Photo Shoot Photos!!!!

Hello folks! I am super excited today to see my jewelry photo shoot featured on the I Heart Photography Blog. They turned out beautifully and I'm so excited to get the disc to see the rest. Below are the photos from the featured post, but make sure to check it out to learn a bit more about my jewelry business and to check out the wonderful photography of Mrs. Melissa Cole! I don't have all of these pieces on my Etsy page yet, so if you happen to like something that has yet to be put up, just let me know!

All photos in this post were taken by Melissa Cole of I Heart Photography

You can also check out her work at her Facebook page

Busy Busy Busy!

Sorry for the long absence. I have been super busy, which is good. I'm also gearing up for a giveaway pretty soon. At the moment I'm just putting the final touches on some things. I'm hoping to have it up and ready by the 2nd week of May, so keep your eye out. I will give a little hint, it will consist of lovely handmade goods!
Nothing too exciting has happened, just the usual work and classes type thing, so no extra news. I have recently been trying to find a way to get back into natural history restoration. I've been trolling the internet trying to find complete animal skeletons so I can teach myself skeletal articulation. I have done a little in the past, (conserving and restoring it) but I've never started it from scratch. I thought it might be a fun little hobby to have on the side, plus it will allow me to use my degree, which I'm always trying so hard to do. So, if anyone know where to find well priced disarticulated animal skeletons, let me know!

On to an OOTD:

Details:

Top: Old Navy (several year back)
Skirt: Old Navy
Cardigan: Target
Belt: Target
Horrible Leggings: LB

This is actually an outfit from a few days back. I found this top in the back of my closet, which was great because I had completely forgotten about it. It used to be one of my favorites. It has really intricate embroidery which I just love. I'd wondered about it for a while, so yay for little closet surprises!!!

Spring Flowers

It's creeping up to a week since my last post. Apologies. I've been crazy busy with work and teaching certification classes, which started last Saturday. My certification classes have been going well and I've met some cool people. The only downside is my classes are Tuesdays from 6pm-9pm and all day Saturday. The Tuesday classes really take it out of me because I sub from 6:30am to 1:30pm, then go teach my art class from 2pm to 4:30pm, and then have my TC class from 6pm to 9pm. By the time I get home I'm exhausted!!! It's going to be hard to get used to it, but the more sub jobs I have in the morning the better! I'll get used to it.

On to an OOTD. I've actually worn a few cute outfits this week, all re-mixes, but I didn't photograph any of them. I did get today's though, so here we go.

OOTD:
Dress as Top: Old Navy
Shorts: Thrifted
Cardigan: Target
Backwards Belt: Torrid

Long time readers may remember this "top" from a post last September, if not, shame on you! Hahaha! Anyway, I had a love/hate relationship with the dress, but in the end I liked it. The only problem is, I literally have not touched this dress since that post. So, it just sits in my closet, like I don't even own it. The problem with it is simple, I have no where to wear it. To me, it's the kind of dress one wears to a desk job, a desk job that I just don't have. It's not really practical when working with kids, and I just don't go any where this would be practical. So there we are. Today I wanted to do something a bit different, so when I saw it hanging in the closet I thought I'd give it a go.  I have to say, I'm still not sold on it's practicality. I like how it looks as a top, but it's difficult. I try to tuck it in, but it comes out, causing an all day struggle. Ugh. I'm considering cutting it and just turning it in to a top permanently, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Not yet anyway.

Sneak Peek

I just wanted to give y'all a little sneak peek from the jewelry photo shoot on Thursday. I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest.

 

Photos by Melissa at I Heart Photography

Fun Fun Fun!!!

Today was a lot of fun! I had a photo shoot with an amazing photographer for my jewelry line. It was so much fun and I'm super excited to see how the photos turn out. I think they are going to be amazing!!! I don't want to say too much about it because I'm going to do a big post on the shoot when I get the photos. So, more to come.

Here's what I wore to the shoot.

OOTD Details:

Top: Old Navy
Inside Out Skirt: Old Navy
Cardigan: Target
Leggings: LB
Earrings & Brooch: Pretty Penny Mae Jewelry

This skirt went from my 'hard to wear pile' to being in regular wardrobe rotation. I now just love it and have come to realize that it goes well with most of the items in my closet.

7 Random Things

Hello Folks! The wonderful Mandy over at Chocolate and Cream Cake tagged me to do a 7 Random Things post, where I'm supposed to let my readers know 7 previously unknown bits about me. Now, I've been trying my best to do my Lazy Sunday posts where once a week I highlight 10 of my interests, but this one is a bit different, so I'm on board. Not to mention, I'm trying to be more open with my readers in hopes to learn more about y'all in the process. So here are my little facts...

1. I lived in 7 different cities in 3 different states before I was 13. We used to move approximately every 2 years. As an adult, I find myself often getting the 2 year itch to pick up & leave.

