I Love New Orleans...

The sights, the sounds, the smell of New Orleans...come along with me (and my camera) as I take you into Louisiana's favorite city and share with you my fabulous weekend with the girls!

 

Century old buildings, apartments, and homes...surrounded by French and Spanish architecture. Old clay brick & wrought iron...

 

 

 

Starving artists have a style all their own. Love this bamboo bike.

 

 

 

They start early & learn from each other...

 

The old French Quarter surrounded by distant new...

I'm back from New Orleans with some great pictures and some fun memories. The girls and I went to the "jewelry show" (a merchant wholesale show), spent the night and spent the next day in the French Quarter...doing girl things! Don't get me wrong...New Orleans is such a romantic place to bring the hubbies but without them, us girls just enjoyed our time walking, talking, eating and shopping. In other words...we walked slow, talked about things we enjoyed, ate anything we wanted and it didn't matter how much money we spent. And we gambled a little and I'm not going to talk about that. We did eat at the buffet and I think I ate all of the boiled shrimp! Yummy!

 

We went to Latin Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral on Sunday...

  

I wish I could have showed you the inside, it is so beautiful and has  so much history. This was the first Latin Mass I have ever attended. Besides my coughing that echoed through the large open area, it was a very enlightening experience to say the least.

We then went here to have breakfast...yummy (& messy)!

 

 

Then we walked, looked and snacked on some praline samples...

We amused ourselves with  a horse and carriage ride through the French Quarter. Also offered was the cemetery tours, but they weren't available on Sunday. **pout pout** Our tour guide was great...very comical and yet very informative of our history.

                 

He even pointed out that Brad (Pitt) & Angelina (Jolie) live here when they are in the NOLA area. The famous couple has really spent a lot of time and money rebuilding NOLA after Katrina.

                               

We shopped the French Market but I don't think any of us bought anything really. Oh, Janet bought a Raggedy Ann Doll...too cute!

 

 

The weather was absolutely perfect and we could have just walked, window shopped and enjoyed each other's company for days and days...I love these ladies!

            

Hmmm...I'll never tell what my girls were ordering but I can promise you that it was not ice cream!

Now I'm just going to leave you with some famous places you might recognize while visiting or reading about New Orleans...

 

Note the spikes on top of the columns @ the Tabasco store...any idea what they are for???? The answer is at the bottom of this post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answer: The spikes at the top of the columns as seen in the Tabasco store photo above is to keep the pigeons from flying and landing up there. Simply, so they won't poop on the people!

I hope you enjoyed your tour of New Orleans. I live only 3 hours away...come and visit me and I'd love to be your personal tour guide. I love New Orleans.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

 

What we're really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?

Erma Bombeck, No One Diets on Thanksgiving

Silver Bella after hours fun & finale...

After all of my classes were finished on Saturday, I met my partners in crime, Sandy and Pam. Pam tried to skip out on us saying she was tired, but I insisted she come with us to Second Chance Antiques. She gave in, and the three of us wandered the streets and arrived at the quaint little shop. Wow! There was so much to look at...2 stories of antiques and vintage wonderfulness! Sandy reminds me so much of my Mom that I was almost in tears. I came across a 1927 high school yearbook and I wanted it badly. There was no price on it so I asked the owner how much it was and she told me $15.00. I went back and told Sandy that it was only fifteen dollars...she said fifty? I said no, I think she told me fifteen. Immediately she said and I quote "Oh no young lady, you are NOT paying no fifty dollars for that old book, you hear me?" I froze in my tracks, blinked my eyes, and thought...I hadn't heard anyone talk to me like that in over 5 years since Mom passed away! I was so frazzled, she had me second guessing the price so I walked all the way to the front again and asked the lady how much it was. She said, "Honey, I believe I told you $15." I said "one five?" She looked at me funny and said, "Yes Ma'am, one five." I ended up purchasing it, but I didn't buy much. I behaved because I knew I wouldn't have any room in my suitcase to bring anything big home. So by now it's dinner time and we were starving. I missed my cell phone calls from Stephanie and Cherie...they invited me to join them for dinner but my phone must have went straight to voice mail and I didn't check it until almost midnight. I was sad I missed them. But, trusty old Sandy and Pam decided to text Joe (Receipts) to come eat with us. (I think this was Sandy's first text she ever sent). It worked really well because by the time we turned the corner, Joe was waiting for us at the stop light!

