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.

First Mardi Gras: The Pre-Party

Our first Mardi Gras has officially come and gone, and it was even better than I thought it could be!  We made it to most of the parades, had a lot of great times with friends, and saw the real Mardi Gras scene... which is very different than I think most people imagine. 

Just a warning- this post is preeeeetty picture heavy. (I've even got too many pictures for one post, so those from Fat Tuesday itself will come later.)

The season kicked off with Krewe du Vieux, a satirical parade that's known for poking fun at politicians, celebrities, and the media.  On the way to watch in the Marigny, Will's vintage New Orleans Jazz t-shirt got him an interview with a couple of Madrid-based reporters.

Police mark the beginning of the parade.

R Bar gallery parade-watchers.

This krewe's floats are smaller than in most Mardi Gras parades, and the members walk alongside.

The following weekends were full of traditional parade-watching.

Families use these ladder contraptions for their kids to see (and catch throws) better.  Is this not brilliant (and sort of terrifying)?!

We watched the majority of the parades uptown on Magazine or St. Charles, because most of the crowd is families and primarily New Orleanians.  The drunken tourists and crazy spring-breakers don't seem to make it past Canal Street.  Or Bourbon Street, for that matter.  This is Canal the week before Fat Tuesday.

I only took my camera to a couple of the parades, but here's a smattering of iPhone pictures from the days leading up to Mardi Gras.  If you follow on Instagram, you may have seen a few of them already.

Wigs and false eyelashes infiltrated my wardrobe this week. 

Uptown is all about family-friendly fun.  This is on Magazine Street before Thoth (one of the bigger krewes) rolled.

Yea, that's wig #2.

610 Stompers dance in a lot of parades here.  They're known for the short blue shorts, sweatbands, and a large amount of facial hair.  These guys get seriously into their moves, and it's pretty hilarious.

Parade-watchers.

Carnival shoes, beads, stray feathers.  You know, the usual.

I'll never get enough of the great costumes!

How did everyone else spend their Mardi Gras?!  I've heard that other cities have mini-parades and celebrations, which is pretty awesome!

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

A New Orleans Christmas

T-48 hours until Christmas.  I don't know about you, but I'm working on cramming as much Christmas into 2 days as possible.  Back-to-back Christmas movies with Christmas music in the background and eggnog until I barf.  I'm even wearing my Christmas socks.  This is serious business.

So I thought I would wrap up the season with some New Orleans cheer!  Here are a few highlights from December.

Kirb met some new, fancy friends after the Santa Paws costume contest and second line.  Yes.  Kirby participated in a second line. 

Thanksgiving Recap

With the crazy few weeks we've had, I never got a chance to talk about Thanksgiving.  It's a bit late, but here's a recap.

We flew up to Minneapolis to spend a couple of days with the family in Red Wing.  

Thanksgiving Day itself started like this...

Fancy Baby: A Bow Tie Onesie

With many of our friends expanding their families these days, we were bound to get into baby-related crafting!  I posted here about visiting our friends and their new addition last month in Indy.  I wanted to make a small "welcome" gift for the little guy, and a bow tie onesie seemed right up his alley :)  I knew it should detach, for washability, and I also knew I wanted Purdue colors... baby Momma and I both graduated from there.

31 Days: Day 31

The on-and-off sprinkles didn't stop the Halloween-ers.  Frenchmen Street looks best decked in food trucks and costumes.

Also, if you hadn't noticed, we've reached Day 31 of our month-long photo-a-day project.  It's been fun capturing the every day stuff, and now I'm looking forward to devoting more time to regular blogging.  Hope you all enjoyed the month's posts!  Check back for more projects (and some rather big news) soon!

31 Days: Day 30

There are lots more details to share in the next couple of weeks.  For now I'll just say, the Arvins are moving on from our little rental double in the Marigny very soon!  This was the perfect place to discover what it was like to reside in New Orleans for the first time.  We made so many friends, spent time with our awesome neighbors, and enjoyed the proximity to Frenchmen Street more than a few times.  It's just a small chapter in our NOLA experience!

31 Days: Day 29

The house is decorated, the candy dish is full, and Hocus Pocus is in the DVD player.  The only thing needed to complete the Halloween season is a couple of pugs in costume.  Don't they look fancy?  You may recognize these costumes from previous years (if you've been reading or following me on Facebook that long).  We're going vintage this year.  Plus mermaids are pretty big here, so Jackie's feeling extra beautiful.

31 Days: Day 28

Does it get any more Halloween-ish than Hocus Pocus?  I think not. 

31 Days: Day 27

Three full evenings of prepping for a Skills Fair at work, then a 13 hour day spent working the Skills Fair = lots of late posts and a  glass  bottle of wine.

