Memorial Day Weekend Road Trip

I had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend with my folks. We took a little road trip to north Texas to visit the Dr. Pepper bottling plant in Dublin and the Brushy Bill Roberts Museum in Hico. Brushy Bill Roberts was allegedly the real Billy the Kid. Word is he survived and fled New Mexico for Hico and died in 1950 at the age of 91. It's pretty convincing stuff. The whole trip was really enjoyable and everyone we met was very friendly. It's also worth mentioning that I got the most AMAZING peanut brittle that I've ever had. It's jalapeño flavored and super hot and delicious! We should have bought 2 boxes.

Here are some photos from our weekend...

World's Largest Dr. Pepper Can

Bottling Line

My Dad & I with our free Dr. Pepper

My momma & I

I LOVE 60s road stops!!!

Brushy Bill's saddle

Old Hico jail cell

Yummy!!!

I Need Craft Ideas!

I need help my fellow creative bloggers! I was recently hired to teach arts and crafts at a summer camp for kids 5-14. I have to put together 3 months worth of arts and crafts lesson plans by next week!!! I have a bunch of ideas, but not enough for a full 3 months, so I need all the help I can get! If you have any ideas I'd love to hear them. I'm open to anything!!!!

Wonderful Wonderful Etsy

I'm excited about the contents of my mail today, so I just had to leave a post about it. Last week my mom bought my husband and I this adorable little painting for our wedding anniversary which was back in March. It's Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, which if fitting because my husband are also Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, so it's perfect! Plus beavers are my favorite animal, so cute all around! I just cannot wait to have it framed!

You can check out the Etsy shop where my mom picked it up. They have some really great prints!

My 100th Post!

Wow, I can't believe this will be my 100th post! I've been blogging a lot more over the past few months, so I guess it got here a lot quicker than I expected.

Today's OOTD is with a dress I had some issues with a while back, which caused me to shabbily try my hand at alteration. Here was the result. It did look a bit better, but the hemming was done by hand and TERRIBLE! I hadn't worn it since then. But, not too long ago I saw a post by Anna over at Bargain Fatshionista, where she had the same dress and had worn it backwards. It looked great like that and inspired me to pull the dress back out of my closet. This time with my new sewing machine, I fixed the hem and added some of the vintage lace I bought last week. Now, I LOVE the dress and how it makes me feel. Plus, the lace adds those extra few inches that I needed to make it a viable dress. I think this is now one of favorite outfits at the moment.

What do you think?

 OOTD Details:

Dress: Altered Old Navy
Cardigan: Target
Belt: Target
Tights: Target
Shoes (That I couldn't get in the photo): Target

And the Winner Is...

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that entered my very first giveaway!!! It was so much fun to do and I can't wait to do another when I hit 100 followers. So, let's get to it...the winner is...

Congrats Rachele!!! I'll be in touch shortly!

Brooke ♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Last Day to Enter!!!

Hello to everyone who was left behind during the rapture. Hope you're all doing sinfully well. I just wanted to remind everyone that this is the LAST day to enter my the Giveaway, so if you haven't done so yet and would like to, you can enter HERE.

Today was  also the last day of classes for my teaching certification, so now all I have left to do is pass the content test and try to get a job! Fingers crossed. If I'm able to get a job teaching for the 2011/2012 school year then my considerable financial problems will end, so I'm really hoping to find something soon! Here's what I wore to my last class...

Normally I would crop the photo, but Haskel wanted in, so who I'm I to deny him?

OOTD Details:

Dress: ASOS
Cardigan: Old Navy
Leggings: LB
Brooch: Pretty Penny Mae Jewelry

Oh, and before I forget. We had a beautiful thunderstorm last night which caused the sky to glow an eerie amber color. This photo really doesn't do it justice, but I wanted to share it with y'all.

Quick Little Post

Hello all. I just wanted to do a quick little outfit post and leave a little reminder to enter my giveaway which ends at 12 am central standard time this Sunday, May 22nd, so enter!!!

Here's what I wore today...

OOTD Details:
T-Shirt: Old Navy
Skirt: Made by Me
Cardigan: Target
Leggings: LB

Oh, and here's a photo of all the thrifted sewing stuff I picked up the other day.

I Made a Dress!!!

