Time Off

It has been so nice to have time off to spend with my family. I've spent the past week at my parents house and it's been really nice and relaxing. I haven't had a chance to catch up with them in a while, so it's been a real pleasure. Plus both of them were on vacation at the same time which is really rare, which made it even better.

It was cool, yet unseasonably warm today, so I took advantage of the lovely sunshine and had my mom take some outfit photos of me in their backyard.

OOTD Details:

Dress: eShakti
Cardigan: Old Navy
Leggings: Target
Shoes: Rocket Dog
Paloma: Greyhound Rescue

I had to add in some photos of one of my folk's dogs, Winnie. She's a super sweet basset hound, that I sort of talked my mom into getting from a rescue group a year or so ago. She's also my dog, Penny's, best friend. Every time I come to visit she is on me the whole time and I just adore her. We have a bond!

These are some sweet little photos I took of her throughout the week.

The photo above is my favorite. She fell asleep on my leg with her mouth open while snoring. It was the cutest thing ever. If she wasn't so rambunctious and constantly and loudly barking I'd steal her.

Antique Sewing Machine

In my post yesterday I briefly mentioned that I had found a wonderful deal on a little item and today I thought I'd share that with y'all. I have been in DESPERATE need of a sewing desk for a really long time to help me organize my growing collection of craft supplies. So, all day yesterday during our little antique and thrift shop outing I was on the hunt for the perfect sewing desk. The one I found is not that desk. In fact, it isn't practical at all, and frankly, I don't care. What makes this one fantastic is the fact that it was $25.oo for sewing machine and all! It's an Eldredge, which was only in production from 1869 to 1890. The whole set up isn't in the best condition. The machine itself is no longer viable. The front is in beautiful condition, but the back is badly rusted, so I'll have to clean it up and do a fair bit of consolidation, but I don't think it will ever be back in working order. The cabinet is in pretty good shape. The original stain and varnish has been badly damaged and flakes off when just simply touched, so it will have to be gently removed for pet safety reasons. I haven't decided if I'm actually going to re-stain it or not. The conservator in me says to just remove the loose flakes and leave it alone, which is probably what I'll do. All in all it wasn't the most practical of purchases, but come on at $25.oo for a 100+ year old sewing machine in the original cabinet, you can see how that was hard to pass up! Well, let's get on to the photos...

I'm really pleased with it. I just think it's really aesthetically lovely. At another one of the little antique shops I picked up a little $2.oo beaver figure. How could I pass up such a sweet little face?

Wonderful, Fantastic, Glorious Day!

I had a fantastic time with my folks today. We spent the day going back to the little town I consider my hometown. While there we hit up a bunch of antique shops where we found some really lovely things. I'm such a sucker for antique shops, but refuse to pay over certain prices, which can cause a great deal of internal conflict. Luckily, I tend to end up getting pretty good deals on things, so it all usually works out well in the end. I did end up with one hell of a beautiful piece which I'll do a full post on tomorrow. Today, however, I thought I'd just share some of my favorite parts of the day.

I've seen Truck Nuts in the wild but never for sale. Gross.

More about this beauty later!

So many photos! So many glorious places and antiques! I could spend my entire life digging through decaying objects and hunting through forgotten old things. So, having free time to do so from time to time is really special and today was one of those glorious days were everything just fell perfectly into place!

Happy Holidays!!!

Just wanted to drop a line and say I hope everyone is having a Happy Holiday season no matter what holiday you choose to celebrate!

A Little Night Out

Last night my parents took my husband and I out for a nice little dinner to celebrate the holidays and the drawing down of 2011. We rarely get the chance for the four of us to go out together, so it was really nice to be able to do so. We ended up going to the Cheesecake Factory, which is in the former location of what was once my favorite cinema in town. It's been 10 years and I'm still a bit bitter. I'll give them credit where it's due however, the interior of the restaurant is beautiful and deco in style, so I'll let that part slide. Since we went out for dinner, it gave me a chance to wear the 2nd part of my recent eShakti order. Although there really isn't anything remotely holiday oriented about this dress, I just needed an excuse. I had my eye on this particular dress for quite some time, but for one reason or another, just never bought it, so when I returned the other 2 I took it as a sign, to just go ahead a grab it. I'm glad that I did!

I forgot to have my husband take a photo of the back of the dress last night, so I had to set up the good ol' self timer and take one, because it's too cute to no mention.

The black really brings out my pale!

I elected the custom length option for this dress. So instead of the knee length I chose the 'Short Dress' option and I'm really glad I did. I'm 6ft tall and having it hit higher above the knee adds a flirty quality to it that I just love. Unfortunately you can't really see that since I'm wearing leggings, so you'll have to take my word for it.  The entire back of the dress is smocked, so I think this dress would work well for both larger and smaller busts. I fall right in the middle with bust size and it works great for me. Oh, and it has pockets for those of you who love a dress with pockets.  On to the outfit details...

