Lake house dress and misplaced children

- Outfit #14 to stand up against modern-day slavery/human trafficking & promote modesty!

-If you'd like me to borrow your clothes to spread awareness against human trafficking and promote modesty, please E-mail me: marvelousthingsphoto@gmail.com

In case you're wondering, no this lake picture isn't connected to our current flood issues (posted one picture on my fanpage though). This is in NY as we were checking out an area that my in-laws are interested in moving to (these were taken about two weeks ago). The house was very lovely and didn't seem to have been updated since the fifties!

This is another vintage dress borrowed from Lauren of Sparrow & Urchin. I love the details in the neckline! So cool! Thanks again Lauren!

hairclip: lila-jo, shoes c/o payless, necklace: c/o Gigi

 Reason why I'm doing this #14:A couple of weeks ago I finished reading a book called Little Princes. It's about a man who volunteered to work for an orphanage for a pat on the back. However, in time he realized how much he adored being with them and found out these kids were really misplaced, not orphans. Misplaced? There was a civil war in Nepal in 1996-2006. Many children were taken by various people and often left in numbers at places where they had to try to survive on their own. One man in particular he knew of was trafficking the children, telling the parents he was going to take them somewhere safe and give them an education if they let him have their kids and some money. Because the parents wanted what was best for their children by giving them opportunities, they would let them go with the man. The problem was that some of them he would in turn sell to people to be live-in-unpaid "servants" who get beaten for richer people in Nepal. Other times he would just leave many of them to survive on their own in abandoned buildings. Conor Grennan started to search out the families and search out for lost children so that he could bring them back to their families and explain to them what really was going on so that they wouldn't do it in the future. He runs an organization called Next Generation Nepal and has reunited hundreds of children to their families. Find out how you can help here. I truly recommend the book too!

Modest Fashion Features #35

Yes I live in an area where Hurricane Irene is coming through. So far it just seems to be really windy and it's been raining since late last night (I'm typing this up at 7:40 AM). There have been people who have died on the lower east coast (trees falling, surfer drowning, etc), also eight robberies through four states, also there have been tornadoes in some states. There is flooding in the lower to central part of NJ but I haven't news about my area of Northern NJ yet. Considering we have so many rivers in our area, there WILL be flooding (and my parents have lived with a river flowing through the side of their  backyard/woods area since 1973, so they are used to it and I grew up as a "river rat").  They say the worst will be between now and through 11AM, and it will still be raining after that.

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Favorite of the week: Yuu/Momo!!!

Top Left to right: Mackenzie, Ashlee, Apple/Anuta

Bottom left to right: Elyse, Angie, Elle

If you want recognition for your modest outfits just let me know about your blog in a comment or even submit a photo here. Most of the time I pick from my random searches of bloggers or daily reads. To see the daily features and people's submissions, follow this tumblr I run. 

Movie Suggestion Post #50

Movie Ratings are on a scale of 1-5. Anything rated over 3 stars and is in bold, is totally worth seeing! - I rate pretty harshly.

The Cosby Show [season 1: 1984] - 3.5 stars - I started to watch this show probably with seasons from 1989-1991as they were being aired and I always wanted to watch the first ones. I have laughed a lot and enjoyed the family aspect. It is about a maternity doctor who works mainly from his home (other than during deliveries of "a million babies" as he sometimes puts it) named Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable. His wife is a hard working lawyer who he started dating when he was 15. They are very involved in their five children's lives who vary in age from about kindergarten through college. It's just really a sweet show. content: a couple immodest outfits (not too bad though at all) and an episode showing some "weed", some name calling and teasing, married couple kissing or talking about getting together in bed

The Green Hornet 2011 (w/ Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Cameron Diaz) - 3 stars - I haven't seen too many of the original series, but honestly, this movie would have been better without the amount of language in it and the little bits of sexual content, but it wasn't too surprising since the script was written by Seth Rogen who stars in it.  The plot is about a really rich kid who always took advantage of his fame as a son of a highly notable reporter who ran his own business. When a sudden mysterious death takes the life of his father, whom he never seemed to like, he finds himself in charge of his father's business and wants to become famous opposite of how he was known by being a seemingly bad guy who did good things for people and society.  It was a good movie with a lot of great action. content: a scene with a girl in a bra in bed with main character, immodest girls with a close up of their tightly dressed booties dancing, bad language, some deaths, one really graphic death that made me cringe, drug reference, alcohol content

