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Xoxo,

Courtney!!

I wanted to give a shout out to all the people who take the time to read my blog (I consider this my baby, since I am a newbie to this blog world)!! So to those who have sent me kind words about this blog, I really appreciate it. This blog is viewed all over, which amazes me :)

Stay blessed everyone!

Winter Fashion Trends

This has to be my favorite time of the year to shop and play dress up! Since I am a curvier frame,I find it hard to pull outfits together during the summer. This is when I de-friend all my skinny friends, lol. Jussssst kidding ;) I LOVE everything about the fall and winter time weather, for one...I am covered up, and secondly...you can layer on clothing and NOT feel guilty about it at all :) Yesssssssss!!!!

I have seen a couple trends going on either in the magazines, or out shopping. One trend that I am ALL over is the Native American Navajo themed clothing. The solid colors, with pretty artistic patch work. I have seen dresses, skirts, sweaters, and ponchos all in this themes style. If you pair this style RIGHT with some white-washed skinny jeans OR jeggins and some cute booties, Trust me, it would look fab. These style always bring me back to Disney princess Pochantas. I love her :) When it comes to hair while wearing this style...I tend to go for a side messy bun, side fish tale braid, OR wear it out with exxtra wavy volume! Pop on a bright lip color and keep the make up subtle and youhave the perfect day to night outfit. **I will post pictures below of all the trends mentioned**

Another thing that recently has caught my attention, is girls rocking shorts this time of year. At FIRST, I thought this looked crazzy until I learned how to complete this look cohesively. Leather shorts are in right now. As well as the high waisted fabric shorts. If you pair your fave shorts with some opaque tights and some booties or knee high boots, this would look HOTT :) Keep it simple though ladies, you are already wearing shorts in the winter-time...so if you're going to pair shorts with tights, then wear booties OR knee high boots (they don't need to be knee highs, but you know a boot that is longer than a bootie type of shoe). IF your bottom half has the POP of color, then pair the upper half with a solid tee (I prefer a simple black or white V-neck shirt or cami)Add a blazer on top, and you have thee PERFECT date night outfit! You can also pair shorts in the same sense with out tights, but to me...I think that is tacky. I mean, don't get me wrong...IF you have those legs and don't mind being cold...then go ahead! BUT for me, I wear this style ONLY with tights.


I have also seen a lot of colored jeans going around! Someone can easily mess this look up by pairing too many colors in one outfit. Color galore...we don't want that! If you are going to wear a pop of color in ANY outfit, whether it be pants, to shoes, or a shirt...keep it cohesive. You have a POP of color on your pants, then keep the upper half neutral. Basic. If I wore a bright RED pant, I would not wear pink or red, or blue on my upper half. I would pair a white or black cami or v-neck and of course, my handy dandy blazer. (I own too many of those, you can never have enough)!

So far, I have seen ALOT of colors this season and alot of color blocking. Blacks, greys, and silvers can never fade away during this time of year!

So remember if you're going to buy any of these styles, just make sure it all flows nicely together. Don't overload on colors. If you're going all out on your upper half, keep it simle down below and vice versa ;)

My Tips:

*Always have some black tights
*Have a few different styles of blazers (off white, and black)
*Buy some cute and comfortable booties and knee highs
*Experiment with fun lip stick colors (purples, pinks, reds)

I hope this helped explain some of the style that are going around in my perspective. By NO means am I a stylist, but I LOVE fashion :)

Thanks

Xoxo, Courtney


**Pictures; Kourtney Kardashian rocking the romper with tights and booties. Jessica Alba in red pants, black blazer and white v-neck, paired with black booties.**

**Also, credit is given to the store, Love Culture (www.loveculture.com)**

New Year, NEW Weight?!?

