Anba Dlo

The blog hasn't died, in case you were wondering. It's just been in hibernation. Like a big, boring bear. I've been much more focused on the doing, not the documenting, this past couple of months. Slowly, the blog is making its way back into civilization. And it's toting a new name! Did you notice?! This was in no way, shape, or form about "acrylics and icing" anymore, so we're going more practical. 

And what better way to welcome you to "Live from New Orleans" than to do a little parade watching? Celebrating with a drink and stuffed mirlitons at Elizabeth's might actually be more fun... but this is a bit more virtual-friendly. 

The parade I'm showing you is the Anba Dlo parade from a few weeks ago. The Skinz n Bonez krewe and Muffalottas came out, among others, in Bywater/Marigny to celebrate the kick-off of Halloween season in New Orleans. Yes, it's a season here. 

Enjoy the pictures, and please stay tuned (and bear with me) as things get rolling again here!

First Mardi Gras: The Big Day!

I have to admit, the weather on Mardi Gras Day could not have been any worse in New Orleans this year.  It was 40 degrees and rainy the entire day.  What the heck, right?!  I guess this is part of that whole "polar vortex" situation I've been hearing about up north.  Gross.

Despite mother nature's horrible sense of humor, I was utterly impressed by the Bywater turnout.

The standard large parades always roll on Mardi Gras morning, but for once this Carnival Season, we didn't head out to watch.  Instead, we stayed in our neighborhood for "Society of St. Anne", which we'd been hearing so much about from our neighbors.  Truth be told, it's not a krewe or even a "society" at all, but really just a huge, fun, and friendly celebration of costumed neighbors that parades through Bywater... Although over the past several decades, I think the parade has attracted more than a few folks from outside the neighborhood.

The costumes are what it's all about!  I was overwhelmed looking at all the creative pieces (some works of art, no joke!).  We sported homemade outfits, complete with the shoes I made us both, which you may have seen on Instagram or Facebook if you follow me (you can also catch a glimpse of them in the second photo below).  Luckily, our awesome neighbors didn't hold back either...

Grainy iPhone picture of the full attire.

I didn't get many pictures once the parade became more dense (it was raining, after all), but I did manage to snag some shots as people began to gather two doors down from our house.   

There was very interesting and creative beverage transport.

Seeing all these awesome folks strolling past our house was just about the best thing ever!

And out come the safer-in-rain-than-my-expensive-Canon iPhone photos:

Now for attempting to remove the leftover eyelash glue from my eyelids, and feathers from throughout the house.  Glitter removal is a lost cause.  Glitter has become a member of our family, and it's not going anywhere.

Bywater Musings: Part II

It's that point in the week when I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  And to celebrate, I'm back for another Bywater neighborhood exploration!  I could probably do a dozen posts about all the interesting stuff we've found around here... but I'll stop at two for the sake of your interest.

I'll never get enough of the eclectic colors people use so boldly.  I'll be that brave, someday.  Maybe.

Bywater Musings

It's that time.  Time for another neighborhood tour!  Woop woop!  I feel like I've done this before... again... and again... But when you're a serial mover, you have a lot of 'hoods to explore.  So let's get this show on the road.  

The Bywater is a historic neighborhood (Surprise surprise, right?  Apparently we dig the old houses.) that butts up between the Industrial Canal, the Marigny, and the Mississippi River.  Getting accustomed to directions in the city is tricky... it's shaped like a crescent, so the usual grid-style setup in which most cities are arranged doesn't apply here.  

As a native New Orleanian book shop owner put it during a discussion the other day, the Bywater has only become a "celebrated" area of the city within the last few years.  For a large amount of time it was primarily inhabited by families of low socioeconomic status, which emphasizes my interest in learning the history of the buildings and families that resided here.  Unfortunately, it makes it really difficult to actually find any information or photos of the Bywater from its early days.  No one wanted to take pictures of (or even write about) a poor neighborhood.  It's a shame.

Here's one awesome one from a market that was just down the street from us in 1895:

source

New Orleans, New Home, New Tour

With the recent move to our new home and neighborhood, I have so much to share!  Unfortunately, getting the internet connected has been the wildest experience ever.  A certain nation-wide company that shall not be named (3 letters- starts with A, ends with T) has a hard time showing up to appointments.  A really hard time.

So I'm sharing this overdue post from my happy place at Who Dat Cafe down the street.  I'm not one to pass up coffee, early Christmas decor, and wireless internet.

Anywho, we made the harder-than-we-expected move from our apartment 2 weekends ago.  Despite offers from fabulous friends to assist, we attempted the whole move on our own.  Meaning my inconspicuous muscles got their chance to shine.  Bed, couch, dressers.  Psh.  We got this.  Some great points about moving yourself are A. money saved on movers, B. you eliminate the possibility of making your friends hate you (Umm who likes to move?  Absolutely no one.), and C... No, that's it.  Just A and B.  So with a little help from a 10-foot UHaul, we went from empty house to what you see below.

