It's Christmas Eve Everybody

So I'm done for the day and I get a day of semi peace tomorrow.  Talked to my brother and I may be able to skype with the nieces for a bit to see what they got from Santa Claus and see what lovely pictures my oldest niece has drawn on her new toy.  Depending on how mom is behaving she can open her lump of coal gift card in front of them and give me another crappy gift lol.  I took off the comment luv widget thingy.  It didn't seem to come up for everyone all the time and comments magically stopped which was odd.  Before I go one here's a Christmas goodie from youtube via Kellie at Delightfully Ludicrous.  Please watch all 3 and half minutes, it may be the thing that stops you from drinking heavily before the day is out.  Maybe not lol.

So I mentioned that I had scanned the net for pinup photographers and I bookmarked five of them to keep looking at over the course of the next six months at least.  By June I'll know if I'm really gonna pull the trigger based on how my body makeover is progressing.  One of the comments yesterday asked about them and I wanted to share them with you anyway because I'd love to hear who you think of as the best one if your eyes and why.  Or if it's like I was thinking and it's a case of their all great and maybe one of them would just be better for what I'm thinking I want shot.  So here they are in no particular order.  If someone jumps out at you let me know cause I'd love feedback and the only other person I know that would care I kind of don't want to ever share the pictures with right now lol.  I am thinking three or four different looks cause this will definitely be a present to myself.  I'd love a kitchen set up cause I do like to bake (thus the partial reason for the name of this blog), old Hollywood glam since I just love the softness of the hair and the overall look, the flirty nerdy pinup look cause I'm a flirty nerd lol, and maybe a classic military inspired or cheesecake kind of pose.  If you have any other suggestions let me know.

Vintage Pinup
Shameless Photography
Girlie Show Pinup Photography
Lone Star Pin-up Photography
Celeste Giuliano Photography

Vintage Leanings

Vintage Leanings

I'll come back and expand this more later but suffice it to say I love vintage things.  If I could be a pseduo 1950s housewife I'd so do it.  I'd have to work for at least 6 hours every day because being home drives me crazy lol.  But if I could be home to cook at a reasonable time when I wanted, and he could do it when I didn't, and have really cute hair all the time, i.e. more trips to see my stylist lol, then I'd so sign up for it.  Plus I'd learn to walk in cute heels so that would rock too.

So finally expansion:

I am weird.  I like very simple things in almost all possible avenues.  Solid colors, classic lines, tailored suits, pencil skirts and heels with just enough height to give the calves a tightening but not so much that my very clumsy self will fall in a lot.  I like the simple makeup and perfectly curled hair.  I LOVE snoods (I'll give you an example in a photo so you aren't going what in the world) and simple flower adornments for the hair.  I like cooking from scratch--I totally understand the pour till it looks like mentality for making anything lol thanks to Grandma.  I am highly offended by box cakes but not brownies--no passion for them at all, I love figuring out how to make recipes that other people have made or that I like from other places at home because it makes me feel good to make it cheaper at the house.  I like old fashioned relationships with a modern day twist of course but I'd appreciate a strong partner who allowed me to be weak and girly from time to time.  Handling life on my own is tiring sometimes.  I like a man that looks good in a nice suit and who understands WHY he should have more than a few of those.  I like talking, reading, I like gardening even though I've never had any patience for it since my dad passed away.  I love being a homebody and I'd adore having dinner parties with friends and couples but we all seem so busy and disconnected that we never sit down to do that.  

