Well, it’s the last day of February and I did vow to write a recap post every month, so here I am. February was mostly Mardi Gras, but some other stuff too.
George and I went to lunch for my birthday.
I started physical therapy for my back (that will continue through March.)
I made a puffy vest.
Mardi Gras happened.
I redid this shirt from sequins to fringe.
I made a big obnoxious hat and a tiny obnoxious hat.
We watched the varsity team lose the state final. 😦
Club soccer started up again.
March will be my 30th high school reunion (!) and more soccer.
The last time I posted about the random little goings on in life was three months ago, so I guess it’s time for another quarterly recap of my extremely exciting life.
I visited Kiki twice. Her mom passed away in mid-March, and luckily I already had a flight booked for two days later, so I was able to be with her and hang out and help her go through stuff and get rid of stuff and drink wine for a few days. And then I went back again last weekend to help with the memorial celebration she had at her house. We did a lot of gardening and cooking. Everything we made was from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and I would be lying if I didn’t say I was cursing Julia Child’s name by the end of the weekend. But everything we made turned out well. It was pretty cool, actually. Kristina’s mom was a really amazing, adventurous, well-traveled woman who journaled everything, including her dinner party menus from the 1960s on, so we made dishes she frequently made for those dinners.
(If you’re interested, we made Orange Bavarian Cream, Cheese Puffs, Legumes a la Grecque, Salmon Mousse, Cheese Tartlettes, and Liver and Cheese Tartlettes.)
The spread of food.
Since this is my blog, I can brag that I made the tartlette shells and the cheese puffs (and helped with the other stuff.)
We also did some gardening and I learned how to spread mulch, which is good because I need to mulch our gardens.
Speaking of gardens, kind of, we got a rain barrel from a local organization yesterday, which is exciting because I’ve been on the wait list for a year. It’s sad, though, because in that year, I got a different rain barrel so I couldn’t put this rain barrel in a prominent spot. It’s behind the house, which is a shame because LOOK HOW CUTE:
Oh, and also plant-related, Kiki sent me these beautiful flowers!
Okay, well that about covers the last 72 hours. What else? Hmm.
I guess it’s exciting, if a little sad, that the boys decided on a high school for next year, and it’s not the school they’ve been at for the past 11 years. (They could have chosen to stay there, but they did not.) On the bright side, it’s one of the top public high schools in the country, and a lot of their friends are going there as well. But a lot are staying, so it’s tough either way. At least since their classes are in English, I can help with homework now! Wait, hold on. That’s not a good thing. Heh.
I suppose I already blogged about the boys’ school dance and making jeans, but I also made another quilt for funsies (it lives on the couch, mostly under Ziggy):
And also this one for my friend Heather (I realize if you’re not a Saints fan it’s pretty ugly, but she and her fiance like it, so that’s all that matters.
I also made a red dress for her wedding this weekend, but I’ll save those pics for later.
Oh well I guess Mardi Gras also happened and we didn’t get Covid, so yay! It was pretty fun. We put the house float back up (and added a Rose Apothecary!) and Steph and I dressed up as Moiras on Mardi Gras day and I went to a parade and got a shoe and we saw our house float on a float, so all in all, it was good.
Okay. I think that’s it for real. Coming up: 8th grade graduation! A wedding! A new fridge! Summer! Another trip to Virginia! Camp Aunt Jenny! Quinceanera! Graduation parties! Bugs! Heat! Humidity!
When I was trying to figure out how to make my Moira costume, I couldn’t find any tutorials or any blog posts of people describing how they made theirs. I suspect mostly it was “find a white-ish sheet and go from there.” But no, Pam is not going to go that route. I think we know her better than that…
A while back, I bought several yards of off-white stretch crepe from Joann’s. (I think it’s what I linked to, I dunno. It was way cheaper than that but it might have been 60% off or something. Maybe it was this.) It was 60″ wide so I knew that it would be long enough (I’m 5’10”.) It was nice and opaque, and if Mardi Gras was going to be cold, it would be somewhat warm. (I was able to wear black joggers underneath and you couldn’t tell because yes it was friggin cold.)
