Modern Colors Blog

alright, alright, alright

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Tue, 26 Jun 2018 23:57:00 +0000

Since our crazy life change, I was hoping to be able to post at least once a month to keep everyone updated but that was clearly easier said than done.

Here's why:

My wardrobe is pretty limited right now. Since we're living with my mom, I only brought what we needed and everything else is packed away... waaaaaaaaay away in our storage space. There's no way in heck we can get to that stuff since it was the first thing to go in the storage space. It's totally buried.

Since it was still cold when we moved, we have no summer clothes so I've been picking up a garment or two for all of us every time I go to Walmart. With that being said, I don't really have much fashion to feature.

My photographer (the husband) works out of town now and I have no tripod (nor the patience) to DIY my pics since it so %$#@ing hot outside. It's averaging about 96 here and we haven't even got into he real Texas summer temps yet. UGH!

I'm just plain busy. With no housework to do (besides pitching in on washing dishes every now and then, keeping our room clean and doing a little laundry) I'm back in beast mode working on my other blog and social media management service. I'm trying to build it up big time so that if anything were to happen to my husband's job, we will still have another full income to fall back on.

So that's what's up.

My husband came home for a few days so we got to spend Father's Day with him.

He was gone for 5 weeks. That's definitely the longest I've ever been without him. After the first week or so I was about to crack from loneliness and the kids were misbehaving so badly but I pushed through it and we finally settled into our new routine.

The husband is coming back home this week and he will be in for a couple weeks so hopefully he'll be able to work on the new house.

I'm hoping we'll be able to get everything done while he's in town.

I'm SO ready to move out my mom's house. Not because I don't like it here. It's great here! I have almost a round-the-clock babysitter. I'm not expected to cook and I only need to cleanup after me and the kids so this has been almost like a vacation for me!

But I'm ready to have my own space, for my kids to have their own room, to be able to use fragranced products again (my mom has horrible allergies) and most of all to be able to walk around freely without a bra in the evenings!

Before we came here, I was so stressed and frazzled that I really just wanted to take off running like Forrest Gump... in any direction just as long as it was away.

Our life was a complete MESS and now we're on the mend, praise God!

Since there's really no telling when I'll be able to update my blog next, please follow me on Instagram HERE and feel free to friend me on Facebook!

I don't post much about my personal life on my other blog but it's HERE if you would like to check it out! :)

WEARING:

Sunglasses - Ross Dress for Less $3.99

Dress - Walmart

Shawl jacket thingy - gift from mom

Jewelry - Ebay cheapies

alive and kicking

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Wed, 09 May 2018 01:11:00 +0000

I'm here. I'm still alive!

So in case you missed my last post I wrote around Easter, my family was evicted from our home (read the story here) and we moved in with my mom. We have plenty of space here- more than we had before so it's actually working out just fine.

So here's some goooood news.

My husband was hired by a company months ago but they weren't able to put him on the schedule until recently. The company sends out guys to retrofit public outdoor lighting with LEDs all over the country. He left for Iowa a couple days ago and then he'll be headed to Missouri, then Pennsylvania. He'll be gone for five weeks. Sigh.

BUT the job pays double what he was making at his previous job so YAY!

Next round of good news. We have a home to move into!!!

The pastor of a little home church I used to go to and his wife moved to New York so they've been renting out their old house to friends in Texarkana (where we lived before we were evicted). I posted on Facebook that we were looking for a house to rent and they got in touch with me.

The house has suffered some terrible water damage from a burst water pipe this winter but the water company and their insurance should cover that. So with that being said, unlike the other house we were trying to fix up to move in to WE don't have to fix this one up!

I hear tale there's talks of selling the house and I'm all up for buying it! The house is massive and affordable and I hope it works out! We won't be able to move in probably for a couple months but I'm sure it'll be worth the wait!!!

So with all that being said. Me and the husband's 8th wedding anniversary is today. Since he'd be out of town for it, we did out celebrating Saturday. We went to our town's annual wine fest and then dined out at a swanky Italian restaurant downtown (Thank God for tax returns). I know our outing doesn't sound very fancy, but we did it all... without kids!

Qué romántico!

So here's a few shots I took from the festival.

Local artist Joel Wright.

The lady above is Chris Thomas and her son. Chris was one of the first vendors we ever had at the renaissance faire and I've been following her work and running into her at other festivals for years now.

Here's some of her goodies above. I bought this great fish necklace from her but I broke it already!! BOO!

I went to show it to my mom that night and I dropped it on the tile floor. It's in 3 pieces, it should be an easy fix but darn it. Whyyyyyy????!?!

I also got this hand-painted clown tile brooch from another local artist Polly Cook. Can't you tell my husband took this photo? Was the camera out of focus or am I just a naturally blurry person?... like Big Foot.

Here's a closer pic of it from Instagram.

Some of Polly's work...

And Polly with her work.

And me with my complimentary "wine garden" swag.

Poor woman's outfit: Dress, Ross Dress for Less $8.99 and sunglasses $3.99? Jacket thingy, gift from mom.

So while I'm here at my ma's, I'm still blogging over at Quirky Bohemian Mama, still keeping up with my "mini Bohemian Bazaar" at the flea market in Texarkana and still doing my social media management thing and still homeschooling... poorly.

We will be putting River back in school for Kindergarten in the fall and I'll do Cedar's preschool from home. Even though my husband will be making significantly more money, I will continue to do all that I can to bring in even more money.

I don't ever want to be poor again!

the good, the bad and the grumpy

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 18:59:00 +0000

Ok, so here are some Easter pics and a tragic tale.

Ok, it's not tragic... but it is bittersweet I guess you could say.

Here's the story:

My husband and I were evicted from our home last Friday.

Yup. You read right.

I'm sure you guys remembered that I was griping about being broke and my husband having job issues a lot a while back. Well, we got behind on rent.

It's happened before. We get caught up and move on about our lives.

Well, this time - the owner of the mobile home park we were living in decided she didn't want to hang with us anymore.

Fine. I get it. But the way they went about it was pretty ugly.

After they lead us into believing that they would wait for our tax return check to come in so we could get caught up they kicked us out.

The constable came and gave us 24 hours to get out.

Time began to tick down. I only had a handful of diaper boxes we were saving for a future move and no clue where or how to get started to pack up or where we were going to go.

My mom told me to "come home".

Uuugghhhh.

No adult wants to hear that!

Being an adult hearing my mother say "come home" was like being handed the Official Certificate of Failure to Adult.

We didn't have much of a choice there but we're grateful we had a place to go.

My husband rented a second storage space and an army of church members cancelled bible study and came help us. They brought pizza, water, trailers, huge moving boxes - the works!

I was so grateful but overwhelmed as everything was happening so fast. My head was spinning. There were so many people there asking how they could help I wanted to cry with gratitude and frustration.

It was an awesome experience having so much help but it was incredibly chaotic. Especially since all I wanted to do was hop in my car, chain smoke all the way to a hotel in Vegas and drink myself into a stupor while I listed to dramatic opera music.

Sunday, we went to our church's Easter festivities. Being there, trying to pretend like I wasn't stressed to the max and emotionally fatigued was exhausting. Getting to wear my African print maxi and Afghani glass bead necklace together made me feel a little better...

I got Cedar a gorgeous lavender and silver brocade 60s-style shift dress for Easter but it got misplaced in the move. Luckily Cedar's granny rush delivered a dress she made for her to wear for Easter and we got it just in time.

Anyway. I am super grateful we had a place to go, but good heavens I'm ready to get out of here!

