Carnival

It's soon Carnival! (Mardi Gras). To celebrate this festive occasion the Bookbinding Team of Etsy (BEST) is hosting an online exhibition/contest much like we did for Halloween. I joined the fun and entered an accordion-style artist book. An artist book differs from my usual books because it has content of some sort. My book is best displayed opened up as a sculpture with the pages being a mixed-media expression of the colors - and feathers - of this festive day. You can visit the BEST blog and vote for your favorite book (mine is called "mixed media" on the ballot).

I have never been to Mardi Gras, I did however have the good fortune to visit Carnival in Malta when I was there. It was CRAZY. No, not crazy in a girls-showing-boobs-for-beads-while-being-really-drunk sort of way. It was very much like being plopped into another culture's very specific holiday celebration and feeling very very much like a tourist. There was a big show with costumed dancers and characters, sort of like a marching band type of show. There was a parade with huge floats that people were carrying. I remember at one point the parade stopped for a short while and a guy starting peeing from under one of the floats. How awkward. Later that night everyone was costumed and there was much ado about food vendors, music, and fun.

Perhaps we'll have a little mardi gras celebration in our house since we missed out on Valentines Day because of a bad case of stomach flu (Peter). We were in the ER all day Saturday (IVs and ultrasounds) and Sunday was a day of recuperating. No heart shaped pancakes...wonk wonk wooonk.