In My Neighborhood...

Earrings: Forever21

Bracelets: Wal-Mart, Charming Charlie’s, Belize [Gifted]

Top: Old Navy

Skirt: Wet Seal

Gladiators: Unionbay via Marshall’s

[The End]

I am a Mess!

Sometimes I can be a bit of a self-saboteur.

I won’t go into detail, but there are times in my life where I am doing well and I just do things to make it harder on myself to reach a goal.

Or, I say to myself, “Just this once…” and “once” turns into a pattern of behavior that’s hard to break.

Yeah…that’s me.

More times than not, I have to look myself in the mirror and say “Get out the WAY!”

I have to remind myself to let myself be happy…

Let myself be successful…

I do have this coworker who is a lot like me.

I think she’s coming to a point in her life where she’s snatching her life back from herself.

What is that?

1.Dedicating time to YOURSELF instead of seeking approval from others.

2.Doing things you’ve ALWAYS wanted to do.

3.Trying new things.

I shared with her my journey through life and some things I’m doing that I’ve ALWAYS wanted to do.

Yeah, I may get in my own way sometimes.

But the key is recognizing where that could lead and heading in the opposite direction.

Allowing one’s self to continuously falter is settling for the mundane.

This whole sphill reminds me of that song “Firework” by Katy Perry

On to the Outfit…

I wore this outfit on another post and I must say…

I don’t know what I was thinking.

I was just trying something, I guess.

And that’s what one does in fashion…Take Risks…

I guess I was just trying to stay cool by sticking a shirt under my pantsuit too.

Anyway, live and learn.

Today’s outfit…MUCH BETTER!

Gray goes with anything in my book.

So when I saw this Heather Gray Cardi, I knew I had to have it.

I knew the fuchsia would be a nice contrast with the gray and add some POP!

It used to drive me bananas that I have all this fuchsia jewelry and none of it is the same shade as these shoes.

“Oh Well”…I thought.

And got over it.

What I didn’t anticipate on was adding even more color POP with this oatmeal belt.

I love waist-belts with no holes.

No pressure to conform to a certain size…annnnnnnd they are versatile.

This outfit even matched my flower tat…What an unexpected treat!

Fuchsia Earrings and Bangle: Claire’s Accessory Store

Heather Gray Cardi: Wet Seal

Floral Pant Suit & Oatmeal Belt: Forever21

Silver Bangles: Wal-Mart
Peep-Toe Flats: American Eagle via Payless...

Don't be so hard on yourself!

I hate not knowing something.

It makes me feel like my ignorance is on display.

And I feel like the people I work with are LOOKING for an opportunity to go behind my back and talk about how I messed up.

Maybe it’s just me.

Maybe I’m putting EXTRA pressure on myself to be the best.

Should I expect anything less from myself though?

It’s what I’m capable of.

It’s what I’m used to at work.

But, even the BEST make mistakes in the beginning.

I mean, I don’t have an endless knowledge base.

Sometimes I find myself in that space where I’m dreading coming to work.

But sometimes you gotta be uncomfortable in life to get where you’re headed.

Persevere is my middle name. …Or it should be.

I’m just ready to go home.

I’m gonna eat.

I’m gonna shop.

I’m gonna see my peeps.

[The End]

On to the Clothes…

I knew eventually I was going to want to wear my white trousers to work.

What I DIDN’T want to do was duplicate my first look.

I scrolled my mental archives of my wardrobe and came up with this look.

PERFECT.

Easy Peasy…

I was going to belt the waist of my shirt, but that look wasn’t working for me.

So, I just left it untucked.

In a perfect world, I would be able to rock these heels also.

 

But I live in a world where you have to adjust.

So I wore these.

Earrings: Charming Charlie’s

Navy Floral Blouse: Old Navy

White Trousers: Old Navy

Olive Pumps: Charlotte Russe

Blue Studded Flats: Shi [By Journey’s Shoes]

Sunday Cookin: Low Fat Chicken Alfredo

The Ingredients:

4 Marinated Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs [Can be Substituted with Chicken Breasts]

½ Cup Chopped Bell Pepper

½ Cup Chopped Green Onions [White Onions are Fine to Use too]

1 box of Chopped Spinach

1 Small Package of Brown Rice Udon Noodles [Use the ones that most resemble Alfredo Noodles]

1 Jar of  Ragu Light Cheesy Parmesan Alfredo Sauce

The Steps:

Lightly coat George Forman Grill with Nonstick Spray and preheat.

Grill chicken on George Forman Grill only flipping once.

Make sure the chicken is no longer pink and it is firm.

Boil water for Udon noodles.

When chicken is completely grilled, cut into small chunks and set aside.

Coat a medium pan with non-stick spray.

On medium heat, sauté bell pepper, onions and spinach.

Add chicken.

Add ½ cup of Ragu and 2tbs of water.

Stir Briskly and remove mixture from heat.

Add Udon noodles to boiling water.

Turn stove off and cover pot with lid. Allow noodles to steam for 3-5 minutes.

[The noodles should be soft but not mushy]

Strain noodles, then add them to pot which they were boiled.

Add chicken and spinach mixture to noodles.

Stir in the rest of Ragu.

Viola!

El Fin!

'Round the Way Girl...

I had an UBERLY productive day today.

Even though our whole apartment complex had a black-out, I still got up pretty early and got to work.

I’ve meant to give my apartment a thorough cleaning for some time now and just haven’t had the desire to do it.