Young Man with a Horn 1949 (w/ Kirk Douglas, Lauren Becall, Doris Day, Hoagy Carmichael) - 3 stars - I had seen parts of this before and finally decided to see the movie in full. It was really interesting but a bit sad and drawn out in a way. It's about a young boy who seems to pick up music fairly quickly. He meets a man who teaches him to play the trumpet. As he grows older he has such a deep devotion to his music that he has a hard time maintaining lasting relationships.  His love is his music. When a woman seems to change so much of his life, he suffers and hopes to pick things back up in some way. content: kissing, immodestly dressed dance women, woman in long lingerie gown, alcohol content, smoking

Rango 2011 (animated w/ voices Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Bill Nighy, Ned Beatty) - 2.25 stars - Okay, so I didn't really enjoy it too much. It was interesting and very odd. The art was lovely as well.  It's about a chameleon who is used to life in a tank but ends up in a real desert area where he meets a village of small animals trying to survive (old western-style, even their clothes), but lack water. He hopes that there is a way to save the town. content: slight language, innuendos, naked barbie torso, smoking, violence (animals shooting and hitting each other and some die)

Flash of Genius 2008 (w/ Greg Kinnear, Lauren Graham, Alan Alda, Dermot Mulroney) - 2.75 stars - A devoted husband and father who teaches as a professor for engineering starts to realize an issue that is wrong with car wipers considering his eye problems he has. He invents a new type of way for the wiper to work and tries to sell his idea to Ford. This is based off of a true story of a man who won't give up to have his name known as the inventor when Ford tries to take credit and steal his idea. It was good. My husband liked it more since he went to mechanic school and works for a Dodge dealership. content: kissing, woman in a nightie/lingerie, language, some smoking and alcohol content

Daddy Long Legs 1955 (w/ Fred Astaire, Leslie Caron) - 3.5 stars - I always loved this story since I was a child, but I had never seen this movie. It is beautiful and fun. It is about a rich man who is intrigued by a young orphaned woman. He keeps his identity a secret while sending her to college to give her a good opportunity in life.  She is so thrilled and always tries to write to the man but grows weary as she never hears from him. There are a lot of song and dance sequences in this film. content: didn't seem to catch anything other than an older man going after a younger woman with about a 25-30 year gap or something (I think it might be less in the book).

Music section is no longer going to be posted because I watch far too many movies in comparison to how often I listen to music, and I tend to listen to the same things I've listened to for a decade. I'm sorry to those who liked this section, but I rarely received comments on the music as it was, so I'm sure it will be fine.

Standing in the Rain

- Outfit #13 to stand up against modern-day slavery/human trafficking & promote modesty!

-If you'd like me to borrow your clothes to spread awareness against human trafficking and promote modesty, please E-mail me: marvelousthingsphoto@gmail.com

Lauren of Sparrow & Urchin sent me a box filled with vintage dresses as she is traveling around and moving. She sent me a beautiful print as well! What a sweet lady. Thanks so much!! I decided to wear this dress of hers first to my friend Loryn's engagement party. There was a downpour of rain (which I REALLY love rain). The party was under a couple tents and extended into the garage (where my boys were coloring for a while).  The boys kept standing in the rain and therefore at times so was I. My victory rolls flattened out quite a bit because of it, so if I look like a wet lion, you know why. (the dress was not hurt in the process of these photos). The boys were so restless and kept going in the rain and I was scared they'd catch pneumonia being in and out of the downpour for about two hours that we sadly left the party early because they were DRENCHED.

Dress: borrowed from Lauren | flower hairclip: Lila-Jo | Shoes: Aldo

Reason why I'm doing this #13:

I am sure many of you have heard of the book I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced. I read it last December (excellent book). It is about a young Yemen girl who was forced into a marriage with a man about three times her age (she was 9), sold by her parents. This is a very common thing that happens in many countries around the world, but it shouldn't! This girl suffered a lot of beatings and was raped over and over again (fighting for her life because she had no idea what was happening to her, plus he had made an oath to wait a few years before having sex with her since she was so young, but he didn't wait more than a few hours). She found the strength at a very young age to run away from her husband, even though he had abused her so much, and filed for divorce in a courthouse when she explained what had happened to her openly. Nujood is a Muslim and in the Qur'an it is actually said to say "Ye who believe! Ye are forbidden to inherit women against their will." but it is something that happens repeatedly in countries like Yemen. According to fightslaverynow.org, there are 25,000 new child brides in the world each day (not just Muslims, but of many religions and backgrounds).

