It may be a little early to post this since the shower isn't until Saturday but I don't think any of those people read my blog and I was just so proud of myself. Not so much of the candy pacifiers but more the actual thank you tag. So simple, but I love it with the little swirls and the elegant script...
Well she's like a year and a half by now but whatever. Here is the collage I did of pictures of Valentina when we went to Argentina (in May) for her 1-year old birthday. She is so stinkin' cute!!!
Does anyone else suffer from a severe eating disorder commonly know as I've-eaten-too-many-itus? I suffered a severe attack last night and am currently feeling the guilt. It was something I shouldn't have been eating anyway. We don't keep it in the house but I was at the grocery store and I've been getting frustrated lately. So, in my cart it went. As if I were giving up. Is is proven that marriage makes you gain weight? I mean, for the most part I eat healthy and I got to the fitness center 3 times a week. I shouldn't be gaining weight. I was an entire pant size smaller before I got married. What gives?! And now it seems to be distributing itself in ways it never has before and I don't like. If this is another Stout curse then I denounce my heritage and I claim that of say Madonna or Katie Holmes. Is this normal? I'm getting sick of this. Guess I'm starting a food journal again...
Click Here If You Want More...I want to paint, design, decoupage, bake, decorate, anything and I have no creative outlet for this (let alone space, time and money). Anyone got some simple suggestions or wanna invite me over to craft with them? I'm an excellent helper. In the meantime, here's a baby shower invite I did for a lady I visit teach.
I'm experimenting with digitizing elements (like the ribbon) since I have no ability to draw. Any suggestions? Some people have some cool embellishments and I have no idea how they got them. Maybe there's some amazing website somewhere I don't know about...
I'll make a really good assistant, I promise.
I finally got to take Diego to Louisiana - to where I grew up. We didn't have a ton of time to spend in New Orleans but we tried to do some fun stuff. This is us by the Mississippi River. We went to a historical cemetery, a voodoo museum, the French Market. We ate a muffuletta, pralines and beignets. I miss beignets.
At Café du Monde eating beignets covered with powdered sugar.
Jackson Square.
Andrew Jackson statue inside of Jackson Square.
Posing with one of the entertainers.
More street performers. These guys were actually on So You Think You Can Dance.
Experimenting with motion and shutter drag.
Us on Bourbon St. with our daiquiris (virgin, of course). It's kinda weird - those tiny little balls of ice. How do they do that?
Diego saw this off a side street. Good eye, babe!
The early crowd and lights on Bourbon St. We didn't last too long that night. Turns out that weekend was Southern Decadence - a celebration of all things homosexual...
We ate beignets again even though I had nowhere to put them in my stomach. Mmmm. Beignets!
Oh, and these are the next morning getting snowballs. Some people call them snow cones or shaved ice but really, they're called snowballs. We tried to get a picture together. That didn't work, so you get us both individually. Such yummy good food. I ate too much. Have you guys ever had Zapps potato chips? You just don't know what you are missin'!
This is Marie Laveau - the queen of voodoo. One of the things Diego was interested in seeing was some voodoooooo. So we went to see Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo. Now, if you are interested in voodoo you can look that up yourself but here are some fun pictures for you.
An old, dusty voodoo doll - complete with button facial features and bell earrings.
A spooky, scary, in-the-shadows voodoo doll.
Crazy, curly moss hair. It cracks me up!
Many a cigarette offering have been left here. I guess this guy likes Mardi Gras too.
Buck teeth! Do you find these as funny as I do? Is that bad karma, for me to say that?
So it seems like this trip home was more of a ghosts and goblins version of New Orleans as opposed to "Laissez les bon temps roulez!" The graves in New Orleans are above ground. Being that the city is below sea-level they had a hard time keeping the coffins from floating up to the surface. There are lots of beautiful things in the cemeteries but this one is really old and therefore really creepy. For instance. This is supposed to be a child serenely praying. However, 
upon closer inspection, she's really quite eerie.
This is "supposed" to be Marie Laveau's grave. The guy at the museum said she'd been moved to one of the "oven" vaults on the side years ago.
I thought all those triple XXX marking were some sort of evil working there but I asked the museum guy and he said they were wishes. You are allowed 3 wishes but that only the ones circled ones were wishes that had been granted (you'll notice that none of them are circled). He continued to comment that people don't wish for things that are appropriate. Kinda like praying, don't ya think?
Anyway. Back to the creepiness. Nothing say "not quite right" like a headless mother with her 2 headless children.
Or this disarmed statue... (ha, ha. did ya get the joke?!)
Looks like I was buried in the cemetery too.
Maybe this is where Marie Laveau is buried.
Okay. Now for some religion. Or, maybe just some pictures that are nice to look at...
So you know that I've been on this food storage kick... Well, I found this book called "I Can't Believe It's Food Storage" from everydayfoodstorage.NET and she teaches you how to use your food storage. Among other things, you can you BEANS as a substitute for butter and oil in baked goods! I mean, I've heard of using applesauce but that changes the consistency too much. So I decided to try it. This is so cool! I make these Oatmeal Raisin Cookies with a cup of black beans instead of butter and they were fabulous. 
And then I went over to my friend Laurie's house and we made a devil's food cake with 1/2 cup of black beans instead of oil. Perfect! And so yummy. I guess in true food storage fashion I should have actually cooked the beans but I'm not there yet. Canned beans will have to do.
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