Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Rustic winter wedding inspiration

So it's been a while, but I thought I'd kick off my holiday posting with some bridal inspiration.  I have been inspired since my own wedding and I have always felt a pull towards the creativity and element of design that goes into a wedding. I think that this inspiration board speaks for itself, but this is a great way for winter brides to keep the winter elements soft for her wedding without giving into the expectation of an elaborate winter wedding where guests leave covered in holiday glitter. Enjoy! My favorite part are the favors, baileys diy hot chocolates for guests and blankets while they sit for the ceremony.






These will keep guests warm n cozy while watching you exchange vows.



A blush dress allows for a bit to pop in your centerpieces.






Delicious eggnog, recipe can be found on marthastewartliving.com
Nothing adds romance like sparkle. 
Happy winter wonderland!

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Favor

I have always been interested in party favors as you know I have a particular obsession with weddings. 
 They are a way of saying thanks for coming. I smile in thinking about ours, we wanted our guests to have activities to so if dancing wasn't their thing or they wanted a break. On each place setting we put a hilarious mad lib that we'd written and had a rock candy lollipop on each napkin. The mad libs were returned at the end of the night into a box and my husband and I made a book of them and read them afterwards. We had a family emergency in between our wedding day and the first day of our honeymoon that was terrifying and we were so exhausted with worry and being broke from our wedding it was nice to read the mad libs and just crack up at the things people wrote. We also had an amazing characature artist and people were pretty much in line for him all night, he was amazing and the characatures really made people laugh. 
Again a favor. Something that is done in thanks and it ends up making us smile. 
I tend to read a lot of inspirational books, especially in this year when I've wanted to give up, we've faces my spinal fusion surgery, my loss of income, my husbands loss of income for the five months that I happened to be off, I faced other health issues, a miscarriage, everything we tried to do to make our lives better just kept getting beaten down by something that we had no control over. For a while I was broken, my husband was, and it was hard just trying to keep each other from giving up. We've shared more tears this year than all the others combined. 
I am a spiritual person so I believe in something called none other than favor and the power of words.  If you talk to a quantum physist, even scientifically they would agree. Your emotions and mental thought process, what you speak out does create a mass that affects the energy around you. I have to constantly say that I have favor and truly picture the things that I think are positive and focus on them.
I have never written a post like this, it is always about crafting, beauty, wedding ideas and such. I have been down in this holiday season because we can't really afford Christmas this year....but as I was reading this morning I realized something.  I have been praying, hoping and asking  for years for us to be able to go to New York to visit my husbands family as his father has been battling illness since we've been together. Before my surgery a very special client who I've always perceived as blessed, have us that gift. He and his wife are such positively nice people. Always smiling. He too recently spoke to me of tough times as we were discussing surgery. And I realized how many hard things they have been through. Everybody has their Achilles heel or their demons or their struggles that they think they can't handle either. This morning I just realized that by daily asking for favor with those who are a part of my life from my parents to my insurance agent to the person on tech support at AT&T. I actually recieved this huge gift of something I've been asking for. And I never stopped to put the words thank you out there. Of course I have thanked my client and his wife multiple times but I didn't thank god and the universe for bringing something to me that I put out there. I was too busy focused on how we will be trying to have fun with friends on pennies when I just have to try and focus on the fact that we even get to be there. Luck comes is so many forms. Whether to you or it be from a higher being, a friend, an enemy, the universe or God. 
My goal for 2014 along with all my crafting, wedding and beauty love is to just focus on what's supposed to be right for you and your family and to enjoy and cherish even the smallest things that bring you happiness this holiday season. Mine will be seeing snow, which reminds me I need to stock up on heat pads for my healing back. Titanium gets cold, but it's really really strong. ;) 

Monday, September 23, 2013

Inspirational photo shoot with Raquel Ames Photography

So today started oit like any other day. Except its sunday which makes it football day. Which is quite a fabulous day when the chargers game is away or local and not blacked out! Not that it mattered today.
Anyways i was asked by Raquel of Raquel Ames Photography to help fluff some waves and helpnwith makeup touch ups and lighting spots and all of a sudden im the one in front of the camera! We had talked for weeks and i guess i was wearing the right outfit! 
I did put on some motorcycle boots i bought for our trip to NY cause God knows i have nothin but flip flops and tank tops. It was a nice change. But we had been talking because i am getting back into writing music and singing which was my first love. I gave it up long ago because as silly and loud as i am i actuallu hate all eyes on me. So with my time off ive had a lot of inspirational moments and time to reflect, so all of a sudden i have several songs to put on a demo. So we may end up using these as they were very spur of the moment. 

   Anyways the shoot was inspired by me offering to do a few test shots for REA Photography and she just kept snspping away, ......so as i ice my back, heres a preview of our fun day. 

