Yeah, sometimes I do headshots.  If you need any done, email me candace@theroguemagnolia.com!

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After a long search for the right house (ha, two perfectionists looking for a house…), I walked into this one and I just knew. It was the house.  We are apparently two very different brands of perfectionist, though–because Drew was not won over on the first visit. He’s a very analytical person with a sometimes overly keen eye–and I think, at first, all he saw was maroon shag carpeting in the bathroom, a stove top with one functional burner, and no grounded outlets (I’m sure that you can imagine what a nightmare that would be to an electrical engineer). And I don’t blame him. This house needs work. But I know my Drewbear, and he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty.

I had my rose colored glasses on. All I could see was the large, open first floor layout. The 4 bedrooms. The sweet ass shuffleboard court built into the basement floor. The back deck. The size of the yard. The fact that it was a dead end street connected to another dead end street. I could see this bright, airy space to comfortably live and raise our sweet babe. I was smitten. Drew was, errrrr, not smitten.

Thankfully, after some very passionate outbursts (much akin to the “BUT, MOOOOMMMMM, I LOOOOOOOVE HIM” variety that I was famous for as a 16 year old) and a second visit, he was soon just as head over heels as I was. When we saw the house a second time, I could see it in his eyes that he was finally seeing past the cosmetics. I could tell that he was seeing what I was seeing. And so we put an offer in that day!

At first, projects were slow moving. I had just made the roller derby team, my photography business was in the busy season, and we had a lot of other various stuff going on. However, lately, I finally feel like we’ve adjusted into our sometimes psychotically busy schedule to find time for making progress on the house.

We’ve been working on painting the wood paneling white. Stark. White. None of that warm, creamy crap up in here! We considered removing the paneling, but it tears the drywall off in chunks, and I’m not really interested in drywalling any more than I need to! I also ripped the carpet off the stairs (blue shag, in case you were wondering) and I’m working on removing it from the rest of the upstairs (because, yes, ALL 4 bedrooms were also graced with this lovely sea of blue).

Did I mention that our house has a built in Tiki bar? Because it does. Drew reorganized it until we have a chance to remodel it a bit.

And I also finally convinced my in laws to trade me a banquet table for this sweet vintage dining room table set that had been living in their basement.

This is the one who will probably be passed out before then [pshhhhh, amateur] but will still get a kiss, nonetheless.

Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone…I hope that 2012 has great things in store for us. Hopefully not the apocalypse. That would suck.

I always get nervous receiving gifts from other people, and I know Drew does, too.  We have peculiar and particular taste and we have a pared down lifestyle, even Ember does.  It’s hard to explain to people that we don’t want a lot of stuff without sounding ungrateful.  I mean, there is absolutely nothing wrong with some of the things that people want to get me.  But I’m very strongly grounded in the “I don’t need that” mind set.  I don’t want a house full of things.  This year, I think that all of our mix of subtle hint dropping and quite frank ramblings over the years may have finally caught on.

This was the best Christmas yet.

I got things that I need:  new 8 ball bearings, low durometer wheels for the warehouse, and conical cushions (skate nerd speak, sorry)…mixed in with a few things that I’d love to have on hand:  Atom wheel storage bag, so my wheels aren’t always rolling around this poor house, extra hardware-like toe stops and wheel nuts.

I also received a few packages of bulk gluten free food stuff from my Da Mama.  It’s not a glamorous gift by any means–but it’s one that makes me extremely happy.  I refuse to buy a lot of these products just because they are so expensive.  It’s nice to have someone else gift me the items that I rarely splurge on.  Not to mention that it’s the gift of time.  I typically make most of these “convenience” items from scratch which takes HOURS.  When my mom and stepdad gave me a laundry basket of food, what they really gave me was a basket full of a few hours worth of peace of mind.  No stressing over a GF flour covered kitchen and no anxiety at the grocery trying to decide if I’ve been a good enough girl to justify purchasing a $5 box of frickin’ macaroni and cheese.

I got a few things that I didn’t ask for.  But I love!  Lacy bras (uh, my current bras aren’t falling apart or anything, I swear) and a watch that won’t rip the hair off my fuzzy Latina arms.  The color scheme is perfect for my personal brand of style, which I have dubbed “Baby Prostitute.”

I also got some pretty considerate handmade gifts.  Including these bottles of Mexican Coke (yeah, let it be known:  I am a whore for Mexican Coke) with “coupons” tied around their necks from my brother, Keaton and his wife-one of my best friends, Sam.  Each coupon was for a different thing, including babysitting for date nights, a slumber party for Ember, and help in remodeling our home.  These are things that really mean a lot to us.  Drew and I are very particular about the way that Ember is cared for.  That greatly limits the number of people that we let babysit her.  Which, in turn, seriously inhibits our date nights!  A slumber party for Ember is genius because she is really attached to her aunt and uncle–and she always wants to stay the night when she visits.  And help remodeling our home?  YES, PLEASE.  I have so much painting to do.  And a very short attention span.  So, in summary–helfpul coupons?  Great.  Helpful coupons tied to bottles of Mexican Coke?  Perfect!

Ember got a great mix of gifts.  She got a camera.  A real camera!!  So she can be just like Mami.  She got some Duplo Legos to add to her collection and a handful of puzzles.  She also got some warm, fuzzy clothes and boots.  The boots make me think of Santa!

