House Floats – French Quarter

 “Yardi Gras” is the 2021 socially distanced version of Mardi Gras, where instead of crowding around floats throwing toys and beads, we’ve been wandering the city on foot and by car to see house floats – thousands of homes and businesses throughout the city decorated as parade floats. Krewe of House Floats promoted this safe parade concept, encouraging people to use local businesses and artists to help decorate their places, or go DIY, then register on their map. In the search for these fun and fabulous house floats, I’ve already covered St. Charles Ave.,  Magazine Street, the Irish Channel, Mid-City and the Garden District and Lower Garden District.

The historic French Quarter doesn’t have the luxury of large front lawns to take on their Yardi Gars displays, so lots of people chose to decorate their wrought iron balconies. My favorite is probably the Krewe of Sub-Krewe house with it’s life-sized  paper mache 610 Stomper and Pussyfooters dancers.

Krewes of Babylon and Muses Parades 2019

Because I dance with the Pussyfooters, I haven’t attended the Krewes of Babylon and Muses parades since 2013. Though I was fairly devastated to be too under the weather for hours of dancing, it was kinda wonderful to experience the Thursday parades as a spectator. The rain chased the start time forward and back, finally pushing the Krewe of Chaos out of the evening entirely. Hopes are that they will roll Monday instead. Babylon was beautiful and it was great touching base with meteorologist Margaret Orr as she drove past.

Krewes of Muses & Iris Parades

No time to blog this year but wanted to share photos of the fun at the Krewes of Muses and Iris parades. I always love dancing with my Pussyfooter sisters in Muses. Both the parade and our group – the first modern-day adult parade dance troupe, debuted together in 2001. Photos include Krewe des Fleurs, Krewe of the Rolling Elvi, the NOLA Cherry Bombs, Fat City Drum Corps, the Amelia Earhawts and much more! 

Krewe of Muses – Behind the Scenes

I love attending parades and the Krewe of Muses all-female Super Krewe of 1000 riders is a crowd favorite. When you participate in a parade, the one downside is that you don’t actually get to attend the parade. With the addition of the new train of duck floats being pulled by the traditional giant bubble bath and the opportunity to catch one of their coveted hand-decorated shoes, it was a lot to give up. That said, I love dancing with the Pussyfooters in Muses. A group of over 120 women-over-30, the Pussyfooters raise tens of thousands annually for domestic violence victims, provide entertainment and assistance at non-profit events and, of course, perform in parades year-round. The Pussyfooters debuted in the 2001 Krewe of Muses parade so I consider it an honor to join them rather than hope for a (super-awesome) glittery shoe. 

Parading with the Pussyfooters in Muses

This is my third Mardi Gras parading in Krewe of Muses as a Pussyfooter and it’s still my favorite way to tour the city. There are stately homes, gorgeous bead-covered live oaks, beautiful buildings and plenty of things to see but it’s the people that move me. Muses is one of the parades that inspires people to costume up, make posters and party like it’s 1999 – instead of a school night. The all-female Krewe is famous for the hand-crafted, elaborately glittered and fancifully decorated shoes they throw to the lucky few. This time around – a little about what it was like behind the scenes.

Jazz Fest Saturday

It was a gorgeous Saturday for Jazz Fest. Before heading to the stages, we passed through the craft area and saw creative shoebox floats and glittery Krewe of Muses shoes – a prized throw during Mardi Gras. There were also a few Mardi Gras Indians sewing beads and showing off this year’s suits. Big Chief FiYiYi, Victor Harris, showed us the incredibly detailed beadwork. Beautiful. We grabbed a requisite Panorama Fine Foods Crawfish Bread ($7) and Strawberry Lemonade ($5) then tried the refreshing Ajun Cajun Ninja Crab Sick & Cucumber Salad ($5) and Canseco’s Markets Cuban Sandwich ($8). 

Pussyfooting in Krewe of Muses

This was my second year Pussyfooting in Krewe of Muses and it was amazing! Between the sisterhood, the non-profit work and the resources available through the organization, I have plenty of reasons to love being a Pussyfooter but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that parading in Muses is reason enough. Muses is one of the ever-increasing number of female Krewes. Like many of the parades dance troupes, our organization strives to empower women of all kinds. After years of being terrified of large groups of women, I’m dancing in a group of over 100 women over-30 among over 1000 Muses Krewe members and it just feels good to be a part of it all.

Mardi Gras Tree 2015

Mardi Gras is early this year with Krewe du Vieux kicking things off on January 31st. I’m still eating treats from my Christmas stocking but it’s already time for King Cake. I had my first slice at Sucre on the afternoon of Twelfth Night. Throughout the rest of the country, people are taking tinsel of trees and setting them by the curb while here in New Orleans, many of us convert Christmas trees to Mardi Gras trees.

I’m So New Orleans #ImSoNewOrleans

The Twitter-verse and Facebook have been buzzing for the last couple days with all things New Orleans. No one seems to know who started the #ImSoNewOrleans trend but it’s brought the city together in a way usually reserved for football season. People are sharing childhood memories, old photos of long-gone places and jokes and trends so inside, only someone who grew up here could truly get them. I didn’t. I wasn’t born here and I don’t have a good answer to, “Where’d you go to school?” (meaning which local high school), but I’m so New Orleans that my family owned property on St. Charles in the 1700’s. Okay, that doesn’t help me decipher some of the local references or share some of the memories, but it does make me feel like I’m home. 

Muses Parade as a Pussyfooter!

This is my 5th full Carnival season in New Orleans but this year’s Krewe of Muses parade was my first time ever dancing in a Mardi Gras parade. It was amazing, like walking through the “Looking Glass” and becoming part of a wonky world full of mystical creatures – where it’s perfectly normal to see Elvis on a motor scooter or a unicorn/bicycle.  It’s a place where I fit right in wearing a pink corset and white combat boots because now I’m a Pussyfooter! We had to line up very early and the last parade always rolls late so we spent a couple hours staying warm by dancing or huddling in swarms of pink ruffles and lace.