Xo
The dandy fox

Vest, Liquid Leggings, cream tank :Forever 21
Blue Studded Boots: Amazon.com
Hair band: Urban Outfitters



Sunday, September 15, 2013

Natural beauty on a budget

So I've been bored and playing with my Urban Decays Naked 2 Palette and have been doing a more modern and thinner winged liner for a softer look, always with Stilas Stay All Day Waterproof liquid liner. urban Decays palettes are a great investment for the budget girl.  The shadows last a while because the company produces very pigmented colors. Beautiful and vegan friendly as well. Making sure these fingers dont get rusty as im not wearing makeup suring this recovery! One thing about doing makeup is that every face is different, just like hair. Every eye shape need its shadow placement to cater to it. And whenever in doubt about your shadow. Take a larger shadow brush, dip it in your face powder and blend baby! Never walk out with panda shadow!!  
 Everybody can pull something new and fun off, but you have to stay in your clients comfort zones. I personally need a lot of coverage because i so have acne and hyper pigmentation, but  i prefer natural and what i call "bridal colors" i always stay within two shades of my natural lip color, or if I'm feeling bold i willkeep my  eyeshadow neutral and rock a link or orange red that flatters my olive skin. 
For this look i used a softer brush to apply  Pistol to my crease generously. I then used Verve on my inner to middle lid and used Suspect on my outer lid and blended that into the beginning of my crease where i had applied Pistol. I then lightly dotted Bootycall on my inner eye to make my eyes pop, then i used Foxy on my brow bone and blended slightly down so prevent panda look. How much you blend is up to how dramatic you like your look. I then used a thin flat wide brush, you can also use white eyeliner, and applied Verve to my lower waterline to make my eyes pop more because they are naturally almond shaped. I then finished with my    Trusty Stila's  all day liner and i start from my inside eye and then follow through and keep me brush angled close to my face and wing. If you mess up just keep some q tips on hand with eye makeup remover.You'll  get it! Every eye is different and unique! Try it and leave some comments or pictures of your looks! 

Xo
The Dandy Fox 


Saturday, August 31, 2013

Short + sweet

Why did they ever cancel Sex and the City? Watching movie 1 with mom up late...and wondering if Smirnoff Sorbet is actually as tasty as the bottle looks.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Spinal surgery update

So i have to update since I've been M.I.A. for a loooong time. Unable to do what i usually do. 
For those of you not close to my life, it became a very tight and enclosed place for me. I changed mentally because of my physical frustration of struggling with pain that would never go away, being on medications with side effects that cause you to to short fuse and act irrationally. Losing my mid 20s to my body failing me. 
The hardest was my marriage, being unable to even spoon with my own husband in bed, crushed ever part of my heart being a woman and still a newlywed. 
But, The hardest is that no one, and i mean this to the deepest core, no one understands until that happens to them. 
Being in my mid 20s and not being able to do things with my friends like go to dinner and have drinks at the bar, no more trips, the medical bills put pressure on me to work a year past when my doctors were telling me to stop working. 
I literally had to start collapsing and vomit from pain and be in the hospital every month for me to realize that i had to let go. When i did that a lot things  started to change. By taking the pressure off myself as much as i could i could it allowed me to relax and focus on having even just a little more comfort even if it was just for a moment. But still life had its little ways of reminding me that it could be worse. I wasn't dying and in my worst days somehow people who were in a worse physical situation than me would end up in my path. 
It gave me a whole new set of eyes for our permanently handicapped brothers and sisters, this taught  me compassion, and relinquishing control to the greater hands that made me. 
When my husbands work status got to granting us excellent insurance benefits a year and a half ago thats when my real treatment started. So i had the flicker of hope. 
I failed everything you could thing of. When i failed my injection stages and was put in a 5th percentile at my age, i started preparing myself mentally for spinal surgery. Not the biggest type out there, but a pretty heavy surgery. Think of scoliosis surgery as a cake (even though its anything but) and think of mine as a big cupcake of the same type of cake. 
Once my surgery got the go it was scary but man was i ready, so was my family, even though we were all scared. My condition was affecting my total overall ability to walk, put my marriage on pause, affected my bowels. It was awful. Getting wheeled into the OR room "a beautiful day was playing" and as i took deep breathes and already thanked God and my body that i was going to be healed the last thing i remember, staring into the table lamp breathing in and out and tasting the fog ofmedication starting,     everything went white.  
So now its today and I'm writing while doing my little home therapy exercises so i  thought id finally share my state of the art procedure i had done because 22 days post op i can literally feel my life pouring back into my body. 