I'm a weird mix of traditional girl with non traditional occupation and living situation.  I'm taking care of my mother after she got ill several years ago.  She's mostly okay just has memory issues and can't drive--at least not my car.  I have no kids and never imagined having my own even though I did imagine being a kick ass stepmother to someone's rugrats.  I love cartoons more than most real tv shows and I love a good tragic love story but City of Angels still pisses me off.  I'm totally romanticizing parts of what I consider vintage but I miss the days when people took care of how they looked and what they did in public and women wore gloves just because.  I totally don't have a hat head so I wouldn't wish that on anyway but it looked classy.  Maybe because I've never been what I'd call dainty I miss things that I think would make me feel soft or warm and fuzzy.  I'll be sharing more stuff in this vein soon I hope.  I've not really talked much about the Pecan Pie side of things with the exception of food.  And as you can tell I LOVE food.  Okay enough for now.  Here are some photos:

 Snood with a bow

Man in a nice suit hee hee

updated November 15, 2012

I need a new job lol

Y'all knew that.  While I love the work I do and think it's valuable, how I'm paid is definitely not and I don't get sick time so last week when I was down that was just lost income for me.  I'm still working on it cause something seems like I'm supposed to be here and not anywhere else unfortunately.  There are two teaching positions I'm going to apply for and I have another class coming up next month.  Will give me enough time to wind down from this one, brush up on the next one and then get started.  And we get two weeks off in the middle because of Christmas and New Year's Day.  I did get all their papers graded tonight and I'm just waiting on feedback from my mentor and then no more grading for a month.  How about that?  Thankfully I still have the nest egg in case I just have to walk away from this job while waiting on a new one.

I was disappointed to find out that my Shabby Apple order was cancelled BUT they sent me a full refund and a coupon for my next order.  It could be the Lord's way of saying get back to work on that exercise so that you can get the really cute dresses you want and not the really cute one that would fit.  Oh and Cupcake Provocateur just revealed a new apron style, The Harlow.  There's one I must have and one I MIGHT get as soon as my custom order is up so that I can get all my yummy goodness at once.  I think that's it for tonight.  Didn't wash my hair as planned, will do that tomorrow or Sunday.  Hope everyone is doing well.

Co-Wash Day and Sickness--do over lol

Okay today started off quite literally with hacking.  I couldn't breathe which isn't out of the ordinary with the weather being what it is and my allergies developing into what they are.  But after that it quickly went down hill.  I started dry heaving after my shower before other contents of my body decided to join it.  I wasn't sure I was going to make it out to work at all but after making sure the connection was stable for the video interview and setting up information for the class I am preparing to teach I gave it a go.  I swear my clients know when I feel like crap cause they do too and don't want to talk.  I ended up seeing a few of them, running to the grocery store to get a few things and the Cinderella dvd and banks for my nieces (gift set including blu ray/dvd and the bank is 22.96 in store at Walmart--which was cheaper than online and no shipping ha!).  I grabbed lunch, ate and passed out afterwards.  Well tried to, my mother does not seem to sense when I feel bad and continually knocks on the door for little things.  I kept saying get up so I could wash my hair and look presentable tomorrow lol.  It didn't happen till 5 but I did get up, used my As I Am Coconut Co-Wash and the rest of my conditioner line up and remembered to try my Shea Moisture Curly Coconut whatchamacallit on my hair too.  Hair was rolled up and ready to go by 6:15 which is only 15 minutes outside of my if it's not done by this time just get under the dryer rule.  So hopefully I'm presentable tomorrow morning and I can try to see the clients I missed today even though Fridays seem to be outing central so we'll see on that.  Lost more hair than I'd like during detangling but it's again my fault for not properly tending to it during the week.  I'll try to do better on that even though my hair seems to be okay right now.  Everyone have a great weekend if I don't post before then.