It is very sad that any child would be forced into anything against their will, but to have her mistreated on top of forced into a marriage that traps her, really is not something that should be happening in the world.  It is an injustice to children who haven't even hit puberty yet! This wonderful girl Nujood found freedom and strength when most children would feel like there was nothing they could do. Because of her bravery, many other children are learning of her story and are standing up and speaking out too. Organizations like CARE have been very helpful in stopping this type of slavery! They have a lot more detail about what happens to girls forced into marriages.

Modest Fashion Features #34

It has been getting harder and harder for me to feature people, especially when I try to not re-feature the same people too often (which usually I don't, but some people have been featured two times).  There haven't been submissions in a while and I haven't time to spend searching the internet for fashion inspiration. On top of that sometimes there are days I have a hard time finding anything modest to feature.  It is crazy to think I've been featuring people for almost a year (although I didn't do the round-ups like this post until probably December or January, or we'd be getting nearer. . keep in mind sometimes I will skip featuring in a week because I need a rest). I am always so very happy to see how many of you really love seeing this entry. It motivates me to keep featuring no matter how frustrating it gets at times. If only it were easy where the first outfit I see on a blog each day is the one I can feature. haha. oh well.

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Favorite of the week: Marisa!!!

Top Left to right: Miri, Lauryn, Julia

Bottom left to right: Heidy, Victoria, Ana

If you want recognition for your modest outfits just let me know about your blog in a comment or even submit a photo here. Most of the time I pick from my random searches of bloggers or daily reads. To see the daily features and people's submissions, follow this tumblr I run. 

I'm Guest Blogging Today!

I posted today on She is Sara while Sara is on vacation!

Please check it out!!

County Fair

- Outfit #12 to stand up against modern-day slavery/human trafficking & promote modesty!

-If you'd like me to borrow your clothes to spread awareness against human trafficking and promote modesty, please E-mail me: marvelousthingsphoto@gmail.com

I was sent this very cute and ladylike outfit from Miskabelle, a glorious etsy shop (which I've shopped at before to get this outfit). Make sure you stop by & buy something there! They have a 20% off sale this week with the code "GETBEACHY". They also sent me a cute cameo in which I put a ribbon through it for the outfit because I couldn't find a necklace chain. If you would like to purchase the blouse or skirt, please e-mail miskabelle@gmail.com (since it's not listed on their etsy). Make sure to follow their twitter too! Don't forget their blog too! Thanks SO much to Jayme and Manda who run the shop!
Blouse & Skirt & Cameo - Miskabelle, Shoes - Lulu*s, butterfly - Michael's, belt - Delia*s

We got free passes from Rob's job to a county fair about an hour away in our state. We went one other time when I was pregnant with Micah and thought the boys would really enjoy it together. We left when it started to drizzle (we were there a few hours).

The boys loved this truck

Leto got to sit on a few things and pet some animals

 The photo on the left is from a little musical that these produce items put on (they moved around and such). Leto was eating a chicken nugget when I took his picture.

Reason why I'm doing this #12:

Recently on my facebook fanpage I posted a video about Stella's Voice, an organization that helps orphans from Moldova in danger of being put into sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. There are many children who are abandoned or become orphans in the country of Moldova (as well as many other countries). Poverty is very high in Moldova. When a child turns 16 years old in an orphanage, they are usually given a handful of pocket cash and are expected to make it out in the world on their own, when they don't even know much about life outside of the walls of their orphanage. Sex Traffickers (which is a nicer term for the word Pimp) hang around these orphanages waiting to offer a kind hand to these children, making them trust them. They then are threatened, beaten, forced, or fall in love with their pimps (who use great tactics of power to make a girl especially believe that the pimp loves her by treating her like poop).  Then they are raped, sometimes even drugged before the rape and eventually become addicted to the drugs so they don't have to feel the pain as much. The pimp then will tell her she needs to get him money since she loves him and he is all she has. This is what happens around the world, but Stella's Voice specifically helps protect these orphans from harm as well as helping orphans out of the lifestyle they were put into by giving them a safe place filled with warmth and love to build a future of hope for them. They have a safe house for girls and a safe house for boys. They have a third safe house (these are large houses by the way) but I think it's a combination co-ed home. If you want to help donate money, go here. You can also donate a dollar a day and have a chance to go to Moldova to visit and help out (I'd love to be a part of that)!

Extra Sweet

- Outfit #11 to stand up against modern-day slavery/human trafficking & promote modesty!

