Showing posts with label Louisiana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Louisiana. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Carnival 2012 Recap

So it has been 21 days since my last post... yikes.  Of course I finally get back on with blogging and then I drop off the face of the earth.  Sorry, y'all.  I do sincerely appreciate the encouragement from my friends- blogger friends and real-life ones.  I am so thankful for all of you!


I wanted to post a quick recap of the Mardi Gras season.  I am a Louisiana girl at heart and I think Mardi Gras is officially my favorite holiday.  I had to bring the festive spirit to DC, of course.
My festive MG wreath.  I also added this sweet kitchen towel to my growing collection for the holiday.
Love him!


I baked these great cupcakes for one of my classes & folks at work: plain yellow cake (dyed MG colors) with homemade cinnamon frosting. That frosting is fan-tastic!


I went to New Orleans over the past weekend to celebrate Mardi Gras. The trip was wonderful, I had a great time and I got to spend some long-overdue bonding time with some old friends.  I'm so glad I got to have that break.  I went to a Mardi Gras ball as a guest of my dear friend Kathryn.  It was, indeed, a ball! 
Please note the light-up partycup. Crucial.  Also, the ball was held in the Super Dome. Pardon my French, but it just doesn't get any more badass than that.


Lastly, I had to include this pic of my friend Meghan that she insisted someone take... then insisted on sending to me... of herself.  All while I was standing in the same room. It is Mardi Gras, okay, people? Alcohol and fun are must-haves.
Also, she caught those glasses off a float.  Amazing, amirite?


I am already impatiently awaiting next year's Mardi Gras season!

Friday, October 21, 2011

Geaux Tigers Attire

This weekend, I am off to join some of my very best friends for two days full of catching up, laughing, tailgating, tiger-baiting, eating, drinking and merriment. 
polyvore set found here
Tailgating at LSU involves a serious day-long commitment and this time of year, the weather is always questionable. Sometimes there's rain (though it never rains in Tiger Stadium) and sometimes it is still 80 degrees well into October!  No matter what, you can bet there is lots of walking to be done and lots of good times to pass!

Enjoy your weekend. Geaux TIGERS! Beat Auburn! 

Monday, March 14, 2011

Mardi Gras Recap (Lots O' Pics)

Well, I think I mentioned before that I just had the greatest time at Mardi Gras this year. I think it might have been one of my most fun Mardi Gras experiences ever. 
My friend Kathryn got to be in one of the parades this year. If you've never been to Mardi Gras before, you might not understand how everything works. This is sort of the best way I can explain it.  There are big social organizations called "krewes."  These krewes are the ones that put on the parades and pay to make the floats and buy the stuff that's thrown off the floats. As part of this, they also throw big parties throughout the Mardi Gras season. Usually on the night of their parade, the krewes throw one huge party for every member of the krewe.  


This year, I got to go to one of those parties for the first time ever since my friend was in the parade.  Her dad is a member of Endymion, so that's the krewe whose parade she was in. The party was so much fun! Some of the big krewes have really great entertainment acts and "celebrities" who also ride in the parade. This year at Endymion, Anderson Cooper, Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos and Andy Cohen (i.e. Bravo Andy!) rode in the parade.  The entertainment for the night was Pat Benatar and Train.  They were both really good and the party was so fun!

As part of the party, the parade went through the convention center right in front of us. It was so cool to see everything up close and we caught some REALLY good stuff!
My beautiful friend, Kathryn! 
My friend Marybelle was standing right next to us and she kept catching all the best stuff! Here's some of what she caught.
I took a lot more pictures of that night, but I didn't really take photos of the other parades that we went to on Sunday.  I guess I was busy having fun.

I did manage to take a phone pic of this awesome king cake that I brought home and got to share with some classmates for Mardi Gras. I also sported my new favorite beads to class last Tuesday! 
It was as yummy as it looks! 

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Happy Mardi Gras!!