P.S. I am rarely plagued with girly moments.  I was talking about this earlier at work with someone who wanted to make sure she wasn't crazy lol and neither of us invest in the whole gotta get gussied up to be more girly thing.  And I hold to that with few exceptions.  Vintage, as I've mentioned, is my like epitome of all things girly when done well and I got sucked into one of my favorite movies shortly after I posted this.  I LOVE Burlesque so much that I have the cd and the dvd cause I must watch Stanley Tucci, Cher and Christina cause I LOVE them.  Well when looking for a new photo for another blog I maintain I found out that they released (they being OPI) nail polish to go along with the movie.  Anyone familiar with OPI knows they move on to the next thing ASAP and these were released a while ago.  I wanted to see a few of the shades closer up because they looked like they were in the range of things I'd wear and of course in my impulsive girlish lust they were totally colors I'd love.  Yeah too bad totally discontinued and then through the power of google (what did we do before google?) I found several shades, some in four packs, on eBay of course.  Outside of investing in my hair it's the one purchase I can say was made because it made me go oooohhh yeah in that way that we women do when we find something that hits deep in the center of our girl goo lol.  After they arrive I'll take photos and let you see my Burlesque OPI collection.  Surprisingly not as expensive as I thought they'd be considering they were OPI but two sets are mini bottles to let you try the shades which is good because there are only two for sure I'd love love love in each four pack and then two others I had to have.  If the other four impress I may go searching for full size bottles of them.  K I'm done and I'm back to being my normal tom boy self.

Corsets Make Me all Gooey Inside

I bet that wasn't want you were expecting to see tonight.  Let me just say now there will be some stream of consciousness kind of blogging right now so if you aren't prepared for some meandering tis best to click the x right now cause this whole post will probably be random as hell.  I did take my nap, it was okay, woke up congested which I hate.  Didn't make ice cream because mom and I started the nightly what do you want to eat dance and unlike normal it felt like a scene from Friday.  We had one thing but not the other to make almost every dish we would have liked to eat.  That prompted a store run and then someone (not me) didn't want to cook so a KFC run ensued as well.  Anyhoo, I've been thinking of this post for the last few days.  It was prompted from a tiny marathon of the Tudors.  First let me say if Henry the VIII had really looked like Jonathan Rhys Meyers then I totally understand the fascination with him.  Of course we know he did not and yes power is sexy and all that but Tudors Henry would have made me pant as well.  A few weeks ago I also saw Anne of the 1000 Days I think it was called which solely focused on Anne Boelyn's pursuit by and then pursuit of Henry the VIII.  By her count, of course hours before her death, she had hated, seduced, fell in love with and had been discarded by Henry in a mere 1000 days.  That's not even four years but he abandoned one church, banished his first wife, created a new church all to marry Anne.  Now it is widely shown on film that she really won him over by not giving in to his wandering eye and demanding more than fleeting status as a mistress.  After all, at least one story has her sister doing the same thing and just ending up with a child that could never become king because he was illegitimate.  And I have seen more than my share of men who are fascinated by being turned down and then pursue all the harder.  I know you're wondering what this has to do with corsets but really the dresses depending on them.  So snug while being ornate and huge usually left just enough cleavage on display (depending on the dress) to entice and made the waistline dainty enough to make men feel all manly when they embraced you.  Now the fact that you NEEDED several people or some odd machinery to get yourself into a corset with a "good" fit means I probably would have hated them and I liked breathing but I love the look of them.