Since I had an appointment today I made myself a deal: “If you’re gonna go out and about today, you’re gonna clean up before you do. ...So get started!”

And with that, I did.

I even swept my carpets instead of vacuuming due to the lack of electricity.

It was great exercise.

And by the time I finished cleaning, the lights were back on.

Today I wore THIS dress to run my errands.

I LOVE dresses…ESPECIALLY ones like THIS that look like a long tank top.

I saw even more styles in some stores in the mall and I had to tell myself to “STOP” & “Walk away from the dresses…you already have TWO.”

So…I did.

And YES, I knew my bra straps were showing.

I didn’t and don’t care!

I still think I looked cute today.

Annnnnnnnnd

Those were Bamboo Earrings I was wearing…

“...Bamboo earrings…at least two pair…”

-LL Cool J “Round the Way Girl”

I got my hair done today too.

I hate criticizing an artist’s work, but I told my stylist she does my hair the same…[no matter how I ask her to style it…]

I don’t think she’s used to working with my length…

It’s short, but not real short compared to other looks.

It’s somewhere between a cropped cut and a really short style.

Oh well.

It felt good to wash all the gook out of my hair.

Bamboo Earrings: Beauty Supply

Orange Tank Dress: Forever 21

Snake Print Sandals: Old Navy

[…the end]

How THEY Measure Up...

These past weeks it has been on my agenda to try my favorite recipes using Weight Watcher’s revisions.

This time I wanted to try to make Fettuccini Alfredo.

To my dismay, when I looked up Weight Watcher’s version it was a whopping 12 Points!

During my last weigh-in, I lost another 5 pounds.

As a result, my daily Points Plus Target went from 30 to 29.

That may not seem like a significant difference.

One less point right….But it is!

I’m having to adjust.

And frankly, I won’t want to spend 12 of my points on ONE MEAL.

So…

I’m in the process of trying out new products that are filling but also lower in calories…Sometimes, even more so that what’s listed on the Weight Watcher’s site!

I’m glad that Weight Watchers has a portion of their site where you can enter information off the labels of foods you want to try …

The line-up:

Kashi Go Lean Crunch Cereal

Silk Vanilla Flavored Almond Milk

Light Cheesy Ragu Parmesan Alfredo

King Soba Organic Brown Rice Udon Noodles

Wolf Brand 99% Fat Free Turkey Chili

Smart Dogs Veggie Protein Links

Let’s see how they measure up… [I hope they do well because I already bought this stuff]

Kashi Go Lean Crunch Cereal: 5 points per 1 cup serving

Silk Vanilla Flavored Almond Milk :2 points per 1 cup serving

Light Cheesy Ragu Parmesan Alfredo: 1 point per ¼ cup serving

King Soba Organic Brown Rice Udon Noodles: 4 points per 1.9oz serving

Wolf Brand 99% Fat Free Turkey Chili: 4 points per 1 cup serving

Smart Dogs Veggie Protein Links: 1 point per link

I plugged in all of my new foods in my Weight Watchers Tracker as meals like so:

Breakfast:

Kashi Go lean Crunch and Silk: 7 points

Lunch:

Chilli Dog: 9 points [I added a slice of fat free Swiss cheese and a wheat bun, which makes the points more]

Dinner:

Chicken Alfredo: 7 points!

That’s so much better than the 12 points I got from the Weight Watcher’s version.

And

You have to make the sauce if you follow their recipe.

Mine is premade.

Plus, I have 6 points left for snacks!

Success…

[HELP!]

Blogger is CON-FU-SING!

1.       First of all, I tried to upload one of those free designer backgrounds it seems that everyone is using.

It didn’t help.

I just created my own collage for my header and changed the setting on my Blog layout to match.

2.       Second of all…The comments!

OMGoodness!

It seems as if EVERONE is using their own format!

I  am on DISQUS because I thought that’s what you had to do to get comments on your blog.

But I can’t respond when people do leave comments on my Blog.

3.       My Dashboard says I has three people following me [by the grace of God], but I don’t know who they are.

They’re not showing up on my page.

When did blogger become so fricken hard to navigate?

Somebody…Anybody…HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLP!

"You Can't [Always] Be Glam, Tam..."

So don’t expect yourself to be.

More times than not, since I started showcasing my style I’ve asked myself:

“What would be impressive to my readers?”

“What would look good on camera?”

“How will my outfit measure up to other people’s style?”

I’ve had to remind myself that I’m not ALWAYS going to look cute.

Sometimes it is what it is.

I’m in the process of transforming my body. So I’ve recently had to downsize my wardrobe.

And even though I do have a LOT of gear,[well... NOT as much as I had before], sometimes I lack the one piece that I think would take the look from something ordinary to something special. …eye-catching.

I know I need to get new clothes.

Some things, (mostly pants), I can make work with a belt here or a long shirt there.

But others just don’t fit right. Those were the pieces I recently discarded.

So a lot of my pics will just be stuff I made work out of what still fits.

I try not to make too many clothing purchases because I know at the rate I’m going, they won’t fit in a couple of months either…

So...With that being said, today was another K.I.S.S. 'Fit...

K.eeping

I.t

S.o

S.imple

[The End]

Honey-Colored Earrings: Beauty Supply

Broken-Stripes Tee:Wal Mart

Belt: [Stolen] Again... there's a STORY beind that

Flared Jeans: Old Navy

Open-Toe Lace-up Sandals: [MY FAVS!] MIA Brand Via Piperlime.com