2. I can play the saxophone.

3. I have a condition called Hypermobility Syndrome, which basically means I'm more flexible than I should be. Most kids grow out of it, but I never did. Because of this I tend to frequently roll my ankles, which has caused several broken legs.

4. My first childhood crush was Gene Wilder. I was 6 years old.

5. My bachelorette party involved a 3am drunken fist fight with 5 strangers. It is one of my all time favorite nights/memories...ever.

6.  I'm writing a book on the history & functions of death masks in Western cultures. It's not near as macabre as it sounds.

7. I am an only child.

I'm going to pass it on to the folks below, so feel free to participate if you'd like...

1. Melissa at Maoiliosa
2. Beatrice at One More Curve
3. Hannah at An Old Story
4. Laura at Blog of Worldly Delights
5. Monkey at A Monkey Fatshionista

Nifty Thrifty!!!

Hello my lovelies! I just had to post about my most recent thrifted find! I'd like to start by saying, I have never ever found a dress that fit me in a thrift shop, until yesterday! My husband I were feeling lazy, so we went out for dinner last night. We weren't in the mood to go home, so we decided to pop by Savers to do some digging and I'm so glad we did. I was drawn to the Indian pattern of the dress, but after looking at it I was pretty convinced it wouldn't fit. I had a few other things I planned to try on, so I took it with me, and what do you know, it was the only thing that fit! I was super happy. As many of you may know, I'm poor, so buying something extra like a dress is a real no no right now. But, how was I supposed to pass up a dress that felt as though it was made for me? So, I spared my $7.00 and am super glad that I did!

I look tired in this photo because I was. My husband took it late at night in our tiny dark kitchen, so apologies for the poor quality.

 

OOTD Details:

Dress: Thrifted
Purple Tank: Old Navy
Cardigan: Target
Leggings: LB
Earrings: Were my Grandmothers

This dress is going to be great for those nasty hot Texas days. The only downside is, it's super low cut, so I'm always going to have to wear a tank underneath. If not there are going to be boobs all over the place!

I Need Help Because I'm a Wuss.

I've been wrestling over the idea of cutting my hair super short for the past few years. In an ideal world, I'd go straight for a no fuss pixie cut, but frankly, I'm scared. I've always had an "It's just hair" attitude, but this would be a pretty drastic change. I'm not a stranger to drastic hair changes. I naturally have pretty light blonde hair, but have been dying it dark brown/black for 10 years. In fact, when I was 17 I walked into the salon with lower back length blonde hair and walked out with chin length brown hair. I've loved it ever since and never looked back. Recently though, I've let my hair get out longer than it's been in 10 years. I have super fine hair, so it constantly mats, is a total pain in the ass to dye, and is just hard to do anything with. As you can probably see from my posts, it's always in a pony tail. Plus, it's too damn hot in Texas during the summer for this much hair!

My most recent style before I grew it out and the shortest it's been.

 Here are my super short hair fears...
1. My face isn't feminine enough to pull it off.
2. I'd end up looking like a husky 12 year old boy.
3. My hair is dead straight and it will look too severe because of it.

Now, I know I should probably be brave and not care if my face isn't feminine enough, because hey, I want short hair, but that isn't the case at all. I have this one little thing from when I was 10 years old that plagues me about having short hair. My mom gave me a chili bowl hair cut (yes the dreaded bowl) when I was 10. We went to the mall and I was trying my best to decide between two dolls, when this horrible little girl came up to me and said, "You don't want those, dolls are for girls". I just remember my eyes welling up and saying " but I am a girl" and walking off with both dolls. So, when it comes to cutting my hair short, I turn into little 10 year old Brooke and the world becomes that mean little bitch.

 

(Source)

(Just for a visual here, this is the hairstyle I want. Kind of a longer version of a pixie cut. I also love Rachele's hair from Nearsighted Owl as it always looks so great! I wish I was good at Photoshop so I could just mock up what I'd look like. If anyone knows how to do that hit me up, cause I think that would be helpful.)

So I come to you my fellow bloggers to ask the question (truly wanting honest opinions!), should I take the plunge? Do you think I could legitimately pull off a longish pixie cut?

My AMAZING Weekend

I had the most fantastic weekend with my mom. She and I got up early on Saturday and took a little trip to the fabled Round Top Round Up, a MASSIVE antiques fair. It is indescribably huge, we're talking miles of tents and barns just filled with antiques. We were there for hours and only saw about 1% of what was there. We will absolutely be going back. We got some fantastic pieces, the best being my mom's 1930s card catalog. I picked up a mechanical cast iron circus elephant bank from 1934, a 1940s Jane Russell paper doll, & a vintage 1940s Valentine's card. We got back late Saturday night extremely pleased with our purchases. I can't wait to go back in June!

Here are some photos of our day & finds...

The white lines are the plastic covering from when I scanned it.