Yesterday, after work I swung by Savers and took advantage of their cheap fabric and sewing supplies. I got about 2 yards of vintage ivory lace, countless wooden spools filled with rich, jewel colored thread, a bunch of needles and a bit of fabric. I'm pretty impressed with my finds as everything only cost me $5.oo! I've been excited to sew more after making the skirt in the previous post, but felt as though I should probably make a few more skirts before tackling something more complicated like a dress. So, with the fabric I picked up I decided to make skirt number 2. I'd improved the technical aspects of the process, but wasn't really pleased with the outcome. So, I was kind of messing around to see if I could salvage it, when I realized that I might be able to turn it in into a dress.  So it went from a skirt to a tie-neck halter dress. It's not perfect, but I thought it was a pretty good start and I'll definitely wear it this summer, possibly tweaking it along the way. I really like the bottom of the fabric, so I'm glad I was able to do something with it. Plus, it's now given me the push to be more experimental. I really want to make something from a pattern, but that's going to have to wait until I have the money to buy more fabric.

So, here it is...

Belt from the excess fabric

OOTD Details:

Dress: Made by Me!!! from thrifted fabric
Cardigan: Target
Leggings: LB

I was also able to make a cute little bow from bow from the left over fabric. I've made it where I can switch it back and forth from a hair bow to a brooch.

I Made a Skirt!!!

I made my very first skirt today!!! It didn't come out perfect, but I made it and it looks pretty decent! It took me about an hour and I didn't use a pattern or anything, just some cheap thrifted fabric and a bit of elastic. Now that I've done it, I feel a lot more confident about what I want and how I need to go about achieving it. When I've got some money I'm going to pick up some seersucker fabric for the summer. I don't think I'm dress ready yet, but I'm going to make a lot more skirts.

Here's how it turned out...

OOTD Details:

Top: Stax Museum Gift Shop
Cardigan: Old Navy
Skirt: Made by Me!!!
Belt: Target
Leggings: LB

Oh, and I recently won a giveaway over at the wonderful Crafty is Awesome. It's handmade bunting by Jamie. I just love it and it goes very well in our living room! Thanks again Jamie!!!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

My Giveaway was deleted by Blogger!!! Please RE-ENTER!!!

Hi Folks! I am so so sorry, but my Giveaway was deleted in the Blogger update, which made me so upset! So, to all of you wonderful people who entered, please do so again!!! I've added a bonus entry option as well to give everyone an extra chance.

Again, I'm super sorry, but please please re-enter!!!!

♡
Brooke

Giveaway Time!!!

Hello y'all. I am excited to announce my first giveaway to celebrate 50 followers. I am proud to say that all the items in this giveaway have been hand crafted by talented artists who also happen to be wonderful people. Let's get started.

To Enter This Giveaway: 

1. Be a follower of Pretty Penny Mae through Google Friend Connect.

2. Leave a comment on this post (with your email address) to let me know you would like to enter.

☞BONUS ENTRY: if you 'Like' each of these shops on Facebook. Just leave 1 comment so I know that you did!

A winner will be chosen via Random Number Generator on
Sunday May 22nd

Here are the items up for grabs and little extra info on the folks behind the crafts.

1. A set of 4 Washi Image Pocket Mirrors by Maoiliosa

2. A beautiful feather headband by Fanciful Fluff Boutique

3. A necklace and 2 pairs of earrings from Pretty Penny Mae Jewelry.

Here's some information about the lovely ladies behind our items up for grabs!

Let's start with Melissa, the wonderful gal behind Maoiliosa.

 1. Tell us a little about the origin of your shop's name and what influences you.

My great grandmother was and is (though she has passed away) a profound figure in my life, and along with my naturally reddish hair, crafty and artistic nature, and partially-Irish heritage, she first introduced me to what would become my deep love of Japanese culture.  'Maoiliosa' (pronounced many ways, but I use "mow-lee-oh-sah") is the Irish equivalent of 'Melissa', and I just love the way it's spelled and pronounced, so I've used it as a moniker for a lot of my life.  When I began making jewelry from Japanese paper and natural wood, I thought it would not only be neat to use the name I've come to adopt as my own, but it would also be a lovely tribute to the woman I admired so much and who shaped my life and personality so greatly -  with her being predominantly Irish and loving all things Japanese, I sought to honor her by using an Irish name for my Japanese-influenced shop. Aside from the obvious (my aforementioned great grandmother and Japanese culture in general), I am inspired by nature (trees, woodland animals, caves, and water especially), music (I love a wide variety), and my husband, Brandon.

