Mardi Gras / Valentine's Day Celebration

Good morning and happy Thursday!!!  Happy March 1st!!!

Today I am sharing with you our Mardi Gras / Valentine's Day celebration.  Mardi Gras is always on a Tuesday, hence "Fat Tuesday", and this year it fell on February 13th.  I love sharing the traditions I experienced as a child with my grandkids.  Living in the suburbs of Houston, we don't celebrate Mardi Gras as big as Lake Charles.  Heck, they have the day off to make sure they don't miss all of the parades and fun.  Galveston has a huge celebration for Mardi Gras that encompasses a couple of weeks.  I haven't gone as of yet.

#mardigras

#goodtimes

If you know me, you know there's no way I am going to pass up a chance to have a party so I decided to combine the two holidays together.  Mr. W will tell you there's always a party at Maw Maw's house.  :)

Welcome to our Mardi Gras!!!

I bought these large Mardi Gras beads from Sam's oh so many years ago.  Like a really long time ago.  Sometimes I use them on the LSU tree...sometimes I don't.  Just depends on the look I am going for.  I think they are perfect for Mardi Gras, don't you?  They have held up really well considering they are stored in our attic.

I draped a Mardi Gras necklace on the base of the lamp.

Isn't this Cajun gator just the cutest?  Brooke and Brad brought this back to me from New Orleans.  It is so unexpected and different.

Every year, while packing up Christmas, I have this crazy debate in my head.  Do I decorate for Mardi Gras or not?  This goes on for hours.  At this point, I am getting a little cranky and want to have everything put away.  But....I look at these beautiful ornaments and can't put them away when they are perfect to decorate for Mardi Gras.  So in the throes of my hot mess of a home, I start decorating for Mardi Gras.  I know...you probably think I am crazy and I probably am.  :)  I can't help myself.  The hubs is so good.  He doesn't say a word.  In the past, he'd try to discourage me which probably fueled me to do it even more.  I can be stubborn like that.  :)  He'll be the first to tell you how much he loves it once its done.

Aren't these crawfish ornaments the cutest?  I've had these for about 18 years and never use them so I added them to the LSU tree and now the Mardi Gras tree.  After all, Mardi Gras and crawfish go hand-in-hand.  Especially if you are from Louisiana.

#crawfisharesogood

#boiledcrawfish

We have three masks.  Two gold and this beautiful green and purple one.  It is much prettier in person.

The Mardi Gras bead drape was purchased at the same time I purchased the large Mardi Gras beads.  I was asking the hubs where a piece of artwork was and he thought I was talking about this poster.  It wasn't what I wanted, but I was so glad he mentioned it.  His sister gave us this poster almost 30 years ago for our first apartment and is a perfect accent for our Mardi Gras decor.

We celebrated the two holidays on a Sunday afternoon.  I hadn't given ANY thought as to how I was going to decorate the table so I was pulling decor from the foyer.  :)  AKA as winging it.  :)

The Jester has a busy role.  You can find him in the LSU tree, the foyer and now holding court as the centerpiece.

I bought a plain King Cake for the grands.  I believe Tiffani found the baby.  :)

We had a lot of sweets.  I had to buy these pretty cupcakes so I could use my Mardi Gras picks.

I bought this beauty at Ace Hardware.  I love going to Ace. There are so many neat things to see.  They have really nice garden decor and lots of LSU banners, rugs and flags.

#Acehardware

We bought the grands each a Tervis cup in a design they like.  The Star Wars is for Ms. A, the floral is for Sweet P and Batman is for Mr. W.  The hubs filled them with candy.

It wouldn't be a Valentine's Day celebration without chocolate dipped strawberries.

I didn't want to spend all of my time cooking so I picked up a Stouffer's lasagna with meat and sauce.  It is so good.  Our family loves it.  I usually have a salad and breadsticks as sides along with sweet tea.  Sweet P loves my sweet tea.  She said it's so professional.  :)  She also told me I should show her mom how to make it.  Gotta love those grands!!!

The grandkids loved decorating sugar cookies for Christmas so I baked some more sugar cookies in the shapes of hearts and teddy bears.  They were so excited to get to decorate more cookies.

They had a great time decorating their cookies.  I completely forgot to take any pics of their masterpieces.  :(  However, I did manage to snap a couple of pics just as they were about to leave.

Boys are so funny...it usually takes a couple of pics to get a good one.

We had a lot of fun and made some wonderful memories.

Do you like to celebrate the holidays with your kiddos or grandkids.  It is so surprising how much fun they have doing the simplest of things.  I want them to know how much we love them and how important they are to us.

Hope you have an amazing day!!!

Take care,

xoxoxo

Debbie

"Cease consuming, practice generosity."

-- Joan Halifax

Our Mardi Gras Celebration

Hello there!  I hope you were able to partake in our tradition of celebrating Mardi Gras.

Like the sign says "we don't hide the crazy...we parade it down the street".  :)

#mardigras

#somuchfun

#crazyisgood

I picked up a King Cake at the grocery store for our little celebration.  Here's a little history behind the King Cake.

#kingcake

I cooked bacon and little smoky sausages....

and lots and lots of pancakes.  This is only one batch in the pic below.

I picked up the grandkids and brought them over (their mom had a meeting) and I played Mardi Gras music on the way home.  It was hilarious to see their reaction.  OMG!!!  I was laughing hysterically.  Ms. A recorded (just sound) Mr. W's reaction because he was so funny.  I tried so many ways to share it with you but it doesn't work on the blog.  :(  I will treasure the recording always.

