Quick Trip to New Orleans

We drove over Saturday morning to pick up Mardi Gras tickets and had lunch at Liuzza's by the Track. They actually had horse racing going on - cool! These houses down the street just struck me as happy together. For lunch, I highly recommend the roast beef po'boy with horseradish (it's called the "blazing beef" or something like that) and do NOT miss the sweet potato fries.


Then, while the boys went to the World War II museum, I had time to shop a little bit. This is a store called Trashy Diva, and LOOK at this dress! (Katrina - this is your store; I saw you in everything there!)


But the piece de resistance was the last 30 minutes, when I popped into Promenade Fine Fabrics just to see if he had any cotton jersey, which I highly doubted, since it's all specialty high-end fancy dress fabric. Imagine my surprise to find a plethora (well, 8 bolts is a plethora to me) of fancy cotton! The owner, all dapper in his black suede jacket, showed me several bolts I'd missed and was disappointed I didn't buy one more cotton print. He cut all my fabric then said, "I really want you to go back and look at that cotton print I showed you; it's a really fine cotton." I had to tell him I hated the color (it was a peachy print that would wash me out), but I love it when somebody takes the time to make a good sell! Here's the haul:


So the top print is just a viscose/rayon blend I couldn't resist because it feels like butter, and just coincidentally goes with the other cotton solids I bought - I could sew a wardrobe! I got black cotton, white pima cotton that may end up dyed for Pure Barre-wear, and navy blue Hugo Boss pima cotton (gotta look up Hugo Boss - I've heard of him).

OH, and I forgot the terrible thing that happened Friday. I've gone through 7 or 8 jars of beads so far, and Ely's ran out of stock and won't order again till February. I tried some twisted bugles, but they didn't fit on my needle, and I was worried the dress would look weird with half-straight and half-twisted. The guy told me Hobby Lobby sold them, but I was crushed to find out they don't....so, I resorted to calling Alabama Chanin to compare their beads, and they have what I need. I bought $45 worth of beads to finish the dress, but I refused to spring for the $30 2-day shipping, so I find myself with a little time off till they get here. Guess I can cut into this new cotton in the meantime!

OH, and I ALSO forgot to tell you that after a delicious dinner and touring a Mardi Gras museum over Arnaud's (pictures of their Mardi Gras dresses to follow later this week), we walked back to our hotel and stumbled upon police waiting to escort about 10 horse-drawn carriages filled with people wearing fancy clothes and masquerade masks. A crowd was standing around watching them, and it turns out that Beyonce and Jay-Z threw her mom a 60th birthday party in the French Quarter. We didn't see anybody we recognized in the carriages, but there were 3 SUV's with them, so I bet they were in there. Turns out, upon Googling this morning, that Kris Jenner (of Kardashian infamy) and Jennifer Hudson were there too - who knew?! (And according to Dean, who cared, but it's fun to sight a celebrity...or their SUV.)