about

King Cake Countdown

by MissMalaprop on January 12, 2012

New Orleans Style King Cake Necklace, made by Flambeaux Design Company

Want to see what I did all day Sunday? Here is the beginning of it:

This is the first in this year’s series of Larry Ragusa king cake videos. There will be one per week, now through Mardi Gras! (You might remember me posting about these last year.) You won’t see me in front of the camera for these – I’m just helping out behind the scenes! (Although I did spend this morning learning how to use iMovie and making my first webcam video. Don’t worry – it’s not THAT kind of webcam video – it’s a submission video for a crafty tv show. I can’t let you in on any extra details right now, but keep your fingers crossed that I’ll be able to tell you more soon!!!)

What else? Oh yeah! This Saturday, January 14th you can find me at the The Crossroads Arts Bazaar At The New Orleans Healing Center on St. Claude Avenue. They’ll be doing an all day art market from noon til 9pm. There will be complimentary wine (!!!), and Cafe Istanbul (inside the building) will be showing the Saints playoff game on the giant screen in high definition and surround sound.

What else have I been up to lately? Besides the usual, I’ve been prepping my spring event schedule, and I’ve also been working on a new little side project blog, Cool Stuff We Like. It’s still a work in progress, but it’s been fun so far!

{ 0 comments }

Outfit Post: 12.17.2011

by MissMalaprop on December 20, 2011

Pin it

rhinestone bobby pin – a gift from David, I think it was from Fifi Mahony’s
earrings – made by me!
black long sleeve tee – Old Navy
buckles jacket – Trashy Diva
skirt – Truck Stop
black tights – EG Smith
socks – Sock Dreams
boots – Veronica Slouch by Frye via Trashy Diva

Kerry made me pose with the mustache necklace in that last photo! This is what I wore on Saturday to our final weekend of the Pop-up Shop! I LOVE my new skirt, which I got last week when I worked at Truck Stop for the first time. I’ve been wanting a tribal print skirt for awhile and this one is SO ME. (And elastic waistband, OMG, so comfy too.)

I’d like to personally thank EACH & EVERY ONE OF YOU who has made 2011 an awesome year. If you read this blog, shopped online or at a local event with me, or even just followed along on Facebook or Twitter, you are a rockstar and I love you. I’m so excited about 2012 already, and I hope you are too!

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Wonderful Winter Solstice, and a very lovely secular holiday as well! And of course – a very very magical New Year’s to you all!!!!!!!!!!!

{ 0 comments }

As If You Needed An Excuse….

by MissMalaprop on December 15, 2011

Pin it

An extra special reason for why you should come to the New Orleans Craft Mafia’s 6th Annual Last Stop Shop holiday party & craft market tonight (and why you should get there early):

Free goodie bags for the first 25 people. My awesome messenger tote bags filled with handmade treats from our whole gang!

AND an extra special reason you should come to my Peek-a-boo Pop-Up Shop this weekend:

Super fun handcrafted burlap pillows with silly Southern sayings. This is the collaborative project of Kerry of Bayou Salvage and her mom. These were really popular at the last edition of our Pop-up Shop, and they’re sure to be a big hit again. Can’t come? You can order online at their Etsy shop, I Reckon, but hurry because this weekend is the cut-off for Christmas delivery.

Hope to see you this weekend! Have fun and happy holidays!!

Event details:

New Orleans Craft Mafia’s 6th Annual Last Stop Shop
Thursday, December 15, 6-10pm
The Big Top, 1638 Clio Street, New Orleans, LA

Peek-a-Boo Pop-Up Shop
Saturday & Sunday, December 17-18, 9am – 6pm
Color Me NOLA, 4815 Magazine Street, Unit 2, New Orleans, LA

{ 0 comments }

How To Make a Recycled Denim Skirt – The Ultimate Guide

by MissMalaprop on September 13, 2011

Pin it

As promised, I just finished up my DIY Denim Skirt Guide!

This guidebook features a step by step explanation of how I make my denim skirts, complete with plenty of pictures to help walk you through, plus lots of tips, tricks & inspiration. I know there are a lot of basic jean skirt how-tos out there, but having made probably hundreds of denim skirts over the years, I’ve learned a lot of little tricks that most of the free basic patterns online leave out.

I’ve made tons of skirts that go beyond the basic jeans-to-skirt, so my goal with this is to offer up lots of inspiration not included with other tutorials. I’ve got plenty of ideas for ways to customize your denim and make it your own. There are over 30 pages jam-packed with ideas and info for customizing your own one-of-a-kind denim creations!

