You will never have to pay to be listed as a top neighbor. Period. That important detail clarified, let's discuss how we arrive at two "top neighbors" for a given region:
Localism is a bustling collection of hyper-local communities, and the top neighbors should reflect those members who are most active. When ranking users in a given region, several factors are considered. To get your foot in the proverbial door, you need to have posted at least one "Localism" article or photo for the region.
The very best way to quickly rise to #1 is to post high-quality local content. Keeping a steady strem of incoming posts and photos will massively tilt the scales in your favor.
What doesn't count toward the top neighbor ranking? ActiveRain points and community sponsorships. The top neighbor spots will always go to the most active members in a region. We want to create a level playing field that encourages the growth of communities — talent and dedication are required to win the day.
The 25th edition of the Giant Omelette Celebration was a success this past weekend in Abbeville, LA. There was some rain in the forecast but it stayed at bay long enough for thousands to enjoy good music, good food, and of course, a taste (or two) of the omelette. Below are a few pictures I took yesterday in downtown Abbeville.
This is all the chefs getting together for a photo op before the cooking started.
The preparation of an omelette with 5,025 eggs in it also requires lots of butter, 52 pounds to be exact. It also requires 50 pounds of onions, 75 bell peppers, 4 gallons of onion tops and 2 gallons of parsley among other ingredients. Since the celebration began 25 years ago, they add one egg to the recipe every year, which is why there are now 5025 eggs in the omelette.
The chefs took turn stirring the omelette on the hot open fire.
Once the omelette was done, all the chefs raised their cooking tools (giant wooden rakes and boat paddles) and started serving to the crowd.
I took this picture to show a little bit of downtown Abbeville. I love the architecture and what has been done in the past few years to spruce up the town.
That's it folks! See you next year, November 6th & 7th, 2010, for another Giant Omelette Celebration!
The Giant Omelette Celebration is going on this weekend in Abbeville. If you've never seen a giant omelette, just imagine a 12-foot skillet with 5,025 eggs in it. Quite impressive, to say the least.
There was a kick-off party Thursday night in the park downtown Abbeville and I was invited to play the T-Fer (triangle) with a couple of my friends (traditional Cajun music). That was a lot of fun!
9:00 Giant Omelette/Faith House & Kaplan Food Bank Poker Run Sponsored by The Survivors Riding Club
9:00 Official Mass St. Mary Magdalen NOTE: Due to the work being done in St. Mary Magdalen Church the 2009 Omelette Mass will be held at the Vermilion Catholic High School Auditorium.
There were 8 homes sold in Maurice, LA (zip 70555) in the third quarter this year. Prices varied from $36K for a 1 bedroom, 1 bath HUD home to $325K for a 4 bedroom, 3 baths home on Soop Rd. Three of these 8 sales were in La Premiere Subdivision and they sold for an average of $114.77 per square foot.
Overall, sales were up in Maurice in the third quarter this year from 4 homes sold in the first quarter and 6 in the second quarter. When compared to last year, more homes sold in the first two quarter of 2008 than in 2009 but the third quarter was better this year.
There are currently 19 homes available in Maurice, LA starting at $49K for a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath home to $579K for a 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths with 3474 square feet of living area.
Here's 10 great reasons to start thinking about your Curb Appeal now, and what you can do to save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on your Spring project today!
1. Contractors, Craftsmen, Landscapers, and Laborers all feel the holiday pinch this time of year. Jobs always dwindle for these hardworking folks in the fall and winter. That means quotes will be leaner as competition gets stiffer. Scheduling any work that fall into these fields of expertise now could really free up your budget to include more than you thought you could afford to have done. Call on these good people NOW, and you'll have more $$ to work with. Stretch that contractor budget to it's MAXIMUM CAPACITY!
2. NOW is the proper time to fertilize your grass and feed your perennials one more time before they go dormant for the winter. One afternoon dose-ing your lawn, shrubs, and flowers on a single crisp fall day will allow you months of longer-performing, healthier plants for months in the Spring and Summer growing season.
3. Pruning trees & shrubs now will also go a long way to improve the overall appearance and health of your existing greenery. Removing unnecessary branches and leaves in the Fall allows the plant to concentrate it's nutrients on the remaining branches, allowing for a more lush look in the Spring - and pruning is FREE... if you do it yourself!
