My BIG News...

So yesterday was a pretty interesting day! It started off pretty typical but at about noon I received an email from my HR department requesting that I come up and chat about a new position that just became available and if you all recall I have been dealing with a lot of drama because of my co-workers so I’ve been looking for a new job for about a year if not longer… I had all about given up when this week had a few surprises in store for me.

So back to the email: I’m sitting at my desk reading this email and thinking “oh this just must be another follow up meeting to see how things are going.”  So I accept the meeting invitation and head up there.

Right away I see that she has some documents and is asking about my background in the current work I do. Anyways to make a long and wonderful story short and sweet, she informed me that there is this great position that she thinks I’d be a good fit for and wants to talk more with the manager then send me over to talk to the hiring manager!

When I get back to my desk I’m elated beyond words, I was so excited, happy and every other positive emotion that I could not function to do any more work for the day. Good think it was about 3:00 cause that meant I only had 30 minutes left in my work day!

Oh so you want to know what happened, well she said she would get back to me later next week and let me know what steps to take next. I have a pretty good feeling about this position and think it may be the one (like my romantic word play here)!!

I’m latterly dying to get out of my department because of all the nonsense that goes on, not to mention backstabbing, gossip, lies, and so much other stuff that I honestly feel like I’m back in high school but with 40 year olds. (Oh the sad part, I’m still in my 20’s and can see how childish they are acting and seem to know better than people who are so much older than me)

Anyways that was my big news!! I had more to tell but this post is long enough already. I’ll save the rest for this weekend! 

Keep Reading. 

Official What's In vs. What's Out Hot List:

So I’ve decided to do an official City Girl Chronicles short list of what’s in and what’s out.

What’s IN:

Men shopaholics: long gone are the days of the lady shopaholic because more and more man have outrageous shoe collections just like we do.  So ladies don’t expect to see your men venting in front of the T. V. yelling for a cold beer, nope now he’ll be standing in the dressing room line along side you with an arm full of skinny jeans and dress pants.  

Gucci Guilty perfume: Seriously I just rubbed some of this on my wrist from a sample in my Cosmo magazine and I’m officially declaring sweet scent as IN!

Calling up mama: Yes, calling your mother more than once a week or a day for that matter is totally on the cool radar so go ahead and dial those digits!

                 What’s OUT:

That old “Opposites Attract” theory: Remember a few years ago when all those celebrities were getting engaged but the relationship only seemed to last a few weeks and then it was on to the next? Well those poor souls were hooking up with opposites that they hope they could eventually change and after a few more dates and conversations they realized that picking out a ring on date 3 was probably a bad, bad idea. Now days people want more in a relationship so their looking for a partner who already has more in common with them from the start and it seems to be making relationships last longer.

Black fingernail polish: Seriously not cool! Do I really have to say anything more? Well, unless your into Goth but otherwise go for the lighter color!

Being enemies or even “frienemies” with anyone: Life’ short so instead try to live, love and laugh, you'll find it takes way less energy than hating someone!

Keep reading, 

When Co-Workers Attack!!

Good morning! Today I decided to work out because I only lost one pound at this week’s weigh in at my Weight Watchers meeting which isn’t bad but isn’t good either. So far I’ve lost a total of 10 pounds so I need to lose about 6.5 more to meet the Weight Watchers goal and for my own personal goal, I need to push myself a bit harder and hit another 10 pounds. Nothing else new going on this week... Just gearing up for a few trips during the next few months, still struggling to find time to write and still going home every night and doing nothing to help my book progress!

On another note, one of my co-workers/friend is currently pregnant and will be going on leave soon which I’m not looking forward to at all because that means I’m going to be stuck in the office for a month and a half without anyone to talk to because I really don’t get along nor talk to any of my other co-workers. I’m so not looking forward her leaving!!!  Oh that reminds me of a funny story, well not funny but just a random story. One of my “not-so-friendly” co-workers is hell bent on stealing my position and not only is she new to the job whereas I’ve been here for YEARS but she doesn’t know anything and tries to turn everything into a big deal so that it seems like she know something others don’t! Do you know how annoying it is to have someone trying to steal your job who is a MORON and who thinks they know everything but knows NOTHING! Every day I have to come in and hope she has not totally wrecked anything in her futile attempt to feel important!

