I'm not a woman of the 50's...

But there are times I wish was... I was raised watching the re-runs of old shows like "I Love Lucy" and "Leave it to Beaver"... many times I've fantasized what it would have been like to live during that time and I compare myself to the woman who played the mom. I don't really know what it was like to live in that era but if it was anything like the old sitcoms I think I would love to have been a mom and wife of the 1950's.

The woman (mom and wife) had 2 jobs... take care of the home and the family. That sounds so simple and sweet doesn't it? But I know what it really means... it means you're the maid, butler, cook, seamstress, nanny, teacher, police officer, chauffeur, nurse... I could keep going... and you do all this daily while looking as attractive as your wedding day for your husband... the women wore dresses and pearls while scrubbing the toilets for goodness sakes!

Fast-forward to now... you can't go to any store without seeing someone dressed in what looks like pj's and house shoes (slippers). I have never gone as far as to dress like that in public but many days at home I will look as if I just jumped out of bed. This is a down-side of being a stay-at-home-mom in our world today... it would actually be considered weird in our day to dress like the women of the 50's. It's not that I want to wear a dress and pearls everyday but over time you get comfortable with not "dressing-up". By this I mean, putting on make-up and wearing clothes that are attractive (not lazy clothes). Many days I just put on any old thing not worrying too much about coordination or even how good it looks and I use the bare minimum of make-up... most of the time I just wear foundation and mascara.

On this particular day though I just decided out-of-the-blue that I would "doll" myself up... I don't really know why, I didn't have anywhere to go or anyone to see, I just didn't want to be "frumpy". What I discovered was I really liked looking a little pulled together, if for no one else than for myself! And although as you will see in the pictures below I didn't wear a dress or pearls... in fact I wore jeans but what I did do was add a little more make-up, a nice necklace (one I love because of it's beautiful blue color) and coordinated the outfit with little splashes of color. Had I remembered to put on a little lipstick/ gloss the pictures would have looked a little better but in my defense I did have 4 kids running around that I had to keep an eye on also.

I figured since I went to all this work I shouldn't let it go to waste on just my kids (cuz frankly they don't care how I look) and decided to try doing a self-portrait. This was no easy task! Getting the focus in the right spot was by far the most challenging part... mostly because there was nothing for the camera to focus on while I was setting up the shot. What I ended up doing was holding a toy with a long handle out in front of the camera, focusing, then set the auto-timer and jumped into position... it was quite the workout!

As you can see it was a bit of trial and error... these first few have the focus in the wrong place...

I think they look ok even with the focus off... it kind of does something dreamy to the ones where I'm looking down.

Here the focus is getting better and my eyes are sharp...

These last 2 are my favorite...

If you know me, you'd know that I'm a pretty modest person and really would rather be behind the camera instead of in front of it. It's a little hard for me to post so many pictures of just myself... but I'm going to have to get over and so here they are.

P.S. If you don't like these pictures then please don't ever tell me... I don't think I could handle it (said with a giggle).