Mohican Scouts 'Do the Lindy' Music Video

When I first moved to New Orleans I was broke. Somehow I met an amazing group of people who helped me create something beautiful out of nothing. Here it is world. Enjoy.

The Mohican Scout 'Do the Lindy'

Decorating Easter Eggs

I know that I promised a full house tour on Wednesday, but our family is in town for Easter, and we are delightfully distracted. It will have to wait for next weekend. Tomorrow will be our 3rd year hosting Easter and we are really excited to plan and prepare another Easter menu for our family and friends. Check out last year's here and the menu here.

To hold you over till the big Easter post, I will share with you the eggs we dyed last night. I found the idea through Apartment Therapy which led me here. And they turned out like this:

Then I let Christian help and they turned out like this:

Can you guess which ones are mine and which ones are his? For the first time in a quarter century of dying Easter eggs, I read the instructions on the back of the dye. They suggested vinegar for ultra vibrant colors, lemon juice for vibrant colors, and water for pastels. It worked great! I had never used anything other than water before and was always soaking them for forever to get the colors I wanted. Happy Easter!

File Cabinet Redo

I wish I could say I got this cabinet somewhere cool, like the side of the road, but it's from Sam's Club and it's been an eyesore since the day we got it. I've had dreams of painting it for a year and a half now, and they have finally come to fruition this spring break. Check out the process and the finish product:

Before: Blah, boring!

Saw the use of foil on Real Simple, would have rather used painter's tape all over

Love the subtlety of the result:

 

And one last view, in it's natural habitat:

Spring Clean Day 2

My spring clean for the body ended on Sunday night like this:

Kale + quinoa, avocado, and turkey burger

Better luck next season! It wasn't a bad cleanse, I really wasn't hungry, I just had a raging headache by 7pm and couldn't stomach spending 3 days of my spring break feeling that way. So, I gladly caved (there's even a Coke Zero off camera) and moved on to the bigger and better elements of spring cleaning: the house!

Here's the big, bold list I made on Sunday. I crossed off the items we have taken care of so far:

Spring clean

All over
Dust shelves, blinds, vents, moldings, light fixtures -- anything that collects dust and you usually ignore.
clean window treatments (including your shower curtain)
Wash windows

Living room
Clean out cabinet
Broken drop ceiling tile
clean behind couch
Vacuum cushions

Bedroom
Organize drawers
Dust chandelier
Burnt out bulbs 
Broken drop ceiling tile
Flip mattress
Change winter bedding to spring
Change clothes from warm to cool and pack away seasonal clothes
Donate/sell unwanted clothes 

Dining room
Paint chairs I've given up on this idea for now
Broken drop ceiling tiles
Check smoke detector batteries

Vacuum rug
Kitchen
Clean out fridge
Clean behind fridge
Fix broken drawer given up on this as well 
Organize paperwork: alphabetize and eliminate
Spray paint file cabinet Monday

Bathroom
Clean out chest
Clean out medicine cabinet and makeup bag

Laundry room
Vacuum
Spray paint lamp not happening  

Outside
Compost
Buy herbs

Plant herbs 

As you can see, we've made some good head way. I saved all the cleaning, cleaning for today. And by Wednesday when the family gets here for Easter, we'll be breathing easy in a super clean, and organized house! We took our clothes to Buffalo Exchange and traded them for store credit. They didn't take much, but we got $50 to spend in the store! The rest we took to Goodwill. Here are some pics of what's been going on so far:

sweaters ready to be stored for summer

Clothes to be traded and donated

Buffalo Exchange loot,  C also got a pair of jeans for $11!

Finally rehung this mirror, which fell off the wall during Isaac! 

This year we're going small with the garden, since every other year has been a fail in our low light back yard, check out last year's here. We planted basil, cilantro, parsley, and oregano. The big plant is a schefflera that I rooted from my own plant, which was rooted from my mom's, which was at my grandpa's funeral in 1990. Rooting for these plants is simple and involves cutting off a branch and putting it in water. The new addition is for Cynthia (hopefully we can keep this a secret until Sunday). 

Spring Cleaning

Sorry it has been so long! Our desktop computer crashed :( this is where we do all our blogging and photo editing, so it is a major bummer. We are taking it to the Genius Bar tomorrow; hopefully it is not fatal. We have a few posts that were ready to go, but are on that computer, so stay tuned for those. For now, let's talk about Spring Cleaning. This is my favorite cleansing season and since Spring Break started on Friday, I have much planned in regards to cleaning, organizing, and purging.

