Dragon*Con Parade 2014

Photos from past parades:

2011

2007

Atlanta 2014 • End of Summer's BEST event calendar

Peachtree Road Race 2014 - this time we're legit!!

This year we're official!! The 2014 Peachtree Road Race will be my 8th and O's 5th. Every year I add a new detail to one of our costumes. This year's detail is an official 2014 Peachtree Road Race number. It was an easy add but I'm pretty freaking excited about it. 36 hours to go - see you on PEACHTREE STREET! XO - Cullen

Crawfish holiday!

Every year the Boudreaux family Good Friday reunion turns me into the crawfish equivalent of Forrest Gump's friend Bubba. Faced with a table of crawfish casseroles I do not hold back! Crawfish and corn soup, crawfish jambalaya, crawfish with lima beans, crawfish with spicy potatoes, boiled crawfish, crawfish au gratin, fried crawfish, stuffed crawfish bisque...

ROAD TRIP!!

To celebrate the New Year, Oliver and I took a road trip to Texas. We spent New Years Eve in Austin and then made stops in a few different places during the drive back to Atlanta. Austin didn't quite live up to it's self proclaimed status as "weird" but there were a lot of cool things about the city that I thought Atlanta could learn from. In particular, public support for bicycling and beer. I was so impressed by the amount of bike parking. All over the city there were entire parking spots devoted to bike lock ups (in Atlanta we're lucky to find one tiny lock up on the sidewalk). The beers laws are also more progressive then those in Atlanta. In Austin the growler shops doubled as bars - something currently illegal in Georgia. 

Instead of writing about our favorite spots from the road trip I've made them into "pins" so be sure to check out Pinterest page! Happy New Year!

Christmas 2013

 

Christmas Crafting

Nothing says "happy holidays" quite like glitter and pinecones! To thank everyone for their continued to support for And Topher Too I wanted to share a few Christmas craft projects that I did this year. Enjoy!

How to make

Snowy Pine Cone Ornaments

• Gather newly fallen pine cones. (Be sure they are not crushed or too fragile.)

• Spray with High Performance Enamel white spray paint. 

• Once dry screw in tiny hook eyes. Thread with a 7 inch length of .125" satin ribbon. Tie ribbon into loop.

• Paint the the bottom of the pinecone (around the hook eye) with opaque white gesso. While wet sprinkle gesso with glitter. (For this project I used a chunky glitter that I think resembles snowflakes.) Repeat this step for the tips/sides of the pinecone. Hang to dry (I balanced a chop stick on pint glasses and dangled the ornaments from there).

• Finish your snowy pinecone ornament with a bow (wait until the gesso is completely dry). I used a lot of different bows on mine: black satin, red grosgrain, green grosgrain. Some of the ornaments were personalized with "2013" or an initial; for that I used the Martha Stewart glitter glue. To permanently attach the bow in front of the hook eye use hot glue.

How to make

Retro Tinsel Stars

• Purchase paper mache stars. These are from Michaels Craft & Hobby store but you can also buy them online.
• Prime with opaque white gesso. 
• Once dry paint stars with metallic silver acrylic paint. Let dry overnight.
• Working in sections, coat the star in clear PVA glue then sprinkle your preferred glitter over glue. Using your finger tip lightly pat the glitter into the glue. PVA dries fast so don't make your sections too big! I used Martha Stewart "tinsel" glitter.
• To personalize each ornament I added a black velvet chipboard letter. The ones shown here are from the Anna Griffin Darcey collection. Hot gluing the letter to the center of the ornament was a little tricky; be sure to think through how the letter's individual shape will sit on the convex point of the star's belly. 
• Once the letter is securely in place add the ribbon. Tie an 8 inch length of 1" ribbon into a pretty knot. Tuck knot between letter and ornament and hot glue into place. 

