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 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!

A Belated Thanks

I didn't go into many details about our departure from Indy, so I thought I'd share a little post before the weekend.  In addition to a number of sweet phone calls, visits, and cards from friends and family to bid us farewell, we had a going away party a few days before the big move as well.  Since our good friends are also moving away from Indiana soon, we had a joint party at our house... the last event at our house.  Sniffle.

Thank you so much to all the special people in our lives that came to celebrate with us.  What a great way to say our final adios-es :)

Unfortunately, I only took a couple of pictures the whole night.  Here are a few we managed to capture:

My wonderful work buddies :)

An early birthday celebration for Will.

Excuse the grainy iPhone photo!

Goin' to the Chapel

The house updates have been on hold recently for something much more important.  Our best friends from college got married this weekend after 10 years of dating.  Thanks to both amazing families and some great friends, more fun was had at this wedding than I've seen in a long time :)  Here are a few (okay, maybe more than a few) of my favorites from the big day:

Mom & daughter at the rehearsal dinner.

Mid-makeup :)

Hair: done!

New sister-in-law

Relaxing before walking down the aisle.

First dance

Father-daughter dance

Mother-son dance

 

No point in trying to explain, but there's actually an excuse behind this.  Believe it or not.