title: Magento custom layout local.xml not applying to custom module output pages
body: <p>I'm developing both, an Magento Custom Module AND a Magento Custom Theme, but i'm facing some problems that are driving me insane!!!(P.S.: Magento 1.7.0.2)</p>
  
  <p>My module and theme structure are the following:</p>
  
  <pre><code>app
    -local
      -MyNameSpace
         -MyPackageName
            -Block
            -controllers
            -etc
            -Helper
            -Model
            -sql
  
  design
    -frontend
      -default
         -myCustomTheme
           -etc
           -layout
           -template
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My config.xml(Placed on MyPackageName/etc):</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
  &lt;config&gt;
      &lt;modules&gt;
          &lt;Namespace_PackageName&gt;
              &lt;version&gt;0.1.0&lt;/version&gt;
          &lt;/Namespace_PackageName&gt;
      &lt;/modules&gt;
  
      &lt;frontend&gt;
          &lt;routers&gt;
              &lt;Namespace_PackageName&gt;
                  &lt;use&gt;standard&lt;/use&gt;
                  &lt;args&gt;
                      &lt;module&gt;Namespace_PackageName&lt;/module&gt;
                      &lt;frontName&gt;packagename&lt;/frontName&gt;
                  &lt;/args&gt;
              &lt;/Namespace_PackageName&gt;
          &lt;/routers&gt;
          &lt;layout&gt;
              &lt;updates&gt;
                  &lt;namespace_packagename&gt;
                      &lt;file&gt;myCustomTheme/layout/local.xml&lt;/file&gt;
                  &lt;/namespace_packagename&gt;
              &lt;/updates&gt;
          &lt;/layout&gt;
      &lt;/frontend&gt;
  
      &lt;global&gt;
          &lt;blocks&gt;
              &lt;namespace_packagename&gt;
                  &lt;class&gt;Namespace_PackageName_Block&lt;/class&gt;
              &lt;/namespace_packagename&gt;
          &lt;/blocks&gt;
      &lt;/global&gt;
  &lt;/config&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I want to apply some of my custom theme skins on my custom module page. I.e.: With my controller, let's call it ExampleController, and exampleAction() action Method... Changes in this page layout, should be wrapped by  tag in local.xml, right? This is not working!</p>
  
  <p>The point is, accessing the URL "mysite.com/packagename/example/example" and using the layoutViewer module to see the handles, i can see packagename_example_example as an handle there, but i'm not able to customize it, because it's not being recognized in local.xml! Magento is driving me insane, do someone know what am i doing wrong?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks a lot in advance :)</p>
  
  <h2>EDIT</h2>
  
  <p>When i put my custom template and local.xml file in base directory, it works fine!! I'm getting something like this:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Custom Template in base folder, local.xml in custom theme folder - Not Working</li>
  <li>Custom Template in custom theme folder, local.xml in custom theme folder - Not Working</li>
  <li>Custom Template in base folder, local.xml in base folder - <strong>Works fine!</strong></li>
  <li>Custom Template in custom theme folder, local.xml in base folder - Not Working</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Someone know what could possibly cause this? Magento is not recognizing my custom folders, only when i put them in base directory, where Magento Core is located.</p>