Time to Myself

Today was the first day that I spent working in the museum by myself. It’s not near as daunting as it sounds. I work in a historical home, so you never feel too overwhelmed. I also got my first paycheck from them today too so that was fantastic. Things are going a lot more smoothly than I thought they would be with this whole non-stop work schedule thing. I feel like I’ve reached a manageable balance, which is kind of surprising. Granted, I’m only 2 weeks in with 8 more to go, so maybe I should see how I feel by the end of October.

I was able to get a couple of outfit shots and general photos of the museum today before I opened. I over estimated my travel time and ended up at work an hour early, so I had some free time.

Pardon the weird wonky eye due to glasses shadow. Oops!

 OOTD: Details:

Top: Old Navy

Skirt: Old Navy

Cardigan: Target

Belt: Torrid

Earrings: Etsy

Where I work

Where I work

I figured out the problem I’m having with my camera is the self-timer. When I don’t use it the photos come out perfect, even in low light. When I do use it they are just awful. Hopefully I’ll be able to figure out some sort of balance between the two.

Oh, it’s that time of year again to start signing up for craft shows. I’m getting really excited about the whole prospect of it this year. I had a blast last year and I’d really like to make some money for ALS research. My grandmother’s birthday is January 10^th and I wanted to make a $500 donation in her name, so I really need to get going! I feel like it’s a pretty attainable goal with selling toys, pillow, and accessories around the holidays. Last year I got about half of that from one of the craft shows I did with just jewelry, so fingers crossed this year is a little better.

Teal and Gray

Not much to say today. Oh, Happy New Year to all of my Jewish friends! Other than working, there is really not much going on where I am. I have been making a lot of quiche recently. I'm going to brag a bit here and say that I am a fantastic quiche maker. I've made 2 in the past couple of days and I'll probably be making a lot more. Oh, and my husband made the most fantastic chocolate chip cookies using chocolate fudge cake mix. They were yummy. Anyhoo, I'll keep it short and sweet with a little outfit post.

Today I wore:

Apologies for the poor photo quality.

OOTD Details:

Gray Frilly Top: Old Navy
Cardigan: Target
Skirt: Torrid
Necklaces: My Grandmother's

So I'm having some issues with my photo taking recently. I've recently charged my Nikon D60, but after not using it for almost 2 years I've lost my touch. I used to take wonderful photos with it, but now I can't even figure out how to take photos in low light. Not being able to take photos until I get home from work has not been easy since the lighting is crappy. Oh well, I'll figure it out soon.

Banjos

Hello all! I had a pretty fun time this weekend. Exhausting, but fun. Here in Austin it was Museum Day, where all the museums in town were free. The museum where I work hosted some pretty fun events, including dramatic stories from descendants of the Alamo and my personal favorite, the Austin Banjo Club. I am a total sucker for banjos and they were fantastic. We were pretty busy and by the end of the day I had sore feet and a super dry throat from talking to all wonderful folks that stopped by. I took a few photos of the Banjo Club, but wasn't able to get any outfit photos while I was there. I did however take some in questionable lighting at home, so enjoy!

I know these photos look pretty similar, but the color of the dress didn't really come through in the first photo, so I thought it deserved a second.

I bought this dress to wear to my brother-in-law's wedding reception, but had one of those horribly indecisive moments and ended up choosing a different dress. This was the first time I had actually ever worn it. I bought it for $10 so I haven't really worried about it. I'm not a huge fan of it though. It's the whole crisscrossed thing in the front and how it lays. It's too low to go without an undershirt and looks strange with or without a belt. Normally I avoid dresses like this, but since it was cheap and I thought I was desperate at the time I gave in. I'll probably wear it some more, but I don't think it's going to turn into a dress that I put in heavy rotation.

OOTD Details:

Dress: Old Navy
Gray Ruffle Shirt: Old Navy
Cardigan: Old Navy
Belt: Torrid

Oh, and before I forget, enjoy a couple of photos of banjo players!

No Time Off

Hello folks! Things around my neck of the woods have recently become extremely busy. I've just taken a temp job where I substitute teach and in doing so am now the proud owner of a straight 2 and a half month work schedule with literally no days off until Thanksgiving. It's not going to leave me much time for blogging, but I am absolutely going to try to keep up with it as best I can.

Oh it's worth mentioning that I finally started my museum job. It was on hold for almost a month while they were waiting for my FBI background check. Come to find out, I'm not a terrorist, so that was good news. I LOVE working there! I get to spend my days having fascinating conversations with fascinating people all while learning more and more about the history of my museum, pieces, and town in the process. It's great. I love museum work so much and it's such a mental health thing for me to be back in a field I enjoy so much. It's not restoration, but it's just nice to be back in the swing of things!

I've been wearing some cute outfits, but haven't really had the time to photograph or blog about them. Oh well. I wore this today and really liked it, so I thought I'd share.

