London. Way back when.

My whirlwind-style days continue... I did finally get around to planting a few herbs and vegetable plants outside recently.  If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen the results of my crazy basil jungle.  I'm rolling in pesto, folks.  And I like it.

Anywho, way back in the day I made several posts (here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) about Istanbul.  And whataya know, I never did mention our 24 hr speed-tour of London on the way home.  Our must-travel-to list is miles long, and for whatever reason we always seemed to pass up London as a destination.  So when we were presented with the opportunity to spend just 1 day in the city en route to the good ol' USA, we grabbed it.  We couldn't bring ourselves to waste any time (or money) getting a hotel room, so this of course, meant that we would be sleeping in the airport.  Not my finest night of sleep.  At all.  But we did get to see some of the city and experience a couple off-the-beaten-path pubs during the whirlwind.  Here are a few highlights...

Marigny-Round

We officially closed on the Woodruff house the week before last.  Bittersweet, but it feels like we're right where we're supposed to be.  So it seemed high time to show you around our new hood.  We're now residing in a tiny little historic neighborhood full of character with big community feel.  As I've mentioned before, our favorite perk is its proximity to the live local music on Frenchman, as well as to the Quarter (only 3 blocks from our house).  All of New Orleans is teeming with charm and festivities, but much of the action happens here.

I mentioned The Spotted Cat in this post.  It's our favorite music club.  Never a bad band to be heard.

You never know what you'll see around here.  This is in the French Market in the Quarter.

We pretty much bike everywhere.  It's by far the easiest way to get around.

The film industry loves New Orleans.  Apparently there's a tax break that draws them here.  This summer, American Horror Story and Black & White were filmed here, and apparently prepping is beginning for movies like 22 Jump Street, Selfless, and Focus.  Kevin Costner, Will Smith, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, and Jonah Hill are among the actors working on these films.

No ladies, I haven't had any Channing Tatum spottings yet, but we did run across Adam Richman from Man vs. Food.

He was visiting on Bastille Day, checking out the waiter and waitress races with the rest of us.

We frequent the Esplanade Mini Mart (3 blocks from our house) when we're in need of something small.  Like wine :)

I'll never get tired of the New Orleans architecture.

La Peniche is on the same block as our house.  They have great breakfast after a long night on Frenchmen.  And we never know when they'll be open.  Sometimes, randomly, they're open all night.  Until 6 AM.  Just in case we wake up at 4 AM in the mood for grits.

And if we don't have enough room for everyone, there are several options for overnights in the hood :)

I have lots more pictures to post eventually.  In the meantime, care to come visit us?!

Tr(ay)s Chic

Since day 2 in our new place, I've been planning to create a mini-bar here.

It's really very simple.  I just need a couple of shelves, some wine glass holders, and voila.  But I just haven't made time for it yet.  New Orleans and I are still in our infatuation phase.  There's so much going on every day, I can't tear myself away to do anything at home... such as cleaning... for instance.  I realize that's comparable to complaining about having too many ice cream flavor options, but it's really just out of control.  I need an intervention.

So I'm starting small.  Meet tray.  I bought tray about a gazillion years ago at a thrift shop for $3, with plans to add some pretty paint.  

It's finally tray's time to shine.  The basics may still be necessary to make this area a bar, but for now, we'll at least have a tray for serving and entertaining.

To begin, I coated the center with a couple layers of white spray paint.  After it dried over the weekend,  I used Frog Tape and newspaper to cover the center while I spray painted the edges and handles with gold.  Simple, but it made a big difference.

I just tossed these glasses and napkins on for the picture.  Imagine these glasses full and a plate of cheese on the side.  Aaaaand my forever-procrastinated shelves and wine glass holder on the wall above it.  Yea, it's coming along.  Slowly.

In other news, I just bought paint for the sideboard I posted about recently!  If it takes me all summer, I will make some project progress!

Happy almost-weekend, folks :)

Satchmo Summerfest

I'm stopping in for a quick photo-loaded post (because I still haven't gotten into the swing of blogging regularly again!).  Nearly every weekend is eventful these days, but I got quite a few shots at the Satchmo Summerfest second line this Sunday, so I thought I'd share.  Yep, we were officially in our first second line!  Woop woop!  New Orleans is heavy in the festival department, but I'll try to keep my festival-related posts to a minimum... or at least to a level just short of obsession.

The photos pretty much speak for themselves, but I'll give a little insight when needed...

The Treme Jazz Band is a well-known brass band comprised of fantastic New Orleans musicians.  They have concert performances, but are known for showing up at big NOLA events, including Satchmo Summerfest.

The second line was full of several other brass bands too... 

...as well as some performers, like these dudes on stilts.

Major props to this guy for donning the gigantor costume in 90 degree heat!

If you're bored with New Orleans posts and pictures, never fear!  I have some projects in the making that I can't wait to share!

Our Sideboard Turned Creole

One of the things that excited me about moving to New Orleans was the style.  The clothes, the art, the decor.  Wild colors and eclectic bohemian mixes are the groove here.  As you know though, we came from a pretty traditional old house.  Wild was not our style.  So I'm working on it.

Meet sideboard.  He's dark, shiny, and beautiful.  But a little boring for such a lively city.  So I plan to jazz him up.

Here he is in our old house:

And in our new house:

I'm hoping I can successfully incorporate multiple colors into this project... without it looking like it belongs in a kid's room.  Here are some of my inspirations from good ol' Pinterest:

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On my way home from work yesterday, I picked up a few paint chips that struck my fancy.

These are the combos I've been playing around with.  I have to admit, I'm sort of nervous about getting so bold.  I could do one bold color... but two or three?  I feel like I wild woman!

What do you think?  Should I stick to different shades of the same color, maybe?  Or go with opposite colors on the color wheel?  Help?!