I studied the costume very closely. I watched the episode and paused it and looked for as many photos on Instagram as possible. I knew it had a seam down the middle and it looked like some kind of welted openings for the sleeves. (Who knows if I am even using that terminology right?) But once I sewed up the middle and portions of the top, I was very happy with how it looked and draped, so I just went with it.
I really should be a pattern drafter. Look at that amazingness.
I did have to hem it a bit, which I did by just haphazardly chopping off a few inches. I mean, who’d notice?
Then I figured out where the gold chain went, and hand sewed that on.
The hat was a real pain in the ass, I’ll tell you. I had borrowed some accessories from my friend Marie, and in the end, after a mishap with a weird fabric tube and a cheap blonde wig, I just borrowed the hair tube bit from her Halloween costume and made a new hat.
(I had to laugh because she said “well, it was too big for my head so it kept slipping down” but it barely perched on my giant noggin.)
I traced the miter shape on posterboard, modge podged some of the dress fabric onto it, and then hot glued on the accessories. Once two of those were done, I glued them onto the hair tube. Or whatever you want to call it. Hair wreath? Bane of my existence?
Also I made a mask with some leftover pieces and gold thread.
The necklace was fun to figure out. I used leftover bits from the hat jewels and got a pendant and chains and findings from the craft stores, and combined them to try to mimic the shape of the real Moira’s necklace. I mean, better than nothing.
The final result:
Uncanny, I know.
I promise (?) this is the last post I’ll make about Mardi Gras 2021 but it was just such a fun experience that I’m not quite ready for it to end. I’m having major crafting withdrawal. What next?!?
(Oh, I guess I could write about how I sewed Jenn’s dress for her too, but it was a lot of draping, sewing, velcro, and an old strapless bra. Really proud of how that came out too. It would have been nice if the shower curtain had been shiny, but that probably would have been harder to sew.)
That got the attention of a producer for BBC News who DMed me and asked if I’d be interested in doing a live interview later in the day.
So I spent the next four hours mildly freaking out. In the meantime, we had dozens of people walking by, taking pictures and cheering us on and getting our very special throws (custom Rosebud Motel/Krewe of Moiras keychains with glittered keys.) Steph was interviewed by the AP! (she’s much better at this kind of thing but you know my Anglophile heart wasn’t going to let anyone else do this BBC thing, sorry friends.)
Oh, and it was literally freezing. We had a hard freeze last night, and it was in the 20s standing out there all morning, but we were committed! Thank god I had a loose dress that I could put plenty of layers on under. And wigs and giant papal hats are also good for staying warm. (Life hack!)
Finally, it was time to do the interview, which was done via Zoom, and as usual, I couldn’t be still so I was kind of all over the place and it might make you nauseated. You’ve been warned.
Me during the interview, everyone posing in the background. hee hee!
Maybe the best part was getting a text from a friend in Ireland that said (I’m paraphrasing) “ARE YOU ON THE BBC RIGHT NOW?!?”
So yeah, it was live, too, no pressure. And hey, now I’ve been on the national news and international news!
Anyway, and then I was able to relax and have fun seeing all of the people coming by. People loved the house and our costumes, because the show brings people so much joy. If you haven’t started watching it yet, what are you waiting for?!?
Now I am exhausted and am going to sleep until next Mardi Gras. But the Krewe of Moiras will live on!
It’s almost Mardi Gras and my friends and I have been busy getting ready for it. I know what you’re thinking. “There aren’t any parades this year!” That’s true, but there are floats. House floats! And we have turned Stephanie and Chris’s house into one.
Let me back up a bit. Before we knew Mardi Gras was being “cancelled”, a bunch of friends had decided we were going to dress up on Mardi Gras day as the “Krewe of Moiras.” We had all binged Schitt’s Creek and were pretty obsessed with the show and let’s face it, the many looks of Moira Rose would make for great costumes.
