Mardi Gras Re-Cap & STILL Recovering!....

Hello y'all!! Sorry for the lack of posts... Mardi Gras came and went and now Boo is pooped!! I finally got all the glitter and feathers vacuumed up from all the rooms in the house!

Here's my costume I threw together:

The original inspiration was of course, my Barbie Barbarella and I just went from there... so I kinda became Barbie Barbarella/Tina Turner Mad Max/Warrior Voodoo Priestess Gold kinda thing....  who knows!?

Here's a shot of all the revelers in front of our neighborhood bar, Mimi's...

And I love this picture of all the neighbors before the madness really began! How fitting we took the pic in front of the hot pink dumpster!

It was a great Mardi Gras but honestly I'm glad it's over!! There were SO many parties, parades, drinking & eating.... I can now focus on some big home projects. Whew!

** If you have a moment, I'd love for you to read THIS ARTICLE ... it sums up exactly how I feel about this lovely lady, New Orleans.

Our House Is Ready For Mardi Gras Dawlin'!...

Just wanted to share the "after" pics from yesterdays post about decorating the house for Mardi Gras!

My skeleton man dressed for the season...

Here are my sexy mannequin legs I painted gold. I love them! My neighbor put little bows at their ankles (and the Mardi Gras Muff VaJayJay!) I kinda prefer just the Muff.... no bows... I think it takes away from the awesomeness of the legs... thoughts?

Hopefully this weekend I'll go around the hood like last year and get some shots of everyones homes decorated. There are some wild ones this year and I can't wait to share! 

A Mardi Gras Kinda Weekend...

This past weekend we had all kinda Mardi Gras related fun... it's really beginning to feel like the season for me now!

We went to a Mardi Gras Ball (Caesar Ball) with some of our best friends last Saturday night... I can't even attempt to explain a Mardi Gras Ball to you... it's totally bizarre to someone not from here. Let's just say you wear gowns & tuxes and roll in your ice chest full of booze into a fancy ballroom. The court is presented. Dancing happens. Drinking happens. Eating happens. Lots of fun happens. Go to one. 

Pics from ball:

The Maids & Queens costume were AMAZING! The detail in these headdresses is really impressive... not to mention expensive!

I love the colors in the one below. They even have neon lights hooked up to the headdress!

Me and The Hubs... yeah... he's wearing a sequined headband I made... I told you it's fun!

The next day we hung out in the hood and finally finished our Mardi Gras decorations...

Which involved spray painting vintage mannequin legs gold.  

Are you even surprised by this point that I would spray them gold!?

Here they are drying in the middle of the street. Our street has been closed because the city has been ripping out old plumbing which in turn makes fun block party without fear of getting smacked by a car ;)

And as we were painting the awesome legs what oh what do we hear?! A marching band, The Gris Gris Strut, practicing for this weekends parade, Krewe De Vieux! 

 

Yeaaahhhh!

Aaaaaand back to decorating...

 We used the legs as part of the Mardi Gras decor for the front of the house.... I have yet to get a good "after" pic of the finished decor due to construction men jack hammering in front of the house... so this black and white one will have to do ;)

All in all it was a great weekend to kick off the Mardi Gras Season!

It's Carnival Time!

Today, being Twelfth Night (after Christmas) marks the beginning of CARNIVAL TIME! While most people around the country have the let down buzz from Christmas and New Years, in New Orleans those holidays just gear us up for carnival season! Plus today officially marks the first day to buy king cakes for the season!

Mardi Gras time in New Orleans is a magical, indescribable six weeks that has nothing to do with class, money, race and everything to do with eating, drinking and being with family and friends. Most out of towners don't realize how family oriented Mardi Gras is. I digress...

Since my blog mainly focuses on art and design, I'll skip my tourism rant and get down to my Mardi Gras costume!! The Hubs and I watched Immortals a while back and I LOVED the costume design. (Horrible acting but stunning visuals and great costume design)

So, I'm thinking about doing an abstract way more elaborate version of Mickey Rourke's character. Here's some images that are getting my creative juices going:

I'm going to paper mache or use plaster of paris to make my mask and form horns on the top as well. I'm definitely going to gold leaf the horns and possibly the whole mask... undecided yet.

And make a capelet similar to below:

And also add in a little Tina Turner from Mad Max in there:

So it's like a "End of the World Meets Greek God" type of thing happening here... it is 2012 after all! Hopefully we can get a group together on this one - it's always better to costume in groups - you get way more attention!

So, the countdown for costume is ON!! I have about 45 days left on the clock to get this bad boy ready! Can't wait to share the process!

Click HERE to read last year's recap of Mardi Gras.