First up, spring cleaning for the body. I found a 3 day smoothy cleanse by Dr. Oz. I'm in the middle of Day 1 right now, and so far so good. What I like about this cleanse is I'm not hungry, and it wasn't too expensive. What I don't like about this cleanse, is that I would rather be eating a cheeseburger. If you find a cheeseburger cleanse, please let me know.

Here are some of the ingredients:

And here's the plan:

Using this list from apartment therapy and some ideas from the nest's list of 100 Days of Organizing I plan to spend the next two days getting everything back to neutral. During my spring clean frenzy the goal is to eliminate as much clutter as possible. And not just the clutter that has accumulated in the last 3 months, but all the visual clutter that is better suited to winter: meaning during the spring and summer I prefer for there to be less out. Less books, less vases, less trinkets. Hopefully I will have time left over to paint a table, or two.

Site is live.

The website is up and running for the web series I shot. Check it out here: easynolashow.com

They are going to start the promo campaign real soon which we shot and cut last week. Stay tuned to find out about the launch party that will coincide with the release of the 3 part episode 1.

EASY

Hat's off to Mr. Weiner for the snazzy show graphic!

Be on the lookout for a new web series written and directed by Chris Sheard called Easy. It follows a young musician who moves to New Orleans to 'make it' in the 'Big Easy'. He get's caught up in the 24-hour party scene and hilarity ensues. The show features some great local musical and comedic performances. The pilot was shot and edited by yours truly. More on this later...

In a theater near you.

A film I worked on last year just hit theaters. Beautiful Creatures. Go see it! Looks like it should be a fun ride. I know I had a great time helping make it. 

Also coming soon is The Host.

G.I. Joe : Retaliation

Now You See Me

And if you hadn't seen it yet, go check out Django Unchained.

I also have some independent film and video projects on the horizon. Standby for updates. 

XLVII

Recently there was this big sporting event in New Orleans, you may have heard of it: The Super Bowl. Anyways a friend who I have worked with in the past put my name in the mix to work as a camera utility. This was my first time working in live broadcast. My first time doing live television and it's the biggest show on Earth. A bit of a baptism by fire. Well needless to say I kicked ass at my job and had a total blast meeting amazing individuals and learning the machine that is live broadcast. For the record: I had nothing to do with the blackout.

golden ticket

view from the top

exclusive nap spot 

this guy was blocking my view the whole game

all access

confetti!

confetti angel

So get this. I'm taking my camera operator out to show him and his daughter around. We have an amazing dinner at Irene's. Then I'm all like 'why don't we head down towards my neighborhood and check out the local scene'. "It's a lot more low key than Bourbon" I think I said. So we roll up to the R Bar. It's pretty crowded even for a Saturday. So we go in and it's an epic dance party. Every track the DJ drops was like 'whoa' and there were folks dancin on the pool table, on the bar, and up on chairs. I'm all like 'who is this DJ that's making all these folk get down all crazy like?' Come to find out it was none other than Snoop Dogg. Tru story. So much for that low key evening.

Snoop DJs R Bar courtesy of EATER NOLA

1239 Congress Presents...

An Anniversary Party!

Over the past year 1239 Congress, a multi-use space that creatively engages the surrounding community through arts and education in the upper 9th ward, has hosted live music, Second Saturday openings, community meetings, NOLA Mix DJ classes, Fringe Festival performances, and more. We have had the opportunity to be apart of the formation of this non-profit over the past year.  It's one of the many things that keeps us busy.  In fact our 1239 Congress Anniversary Party is this weekend at the Hi-Ho Lounge.

flyer design by Lauren

We curated two amazing 2nd Saturday shows for November and December after a short hiatus; Check out the highlights below. December's show was co-curated by Adrienne Oliver.  

November 2nd Saturday

Eden Chubb

 

Vernon Smith 

 

Levi Chancellor

Elan Mutt Schwartz

 

Ursa Eyer

   

December 2nd Saturday

 

Micael James & his lonesome

Holly Tamale's edible art

 

Connie Shea

Connie Shea

Neal Aultman

Neal Aultman

Cammeron Damnit

 

 

Lester Garcia