Baby Blue Waterfall

I love candles!

They make my room smell so good. They provide a relaxing flicker when the overhead lights are just too bright. They add to the decor and they boost color in the dull areas of my house.

So, funny story about candles (well it's funny now)...

This past Saturday I decided to burn a candle while I was home. I lite it about 2 PM and went about my day cleaning, moving things around, showering...you know, the things you do on Saturdays, ha. My room smelled lovely the entire time by the way.

Around 4 pm I decided to head to the mall to return some things I bought during my impulse shopping binge on Black Friday. I mean they were $30 jeans, who wouldn't buy them ... that's what I said Friday. On Saturday, however it was more like ... Why did I buy another pair of jeans that I don't need and don't really have the funds for? Needless to say, I took them back.

After shopping I went over to the guy's house, had dinner, watched the Georgia/GTech, ate mashed potatoes in SOLO cups, went to Flip Flops, fell asleep, woke up, went to Upstreet, sang for the kids, went back to the guy's house, took a nap, watched a movie, went to the 6 o' clock service, ate dinner with my roommates, Ron and Kevin, then went back to the guy's house and watched Iron Man.

Around 10 pm, I got a text from my roommate Michelle. Our texting conversation went something like this...

Michelle: When was the last time you were home?

Me: Yesterday afternoon. Why? Everything OK?

Michelle: Haha ya. I have good news and I have bad news...

Me: What? I don't like bad news

Michelle: Good: You have/had an amazing candle that burned for ehhhh 24+ hours. Bad: It made a gigantic mess in your room :(

Me: Oh S***

Yep, I cursed.

This is what I saw when I got home

It was like a baby blue waterfall.

Good news, it wasn't as bad as I had imagined and it wiped right off without messing up the wall.

Better news, I still have candle left to burn.

The Best news, I didn't burn the house down!

Lesson learned.

Cake Boss?

Presenting...

My Cheeseburger Cupcakes!

Vanilla Cake for the bun.

Chocolate Cake for the burger.

Vanilla icing mixed with several food colorings for the cheese, ketchup, mayo and lettuce.

So you think I'm good enough for Ace of Cakes or Cake Boss yet?

A city all dressed up

New Orleans is decorated with an array of purples, golds, blues and pretty much any color you could think of! And no, I'm not talking about paint... I'm talking about BEADS.

Almost anywhere you look, there are beads. In the trees, hanging on power lines, wrapped around balcony rails, laying in the curbs... they are literally everywhere! We took a walk through Tulane University and there are beads hanging from their trees. I'm pretty sure New Orleans needs to adopt beads as their city Mascot! Oh wait... did they already do that?

Anyway, we went to a Halloween parade while we were there and instead of the ghosts and goblins throwing out candy, they threw out beads. Sheesh, I should have known, ha! I think between Kevin and I, we caught around 30 strands along with 3 cups, 1 pen, a flower and partridge in a pear tree. Just kidding about that last one, of course, ha!

Okay... enough with the beads!

We walked around the city on Saturday checking out everything from Jackson Square to Bourbon Street. There were art vendors, an awesome market, silver people (I think they were mimes), and tons of (intoxicated)people dressed up for Halloween. We also checked out some of the graveyards in the area since New Orleans is on the Top Ten Haunted Cities list. Luckily I didn't see any ghosts, or shadow people as the Bert Show likes to call them.

Here's a few pictures for you...

Bourbon Street was packed and it wasn't even 4 o' clock yet!

I love the balconies! I must have one... for my house, of course. Not just to carry around in my car or sit at the end of my driveway. Just clarifying!

Jackson Square

Did you know that the graveyards in New Orleans are all above ground? Me either. That was a fun little fact I found out.

We even had time to find the Real World house from this past season (24th season). I looked for Ryan and luckily that crazy guy wasn't there!

The trip was a success! I ate lots of food, listened to some great music, saw lots of sites and even brought back a souvenir! New Orleans, I will be back!

Cajun food craving

On the days leading up to leaving for New Orleans, all I could talk about was getting gumbo and eating craw fish and trying jambalaya. I was pretty much a fat kid talking about food 24/7. It was a slight obsession that I had as the countdown for our departure dwindled. I may have even dreamed about it, haha! It was serious...but not as serious as I am about cupcakes! Those are my first love :)

Anywho, New Orleans is known for their Cajun style food... craw fish and sausage and enough spices to make anyone's eyes water. They have pralines and beignets and hurricanes...wait that's not a food, oops, ha! Let's just say there were so many options that I had such a hard time picking my meals. Luckily, I didn't have to pick where we ate, just what I ate. That made things a lot easier! Thanks Brent for living in New Orleans and for knowing great local places to eat.

So here's where we dined...

Camellia Grill - brunch, diner style!

Joey K's - They have Po Boys... soo good.

Voodoo BBQ - BBQ, duh.

Cafe Du Monde - Beignets with enough powered sugar to coat 17 funnel cakes.

Reginelli's - Pizza at it's best.

Cafe Elaine - She made homemade jambalaya for us at the house! Amazing.

Now I know you're looking at that list and you're thinking to yourself, "no seafood?" You are correct, we did not eat any seafood but that just gives us a reason to go back soon! Besides we had beignets... What more do you need?!

Do you see that powdered sugar! Goodness :)

Tomorrow I'll upload pics from Jackson Square, The parade and Bourbon Street!

VooDoo Fest

Wow, what a weekend!

Halloween in New Orleans was definitely crazy. I don't even know where to begin... so many things I could write about! How about I tell you my full trip over a three day blog sweep. Plenty of things for you guys to look forward to! Now do I start with the delicious food or the multitude of amazing costumes?! I could write about our walk around Tulane University or seeing Chucky get hit by a car, ha! I'll save that story for the Bourbon Street blog post.

I think I'll start with VooDoo Fest. Music is always a good place to start.

How about I post some pictures and let them tell most of the story!

For those of you who have never heard of Voodoo Fest, it's a multi-day music and arts festival held in City Park in New Orleans, LA. The festival's start was Halloween weekend 1999 and since then has held some of the greatest bands on a hand full of stages throughout the park.

The things about traveling and walking around New Orleans all day is it's exhausting! Kevin and I had to take a little nap before the bands made it to the stage. we had to rest up for Weezer and Muse!

Muse! Such an awesome show.

Clever costume of the evening Deadmau5. This guy posed for a lot of pictures!

I'll add a video or two tomorrow once I get them uploaded.

Stay tuned... tomorrow I will make you hungry for some New Orleans treats!