My patience is paper thin and my nerves are absolutely frayed. The change is making my kids act horrible! (And me too!)

Need.

Vacation.

And a beer and a grilled cheese sandwich.

Right now, we're house hunting. My husband is driving over 50 miles total to and from work so it would be great if we could get back to our town as soon as possible.

Please forgive me if I don't get to visit your blogs this week. I hope you understand, it's a little crazy around here.

Phew! Pray for me, ya'll.

the yellow flowers

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Sun, 18 Mar 2018 18:05:00 +0000

Me and the fam went to the 50th annual Jonquil Festival at the Historical Washington State Park in Arkansas. It's about an hour away and we try to go every year because the weather is usually still pretty decent, the park is lovely, the vendors are very diverse and have great prices and of course greasy fried stuff on a stick.

As it was St Patrick's Day I put on my girdle and squeezed into the only green dress I own: a too-tight dress that I only wear around the house in the summer.

Sorry if some of the pics are a little lackluster. I'm not much in the mood to edit all of these.

Aunt Irma came for a visit a little early and she's not being a very nice guest...

In other words. I feel like POO.

Since the historical park has been "frozen in time" in the Civil War era, it's not uncommon to see young maidens in 19th century attire waiting for their "bloomen onions" to finish cooking.

She's most likely a tour guide. Sadly, people don't wear costumes for this event. I kind of wish they did. I had to chunk my hoop underskirt after I broke a hoop beyond repair at Mardi Gras last year and I haven't have much a reason to buy a new one.

Yes. We eat alligator in the South. Preferably deep fried on a stick.

It's not an incredibly common food but it can be found from food vendors like this at carnivals and festivals and Cajun restaurants and we eats it. We eats it up.

I, however, do NOT eat that deed-fried sweets crap. I tried a deep fried Oreo a couple years ago just for kicks and it was terrible. A soft cold Oreo covered in a thick fried pancake batter is gross. Just plain gross.

Mennonites watching a martial arts demonstration.

(We have quite a large Mennonite population in this area.)

These guys below even demonstrated how to escape someone pointing an AR-15 in your back... a horrifically handy survival skill to learn these days... *sigh*

Nope, I'm not pregnant. My girdle is mostly to tame the muffin top but it squishes all my floppy belly in and rounds it out in the front. Oh, well. I'm more comfortable looking like I'm 6 months pregnant than being seen with my belly sagging down to my thighs in a too-small dress, so there's that!

This leather worker dude was nice enough to let me invade his personal working space for some pics.

Daddy!

Just a little bit of the horse parade. That wagon is being pulled by mules... I think. I cut their heads off, but I'm pretty sure they're mules.

And then shortly after the horse parade comes the most adorable thing I've ever seen in my entire life.

I NEED IT!!!!!

So here are some questions for you:

Did you wear green on St Patrick's Day?

Are there Mennonites in your area?

Can you tell the difference between a horse and a mule?

Will you buy me a pink Jeep?

there's a thing going on over there

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 17:47:00 +0000

Yeeeeeeaaahhh boy!

What's going on folks?

With me? Same ol' same ol'.

I've always got something to complain about these days but to be honest, I'm not in the mood.

That's a good thing right??? Not being in the mood to complain?

So anyways.

These pics were to serve as outfit photos on this blog and photos for a giveaway I'm doing on my other blog.

So, how do I come about these giveaways anyway?

Wellllll, companies contact me and ask me to review their products.

I get a lot of offers from reps who either just don't understand my lifestyle or just don't care.

No, I don't wanna review your fitness app! Be outta here!

Most of the time they're asking if I would like to share their article on my blog.

Those emails usually go something like this:

"Hello, Hollie! I came across your blog today and I love your style! So groovy! I have a website called Tax Prepping Soccer Moms and I would love it if you could share one of our articles on your blog, Quirky Bohemian Mama."

To which I am often tempted to reply:

"What part of "Quirky Bohemian Mama" made you think that I or my audience would be interested in something like that? Shoo!!"

Now, with all of that being said - here's my shining moment as a big fat hypocrite.

A wooden sign company asked if I could review a product. I briefly looked at the site and thought,"I can make this work," so I agreed. They sent me $100 gift card to buy with and a $100 gift card to give away.

I was like, cool! I can work with that!

Well.... the signs I could choose from were very nice, but just not really my style.

I've been wanting to do a series of posts about old-fashioned etiquette and had an idea for a post about being a good hostess in your home. I thought this sign was very fitting so that's what I picked.

Soooo.... if you're interested in entering the giveaway for the $100 gift card to giftedoccasion.com just head on over to my other blog for more info.

Like I said, it's nice stuff! Just not 100% my style. That doesn't mean it won't be up your ally though so have fun!

laser tag

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Sat, 17 Feb 2018 23:04:00 +0000

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYY.

I'm here.

I am so ridiculously behind on everything.

Sleep, bills, work, cleaning, world domination.

Phew! What's a girl to do?!

The flea market booth is doing ok. It's still 90% just our junk but I'm stocking it with the Bohemian Bazaar merch as it comes in.

I've got a little bit of stuff arriving every day but unfortunately I can't put out a lot of it until I get a locking display case. Yeah, small items like jewelry tend to disappear quite often at flea markets.

I've got about a dozen pieces of handmade jewelry I've been hanging on to from my Etsy store days and about 50 rings and dozens of bracelets I can't put out so if anyone has a 6'x3' display case they'd like to give me for free, just holler. I'll take it.

So fare I've gotten in child size belly dance coin belts, Indian parasols, incense, Hmong tribe hair doodads for kids, chopsticks, wood bead bracelets, Indian shoes and leather bracelets.

I don't feel like uploading photos of what's come in yet so check me out on Instagram. I'm sharing photos of the really good items as they come in.

What's on the way: adult size belly dance coin scarves, more incense, Rajasthani style bags, bamboo flutes, art print necklaces including Frida Kahlo paintings and more.

I'm starting super small, y'all but at least I'm starting.

Moving forward slowly is better than not moving at all.

What kind of mom lets her daughter jump on the bed in cowboy boots??

This mom.

I'M the reason why we don't have nice things.

And I'm also the reason why my daughter will know that stripes and polka-dots are perfectly acceptable together.

What does the cow say?

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 17:04:00 +0000

Right now I'm ordering my first round of stock for the miniature Bohemian Bazaar and I'm so excited, I'm about to wet my little knickers.

I don't remember if I mentioned here or not that I'm going to transform my new flea market booth into a tiny version of my store that I was trying to open in the mall. I've had a lot of people suggest I do it this way since I want to start debt free and I think it's a darn fine idea.

Through GoFundMe I raised $300 to go toward opening the shop but um... yeah, I was about $3,600 shy of reaching my goal and $5,600 shy of what I actually needed to start with bare minimum. I was trying to raise money because instead of taking out a loan because I was certain the community was going to be excited enough that I'm replacing Romancing the Stone that they'd be willing to contribute. If there's a way to go debt-free, I'm going to go that way.

Meh. No biggie. I was totally prepared for that idea to not work out and I had no intentions of quitting if it didn't. There are plenty of other ways for me to skin this cat.

So, I closed the GoFundMe and I am no longer accepting donations(?) and I'm using the money I raised to get beautiful merch for my booth.

I'm starting small.

Very small...

BUT there's nowhere else in this town to get the kind of stuff I'm going to sell like belly dance accessories, Banjara handbags and Rajasthani parasols so I'm pretty confident that no one will complain that they have to go to a flea market to get it.