You can get your copy here.

{ 0 comments }

Dragon*Con 2011

by MissMalaprop on September 9, 2011

Pin it

Guess what I did last weekend? If you said that I went to Atlanta for my first taste of Dragon*Con, you guessed right! I have a lot of friends and family that go every year, and while David had been once before, I had never gone. I heard how the costuming aspect of this huge multi-media, popular culture convention was incredible, and I can definitely say it was my favorite part. There aren’t a ton of sci-fi or fantasy shows or movies that I’m super into, so I didn’t care about going to see any of the panels, but the people watching was out of this world:

This is me, on Friday, with one of a few people I saw over the weekend dressed as Jareth from Labyrinth. (He was the best though!)

David, in a stillsuit a la David Lynch’s Dune. He commissioned our friend Don Corbitt to make this amazing thing – he got compliments on it all weekend, and now is trying to get together a whole Dune group for next year.

David ran into our friends Travis and Elizabeth, who are part of the team behind ActionActionReaction Indie Dance Party here in NOLA.

We caught a glimpse of Felicia Day and Amy Okuda from The Guild as they ran to take a photo with these guys. The really incredible costumes, like these, just find a spot in one of the hotel lobbies and sort of camp out. People come up constantly to take pictures with them. Same thing happened with the old guys from The Muppets:

Star Wars is always popular at Dragon*Con. David didn’t finish his full stormtrooper gear in time, but he finished his helmet, which matched his seersucker suit perfectly! I went as a lady Darth Vader one night. (The things we do for love…)

(Those are 2 different disco-themed stormtroopers!!)

We were calling it the year of Doctor Who. EVERYWHERE you looked there was someone in a Doctor Who themed costume. However, these kids were the best. (Their parents were also dressed as the Doctor and a companion.)

And this was my other favorite Doctor Who costume, based on the episode “The Empty Child”. (Notice the Trashy Diva dress!)

There was a whole group of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse characters, and the velociraptor from Jurassic Park came out to play!

A really great Weird Science group costume.

My friend Gwen and I went to the Georgia Aquarium and saw the whale sharks!!!

Me and David with our friends Gwen and Brian, right before heading back to New Orleans. I’m so glad we got to see them and help them at their Sigh Co. Graphics booth in the vendor room. It was a lot of fun – hopefully we can make it back next year!

Want more pictures? You can see WAY more pictures that we took over the weekend over at my Dragon*Con 2011 Flickr set.

{ 4 comments }

Handmade Embroidered Nametag + Birthday Pins!

by MissMalaprop on July 27, 2011

Pin it

Remember how I mentioned attending that event put on LifeCity and Verdi Gras (the first ever green Mardi Gras krewe), which featured special cocktails featuring herbs grown by the kids from Our School at Blair Grocery? Well, it was at that event last Friday that I premiered my new handmade embroidered nametag – and it was a big hit!

I got the idea a few months ago, because I kept going to networking events and getting caught in this conundrum. Do I sound totally weird and pretentious and introduce myself as my internet / business name, Miss Malaprop? Do I just sound normal and use my real name, Mallory? Do I do both? But what about the fact that, especially when I first meet people, I’m usually pretty shy, even though I totally open up and get loud and crazy once things get going??? And then – inspiration struck! I think Mags might have been there at the moment it happened – she usually wears one of those “Hello, My Name Is:” nametags at art markets, and I thought it would be really cool to make a permanent, reusable one, using the craftiest means possible. And so it happened – I ended up spending hours and HOURS doing some free hand embroidery and stitching up my new nametag! Here, you can see how it looked as a work in progress:

I also recently whipped up some birthday pins. I’ve done these before, modifications of my fleur de lis pins, for friends. I added giant safety pins on the front – much easier than trying to keep a tiny safety pin pinned to your shirt and also let people add money to it, ala NOLA birthday tradition.

Since I’m trying to use my birthday party tomorrow to raise money for a couple different causes, I wanted to make it easy to differentiate between the two, so I made a birthday pin for Kiva.org and one for Our School at Blair Grocery. Then, after I made those, I decided to also make one for my dear friend & co-worker Lindsey, who was supposed to bake her delicious gourmet cupcakes for the party, but she got badly injured in a bike accident a few days ago. She doesn’t have health insurance, and now on top of a concussion and some broken bones, a brief hospital stay, she also has to be out of work for at least a week or two. So I wanted to try to help her out too. I’m pretty proud of my birthday cupcake pin – I might have to make more of them to sell later.