Atlanta Holiday Highlights

The holiday season is here and Atlanta's diverse creative community is ready to celebrate with an impressive variety of performances! With so much to choose from there really is something for everyone. Feeling traditional? Go see the Christmas Carol at the Alliance Theater or the Nutcracker Ballet at the Fox. Looking to validate your holiday cynicism? Head to Little Five Points for Santaland Diaries and the John Waters Christmas (one night only, one man show). Prefer a little nostalgia during the holidays? Make plans to be at the Plaza theatre for a screening of It's a Wonderful Life. Comedy? Dad's Garage offers a fun twist on the Christmas Carol. Scary? Krampus Crawl cannot be missed. Excuse to dance the night away? Annual Merry Y'all Tide with Blair Crimmons and the Holiday Hootenanny at Terminal West. ( I don't think I can twist O's arm to join me for all of these so if someone wants to join me for a girls' night out just say the word!)

11/21-11/24 Urban Nutcracker at the Ferst Center. "Urban Nutcracker" takes place on Atlanta’s own Sweet Auburn Avenue in the 1940s. "Urban Nutcracker" is to "The Nutcracker" as what "The Wiz" is to "The Wizard of Oz." 

11/22-12/31 Santaland Diaries at Horizon Theater. The annual performance of beloved NPR satirist, David Sedaris's tale of working as an elf in Macy's Santaland. 

11/25-12/23 Invasion: Christmas Carol at Dad's Garage.  Every evening the audience will choose a new "invader" (who a is complete surprise to the cast and can be anything from a big purple monster to Paula Deen) to infiltrate the world of Scrooge. It's up to the cast to keep the story on track, but because this year will be bursting with even more improv flavor than last year, things are guaranteed to get even nuttier than a Cornish game hen!

11/29-12/29 Christmas Carol at the Alliance Theater.

12/5-12/29 Nutcracker Ballet at the Fabulous Fox Theater

12/6 It's a Wonderful Life at the Plaza 

12/7 Krampus Crawl in Little Five Points.  Krampus is the rarely mentioned counterpart to Santa. While Santa is bringing treats to good boys and girls, Krampus is punishing the bad ones. The horned beastly creature is pretty scary and the costumes that accompany his pub crawl are well done. This event is not for the young or conservative! 

12/7 5th Annual Merry Y'all Tide with Whiskey Gentry and Blair Crimmons & the Hookers.  (Same night as Krampus Crawl - really interested in seeing how these two subcultures interact on the streets of L5P!)

12/12 John Waters Christmas at Variety Playhouse.  An unforgettable one man show! John Waters pokes fun at the holiday season with adult-appropriate humor, effectively “putting the X in Xmas”.

12/14 Gremlins at the Center for Puppetry Arts. (Asking yourself how Gremlins relates to Christmas? Gizmo was a Christmas gift! Aw, poor little mogwi.)

12/21 Kingsized Christmas with the Big Mike Gier and the Dames Aflame. The all-ages 90-minute show features Holiday favorites by the likes of Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Andy Williams, Heat Miser, The Grinch and more!

12/22 3rd Annual Atlanta Holiday Hootenanny at Terminal West. Featuring:  Randall Bramblett, John Cowan, Col. Bruce Hampton, The Mosier Brothers, Grant Green Jr., Caroline Aiken, Count M'Butu, Donna Hopkins, Jeff Sipe Trio, Yonrico Scott, Mark Van Allen, Bobby Miller, Jeff Autry, Diane Durrett, Gaurav Malhotra, Leah Calvert, Ralph Roddenbery. 

38th Annual Grant Park MothBall

MothBall was almost a month ago and I'm still struggling for words to describe the experience. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about: MothBall is Grant Park's annual costume ball. The theme changes year to year; the 2013 theme was Hootenanny. How this all relates to me/And Topher Too? I was this year's Grant Park Neighborhood Association (GPNA) MothBall Committee Chair; as such I led a team of 10 Grant Park volunteers for three months. Together we brainstormed and built the entire party from the ground up. A task that sounded simple enough in the beginning but turned out to be extremely challenging. (You wouldn't believe the number of unpredictable complications that never stopped being hurtled in our direction. Even three hours before show time we were still confronting unexpected challenges).  

