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!

Mardi Gras, part one

So, in sticking with the Mardi Gras theme of "Riches to Rags," this is what I came up with from my pile 'o random junk I got from Goodwill. Kind of a Madonna meets Punky Brewster meets Boy George thing going on. But the skirt was fun to make and swirled around when I spun. :o)

I met up with Jen, Jeri & Kim at the Thirsty Monk, for a couple pints o' porter. Mmmm. Just enough brew to not really know it was as cold as it was! :o)

The Mardi Gras parade went all through the city, and ended in Prichard Park.

Me: "Hey man, I love your costume! It's kind of like Alf meets the Wuzzles. Do you know who the Wuzzles were?"

This dude: "Sure do. I'm a Fervert."

The colors, the music, the energy...it was all so alive!

Drummers in Prichard Park--made for some sweet dancin' and hoola hoopin' tunes!

The sun was shining bright, but it was still a pretty brisk day--a good one for dancing!

Woot! Woot! Look at my skirt and my beads!

Beads, beads, everywhere! (My BFF Anna would have had the time of her life!)

So this dude was like, "give me your camera so I can take a picture of you, so you can prove you were here. Don't worry...I'm a professional." Haha!

A parade display for Budha Bagels on Merriman.

Post parade, I went to an after party at the Grey Eagle. They had a tradiational cajun band and cooking. And thought the food lines was awfully long, it sure was tasty-- fried green tomatoes, red beans & rice, shrimp gumbo...mmmm!

This was the queen of the ball-- she made her entire dress from old plastic bags!

Weee! It was so much fun! Did I mention that I love this place?

Costume making!

Yesterday morning was one of those beautiful Saturdays, where I hopped out of bed and went on my favorite adventure: yard saling. I packed a basket of snacks, made a tea for the road and hit a bunch of sales (favorite scores of the day: a vintage poodle skirt with a frog on it and a sequined flapper dress). My friend Kim suggested that I try the Goodwill Clearance Center on Patton Avenue if I was looking for some funky clothes. Oh. My. Gosh. I went in there, and first of all, there was a claw machine (y'know...the kind where you get stuffed animals for a quarter). Second of all, there was a snack machine, bad 80's music playing and everything in the whole place was $1.10/lb.! I had no reason to leave. I was in absolute heaven. Everything from vintage curtains to record players to bad costumes...I walked in there and well, let's just say I lost track of time. And now, today being the Mardi Gras parade, I am looking at this pile o' stuff and piecing it together to make something fabulous. I'll keep you posted!