OOTD Details:

Dress: eShakti

Cardigan: Target

Leggings: LB

Rain Boots: Rocket Dog

Necklace: Gretchen von Eberstein (Christmas present from the husband in 2009)

I wanted to add a photo of Nathan and I from last night, but the restaurant was extremely dark, like headlamp to read the menu dark, so the only viable one I was able to get was this one. Poor Nathan had his eyes closed because it was so dark he didn't realize he was having his photo taken!

Yellow, Red, and Teal

Hello again. So, the husband and I spent today doing part of our Christmas shopping. Normally, I don't wait until 6 days before to do so, but we've been working non-stop and we're poor, so we really don't have a choice. For our little outing I wore one of my new eShakti dresses. There's kind of long story with these dresses. Basically I ordered 2 dresses back in September and returned them because I just didn't like how they looked once they were on, you know how that happens sometimes. I opted for the gift card option instead of a refund and finally after getting the gift card code, picking out new dresses and placing the order, I finally received my package. I am extremely happy with my new dresses and think it was completely worth the wait. This is the first dress, which I was on the fence about at first, but now I just love. Especially the print! My husband who never really has an opinion either way about things is a big fan of it as well, so that really says a lot in my opinion.

OOTD Details:
Dress: eShakti
Cardigan: Target
Leggings: Target

We ventured a little out of town today to hit up a spot that we never really go, Cabela's. It's a wonderland for people who like to kill things, something in which we absolutely do not partake. However, they also sell camping equipment and things like that, so we figured we go to see if we could pick up anything for my husband's brothers. We've been once before and this place is like a strange novelty to me. First and foremost, I could have titled this post Taxidermy Mountain because, I kid you not, they have a 3 story high fiberglass mountain covered in taxidermy. Part of me is fascinated that a place like this even exists and the other part of me is horrified. We've never actually bought anything from there, we just go like it's some sort of an amusement park. I can't really describe it. Maybe there's a place like this you can relate to. Anyway, I kept myself amused by playing with Instagram camera thing on my new iPhone (my folks picked one up for me for 99¢), while my husband kept finding weird things to gross me out. I took some photos to share with y'all to put things into perspective.

Yep, that's a full size airplane coming in over the taxidermy mountain.

Fun with Instagram

Best of the Web!!!

Goodness! More news! My humble little blog has just been featured in the Best of the Web Series in fantastic blog called Be In Style. It's a really comprehensive blog with fashion tips for all body types, gift ideas, home decor, etc. It's the first time I've been featured in a series such as this and it's a real honor! So, if you have a free chance click on the little links above and check them out!

Best of the Web

I'm In A Shop!!!

Hiya Folks! Wow, this week has been crazy busy! The day I wrote the post about my Etsy shop re-stock I received an email from a local boutique asking if about my jewelry. By Thursday I had met the owner and dropped off, pretty much my entire stock! It's a proper boutique too and a very nice one at that! So if you find yourself in Austin, you must stop by Moxie! inside of Solid Gold Boutique at 1601 E. 5th St. I'm really excited to be selling there, because not only is it a beautiful shop filled with really lovely items, but everyone I met was so nice and pleasant to work with, which really makes a different since I'm so new to the whole thing.

I didn't have a chance to take a photo of the shop or display, but I was able to find the below image in the local paper from a few months ago, so you can see what the shop looks like.

Source

While I was in there, chatting and snooping around, something caught my eye that I just had to have. Let me start off by saying that ever since I started making jewelry I haven't really bought any. I've traded with my other jewelry making friends, but now, I just make what I want, today however, I caved. Well, let me just show you a photo, then I'll tell you the cute little story behind it.

I am in LOVE with this ring; the shape is just perfect! It's made by a local 75 year old man who makes jewelry out of antique forks, spoons and knives. When I saw this one I fell in love. It was too big, but I had to have it. After getting it home I was able to make it work with a little rubber mallet and some thinking. Now it fits like a charm and I think it may be my favorite piece of jewelry, aside from my engagement ring of course.

In addition to my having to put my Pretty Penny Mae shop on hold until I can my all new pieces to fill my Etsy shop, I've also pretty much sold out of all of my stuffed animals in my Lovely Little Lois shop on Etsy too! I swear, it all just came out of no where and totally caught me by surprise! I think I may take a little craft break once my last custom order gets shipped out though, because my fingers need a rest from sewing!

So ladies, how is your holiday shopping going? Is everyone finished or just starting?

Etsy Shop Re-Stock

I realized recently that I've been making all of this stuff and not posting it. I haven't added it to my Etsy shop or blogged about it. It's just been sitting around our house in a box. I did take some of the pieces to the craft bazaar that I did recently, but I thought, I should probably get myself in gear and post some of this stuff. So today is going to be a pretty photo heavy post of what I've been working on recently and the new additions to my Etsy shops. Let's start with jewelry...

Pretty Penny Mae Jewelry's Latest Additions...

Now onto the new additions in Lovely Little Lois:

Finally everything is up in both of my Etsy shops! I don't know why it's taken me so long! I think at the beginning of next year, I'm going to consolidate everything into one, because I've been having a big problem with PayPal and the 2 shops, so I'll keep y'all updated on the chance.