We ate at a quaint little pasta place and had great conversations. Every thing from politics to religion...and we are still friends! Pam and Joe called it a night and Sandy and I met Sandi in the hotel restaurant. She was eating and then came meet us near the bar and we sat for another 3 hours and just talked. It's amazing the great friendships that arise from those with the same things in common. Now I know what the sisterhood of Silver Bella is all about. We do "get" each other. Who knows if I will ever return to Silver Bella, but in the meantime I am fortunate to have met these lovely women I call friends. The end.

My Ticket to Prayer Collage

 

My last class of Silver Bella. This was also a fun class. I sat with Heather Ales, Cherie Wilson and Meleen Dupre. Here is Meleen, with her daughter, she's such a sweetie!

We kind of guided ourselves through the class on our own because Rebecca wasn't feeling very well. But we managed to finish with lots of sticky glue and glaze, thread and paint! Here is a sneak peek of my finished project. I am taking pictures at night here so the lighting is not good, but better than nothing!

Here I am with Rebecca Sower...(boy do I look beat up...I am!)

She's the talent behind my favorite scrapbook embellishments, Nostalgiques. I love her vintage style and her hand-made crafty-ness.  So this is the end of my classes. Thanks for being so patient and putting up with all my Silver Bella business. I have ONE more post about my Silver Bella after hours...then after that, I promise I am finished.

Besides, I have great pictures to post about my weekend with the girls in New Orleans from last weekend!!!! It's coming soon!

My Ticket to ATC's

 

Yeah! It's my favorite teacher again...Carolyn Peeler! First class of the morning and she is so chipper & sweet, she's such a pleasure to be around! Here we are again!

I was fortunate to share a table all to myself with Cami. She's so fun! She said I had lovely accent...do I really? Cami and I  made a good team as  she kept me laughing and I showed her how to make a stitch or two. Fun! I so enjoyed this class that I hated to leave. In this class, we were to decorate a chip board book to house our ATCs (Artist Trading Cards). I didn't finish my project & I'm not even close. I was the only one in the class that made my hinge functional so I was working on the cover for almost the whole 3 hours! Here's just a peek since I am not even close to finishing this project.

And here are some ATC's that I received from some of my classmates.

I can't wait to finish my book to put them in! After a fun filled class, I didn't want to leave but, we had to get ready for the luncheon with Mary Engelbreit. I'm not a huge fan of her but I was delighted to see her and participate in everyone's anticipation of her presence. See these girls how excited?

Pam, Stephanie, Sandy (her eyes are closed!), & Sandi

Pam, ME, and Sandy

There were questions asked to her and she responded with witty answers and comments. She is very down to earth. Afterwards the line was a mile long of Bellas who wanted her signature on books, magazines and posters of her artwork. And of course, a photograph taken with her too! I, on the other hand went straight to my last class of the weekend pondering...do I really go home tomorrow, already? How fast this weekend has flown by.

4 classes down, 1 left. Please stay tuned. I really appreciate you hanging in there with me through my Silver Bella experience.

My Ticket to Holiday Home Tour

 

        

I'm not into things that collect dust...therefore I made my little house an ornament. Where I will hang it though, I am not sure.

I'll just be honest and up front...if it weren't for Sandy being in my class and us having fun together, I probably would have been at the hotel bar a little earlier in the evening because by the time this class rolled around on Friday, I was somewhat burnt out. I did however manage to take a picture with my teacher...Charlotte Lyons. Can't you tell that I am soooo tired???

So we got out of class, headed to the rooms to put our "stuff" up and get ready for the Vendor Fair! Off to the bar we went to sneak a drink first...and we found these two! (Well, three if you count the bar tender in the middle!) This is Pam (Frippery) and her wonderful husband Joe. We visited with them a while before we went to the vendor fair...I just LOVE this couple. More on them later...stay tuned!!!!!

And here is Mrs. Victorian Gypsy (my other Sandi!) looking all...well Victorianly Beautiful dressed for the vendor fair!

                      

Here are some pictures I snapped at vendor night...

Curious Sofa's booth was one of my absolute favorites!!!!!!!!!

I actually got to meet Tiffany (ShabbyScraps) in person. She is as sweet in real life as she is over the keyboard!!!!! The girls took some pictures of me and Tiffany with my camera but they didn't come out clear. Also, another treat was finding some vintage french post cards from Gwen's booth! Thanks Sandy for helping me find my favorites!

And some french Communion cards...I love these!

And this was the end to the first full day of Silver Bella. Whew! I was tired to say the least. 3 classes down, 2 to go...Stay tuned.