First of all, All surgeons should look into becoming Mazor Rennaissance certified. Its about as star trek as you can get in surgery. 
 Im already getting ready to toss my walker completely and i had three procedures is one surgery because of this system, bone grafting, laminectomy, my disc removed, a cage put into replace it filled with the bone graft, all my arthritis, and stenosis cleaned right of my bone and then ha  rods and screws put into my spine to secure all that 22 days ago, and i stopped using the walker at home two weeks ago.  It allowed my pedicle screws to be placed in a way that will allow room for my fused vertebras to be kind to my girl parts if and when we ever decide to have babies since you lose your range of motion in that fused area. And it even minimizes my need to wear a stupid brace all the time! The things it allows for heart patients and babies needs for being in the NICU is amazing.... It could be my age, but i know cartwheels, camping, rock climbing to the top in doing hair and being anywhere i want to be doing whatever i want is in my future. Ill be able to sit through dinner, sit through a movie, walk at a flea market. Ill be able to hug my husband as tight as i need to, ill be able to cry and laugh without hurting myself. I can snuggled my dog in bed.  have to take a bunch of meds every four hours or 3 times a day just to do my version of functioning which was being at home, doing nothing, without crying.   

Waiting for surgery prep
George wants to party
Baby girl always knows her mama
Best friend/pain pump party
My bffs flowere
Home nurse giving mom n lar a lesson on how to do my dressing, that arrow is where i had a drain. 
My first walk that was witnessed by stace and augie, i think stacy just wanted my shorts hahahaha
iPad batteriesfinally  dying are terrible when you cant go anywhere!  And down below finally rocking my cane a week after being discharged and rocking one of Randoms Boutique's cali tee woop woot! Stay tuned...Physical therapy is up next!

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Minty and mod

Okay so I'll be honest, right now I'm temporarily handicap so I do not have a crafty post but I have a goal set for my first restoration project when I'm able to do this. I worked on a project last year, called Bettie's and bullies. 
I have a huge passion for the bully breeds of dogs out there, since I own one myself and she is the sweetest little piggie ever. I wanted to start a caus that would bring attention and positive light towards a breed that is so misunderstood and so heavily abused. We even worked  On an awesome 2012 calendar as part of our purpose was to raise money to donate to the  bully breed shelters that struggle. I had to put the project in hold because my back wasn't allowing me to do the fundraisers  to raise money for projects and when if cancel those, it would come outta my pocket. While I'm on hiatus from this dream until recovered I still love and have passion and I chose to personally make a monthly voice to support a different bully breed rescue every month till I'm back in my feet. 
Point is! Miss September featuring the beautiful Ashley k. and Miss Lola, but I scoured the land and found an amazing mod style desk. The calendar was shot by Scott Saw from Vixen Photography and done in a pin up fashion. So the month isSeptember is "educate don't discriminate". The tone was set with a mod desk and amazing era appropriate vintage typewriter. I loved the desk so much I kept it! It just needs my TLC!
   The best part about old furniture is usually it was custom. So when you repurpose old furniture, it has the best bones money can buy. 
With a good sander
A couple of quirky knobs
A little wood glue just in case!...
And your favorite paint. 
....the possibilities are endless! 
Some of you may be familiar with the paint color "Mint Milkshake"
It's on the green side of turquoise and I'm obsessed with it, it was one of my wedding colors
But I'm it hung to get started in it so I can share the post! 



Saturday, July 20, 2013

Head wrap

Lots of things happening this week. First my mom is moving in with us, which is already proving interesting.
Most importantly I'm getting my operation on Friday. I'm excited, nervous and totally freaked all in one. I have my pre op appointment on Tuesday...so my blog has fallen by the wayside these days. Anxiety fuels the pain and makes it worse so I just attempt Lamaze breathing to help, hahah. Ill be out for four to 6 months so I'm hoping its only 4 because if you know me I like to keep busy, have fun, and make people pretty! 
Tomorrow will be my last day cutting and coloring hair for a while, which in itself is surreal because I have never been without. Working in 12 years so its strange and foreign. 
It's exciting and sad, where I work is an awesome place not just full of talented people, but people that I also call friends. They have been a huge support to me and have watched me crumble, cry, complain, and change over the last few years. I love them all and will miss them, but I'm quite the zip n fighter so hopefully ill be "back" in action soon.
I also managed to find the most amazing foundation for my skin, from Napoleon. Their foundation stick is creme to powder, and eliminates the need for concealer and powder. And it works for all skin types, is waterproof, talc and paraben free and feels like you are barely wearing a thing. I do set it with a little translucent powder, but I needed something quick for when I have hospital visitors! All the meds and stress have caused quite the breakouts, but since I switched back to Cerave my skin is finally clearing up! 
 We were also graciously gifted with roundtrip tickets to New York to visit my husbands parents for the new year as a surprise, so I really have something to fuel my recovery besides the usual normal enjoyment s of lower extremities in your 20s.....ahem
So I hope I can keep y'all posted on this strange and different journey I am about to embark on, I have no doubt it's going to be quite a ride. It has already taught me so much. Lessons I hope I physically never have to learn again, but that I will take the strength, compassion and faith with me forever. 
Xo for tonight
The dandy fox