However, she also got some beautiful handmade gifts.  Last year, Ember and Sadie received a plastic play kitchen to keep at Da Mama’s house.  Drew was mostly joking when he bent over the oven, pulled it open, and said, “Mmmmm, what’s cooking?  GENDER ROLES!”  Mostly.  It was actually mostly the plastic part that bothered me.  I just can’t get behind those big, bulky looking Fischer Price toys in my house.  But that’s okay, it has to stay at Da Mama’s house, muahahahahahaha!!  She doesn’t get over there too much, though, so she doesn’t get to play with it often.

So, this year, I repurposed some storage cubes that were already in her room, our old bathroom sink, some kitchen stuff from local thrift stores into a play kitchen for Ember.  I only spent $20 total, but I feel like it turned out pretty well.  I didn’t have time to completely finish it, so look for a full post on the kitchen once it’s completed.

Also–what’s a kitchen without some decoration?  In high school, my husband drew this tiny dinosaur on some scrap paper.  He found it a few weeks ago and decided to re-draw it in a larger scale (the one on the left)–and to draw up a friend (the one on the right).  Once the drawings were completed, he had Allie paint them with [freaking awesome] watercolors.  I didn’t know he did this until Ember opened them up…but once he did–I just knew Allie had painted them!  <3  We need to spray them and flatten them out a bit, but I think they turned out GORGEOUS.

We covered decoration, but what’s a play kitchen without play food?  Once again, ugly plastic toys are just not going to cut it.  Plus, they are never the right size.  How about some handmade felt food (crafted out of Eco Felt)?  I only had time to whip together a couple of eggs and a couple of strawberries, but look out for a full post on the felt food once I have a bit more whipped up.  I absolutely love the strawberries.  I am trying to find a justifiable reason to make some for myself.

And last, but not least-my favorite:  Drew’s gift.  Each time we go to his parents, he always talks about their record player.  He and his brothers spent a lot of time listening to various vinyl as children (including, lord help us, a Wendy’s album…yes…Wendy’s, as in Dave Thomas).   He’s a pretty nostalgiac guy in general, but you can just tell that there is a special place in his heart for those memories.  He always jokes about his parents giving him that record player…but they still use it.  So I decided that it was time for Drew to have his own.  I looked through a lot of different record players before I found the one.  But here it is.  I also got Mastodon’s Crack the Skye because it would be pretty silly to give him a turntable with no record to play.

I hope that everyone had a lovely weekend.  This was one of the first years that we weren’t scraping by because of college, life, baby, work, etc. (yes! we’re finally real time managing grownups!), and it felt good to finally feel like we had our act somewhat together for the holidays.  Our tags and wrapping paper were a big hit!  And so were the homemade fruitcakes, pineapple upside down cupcakes, guacamole filled deviled eggs, and mini buckeye cups.

The gears are already turning for next year.

This year, we chartered a bus to Nebraska to play the Omaha Roller Girls and the No Coast Roller Girls.  We arrived in Lincoln with a bit of down time before the game.   I looked out of my hotel room window, and this is what I saw:

Now, I don’t know about you, but industrial buildings get my motor running.  And Lincoln is like rehabbed industrial heaven!  Now, let me preface this with the fact that the heat index was 115 degrees and that I am photosensitive.  As in, the sun brings on autoimmune dysfunction and petechiae.  This is yet another chapter in the book, Candace is so smart.  Or perhaps, Candace has a secret death wish.  I grabbed my camera, and thought to myself…I’ll just snap a few pictures until the buildings start getting gross looking-then I’ll head back. Because, let’s be honest, Capital City rehabilitation doesn’t usually stretch all that far.  WRONG.  Several miles later, when I felt like I was about to keel over with heat stroke, I popped into the local tattoo shop (the only place I was absolutely certain would give me some water and not shoo me out!).   Having to play later in the day, I eventually hightailed it back to the hotel where I climbed into the pool for about a half an hour to strip off the heat death feeling–and promptly climbed into bed to sleep it off before the game.  Later, I thought about the fact that it wasn’t really too smart to develop wanderlust in the prairie heat…by myself…in a strange city…right before a game…but, in all honesty, I don’t regret it because, knowing that I’ll probably not have occasion to pass through Lincoln again, I am glad to have taken in all that gorgeous signage and architecture!

Growing up, it took me a really long time to reconcile my odd, mixed ethnicity features with nice compliments from friends and family.  In fact, I am pretty sure I am still the absolute worst compliment receiver EVER.

A friend of mine (who might be one of the nicest people in existence) is always telling me that I look pretty.  She spreads the love–and good for her.  However, being the gargantuan asshole that I simply cannot help being, I have taken to calling her “Miss Dove Self Esteem.”  As much as I like to rib her about it, what she does is wonderful.  She reminds people that they are gorgeous.  And that they should feel good about themselves.  I wholeheartedly agree, but handing out verbal compliments just doesn’t come naturally to me.

Thankfully, I stumbled onto what does come naturally to me.  I am quite fond of looking for the beauty in everyone.  The curve of a back, the upturned corner of a mouth.  The chips of ice in an iris.  I delive compliments in the best way I know how:  cold, hard photographic evidence.  You can argue with words, but you can’t argue with a breathtaking image.  So shut it!

I love doing this, and I am very grateful to everyone who makes it so:  my husband, my friends, my clients.  Thank you very much and happy holidays!!

If you missed out on the last boudoir special, be on the lookout for a Valentine’s Day special.