OOTD Details:

Dress: Asos
Cardigan: Target
Belt: Torrid
Socks: Gap
Shoes: Kohls

I recently bought these shoes and have a pretty bad case of buyer's remorse. My dad ended up with a gift certificate to Kohls and I needed shoes for work so he passed it along to me. They didn't have the ones I wanted to so I got the second closest thing and I just don't really like them. They are comfortable but the fit is just weird and they have a strange heel height which doesn't help. I don't know, I'm just not sold on them yet. They kind of remind me of the shoes you'd see if you were at some sort of fundamentalist church. Does that make sense?

Guest Post

Hello y'all!
I've done my very first guest post for the lovely Ashley over at Yammering Muse. It was such an honor to be asked and really fun to do! Check it out!

Pinwheel Brooches!!!

Hello y'all. Hope everyone is doing well this Monday. I've been working hard at adding new pieces to my Lovely Little Lois for ALS Etsy shop and I finally put up some of the new pieces. So far I've added 5 pinwheel brooches and one little green tree brooch (my personal favorite). These are all brooches, but I can make them into hair clips as well if your not a brooch person, or you can order a custom one. All of the buttons on the pinwheels come from my Grandmother's massive button stash, so you'll have a little piece of what makes this shop so special to me. Most of them are only $5.oo, and like I've said before, 100% of the sales are donated to ALS research.

Check them out!

2 Years Later

Yesterday was the 2 year anniversary of me moving back home from my 5 years in London, my least favorite anniversary. It was kind of weird too that out of no where I started looking for a necklace and ended up coming across a ton of photos, trinkets, and leaflets from art shows I attended while living there. I thought that time would most likely heal this wound, but as of right now it hasn't stopped hurting yet. All of my friends there, who are really more like family, sent me emails this week too. All at once without speaking to one another about it. I still miss them so much and I'm doing my best to save some money to get back in January for my best friends first solo art show. I hope I can, but I'm not holding my breath.

Here's what I wore yesterday. Oddly, it was my graduation dress, that I've only worn twice since June of 2009.

OOTD Details:

Dress: Torrid
Cardigan: Target
Leggings: LB
Necklace: Was my Grandmother's
Pinwheel Hair Clip: Soon to be piece from LovelyLittleLois for ALS           
Fan: From Mozambique, gift from friend    
Nail Polish: Sand Tropez  by Essie

I wanted to write a quick little ditty about my little pinwheel hair clip/brooch. I've been making a whole ton of new pieces for my Lovely Little Lois Etsy shop and this is one of them. I really like making these and I'll have them up in the shop by the end of the month. I've made each of the pieces using thread and buttons from my Grandmother's sewing collection so everyone that purchases any thing from the shop will have a personal link to the reason the money is being donated. When I told her about it this weekend she was really pleased and excited about the idea.

Finally, I LOVE this fan. It was one of the items I found that I had in London. It was bought for me by my friend/old flatmate while she was traveling around Africa for Africa Goal, a charity she and her friends started. They drive all around Africa every 4 years during the World Cup screening matches in small villages and educating folks on AIDS and AIDS prevention. If you haven't heard about them, check out the above link. She picked it up for me while in Mozambique and it's just beautiful. It's handmade with reed and plastic bags for the ribbon keeping it together. I'm really glad I found it again!

On Fire

My part of the world is currently on fire. It's so unnerving. They just keep popping up everywhere. Two weeks ago an entire neighborhood, that literally shares a property line with my mother-in-law, burned to the ground. Her yard was scorched, but luckily her house was left unscathed. This week her neighborhood caught fire again, but she was left untouched. The air here is thick with smoke and small fires keep turning in to larger ones. Around 800 people across central Texas have lost their homes. It's just awful and our thoughts are with everyone going through this horrible ordeal. In the meantime we're keeping a close watch on our neighbors to make sure everyone is being responsible by not doing any grilling, are properly putting out cigarettes, and just being cautious of their actions. I've had quite a few friends who've had to call out people for not following the open flame regulations currently in order and good for them for doing so. Even a tiny ember could ruin hundreds of lives. At this point we just need rain in the worst possible way. It hasn't rained since May and everything is so dry. Hopefully we'll get some soon.

Here are some photos from around Austin so you can see the devastation.

Source

Source

Source

Here's a video of the Bastrop State Park to illustrate just how quickly the fire moves. It's unreal.

Busy Busy Busy

This week has been hell. It started out well enough with experimental cooking and a day of crafts, but on Tuesday it got crazy when my grandmother ended up at the hospital. Luckily, she's doing fine now. She's still there, but should be out tomorrow and I'm sure she can't wait. It's been tough on her and my grandfather, as he's been sleeping in a chair in her room for the past 5 nights.

Today was my first day back home and it gave me a chance to clean myself up and run some much needed errands. Today I remixed a dress I wear a lot and I liked how it turned out.

OOTD Details:

Dress as Skirt: Torrid (used to be a romper)
Tank: Old Navy
Cardigan: Target
Belt: Torrid
Necklace: Old Navy

I thought I'd let y'all see my super organized craft area. I REALLY need a desk!

Also, here's a sneak preview of some of the new little items coming to Lovely Little Lois. I have several more to make, but am hoping to have them in the shop by the end of the month.

Oh, and I want to say thanks to everyone who has shown their support by purchasing jewelry from my Pretty Penny Mae Etsy shop. The current ALS research fund total is around $50 so thanks for your contributions!