White Linen Night in the Big Easy

Howdy Hey Everybody!!!!  This is my first official blog entry and the beginning of letting people in on my “Bottle Tree Adventures”. I am on the road delivering my work probably as much time as I am in the shop building and creating. I meet SO MANY amazing people on my travels and I really feel the need to share them with you. This is just a warm up, so bear with me…......

Let’s start with August 1st 2009….White Linen Night in New Orleans!!!!!!  I was just accepted into the Louisiana Crafts Guild and they were having the grand opening for their new gallery on Julia Street in N.O. (The Guild on Julia, 608 Julia Street). What a beautiful gallery Jane Nugent, Doug Stannard and all the volunteers put together. The building itself is amazing and houses an extensive collection of works by Louisiana artists/all guild members. I was fortunate enough to be able to see the old slaves’ quarters behind the building that they use for offices and storage. WOW!!! What preservation. If you’re able to visit the gallery, don’t forget to go out to the courtyard and see all the tropical foliage and flowers they have back there. The gallery also has more works (including my Katrina tree) in the lower rooms of the quarters.
    OK, back to WLN…....Unfortunately, the event was PACKED. I mean, wall to wall people rubbing shoulders in the hot, wet humidity. There was a lineup to get into every gallery and beverage kiosk. Everyone was dressed in their finest white linen and it was a rare opportunity for me to hang up my leathers and behave like a “lady”. I can honestly say that once was enough for me. I was concentrating so hard on not running into people as we were walking that I missed many opportunities to view any of the galleries. But hey, I went, I saw, I smiled, that’s enough for me. The highlight of the evening was meeting a young girl named Taylor who is visiting here from Albania. My dearest and craziest friend Karen, our friend Terry and myself all stayed at the Marriot down the street. Karen brought along a friend’s daughter (Taylor), to celebrate her visit to New Orleans. Her father lives in Meridien and her mother is an attorney in Albania, so Taylor comes to visit every so often. Once we left Julia Street, we had a blast. We went to the Loews Hotel bar for an appetizer dinner and I tasted my first Sazerac. Talk about a historical beverage!! It is known as the 1st cocktail ever invented in America with its origins in Pre-civil War New Orleans (in the 1830’s to be exact). A little dab’ll do ya. Whoa!
    OK, so here are the pix from White Linen Night…........hope they bring a smile to your face Taylor!!  Safe journey home!!