We are super stoked to announce that we will teaming up with some very lovely ladies to bring you our first ever Retro Beauty School work shop!  We haven’t set an exact date yet but we are aiming for early February, just in time for Valentine’s Day! Ladies this is the perfect opportunity for you to show yourself some love, have lots of fun, be around empowering women, and help yourself feel and look more beautiful in a safe environment. You’ll come home with lots of goodies and give your confidence a boost.  At this workshop you will:

• Learn how to create and style a classic pinup hair style
• Learn how to apply retro/pinup makeup
• Learn how to style vintage clothing and accessories for today
• Learn how to pose with confidence and class
• Rediscover your beauty and confidence
• Take part in a personal pinup styled photo shoot Cocktails, music, community, empowerment and so much more.
  
  You’ll receive your edited images in approximately 5-10 after shoot, perfect for a Valentine’s Day gift to the sweetheart in your life.Guys/Gays: this is also the perfect gift to give your ladies! Give them a girl’s night full of beauty and confidence boosting fun. You can thank us later ;-)

I posted a while back about how excited I am that our office is closed from December 22nd - January 2nd, so I technically have 16 days straight of no having to go into the office. It's exciting to get some true free time with Conrad and real time to focus on the shop. I hope we can just have fun.  Of course I'll be busy with the shop and enjoying some laziness too. Here's what I hope to get done and do over the winter break. 

1. Deep Clean & Declutter Conrad's room, office, my bedroom and living room.
2. Shop branding complete.
3. Launch the new Gypsy Beard Studio Web Site! Eeeeek!
4. Watch lots of TV (My winter break watch list!)
5. Do some inspirational, motivational business reading.
6. Work on upcoming product designs! (more on that later!)
7. Bring in new awesome handmade accessories: head bands, jewelry, beanies, scarves, etc
8. Go on a mini vintage buying adventure!
8. Brainstorm productivity and marketing strategies for the new year.
9. Plan upcoming events & fundraisers (I've got big ideas as always!)
10. Take Conrad somewhere special like Legoland
11. Give a facelift to a client's web site
12. Bake lots of Christmas Cookies
13. Rearrange shop!

That's it SO far, but I know there's tons more to do. I'm at the shop as we speak putting it off lol. Anyhoo........

Do you have a vintage lover in your life? Or maybe just someone with a creative or eccentric style? Maybe you've got that nerdy brother that you've been wondering what to get them.We have lovely gifts here are Gypsy Beard Studio for all of those awesome folks! Some of these are listed online in our Etsy Shop for those of you who are not local, but most of them are just in store. If you see something you are interested in shoot me a comment or email  and we can arrange shipping.

Shopping small business, local and handmade is a great way to shop. Not only are you supporting local businesses and artists, you're also getting truly unique and sometimes one of a kind gift items. When you buy vintage you are also recycling! Merry Christmas and happy shopping!

 Welcome to part two of my new Vintage Hacks Series. If you missed the first post, I shared 4 Ways To Style A Vintage Scarf. This post is much over due but worth the wait! One of the most common vintage items you'll come across in thrift world or in my shop is the basic vintage dress. Whether its a basic shirt dress or a more fitted dress, these kinds of dresses are fun to wear as well as very unique. The best part of wearing vintage fashion in my opinion is being different! Not only will you stand out, there's a 99.9% chance that NO ONE will be wearing what you are wearing. And that's always a plus in a girl's (or guy's) day. :-)

 I knew that I wanted to play festive music for the holidays at the shop, but honestly, all those merry jolly songs get old fast. So I decided to whip up my non traditional playlist for the shop and home. If you're looking for something a little different give it a listen and follow us on Spotify! I hope you like it!

One of the things that gets me really excited is being into a TV show. Seriously, that night of the week that Mad Men, Game of Thrones or American Horror Story air is the high light of my week lol. I plan my schedule around these shows. Call me lazy, but a good TV show or movie is the only way that I can really chill out. With the down time I have coming up I plan on fully appreciating my TV. So here is my winter watch list.


1. The Walking Dead - I have some serious catching up to do with this one.

2. The Santa Clause - This is one of my favorite Christmas movies. I'm excited to share this one with Conrad.

3. Elf - Of course this is a much watch. This is probably my favorite holiday movie of all time. It's an added bonus that Zooey Deschanel is in this one.

