Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History- Jill Conner Browne of the Sweet Potato Queens

"Heeeeeyycuteshoestellyamommahi!" The classic greeting of a Sweet Potato Queen. If you have not heard of these infamous women who reside in Jackson, Mississippi, you need to acquaint yourself with them here and now. Especially if you are a woman over the age of, oh.. let's say 40-ish, and more especially, if you are a Southern gal. There are several books written by Jill Conner Browne, the lead Queen and one of my idols. The SPQ are all about making your own fun, hence the silly costumes they wear. Who wouldn't like to dress up like someone else for a day and just let loose?! It all began with a St. Patrick's Day parade many years ago and a few ladies who appointed themselves queens of that parade because like Jill said, in the words of Suzanne Sugarbaker, "There is just nothing better than riding in a convertible with a tiara on your head." Through the years, the SPQ have gotten quite a following, groupies called Wannabee's and even Wannabee Wannabee's, to the point that the annual parade draws tens of thousands of people from all over now. They all come to see these ladies (in their green-sequined and amply augmented dresses, pink drum-majorette boots and silk gloves, and big-haired red wigs) get out there and shake what their mommas gave 'em! The books are an easy fun read, but be warned, you WILL find yourself laughing out loud! I personally have passed my copies of them on to 6 or 7 friends, cousins, aunts, and my mom, and am currently re-reading them for the ?nth time.  The Queens believe in eating as an art form and that pretty much anything is better with bacon in it. All of their books contain a section of "death-defying" recipes that sound sinfully good. I must say that I did not know until I read it, that you can boil an ENTIRE can of sweetened condensed milk to caramelize it, but you do have to be careful that it doesn't explode! They also have lots of great advice about men, funny stories, tips on getting that Queenly look, and the how-to on "lolling about"-the official activity of the SPQ.  Oh, and the info on how to order Fat Mama's Knock You Naked Margaritas! So now you  know... who wrote the book of love....that is, "The Sweet Potato Queen's Book of Love".

Taking life with a grain of salt,... accompanied by a large margarita

   It's been a while since I blogged, and most everyone knows what has happened to me since my last post. In short, my asshole husband decided to up and have a mid-life crisis. First of all, he hit me with it on Mother's Day...my very first one as a REAL gen-u-wine mom, thank you very much! I went through about 48 hours of non-stop crying and trying to figure out "why?", then I sort of made peace with it, stopped wanting him to change his mind and come back, and decided that my boys and I will be okay,... just maybe even better. I was strong. I was resourceful. I was kidding myself.
   The 2nd wave hit me when I found out that yes, he was already seeing other women and that's probably why he left me. The 3rd when we were at the attorney's office filing the papers. I just wanted to be alone for a while so I could have a good cry and get it all out. When I was alone, I found myself too angry to cry...then too depressed. Too depressed to cry? Wow, I never knew that level of apathy even existed, but I seriously just wanted to lie on the gorgeous new leather sofa I bought (to replace the crappy old one that he took when he moved out) and do nothing. Lucky for me, I have some great friends who have made a point of keeping me from becoming one with the sofa. Going to see funny chick-flicks, drinking happy hour watermelon margaritas, planning beach vacations...all a part of my new life. A life I never thought I would have...being single at 46.
   I have one very best friend who has been my inspiration, my amazing mom. She has sent me card after card, called me at least once a day, and reminded me of the long line of strong women whose blood is coursing through my veins. My mom is the strongest woman I know. She married my dad young and was a stay-at-home-mom who took good care of us, and though she didn't go to college, it was very important to her and my dad that I did. When I walked across the stage and got my Bachelor's degree she knew that I could take care of myself. When my dad died suddenly, 19 years ago, she took a computer class at the local college and got a job. When she got breast cancer, she kept a positive attitiude and never missed a day of work. I could give more examples, but you get the idea. Tough cookie.
   Now it's my turn. As I raise these boys, with the goal of teaching them to become men who respect women, I have to be strong. I will be fine, even if I have to keep reminding myself of that...often. Thanks to my parents never letting me think that college was optional, I have a career so that I make enough to provide for my little family and keep my house. And speaking of keeping a house or house-keeping, I never, ever, ever have to clean up a nasty man-bathroom again! And I will teach my boys to clean up after themselves, someday their wives will appreciate me for that.
   Right now, I just don't have it in me to be as strong as I need to. I just feel tired and as the song goes "my give a damn's busted". I need to find that spark in me and make it burn big as a bonfire. I'm not sure what it will take to ignite it. I'm planning a beach trip with a few skinny friends, so you would think that would inspire this fat chick to get off the couch and get going. But no. I feel like I just want to sleep for 3 days, but when I lay down, I can't stay asleep for 3 hours. So, that's kind of where I am right now.
   I've received so many sweet messages from caring strong women who believe in me, and yes, I know that what they are saying is true. Time does heal, life goes on, things will get better and karma is a bitch (he WILL get his!) I promise that I will lose the blues and my next post will be more happy and shiny :) Just gotta put on my big girl panties and deal with it!