I should mention, we actually closed on the house on a Tuesday, but the awesome couple we bought the house from let us move in the weekend before.  It never hurts to be friends with the seller :)

And here it is, in all it's chaotic glory.

Owning a Piece of New Orleans

Let's get this out there right off the top: We bought a house in New Orleans!  Yep, it's officially our 3rd home purchase in 5 years thanks to the big move we just made from Indiana.  You can call us serial-home-buyers.  We don't mind.  This home-buying experience was waaaaaay different than our first two, though.  Since I won't be sharing any pictures of the casa yet, I'm including an occasional and completely unrelated picture every so often.  Just keepin' things interesting.  :)

Exhibit A.  Merpug.

Since we got married, Will and I have had two experiences with the home buying process in Indiana.  Home-buying in New Orleans is an entirely different animal.  New Orleans is a very old city with very old architecture (part of what we adore so much), a fairly desirable climate (umm, let's not talk about July through September), and tons of culture and excitement that draws people to vacation and even move here.  After Katrina caused the population to plummet, only some of the loyal til-death-do-us-part NOLA lovers were able to return.  Since then, the city has been building (and building and building) itself back up to be wonderful again (and some argue, even more wonderful than pre-Katrina).  Well, it's looking more fabulous than ever, and still growing- population included.  With the continuing rapid influx of new residents, plus a great number of individuals buying vacation homes, the housing market is booming.  Not even booming.  Exploding like I always fear the lid of a pressure cooker will fly off into the air and knock my teeth out and break my nose.  It.  Is.  Nuts.

The prices are rising, many of the houses are selling within 24-hours of entering the market, and any decent house at a decent price in a good neighborhood can surely expect a bidding war.  One house we saw a couple of months ago had 8 offers in less than 24 hours of being listed.  Crazytown.

So when we started our housing search, we didn't have much confidence.  Not only did we dread the fight of "winning" a house against other bidders, but we doubted the possibility that we would find something that was just right for us.  Homes are very different down here than what we're used to in Indiana, and with the prices as high as they are, we had to get realistic.

Jackson Square

For starters, we've learned with the purchase of our first two homes that location is most important to us.  We had our hearts set on a few specific neighborhoods, which limited us in more ways than just location.  Most people in these neighborhoods pretty much count on not having a yard (or any outdoor space for that matter).  Land isn't cheap in the middle of New Orleans.  Same goes for parking.  A very small number of people have garages here- I think there may be 2 on our entire block of about 15 houses.  And actually, it's not common to have a parking space at all.  Street parking is what it's about, folks.

On top of all that, we had to get familiar with the type of architecture down here.  The most common types of homes are shotguns and creole cottages.  These are basically defined by layout, and are often in the form of "doubles"... essentially a "duplex" for Mid-westerners.  Our rental is a shotgun double.  We've been lucky enough not to have neighbors in the other half, because the sound-proofing in these homes isn't the finest.

What this really boils down to is that we had high standards considering what's available.  Because we really enjoyed our rental, we were willing to wait until the "perfect" place came up.  If that even existed.

Here were our standards:

1. In one of 4 neighborhoods we favor: the Marigny, Bywater, Uptown, or Irish Channel... with preference on the Marigny/Bywater area, where our rental is located.
2. Outdoor space.  We can't live without it.  Especially with the dogs, we just love to be able to sit outside.
3. Between 1000 and 1800 square feet.  I think this was one of the standards for our rental, as well.  Less than 1000 = me feeling like I'm trapped in a cage with 4 animals and another human.  Greater than 1800 = me having no free-time to do anything else besides just clean the thing.  Or us just living in a dirty house (much more likely).
4. Tall ceilings.  This probably sounds sort of snobbish, but I've gotten used to having them.  I love a house that feels big, open, and airy, but doesn't have the square footage to clean.  Resolution: tall ceilings. 
5. Hardwood floors (or the ability to add them if the house is priced well).  Carpet is the bane of my existence.  I feel grimy when I walk on it.  It may be dandy for you folks that don't have grubby pig-like canines rubbing their fat bodies on it, but it doesn't work for our family.
6. A single-family home.  We knew this would be really difficult.  We even looked at and considered doubles and condos, but we were crossing our fingers that the right place would come along within our price-range.

It's a pretty tall order for these historic neighborhoods.  We saw a lot of places that were good, but not great.  There was even one we saw before it went on the market, that we thought may be "the one".  When we found out it still required new wiring, additional duct work, and some fairly major structural repairs (and it was at the top of our budget), we were happy to walk away from that situation- albeit a little more dispirited.

Mona Lisa Pizza

Then it happened.  We found "the one".  In typical New Orleans fashion, our lending agent mentioned that she was thinking about selling her house in a few months and invited us in to check it out.  We saw it.  We fell in love, and hated her for showing it to us, because we were sure it would be out of our price range.  We met her for coffee, negotiated a fantastic price through email, and now we're buying her house.

Needless to say, we're ecstatic!  I have tons of pictures and moving-chaos to share soon!  Have I ever mentioned how much I hate moving?  You would never guess with our history.  Anywho, stick around for more details... I'll keep you posted :)