Feedsack Friday!

Yes Feedsack Friday has returned!

Today I have for you one of the most beautiful tropical feedsacks that I have come across.

Hope everyone has a lovely Memorial Day weekend!

Did someone say Carmen Miranda?

Happy Wednesday!

Here is a photo of the Carmen Miranda-esque feedsack I promise a few days ago!

I hope everyone is having a great week!

My Soap Box....

So if you do not follow me on Twitter, you have probably missed the explosion of Tweets tonight regarding a certain article posted on Forbes website making the claim that most teenage girls who claim to have gluten intolerance are more often using it as an excuse to hide anorexia.

This is a very personal subject that is incredibly near and dear to my heart and if you want to read my thoughts and manifesto on this please feel free to read my article that I posted over on Delightfully Gluten-Free and I wanted to add a few thoughts here on how I responded to being diagnosed to what sounded like at the time, a pretty awful autoimmune disorder that had been making my life a living hell for nearly a year.

Me and Emmy Lou less than a week after I was diagnosed with celiac doing our "thing"

The photo above is one of my all time favorite photos. It was taken less than a week after I had been diagnosed, and instead of sitting around, locking myself in a room, and crying my eyes out for a month and a half I chose to go out and face the world head on and do my "thing" which was kicking behind and taking names in the livestock world. It was everything I had, and one of the places where I could succeed without being harassed over my weight or look by my peers. This was in the Grand Drive of a rather large open livestock show (which is a professional show), where we won Grand Champion Female after winning the national junior heifer show for our breed the day before, and one week later I won a class at the highly prestigious National Santa Gertrudis Heifer Show with Miss Lilly and baby Dolly.

Can you spot us? ps - I'm totally wearing a vintage shirt that I still own, it's a prized possession.

If I could go back in time would I change anything? Probably not, even with all the pain, sickness, and heartbreak of high school - I learned a lot. It's a part of who I am and who I will become. If anything I would probably just give myself a hug and promise that it would all make sense one day.

Dress Twins

So I know I promised Feedsack Friday, but my husband and I took an impromptu trip out to Austin this weekend for our anniversary! (WOOOO!!!!)

While in Austin we decided happened across Amelia's Retro Vogue & Relics which is a pretty fabulous shop that has a wide selection of 1960's and earlier clothing items. While I was there, I happened across the most amazing late 1940's early 1950's gown that is awfully similar to the one I had Miss Kim at Nudeedudee make me for my graduation. It fits decently, but needs some slight alterations to the top. The black portion is a jersey knit and I think it has been hanging for many years which has stretched the fabric. I plan on taking it to my favorite seamstress next week so she can work her magic!

Forgive my hair and makeup it was close to 100F out this afternoon!

The black top is a jersey knit.

This gown from Amelia's is so similar to the one from Nudeedudee that I'm actually wearing the belt from my Nudeedudee dress in the photo above. I am not sure if Kim used a vintage fabric for my custom dress, but I think she did (Kim if you're out there please chime in! ) but the similarities are absolutely fantastic.

My custom made dress from Nudeedudee.

Overall I had a fabulous weekend and I promise feedsack photos tonight!

My Texas Bucket List

So one of the many reasons I started this blog was to serve as a chronicle of my last years in Texas before I graduate with my last college degree (yeah, there have been a few...) and have to move away due to lack of jobs within my specialty here. Anyways, to try and enrich this experience as much as possible, I have decided to make a Texas "Bucket List" with all of the places and things I want to do before I finally move on. I will probably update this list from time to time and mark off items or add them based on new ideas, but for now here's my list:

Eat as much Barbecue as possible - (beef barbeque preferably, I am not a fan of pork)

Watch the Fireworks one 4th of July at Washington on the Brazos - I've been trying to do this for years and it never seems to work out for me, maybe next year

Photograph some of the "dying" towns - if you've grown up or traveled in this area you know what I'm talking about, the tiny train and farming/ranching towns of Texas that are disappearing back into the sands.

Have my grandparents take me on an in depth tour of Galveston and take video their stories and of growing up on the Island.- this is something that I have been meaning to do for a long time, and I wish I had done it before Hurricane Ike, but hopefully I will get a chance to before we leave. 

Go to a Jerry Jeff Walker concert at Gruene Hall - because well they're both legends.... 

Chicken Challenge. - If you are not familiar with Texas A&M traditions it involves the Dixie Chicken.

Saying goodbye to the Forsyth Galleries - I think I've been slowly doing this for the past year or two since I have stopped volunteering there, but it is still terribly hard and it hurts at times. I made some of my closest friends and created some of my best memories here. This is a place that allowed me to travel the world and introduced me to the art community without judging me for not having the proper background of a traditional student docent when I joined. I just hope it can remain that way for future students....

Texas Reds Festival - at least it's in October so we'll only get mild heat stroke now?


Spend some more time hanging out with my cows - because they are awesome and I do not visit them enough.

Austin City Limits - I want to go to a live taping of it. It's been close to the top of my "wish list" for years..... 

ACL Music Festival - (This is different from Austin City Limits TV Show taping) - and we actually got tickets this year! I have never gone before because I have always used the "Oh I'll go next year" excuse, and since this will run out in another two years, I'm so excited to go it is not even funny, we got single day tickets for the Saturday. We will be hopefully getting to see Stevie Wonder, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Wanda Jackson, Gillian Welch, TV on the Radio, Fitz and the Tantrums and more....  

We will see what else I end up adding to this list but for now I am pretty happy with it. To sign off tonight, I have one of my all time favorite Gillian Welch songs in honor of our ACL tickets. Oh and yes, I promise there will still be a Feedsack Friday post!

Catching Up!

Hello Everyone!

Just popping in to say yes, I am still alive. I survived all of my final exams and have finished submitting grades! I have been quite busy the past few weeks and once I finally got back into the blogging mood we had the "Blogger-gate 2011" with the long outage. Anyways, last week I was providing guest posts for my dear friend Cassandra over at Delightfully Gluten-Free. If you ever were curious about what type of make up I wear, here's a link to my post on Gluten-Free Beauty!

I should be back to my normal blogging regime, and yes Feedsack Friday will be back this week! I promise I'll have something good!

Anyways, to leave you today I have a few outfit photos from spring break when my husband and I went to visit the McNay art museum in San Antonio. If you ever get a chance to visit, I would highly recommend it. The McNay is absolutely beautiful and has an excellent collection of early 20th century American, and modern art, as well as one of the most fabulous pate de verre glass collections that I have seen outside of Europe.

 My outfit consists of Nudeedudee's fabulous knit top, a pair of Level 99 capris I bought from Anthropologie ages ago, as well as my Miss L Fire Mahalo's that are far more comfortable than they look! I promise! (If you haven't been able to tell from previous posts, I'm a huge Miss L Fire fan...)

Be afraid no make up!

One of the entrances to the McNay, it was originally a home that housed a large collection of art that was later endowed to create the permanent collection of this museum.