HL Does NOLA from A to Z: F is for FUNKY FLEURTY FUN

F is for funky fleurty fun, and you’ll find it all in one small block of Magazine Street.

Let’s start our little shopping spree at the Funky Monkey, a purveyor of vintage clothing and accessories, costumes, and wigs. Need a pair of pink go-go boots? Funky Monkey has that. What about the perfect bright blue bobbed wig? Yep, it’s there. A Superman costume for Mardi Gras? Funky Monkey is your place. If you can imagine it, you’ll probably find it in the Funky Monkey. From vintage t-shirts to formal gowns, the clothing racks are full of items you won’t be able to live without once you’ve seen them. You may need to buy another suitcase for your return trip home.

And then there’s Fleurty Girl. Fleurty Girl’s story will make you believe in the American dream:

Fleurty Girl was born out of a vision of New Orleans-native, Lauren Thom. Using just $2,000 from her 2009 tax return, this single mother of three put everything she had into printing t-shirts that celebrated New Orleans. Just six months after launching her online store, she opened her first retail store on historic Oak Street and moved her and her family in the back of the old shotgun house. “We all crammed in the back of that house in order to see if this would work. We went from 2,000 square feet to just under 1,000. My kids went from each having their own rooms to having to all share one room together. People said I was crazy, but I believed in this.”

Fleurty Girl has the perfect New Orleans souvenirs (and by that I mean not the tacky kind). You’ll find beautiful dish towels, original artwork, scarves, soaps, and more. And those t-shirts? They’re not the French Quarter tourist trap sort of things. My human mommy’s favorite is the one that says, “The longer you live in New Orleans, the more unfit you become to live anywhere else.” So true.

Last stop for the day: Funrock’n, which describes itself as “a dimestore for the 21st century.” Where do I even start? Inflatable flamingo inner tubes, leggings printed with hamburgers, old-school xylophones (for the inner child in all of us), and so much more. You just need to visit. You’ll have a rock’n good time. Trust me.

And now that we’ve shopped until we dropped, I’m a little tired. Time for some rest because we have another big adventure scheduled for tomorrow.

This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Please click here for a link to the challenge homepage and a list of  the bloggers who are participating.