2. How long have you been creating for Maoliosa?

I opened my shop in January of 2008, but I started creating my jewelry pieces several months before that.  I just sort of had this idea to make jewelry from Japanese washi paper and ran with it, and before long I had decided to try to sell my new creations.  I have always loved the exquisite designs of these papers and had started a collection of different prints, so it was exciting to put them to use and make something unique and pretty.  I introduced my washi fortune cookies soon afterward, then the wall scrolls and my various other lines.  Finally, about a year ago, I had the idea to make something a bit more practical: pencils.  My washi-wrapped pencils are now my best-selling items and I just love making them!

3. What is your favorite piece and goals for the future?

I'm particularly fond of my 'jasmine' skinny necklace, the 'chinese pavilion' pencil set , and strangely these new 'black and tan' stud earrings, since they go with just about anything! My main goal is to get to the point where my business sustains me completely.  I've worked extremely hard over the past 3 years to make that happen, but the economy has been rough, so it's been trying at times.  I also have a lot of smaller goals, such as perfect new techniques I'm experimenting with, learn to be a better photographer of my items, and, well, one other major one i have in my mind always is to get Maoiliosa into more shops.

 Now for Emily, the sassy lass behind Fanciful Fluff Boutique:

Emily is a super hard working mother of 2 hilarious children. You may recognize her shop's name from some of my previous posts, as she is my craft show partner in crime. Emily makes wonderful fanciful items which include, custom children and adult tutus, hair clips, beautiful head bands, and lovely fascinators. I have a few of her pieces and I always get tons of compliments. Currently she's do a re-vamp of her shop to include custom pieces for weddings. She was inspired after her little sister's recent wedding, where she was in charge of making all of the lovely accents and accessories. I just adore her work and I know you will too!

Just a Review...

To Enter This Giveaway: 

1. Be a follower of Pretty Penny Mae through Google Friend Connect.

2. Leave a comment on this post (with your email address) to let me know you would like to enter.

☞ For 1 BONUS ENTRY: if you 'Like' Maoiliosa, Fanciful Fluff, and Pretty Penny Mae Jewelry  on Facebook. Just leave 1 comment so I know that you did! ☜

A winner will be chosen via Random Number Generator on
Sunday May 22nd  
 Good Luck to Everyone!!!

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Happy Mother's Day

I just wanted to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all of the lovely mothers out there. Make sure to give them a big hug and let them know how much you love them! For those whose mothers have passed, now is a time to reflect and express the love you have for them to those around you.

My momma and I

Earth Tones

I'm having a bit of blog writers block today, so bare with me if this seems disjointed. Nothing too exciting happened today, but I did like what I was wearing. You may remember this "dress" from a previous post. During the autumn and winter I was wearing this skirt as a top, but had been waiting for spring so I could finally wear it as a dress. I love how it looks as a dress, the only problem is that it is awfully short. If I wasn't 6 feet tall it wouldn't be such a problem, but it is. When I wear it as a dress the bottom comes to the end of my fingertips, so it is imperative that I wear leggings underneath it. The second issue with it being so short is the fact that it is a very flowy skirt, so when I wear it as a dress and the wind blows, it's all thighs and panties! So I can't wear it out on a windy day and if I do, I need to be pretty vigilant.

OOTD Detail:

Skirt as Dress: Thrifted
Cardigan: Old Navy
Belt: Target
Leggings: LB
Headband: Fanciful Fluff Boutique
Earrings: Etsy

Oh, before I forget...little update for my upcoming giveaway. I just received the final piece that will be in my 50 followers giveaway, so keep your eye out, because it will be up by next week.

A Serious Post about Older Folks

As a heads up, this is going to be a long text heavy post...

I'm going to change gears quite a bit for this post, as I recently read something that has once again brought up a massive, crippling fear of mine. So, let's start with my secret fear so you'll understand why this story hits home with me in a very tangible way. Okay, here we go, I have a life long fear of one day dying alone. I've always known that as an only child, this could be a real possibility. This isn't a new fear either, it's something that I've worried about since I was about 7years old. Now, I realize that a 7 year old worrying about dying alone is probably odd, but I was raised with a really open attitude toward death and I've always been an excessive planner, so I guess those things together set me up for it. I've been told for years by friends that they'd be there for me if something happened to Nathan first and we didn't have any children, but (as bad as this sounds) friends are quite different from family. My other only children friends understand that concept, but my friends with siblings never seen to. I could go on and on about this and the various reasons for me feeling this way, but it's one of those long conversations that needs to involve a face to face conversation and few glasses of wine. Anyway, this story struck a chord with me, so I'd like to share it.