Also, our back patio has been looking much more welcoming these days.  And it's feeling more welcoming, as the high temperatures have been 72-78 degrees the past couple of weeks.  Have I drilled in the fact that I love the weather right now?  I do.  We've added an outdoor rug to the mix as well, but I was too tired to peel myself up for another picture.  Laziness it is, folks.

31 Days: Day 26

Did anyone guess who we were for Halloween?!  If you follow me on Instagram, you already know.  Introducing, the Cheshire Cat and Mad Hatter!

Here's where we got the gear:

• Party City: wigs, plastic top hat, tights, makeup, and eyelashes
• Hancock Fabric: pink and purple fur (40% off, mind you), scrap upholstery fabric and scrap chiffon for the hat, and scrap lace for Will's ruffled sleeves
• Goodwill: pink jogging skirt, black velour blazer, vest, dress pants, and floral scarf

I used pink felt, the pink fur I bought, and an old headband to hot glue some ears together.  I didn't get a shot of the head-to-toe costume (or the back), but I also used the fur and some hand-stitching to make a pink and purple striped tail, and added some pink trim to my boots.

For Will's hat, I hot-glued the upholstery fabric to a basic plastic-y top hat, then added the chiffon as a ribbon.  

Voila!

The get-ups turned out even better than expected, especially Will's!  His face looks a bit whiter with the flash than it was in person, but you get the gist.  With all the pictures people asked for while we were on Frenchmen Street, it's likely he's floating around all over Facebook and Instagram now.

31 Days: Day 25

Just another apartment in the city.  I'm forever in love with the old architecture.

31 Days: Day 24

We've been anticipating the opening of the Saenger Theater for quite a while.  It was built in 1927, then destroyed during Katrina in 2005.  The city has been working to restore it for years, and the doors finally opened in September.  Not only were we excited to see the interior, but we were lucky enough to score pre-sale tickets from some friends to the Book of Mormon as well (which we'd been dying to see).  After appetizers and drinks at French 75, we enjoyed time with friends and the fantastic show, then a nightcap at Batch Bar.  Here's a shot of the beautifully restored theater entrance.  

31 Days: Day 23

It's about the best feeling in the world to have the windows wide open at the end of October.  I live for 70-75 degree weather.  Truly.  The pets feel the same way.  Here's Olive, plotting her escape to the wilderness of New Orleans.  One passing of a mule-drawn carriage and she'd shoot safely back into the house.

31 Days: Day 22

As I've said before, Halloween is huge here.  For that reason (and because I'll take any opportunity to dress up) we've been working on our costumes the last few days.  I always prefer to make my costume rather than buy a set that's already put together, but sometimes finding all the pieces can be a challenge.  We got pretty lucky this year.  A quick stop at Goodwill in Mid City gave us most of Will's attire, and pieces of mine.  All we needed was a trip to Party City and JoAnn Fabrics to finish it off.  This is part of the stash.  Can you guess what we're going as?!

31 Days: Day 21

After nearly every weekend here, it's hard to get back to reality on Monday.  We tried so many great new restaurants/bars when the 'rents were in town, but we'll always have our "usuals" to come back to.  R Bar is one of those places.  It's a block from our rental and the dogs are welcome, so it just feels like an extension of our front yard.  It's one of those places I'd feel totally comfortable walking to after work in dress pants and a blazer, or on a random day in my pjs.  Those of you that follow me on Instagram have probably seen pictures of the pugs getting cozy at the bar.

P.S.  Have you noticed my recent obsession with nighttime photos?  I just love the way it all looks in the dark!

31 Days: Day 20

The last day of my parents' visit, after breakfast at Who Dat Cafe (yea, we love it), we took a cemetery tour at Cemetery #1 near the Quarter.  We hadn't done any of the touristy deals like this since moving here, but thought we'd give it a shot since my parents were in town.  I can't say it was the most useful two hours of my life (mostly because our tour guide thought of himself as more of a comedian than a guide), but we learned some interesting tidbits and explored an area we hadn't before.  Plus the weather was ah-mazing.

On our walk back, we happened upon the Treme Fest second line just as it was about to start, then afterward met friends at the Rum House uptown.  Following lunch, we did a little couch-sitting for Sunday football... then did more face-stuffing at Mona Lisa that night.  We don't hold back.

31 Days: Day 19

Day 2 of my parents' stay was eventful and relaxing at the same time.  We started with brunch at Buffa's in the Marigny, then we walked around the Bywater for a good bit, exploring thrift shops and boutiques.  Dinner was at Louisiana Pizza Kitchen, followed by a stroll along the river and visit to Jackson Square.  Obviously, we couldn't pass Cafe du Monde without chicory and beignets.

Notice we're all wearing jeans?  And my mom's wearing a jacket?  That's right, fall has introduced itself to New Orleans!