Mardi Gras 2013!

The Ole' Blog has been pretty quiet this week. Mainly because we've been recovering and unpacking from Mardi Gras!! Here are some pictures from our trip (the ones I can show you anyway!)


I was super excited that our whole family came down for the festivities this year! Here I am with my sisters. We're showing off our Mardi Gras party cups my middle sister made for us.

The Hubs rode on a float this year so we made signs for him. His parade got delayed so it get to where we were until 11PM.

Taking a break while waiting for the parade

The next day things were a little more crazy:

Our first beads of the day

Some parade sights:

Lots of Beads!

Our crazy friends

Bead Tree!

Coveted Endymion Kelly Clarkson Cup!

Con-Man and Sawyer came out with us on Sunday and caught the day parades. Someone let him sit in their ladder so he could catch lots of beads.

And no good Mardi Gras would be complete without this:

We had a ton of fun and we're hoping to make it back for next year. Have a great weekend everyone!

Mardi Gras Mantle Revisited

Happy Friday Friends!! As you are reading this the Fam and I are on our way to New Orleans for Mardi Gras weekend!! Yay!! We are super excited to be joining not only my whole family but some near and dear friends down in the French Quarter this year.

While I'm down in the Crescent City eating beignets and having a wonderful Mardi Gras time, I thought we could revisit my Mardi Gras mantle from last year. Enjoy!!

I did some decorating around the house with beads and Mardi Gras items I've caught in past New Orleans parades to get into the Mardi Gras Spirit.

Mardi Gras Mantel

Happy Lundi Gras Everyone! (If you have no idea what I just said it's ok!) Lundi is French for Monday. So Lundi Gras = Fat Monday. It is the day before Mardi Gras (a.k.a. Fat Tuesday which is tomorrow!!) 


I started celebrating a few weeks ago when I made my Mardi Gras Wreath for the front door. This weekend the Air Force base had a small parade that we participated in. We helped decorate a float for the Mardi Gras parade they had go through the base on Friday.

We used plastic table cloths and Mardi Gras decorations to fix it up. Not to bad considering most people around here have never even heard of Mardi Gras.

The Con-Man enjoyed himself. He caught some beads and chocolate!

I did some decorating around the house with beads and Mardi Gras items I've caught in past New Orleans parades to get into the Mardi Gras Spirit.

People often ask me if I "showed" anything for my large beads. The answer is NO! Absolutely not. I may have knocked over some elderly people and small children trying to catch them though. Just kidding (kind of...)

And we had an extra special surprise in the mail when we came home to find a King Cake on our door step!!!

My super awesome MIL send it to us all the way from Louisiana! Now our weekend was complete.

Now if I could only find a place that sold some of this out here in Middle of Nowhere Oklahoma:

My Lenten Season could really begin!

Do you celebrate Mardi Gras? Any Oklahoma readers know where to find boiled crawfish?? Seriously I need some-

It's Mardi Gras Season Ya'll!!!!

Ok, so we've all seen the posts and pinning for Valentines Decor, even some Easter popping up; but did you know that right now at this very second there is something we could all be celebrating right now? That if we lived in Louisiana there would be a parade every weekend, way to much King Cake to go around, beads everywhere and my personal favorite- Cups!

Mardi Gras Season officially starts with the Feast of the Epiphany and ends the day before Ash Wednesday. If we were still living in Louisiana there would be Mardi Gras Balls, parades, and parties to go to. But since we live in the big OK now, no one even knows what Mardi Gras is! We're hoping to go back to New Orleans for Mardi Gras 2013, but until then I thought I'd have my own little celebration and let people in my 'hood know what's happening with my homemade Mardi Gras Wreath.

Using items I already hand on hand (old wreath I took apart, I bought the ribbon a few years ago from Hobby Lobby Dollar bin, along with the gold glitter spray which is actually a Christmas item)

I started by running the three ribbons together around the wreath, bunching them and crisscrossing them across the wreath as I went. Then securing it along the way with green floral wire.

Once I made it all the way around I broke the gold glitter spray thing up into several pieces. Then laid it out to be secured around the back in a circular shape, again using the floral wire to secure it.

Then I added a few obligatory Mardi Gras beads~

Then done! It didn't take long, maybe an hour- maybe. 

So I have my own little piece of Mardi Gras here at home. And luckily when we went to New Orleans for that poor excuse for a Football Game I'd rather not discuss; I did snag a piece of King Cake to hold me over for a while!

Oh ya, and I got some Beignets!! So the trip wasn't a total waste. ;)

Do you celebrate any non- traditional holidays?

Happy Mardi Gras!

Happy Mardi Gras!! Just because we live in Texas doesn't mean I can forget about one of my favorite holidays. Back Home in Louisiana we would have gotten today and yesterday off to celebrate. Mardi Gras is a whole season long known as Carnival Season. It's starts on January 6th (the Feast of the Epiphany) and goes until the day before Ash Wednesday. In Louisiana there are parades, balls, and parties all season long.

We had a Mardi Gras party and had all our decorations out.

Beads!

More Beads!

And of course King Cake.

I had to order my King Cake from a bakery in Louisiana. Some of the bakeries in Texas try to make King Cakes, but it's just not the same cinnamon-y, sprinkly, icing goodness we get back home. The great thing about King Cakes is not only do they taste good you could get a prize in you piece!

 If you get the baby you're King or Queen of the day! But, there is a catch. The King or Queen is expected to have another Mardi Gras party, thus another King Cake!

With all this excitement you might think I've forgotten all about my stripey chair upholster. Nope- still working on it. I'm hoping to finish it in time for The CSI Project contest this week.

If not oh well as we say- Laizzez les Bons Temps Rouler (Let the Good Times Roll!)! Happy Mardi Gras!