Florida Poster Girls

FLORIDA POSTER GIRLS

   "Nana, what's this photo from?" Victoria loved days spent with her Nana Ruby. She had many stories to tell and amazing photos from years past.
   "Ahhh, darling, that's the day your Great Auntie and I became Florida Poster Girls! Have you heard this one before? I owe Doc Webb to my discovery." Ruby was an actress with a long and impressive career. Great Auntie Edie was a model until she retired in the 1970's. Both ladies grew up in St. Petersburg, FL, just like Victoria now. Ruby poured two glasses of sweet tea and sat down in her favorite chair. Victoria settled across from her on the bungalow porch, ready to be transported to the past...
   "Put yourself in a beautiful afternoon around May 1949. I was getting dolled up for the big night and waiting for Edie to come round......"
   Ruby smoothed her curls and pouted her lips to apply her Tan-Gee Red-Red shade of lipstick. It was her favorite and old stand-by for important events, such as today. Ruby and her best friend Edie would be heading over to Webb's City to discover if they made it as a Doc Webb famous poster girl! Only eight young ladies from the surrounding area were hand-picked per year and it had gotten so huge that they competed against thousands of applicants. Ruby and Edie dreamed of becoming poster girls since they were ten and Edie's mom had taken them for root beer floats at Webb's drug store, the largest this side of the Mississippi, or as Doc Webb boasted, the largest in the world! Not only would they be honored to become a part of such a glamorous club, but as poster girls they would travel across the USA as representatives of their beautiful "Sunshine City". Ruby and Edie knew that this was the perfect stepping stone to get into the movies. In 1946 the group competed against California's prettiest and were sent to Hollywood to rub shoulders with movie stars and their agents. 
   "Ahoy gorgeous!" Edie sang through the open screen door. "Ready to knock everyone's socks off?"
   "You betcha!" Ruby hugged and air-kissed her best gal, so as to not muss her hair and make-up of course. "Let's hit it, that wiggle dress is the bee's knees!"
   A St. Pete gem, Webb's City and the original drugstore came complete with circus acts, dancing chickens and mermaids. Everyone knew it was the place to be seen. Tonight the corner block downtown had been roped off to cars and to really make the announcement of the new girls a major attraction. Ruby and Edie walked arm and arm into Webb's precisely at the given call time, an hour before the presentation. Doc Webb stood, arms outstretched, bidding the two girls a warm welcome. He then directed them to the back room with the other 25 finalists last minute primping and shooing away any nervous feelings. Ruby and Edie sat down, heads held high, taking in all the other competitors. Finally the call came:
   "Ladies, line up please!" The lead director would usher the girls out on to the outdoor stage and then Doc Webb himself would make the announcement to the eager crowd.
   Luckily Ruby and Edie were able to stand next to each other as they were the same height. Lined-up and peering into the masses, Edie spotted her parents first and next to them, Ruby's. 
   "Here's to us." Edie whispered, squeezing her best friend's hand tight.
   "The time has come ladies and gentlemen! Tonight is the night for a new glamour group! A new bunch of beauties! Eight new lovely young ladies to grace the USA as my very own, FLORIDA POSTER GIRLS!!"
   Commence wild crowd cheers and applause. Doc Webb was a wonderful showman. He could put vigor into any audience. 
   "For the fantastic year of nineteen hundred and forty-nine, I present this years eight finalists...plucked from the lovely shores of Spa Beach, the brick roads around Coffee Pot Bayou and whilst enjoying the flora of the Sunken Gardens. I pride myself in having a great eye for female beauty. Earning a place in history and honor, these eight gals will surely represent St. Petersburg for all the fun in the sun and beautiful nights we have come to enjoy. St. Petersburg continues to grow in size and recognition, thanks to the sight of beach scenes and bathing beauties!" 
   Ruby drew in a sharp breath as the anticipation nearly killed her. Edie squeezed a bit tighter to reassure both of them that, yes we made it, don't worry.
   "Walk forward and claim the coveted spot this year, Miss Lauren Brown! Miss Meg Johnson! Miss Virginia Davis! Miss Ruby Morgan! Miss Edie O'Neal! Miss Kim Haines! Miss Darlene Blass and Miss Marjorie Rose! Congratulations ladies!"

