Mardi Gras, part two

My brother and sister came to visit me for a week; they made the roadtrip in one day from New Hampshire and were just in time for Fat Tuesday, the official day of Mardi Gras celebration. First thing was first: we needed costumes. I took Darrick, Alyssa and their friend Richie to the Goodwill Clearance Center, my new favorite place. We spent about an hour and a half rummaging through the bins of clothes, in search of colorful digs for our night of celebration. Here, Darrick is showing off his costume getup: some fancy purple velour pants, complimented by a retro polyesther shirt and a way-too-tight gold vest, topped with a vintage Reebok running jacket, circa 1989 and a fine selection of beads and pendants. Oh, and a sweet fishing hat.In true Lucas fashion, we made an event out of it. We got all gussied up and went in search of cool spots to have a photo shoot. We drove Janis down the railroad tracks in the River Arts District and found these great old buildings and murals for our shoot.

Lyss sewed her own dress out of an old nightshirt and random scraps of fabric...so pretty! :)

And, here is just some of our silliness:

Promo shot for VeggieArtGirl.com? Hmmmm.

Oh yeah, that's Richie. We made him join in, too. He was a good sport.Buttt...since it was Fat Tuesday and all, we enjoyed a fabulous sushi dinner at the Stir Fry Cafe. Tuesday nights: half price sushi. Seriously. We rocked out our crazy clothes in the fancy schmancy restaurant. I thought because Asheville is an alternative kind of place, that it would be full of people in costume. Nope. Just us. My brother kept asking me if it was a trick, as if I was finally able to get him to play dress-up with me after all these years. :)

I absolutely love this picture of my bro:
Post-sushi, we enjoyed some tradional Cajun tunes at a bar downtown, and wound up at an after-party for a burlesque show at Modaddy's, where there was a couple of musicians playing accordian. What a fun night!