Carnival costumes: Tangled up in FEMA blue

*If you're still struggling to come up with a good Carnival costume idea, you might want to check out some of the clever handmade offerings at http://www.etsy.com.

Etsy "enabler" Erin Haldrup is coming to New Orleans to continue the work that the Etsy community started with craftrevolution.etsy.com, and she'll be recruiting artists who don't yet know about Etsy and helping them set up shop. From Erin:

"I'll be bringing a video camera, conducting interviews and putting together a documentary about people who make things (costumes, art, house renovation etc.)...I used to live there so the story won't be just an out of towner's perspective :) It'll have the inside scoop."

Erin will be hosting a meeting for New Orleans Etsy sellers and all interested artists at Mimi's (2601 Royal St.) at 2pm on Valentines day. (Thanks once again to RW for the heads-up.)

*Here's the online Q&A with Lolis Eric Elie that followed publication of his aforementioned piece.