactly like the cover photo. (Yea Right!) But they did come out pretty good and they taste great!

Here is the recipe:


RED VELVET CAKE HEARTS WITH CREAM CHEESE FILLING

Ingredients~~


1 (18.25 ounce) box red velvet cake mix
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
Garnish: confectioners' sugar


Direction~~


Spray a 15 x 10 inch rimmed baking sheet with nonstick baking spray with flour. Line pan with parchment paper.


Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Turn out onto a cutting board and cool completely. Using a 2-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out 24 hearts. Cut hearts in half horizontally.

In large bowl, combine cream cheese and butter. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy. Gradually add confectioners' sugar, beating until smooth.

.


Turn hearts cut side up. Pipe cream cheese onto center of 12 hearts, and top with the remaining  12 hearts. Refrigerate until ready to serve.


Garnish with confectioners' sugar, if desired.

Behind the scenes shots~~~

I tried using a large Fleur de Lis cookie cutter but it didn't work out so well.

A last minute thought was to use a small circle cookie cutter along with using the heart cookie cutter. 

The small cutter works best. I'll have to get a smaller heart cookie cutter for next time!!

And of course there is always the big mess left behind. But I think it was worth it! My husband thinks so too!!

One more thing~~~

The cute bookmark I used in the 1st picture is from

http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/index.jsp

I got them for Christmas. Not sure if they are still available

They are so cute and so retro looking!

Love them!!

Hope you try this recipe for your Valentine!!

I am linking up to 

http://www.niftythriftythings.com/