Ragtime Gal

Oh... why hello there! I can't get the song "Ragtime Gal" outta my head. Every time I see these images I chuckle a little inside because all I can think about is that stupid song and it's all thanks to this hat. You know that one...."Hello my baby.... hello my darling". I look like I should be in a 

Barbershop Quartet group or something. In other news... I've got a crazy busy week ahead of me. I'm going to be participating at First Thursday June 5th. Hopefully I don't die of heat exhaustion. It's getting crazy hot and is oddly humid in Austin lately. It makes it really hard to go on my daily morning jogs.... but I'm forcing myself to "push through it" as they say.... I digress. Then on June 7th I'll be at the Grand Opening of Breakpoint Boardwalk participating in Austin Flea. Then June 9th I make my way up to Ohio for a dear friends wedding in which I'll be photographing. Whew! It's gonna be cray cray up in here. OMG! Did I fail to mention that my work is going to be shown in an art gallery? Yup... I'm super excited but am sad I can't attend as I'll be out of town June 12th but The Mister (Matt) will be there in my place. The event is being held at The Canopy which is a bunch of cool little galleries and studios on the east side of Austin. My friend Keith owns a studio in The Canopy called Invenio and is featuring my work during a very fun event for their 2nd Annual Grand Opening Party. I'm so stoked! There is also a silent auction c/o Son of a Sailor  benefiting LifeWorks. I have a little crochet Jellyfish that is up for grabs... just doing my part ya know? In the meantime I managed to squeeze in this little photo session with the Mister. 

I love this dress borrowed from Jana of small town, BIG SMILES. I could live in this dress... as you know I'm obsessed with polka dots and red so I feel it fits my style perfectly. It's so much fun getting new items in the mail. I always get excited when I see a new package arrive... it's like Christmas or my Birthday. It's also nice because you don't have the guilt (from over spending) or go broke from swapping clothing. I didn't change it up too much from how Jana styled her look here. Jana wore a white skinny belt and I opted for black to go with my shoes. I revisited my white ruffly socks that I love so much. I get soooo many dirty looks when I wear these. It's so funny... I don't know why it upsets people so much. I usually get the stink eye from the ladies. I guess they feel I'm too old to be wearing white ruffly socks... but they make me happy so I'm gonna stick with them.

I'm also loving this cut out collar. I was a little confused how to put on the dress at first but I finally figured it out. Lol.... I wonder if Amy of The Amy Loo Blog had the same issue? Amy went all out glam for her look which I adore. See how Amy styled it here. I just love her tulle skirt and sparkly shoes!!! I'm slowly building my wardrobe but I feel a tulle skirt is necessary... as well as sparkly shoes. I've got one black tulle skirt that I just purchased from Forever 21 but am still working other pieces. I'm getting the basics right now and will start expanding on accessories later...

As you can see behind me our garden has really taken off! We have sooo many tomatoes right now. Every time I walk outside I feel like I'm picking more tomatoes. I even catch Sophie (our fur baby) eating them off the bushes. Lol! It's almost impossible to get mad at her because it's too cute. I had to cut down all my parsley as it was taking over all the herbs... it managed to kill of my poor cilantro. Our blackberry bush is off the chain right now too. I've been picking handfuls everyday and freezing them so we'll have enough to make our own Jam this Summer. It'll be a first for Jam making but I think we can handle it. We are already into canning and pickling our green beans and cucumbers. It's pretty fun and if there's ever a zombie apocalypse we'll be all set.

I had something rather disturbing brought to my attention the other day... I don't want to harp on it too much but it's part of what's going on in my little world so what the hell. Apparently there is another girl in Austin that has started a business making crochet faux taxidermy like mine. It wouldn't bother me so much if she didn't live in Austin and if several of her pieces didn't resemble mine almost exactly. It really irked me because this is my livelihood... I make a living out of creating and selling my work in Texas and it breaks my heart that someone else is trying to capitalize on it. I'm not saying she is "copying" me because I know there are others out there that do this type of craft but when patterns start looking too similar that's when you have to wonder. I posted about it on Facebook and asked for advice in my own crafting network and good some good feedback and some really awful feedback as well. At this point there is nothing I can really do except be the best (person/artist) that I can be and make my brand name and myself known even MORE in the community. On a positive note.... it's actually lit a fire under my ass and has pushed me to work harder and to write down my patterns in hopes of having them published in my very own crochet book. That was one of my 2014 goals so it's just a matter of actually making my dream a reality. So with all that said....  I don't want to dwell on it too much. I want to turn this experience into into a positive one and be a better person because of it. If you're curious about what her little guys look like check out her Instagram at Happy Guppy Toys. She also has a website here. The faux taxidermy heads that really bothered me (can only view on her Instagram) were the Giraffe, Zebra and Elephant. Although they are a tad different there are almost exactly like mine with subtle differences. Compared to my my faux taxidermy seen here on Etsy. 

I'm pretty much over it though.... this Gal's movin' on to bigger and better things. I felt like barfing for about a day then realized that I've already got a pretty big client base in Austin and around Texas. People who meet me remember me and my little creations so I really don't need to worry about it all that much. I just don't want people to see her work and confuse it with mine. That would blow.  Okay... I'm going to officially stop talking about it now! In happier news.... our baby chicks have really grown up. They wouldn't stop flying/jumping out of their little corner so the Mister had to trim their flight feathers (which doesn't hurt them at all) but they sure didn't like it. One still managed to jump our 8 ft fence and get herself caught in the shrubs the other day. I cam outside to squawking and found her pinned in the bushes. It was sad and hilarious all at the same time. I had to walk all the way around our whole fence (which is a BIG fence) to the very back to get her. When she saw me she scurried over to me and let me pick her up. I wonder how long she was stuck out there like that? Lol. They are such funny little girls. They were running around loose catching bugs during this photo shoot. 

xoxo

Dress: Borrowed from Jana of small town, BIG SMILE

Hat: Forever 21

Belt: Target

Socks: Target

Shoes: Macy's

Jana

Amy