$300 might not sound like a lot for a start up, but I've already had a shopping list waiting of wholesale goods from India, China and Bali and I already have a little bit of stuff left from my renaissance faire booth. I have tons of jewelry I've made over the years and stuff I've bought wholesale. I just need a display case for those smaller items so my goods don't get knicked.

The booth is already stocked full of our stuff we've been trying to get rid of for years. We have accumulated a lot of stuff in our almost 8 years of marriage. Good heavens so much stuff. Purging the house has been an absolute delight. Getting rid of junk is very therapeutic.

Well, we don't really have junk. We have stuff. Lots of stuff and nowhere to put it. So off to market it goes! As the booth empties of that stuff we'll start replacing it with the bohemian/hippie goodies.

Since the flea market has massive spaces, even entire rooms to rent we might just settle in there for a while. I mean - think about it, I don't have to man the booth, hire employees or pay utilities... just stock the booth and pay rent!

So there's that and here's my awesome offspring.

I stopped trying to get River to join because he turns into a grumpy old man when I try to get him to cooperate. Eh. Boys.

❤❤ Polkadots and plaid, a velvet blazer and a cow brooch. ❤❤

the technicolor dreamboat

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 22:00:00 +0000

Well, well, well.

Look at what the cat coughed up.

It's me!

Hi.

I'm surviving over here. Just barely... but I'm pulling through like a duck swimming in jelly.

I've recently started taking an ashwagandha and rhodiola supplement and dandelion detox tea and my physical stress symptoms have calmed down to a dull roar. Not even a roar. More like a wee little mew compared to what was happening to my body. Physically, I feel SO much better and brighter.

The pills make me a little aggressive though. Like, super type-A aggressive about weird things:

I'm going to clean today!

VACCUMING!

EFF YEAH!

DISHES! I HATE THEM! LET'S DO IT!

GET OUTTA MY WAY! AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!

DANG IT'S A LOVELY DAY!

GROCERIES!

TOILET PAPER!

RAWWWRRR!!

And then I rip my shirt off like Hulk Hogan and flex my muscles while barking at my children like a Tibetan mastiff.

So life is still pretty poopy right now and I'm still stressed but I don't feel like I'm about to have a stroke anymore! Yay!

GOOD NEWS REPORT:

My husband finally found a job after being "self employed" for over a year. He's not exactly sure when it starts but it will pay well. The bad part of all of this is it's a travelling job that will have him away from home for weeks at a time. Meh.

I already scratched of my New Year's plans of opening a flea market booth. We got an 8x8 booth in a very large and popular flea market. Since we opened it on Saturday afternoon and it's Tuesday now, we haven't had a chance to add everything and decorate but just yet but it's about 3/4 full so far.

The downside is, the market only allows 5 articles of clothing per booth! WTF??!?! Almost the entire booth was supposed to be kids clothes! OMG, we're drowning in kid's clothes piled up in trash bags here and we can't afford to just give them away so I'm hoping maybe I can butter the market owners up to get them to be a little lenient with me.

So here's what we wore to church Sunday.

ME: Handmedown blouse over a handmedown ikat print sundress layered over leggings and a tank top because it was in the 30s that day.

MISS CEDAR: Handmedown cardigan, Christmas gift dress from her Mimi, electric melon tights with unseen gold threads woven in and her favorite brown boots!

Soooo how are you all doing? Have you been sleeping well? Are you brushing twice a day and flossing?

dear 2017, you sucked

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 20:55:00 +0000

I started this post a last week and I had to take a break from it because it depressing the heck out of me to write it. But I've recovered and here I am.

2017 has been probably the worst year of my life so far and I pray I never find myself stuck in another year like this again. If it's not the worst, then it's definitely at close to the top of my "Hollie's Top 5 Worst Years Ever" list that doesn't exist.

I don't want to go into much detail but I will say that this year has been filled with crippling stress and anxiety, money trouble, martial problems, weird religious situations you guys couldn't possibly relate to, loneliness, depression and a whole bunch of other negative adjectives.

I think STRESS has been the leading lady this year for sure more than any other emotion. She's been a real shining star (sarcasm). I have reached stress levels that have gotten to points of chest pains, hands tingling, eye twitching, left arm going numb, sleeplessness, rage, sweating, excessive drinking and more.

Nothing has worked out the way I wanted this year. I understand that things happen for a reason and that's the only thing keeping me afloat, but for the love of all things holy and something PLEASE work out in my favor?!?!

Almost every bad thing that has happened this year has been because of someone else's shitty decisions. I NEVER play the victim and I always take responsibility for myself no matter what others have done but a lot of what has happened year and the years before that wasn't even my fault and I can't take responsibility. I can only try to fix things (and I do all day every day) but if the other people involved aren't willing to make a change then... what can I do?

Good news though: The manager of the mall did have to go ahead and lease the storefront, BUT the shop is temporary and that he'll be willing to work with me somehow so that I can open up shop in March. That gives me more time to try to get a loan, my stock, fixtures, etc. If the store in the mall doesn't work out, I will still open a store.... just somewhere else. Not a problem at all. I'm only after the mall so hard because it has reliable and predictable traffic and low fees.

▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲

I announced a while back on social media that I will be releasing a comic strip this year (mostly for my other blog) and I've been keeping it a secret that I'm working on a book... er three books actually. I've been keeping the books on hush hush because I'm kind of embarrassed to let people know that I have an extraordinary amount of time on my hands because I have no car and no friends. Plus, I can multi-task like a muthah.

Right now, I'm writing this post, promoting my blog in various Facebook groups, managing a client's Instagram on on my phone, keeping my kids from killing each other and I also drew a comic strip during a 30 minute break I took from this post. There are 24 hours in every day and when you don't have a a life outside of your home... you learn how to occupy that time.

So on the plate for 2018: Release a comic strip twice a month, a blog post on Quirky Bohemian Mama twice a month, get more clients for my social media management service, open a flea market booth to get rid of all the junk we've accumulated and inherited over the past 8 years (husband's going to take care of that mostly), lose 100lbs, finish writing one of my books and open my store and document it all for our vlog on YouTube (last priority). Of course when I open the store, I'll let go of some of that stuff.

If you read all of this and you made it this far, thank you so much for taking the time to read it.
If you skipped over some parts, heck I don't blame you at all! No one likes a party pooper! I just needed to get that mess out.

Pray for me, wish me well but don't worry about me. I'm a fighter and I'm ~~painfully~~ optimistic. My glass is always half full ~~of wine~~ so I will survive!

I hope you all (as well as myself) have the best freaking year ever! I think we all deserve it.

thanking my elders (yeah, you'll want to read this)

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Thu, 14 Dec 2017 18:00:00 +0000

Most of my readers here are old enough to be my mother.

I'm 32 years old.

How did this come to be?

A few years ago I started following the "over 40 blogger" crowd because I was so bored with the hipster millennial moms who only talked about cloth diapering a coconut oil. I'm not quite sure how I came across my first "over 40" blogger, but I remember is was Krista with Peetee's Palace(?). Surely you remember her? She's was an adorable little woman with hot pink hair who dressed mostly in fun pink clothes and awesome leggings. I don't think she's blogging anymore so I'm not sure what she's up to - but I'll willing to guess she still has the hot pink hair, or least I hope she still does! (She made my awesome pink and orange necklace by the way!)

When I saw Krista (in her early to mid 40s I think) I was absolutely CONFUSED.

"She has pink hair! She's in her 40s with PINK hair!"

I had never seen anything like it.

I wondered, "A grown woman with pink hair?! Is that even allowed?!?!"

Not only did she have pink hair but she was wearing a vintage dress.