On and here’s the funny part, she has also some how convinced our boss that she knows what she’s doing, I feel no need to set him straight because I look at it like this, when I leave for good and she has a field day ruining everything that I organized and built over the years, those actions will speak for themselves!






Happy Blogging!

70's Style Remix

Fall fashion trends are out and the 70’s are coming back with a vengeance!! Raid you mothers attic or basement for some vintage finds and you'll be ahead of the game! I love thrift shops and boutiques that sell used items at lower costs.

The 70's may have been the generation of failure but their fashion trends were something of an icon! 

   

New Blog!!

Well, I've spent all morning working in it and I finally have a skeleton for my new blog! check it out!
Also I put my button to the right for my new blog so you could grab it if you wanted! (hmm. that sounds a little strange, hehe... )

Anyway, check out my new blog! I'll be updating both sites!!










Keep Reading!

Attention All You Fashion Bloggers!

Hosted by IFB and Mac & Milk Studios

Okay fashion bloggers, Feb. 10 & 11th, 2011 is the IFB Fashion Bloggers Evolving Influence Conference hosted by IFB and Mac and Milk Studios located in NYC. There’s still time to register but space is filling up quickly so get your tickets as soon as you can.  If you're like me and reeaaallly wish you could attend but have a prior engagement, don’t worry you can watch it right here! Make sure you're ready to take notes because there are some great speakers lined up for this one! 

Check out my website to view last years Fashion Blogger Conference.

Register here.

Keep Reading, 

 

Honeysuckle: Fashions New Color of 2011

Fashion is already makings waves in 2011. Though much of the county is seeing white, the fashion world is anticipating a bright vibrate color to heighten the scenes. Wondering what that color is? 

Think fiery, bright, oh and pink! This hot new color will definitely be much livelier than 2010's color of the year: turquoise.

This year "Honeysuckle" is the color of 2011. This hot hue was chosen by Pantone Color Institute, the research arm of Pantone Inc., the company that largely sets color standards for the fashion and home industries.

"It's a really important color for us to get in for spring. It's a real strong color, but it's wearable for lots of skin types, the reddish pink shade lights a fire to your senses and revs you up”, says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute.

The idea behind choosing this particular color was to bring life back to the public after bruising economic challenges that hit hard last year, bringing a sort of calming effect with a pop!

This is definitely a color I would rock!

Rachel Zoe's Latest Creation

Being seven months pregnant hasn’t stopped Rachel Zoe from completing her latest fashion line. Zoe says,  “I’d imagine everybody is expecting something from me that’s kind of a Seventies, uber boho-glam kind of thing, and, you know, very accessorized,” says Zoe. “And it’s not.”

You can expect to see an array of skirt-suits with bubble hems; long, lean pantsuits, double- and single-breasted; and superchic shift dresses, tuxedos and coats. And of course, her collect included accessories, handbags, flats, heels and boots. Prices for this collection start at $250 for a day dress and run to $700 for a full tuxedo. The collection has a serious 1970s vibe, but still has a modern inspiration to it. 

New Years Resolutions

I have been meaning to write this blog all week and with it getting closer to the end of the first week of the New Year, I felt I’d better get it done sooner than later!  A couple of days ago I posted my Bucket List under the Writers Block section and I was planning to leave it at that until I found myself chatting with Alaina, a friend of mine from work when she randomly asked me about my New Year’s resolutions and before I knew it I had come up with a few that I thought would go along well with my Bucket List. Turns out this year I plan to:
·        Attempt to do something new at least once amonth
·        Read more, watch less T.V.
 So by chance this past Monday I came across a few art projects from Art House and decided to sign up for one or two not really thinking they would fall into any my first resolutions but just because it looked really cool and interesting!
I decided to register for The Sketch Book Project which is described as similar to a concert tour but with sketch books! So far 28,835 artists from 94 different countries have registered (including me)!   What will happen is that we will send in our sketch books and they will go on exhibit in many different galleries and museums across the county. The cost to enter was only $25.00 and when the tour comes here (The Transformer Gallery in DC, April 11-30) I plan to go see my work on display and then I will truly feel like an artist!  By the way you have to choose a theme for your sketch book and I decided to go with Below the Surface.
The second project I have decided to register for is call A Million Little Photographs which is described as a way that viewers can experience the myriad ways that a single story can be captured in an image. You also have to pick a theme (mine is The Great Adventures Of…). It will also go on cross-country exhibit starting in September 2011 and a book will be made into print in December 2011 which I plan to purchase as proof that I am a publish artist! ;)
So I think I am thus far off to a good start on my New Year’sresolution! Check out our Links section to see the story that CNN did and to view the Art House Website, also  see our Video section and watch the "I joined The Project" video for more info as well!

