Do you remember the time?

Just when we were starting to feel a sense of normalcy again post Katrina, BP sideswiped us again with this horrific disaster. It is so hard to post shiny happy discoveries and newly created ETSY items when the sense that our community is shifting towards some unspoken abyss is in the room.Never a one to take token media observations at their word (hey this is the house where pirate radio tried to take a choke hold on the airwaves one week after Katrina only to be scared off by the Gretna PD), I ventured down to see for myself what was going on.

Grand Isle was frighteningly quiet. Not a soul combed the streets except for news outlets and army vehicles. Fresh signs detailing holiday rentals, parties to come held deflated balloons and the sense of energy expended for naught.Like a canceled birthday party or runaway bride, the town known for its memorial day festivities had the air of impending doom as if cancer had just been declared.

The beach, usually strewn with families, hungover revelry,the feckless enjoyment of the sea sight was festooned with white tents and white suited workers, organized and prodded by olive drab butlers.It was straight outta Margaret Atwood. You would expect the sea to be birthing aliens, three headed lochness monsters, detritus of science fiction nightmares. Instead it was murky sand.

The bags looked to be filled with sandy lab experiments gone wrong, molasses spilled over burnt cornbread,the earth's tears.

I've always tended towards dramatic observations myself. Tears come to me easily as do reckonings that are lumpy and uncomfortable. This sight and the consequent thoughts remind me of a diagnosis, a waiting for the hangman, 16 hours on a highway with no clear knowledge of where we are going or what we are leaving. This place wrenches you with love and horror. It tests your faith and hope. It leaves you slack jawed and wordless-thrown into the unknown.

New Designs and Old Ideas from down de bayou

I've been trying to get some of these designs out for Spring before Summer actually hits down by de bayou. We've had a brief cool spell- mornings and evenings have been great. Well until the winds changed this evening and that awful burning oil smell hit.



Thanks everyone for crossing your fingers for me last week. Everything went just fine just waiting to see what happens.Or if nothing does. Either way, I'll let yall know when I know more myself.



Until then I am working on these designs and phasing out some of my other collections. We're trying to hit the beach before the oil comes further inland and some other travel and interesting summer plans.

I've been working on a book proposal off and on the past year. I'm going home in the next few weeks and hope to get my mother's help with the outline. She's been a librarian for almost 45 years and of course reads constantly. My hope is to phase out some of my designs, stick with the ones that are working and spend more time writing,so we shall see.

I'll keep you posted when more details become available. See yall later, K

Getting Ready for my Big Day

Well I have something coming up. I cant talk about it because it is jinxable. Jinxable as in please cross your fingers as it is something I have wanted for like forever, like 15 years forever or maybe just ten years because it didnt seem possible at all 15 years ago.



And like everything else that seems to happen these days, it came up spur of the moment and because of ETSY, so wow thanks to that wonderful place this is possible.



And now I have to go deliver all of these things and I wont be able to get good pictures because it has been raining or windy or we've had an oil spill smell wafting through the air so the outdoors has been off limits.

Well so here goes and please cross your eyes, fingers and everything else for me! Hopefully some good news will come, but if not, it's still wonderful that this was possible, like really really, so yay Bayou Salvage.

xoxoxo, see yall later,
Kerry

My one of a kind VINTAGE Liberty of London Ruffle TanksGetting Ready for Shows and Jazz Fest Season

It's Jazz Fest time down de bayou- the past few years that seems to mean rainboots and ponchos. I was hoping my new raincoats would be ready to sell by now but issues with the fabric have come up. So its back to the drawing board and maybe by monsoon season (July?) I'll have them ready to launch.

In the meantime, I'm working on incorporating the vintage liberty fabrics my Aunt ALice left me into everything possible for Spring and Summer.I sold out of all 50 at Round Top by the first weekend so am really hoping the Farmchicks show the same love until my copycats arrive. It was disappointing to hear I had a copy cat at Round Top - just two booths over this time- every garment, every accessory, bleh. I've always got tons of ideas anyway, so that's fine- it was just a bit of a drag. Just wait til Fall Marburger salvagistas!

Anyhoo, I'm churning these tops out and enjoying April in New Orleans. It's a bit rainy but lovely all the same.Hoping my next pics will be MAY FLOWERS!

Seasons Change & Good Times Down on the (urban) Farm

What a difference a month makes. It was still a bit chilly and rainy last post. Then the sun came out and I got busy planting:



I know most people are busy plotting their victory gardens full of tomatoes and butterbeans, but down de bayou we get real serious about flowers! My grandmother made me work in her garden every summer, and bless her heart at 87, she still tills the soil up every spring and under every September. I prefer the garden full of flowers, and if the plants also yield something to eat, great. I truly dont trust the soil here, nor feel much comfort in food grown in plastic containers out in the hot heat with icky miracle grow (plant food should not be blue).

After planting my seeds, I hit some estate sales:



I love this color of vintage pink. Its not peach, not pink. My mother would call it shrimp.

Speaking of shrimp, fish meal makes the best fertilizer. You can get a quart of it at Whole Foods and it will last all summer long. I used to use chicken manure but it made my flowers too leggy. It does smell better than fish meal though...



I'm hoping that these plants will all grow. We lost almost every plant in the yard during the freeze: plants that all lived through Katrina, trees I nursed in planters year after year until able to buy my house,plants given to me by my Aunt Alice who is no longer with us. The yard looks a bit forlorn, and uncared for so we shall see. I have planted all of the sunflowers I can find and taking small solace in vignettes seen while sitting in the garden- soft focus preferred.



So two weeks I got this lovely french vintage ticking at auction. I couldnt resist and lay awake at night thinking of things to do with it. I am busy trying to keep these paws off of it:



A very helpful garden gnome who likes to chew the peat pockets and barks at the cats who try to jump in the flats of seedlings. Who doesnt love spring?