what for the Holliedays

 I wish I had photos to show you of my Christmas party Saturday but there are none.  I had to cancel it. Yeah. The husband and I aren't doing too well financially right now so we had to let it go. Meh, we'll make up for it next year...hopefully. We're so broke right now I've started pimping out my husband- but we're not making much money off of him because he won't do white chicks.

 So with life's foot constantly up our pocketbook's arse, we weren't able to go out and splurge on cutesy Holiday outfits for our church's special Holiday service. No biggie. I like a good challenge. 

  Husband's attire included a thrifted shirt and suspenders and an authentic Ramsay tartan tie handed down from his brother who passed away a few years ago.

 Cedar's outfit is all handmedowns from River, glammed up with a $1 eBay tutu and gifted hat.

The last time I wore this vintage Lane Bryant dress was Valentines. I got it from Listia.com; a site that's like eBay, but with points instead of money.

I made this hairpiece last year in about five minutes for a Christmas event I didn't even go to. It's just poinsettias and gold glitter balls on a comb.

River wore a handmedown sweater and... a strange expression.

It's no fun being broke around the holidays, but heck. We're broke all the time! We're used to it! Hee hee! Ok, it's not really funny but I'm not going to cry about it. We'll survive! 

So how are things looking for you guys out there?

Livin' large? Barely scraping by? Somewhere in between?

^Linked Up Here^

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If you're interested in mom and kid stuff be sure to check out my other blog: 

MODERN COLORS TWO

do a little dance

My week.

We had a mouse invader for the first time in three years. He was living in the kitchen, the nasty bugger. I saw him once- he was fat and had no tail. Yeah. Anyways, three years ago it wasn't a mouse we had. It wasn't even mice plural. It was rats... disgusting baby rats. We caught THREE of them back to back to back. Have you ever caught a rat in a sticky trap? The sound they make is unbelievable!! They screeeeeeeech like pterodactyls!! It's awful! Thank God I never saw mama rat or I would have burned that apartment down.

Oh yeah, and that was also the year we had a squirrel living in our closet for about a week. 

It. Ate. Everything. You think mice are destructive? You should see the kind of damage a squirrel can do. I'll tell you more about that effin' destructo-squirrel later.

I spent all week getting my other blog up and running and chocked full of ads. Yeah (hangs head in shame) there are ads on here too. Sorry. 

No! You know what? I'm NOT sorry. I need money!

What else? What else? Oh yeah! I added three whole sentences to my novel. WOO! I'm on a roll!

Nah, seriously though, it's going well. I'm confident that its going to be a good read and I hope to be finished by 2026.

 So here's this weeks nails...

And I got three new bangles for my little collection. They're 99 cents on Ebay and they're made of Tibetan silver so they don't rust or change colors or anything like that.

And I also got this pretty little lady for my bling arachnid collection from eBay for less than $2. Isn't she purty?!?! I can't wait to find a chain for her.

And here's the husband sporting his "man bun" whilst being hypnotized by Vincent Price.

So, I gotta go now. It's time to go eat stuff and write stuff, and pin stuff and do other...stuff. 

Ok bye.

If you're interested in mom and kid stuff be sure to check out my other blog:

wiggle worm

Hey gals (and dudes). How's everyone doing today? Good? Ya feelin' well? Ya hungry? Can I make you a sammich? Getcha some tea?

Me? Thanks for asking. I'm super busy. I am in the middle of so many projects right now.

I'm a little frazzled but I'm never bored and I love it. 

I can't be still. I friggin' hate being still. If I'm bored for more than a few seconds I start getting suicidal... kidding...

Or am I?

On the 20th, I'll be hosting our annual Christmas/Husband's birthday party at our place. 

Then comes Christmas and New Years. (New Years? Do I smell an excuse for another party?)

January 20th is River's birthday party. We've decided on a gothy circus theme for that. Squee! Can't wait!

February 7th is our 4th annual Valentines Day fundraiser for the Faire. Last year we had a masquerade and the year before was steampunk. Both events were pretty successful so we've decided to blend the two together and throw a Valentines Day Steampunk Masquerade ball. Sweeeeeet.

Let's see...what else?