At that time where I live, vintage clothing was a trend for the hippest of hip teens and cool cats in their 20s. Older people didn't wear vintage and they despised it! I thought there was some kind of law somewhere that stated, "Thou shalt not wear vintage over 30" because that just wasn't a thing.

Anyway, I was so intrigued that I looked for other older bloggers through the comments on Krista's blog and started seeing what they were about. My brain almost exploded!

"Look at all these women wearing vintage and hand-sewn stuff and red lipstick and bracelets up to their elbows!!"

I honestly didn't know you could do that past 25!

Another blogger I came across was Vix.

Vix's tribal jewelry fascinated me the most. "I have jewelry like that," I thought. "But I only wear it when I'm in costume. You mean I'm allowed to wear it any time I want?" Vix has long black hair and wears bold psychedelic vintage dresses and I can honestly say that there is NO ONE where I live like that. Not even a young person, so I was blown away.

Then came other eccentric bloggers: Helga VonTrollop, Desiree of Pull Your Socks Up (I don't think either one of them are blogging any more), Mel with Bag and Beret and most recently Suzanne Carillo. There are SO many others so if I left you out please don't be offended. If I'm following your blog or following you on Instagram, then you're one of them too!!!

All of that to say that every last one of you has inspired me SO much and that if I hadn't discovered your blogs, I never would have gained the courage to be myself again. I used to not care when I was younger and it wasn't that long ago! I was weird and didn't care to change but I wanted to be seen as an adult so badly. At 26 I was already preparing to settle into a nice pair of mom-jeans and a tee shirt because that's what I thought I was supposed to do in order to be a respectable adult.

2006, me in my favorite outfit, a vintage Army medic's dress jacket and jeans.

2009, in vintage jacket and fallen pompadour.

I had been restricting myself so much that I began to have anxieties about wearing simple things like over-sized sunglasses and big chunky necklaces. "OMG, people will stare!"

I was so worried about what people would think of me but when I finally started wearing what I wanted to wear again, I was only met with praise and compliments.

Now I get offended if people DON'T stare.

"Um, excuse me, sir. Are you really going to act like you don't notice my new handmade earrings? Psh. Rude."

And people do stare. In this town, I'm as eccentric as they come (yeah, boring town), so it's gonna happen. Some stare a little too long and it makes me sliiiiightly uncomfortable but I understand that sometimes there's a lot to take in. All my fake hair and patterns and jewelry take a few seconds to process so I totally get it so it doesn't bother me much.

Now I'm being approached by older women who say they wish they could dress like me or that they wish they had the confidence to dress like me. That actually makes me very sad. I try to tell them that it's never too late to dress the way they want and I tell them about all the bloggers I follow but they shake their heads and say, "It's too late for me".

I want you all to know that you've given me hope and you've helped me realize that aging is what you make it. There are no laws stating that you can't wear certain things after 30 or 40... just fashion magazines that like to tell you how to dress.

Their words aren't law and neither are the opinions of others.

I'm not afraid to be myself anymore.

I feel as free and as carefree as the teenaged me who used to wear my grandmother's dresses with glitter painted sneakers and feather boas to school.

But I also think that naturally, the older I get, the less I care about what other people think of me in general. They're not paying my bills, raising my kids or cooking my dinner so poopoo on what they think.

You ladies blog to help inspire other women your age, but never forget that this little girl has been looking up to you cool big kids for years now. I'm inspired and encouraged to embrace aging by staying true to myself.

I say, thank you.

Thank you all for saving me from someday reaching mid-life, looking back and saying,

"It's too late for me".

Bonus pics of my kids!

In the photos above, I'm wearing a vest thingy I made myself from a shawl I wasn't too crazy about. I folded it in half, cut the front part open, sewed the sides closed and hemmed the edges. It wasn't my intentions to dress us all in neutrals with pops of color but that's what happened!

fresh air and crunchy stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 22:37:00 +0000

I proposed that we go camping for Thanksgiving.

I regret nothing.

I regret some things.

I regret a lot.

My husband and I alternate holidays with each other's families. This year was the year to spend with his parents. Since many family members couldn't make it from up North, I proposed the idea of camping instead so we wouldn't spend the holiday sitting around sulking because all the fun people are missing.

The husband's parents are hardcore campers and my husband loves camping, I've only camped once and the kid's have never camped before so everyone was on board.

The park was already dull brown and dry - we were too late to see the fantastic Arkansas mountain foliage. Curses!

But with it being Thanksgiving weekend, the park was super quiet with only a handful of other campers. We had plenty of space to roam about undisturbed. It felt like the park belonged to us.

We set up across a path from the in-laws who were set up right at the top of a hill that overlooked a crystal clear river. The river looked so dang clean and inviting, I wanted to splash around in it but that wouldn't have been a very wise idea as the water was probably at about 40F. Still, the urge was SO dang hard to resist! No mosquitoes, no snakes, no weird swimming creatures. Just a clean stream of cloud juice.

So the regrets?

The boredom.

The soul crushing boredom.

Not just boredom.

Loneliness.

Holy smokes. I had no one to talk to and oftentimes nothing to do. I explored, took photos and walked about and enjoyed a little alone time but when I was ready to talk, maybe do a little bonding with the in-laws, no one was interested in jack squat I had to say.

"Do you have something else to do besides talk to me? Oh, you wanna stare at the river in silence for a few more hours. Sorry, for disturbing you."

I was more baffled than hurt that no one wanted to talk to me. My kids had plenty to do rolling around in leaves and throwing rocks into the river so they were good to go. My husband, brother in-law and father-in-law kept to themselves talking theology and man stuff.... My mother-in-law just simply wasn't interested in talking to me. No rudeness about it. No tension. Just not interested.

I shrugged it off and tried to keep myself company but the books I brought were awful and there was no phone service and of course no wifi. So I began to mosey about feeling kind of sorry for myself.

3 days and two nights in the wilderness with no one to talk to is pretty dang tough.

But anyways. I survived.

I'm still here.

BAM! PHOTOS!

Sheesh, it took me ages to finish this post. Uuuuggghhh.

I've picked up a new client, looking for more clients and it's time to start cranking out Christmas posts for the other blog.

Christmas posts = $$$$

$$$$ = Bills paid.

Bills paid = electricity, phone, a home, a car, etc...

You get it.

See you folks laaaaaaaaater.

but row away from the rocks

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Sun, 19 Nov 2017 23:35:00 +0000

I bought this Egyptian dress on Amazon a couple years ago for like $15 because I thought it was a mini-dress. I was little disappointed to find that it was full length and stashed it away thinking maybe I'll just just shorten it myself later but I just couldn't bring myself to chop up a good dress and risk ruining it with my poor sewing skills. I hung it up and completely forgot about it. I rediscovered it and I was certain I had outgrown it since it was pretty snug just two years ago but lo and behold it still fits... eer... thanks to an extremely tight pancreas-compressing body shaper.

I decided to give the dress a try today since it's very cool and windy outside.

I'm in love. I dig it hard.

I also have a dress like this in chocolate brown silk with bold metallic silver thread that was given to me a by a guy whose coffee shop I used to visit every day. His mother picked it up on her travels somewhere in the Middle East and never wore it so he gave to someone he knew would appreciate it. Me!!!

It's too tight and the last time I tried it on, I thought I was going to have to cut myself out of it. Plus it has weird 80s-cut puff sleeves so I keep it in my costuming stash to lend out to whoever needs it.

