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Stanley Stager's Whirlwind Tour of the Acadiana Region of Louisiana

STANLEY THE STAGER WAS HERE!

It was so exciting for the "Feature This..." Real Estate Staging Team to finally get to meet Stanley this December 2008. He actually slept under our roof, and we had to pinch ourselves to make sure we weren't dreaming. He is just as handsome in person as he is on film. We had the honor to show him all around Cajun Country. And he is so down to earth for such a famous person!

Stanley was a fountain of knowledge on most every job we tackled the week he was here. He helped us with a number of different projects, including some kitchen tile work, painting and installing crown moulding, shopping at Walmart,, Home Depot, Lowes, Bed Bath and Beyond, Hobby Lobby, and back to Home Depot three more times in one week. He decorated a Christmas tree for one of our clients all by himself while Carol and I ate Christmas Cookies and drank eggnog. He wasn't even mad that we didn't help him much.

He came up with some FABULOUS ideas, including a great way to use sheet metal for inexpensive retro-style drawer-pull back-plates on another job we had going on, and showed us exactly how to create & install them. He also taught use how to use spray adhesive to get the dresser drawers to practically line themselves with gray flannel fabric!

He ate everything we put in front of him, including frogs legs, crawfish etouffee (a-too-fay), turtle sauce piquant, and a kind of rice and pork dish served in a pork intestine, called Boudain (boo-dahn). He especially enjoyed it when we put a local specialty, Steen's Cane Syrup, on it, just the way the old Cajuns eat it.

He liked it so much, we had to take him to the factory so he could find out what the heck was in it. That Stanley will eat just about anything, we found. He even put on a little weight while he was here. He said he could use a little junk in his trunk!

One of the days of his visit, he and I went shopping for art, and I showed him one of my favorite places in the quaint town of Breaux Bridge... the photography studio and gallery of Sonny Monteleone. He was very impressed and moved by Sonny's work.

On our last day with Stanley, he gave me some pointers on a tile installation we had scheduled. He calculated the materials, and supervised our work.

He's certainly no stranger to the tools of the trade, and his experience in the field makes him a top-notch creative and economical solution-finder.

We had such a great time stomping all over Cajun Country, staging and sightseeing. Stanley has a very funny sense of humor. He pretended to propose to me at the big church in Abbeville, and again in front of the Abbeville Courthouse. Oh, if he only knew how badly I wished he wasn't joking around! He is soooo cute and fun to be around.

He had to leave us to go see Michelle Minch in Pasadena, California. But before he left, he gave me an autographed picture of himself. I took Matthew Finlanson's picture out of the frame by my bedside, and now, that spot is reserved for Stanley and only Stanley.

I miss him terribly, and hope he comes back for a visit real soon.

Isn't his jumbo earlobe SEXY ???!!!!!

~Michelle Molinari

Certified Professional Stager, Feature This... Real Estate Staging, www.FeatureThisDotDotDot.com
Lead Virtual Designer, www.CurbAppealForDummies.com
President, Acadiana Real Estate Staging Association, www.AcadianaRESA.com

Posted by Michelle Molinari on 12/30/2008 07:12 PM

Comments (13)

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Originally posted at: The Feature This... Conceptual Staging Blog: Stanley Stager's Whirlwind Tour of the Acadiana Region of Louisiana

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13 Comments on Stanley Stager's Whirlwind Tour of the Acadiana Region of Louisiana

DEC

Michelle ~ You are a hoot! Love the way you jumped right into this visit with Stanley and shared his visit to your neck of the woods!

DEC

OK Michelle, now I have to put a lot more effort into entertaining Stanley, who arrived today via FedEx. You've set the bar awfully high.

I originally planned to have him help me clean out my basement tomorrow, clean out the refrigerator, take the dogs for a walk and drop off a bunch of donations at Goodwill. I guess I'll have to think of some more interesting stuff for him to do.

If he is a good boy we'll go out for some filet mignon or lobstah for dinner and then stroll down Orange Grove Blvd. and watch them setting up the Rose Parade floats.

Michelle M.-

I think he'd love to eat at a nice restaurant...all he got here was roadkill and more roadkill.

~the other Michelle M.