So EVERY year around this time, I tell myself that my New Years Resolution is to loose weight, like most of us, we are GOOD for FIRST couple weeks, then we slack off like a bad habit :( This my friends has been going on with me for years. I finally have made a choice to once and for all do this NOT just for me, but for my kids. I hope and wish to be able to LIVE a long life and would want more than anything to see my grand-babies :) So I am doing this for my kids as well.

Here is some HISTORY on my weight struggle. Growing up I was ALWAYS skinny.When I got to high school, I was skinny. I am 5 feet, which is TINY, lol. So I NEVER passed 115 lbs.

Once I got to college (Penn State University), I gained SOME, but still NEVER made it past 130 lbs. I think I just came into a curvier figure. The food that I ate was put into all the right places, lol.

I got pregnant in 2004, and that was a ROUGH year. I had just graduated high school in 2003, sooo much was going through my mind at the time. Scared about being a young mother and scared to have to worry about whether his father and I would stay together to raise our son. LONG story short, my father was VERY strict, and when I found out that I was pregnant, I was too scared to even tell him... anything that had to do with me being pregnant, I would confide in my sister and my mother. My mom basically ended up telling my dad and I wasn't allowed to stay there (in his eyes, IF I was grown to be sexually active like that, I can be grown and get out). Which I ended up doing after I finished up the semester. I moved to Brooklyn, NY in November of 2004. My weight from there went UP.

I moved in with my boyfriend's mother who is Dominican. They LOVE starches...rice, yuka (which is like potatoes), pasta. I gained SOOOOOOOOOOOO much weight with our first child, not sure if it was because I had nothing else to do while I lived there, out of boredomm OR was it because we were first time parents and felt like we had to make sure our baby was eating? Lol...who knows. BUT I blew up. After I had my son in April of 2005...it took me a year or so to loose the weight. And I was back at a lower weight but not at my pre-baby weight. But my face was skinny and everything else. Just not as tight as it used to be. Mothers...you know how it is. Some of you are blessed to have those GOOD genes, ughhhh!!

I got pregnant with my second child in 2007, I was pretty much skinny again. Lost most if not all of the baby weight from my son. This pregnancy was sooooo much different then with my son. I knew that I didnt want to get fat, lol. And my eating habits were so much different than that of my sons. I felt nauseas of most foods. I actually had to see a dietician during my pregnancy with my daughter because I wasnt gaining weight at those regular check ups that you have while pregnant. I have to admit, I looked pretty good while pregnant with my daughter. I was skinny with a belly! I was like that all through the 9 months...my belly would just grow. I gave birth to my daughter June of 2008. As soon as I delivered her, I was back to my normal self. I breast fed her for a couple weeks which helped shrink the uterus back down and burned calories. I really felt that when I would breast feed my daughter.

I maintained my skinny frame after her delivery. NOT super skinny, but it was tiny for what I have been.

Now, this is the part where my weight went up. In 2009 (Feb-March) my father was diagnosed with cancer. He underwent radiation treatments, but in a short time, radiation wasn't doing anything and his doctors said that if he did surgery there was really no point. So they gave my father a couple months to live. That was the hardest thing for me. I had just had my daughter and to hear this news really upset me and I got really depressed. When I get depressed, I tend to let food comfort me. When I found out in his last moth he had to live, as he slowly declined and requested not to die in a hospital setting, he wanted to do in house hospice care, I packed my bags and took my baby girl back to my parents house with me and left my son with his father due to school to watch over my father and be close to him. Also I wanted to help my mother out. That month as he slowly died, we had shifts. I would do the shift from 10pm-2-3am. Since my father basically lived in our dining room on a hospital bed, with a feeding tube attached to him, someone had to be there to disconnect it from him when he needed to use the bathroom. Also, we needed to make sure that he didn't fall or anything on the way to the bathroom. He had a bell in there with him, so that we could hear him. So for about a month or so, I had this late night shift, where I was extremely depressed, and ate while I sat up to watch him. I would watch tv, and eat ice cream. EVERY night. My weight gain went from good to BAD quick. My father surcame to cancer in April 2 days after my sons birthday). Once he did pass, I was sooooooooo depressed and would cry every night. And I would eat and eat and eat.