Lots and Lots of Thanks

Ok I was cranky when I went to work today and none of my clients were available to talk to.  However, it was early enough in the day that I decided to have my brakes checked out since six months ago they said I had 20 percent left on the pads and should have them looked at eventually even though it wasn't dangerous.  And I really haven't been driving that much BUT I wasn't sure if I had one of those new fangled cars on which the brakes just wouldn't start giving you the audible squeak to say go change me as they still weren't doing that as of this morning.  Long sentence I know, forgive me.  I was going to go to the dealership as they do GREAT work but they were charging 50 to 100 bucks more than everyone else for the same kind of work.  Went to a local shop that had done work for me before and 86 bucks later new front brakes and turned rotor.  Back brakes are good for a while longer apparently--I don't know how that works but they are still at 50 percent.  I had to wait because no one could pick me up and take me home and while home I finally started reading A Simple Act of Gratitude (I mentioned this book on the Working on Me page).  It's a good book.  And while my life didn't magically improve, my insight and mindset on some things did and for that I have to be grateful.  I'm about halfway through and it's not like he went on a magical mission that changed his life but in looking for the things he could be thankful a lot of it didn't seem as heavy.  I'll give a more thorough review when it's all over with but it inspired me to list a few things I'm grateful for and to come up with a giveaway.  Giveaway is a copy of How to Be a Pinup Model: Release Your Inner Bombshell because while it contains great info on makeup and styling, it's not the tool that is going to release my inner pinup model.  The rules are simple--either post in comments or email me (pecanpieandpincurls at gmail) a short letter you would give to someone for something you are truly grateful for.  Entries are accepted from now until August 31st at 10pm CST.  Winner will be posted in a blog entry and your dvd will be on its way.  I know it's a specific kind of gift that may not appeal to everyone but I don't want it to waste away on my shelf and the only other extra video I think I have is Queen of the Damned and that seems sort of counter thankful.  But hey let me know and I'll check for any other duplicates and maybe you can choose something else IF I have it.  Here's my non specific list even though I think I am going to write the auto body shop.  Here's a small list of what I'm thankful for:

• For being employed 
• For having people that love me
• For a mechanic that was honest with me, did a great job and was friendly--and didn't move my seat around too much as I'm a munchkin
• For being around groups of people that make me smile
• For having a loving family to drive me crazy
• For being in mostly good health
• For still being able to read, sleep, goof off on my own accord
• For Cartoon Network, ID, and a small host of other channels

Enjoy my Randomness Please

So I mentioned The Husblog yesterday but didn't elaborate on what had got me thinking.  Maybe a week or so ago he asked was your marriage (since I'm not married I extrapolated to relationship) was a product or a brand.  A brand being long lasting, able to withstand change and grow into different areas.  A product is great while it lasts but only fits a specific need and after that it tapers off depending on the need.  I mean foil paper has stood the test of time as has duct tape (well in terms of recent history lol) but is anyone going to want a stichky (or however it's spelled) in 10 years or those fans that you would put on the car window to suck out the hot air--well I might want that right now cause it's blistering freaking hot.  Regardless though it got me to thinking.  I don't know if any of my relationships have been brands.  Almost all of them have been long-term and great for a long while but when they go bad oh they have sucked big monkey balls.  They have each fit a need for where I was, some growth I needed to have in order to keep evolving (or my partner needed to keep growing) but when that point was reached they started to fizzle.  And I know that part of my issue has been a desire to NOT repeat the mistakes of my parents so I don't want to run away prematurely but I also have this intense desire not to get hurt as well so it's a hard balancing act.  Maybe I've been blocking my progress to being a brand because I don't want to perpetually be hurt.  Or maybe they weren't meant to be GM relationships and instead were meant to be Sit & Spins (the originals, not the bootleg reboots kids are playing with now).  I've dated a few people that have gotten to see me, bumps, bruises, warts and all but as of today I'm still quite single, in terms of not being married, and have nothing  on the shelf to say look that one was GOOD STUFF.  It's frustrating.

Yeah Shopping!!

Okay I added a new section to the sideline over there to the right of the screen.  I was waiting to make sure I was approved before adding it but now I'm officially an affiliate of Cupcake Provocateur and Shabby Apple.  Both are nods to my vintage love and depending on where you live may feed your gourmet cupcake habit.  Cupcake Provocateur has some of most adorable aprons you ever will see I swear.  A few years ago I went looking for cute ones or cute patterns to make my own and let's just say I'm glad they exist because the last thing I sewed was a pillow and a stuffed ornament for the Christmas tree--I was like 8 just so we're clear.  Good thing for me I didn't need to reinvest in a sewing machine and patterns cause I seriously have no patience for that yet.  I'm working on it though.  Anyhoo, I'm going to share three of my favorite aprons that are almost too cute to mess up but they need to be in your life if you love vintage styled aprons.