Mardi Gras 2008

It's that time of year again. One of my favorite holidays in South Louisiana is Mardi Gras. I'm not sure if its because we get three days off from work or just the "passing of a good time".

The Krewe of Atlantis' Annual Mardi Gras Ball was held this past Saturday. I have tons of pictures to post and will do so over the next few postings. I was honored to be invited to several other balls this year. One we did attend was the Krewe of Red Hot Scott. Here are some pictures of the king, queen and my hubby and me.

One of my favorite things about our Mardi Gras ball is seeing all of the beautiful table decorations. Decorating your table for the Ball is not only fun but big business for some. When decorating your table you can either go with the theme of the ball or just do Mardi Gras in all it's purple, green and gold glory. Here are a few pictures of the tables we saw at some of the other balls. There are some people here in town that decorate the tables of the royalty or anyone else that is willing to pay. The charge for decorating your table?? between $100 to $150 per table and the king and queen can have from 2 to 5 tables each. Not a bad haul.

If you are yearning to learn more about Mardi Gras' history, just check out the links below.

http://www.holidays.net/mardigras/story.htm

http://www.fabuloustravel.com/usa/lafayette/lafayette_mardi_gras.html

And a recipe for Simple King Cake

1 can of cinnamon rolls, with icing 3/4 cup of sugar, separated into 3 parts of 1/4 each food coloring

Separate the cinnamon rolls and roll them out all together by hand so that they look like a hot dog. Shape the roll into an oval, pinch the ends together, and place on a cookie sheet. Cook as directed. While they are cooking, use food coloring to dye sugar. Make one part purple using blue and red, one part green, and one part gold using yellow. When they are finished cooking, ice the tops with the white icing. Sprinkle the different colors of sugars alternating as you go around the oval. Enjoy!

Where have all the Flowers gone

My oh my, where has the time gone. Its January 2, 2008. It just seems like yesterday that I was getting ready for the new school year to start and now its 1/2 over. I have been sooooo very busy for the last several months. I am again president of the Mardi Gras Krewe and that takes up A LOT of time. The good thing is that this is my last year on the board and that translates to my last year as President. I also have a very large caseload at school. I am pushing 55 kids that I see 2 times a week. That's a lotta kids.... LOL.... We also opened the Baby Store and so my Saturdays are filled with either working the store OR babysitting the boy wonder (grandson), so his parents can work. I am sooo tired of being busy that I could sit down and cry. Well enough about my problems. The garden is drab and dreary this time of year. Last night was the first night that it got below freezing this year. So I watered the plants well turned on the heaters and closed up both greenhouses for the night. Now it should be cold today and tomorrow and by Friday back up into the 70, so I will need to remember to turn the heat off in the small hibiscus greenhouse and open the doors in the large one. Here are some pictures of inside the greenhouse that were recently taken. A friend dropping by to visit.

Another shot of my new garden visitor. This peacock is owned by one of my neighbors and every so often he drops by for a visit. Today, he walked up the drive to my back door, then ventured over to the work shop, flew up on top to take a look around then flew off towards the field behind the house. I was just lucky enough to have my camera handy and snagged a few shot of him.

Enjoy and Happy New Year Everyone!!