Fortunately, karma bestowed upon me a team of genuinely talented, hard working and supportive volunteers* that made the process fun, friendly and unforgettable. My sincerest thanks go out not only to the 2013 MothBall Core Committee but also to every single neighbor who showed their support. Three weeks after the event and we're still hearing rave reviews. If a picture is worth a thousand words then check out the photos below to see the looks of pure joy on everyones' faces.

(*Paul & Christy Simo, Jeff Rodgers, Lauren Rocereta & Rob Bernier - y'all are amazing. Thank you for your patience, brilliance and encouragement! You're the best neighbors ever.)

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MothBall Core Committee marching in the EAV Strut Parade

And Topher Too - Proud 2013 MothBall sponsor

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Time flies when you're....

If I manage to write this post in under an hour then I'll be able to say it's only been a month since I last checked in.  For the first time in three years I've been too busy too go to the gym regularly or make time for my weekly trip to Your DeKalb Farmers Market. Folks - if you know me, you know skipping those lifestyle commitments is a HUGE deal. So what gives? Festivals, party planning, costume making and print designs. Yet despite the hectic schedule, I haven't been this proud to be an Atlantan since 1996. 

Anyone who has lived in the city of Atlanta  (proper, not 'burbs)  knows that Atlantans LIVE for their spring and fall festivals. For me, fall festival season started 3 days after I planted the late summer garden. First there was the Decatur BBQ, Blues & Bluegrass Fest; a week later was Grant Park's Summer Shade Fest and the following weekend is what I'm officially declaring "the best weekend to be in Atlanta" - LABOR DAY WEEKEND! 

My Labor Day weekends in Atlanta are highlighted by my bicycle. Everything we do for three days is within biking distance:  Braves game Thursday or Friday night. Dragon*Con Parade Saturday morning always followed by lunch with friends at Elliot Street Tavern in Castleberry Hill before heading to the Georgia Dome to check out SEC Football kick-off weekend tailgates. Saturday night, Sunday and Monday are chocked full of unusually awesome party options. Our 2013 Labor Day weekend was so perfect that it was impossible to imagine the next weekend was going to be even better.

The following Saturday was both the Porter's 5th anniversary and the Beltline Lantern Parade. Sunday, Street's Alive and the NFL kick-off game between the Falcons and Saints. Saturday morning I woke up early to finish costumes for the the #GothMoths, then I put those costumes and my bike into our pick-up truck. I drove to Cabbagetown where I dropped off the costumes. Next I drove to Midtown, dropped off the truck, hopped onto my bike and took the Beltline to Little Five Points just in time for the Porter's 5th Anniversary. A few hours later: Little Five Points to Inman Park where we met up with the #GothMoths and participated in the jaw dropping Beltline Lantern Parade. At the end of the Beltline everyone hopped into the truck (which I'd purposely left in Midtown earlier in the day) and headed back to our side of the city. Sunday my Mom joined me for the Bicycle Parade along Peachtree Street. That night was the Grant Park Neighborhood Association monthly meeting - which leads me to the next part of being so busy.

I'm quite flattered and proud to say that I'm now the VP of Fundraising for Grant Park - my primary role being the subcommittee Chair of the annual MothBall celebration. When I accepted the nomination I anticipated party planning; I did not expect the world of contracts and licenses and meetings and notes that followed!! Regardless, this has been an invaluable learning experience and I look forward to sharing more of the details - when I have time!! If you don't already like gpMothBall on Facebook please do so now; it means a lot (read: too much) to me!

(More Dragon*Con parade photos on our FB page!)

 

Memorial Day on Saint Simons Island

We spent the holiday weekend with my Dad and his wife at their home on Saint Simons Island. Saturday we waterskied on the Frederica River (where I spotted 12 dolphins), Sunday we kayaked through the tidal marshes surrounding the island and Monday night we paid our respects to the nation's veterans at a memorial in the village. If you haven't been to Georgia's Golden Coast then I highly recommend a visit! Between the islands of Saint Simons, Jekyll and Cumberland there is so much to do and see! (More details in my post from last year.)