Keep Reading,
CG Chronicles Editor in Chief
Faith M. Steward

Bucket List

Last year I was having one of my regular over the phone chats with my older sister Ava when she casually mentioned to me that her son Christian had created a “bucket list”. Unbeknownst to me, she had planted the very beginnings of a seed that was about to blossom into a giant flower! If my 13 year old nephew had already created goals for his life, why hadn’t I? it wasn’t like I didn’t have things that I wanted to do, it was just that I hadn’t organized them into an actual cross-off list nor had I set out to actually take the steps to achieve them, instead as I did something in my life I would say or think “wow, I’ve always wanted to do that” and that was basically it, no crossing off, no celebration, or journaling about it. Then as New Year’s approached a few days ago I did my traditional reflecting over the past year and planning of my New Year’s resolutions (which as we all know rarely last longer than a few months) and as I was thinking of what I would add to my resolution list this year I decided to make a few changes and instead create a bucket list of things that I can achieve over a lifetime, why limit myself to only a year? Some of the things on my list I have already accomplished, others will come with time and will give me something to do with my free time or something to look forward to as I get older so drum roll please…

Faith’s Bucket List:
1.)     Visit Europe (Done)
2.)     Write a book
3.)     Have one of my articles featured in a magazine/website 
4.)     Work for myself one day
5.)     Visit the Acropolis in Greece
6.)     Visit Stonehenge
7.)     Stand under The Eiffel Tower (Done)
8.)     Appreciate the simple things in life
9.)     Finish the Bible cover to cover(work in progress)
10.)    Take life one day at a time
11.)    Create my own Happiness Project (will start this soon)
12.)    Help others
13.)    Create a website and keep it going!(work in progress)

So this is my current list but it will not end here, as my life changes each day so will the things that I want to do and I’m sure that I have left off a few things anyways. I read somewhere today that you should attempt to do something everyday instead of every other day or just a few days a week because the more you do it the easier they will becomes and the more it becomes a part of your daily. 
“So if there’s something that you wish you did more regularly, try doing it every day; if you do something every day, revel in it”.
First things first, update m y website every day with new content also start on some other daily tasks like reading the Bible cover to cover if only a page at time, start taking life one day at a time and begin creating my own happiness project.

New Year

Happy New Year!! I have not made any updates to my site in over a month because with the holidays, work and all the other stuff going on in my life, I have been super busy and have not had any time to write. I was so mad at myself because I kept coming up with some great topic ideas and kept thinking “okay, tomorrow I’ll write”, about that but then tomorrow came and went and before I knew it, it was a month later and I had nothing!!

Well it’s a new year and the holidays are over at least for a while (valentine’s day is quickly approaching)  so my life should be settling down which means I’ll be back to my regular posting, blogging and adding photos and videos and bombarding your minds with all my gibberish and random opinions on different subjects!

Recap of my year, I am so happy I started my site and to be honest it has opened a lot more doors that I never thought it would and has allowed me a creatively expression to all the things that I have been wanting to share with others for so long, not only that but through my site I have had the opportunity to meet and work with some great writers and some all around great girls who to this day still keep in touch with me even though they no longer write for my site. I also heard from one or two recently who have started their own site and found out that by writing for my site, they finally got that little push they needed to start their own site and I couldn’t be happier for them! I have checked out some of their site and they are wonderful! Ladies, keep up the great work!