Oh yeah!

I started a new blog, I've started back belly dancing AND (drum roll please) I've started my first novel!! Ok, "truthishly", I've started novels before but I get so swept up in the dialogue, it just becomes a script. And because I don't know how to format scripts properly I don't submit them. I just keep them to myself and read them for my own entertainment. But not this time! No siree! I'm gonna write that dang book and I'm gonna get it published!

Err.... my mom's a publisher so hopefully she'll hook me up right? 

With two kids, a husband and a home to take care of, how do I have the time to do all of this?

Ok. Here goes:

My car died last year. Every time we get the money to fix it, something disastrous happens and we have to hand over all of our dough. So we have one car that my husband takes to work everyday so that means what, dear readers? I'M STUCK AT HOME ALL DANG DAY - EVERY DANG DAY. 

 

I do have a schedule. It's not strict, though, nor was it intentional. Things just fell into place that way:

In the morning I change diapers and snuggle and feed babies. Then I check my two email accounts, one personal and one for faire, and then my 2 Facebook accounts, one personal and one for my Faire persona Daniella Noir - I'll tell you about her later. Then 3 Facebook pages, the Faire's page, my blog's page and then my Events In Texarkana Page - that's a rather popular page where I share all the cool happenings in Texarkana and the surrounding areas. That page is the most important as over 2,800 people (and growing!) people are looking to me to help plan their weekends. I also have 6 groups Facebook groups: My faire staff group, a group for selling vintage and antique items, one for vendors looking for events to attend in the Arklatex (Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas area), one for people offering services in the area and 2 for the faire: a page for my gypsy performers and the other for the volunteers.
I know it sounds like a lot (and it is), but it takes less than an hour to get it all done.

After noon I do belly dance drills for 30 minutes to an hour while River wraps himself around my legs and/or throws things at me.

After I dance I feed babies again and start cleaning the house. It doesn't have to be perfect, but I like for things to look somewhat organized. Clutter drives me nuts. Sometimes I put on music and continue dancing while I clean.

Then it's "free" time: I blog, read blogs, get on Pinterest, plan events, etc - all while kissing boo-boos and cleaning spit up and poopy diapers. By the way I have 3 Pinterest pages. One for myself, one for the faire (almost 5,000 followers!) and one for Events in Texarkana.

At around 5pm my husband calls to let me know he's on his way home. I put on Netflix or some music (Christmas records this season!) and I start dinner and do the dishes at the same time. 

After dinner I usually do a little laundry while I browse Pinterest and/or work on my novel.

Then I bathe the babies, put them to bed and then I drink a little gin to help quiet my mind while I either work on my novel some more or read a book or magazine until I pass out.

Rinse. Repeat.

I tried to throw an ironing business into the mix but I had no takers. I'm still open to doing it if anyone needs some ironing done. I can make time!

I was supposed to reopen my Etsy store at the beginning of next year, but with no car, I can't get to the post office to mail out items, so BAH HUMBUG! 

So there you have it! Are you a wiggle worm too? Do you have issues with being still like I do?

^ All linked up ^

Modern Colors Two: an illustrated explanation

Hello folks! I've started a spinoff blog for mom and kid stuff. 

The original Modern Colors blog started off as a pregnancy style blog, but I had no style... so it became just a pregnancy blog. After the birth of my first child the blog became all about me since my baby did little more than just drool and poop. Not really blog-worthy. 

Now I have two kiddos and I've found my self desiring more and more to blog about them and all sorts of fun kid stuff. I know many of you ladies out there either have no children or you have children who have long since left the nest so I highly doubt you all would be interested in reading about how to remove spit-up stains and the best cream for a chapped hiney.

January, 2012 - 9 months pregnant with River.

When I first started off blogging about pregnancy and baby stuff, quite naturally I followed other mom bloggers and to tell you the truth - it was a pretty boring journey. I mean, are 15 black and white photographs of your baby wearing cloth diapers really necessary? Biweekly posts about vegan toddler meals? A 4,000 word image-less post about teething?