I also have an genuine men's dashiki pants set that is similar to the dress I'm wearing. I intended to wear the top alone as a dress and I even put it on to wear this morning but it's just too dang big. I'd like to figure out a way to taper the waist and flare the bottom of it out into an A-line.

And by figure it out I mean... take it to a seamstress.

And by take it to a seamstress I mean... sell it on eBay.

Soooo.... how are things going with me?

Meh. Same ol' same ol'. Nothing's really changing or getting better. But on a positive note, it's not getting worse! That's how I see things. I'm never one to say, "Things just can't get any worse" because dadgummit they most definitely can.

Like, at any moment you could spontaneously burst into flames or your carpet could start suddenly smelling like feet that have been washed with feet in a foot factory. This has been happening to me today so I guess it is getting worse. Seriously I've been on all fours trying to figure out where the foot odor in the house is coming from and it's the living room carpet! Well seasoned with 18 years of bare foot funk. Yikes!

But if that's the extent of my problems for today, I guess I'm doing alright.

I'm still slowly raising money to open my shop in the mall (◄ info link) but I'm not sure how much longer the manager is going to hold the space for me. He's a super nice guy but I totally understand that time is money.

Either way, I'm going to open the store in the mall even if that means starting off with a kiosk while I wait for another storefront to open. If I get the kiosk after Christmastime the leasing price will go down significantly so it'll be all gravy baby.

After I fulfill this dream, I guess it'll be time for me to pursue my next level dream. My dream 2.0?

My own gothic themed animal-free circus.

Can't you just see it?!

One step at a time, Hollie. One step at a time.

This is not a test!!

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 18:22:00 +0000

Guys, guess what.

I'm opening a store.

Yeah, you read right.

MY STORE!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!

Little known fact about me: I've been dreaming of opening a bohemian store for a few years now. Before my kids were born I used to sell ethnic goods and used exotic home decor in a flea market booth. It didn't do well. Not because the stuff wasn't desired but because it wasn't the right place to sell that kind of stuff. The flea market I sold my goods at was mostly frequented by old ladies who mostly just bought ceramic roosters and clothes for their new grandbabies. They were the kind of people who were getting rid of their souvenirs from travels at flea markets so I don't know why I thought they'd want to buy more.

After my kids were born and the renaissance faire was in full swing, I put my dream of having my store on the back burner. I tried to revive it through little online shops, and even had a little booth at the renaissance faire but that didn't come close to what I was wanting to do.

A few weeks ago I made a rare trip to the mall and the idea of opening a kiosk popped into my head. I contacted the manager and it turns it would cost more to open a kiosk than a store and that the only storefront they have available is very affordable and directly across from the new Indian restaurant. It's our first and only Indian restaurant in town so it's getting hella traffic. This shop is in a fantastic location, it's small and will be perfect for me to start with.

I feel very confident about all of this and I feel that this is a very realistic goal to achieve. And I mostly feel really good about it because there is zero competition. There used to be a shop in the mall called Romancing the Stone (Earthbound Trading Company), but that closed last year. People were really bummed out about it including myself. But when Romancing the Stone closed down last year I knew that it was my time to step up - I just didn't know where to start.

Why, yes. Yes I do have some new locs! Cheap and fake, but new!

Remembering people's reaction to Romancing the Stone closing gave me the idea to try to raise money to open my shop through crowdfunding on GoFundMe. I figured if everybody really wanted a Romancing the Stone replacement, they would be willing to contribute to making it happen. I'm taking donations on GoFundMe so that I can start this business completely in the black so that I can start making profit immediately. If you know anything about my personal life then you would know we really need it.

This isn't just one of Hollie's wacky adventures. I know I'm full of ideas and I chase a lot of of them; but that was mostly me trying to do what I could with what I had to work with while being a stay at home mom. The path to me opening up the store that I've been dreaming of for almost 10 years is extremely clear. My biggest fear is that I'm afraid people aren't going to take me seriously and that I won't get the support that I need to make this happen. Even if I don't have the support, I'll still take out a loan and make this happen. It's got to happen soon before the Christmas season hits so I don't really have a choice but to move and to move fast.

That's my teeny tiny shop up there, 136.

I'm not posting this information to ask for donations, although that would be pretty cool, but if you want to see a sample of my stock and a little bit more about my idea please feel free to visit my GoFundMe page.

Wish me luck!

The inside of the shop, Cedar photobombing.

I'm still here

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 16:26:00 +0000

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. Yeah, it's me. I'm still around doing stuff and more stuff.

So what have I been up to?

Oh, goodness.

Here's how I'll do this. I'm going to put some nonsensical stuff (in purple italics) and photos in between the serious stuff to kind of lighten things up.

My aunt (mom's mom) passed away from cancer Sunday night. She had some drug and alcohol problems but she was still a pretty cool person and loved me to pieces for being weird. I wasn't that close to her though. The funeral is Saturday and I already have anxiety. I absolutely hate funerals so much. Dead bodies absolutely freak me out. They look gross and dry and the image of them looking like that absolutely sears itself into my brain. I'm sure it's a phobia. When I get close to a body in a casket, I feel absolutely faint. Even if the casket is closed and I barely know who the person is, I get shaky and light headed. And yes, I even get nervous around empty caskets. Not the plain wooden box types, but those huge metal super cushioned satin-lined things. :Shudders: If that's not textbook phobia stuff then I don't know what is!

I'm wearing sandwiches for shoes right now. The mayonnaise between my toes feels amazing.

What else. The house we're "remodeling" STILL isn't done. Not even close. It's been over a year and all that's been done is some deconstruction and paint. It's perfectly unlivable now so there's no way we can just move in and work as we go.

I built a time machine out of corn flakes and I plan to go back in time, introduce Ivan the Terrible to pepperoni pizza, and come back to the present to see how it has affected history.

Let's see, what other depressing crap has been happening... hmmm...

The private school we were sending River to proved to be entirely too expensive for us so we had to take him out. Husband is incredibly against public school education (it's a loooong and ridiculous story that I don't care to discuss here) so guess who's back homeschooling.

I'm pretty sure the pumpkin patch behind the house has been wiretapped by the CIA.

Home schooling, stay-at-home-momming, and working. Sigh.

A man may work from sun to sun but a woman's work is never done.

I'm finding out how incredibly true this is and it's kind of pissing me off. Juuuust being honest.

Yeah, yeah. yeah. I know what you're thinking. What's with the vehicles in the background all the dang time.

I take photos in front of my vehicle for many reasons:

The neighbor's house behind me is unattractive with broken blinds and weird curtains in the windows.
Privacy.
Covering up the fact I live in a gross trailer park.
Poor lighting inside my home.
Messy yard.
Hideous overgrown vacant lot to my left and more trailers to my right.

Back when me and Paul McCartney were dating, he told me in confidence that he bit a nun because she wouldn't let him have a bite of her lemon meringue pie.

COPY & PASTE!

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Sat, 30 Sep 2017 22:54:00 +0000

Yeah, this post is literally just the HTML copied and pasted from my other blog.
A company, Fabricadabra, sent me some goodies to review and I used the stuff at the faire last weekend so I'm going to use that review post to share a few faire pics with you all.
Get it? Okie dokie.
AND for being awesome, there is a giveaway entry form for a $150 gift card to Fabricadabra....
BUT...
You gotta live in the US to enter to win. Sorry!!!
On with the show.
More faire pics coming soon!!!