Decorating the Holga

While exploring the Holga community online, I soon learned that half the fun of owning a Holga is personalizing it. I've seen pics where people did everything from paint their Holga's to putting zebra fake fur on them! You know, I'm always up for decorating pretty much anything, but didn't want to make any permanent changes to my camera. My solution- something that is very me, eclectic, girly and a reminder of why I got this thing in the first place...memory charms. I gathered memorabilia from my scrapbook embellishments, broken pieces of jewlery, earrings that were missing their mate, tiny shells, beads, and a couple of charms I loved from the "Industrial Chic" collection of steampunk style charms at Michael's. Here are the results:

 I added a rustic kind of chain from Michael's for the neckstrap, a turquoise pendant from a broken necklace, a bird charm that was once an earring, a prayer box, a jeweled charm, and a couple of engraved tokens and washers that say "Artful" and "Enjoy". I used little ball chains and safety pins to attach things and added a few crystal beads to up the girly factor.

On this side, I added little tin angel wings, a vintage button, a couple of shells, a bird charm from a necklace, and a few other beads.  All my charms remind me of the things I love: vintage stuff, the beach, vacations to New Mexico and Arizona, my faith, art, and singing birds!  I will probably bling it up a little with some adhesive crystals too.I'm sure that I will continue to add to it as I find more things that remind me of family times and the great memories I have from my very blessed life.

My newest hobby...like I really needed another one!

I recently became fascinated with lomography, taking photos with old-school cameras that give your pics a cool, artsy spin. I bought a Holga, the iconic style of camera used for this, and a fast-action camera that takes 4 pics in 1 second, with just one push of the button, and divides the picture into quarters. I also purchased some really great KOLA filters (Kolor of Life, not sure what the A is for) that you can place in front of the lens to tint your pics different colors, like these:

Step back in time with me and remember the time when you had to send your film off to be developed, relying on the good ol' U.S.Postal Service not to lose your precious images and get them to their destination in a timely manner. Back then, you had NO idea what your pictures were going to look like or even IF they would turn out. Did you forget to take off the lens cap? Would someone be blinking in the family shot? Or worse...making bunny ears behind someone's head! It's actually kind of fun going back to that sort of uncertainty. I had never shot with 120 film and got pretty spoiled in this digital age. This type of film and camera are interesting because you can purposely make double-exposure shots by just not rolling the film advance wheel all the way. My camera doesn't have a flash, so all I've taken are outdoor shots, but can see that I will probably be purchasing the flash to fit it in the near future. So the first roll I shot has been sent and I got back the email showing me the pics (didn't have THAT luxury in the 70's and 80's now did we?!). The result: some really cool double-exposed pics of the white roses climbing the trellis in our back yard and a couple of shots of my baby son eating a popsicle. They turned out just as I hoped, perfectly imperfect, with an artsy, retro feel!  Can't wait to see how the next roll turns out. I took them downtown where there is some cool old architecture. Of course, they may not turn out at all, the waiting is the hardest part!