Mom blogs tend to be the same blog over and over. They lure you in with promises of eclectic awesomeness - calling themselves, "groovy", "crunchy", "hippie" and "bohemian". When you get to their blogs, you find that they feel they're SO unique because they wear  $300 Anthropology dresses, cloth diaper their babies, use coconut oil and buy organic baby food.

Woopdee-friggin'-doo. Let's have a party.

So, I know it sounds like I have a low opinion of all mom bloggers. Not all of them. Just the boring ones.  I would like to jump back into the game and try my hand at giving mom blog readers something a little different. Surely there's a mom out there looking for tips on how to create a steampunk costume for a two year old - or tips on the best way to introduce your child to Tom Waits.

WARNING:

Yes, Modern Colors Two will have annoying ads.

Yes, it will also have product reviews and giveaways that force you to follow me on every form of social media ever made.

I need the money. I need the freebies. I need the... attention?

I love to blog and if I can do it to help support my family then by gum, that's what I'm going to do. BUT I'm going to do it in the most awesome way possible - always with humor, a dash of sarcasm and little bit'o this:

No,worries, I'll still blog here. I'm not going anywhere any time soon.

So, if you're interested in following Modern Colors Two just click on the image below and sniff it out.

THANKS!

the soggy Victorian (Christmas parade pics)

Last night my Renaissance faire crew and I participated in our town's 30th annual Christmas parade. We like to participate in parades every chance we get because it's a good way to spread awareness the faire. The night was extremely cold, windy and it never stopped stopped misting. My toes were numb, my head ached from the heavy fake pony tail, my gloves were soggy - I was miserable, but it was pretty fun.

This year's parade theme was steampunk - which we found to be pretty hilarious because my group helped to bring steampunk to Texarkana a few years back.  No one even knew what on earth steampunk was so we shoved it up everyone's nose and they loved it. We hosted the town's first steampunk event a few years ago and we have annually every year since. Now the whole town's on board and I'm tickled pink about it.

Out of over 100 entries, we were only about 1 out of 8 floats that followed the theme. Many people still have no clue what steampunk is and didn't even attempt to try. One of the rules of a float entry is, your float must be made from recycled materials and be illuminated with Christmas lights so we made an industrial steam powered machine from liquor store boxes, plastic water bottles, soda cans,vacuum hoses and other junk. This is the float below - too bad we didn't get a photo of it all lit up. We even had a smoke stack that blew steam! It was SO cool! We took third place which is great but we got first last year and I really wanted to be on top again.

Machine construction started in my kitchen last month. I started assembling junk that was donated to us from family and faire supporters. Then we met up two days before the parade, pooled the rest our junk together and got to work. Everything is held together with TONS of hot glue and tape. It took about 8 hours to complete.

 PARADE TIME!

I'm not sure what Elvis has to do with steampunk, but this kid was great! He didn't represent an organization or anything - he just wanted to be Elvis in the parade! How cool is that?

See our steam power? Neat, huh? My handy husband rigged up a fog machine just right so it would give off the impression of a smoke stack.

Brave, brave people.

 

OUR ZERO DOLLAR DIY COSTUMES:

We didn't buy a thing for our costumes. We already had everything we needed but dressing in warm, Christmas themed, weather proof steampunk garb was kind of a challenge.... and I love a good challenge.

Vintage 3-piece suit: handmedown

Shirt: from Civil War reenacting days

Bow tie: Ebay, 99 cents

Husband usually wears a top hat with this outfit but we loaned it out for Herod to wear in a local production of Jesus Christ Superstar two years ago and forgot to get it back.

The poor man forgot to wear his thermals and almost froze to death.

(looks like the rifle above the door is pointed at my husband's head! EEK!)

My outfit came out a little more "Dickensy" than steampunk, but this is the best I could do with so many factors to consider. Especially the effin' nasty weather!!

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Mini top hat: from party supply store bought years ago, decorated with poinsettias

Sweater: handmedown

Scarf: gift from H&M

Blouse: thrifted with cuffs altered to make billowy sleeves

 Plaid over-skirt: wool cape turned backwards and safety pinned closed

Black skirt: old belly dance costume base worn over full crinoline

Steampunk divider GIFs by Gasara on Deviant Art

Alrighty folks. I gotta scram. Time to go take my unicorn to the groomers. See you all soon!