{This post is crawling with affiliate links}
________________________________________

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of being a performer at the 6th Annual Texarkana Renaissance Faire again! Just making sure that you're caught up on all that: I created the Texarkana Renaissance Faire six years ago. Two years ago I realized that I couldn't keep up with the fair anymore. I had just created an online business, I had a blog, a home to manage and two small children. Something had to go! I gave the faire to a friend and faire supporter and who now co-owns it and directs it with another person. The two of them are doing a very good job of continuing the faire for me. Now that I am no longer the owner and director of the fair I am able to do what I've always wanted to do, and that's perform and entertain.

At the faire, I play a character named Daniella Noir the Gypsy Queen and I am the leader of the gypsy cast members of the faire. As the leader of the Gypsy Camp, my duties includes rounding up dancers and musicians to play gypsies at the faire, decorating the area, coordinating dances and much more.

The camp consists of many different groups. First there's our musicians, most of whom also play pirates. They come over to visit us from the Pirate's Cove and provide us with live music. When they're not there, we dance and drum along to a hidden stereo or "fairy box" as they're called in the ren faire community.

A have some members of an American Tribal Style Belly Dance troupe from Dallas (Wild Sky Tribal) come down and they have their own dances already choreographed and they also do "follow the leader" style improvisational dances that are absolutely stunning. We have a small crew from Shreveport, LA come down as well; mother and daughter classic belly dancers and a very talented drummer from the the group Gems of Cairo.

The others are local dancers and friends who help me by setting up, drumming, dancing, interacting with patrons and more!

That's a big drum!

Sometimes I dance solo while musicians play and when I get to tired or hot, I trade places with a dancer that is waiting nearby. This year, I tried something new. We did a couple of group dances which are Jewish circle dances, or horas, that we learned on our own from online videos and came together to perform them with very little practice time beforehand! That's us doing the dance in the pic below.

When I'm not dancing I play various percussion instruments including, a darbuka, doumbek, aslatua (gourd shakers), zills and a tambourine. I like to challenge myself to see how many instruments I can play at once since sometimes we're a little shorthanded on musicians. While sitting, I place a drum under my left arm and keep a simple rhythm with my left hand while playing my shakers with my right. I place a cheap tambourine on the ground and tap it with my foot or use a foot tambourine. It's a great workout!

My favorite part of heading the gypsy camp is decorating. I get to transform a completely blank area into a vibrant space for the patrons to enjoy. It can be quite difficult to transform a modern fairground into a renaissance themed village, but to me it's quite a fun challenge.

I like to decorate my area with bright colors and multiple patterns and textures, especially ethnic textiles. I request that my other gypsies dress in the boldest, brightest colors they can find and they do a darn good job of it don't they!

I decorate the camp with solid colored scarves, scrap fabric and ribbons but my favorite type of material to use is sari fabric from India. I can use the whole length of an old sari to cover modern items that need to be concealed from public view like ice chests and plastic storage bins. I can drape them over the square bales of hay we use as seating to make them more attractive, and also as table cloths and chair covers. The different materials, patterns and colors that saris come in make it so easy to add life to my gypsy camp.

Fabricadabra's amazing sari scrap garlands helped to transform this drab modern pop-up canopy into a luxurious rest area for me and my other dancers. Each garland is a generous 7-feet long, the tassels are 9-inches and they are skillfully handmade in India.

As you can see I use many different items from all over the world to decorate my camp. The character I play travels the world and has picked up a souvenir from everywhere she's been. Even though I order all of my clothing and decor online, it is true that it comes from all over the globe!

{Photos above by Scott Johnson Photography}

The maang tika, (jewelry over headscarf), silver necklace and skirt were made in India. My pink vest is from Turkey, the large glass bead necklace and beaded belt are from Afghanistan. The green overskirt, brown leather tankard strap and black leather cincher belt were handmade by local artisans. The bracelets attached to my belt that I give to patrons for free were handmade in Peru and my parasol (which is also from Fabricadabra!) was made in Rajasthan, India!

Since sunglasses aren't very period appropriate and the sun can heat up all those layers of garb in a heartbeat, parasols are absolutely necessary for faire characters. Now, the cool thing about this particular parasol, is that it adds SO much more color to my costuming and it can also be used as home decor! When I finally get all the faire decor stuff tucked back where it belongs, I will totally display my parasol and upcycled sari garland in my living room until it's time to use them again for next year's faire!

I've got a special treat for you guys...

►► A GIVEAWAY ◄◄

Fabricadabra would like to give YOU a $150 gift card to spend in their shop!

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT??!

Yes!

Not only does Fabricadabra have amazing parasols and garlands, they have gorgeous ethnic textile throw pillows, bed covering, place mats, floor cushions and more!

This shop is a bohemian DREAM!

See the gizmo below to enter to win!

USA entries only!!

HAVE FUN!

Ends 10/20/2017

a Rafflecopter giveaway

yes way no way

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 16:13:00 +0000

Oh, my goodness!!

Look at what the cat coughed up.

It's me!

Where have I been?

Riiiight here.Yup. Right here inside your PC and/or mobile device eatin' up all your wires and stuff.

These photos are from Sunday after Church.

Anyone else run to the fridge to grab a beer right after church or is that just me?

For real though, I had a terrible lingering hunger headache after I ate and sometimes beer just does the trick.

I would have still drank the beer sans headache tho. Ain't no shame in my game.

Wearing:

Shawl thingy - Ross Dress for Less $5.99

(Had to sew it together down both sides because most of the stitching was completely gone and it was being held together on one side with three loose stitches.

Sari Magic Wrap Skirt - one of 6 from a wholesale lot.

Camisole - Old faded worn out $1 Walmart find.

So what did you guyz miss while I was lost in cyberspace?

River started Pre-K.

Yeah, his face says it all. This was taken the morning of the first day. I don't think he's ever had to wake up at 6AM before and I'm sure the last time I had to wake up that early was to get to my scheduled C-section appointment to deliver Cedar.

So, yeah. We've been pretty tired.

Aaaand Cedar turned 3!

So what have you guys been up to?

Well I guess I'll find out soon when I go blaaaaawg reading.

See you laterz!

the grass IS greener

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 21:21:00 +0000

Don't let the little smile fool ya.

I wish I had something good to say, but these past two weeks have been just awful.

This YEAR has been awful. Probably one of the worst years ever for me.

I don't even know where to start and I don't really feel comfortable going into too much detail on here but I will say that my husband and I are having some "adulting" issues. Not adultery issues.... ADULTING.

You know, the act of being an adult?

Yeah, we're sucking at it.

I've been doing a lot of just sweeping thoughts and emotions under the rug and I'm feeling kind of numb. I know that sounds dangerous but in my case it's actually rather nice.

I love not feeling anything right now.

I know I'm going to crack and that's ok. I need to.

It'll happen in due time but for now I can say things like, "Look at my pretty dress!" and mean it!

As usual, this dress came from Ross Dress for Less. A little more than I care to pay for a dress at about $12 but I was shopping with gift money from a very special friend. I'm not sure if she'd want her name mentioned but you know who you are!

I've been lusting after this style of dress for ages so when I saw it at Ross I just couldn't resist. It's a 2X is which should be plenty big but for some reason this dress didn't allow for much room in bust. Too lazy to go exchange it for a bigger size I just forced it over the girls and took made sure to breathe very carefully so I didn't bust any seams.

The details of the dress are quite lovely. It's crinkle rayon(?) with machine embroidery and little tassels. Seriously one of my fave dresses now.

Sorry for the poopoo phone photos. It was pretty cloudy and had just stopped raining. I didn't want to wrestle with a real camera in those conditions.

Sooo.... how are things with you?

Got into any good arguments lately?

blow your horn

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 22:11:00 +0000

I'm taking a break from my work to blawg over here for right now. I need to talk. I need adult interaction and sometimes my blog is the only place I can get it.