-If you'd like me to borrow your clothes to spread awareness against human trafficking and promote modesty, please E-mail me: marvelousthingsphoto@gmail.com


Jenni from Pixie in Pumps let me borrow this really sweet dress (thanks so much)!!! Our family drove down a road we've seen forever (most of our lives) but never went down. It seemed like we were in another state just being down it. Speaking of sweet, let's learn about some chocolate below. Mmm! I love chocolate!

Reason why I'm doing this #11:
In case you were unaware, most chocolate companies get their cocoa beans picked by slaves (Hershey & Nestlea are biggies - oh and believe me, they have somehow pushed lawsuits aside). Often times it is hard to trace where the original farms are, where they received their beans, but when traced down, the majority is done on slave farms. Most cocoa is picked by slaves taken from Ghana in the Ivory Coast, such as a village of Sika Nti. Planting and picking cocoa is actually very rough and dangerous work. Children have to use sharp machetes on the trees, spray insecticides and herbicides without any protection.  These children want an education but are instead forced into hard labor. Their palms swells up from weeding large areas of land and having exposure to chemicals reacting to the blood they shed. One man who was rescued was quoted saying, "Our master used us as slaves. He took us there and never paid us a penny. He said that if anyone escaped, they would be caught and killed. " and then continued to talk about how if you ran away they'd get tied up, stripped naked, and viciously beaten in front of the other slaves to be made an example of.  

"A moving exchange came as Kate asked a young man named Amadou how he felt about his five and a half years in slavery.  Amadou replied with remarkable sensitivity: 'When I think of all that suffering, it hurts my heart deeply. I want to say so much, but I just can't find the words.' Kate then explained to him that cocoa was used to make chocolate, a sweet food that people love, but Amadou said he never knew this and had never tasted it.  When he was then asked if he had anything to say to the millions of people who eat chocolate every day, Amadou replied, 'If I had to say something to them, it would not be nice words. They enjoy something I suffered to make; I worked hard for them, but saw no benefit. They are eating my flesh.'" -Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves by Kevin Bales (page 179-180)

A great company that includes a full history of their chocolate company on their site is Divine Chocolate. They fully pay their cocoa farm workers, treat them very well, provide education for their children, and the company is owned by 45% of the farmers! On top of that, they have the best chocolate I've ever had, especially their milk chocolate toffee crunch bars which I could probably eat all day every day. Goodness it's good. My husband loves their white chocolate and coffee chocolate. My sons love their chrunchy milk chocolate bars (tastes like Crunch bars, but without the slavery and a bit thicker). They have a pretty good variety! You can buy their chocolate in many select stores or online (which gets shipped overnight in wonderful cooling packages so your chocolate won't melt). Believe me, when it comes to Halloween and Easter time, I try and try to tell people about this information but they rather eat the flesh of slaves than fair trade chocolate just because it's "cheaper". Really awful. Find out what companies you can trust here.

Modest Fashion Features #33

I had a really busy weekend with many things going on. Some of what we did will show up in future outfit posts, but otherwise right now I'm looking forward to another school year as a homeschooling mama (I did a pre-k curriculum last year). My Leto will be entering kindergarten soon. He's been learning how to read and write since spring, which is really exciting. We're potty training Micah too, which he did really great for a couple of weeks. Now he's telling us he's "scared" of the potty. Oh no!

Otherwise I don't know how many of you are bookworms, but I've adored sending out books that sit on my shelf here at home that I know I'll never read again. Paperback Swap is a great site where I've been able to send out a bunch of books and every time a person receives a book and marks that they received it, I get a credit so I can get a book sent to me (and eventually I can send that back out if I want tp). It's pretty fun because I don't like keeping things and I read very regularly (you may have noticed if you've seen my goodreads widget).  In about 4 days total I was able to send out 7 books, I have 5 I'll be sending out tomorrow, and I'm receiving 2 books that were sent out to me.

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Favorite of the week: Shareen!!!

Top Left to right: Becky-May, Roberta, Julie

Bottom left to right: Stevia, Chloe, Jenna

If you want recognition for your modest outfits just let me know about your blog in a comment or even submit a photo here. Most of the time I pick from my random searches of bloggers or daily reads. To see the daily features and people's submissions, follow this tumblr I run. 

Movie & Music Suggestion Post #49

Movie Ratings are on a scale of 1-5. Anything rated over 3 stars and is in bold, is totally worth seeing! - I rate pretty harshly.