 

Memories unknown

I recently started collecting vintage cameras, because 1. I want to use them to decorate my scrapbook room and 2. I dig old vintage stuff!   So far I've purchased 3 old Kodak cameras that date back to the 1920's through the 1940's. What is really awesome to me about the cameras, is imagining what pictures they might have taken over almost the last century. Did they capture the beauty of the American national parks or travel abroad and once photograph the Eiffel Tower? Were some of the black and white pictures ones that would rival those of Ansel Adams? Imagine the fabulous fashions and interesting characters they might have seen in those decades gone by! Did a family once own this and have to sell it, to afford to live during the depression? Did it capture the joyous return of a soldier to his sweetheart after WWII? Or maybe their subject was a glamorous pin-up girl. The possibilities are endless, but whatever the reality is, I think it's nice to have a piece of history....whoever that history belonged to.

Below are some pics of my cameras, a 1926 Kodak No. 2 Model B, a 1946 Kodak Brownie Target Six-20, and a 1949 Kodak Brownie Hawkeye.

Spring-ing forward with the new scrapbook room!

  Anyone who knows me, knows I love decorating and I love scrapbooking, so when I can combine these 2 passions...look out world!  Since my stepdaughter is almost 18 and never comes over to spend the night anymore, I decided to turn her room into my new scrapbook room. Don't worry, it will still have a daybed incase she decides she wants to spend some time with us, and for our guests. I had a little scrapbook nook in the laundry room, but laundry baskets kept getting in my way of being able to actually use that space. And with the crazy winter we have had, I decided that space was better suited for a desperately-needed mud room.

   I knew that I wanted to paint it lime green, a color with energy to inspire creativity. Have you ever tried to find a lime green paint that you can live with? Not easy, but I finally decided on a color called "green apple". To break it up and tone it down a bit, I'm going to paint 2 fairly large vertical rectangles on the wall, about 3' x 4' and paint them a chocolate brown. I'm going to have the husband cut some wood trim to frame out the rectangles, so they are more like art spaces, and paint the trim as well.   Inside the art spaces, I have little mirrored butterfly wall decals to randomly space and am also going to use my Cricut to cut some wall decal words out of vinyl. I'm thinking "Create" and "Beauty" will aptly sum it up.

   As I said, I'm going with a daybed and have found the perfect fabrics for some great throw pillows which I'm going to dress up with some funky pom-pom trims and rick-rack. I got all 5 pieces of fabric at Wal Mart for $14- what a steal! I'm trying to recycle and reuse as much as I can, so I'm just cutting down the bedspread that is already in there and is only a year old anyway. I can also use some of the wall art that it currently in the room and the dressmaker's model with the girly tulle tutu, which I love.  So here's a sneak peek at the fabrics and paint color that are my color-inspiration, can't wait to finish the room and show you the rest!

How to turn $1 into something priceless!

For the past 2 years, ever since we got the boys, I have been scribbling on little pieces of paper- the cute things they say, milestones they've hit, details about their birthday parties, vacations and camping trips, and that sort of thing. I wanted to tie them all together into a memory journal that they could someday look back on. Ok, I know most guys aren't so sentimental, but maybe someday their wives will appreciate me for it.  (I'm hoping I have the technical know-how to download a picture to this, so you can see how cute these are!) I bought these cute lime green and aqua blue journals with appliqued monkeys on them at one of my favorite places, the $1 section at Target! Attached little tags with their names on them and tied them on with 2 kinds of ribbon. I found the ribbon cheap at Michael's, another of my favorite places, and how lucky was I to find blue and green camo ribbon and lime green ribbon with monkeys on it?! I tied the ribbon onto the elastic that holds the book shut, so there isn't the problem of having to untie the ribbons every time I want to write in them. I think they turned out cute and definitely look like they cost more than $1! Now if I can just find the time to keep up with writing in them :)

High School and Beyond...

