Photo: Robin Plaskoff Horton

I’ve not been taking it easy in the Big Easy the past few days helping my daughter move into her apartment and trying to furnish it on a dime (a challenge but doable.) In between, I’ve been sipping Sazeracs and looking for the last oyster left in the city since the oil spill, and have also had a little time to snap a few pictures of inspiring things in NOLA.

Sign Painter, Simon Hardeveld. Photo: Postcards From the World’s Edge

While strolling Magazine Street in search of a dresser that wouldn’t require a second mortgage, we happened upon sign painter Simon Hardeveld’s outdoor studio. My daughter was immediately enamored with his Laissez Le Bon Temps Roulez sign. Sold. Let the good times roll…

Photo: Robin Plaskoff Horton

Simon’s shop, eponymously named Simon of New Orleans, shares space with his wife Marie’s antiques store. Among the haphazard collection of found things on display, was this rusted metal bench. If I lived here, I would have grabbed it. By the end of the day, my daughter reminded me that I had spoken that phrase one time too many.

Lovely blooms frame the front of a house in the aptly named Garden District. Photo: Robin Plaskoff Horton

Ah, life’s a bench. I wanted to sit here and contemplate all the nice folks I had met, all the wonderful rebuilding I had observed since my last visit a year ago. But there were more mom duties to perform: matte silver stenciling on the lilac wall, helping my daughter decide which of the 4 purchased duvets she should keep, what found object we might turn into a bedside table. I’m advocating for the large upside-down flower pot we saw, but then I’m kind of partial to garden decor.