Romance on the High Seas aka It's Magic 1948 (w/ Doris Day, Janis Paige, Jack Carson, Don DeFore, Oscar Levant) - 3.5 stars - This was a hilarious movie about a couple that just can't seem to trust one another, always thinking the other is unfaithful. To find out for sure, each one of them tries to set each other up to catch them. However in doing so they get two people testing and working for one of the spouses and goodness drama ensues! I love the hairstyles and some of the outfits. Movies like this one are why Doris Day has been my favorite actress for a very long time. content: kissing, assumed affairs or talk of them, immodest outfits

Anne of the Thousand Days 1969 (w/ Richard Burton, Genevieve Bujold) - 2.75 stars - Goodness, no wonder why this movie won an oscar for costume design - they are simply amazing. This is based off of Anne Boleyn's time as queen of Hentry VIII. I don't know how completely accurate it is, but I think it had much more accuracy than some of the other films I have seen about this situation.  Things on the English throne are always so dramatic. Goodness Henry VIII didn't treat too many of his wives too well (if any). content: immodest outfits, accusations of affairs and incest, kissing, talk about virginity, people in bed together under covers (appearing to be nude, but not showing anything other than sheets over top of people)

Source Code 2011 (w/ Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan) - 4 stars - Excellent movie, which was very interesting.  A US soldier finds out that he is on a mission which he doesn't completely understand. For some reason he is able to go to the past for 8 minutes to try to find out clues to an event that happened in the present. In the process he meets a very sweet woman all while trying to find out where he is, what he's supposed to do, and everything starts to unfold for us. content: language, some violence, kissing

Center Stage 1999 (w/ Amanda Schull, Zoe Saldana, Peter Gallagher) - 2.5 stars - I used to think this movie was great when I was a teenager and saw it on VHS haha. Now that I watch it again most of it was really not that great, though the dancing was amazing and fun. This focuses on the lives of mainly one girl, but also two others - all who are ballet dancers and make it into a school that they hope will give them success in the future. Of course they all have issues they are going through and dreams they want to pursue. You know how last time I reviewed a ballet movie called Turning Point? well a tiny bit of situations that showed up in that movie came up here to rip it off a little. content: language, immodest outfits, one quick scene of a girl in underwear which was completely unnecessary, a couple sexual situations (nothing shown), underage drinking, girl heard a few times making herself throw up, kissing, smoking

Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone 2007 (anime) - 3 stars - It was pretty interesting to see this 13 years after I first started to watch the original anime. It is a retelling of the series but pushed into two or three films (this is the first).  They changed and improved a few things, but mainly it's the same. I'm really attached the original series, so therefore I didn't rate this one as high. It was nice that they got mostly the same voice actors too. The story is set in Japan 14 or 15 years after an event happened (an attack from strange creatures called "Angels"). A teenage boy, and son of the head of the operation (who has a bad relationship with his father) is told to pilot large mech-warriors called "Evangelions" to fight the "Angels". We learn about the people involved and slowly we'll learn about all the other pilots (we meet Shinji and Rei only in this one). content: naked boy covered in his private area by coke cans, immodest big breast cleavage showing characters, naked teen girl walking around carelessly, language, violence & blood

You Again 2010 (w/ Kristen Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver, Odette Yustman) - 3.25 stars - Aw. I liked this movie. It was relatively clean considering a lot of romantic comedies have something showy in a sexual way.  This is about a woman who came out of her nerd-shell to become a successful and beautiful business woman. She had horrible high school memories with the head cheerleader. She goes home for her older brother's wedding but finds out that he's marrying her worst memory! Drama drama drama! It was really funny. I love the humor of Kristen Bell sometimes. haha. content: kissing, pulling pranks, name calling,  immodest outfits

Featured Band & Album:
Andy Gibb's Flowing Rivers album
Say what? Yep. I'm an Andy Gibb fan. I wanted to post something a bit older today, plus this song got in my head, so why not, right? No he wasn't a Bee Gee, but he was the youngest brother of the Bee Gees. Unfortunately he died young because of the many years he used and abused cocaine and other drugs (though he was clean when he died from heart muscle inflammation). He had just turned 30 a few days before his death, but I adore his music (MUCH more than the Bee Gees' music, which I do like a couple of their albums too).  When I was a teenager I had a performance of him on the Mike Williams show (couldn't find it on youtube) but he wore the same jacket, so this is close enough. I just adored listening over and over to his songs which were really sad. This is one of my favorites (which I have the album on vinyl).  My overall favorite track is "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water", but I also love "I Just Want to Be Your Everything". Other albums of his that I have that I adore which might actually have more songs on it that I love are ones like After Dark and Shadow Dancing.