A Gay Old Time

Allo good peoples!

How do these posts usually start?

Oh, yes.

Yesterday me and some of the crew of the Texarkana Renaissance Faire participated in the Texarkana Mardi Gras parade. 

The theme of the parade was "decades" so I chose the 1890s (ish) for my group since most of us already have Victorian(ish) costuming from steampunk events. I decorated a 12-ft trailer myself using plastic table cloths, flowers and paper doilies I got from the Just A Dollar that's going out of business so everything was $.69.

The float was supposed to be set up to look like a quaint little cafe on Bourbon Street but I was unable to pick up the bench, cafe table and streetlamp from my mom's place. So two of our dining chairs, plus two TV trays were set up to kind of act as a cafe setting. The day I was working on the float I saw one of the neighbors had been evicted and all of their furniture was out on the lawn, headed to be burned because it reeked horrifically of cat pish and other odors of general uncleanliness.

I was in need of two more chairs for the float so I held my breath and got two of their dining chairs and gave them a thorough power spray down after soaking the cushions in baking soda and Dawn dish soap. 

The ride down to the parade site made the float decor a little wonky but by that time I kind of didn't care anymore. I was so burnt out on float decorating.

Many of our folks were in Galveston for their Mardi Gras as the Pirates of the Caribbean so we were missing a few familiar faces. The good thing is, we had a few folks come in from Shreveport, LA to join us so we had plenty of folks!

My view from the float.

We dropped the kiddos off at their cousin's birthday party before the parade, so me and the husband were able to get in a little "us time" doing what we love to do: 

Looking weird and eating Cajun food.

Even at a crazy event like Mardi Gras we get stares but they're mostly followed by compliments and requests for photos. I actually love the attention and I love when little girls run up to me giggling and squealing because I look like some kind of Disney Princesses reject.

Have you ever had Étouffée? It's a very popular cajun dish; a kind of stew of shellfish served over rice. It's usually made with crawfish but this vendor was selling it with shrimp which makes it a little more affordable to make and sell. Still great tho!

The band featured at Mardi Gras was a group called Pelican212; a Dixieland style family band fronted by twin 11-year old trumpet players in shiny suits and glittery hi-top sneakers. They've been on Little Big Shots and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and they are so full of spunk and raw talent.

The adorable gorup!

You can see one of their amazing performances on Steve Harvey's Little Big Shots here:

Did you do anything for Mardi Gras this weekend?

Catch up, ketchup, catsup...

Sa

Saturday:

I bought myself a toy.

Seriously, I bought myself a $1 Yellow Submarine Hot Wheels. I said it was for the kids, but it's mine. MINE!

So, let's get caught up. 

My freelance social media management business is doing great! I get to work for super super cool companies that I simply adore. I'm not going to give names (just a courtesy thing) but I'm currently working for an American Tribal Style belly dance collaborative, a Russian merchandise store (totes in love with it), a clogging dance team (!) and a child abuse awareness program.

So basically what I do is update their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest accounts for them using my wicked self-taught marketing skillz to help them gain clients and more sales and stuff.

I frigging love it. If you need help with something just gimme a holler, I can squeeze in a couple more clients (and I'm cheap too!).

I'm also helping out with the city's Mardi Gras parade this year. I've volunteered to coordinate the kid and pet parade, helping design flyers and promoting and all that good stuff. I can do all that from home so it's been pretty easy to do.

I'm also in charge of the faire's float this year since the new owners will be in Galveston at the BIG Texas Mardi Gras prade to be a part of our friend's crew there. Our friend (Fred Flores) is going to be Jack Sparrow in the parade and many of our folks will be playing the rest of the Pirates of the Caribbean folks with him. So there's that. We got reps in two hotspots during Mardi Gras so YAY.

Here's a sneak peek of my costume for Mardi Gras. The parade theme is "decades" and I chose the 1880s for us since most of us do steampunk stuff and already have victorian-ish clothes... easy peasy. I put this outfit together in about 10 minutes. It's a thrifted hat I bent into a more shape, a satin nightgown, skirt to a Tudor costume, my gypsy overskirt and custom leather waist half-corset. Not the most period correct Victorian costume but I'm cheap and I have no intentions of buying a costume for this. This'll do just fine.

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 Sunday:

We were running super late for church, so I literally just started picking up clothes off the floor and threw them on. I do that a lot. Coordinating outfits gives me a headache. I like the spontaneous "just grab something" method much better.

Sunday evening we took the kiddies to a park that's new to us. Too lazy to find a different outfit for outdoors play, I just took off the leggings and caftan thingy. The temperature dropped and it got uber windy, I regretted the strip-down but I held my own.

Have you ever seen me show so much leg before? Oooh laa laa! 

And now it's time to go see what you wackos have been up to. Laterz!