 Ruby and Edie heard their names and then only noise. Cheers and claps and whistles. Their bodies moved forward but their brains were thrown for a loop. Edie looked over, smiling wide at Ruby, still holding hands as Ruby simply said, "I knew it!" and then dissolved into laughter while a sash was placed over each girls' head and shoulders.
   The fanfare of the event was one of the best nights Ruby and Edie had together. The next week they were both featured in Life magazine's advert for Webb's City. Ruby framed it years later and placed it on the mantel next to photos of trips taken for film shoots and vacations to exciting locales taken with Edie and their husbands. Despite such a glamorous life, both women settled back home in St. Petersburg to raise families and live out their golden years.
   "Nana that was wonderful!" Victoria exclaimed breathlessly. "Auntie Edie and you are the prettiest of the bunch!"
   "Thank you my darling love. It was a grand time in our lives, the beginning of everything, I always say. St. Petersburg has a rich history and I am very grateful to have been such a wonderful part in it."
THE END 

This is an original short story I wrote for Keep St Pete Lit in their collab with Green Bench Brewing. Enjoy!!

Keep on, keepin on,

M.

November Thoughts

It has been a pretty tough month over here. As much as from the outside it may seem nice and sunshiny, it's been quite a struggle. We planned way too much for two people for Halloween and the party, went way over our heads and subsequently ended up too stressed and too tired to even enjoy ourselves. On top of blowing money on a party, my man had serious truck problems that threw a sizable wrench in his life. So here we are miserable and still having to try and put on a good face. It's really hard. When your body and mind separate and won't go back together it is the absolute worst thing in the world.

Cut to Halloween, which was actually pretty fun and we ended up going downtown with our friends.

The next day was a meltdown of uncertainty and fear. When you need a huge piece of your business is disabled and things are seeming to fall apart it becomes very damaging to your psyche and thus your body. Your brain can make you more ill than any virus or bacteria, it's insane.

Cut to the next day and things began the upswing of all upswings.

This year has been the hardest of all my years. It's had the lowest of lows and highest of highs and to be perfectly honest it's really worn me out. A lot of change has come about, mostly for good, but still it's been exhausting. I am for once very much looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas this year and also 2016. It's time for a new year clense in this little family unit I have and make our lives richer than before.

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

Nearly Halloween!

Hello all! It's been a bit and I'm back to update you on costumes, life and partytimes.

Saturday was our 3rd annual Halloween party, it was a good time. I made my dress up a day before, started with a simple thrifted long black dress:

Then I added a skeleton garland, some pins and some twine:

That night I added shawls for more effect and my head-dress. Make-up was equally simple with just a half sooty face and some random striping:

Here are extra shots of the night (we sadly didn't take as many as I hoped too):

My man and I had a good time but not nearly as good as we both hoped. You are ultimately your worst critic and the idea of topping last year's soiree proved very daunting and frustraiting. Our friends loved it and at the end of the day that's what matters I guess. Next year there won't be a party (I'm 90% positive) and maybe we'll get to enjoy more haunts around town.

I am looking forward to a  chilled out Halloween night on the porch with our neighbors and my bestie. Happy Haunting you guys!

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

DIY Antlers and Now Floral Necklace Tutorial PART 3 :)

Welcome back! This part of the tutorial is very optional. If you made the antlers and want to be done there, that's totally cool. I'm going for some drama so I added huge flowers!

STEP ELEVEN:

Cover your headband in a ribbon or fabric so the glue can better stick to it.

STEP TWELVE:

Plan out what flowers to use before attatching them. Add embellishments is so desired.

The beige flower had those same middle bits as the blue, but I had to cut them out to get the skull to properly fit.

STEP THIRTEEN:

Attach you flowers! Figure out your pattern and make it your own :)

And done! Also I realized that unfortunately the antlers and the frog piece I made earlier no longer fit together on my head. So now I at least have options during the night to switch out my "crowns". It really works out too since my antlers dried a bit wonky and stopped fitting through our doorways :/
So they are outside antlers now.

True to form I wanted more! I wanted to maybe make a floral crown to wear with my frog piece.....That did not work out. Instead it became a floral statement necklace and honestly that's fine. I was over extending on this costume and I needed to be done with it to move on to other home decorating!

STEP ONE:

Cover your base in tape, I also glued on leaves to cover the tape.

STEP TWO:

Have your baby skunk help you pick out your flowers :)

STEP THREE:

Make your arrangement, glue it on and that's it!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Come back for more Halloween themed shenanigans soon!

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

DIY Antlers PART 2

Hello again friends! Here is part two of perhaps a part three or four series. Doing so many parts because realistically that's how many days this is happening over :)

Ok, there's the continuation of the Antler Saga:

STEP SEVEN:

After you have let your paper maiche layers (2) dry completely you can begin the texturing and painting.

Ok, So what I did there is use hot glue to build a little base on my antlers. Just like real ones, they need that rough looking bit at the bottom. Then I made little bumps and continued up the antlers with lines of hot glue. It makes the antlers look rough and works for when you paint layers.

STEP EIGHT:

Paint the first layer of color. I used peach because I had it, but you can use whatever colors you'd like.

Let that dry. Paint on a second coat to cover any dark areas of newspaper.