This article was taken from The LA Times and was written by Andrew Blankstein.

Mummified Body of Former Playboy Playmate Yvette Vickers Found In Benedict Canyon Home

 

       Yvette Vickers, an early Playboy playmate whose credits as a B-movie actress included such cult films as “Attack of the 50-Foot Woman” and “Attack of the Giant Leeches,” was found dead last week at her Benedict Canyon home. Her body appears to have gone undiscovered for months, police said. 

     

      Vickers, 82, had not been seen for a long time. A neighbor discovered her body in an upstairs room of her Westwanda Drive home on April 27. Its mummified state suggests she could have been dead for close to a year, police said.

      The official cause of death will by determined by the Los Angeles county coroner's office, but police said they saw no sign of foul play.

     

      Vickers had lived in the 1920s-era stone and wood home for decades, and it served as the background for some of her famous modeling pictures. But over time it had become dilapidated, exposed in some places to the elements.

    

      Susan Savage, an actress, went to check on Vickers after noticing old letters and cobwebs in her elderly neighbor's mailbox. 

    "The letters seemed untouched and were starting to yellow," Savage said. "I just had a bad feeling." 

     After pushing open a barricaded front gate and scaling a hillside, Savage peered through a broken window with another piece of glass taped over the hole. She decided to enter the house after seeing a shock of blond hair, which turned out to be a wig.  

     The inside of the home was in disrepair and it was hard to move through the rooms because boxes containing what appeared to be clothes, junk mail and letters formed barriers, Savage said. Eventually, she made her way upstairs and found a room with a small space heater still on.

     She was looking at a cordless phone that appeared to have been knocked off its cradle when she first saw the body on the floor, she said. Savage had known Vickers but the remains were unrecognizable, she said.

    She remembered her neighbor as an elegant women in a broad straw hat, dressed in white, with flowing blond hair and "a warm smile."

   "She kept to herself, had friends and seemed like a very independent spirit," Savage said. "To the end she still got cards and letter from all over the world requesting photos and still wanting to be her friend."

Savage said the neighbors felt terrible."We've all been crying about this," she said. "Nobody should be left alone like that." 

This isn't the first time I've read something terrible like this. Not too long ago, a similar fate was met by Juanita Goggins, a prominent civil rights leader. She froze to death in her home and was not discovered for 2 weeks.  

  
It just pains me to hear when people die alone in their homes with no one with them at the moment of passing. It seems unjust and cruel and sadly, it happens everyday. So, if you have an older person living in your area that you suspect may be alone or that may have infrequent visitors, please introduce yourself and show interest in them. I realize some people are solitary and that's fine, but just keep an eye out. It doesn't take a lot of effort and could really make a difference in someone's life and death. No one should be left unnoticed like these two women.

Chilly May Days

Goodness it's awfully chilly here today for Texas in May. It's about 50°, down from 80° yesterday and tomorrow is supposed to be back up to 85°. I think the sudden shift in temperature has made me feel ill as I've been battling one hell of a dizzying headache since last night. Ugh. Today I met my mother for lunch and a bit of a catch up as I hadn't see her since the week before last. Normally, Penny and I spend the night with my folks every Friday, but since I've started teaching certification classes we haven't been able to, which is a shame. So, it's nice to be able to catch up with each other during the week.

Here's what I wore...

OOTD Details:

Dress: Target
Cardigan: Target
Black Top: Old Navy
Leggings: LB
Scarf: Was my Grandmother's
Necklace: by Me ( I have one similar currently on sale in my Etsy shop)

I'm normally not one for animal prints, but I really like this scarf that was my Grandmother's. Plus I thought the colors went perfectly with this dress.

I did get something fun in the mail today. About a week ago I won/was the only bidder for, an Ebay auction for a life cast charm of Susan B. Anthony by the artist Suzanne Benton. For those of you who don't know, I'm a bit of a death mask enthusiast with the intent of writing a book based on my years of research. I have around 12 original and 2nd/3rd generation death and life masks and am always keen to add to my collection. This little beauty is not something I would normally buy, seeing that it is not an actual mask, but I just fell in love with it and thought it would be a lovely addition to my growing collection.

The inscription on the back reads:

Susan B. Anthony

"Educate All Women to Rebel"

1820-1906