The Bold and Beautiful!

From the French Quarter street performers and Mr. Okra, to the Roman Candy Man, NOLA is full of fun and unique characters. The same goes for the beautiful historic homes. Only in New Orleans can someone have a bright pink, orange, purple, or fluorescent green home and not stick out like a sore thumb! Believe it or not, the homes are bold, but they fit right in. I took a walk in my neighborhood and took pictures of some bold, beautiful, and uniquely-painted homes. The crazy colored houses are just another quirky characteristic I love about this city!

One of my favorite houses. I love the color combo.

This is an example of a bold accent color. The bright purple looks great on this home.

I saved the best for last! Take a look at this little house. It is adorable and remains me of a folk art painting.

Wake up and smell the Hibiscus!

I have found a plant that is as gorgeous as it is hardy! In fact, the blooming beauty can make someone with a brown thumb like me, seem like a real gardener! I'm talking about the Hibiscus (learn more about it by clicking here).

I bought my first Hibiscus plant last year, and to be honest, I didn't expect it to live through the winter. Well, one winter and three Hibiscus plants later, my front flower garden looks amazing! If you are looking for a flower that really pops, and is low maintenance, the Hibiscus is for you!

First, to prove my point that I am horrible at keeping plants, take a look at this poor Japanese Holly. I planted it less than a month ago, and it's already well on its way to kicking the bucket. It's brown (like my thumb) and the leaves are falling off. I water it every other day and keep in the recommended light (6 hours direct sun). I'm not sure what I am doing wrong, but here is my pitiful plant:

There's a reason why I originally had fake topiary in this pot...take a look at my poor, dying Japanese Holly :(

Now, take a look at my beautiful Hibiscus! All I do is water them every other day, and they do the rest! They bud and grow like crazy!

I love pink, so it's only natural this is my favorite Hibiscus. The colors are so vibrant!

My pink Hibiscus is actually shaped like a small tree. I wanted something a little taller to cover up the side wall. This plant fits perfectly (I bought it at Home Depot for $15)

My orange Hibiscus is just as vibrant and beautiful. It always has new buds on it and it loves the sun!

Take a look at that! I love the red center of this yellow Hibiscus.  This one is the smallest of the three, and I think it's because it gets more shade than the others.

I hope this blog entry has inspired you to go to the story and buy a Hibiscus. I promise, you won't be disapointed in this gorgeous and vibrant plant!

Kentucky Derby...Uptown Style!

This weekend, my husband and I had some people over to watch the Kentucky Derby. We decorated our back yard, wore hats, drank mint juleps, and played croquet, in honor of the 137th Run for the Roses!

I would like to give a special thanks to Chet Pourciau...who  helped us decorate the back yard. He is a wonderful friend, who is also extremely talented at design and decorating!

Mint Juleps! Thanks Danny and Jocelyn for letting us borrow the dispenser. Thank you Jack for the Mint Julep cups!

Our back yard

Chet brought over palm leaves from a tree at his house and used them to decorate this table. Then we added a vase with a hibiscus flower from my yard.

I got these chairs at Winn-Dixie for $17! They are colorful and comfortable too!

Inside, I set up a table of food, with a centerpiece of roses.

Don't you love these?! I bought them on Ebay.

My strawberry and grape fruit kabobs, stuck in a pineapple. So easy to make!

Me and Lon with our Mint Juleps



All the ladies! Love our hats!

Nate brought oysters

Hillary is Nate's beautiful girlfriend.

Chet, Lon, Nate and Hillary

Croquet champions of the world!

Our "Croquet Coach" Mike Theis.

An Updated Bathroom for only $8!

How the heck did I update my bathroom for less than $10?

The other day, I was cleaning out my wallet, when I discovered a $30 gift card from Bed, Bath, and Beyond I never used! I combined that, with $100 dollars cash I earned after selling an old bistro table on Craigslist. With the $130 dollars, I headed to the store and bought a few items for my bathroom: two bird pictures ($30), a shower curtain ($30), a curved shower rod ($30), towels ($20), and a white curtain ($10).

In the end, I spent $8 from my bank account in addition to the gift card and cash!  Not bad!

(note: bathroom wall color is Sherwin-Williams, "Drizzle")

BEFORE: The flower art was cute, but too small. I needed to find something larger to put on the wall.

AFTER: I love birds and fell in love with this bird picture! I bought two from a four-picture series. It looks so nice on the blue wall!

BEFORE: Ugly blinds hang over the window.

AFTER: I took the shades down and replaced it with a white curtain tied in the center with a green bow.

BEFORE: A boring shower rod holds a striped shower curtain.