Oh.. I just can't stop laughing Michelle. I am so glad that you had fun with Stanley. Our main wish is to weave staging spirit among the people that we cannot meet in person. From the sound of your first visit... this should be a fun way to follow Stanley's travels. Love all the pics and I know that he just had so much fun. Best to you!! ;))) We will see if he survives the Rose Parade.

Oh.. you know what they say about jumbo earlobes ;)

JAN

Thanks for sending him, Lori Kim. We all got into it!

Yes, I have heard that earlobe theory. Have you heard the "thin guy" theory? I think Stanley might just have a lot to offer to the right woman.

~Michelle

That's so funny Michelle! I couldn't wait to see your post about Stanley's visit. You've raised the bar pretty high. I'm going to have a tough time topping that when he comes to visit me :-)

Thanks Charlene,

But somehow I just don't believe that Ontario, Canada couldn't somehow possibly, maybe, offer Stanley just as interesting an experience than we did out here in the bayou. I have complete faith the rest of his visits will fantastic to read about, and I am so excited to see even more pics of my handsome Hunka-Hunka Burning Love!

I just hope I don't hear that he gave Ms. Minch a New Years Eve kiss, or anyone else, for that matter!

~Michelle

JAN

Michelle, so this is what I get for being 'out of the Rain' for so long...when I started reading your blog, I was wondering who this 'Stanley' person was...perhaps a new HGTV personality that I've somehow missed. As I read on, I "got it"! My friend just entertained "Flat Stanley" during his visit to NY via her granddaughter in Arizona. She had more fun with that piece of paper and trying to figure out places to take pictures of him. At one point, she had him posed ready to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge! Love this concept! Glad you had fun with Stanley!

Val

How fun! I hope that I get a visit from Stanley. Although your visit/blog will be a tough act to follow. I would love to be able to demonstrate that there are LOTS of things to do here in the big "O". Omaha is not a farm town.

Will I have to eat turtles and other road kill if I ever come to your neck of the woods? I am really hoping that isn't a requirement!

JAN

Val - Thanks! And it was fun. I took loads of pics... Stanley did a few things that were so off-color I couldn't use them.

Tori Lynn -You can try it if you want to! Stanley, in my opinion, was VERY BRAVE. Honestly, I personally refuse eat most of it..I was actually raised in Huntington Beach, California, and I just can't handle it. My family is from this part of Louisiana, and there are 100's of relatives within a five mile radius from my house. But they really do eat like that here. I was once invited to eat squirrel gumbo at a cousin's house. I declined to partake. I have had frog, and it tastes, looks and fries exactly like chicken. I mean exactly. You'd never know the difference. Alligator farms around here are run by my family members, who harvest the meat and the hides. I don't like to eat ANYTHING that could one day eat me back, so I don't do alligator. But here, they absolutely do eat raccoon, nutria rat, and turtles.

Can't bring myself to eat the turtle, but the nearest place to buy a coke from my house sells gallons of turtle sauce piquant every day, called Suire's Grocery and Restaurant:

From Dixie Dining.Com :

Suire's - Kaplan (Added November, 2005)
(13923 Highway 35 South, 318 643-8911) Suire's slogan is: "If you want country cooking, come to the country." Located in an old grocery store (with an ice bin out front) just south of Kaplan, Suire's serves up some of the best local gumbo. The portions on the seafood platter are big enough to make a "skinny man fat and a fat man weep." Their cuisine -- turtle sauce piquant, alligator poboys, homemade tarts and pecan pie, catfish topped etouffee -- has received rave reviews in The New York Times and The Dallas Morning News.

And as far as boudain goes, it could very well be the answer to world peace...it's absolutely delicious.

So come at your own risk... Andrew Zimmern (from the show Bizarre Foods) visited our area just last year. But I promise...if you eat at my house, I won't trick you into eating possum chili (they eat that here, too).

~Michelle

Michelle ~ What a fun post. My daughter made a Stanley when she was in the third grade. She mailed it to a friend that had moved to Alabama. It was so much fun to read all the kids reports on their Stanley's trip.

JAN

Cute post - looks like y'all kept Stanley pretty busy, but not too busy to enjoy some real Cajun food!

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