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Mardi Gras is hands-down one of my favorite holidays.  Although I only lived in Louisiana for two years as a kid and spent the majority of my life in Tennessee, I consider Louisiana more "home" to me since I spent so much time with my family there growing up (all of my family originates from Louisiana) and had a wonderful college experience living in Baton Rouge and attending LSU.  I am proud of Louisiana and the rich culture the state has to offer. 

I just got back from a trip to New Orleans to celebrate Carnival and I had THE BEST TIME. Seriously, it was amazing. Mardi Gras always reminds me of how much I love the laid-back and fun-loving spirit of Louisiana and New Orleans. There is literally no place like it on earth.  I'll recap my Mardi Gras experience here soon, but until I get caught up with my other obligations, I wanted to tell all my readers

HAPPY
MARDI 
GRAS!

If you don't know anything about Mardi Gras, check out this little video for the basics. It captures the history. The spirit is a little more difficult to communicate through video.


I highly suggest to all of you out there that you sport a little Mardi Gras today! I'm definitely wearing some of my favorite beads from this weekend to class tonight. 

Monday, February 21, 2011

City of New Orleans

This weekend I traveled to New Orleans to attend a party for my friend Kathryn.  I had some much needed time with friends and time to just have a good time and enjoy myself.  I had a ton of school work to do (I still need to do it...) but I just let myself enjoy the weekend and not worry about any of that. 

There was a mini-fiasco when I got to New Orleans Friday night because my friend Lauren, who was picking me up from the airport, thought I was flying into Baton Rouge.  So when I arrived at the New Orleans airport, she was arriving at the one in Baton Rouge AN HOUR AWAY! It was so typical that you just had to laugh at the situation.  I sat at the bar in the airport and waited for her to get there.  I'm so glad she was able to change her plans and come to New Orleans early! 

Most of the pictures on this blog are of food. Please excuse that. These days, I eat at home mostly and unless someone is in town visiting, I rarely splurge on going out to a nice dinner in D.C.  Plus the food here is nothing like it is in Louisiana- so I think I was almost as excited about eating good food as I was about seeing my friends! 

Once she got to New Orleans, we headed to dinner at Pascal's Manale. Pascal's Manale is the orignial home of Bar-B-Que Shrimp. 
Ah-mazing crusty French Bread.  The real thing.
This was Lauren's first time trying the shrimp and my second. They were so good and flavorful!

We had such a fun time at dinner!  The next day we met up with my friend Rachel and had brunch in the Quarter.  I didn't take any pictures but it was fun to see Rachel! The food wasn't even that great, but it was still leaps and bounds better than the brunch food in D.C. (maybe I'm just biased?). 

That afternoon after a quick cat-nap, we did some walking and browsing on Magazine Street.   Being the terrible blogger that I am I didn't take any pictures of the shops, but I did take one of the cute little pasty & gelato shop we went in: Sucré on Magazine.
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Isn't this place cute?  We had some gelato and it was super yummy.

Later that night we headed to the party that I came in town for.  It was a party for my friend Kathryn and it was hosted by her parents at Restaurant August in downtown New Orleans.  August is an amazing restaurant!  It is owned by Chef John Besh, and he even came up to the party for a little bit!  It was so fun! 

After much agonizing over what to wear, here's what I ended up with.
These were the best representations of the individual pieces that I wore that I could find on polyvore.  I'm still learning how to use polyvore to its full effect! My dress is very similar to this one in silhouette and color, but it doesn't have all the draping on the bottom.  One of my feet has been hurting on and off since I twisted my ankle about a week and a half ago, so I went with comfort over cuteness in the shoe department and I have to say I don't regret it.  I'm glad I wasn't hobbling around the rest of the night and the next day.

Here are some random pictures from the night.

The party was so fun! The food was delicious, the wine was plentiful (at least, for me) and the company was the best part of all! It was so nice to spend some time with my friends.  I hope I will be friends with these girls for a really, really long time!