**SOBS** It's been a terrible week!!! Kids and poop and pee and disobedience and PMS and housework and bills and cooking and laundry! UUUUUUUGHHHH!!!!

And it's SO HOT outside! The heat and humidity is outrageous!!

It's only getting up to about 90-95F outside which isn't so bad when the humidity is low but that rarely happens here. It's HUMID here. HUUUUUUUUMIIIIIID.

Texas summer hasn't even reached it's peak yet. It gets up to about 102 and even as much as 104 when things get into full swing. Add humidity to those temps and well... you ever been in a sauna?

I went grocery shopping Saturday and I felt like I was about to have a heart attack from just walking to and from my car. No lie. I was sweating buckets, I was light headed and having heart palpitations!

But wait... is it really THAT hot or have I gotten that fat???

Both.

I'm sure it's both.

I've been spending most of my days indoors, only going out to take the trash to the dumpster and let the kids play with the water hose after the house shadow has covered the entire yard.

I. HATE. SUMMER.

Enough of my complaining.

I scored this dress at Ross Dress for Less for $9. I love it! I love the way it fits. I got boob room, nothing tugs or pulls and the two slits in the skirt let the breeze in... mmmmm... swoooosh...

It's wonderful! It also came in burnt orange. I'm getting super into bold colors these days but I think I might go back and get that one too because this simple dress is stellar.

And here's little Cedar girl in her new-to-us Vietnamese blouse. I found it on swap.com and it came with lavender satin pants. I'm not sure if that was the outfit or if the store paired it like that but it wasn't a good match. We went for white leggings instead for church. You probably can't tell in the photos that it's chiffon over satin. Fancy!

Since I'm only taking a break right now, I might not be able to get to blog reading until tomorrow.

Sooooo I'll see you guys around hopefully sooner than later! Byyyeeee

winning good art and bad steak

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 21:49:00 +0000

I did a something! A cool something!

I won the City of Texarkana's photo contest a couple weeks ago. I won the "community events" category and Best in Show with this photo below:

The photo is of my friend (and ren faire merchant and supporter) throwing beads in the Mardi Gras parade a couple years ago. The photo isn't the best quality, but I chose it because it features a faire person, Mardi Gras, downtown and a historical building. I guess that's what they were looking for and I won!

I didn't even know there was a real prize. I was quite content to only have my photo featured on the city's website but it turns out the prize was a staycation and free dinner at a local hotel. Woooo!! Me and the husband sent to kids to spend the night with my mom and started the evening at the TRAHC's (Texarkana Regional Arts & Humanities Council) 29th Annual Juried Exhibit Opening Reception for some art and wine.

We arrived fashionably late. Wait. Let me stop there.

Ok, what's the deal with people not dressing up for events anymore?

The public invitation stressed business attire but I guess blue jeans and Hawaiian print shirts are the thing now? Me and the husband have been to a few local events... FORMAL events where people have showed up in work uniforms, jeans and tee shirts. We once attended a formal charity banquet and I was absolutely appalled to see that my husband and I, the volunteers and one doctor were the only one's in formal attire out of about 200 people. One woman's dress was so short, she squatted down to pick something up and I could see all that she wasn't wearing under her dress. I rushed over to her to inform her and she was quite grateful for the warning. Dress appropriately to folks. No one should be able to see your cooter at a formal event.

I brought my camera but totally left the card at home so I had to use my phone to snap pics from the evening. All of the is from artists in the region.

A middle aged purple haired pianist with an eyebrow piercing? Yes, please!

The hotel lobby ^^

After the reception we picked up booze at the liquor store, got to the hotel, checked in and headed for dinner. It was almost 9pm so the dining area wasn't very busy but there was only one server who was being ran between waiting tables and a room service. It took foreeeeeeever to get our food and drinks, we were starving and the prices were outrageous!

Luckily dinner came with the contest winnings because we would never ever pay that much for food unless it made us poop diamonds. The food was decent but my salmon was absolutely crusted in salt that had to be scraped off to make it edible and husband's steak was super poor quality. Not worth the price at all. Snobby snob meat talk. Blah, blah, blah.

We got to the room and realized that we were too dang tired for any "special relations" so we sat on the couch and drank and watched cartoons just like we do every single night...

And it was great.

4 birds with one stone

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Tue, 04 Jul 2017 21:26:00 +0000

I'm currently eating ramen noodles, writing this blog post and another post over at QBM and folding laundry at the same time. This is nothing new. That's how I roll. Am I the queen of multitasking or do I just have ADD? Probably both.

How do I do it? I take a bite of food, fold a garment as I chew, then type something here. I switch over to the other blog post while of think of what to say next, then write something and then take a bite of food, switch back over... repeat.

So today is the 4th of July and you know what that means? Well do you?

No, really - I'm asking because I have no idea what that is.

Juuuuuust kidding.

We don't really have any special plans for today but we're going to grill some burgers made from brisket the husband ground up. We might let the kids shoot at barrels of gasoline with guns and or roman candles but I'm not sure yet. Our gas supply is still pretty low from the monster truck derby we hosted illegally in the field behind our house last week.

Because America.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to get to blog reading today, but I'll try my best!

Soooo... what are you doing this evening? Have you ever boxed a roo?

What I wore:

Blouse - handmedown

Skirt - handmedown dress worn as a skirt because I'm fat.

What Cedar Wore:

Linen star-print dress, $4 from China on eBay.

Vix, Obama and Quicksand

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Mon, 26 Jun 2017 02:04:00 +0000

At five this morning, Cedar began to cry for her early morning milk. I tried to ignore her but she persisted and I gave in. When I got back to bed I struggled to go back to sleep (just like almost every day). I finally fell back asleep over an hour later and dreamed that I was driving around with a bunch of women I didn't recognize. We stopped at a house that had been converted into a vintage shop. I didn't know the store owner either and as the dream went on, she began to morph into blogger Vix.

Vix had a Jeep that was stuck in the mud outside her house/store and I was deeply concerned about this for some strange reason. Like worried sick. She was very lackadaisical about it and every time I looked, her vehicle had sank lower and lower into the ground. Gasp! That's no ordinary mud!

That's quicksand!

"Vix, that's quicksand. You need to get your Jeep out of there."

"Meh," she shrugged.

I looked again and the Jeep had sank so far that only the roof was visible. Vix smiled and walked away. I stopped panicking. I no longer cared about her sinking Jeep because she didn't care. I had nothing to stress about if she had nothing to stress about. (That's not how life works by the way).

Later, on the side porch of her house/shop, former US president Barack Obama pulls up in a silver Mercedes and walks onto the porch. He wore a dark green polo shirt, blue jeans and something on his head that transformed between an Easter egg bobble headband and something else I don't remember - perhaps a jester hat?

He and Vix begin chatting like old friends. Desperate to have a special moment with Mr. Obama as well, I began to tell him the story of Vix's sinking Jeep. He wasn't interested and didn't find it funny. I think he was high? I then tried to give him a complicated urban handshake: "shake, dap, bump, shake, twiddle thumbs, bump, finger guns, dap dap"... that kind of jive handshake but I failed so miserably at it that I forced myself to wake up.

The end.

What I wore:

Ombre dress - handmedown Earthbound Trading company (looks like a nightgown)

Shawl jacket thingy (aaaaagain) - Walmart

Sun glasses - Ross Dress for Less

Silver necklace - Walmart

Jewelry - Various thrift stores and clearance bins.

