31 Days of Photos

My inconsistency with Acrylics and Icing lately is making me feel guilty.  Not guilty like it's a chore, but guilty because for the past couple of years, it's been a great creative outlet for me.  I sort of feel like I'm neglecting part of myself.  Dramatic, no?  It's probably how Kirb feels about "sheep" after only playing with "pig" for a week.  Maybe not.

Sooooo, what better time than now to take advantage of the 31 Days Challenge the Nester recently posted about?!  The goal is to blog daily for 31 days.  About something.  Anything, really.

I still plan to incorporate the usual stuff, but in addition, I'll be taking a photo daily to share.  Old pals may remember when I did the photo-a-day challenge in 2010 (I posted about it on Facebook back then).  I took a picture each day for the entire year as a New Year's Resolution.  It was pretty difficult at times, but I'm feeling like I can handle just one month of it.

So if you get tired of all the pictures over here, feel free to check out this month :)  Otherwise, I'll see you tomorrow!

Hello, visitors!

Since moving to New Orleans, we've made some awesome new friends that have made the transition here an easy one, but we miss our long-time pals and family from back home at the same time.  While we worried that moving here would make seeing everyone back in Indiana more difficult, we also hoped New Orleans and it's fabulousness would encourage people to pay us a visit.  I'm excited to say that since I offered up our spare bedroom HERE, we've already recruited several more visitors!  Aaand the offer still stands for all you friends and fam that are looking for a southern escape as the weather gets cooler :)

Anyway, we were lucky to have our first visitors come in August!  My mom and grandmother made the drive from Southern Indiana to check out the new digs.  And it just happened to be my birthday that weekend.  Happy birthday to me!  We didn't have time to do much of the touristy stuff we think visitors would enjoy- cemetery tours, beignets at Cafe du Monde, swamp tours, etc, etc.  (most of which I like to do, too!), but we were able to show them around a bit.

There was French Market shopping involved.  It resulted in my grandmother haggling down the price of a necklace she liked, then buying me a giant red Buddha for the mantle.  Success!

Pug Life

The blog posts have changed a bit since our move, and I know what you're thinking.  "Recipes, NOLA goings-on, and the occasional DIY project are great.  But I want more pugs!"  For those of you longing to see some great pug wrinkles (don't lie, you know who you are), here are some shots of the glorious bayou pugs.  Looking their finest, as usual.  Scroll down for a video of the pugs utilizing their brawling skills.

Sideboard gets Sassy

I talked here about our old sideboard that made the trip from Indianapolis to New Orleans with us.  A little traditional flare is great, but she was stuck in the past.  She wasn't really unattractive to start with... she'd just had the same metaphorical hair cut for far too long, and needed a wild new do.  Of course it took several weeks of letting the can of paint sit next to her before I finally got a chance to start the makeover... but she's finally looking like a new woman!

You remember the sideboard in her boring old "before" state: