Jefferson Variety

There are just a few small things I needed to do to finish my costume, which I will wear for both MOMs and Mardi Gras day, and so on our day off together, Big Man and I headed after brunch to Jefferson Variety on Iris Street in Jefferson just off River Road. This is a complete Carnival store, which, while not nearly as fancy as Plush Appeal in Mid-City (2811 Toulouse St. just off Carrollton), has a very good selection of Carnival fabrics and trims, including plumes and feathers and beads for sewing onto costumes (they also carry beads for throwing, but they were VERY picked over by this time, as was the selection of plush animals, not nearly as extensive as Plush Appeal).

While there, we had to tour the whole store, and we found some small second-line type umbrellas, undecorated, for less than $2 a piece. I still think that would be a good fundraiser for the church, but I'd need to organize folks to do the decorating. I think we could charge around $25 for the finished parasols, and the decorating could be fun. Hmm. Will have to think more about it.

When we entered the back room, where the fabric and costume accessories and trims are kept,we found an actual line of people waiting to be served. Yikes! And because most of the people in line were still deliberating over details of their costumes, each person took longer than you would have wanted. But in typical New Orleans style, everyone conversed and gathered opinions from everyone else. "Do you like this stretch sequin trim, or this mirrored braid better?" "Does this color go with print?" (The answer to that is always YES, but only at Carnival.) "Do you think I need a hat with this, or is a headband like this OK?" and so on.

Big Man took special interest in the two husky back men dressed in work clothes (one in a construction vest and the other in a mechanic's overalls) who were perusing colored brocades and satins with careful deliberation. One even got on his phone to describe a certain pattern to the listener on the other end. When they got into the line to wait for service, they were heard discussing exactly how many pounds of feathers they would need. I assumed they were Mardi Gras Indians, but I thought it awfully late for them to be finishing up their shopping to complete their "suits" for Carnival Day. Big Man was fascinated and commented later that only in New Orleans would such obviously masculine black men be so concerned with things like rhinestones, sequins, and pounds of dyed ostrich feathers.

I got a purple satin mask, the eyeholes of which I'll have to carefully enlarge, 2 yards of hot pink sequin trim, and two large beautiful hot pink ostrich feathers. This will complete my costume (more on that later, don't want to spill the beans too early), and two large plastic Mardi Gras mask house decorations to add to the lights, fabric drape, toy display, and wreath decorating the front of our house. (Interestingly, in the week that the decorations have been up, not a single thing, not a frisbee or a football, has disappeared. I'm almost disappointed, as I have back-ups that I was going to put out as soon as these got picked up. I may have to resort to actually giving them away, or putting them all into the box for our grandson.)

That was an enjoyable trip for both of us, and I only spent about $20. Now, all I have to do is make the time to work on the mask and my headpiece.