And then the parades were cancelled, and COVID wasn’t getting any better, and walking around on Mardi Gras day didn’t seem like such a good idea anymore. And then someone in our neighborhood came up with the Krewe of House Floats and it spread across the city and now you can hear about it on CNN and other big news outlets.
So we decided to do a Rosebud Motel house float! And on Mardi Gras day we’ll be wearing our Moira costumes. We even have special throws for the day (but those will remain top secret for now.)
Full credit for the construction and painting go to Chris and Darrell. The girls helped but mostly bossed them around.
And now for a zillion pics of the house float…
If the weather cooperates, we’re going to visit the other Schitt’s Creek houses around town on Sunday in costume so you may get a sneak peek then!
PS If you’re local, the house is located at 504 Vallette in Algiers Point. Come see us and take a pic with our sign (be sure to tag it #kreweofmoiras!)
How’d that happen? And I haven’t blogged in forever. So let’s see, how was January?
Lots of king cake, yum.
Lots of working on our house float, which is SO AWESOME I COULD DIE. (It’s not at my house, it’s at Chris and Stephanie’s house, and oh my lord it is so good. I want to do a complete post just on the house (also it will be getting more finishing touches) but here’s one that I haven’t posted on my Instagram:
So good. So good. And the Today Show camera people came by yesterday to film it, so you might see it there!
This is all leading up to Mardi Gras day, when we will be outside being the Krewe of Moiras, all dressed up and handing out very special throws. (Or tossing them from several feet away. Safely.) Follow #kreweofmoiras on Instagram so you can see how obsessed we all are with Schitt’s Creek. (A lot.)
I also spent a night in Baton Rouge this week to help my mom who had shoulder surgery. It was weird to be away from the boys. It’s been so long. I kind of missed them?!?!
This is kind of sad. I just looked through the pictures on my phone to see what I’ve been doing for the last three weeks, and it’s all photos from working on the house float and Ziggy. I’d say I need to get out more but that’s definitely not true.
Okay, here are a few. Got my new AirPod Pros for working at Automattic for 7 years! (Which was back in November but they took a while since they’re custom.)
Yeah I did the Bernie meme, and it got more likes on Instagram than any other post ever. Yeesh.
My contribution to the house float has been lots and lots and lots of paper roses.
Chilly weekend nights = firepit and Ziggy staring adoringly at George.
So yeah, I guess that’s it for now. Tomorrow is the monthly picture, and after that I’m hoping to have a post all about the house float.
Happy Mardi Gras! And also Happy Birthday to my brother (50!!!) and Kiki (a lady never tells. But she’s the same age as me now.) Obviously I didn’t take this picture, but while we were out at the parades, the boys were having fun taking pictures of me with the butterfly headpiece that was too heavy for me to wear. Whatever keeps them occupied. Look how well my gray is growing in! 😅
What I should be posting is a picture of the Mardi Gras dress I made, but I want to write up a whole post about how I made it, so I’ll save it. Instead, I’ll post a pic of my friend Jenn’s cousin who was the king of Morpheus!
Thursday was supposed to be the day Muses rolled. My friend Teresa was riding for the first time, so Miles made this sign for her. Alas, because of the weather (and probably in no small part to the terribly tragedy of Wednesday night) it was postponed until Friday.
The best part about Mondays. I walk the boys to the bus stop, then walk around the neighborhood to get to the coffee shop where I get, well, tea. And then admire my sparkly nails and the Mardi Gras decorations people have up on the way home. (Okay, that might only be this Monday.)
Jenn and I took our boys to Barkus on Sunday. The theme was the 80s. There were a lot of Marty McFly dogs out there. I sure wish I’d gotten a picture of one of them.
Jenn and I took our boys to Barkus on Sunday. The theme was the 80s. There were a lot of Marty McFly dogs out there. I sure wish I’d gotten a picture of one of them.
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