Upon arrival, they ate and then we watched Disney's the Princess and the Frog.  

#disney

#princessandthefrog

And yes, I forgot to take pics of the kiddos.  :)  I was enjoying them so much.

Hope you have a fabulous week!!!

Take care,

xoxoxo

Debbie

Mardi Gras

Today is a big day in the South.  It is Mardi Gras.  Other wise known as Fat Tuesday.

#mardigras
#fattuesday

We will be celebrating this evening with pancakes, bacon, sausage and King Cake.  I love taking this time to share this holiday with my grandkids.  Here's a post I shared with you on a past celebration.

Our home is decorated (you can see the post here) so all I have to do is cook.  I will have everything ready for when they arrive.  This way I can partake in the fun with them.  We will have a parade through the house and dance to Zydeco music.

You, too, can celebrate this time with your family and share the culture of a true Cajun Mardi Gras. What better way to learn about a special celebration all while eating breakfast foods?  :)  Don't worry if you don't have a King Cake, whip up some cupcakes and ice them with colored icing.  The kiddos will be just as happy.

Laissez le bon temps roulez!!!
Let the good times roll!!!

Hope you have a wonderful day!!!

xoxoxo

Debbie

Cajun Mardi Gras from Bob Krist on Vimeo.

Decorating Mardi Gras Style

I know you think I am crazy but I just can't help it!  I am guilty of decorating our home for Mardi Gras before all of my Christmas decor was put away.  I couldn't wait to see it done.  For those of you that don't know, Mardi Gras is on February 28th.  I'll have more on that later.

#mardigras

#callmecrazy

#whocares

Take note of the good job I did filling in the holes (around the doorway) I had made with the stapler and the garland.  I filled all of them in with wood putty and painted the trim around the door and the window.  It looks so nice and clean.  And naturally I didn't stop there.  I went around and touched up everything that needed it.  I even painted the door to the patio.  What a difference a coat of paint can make. 

I know...the pillows don't match.  :)

I added touches of Mardi Gras decor in our foyer, family room and breakfast room.

I am loving this coffee filter wreath I made last January.  You can find the post on how I made it here.  It is so easy to decorate for any holiday or season and it is so cheap.

All of the Mardi Gras decorations were hanging on the Mardi Gras/LSU tree (you can see it here).  I didn't purchase anything new.  It's all old stuff.

The Jester was tucked away into the LSU tree.

Yes...I still have a tree or two up.

How cute is this?

I borrowed the hubs' LSU candle for my display.  I turned it around so you can't see the label.  :)

We have three masks.  The other two are on the mantel.  They are so pretty and sparkly.

  

I used the ribbon from the larger tree.

The skirt is gold lame fabric that is at least 15 years old.  It is a remnant left over from a party I was responsible for the theme and decorating the venue for 2,200 attendees.  I believe the theme was "City Lights".

Here is what I came up with on my first attempt to decorate the mantel.  I felt like something was missing...a drape or something.  So Brooke comes over and says "it looks like something is missing like a bow or something". 

 Right then it clicked.  I had just the thing to drape over it and I had ironed it the day before (even though I didn't use it).  So I draped it over the fleur de lis and it looks so much better.  I find if I am decorating something and I don't like the way it looks after playing with it for awhile, I walk away, look at it, think about it and it will usually come together (now that's a lot of its).

I used removable mounting putty to hold the balls to the mirror (and everything else).  So far so good.  They haven't fallen yet.  Fingers crossed they stay up.

The wreath is the LSU wreath without the LSU ornament.

#lsu

#geauxtigers

The large fleur de lis were hanging in the large tree in the family room.

We bought all of the Mardi Gras decorations at Stine Lumber Company in Sulphur, LA many, many years ago.  We would stop by on our way back to Houston.  To this day, we still stop by to see what they have.  We bought the fleur de lis pots around the pool from them, too.

I love these masks.

I used a purple, gold and green feather boa as my garland.  It was just long enough to reach from end to end.

These Jesters are not the prettiest but I think they totally represent Mardi Gras.

I had enough ornaments to decorate a little tree in our breakfast room.  I am loving the ambience it provides in the evening. 

  

I couldn't resist adding in these red crawfish.  Aren't they adorable?

#crawfish

A little mask for a little tree.

You can't think of Mardi Gras without thinking of New Orleans which makes you think of Bourbon Street.  Am I right?  :)

#neworleans

#bourbonstreet

#goodtimes

I am so glad I took the time to decorate for Mardi Gras.  Every year I would want to do it but once I am in the throes of packing up Christmas I just want to get 'er done!  So I change my mind and pack it all up.  This year I had a plan.  I removed all of the Mardi Gras decorations and laid them out on the pool table before packing up anything.  Doing this also helped me realize how far my decor would go.  Let me tell you...I get a little delirious when I am packing.so.much.stuff!   I often tell myself I am crazy.   I must admit the rewards are so worth it.  We LOVE having our home decorated, over the top, for the holidays.  Even the hubs.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you enjoyed seeing our Mardi Gras decorations.

I am loving this beautiful weather we are having...low 40's and high 60's.  I'll take this any day over the warm weather we have been having lately.  Not complaining...just saying!

Take care and have a great day!

xoxoxo

Debbie