AFTER: My husband hung up a curved shower rod which gives the area more demension. I kept with the bird theme and replaced the old curtain with a cute floral and bird print.

AFTER: Filled in a blank wall by hanging up another bird picure.

My bathroom has very high ceilings, so I hung a large iron wall art on the big wall, and hung up an original framed art by Sarah Rakes over the light switches.

Hangin' Around the Moon!

When I was leaving work Friday afternoon, Cheryl at the front desk stopped me because she had a package for me. Little did I know, it would be the inspiration behind this blog entry!

The package was a media kit, promoting the Audubon Zoo's annual fundraiser, Whitney Z00-To-Do. It's a beautiful event...an evening under the stars at the zoo. People dress up in seersucker suits and cocktail dresses, and dance and enjoy great food from some of the city's best restaurants. It's certainly a fun and unique way to experience the zoo. It's also the zoo's largest fundraiser. Last year, proceeds benefited a new water park for kids. This year, the money raised from Zoo-To-Do will help install $1 milllion worth of lights to illuminate the zoo at night for the evening hours. The event is impressive, and so was the media kit!

In addition to the usual press release, inside my bag of zoo goodies included homemade cookies decorated like animals, a towel (to use at the new water park!), some bath toys, and a koozie...but what really caught my eye was the most adorable door-hang decoration...a hand-painted crescent moon, with a star hanging from the tip. Of course, as soon as I got home, I hung it up on my front door:

My husband came home early, so we went for a walk. I decided to make my blog this week about door hangs in Uptown. Door hangs are a great way to show personality. They are cheap enough to change out frequently to update your home. I found many homes with cute Easter-theme decorations donning the front door:

A wreath with eggs and white fluffy feathers. Cute pastels for Easter.

Here's a home with cute Easter bunnies on the front doors.

I love the front entrance of this home, with the two flags and topiaries on each side of the door. Two Easter wreaths also hang on the front doors.

Here's a closer look at the entrance...don't you love the porch swing?!

Pink bunnies! So cute!

As we were making our way through the neighborhood, we came across a home that had a moon just like mine! So I took a picture of it:

Two houses down from that one, another moon! At that moment, my blog changed from finding cute door hangs, to finding homes with the cute moon: 

It's hard to see it in this picture, but here is another home with the moon!

Another beautiful Uptown home, another Audubon Zoo moon!

Can you see the moon on the door? Trust me, it's there!

When we got home, I felt a sense of pride and accomplishment for my moon! To me, it's more than a nice gift from the zoo, it's a sign that I am making my mark in the community! Our home may not be as large as the others, but we all have the same moon!

Why so blue?

When I first moved to New Orleans, I noticed many of the homes have blue porch ceilings. In fact, I counted around 30 homes between my house and Audubon Park here in Uptown. Turns out, it's an age old Southern tradition.

Here's a look at some of the houses with porch ceilings in various shades of blue:

After talking to neighbors and reading other blogs, I found the top two myths behind the blue porch ceilings:

Myth #1: The blue wards "spirits" or "ghosts" away from the home. Afterall, NOLA is the most haunted city  in the country, so I guess this myth makes sense!

Myth #2: The blue looks like the sky, and keeps the bugs off of the porch.

Whatever reason behind the blue porch ceilings, I think it is cute! Because of that, I decided to paint my porch ceiling blue (with permission from my landlord, of course!).



Here is a look at the "before"...The ceiling matches the color of the home. It's nice, but doesn't pop! ps: doesn't the black door look great (see last week's post)?!



The first step was taping the ceiling...because you don't want your paint job to look sloppy! I recruited my husband to help me
( I suggest at least two people working on this project).



Let the painting begin! We borrowed an 8-foot ladder from our friends Danny and Jocelyn (thank you!)...my husband rolled the blue paint on the ceiling (1 coat). Then I went back with a brush and painted between all the creases. This process took a very long time, but it was worth it in the end!

Our finished blue porch ceiling! Doesn't look great!

By adding the blue ceiling, the house pops! It adds just enough color, and is a subtle change that makes a dramatic improvement to the home's overall appearance and curb appeal!

 



What I used for this project:

- 8-foot ladder

- 6-foot ladder (one for me and one for my husband)

- 2 quarts of Sherwin-Williams "Vast Sky" paint color

- 1 roller

- 1 paint brush

- tape

I spent $24 on paint, $7 on the paint brush, $11 for the roller, and we borrowed both ladders. The whole project was under $50! It took around 3 hours from start to finish, so allow yourself plenty of time.

Why so blue? Because it looks great and an easy update for any home with a front porch!