   I was having a conversation the other day (via facebook comments) with a couple of old classmates, one of whom had been somewhat tormented by other kids in school, all those many years ago. I remarked how great it is that now that we're all grown up, none of that matters. Who was Miss HHS, Most Likely to Succeed, or Class Favorite? Who gives a flying monkey's butt?! When it's all said and done, popularity and cliques don't matter in the adult world. It's what's inside a person's heart that makes them a valuable human being. Of course, we see this many years after the fact. It's really too bad that kids can't realize it sooner and stop the bullying.  
   I started thinking about where I fit in, in high school. I was certainly not "in" with the girl-jock crowd or the popular crowd. I had a few friends in each of those groups though. I had my own set of friends and we kept to ourselves most of the time. I went to a small school (68 in my graduating class I believe) and was Salutatorian of my class. Was I in the "nerd" group?! If so, I guess I never realized it back then. Though nowadays I'm quite proud to be called a science geek, if only because my 8 yr old thinks it's cool and my husband calls me it with loving pride!
   Recently I was talking to an old friend and told her that I loved to go camping. Her response, "Camping?! You?! I can't imagine you camping!"  Wow. Really? Have I changed that much since high school? I never asked her why, but I guess it sort of shook my perception about who people think I am. I was never a super-girly-girl, so why would she think that? Hmmmm...maybe it's my hair? I do have this naturally curly hair that I used to dry straight and set on hot rollers and "feather" (remember that style? how very 80's!)
   Isn't it funny how you can remember every negative comment ABOUT you that has ever been made TO you? I can't remember why I just walked into this room, but I can tell you every comment that has ever been made about my weight, a certain boy teasing me and calling me "curly-hair Christa" in grade school, and a mean girl in high school making fun of my make-up in home economics class. Your perception of you, is made up of all these little images that other people gave you. So try and be nice out there, and hug a dork today :)

Zumba for the Wii

   A while back some friends (and I can't remember who, blame my hormone depletion for my short term memory loss!) asked me to let them know what I thought of my newly-acquired Zumba game for the Wii. So I fiiiiinally, got to try it out this week, and though I mostly love it, there are some pros and cons. First, the pros: It is fun! It will have you doing the merengue, salsa, calypso, and really get your heart pumping. And you will look forward to doing it again and again. Sounds good right? Well, there are a few cons: To get points, you have to mimic the on-screen dancers moves. There is a belt that comes with the game that has a pocket for your Wii remote, which is essentially worthless, because if you put the remote in it, you can't use the buttons on the remote. Also, the screens that teach you the different steps are an issue. If you hold the remote in your hand or put it in the belt-pocket-thingy, it senses your movements and thinks you have the steps down before you actually do and moves on to the next one very rapidly. However, if you don't hold the remote and just lay it down, it will not progress in teaching you the steps at all. Maybe there is some trick to this that I haven't figured out yet. What I have done for now is pretty much just skip over the learning the steps part and move on to the Zumba Class menu. I chose the beginner level, since I am VERY out of shape. It will take me a while to be able to complete the whole routine, but I'm working on perfecting the first 2 songs before I move on. The biggest problem I've had is pain in my arches, but I have foot issues anyway which have required multiple cortisone injections. So either I need some new tennis shoes or arch supports, or maybe I need to try it barefoot. I do think it's a lot of fun though and hope to Zumba my way to a skinnier me!

Trying something new...

My very first blog post! I've wanted to do this for a while, but working full time as a clinical laboratory scientist and being a full time mommy to 2 precious and newly-adopted boys, makes my "me-time" sparse. I guess I should start with a little about me. Just became a first-time mom at 45...crazy right? I was a foster mom and God blessed my husband and I with these 2 cuties. We had been fostering them for a couple of years and were so fortunate to be able to adopt them. So I'm sure a lot of my posts will be about them.  I also want to blog about great music, movies, travel, scrapbooking, decorating, household products, recipes, and crafty stuff! There is so much that I'm interested in, I wish there were more hours in the day!
  I'm big-time into scrapbooking, not the digital kind, for me it's all about the layers and distressing stuff and collecting vintage ephemera. Hands on and hands dirty! I'm in the process of changing my current scrapbook nook into a mud room and changing my guest room into my new scrapbook room. I looooove decorating and have been buying old vintage cameras to decorate the new room. 
   I'm an outdoorsy girl and can already feel the urge to go camping with the first signs of spring coming on. When I say camping, I mean REAL camping, as in, in a tent. RVing is sooo not camping. There is nothing like the smell of a campfire, the taste of toasted marshmallows, and the sounds of crickets lulling you to sleep. I love nature and photographing it. My mom taught me things like watching fireflies and appreciating all of God's little creations.
  This first post will be relatively short, because my 2-yr old demands my attention, we gotta go "dance, momma, dance!" And I can't say "no" to that sweet little face and those big blue eyes. Why would I? Life is short, dance while you can!