Ladies Night

 

We had a great meeting of the Wine Women.  Here are my girls enjoying appetizers! I don't have pictures of the meal itself because once we got going, I was just enjoying the event.

Wine-wise, this was the hit of the night. I do not like chardonnay, but this was good! And for the record, one of the reasons I am so mad about this tariff situation, is my friends are Canadian.  I love Canadian wines.  I love the country in general.  That we are being so horrible to them is an affront to the good friend they have been to us.  We talked about the orange asshole quite a bit, but after a while decided it would be better to get away from politics and enjoy ourselves.

I was very happy with my table setting. Unfortunately, 95% of it needed to be washed by hand, but with just four of us, it wasn't a huge job. When I host, I do not let my friends help with the dishes.

The blue and white Ann Taylor shirt is one of my thrifted favorites, that I don't get a lot of opportunities to wear.  For jewelry, I went with a white moissanite wedding set, with aquamarine earrings, ring, and bracelet. My necklace was aquamarine as well as blue moissanite.  The aqua necklace was made from two links of a bracelet I'd had shortened.  I also have blue diamond and silver earrings. I wore the aqua bracelet along with a cubic zirconia bolo.

This little girl was naughty.  She was hyped up, perpetually trying to steal from the counter, and every time she calmed down and someone mentioned it, she wound right back up.  She usually behaves better.  I got this picture of her after everyone was gone. Notice her chewies strewn around the couch.  Four.  She'd gotten them all out while we sat in the living room and enjoyed after dinner conversation and dessert.  We usually entertain on Saturday and sometimes Sunday.  I think she gets less exercise on a Friday, so that was an issue of pent-up energy and the excitement of having an event. Either way, I was not particularly happy with her!

I kept the blue theme going today and re-wore most of the jewelry from yesterday.  My day was spent buying groceries and going to an estate sale. My sweater is thrifted cashmere.  My shoes are garage sale G.H. Bass for two bucks.

Here is a close look at my aquamarine -- my birthstone. Each of these pieces were a birthday present. The bracelet was 7.5 inches -- about an inch too big.  My jeweler removed the two links that were saved for a pendant. I had him put on the safety catch.  Whenever you get an insertion clasp piece of any value in sterling silver, put a safety clasp on it.  Silver will stretch a bit or get loose. This will help guard against loss. I often join the lobster clasp to a second bracelet if I a wearing more than one.

My $11 spend bought me an ironing board and sconce. An ironing board has been on my thrift/garage-estate sale list for the past three months.  At five bucks, this was just what I needed. It's heavy duty too. I do not think the sconce is actually brass. It looks like finished iron.  I might spray paint it black.

I have taken steps to keep my oven cleaner. I have a cookie sheet on the bottom of the top oven. Then I have aluminum shelf liners on the bottom shelf of the lower oven. There are two in the bottom in order to be wide enough to reach wall to wall.  The aluminum ones are too thin to be on the bottom and the element would set them on fire.  I will try to find another flat cookie sheet (no rim) for cheap, second hand.  Then I should be set of the bottom oven.

We had breakfast for dinner tonight.  Biscuits and gravy.  I have self-rising flour that needs to be used, so I bought some buttermilk and lard, then made biscuits.  There was a frozen log of pork sausage in the freezer that needed to be used too. Over a week ago, I posted about jars of breakfast gravy that I got for 49 cents at Gabes.  I used that, plus I made some of my own with buttermilk and half & half.  Using gravy from a jar can be too salty, so I extended it in order to cut down on that.

It was a big batch of gravy, so half is going right into the freezer for next week.  We have two biscuits for breakfast tomorrow.

Do you do semi-homemade dishes like this?