4. Mad Men - I've been in the mood to revisit the previous seasons since the final season is upon me *tear* But seriously, the fashion on that show is enough of a reason to watch!

5.  Lord of The Rings/Hobbit Movie Marathon - One of my favorite new traditions is that every winter break we devote a full day or two to watching every Lord of The Rings movie. And this year we can include the Hobbit movies in this. Put on a pot roast or pot of soup and you have a fantastic day ahead of you. Perfect for those cold days where you don't want to leave the house.

6. Harry Potter Movie Marathon - We also binge on Harry Potter and junk food.  This usually includes a giant pillow/couch cushion pallet on the living room floor and pajamas and maybe no showers that day. lol

7. Gremlins - I guess this has always been a holiday movie in my book because it is set at Christmas time, but it's a classic. Conrad's at the age now where its not scary to him. Honestly, he thinks the special effects are cheesy so... lol

8. The Grinch - The movie and the original animated version! This is a Christmas movie that I thoroughly enjoy. Maybe more than my kid.

9. Edward Scissorhands - I feel like we always watched this show at Christmastime when I was a kid, even though it really doesn't come off as a Christmas movie at all to me haha. There is that beautiful scene where Winona Ryder dances in the snow "snow" from the ice sculpture though.

What's on your holiday movie watch list? 

Conrad was so excited to get to be in the Christmas parade this year on the Boy Scout float! I couldn't get a great picture of him because they were moving too fast and it was very dark but I actually kinda like the way all these turned out. The lights turned out pretty in the photos I think.  There were some awesome floats. My favorite was the Louis Motorsports float with the bubble machine, because, well bubbles are awesome. I didn't catch the end of the parade unfortunately because I had to go meet up with Conrad at the end but it was a good, freezing cold time.

If you're local join us Saturday December 20th from 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM for holiday fun. You'll get 20% off your purchase if you come in your ugliest Christmas sweater or holiday threads. The first 10 customers will receive a free gift, we'll have goodies for the kiddos, free hot chocolate and cookies and lots of great deals on vintage! Come check us out in downtown Greenville, Texas!

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Something that I have been obsessing over lately is the word: QUALITY.


 I'm not a perfectionist, and I'll be honest, I've put work out there in all aspects of my work that I know could've been better or that wasn't true to me. Whether its because of clients wishes or lack of time, putting out work that doesn't live up to your standards is no fun and it haunts you. You wake up in the middle of the night with epiphanies of how you could have/ should have done something differently. Whether the work is awesome or not, I still will always be my own worst critic.

Anyways, back to the word QUALITY. In bold and all caps. Something I want to strive for more than ever is quality in my work, presentation and image. During my MUCH needed vacation from my office day job I plan on focusing a lot on ways to do that. From the content of my portfolio, footers on my invoices to the look of my new web site (coming soon!) I want to radiate quality.

Blogging is another aspect that I want to apply this concept to its fullest. I want everything that I write to be meaningful and helpful to you all. I want to inspire you all and show you what I'm all about. 

This all means stepping back and planning and taking the time to effectively see my goals and what it will take to reach those goals instead of spontaneously doing things like I usually do. I do love me some planning so I'm excited to see what methods work best for me.


What does QUALITY mean to you and how do you measure it in your work and life?

Last week was a whirlwind of sickness, photo shoots, thanksgiving shindigs and unfortunately a death in the family. Sadly we lost my Grandmother on my mom's side. :( I don't want to get into that too much but needless to say I'm so happy she's no longer in pain and is with my Grandpa again. Death is never easy.

We had lots of yummy food for Thanksgiving and then the kiddo and I both came down with a strange fever/sore throat/rash combination. Luckily it went away after 2 days but we were miserable. So much for time off aye? I was well enough to make it Friendsgiving this weekend though and it was a blast! I wish I had taken tons of pictures to share but sometimes you just enjoy yourself too much to take pictures.

With the madness mostly over, I'm on a mission to get my house into the Christmas spirit finally. I'm excited to pull out all of my decorations tonight and decorate with the family. I'm thinking about jumping on the Elf On A Shelf bandwagon late this year. Do you have any traditions or things you look forward to this time of year? The thing I'm looking MOST toward is my 3 weeks off that I get each Christmas! Yes, be jealous. We close down the office for almost a month. And it is glorious. I have several movie lists in the making in preparation for that. haha!