Auntie B's Wax

Every year my family gets together for a little Mardi Gras celebration.  We even have a king cake with a tiny plastic baby hidden inside.  The person who gets the baby in their piece of cake gets to throw the party next year.

As you may know, Mardi Gras in New Orleans is all about masks and costumes (not to mention being on the precipice of Lent, the season of stark sacrifice), and in my family it’s no different.  We always wear a mask and don the ever-glamorous plastic beads.  I’ve been wearing the same mask for several years but got bored with it.  I was going to go to the craft store to get makings for a new mask but time got away from me, so I was left to my own devices and my plethora of crafting materials to come up with some kind of mask at the last minute.

I took an old pair of glasses, ca. 1980, and embellished them a little.  It’s good to have miscellaneous craft supplies and tools around.  A hot glue gun is a life saver in a situation like this.

All right, so the mask isn’t as glam as most, but it sure was fun to make. I felt like a naughty kid taking a marker to my prescription glasses, and I felt like a hippy looking through them.

Dolly enjoyed fashioning my mask.  I especially like the little antennae.

OK, so I had a little bit of trouble actually seeing out of the glasses as the prescription is about forty years old and they were embellished with Sharpie colors.  But the beads were dangly and sparkly, and Dolly and I had a very good time during our photo shoot.  The “mask” kind of made me giggle too.

Charlotte was the host of this year’s Mardi Gras party.  I always enjoy going to her house for a party because, well, she knows  how to throw a party right.  It was all very festive, complete with lots of New Orleans food, music and decor.

Charlotte took advantage of the family’s presence and turned this celebration into not only a Mardi Gras party but also a birthday party for Pinky.  So the king cake was also a birthday cake.  It was just a big old party all the way around.  She even made fancy frozen blender drinks!

A toast to Charlotte and her excellent party throwing abilities, and to Pinky, who now can get a discount on his car insurance if he takes a special driving class for old people.  Laissez les bons temps rouler!

P.S.  My dad got the plastic baby in his piece of cake, so next year he’ll be hosting. Should be good!