STEP NINE:

Mix up a darker color, I used an avacado green and black. Paint that over the antlers and at the bottom, rub it off on your texture bits so it shows through. On real antlers there's this type of gradient.

Like at the base of these.

This is my interpretation:

STEP TEN: 

Paint a second layer of the dark color on the antlers, making sure to cover patches of light. Don't repaint over the rubbed off texture parts though. 

Then let the antlers completely dry overnight and wonder if you should paint more, source answers from friends and plan out your floral attatchments.

Stay tuned for PART 3 (and maybe FOUR :))

Keep on, keepin on, 

M.

DIY Antlers & Floral Head-dress PART 1

My first tutorial!! Halloween is in full force over here in my little haunted house. I bought a bunch of weird gourds and all the costume supplies. Today I shall put in part one of how to make your own wearble antlers and skeleton head-piece. Part two will be a floral crown of epic proportions.

I watched and read alot of pins before starting on this project, so it's a blend of sorts. Here we gooooo.........

YOU WILL NEED:

• 12 Gauge Wire
• Heavy Duty Aluminium Foil
• Wide Headband (2, holes optional but made it much easier to work with)
• Painters Tape or Masking Tape
• Electrical Tape
• Flowers
• Skeletons/Skulls
• Ribbon
• Paint, Colors Your Choice
• Newspaper (not pictured, and almost forgotten)

You will need some of these items more in part two, but here are the steps for how I began making my antlers!

STEP ONE:

Make a shape for the base of your antlers, freehand or with refrences,

STEP TWO:

Wrap the wire base in the foil. Some tutorials only used foil as the base, which is really crafter's choice. I wanted the wire for strength but also because I would be attaching the antlers to a headband.

STEP THREE:

Oooh got a little ahead with that last picture! Ok, so once you wrap the first base antler with foil, cut smaller pieces of your wire and attach them to your base. I then used the electrical tape to smooth it out for the future foil. Antlers, like eyebrows are sisters and not twins, so don't worry if they aren't super symetrical. Also leave about 2 inches of wire bare at the bottom for attaching purposes. Oh and, when you wrap the foil, make the bottom a bit wider to mimic real creature horns.

(Unlike me who did end up fussing with these too long before I recognized their unique ways.)

STEP FOUR:

Wrap the entire thing in masking or painters tape. It provides a more textured surface for the paper maiche and it smoothes out the foil bumps.

STEP FIVE:

Attach the antlers to your headband

The headband/wire combo really holds up. And at Halloween party time, that is clutch.

STEP SIX: 

Prepare your paper maiche. One part Mod Podge and one part water. Use plastic dishware.

Cut newspaper strips.

Cover your work station :)

(I never did use the foam brush except to mix)

It's the same paper maiche technique you learned in school, dip your paper, squeeze off excess, adhere to surface. Continue until you have one full layer and let dry. You can wait a couple hours or do overnight like me only because I wait to be lazy the rest of this night haha.

While your antlers dry, begin on your floral head pieces. I am making two of them along with my antlers because obviously I love to make myself crazy/my Halloween character this year is Dramatic! :)

So here's my little frog skeleton head piece:

STEP ONE:

Find a headband that is big enough to fit on the front of your forehead. Once you have it, take your skeleton and wire this creature to the front middle.

I used electrical tape to cover the comb bits on the headband for pure comfort. 

STEP TWO:

Put some flowers on it! 

Lana Del Rey that skeleton. Make an outrageous crown for yourself. It's the best holiday for it!

 

STEP THREE:

Your antlers are pretty dry by now, so go ahead and put them on with your frog piece. See how they look together and decide "Is this enough or too much?" Spoiler, you can never be too much.

Tomorrow I shall be continuing on the antlers, so look for PART 2 soon :)

Keep on, keepin' on!

M.

Life Update and Decorating Begins

Hello! So I shall start this blog off with the best news of 2015:

MY DAD GOT HIS CANCER SCREEN BACK AND IT IS CLEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have never been more happy in my life. My Dad is my rock and I was having freak outs all the time over his illness. But now we can breathe easy! Tonight I am having dinner over at my parents to celebrate. Mom is making spaghetti squash with meatballs and I'll be drinking beers by the pool with my Dad. I can't wait!

We have begun to decorate. Honestly we are prepared for Halloween year round, but I shall at least show you our fireplace mantle, as it is bad ass:

And in our bar room we have this dapper friend:

Things are coming together outside, but still in the no photo stage. All will be revealed in due time.

I had to brush out my wigs for this month, and yes I have a very large number of them because A) I like options and B) I was able to get them for cheap :)

This is maybe a third of the collection :) And yes I will most likely wear all of them depending on parties and events this month. 

SO READY TO GET MY SPOOK ON!!!!

Keep on, keepin on,

M.