Month: January 2013

Simple Mardi Gras Décor

It’s no secret that I LOVE Mardi Gras. Raised in the South we bleed purple & gold and then some green. King Cake for breakfast is totally acceptable and “Throw me something mista” is one of the first full sentences you will learn as a child. My house is on the Mardi Gras route in Shreveport and this was one of the main reasons we purchased it. Saturday is the first parade and the first of two weekends my house will be filled with people, which my husband and I love. After four years I’m learning and changing a lot of the ways I’m decorating and entertaining. I’ve simplified a lot of the decorations inside the house. The main reason is because of my little boy is climbing on everything and unfortunately can’t have anything nice in his chubby hands because it will shortly, be destroyed.

I wanted to share with you my simple Mardi Gras decor for this year. I say simple because in previous years everything was decorated, doorways, mantle, light fixtures, you name it. There were even arrangements in the bathroom! This year I decorated my mantle, the top of the china cabinet and a centerpiece on the dining room table. Now the outside party tent will be a different story, more to come on that later.

The mantle is a collection of ornaments and other Mardi Gras decor I’ve gathered over the year. I buy a lot of decorations after Christmas when they are half price – good cost cutting tip that the husband likes a lot! My favorite part of the dining room centerpiece, gold spray painted mason jars (inspired by Jenny of Craft that Party). Before this weekend I plan to add glitter to the bottoms in purple in green!

Some new additions this year is my beautiful ruffled burlap table runner from Sweet Tea and Linen. I love it and plan to use it year round! I also purchased several tassel garlands from The Flair Exchange. I’m saving two for my outside decorations on the day of our big party but I hung the purple, green and gold one on the mantle. Our last fun new party item is our personalized koozies from Cayenne Marketing. They match our invitation logo for this year and I know our guests will love them! The big party is next weekend. I can’t wait to share the details Audie Gras 2013 – Super Hero Bash with you soon! Stay tuned and as always…..Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Time to Unplug!

image courtesy of lizandryan.com

I’ve been reading a lot of blogs lately that focus on setting goals, clearing clutter and doing what important to YOU! I’m starting to finally realize what this means and focus more on living authentically and not by what I think people think I should be. I’m reevaluating MCC and the direction it’s going and making some major changes to the product line, to the focus and importantly to the simplicity of the website. My goal for 2013 is to blog more as well. To start I’m going to regularly posting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It’s a lofty task but I think I’m up to the challenge. I’ve got a number of new collections and products coming to the shop so one of these days will focus on those and the others will be recipes, decorating and fun crafty tutorials – yeah! I’ll also be hosting some giveaways for some great companies that personally love.

Another really important change is  SOCIAL MEDIA FREE WEEKENDS! No Facebook or Instagram (business or personal) starting Friday at 5! I know this seems like a hard thing to do but to me it’s very important, life is just to short. I hear people joking about friends getting together and all they do is play on their phone, I’ve experienced it first hand and it’s just no way to live. I want to have real life friends and experiences not virtual ones. My kids will only be little for a short time and soon they’ll want their one phone and by setting a good example that my phone is not my life, I hope they will follow my example. I’m going to be honest, this will be so hard and a drastic change, but it’s for my benefit and my family’s. I’m going to encourage my husband to do the same. He’s not on Facebook but he does regularly read Tiger Droppings, which I affectionally call “LSU Facebook”. Sunday nights after the kids go to bed and before I do the same will be catch up and picture post time.

With that being said I’m off to load some new collections to the website and then share them on Facebook and Instagram. After that it’s good bye for the weekend. I hope you have a wonderful one with fun times enjoying your friends and family. Thank you so much for your support of my shop, it truly means the world to me!

New Collection: Firetruck Client Party

I created this special collection for my neighbor Whitney and her sweet little boy that recently
turned 3. He LOVES fire trucks and she wanted a fun and bright party to celebrate that. 
The collection features polka dots and chevron with a cute little fire trucks and hydrant. 
Whitney did a great job styling the party and creating some wonderful fire house treats, fun favors and crafts. 
We were even able to get a vintage firetruck from a friend complete with working sirens and lights, 
the kids had a BLAST checking everything out and posing for pictures.
This new Firetruck collection is now available in the shop.

This new Firetruck collection is now available in the shop.