]4. Ever been to the nursery in the fallthis time of year? They are GIVING away plants- really good plants, too. They may need a bit of winter TLC, but you can easily find a $79.99 starter wisteria for $only 29.99, sometimes in a decorative pot, too. Take advantage of the bargains, and "baby" them a bit through until Spring, and you'll be rewarded with a beautiful plant, and a job well done, as well as saving a TON off your landscaping costs. THe plants you were going to buy in the spring had to be babied by someone, so it's not like you are buying "old" plants. You are just doing the babying, and saving HUNDREDS in the process!
5. Time is on your side - so look NOW for patio sets, water features, automated watering systems, door mats, door bells, and flowerbed edging! A deal is only a deal if you can take time to shop around. So do your comparison shopping, so you'll know a good price when you see one, and then buy all sorts of things you'd be paying for at a MUCH higher price in the Spring.
6. It's a great time to do minor DIY repairs - fixing the window caulk, replacing the weather stripping around the doors, swapping out a beat up threshold for a nice new one, or replacing a cracked piece of window glass... start ticking off your "honey-do" list now and maybe save a buck or two on your energy bill in the process!
7. While you are plotting out where to diplay your exterior holiday finery to it's utmost, go check out www.RoofReviver.com. They have an excellent D-I-Y solution to get that black streaky smut off your roof for less than $100, no scubbing, nor even bending! It will shave YEARS off your homes appearance, and it leaves your roof not only clean, but protected!
8. Give even the littlest kids something fun to do... and save even MORE money! Consider helping the kids have an interesting winter activity by starting some seeds in paper cups for a few cents rather than buying 20 filler plants or color plants for $17.99 a pop!
9. And don't forget the older ones! Spend some quality time with your teen and help them build a garden bench, flower boxes, a couple of pair of mock (non-operable) shutters or an entire picnic dining set.
10. And our most important time-saving, cost-saving tip of all...
Take advantage of the 10% Fall & Winter discount off the our exclusive Curb Appeal Strategy Package- a 12+ page assessment of your property's "appeal" , including specific advice with precise remedies for creating cohesion & balance. You'll not only get our best customized advice, you'll get a suggested color palette with LARGE paint chips and a cutting edge conceptual image of what your house will look like if you take our advice and execute the plan. Call us and order yours today! ONLY $159.99! Don't forget to ask for your 10% Off-Season Smarty-Pants Discount
Best of Skill to you!
Michelle Molinari
Certified Staging Professional, Feature This... Real Estate Staging,www.FeatureThisDotDotDot.com
Earlier this year, our finishing carpenter, Paul, dedicated a lot of time, largely unpaid, for a project for a family member of ours who was "displaced" by Hurricane Ike.
To help repay our debt to him for his tireless efforts, we re-designed a guest bedroom in his house in Cow Island, Louisiana.
We had to break some pretty basic rules, but they were necessary.
Here's the layout we had to work with:
Please note the doors on every wall, causing furniture placement issues.
We had a HUGE Pre-Civil War 4-Poster (w/Canopy) Bed, that belonged to Paul's Grandfather. We also wanted to see a writing desk in this room. No closet - the house was built in the 30's and closets as we know them today were not invented yet, lol.
So, we had to edit a few distractions - chiefly being the single window, the awkward electrical box, and the secondary door to the office. In old houses in the South, doors were everywhere to take advantage of a any and every passing breeze. A room could not have enough doors during this design phase. The attached parlor has a large wardrobe closet. We hope to get to do that room this winter.
Here's the Before and Afters:
Our Team:
Recreated the Missing the Cypress Canopy
Sewed the Massive Wall Draperies
Created Custom Pillows to Tie in the Wainscoting
And Made the Stained Glass Window
It was loads of fun working with such fabulous period furniture. The desk is from Paul's wife's family. It was her travelling school-teacher mother's, and it actually was transported weekly from school to school in a covered wagon.
I dunno when we will get to work on a project as interesting as this one again. It was a kick!
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Take advantage of the 10% Fall & Winter discount off the our exclusive 