River wore a new (to us) aloha shirt from the online consignment shop, Swap, handmedown khakis and Family Dollar shoes.

Cedar wore a tunic and leggings set that's been sitting in the closet for over a year waiting for her to grow into it... but it's still too big. Husband dressed her, I had no idea it was so big and didn't have time to take it in anyways. Pink sandals, proudly from the Dollar General.

Dang, I'm ~~cheap~~ frugal.

Door mat- from the Dollar General, praying to be put out of it's misery.

dreamy face

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 16:23:00 +0000

I think I've worn this before, but this is a shawl vest thingy I ordered from Earthbound Trading Co.'s clearance online (those prices get stupid cheap!). I didn't realize how much it looks like a throw rug until I posed like that. I think it used to be a rug at some point. It's awfully thick.

But it's not a rug.

Ok, it might be a rug.

Ok, well it's breakfast time for me. Yeah, it's 11:21am. It's brunchfast time?

Gotta go eat and be cute and stuff.

See ya laters.

let's get clean

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 23:03:00 +0000

Sorry for the super inconsistencies in posting and blog reading. I've got too many projects going on right now and kids and a home and a husband and stuff...

Aaaaaanywhoooo. Sunday, I wore this dress I bought from Ross Dress for Less for Easter. Because Easter was during a uh, .. ahem... special week... wearing white was entirely out of the question. I put the dress to the side on a pile stuff beside my bed and forgot all about it.

But here it is now!

The dress is pretty darn gauzy and I had to wear a black cotton spaghetti strap tank under it because my leopard print bra still showed through with a white satin camisole.

I had to wear my dreaded half slip, even though the dress has an underskirt because my electric blue panties were showing through. After all that, you could still see hints of blue through the skirt and Hollie doesn't do neutral undies so I just had to shrug it off and hope no one noticed.

Aaaaand... my girdle is an Asian 3X which means it fits like a medium and it is TIGHT.

Dadgummit that's how I like it. What's the point of wearing a tummy tucker if you can't feel your organs being displaced?

But I couldn't bend over to buckle my sandals so I slipped on some silver $1 Old Navy flip flops and went on my way. Flip flops to church? A church that's not in Hawaii?

SHAMEFUL! BLASPHEMOUS!

Nah, not really. Nowhere in the bible does it read, "thou shalt not wear rubber shoes to church" but here in the South (especially if you're black... blame tradition) you dress your VERY best to church. Sometimes hats, gloves, matching shoe/purse combos and all.

Flip flops are my lazy shoes and I could hear my mother in my head hollering at me to go change my shoes, "You are NOT wearing flip flops to church! Go put on some REAL shoes! Take some pride in yourself!"

Man it feels, good to be so naughty.

Aaaand here's a new necklace I got from eBay. It's has two layers and the bottom pendant is a mirror. Look closely, you can see the grey sky in it. I'm also slightly obsessed with this nail polish color. It's called "moody" and I hate that so much. It's not freaking moody. It's cheerful as eff. I want a job naming nail polish colors! How cool would that be?

Here's the pic of the necklace from eBay since I didn't get a good closeup of all the purty details.

Oh yeah! I'm doing a giveaway for one of my magic wrap skirt thingies over at my other blawg.

Go enter to win stuff.

SEEEEEE YAAAAAAAAAA!

Moo Blue

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Sun, 21 May 2017 22:37:00 +0000

I wasn't trying to mean mug in this pic. Husband started taking photos before I was ready.

I don't talk much about my kids or parenting on here but I gotta share this parenting horror story (in between outfit photos, of course):

At church this morning Cedar started crying about something and Husband took her out to quiet her down. River freaked out that his daddy left and followed after him and I let him, trusting he would just go find him standing right at the door.

Then...

Cedar comes back in running and giggling aaaaall the way down the aisle to the pulpit with River chasing after her to stop her and Husband chasing after him.

So all four of us had to do the walk of shame back down the aisle and out of the sanctuary where both children began to cry uncontrollably.

We calmed them down and every time we tried to go back in River would begin to SCREAM bloody murder. Not crying. SCREAMING. This happened about four times.

The final straw was when Husband got up to help with communion and River lost his dadgummed mind and started SCREAMING some more.

I gave up and took him into a side room, where I closed the door, looked out the window and began to cry from pure frustration.... AND I ruined my makeup.

It looked really good too. :(

What was wrong with my kids this morning?

Heck, I dunno. Whatever is was, perhaps I should have called for a young priest and an old priest and about a gallon of holy water.

Anyways, I'm wearing another sari wrap skirt. I loooooove them. This time I went sans underslip and made sure to stay out of the wind. I was in a bit of a hurry to get these pics and had to wrap it up early because my son was inside the truck KICKING THE WINDOW (seriously WTF is wrong with my kid?!).

The details we didn't get to capture are:

The pretty pattern of my robe jacket kimono thingy (found at Walmart!).

The eyelets and crochet details of my blouse (hand me down).

My awesome necklace (Walmart too!) and the stunning trim on the skirt.

Use your imagination? Zoom in??

Cedar is wearing a new-to-her dress recently thrifted by her granny, a hand-me-down cardigan, a hair clip I made from my old Etsy stock long before she was born and a wooden cow brooch I got for $0.25 at a local vintage shop. Her daddy put it on her <3 . Barely seen, her little yellow bloomers (diaper cover) were handmade by her granny and have pink dragonflies on them. Werk it!

Kinda weird, the placement of those circles. I just noticed that. Now I can't unsee it.

Oh, well.

Was your Sunday morning better or worse than mine?

fleas in my wine

noreply@blogger.com (Hollie Black-Ramsey) — Tue, 09 May 2017 17:25:00 +0000

Yesterday was me and the husband's 7th wedding anniversary so this weekend we mini-celebrated by doing a little thrifting, hitting up a wine festival and then having some crawfish at his sister's.

We brought the kiddo with us since it was a rather casual outing.

First, we hit up a sidewalk sale going on outside a giant flea market. It was pretty lame. The advertisements promised vendors, food trucks, door prizes and cupcakes but, meh. Maybe the cupcakes and prizes were indoors because all we saw were a handful of vendors with unmarked overpriced stuff and a sno-cone truck.

Visiting the sale wasn't a total waste. I got to play with a lasso, bought some good quality bongos for $12 and got to watch a lady making a rag rug.

Moving on the the wine festival...

This guy above gets the "best dressed" award from me and he gets bonus points for matching one of the vendors.

The husband was super cranky from some severe allergy issues he was having and wasn't doing a good job of concealing his grumpiness. We had a bizarre and unnecessary argument in the car about parking before the festival so my mood was a little funky. I didn't really get to take my time and enjoy the festival the way I wanted to. I was hoping to make a day of it but I think we were there maybe an hour before we moved on. We didn't even go into the wine garden.

The festival was decent though. Good music, good food and all that but it had same vendors as the two years before. Not a major complaint - it just would have been nice to see something different.

Given my husband's mood, asking for pics was a rather unpleasant experience but, oh well.

I got the pics, didn't I?

Wrapping up the evening with crawfish at my sister-in-law's place.

10-lbs of crawfish for all of us was nowhere close to being enough to fill up on, but it was so spicy there's was no way I could have even taken in more without my lips catching on fire.

Our eyes and noses were watering from the spices but boy, oh, boy it was yummy.

In case you're not familiar with it; gathering around and sharing crawfish with friends and family is a Southern tradition that promotes fellowship, happiness, beer consumption, spicy gluttony and food comas.

{Popsicle faces}

We wrapped up the night with popsicles for the kids, mosquitoes and beer.

The end!