Almost 3 years later...I have not lost all the weight back yet that I gained during that time of having my daughter to my father passing. I know my father would want me to be in good health (not skinny, but at a weight meant for my frame).

These are not excuses, but this is what has shaped some of my weight gain. Its very hard, esp once you have kids...they tend to want all the sweet thinga. I am making a healthy lifestyle change for myself and for them. We are not people who binge out on junk food by any means. We are somewhat healthy but could be alot more healthier.

So, after Christmas passes, I will go out and buy a scale and weigh myself with a beginning weight IF any of you are in this with me or interested, I can put up the beginning weight, then week by week or month to month, show the weight progress. I hope this helps me or any of you who are going through something similar...it all starts with you acknowledging that there IS a problem and DOING not saying.

-Cut out ALL soda, even most juices
-Start re-vamping your fridge...BUY organic
-Put in MORE veggies and fruit
-More fish and chicken, turkey
=Eat breakfast, light snack, lunch (small snack), and a well poportion dinner


Here are some pictures of my weight through the years:

**Happy Holidays**

It's been awhile since my last posting! I hope everyone enjoyed thier Thanksgiving!! I know that I did, and probably gained a few pounds (as most of us did), lol. I am curious to know what are some of your rituals for Thanksgiving? Does your family have traditions where you cook the same thing every year? Who cooks what?

As per our family, we tend to cook the same thing every year. We do a turkey, candid yams, corn caserole, string bean caserole, mashed potatoes, 2 kinds of stuffings, mac n cheese, and rice and beans...trying to think of anything else I left out?!? I think that;s the majority of it. This year was the very FIRST year that I made the candid yams all by myself :) Proud of that dish, lol! My sister is the cook of the house, so for me...this was a accomplishment!!

My Mom decided to add a ham this year, which we have never done before. It was soooo YUMMY!!

It's now December, I can hardly believe it. Time has flown by. Still NO snow yet...but I will never complain about that! I HATE the snow and being cold. So I usually dread this time of year, but as of yet...the ONLY thing that has fallen from the sky is rain, which I like :)

I just wanted to do a quick update and WISH everyone a very very blessed HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Also, this is a time where you should try and reach out to someone less than fortunate than yourself. If you have a home or a aprtment to go to, or running water, clothes and shoes...then consider yourself VERY lucky. There are many many homeless people out there on the streets, some with young children. There are men, women, and children fighting the battle of thier life, cancer. Let us not forget about them. If you have time in your day to vlunteer and help with charities, go out and look for one that interests you. I know growing up, my parents had my sister and I partake in many charities, such as Toys for Tots where we brought in and gift wrapped each present for children. We also rang the bells in the freezing cold for the Salvation Army. I am blessed that my parents had my sister and I do these things because of that, I am now able to pass these things onto my kids. My son who is 6 years old was given $3, he saw a man ringing the bell for Salvation Army and gave $1 to the man. This made me feel proud that my son was willing to give up $1 (to him that was a BIG deal, because he does not know the value of money clearly yet, and those 3 bucks were somethign BIG to him). So little things like that, helps. If you cant find the time to donate your time to, then donate 1 DOLLAR to the Salvation Army, or buy a gift (does not have to be big), and drop if off at a Toys for Tots location in your area. I stress this, because we should not only do these sorts of thigns during the holidays, but again...the holidays are supposed to be filled with lots of love and family. Why not make a person's life brighter. I know how I feel when I give back what I can, you will feel good as well. Promise!! :)

So as we go out and shop around for presents this year, or as we stand in line at the grocery store, let us NOT forget about those who are less fortunate and try to give back what each of us can! This is our world we live in, we are all one.

Again, HAPPY HOLIDAYS and make someone's life a little brighter!! Xoxo

Courtney