I’ve very excited for this new year and have great hopes, ideas and dreams for not only myself but also for the site but as we all know, sometimes our plans don’t always go as we’d like so I won’t post any of my plans or dreams here but will keep everyone updated as things progress and unfold! Take care all and happy New Year to all of you! 

http://citygirlchronicles.webs.com/apps/blog/

The Three R's of My "Staycation"

If I had to give a theme to the past few days, I’d have to say that it has been all about the 3-R’s: Reorganization, Reconnecting and a Redirection of my life.

Reorganization: 

I once read that to simplify your life you need to get rid of all the excess items that are holding you down. That being said, over this past Thanksgiving break I had plenty of time to myself to do just that.  Each morning I woke up bright and early ready to sweep through one room at a time trashing things that I hadn’t used in a while. I’m normally a person who struggles with getting rid of things because I never know when I might use it again but I decided that if I hadn’t used it, wore it, read it or even looked at it within the past year it was time to let go of it.   I was able to go though a lot of areas of my home, get rid of a lot of things that I no longer used. I reorganized things that for so long I have been meaning to do but for one reason or another just kept putting off.

So what was the final verdict: I now have room to walk in my walk-in closet which before I couldn’t even do, I have extra space in my home office, an area in my laundry room to actually sit my laundry basket and space in my kitchen that was once cluttered with things that I had collected over the years but never used.

I donated about 65% of my clothes to Goodwill along with some books and kitchen items and the rest went into the trash! It was shocking but I actually felt as if a weight was removed. I guess you never really pay attention to how “stuff” can add excess weight to your life and hold you down.

The lesson I learned here: If you don’t need it, let it go and this doesn’t just apply to stuff but to every aspect of your life.

Reconnecting:

One thing that people tend to do at the beginning of every year is say I’m going to start doing this or doing that and maybe we do for a few months but then life seems to always get in the way and those little things that we hoped to keep doing fade away until eventually we no longer remember why we wanted to do them in the first place. In the time I had to myself I was able to sit and think about different areas of my life that wanted to spend more time in or that I was already spending time on but not as much as I’d like. What I realized is that happiness is loosing site of the things you love to do but making time to do them.  Should we really put off today what we could do tomorrow when we aren’t even promised a tomorrow? It amazing the in 5 short days I was able to reconnect with myself, my soul and with the things that I missed and loved. Reconnecting with yourself is a lot like rediscovering who you are and then understanding why you let yourself go in a different direction.  Most people lose their selves in the daily demands of life and other commitments that caused them to push what they really want aside. How many times have you read or heard about those few people who just quit their job and go off to do what really makes them happy and to be honest, don’t those people seem happier, less stressed and more focused on what life is really about. No, I’m not going off to explore the world but I am taking it one step at a time and I’m so excited to see where my new reconnection is going to take me!

Redirection:

I have found that redirection is a lot like reconnection though for me; my redirection is with my faith and relationship with God. For a large portion of my life I have had a fairly good relationship with God.  However, I have been reading a book titled Crazy Love and the first few pages of this book completely took what I thought I was doing and tore it to shreds, all the times I felt I was close with God, nope I wasn’t even a flicker in His shadow. Because I put so much stock in my relationship with Christ, to me these realizations were so horrifying and I immediately knew where I needed to make the redirection to my focus in my life.

So these are the 3-R’s that I was able to journey through in what I call a 5-day “staycation” and to be honest I loved every minute of it. At times it was a lot of quiet contemplation and thoughtfulness while other times it was running around, cleaning and staying up late to get things done but no matter what, it was what I needed!

I know a lot of people are going to shy away from reading my site now because of my open expression to my love for Christ but that’s okay because where 10 leave, 30 more will join and even if that doesn’t happen, what really matters to me is that I’m giving glory to God, which to be honest is the whole point of what life is all about.

So that being said, you have probably noticed a few small changes to my site and a lot of them have to do with these 3-R’s, a word of caution: there will be more to come and believe me, it will all be surrounding these 3 topics!

Back To The Bake-Off

Tuesday night I posted a blog about a Bake-off that I participated in for Charity and I received many well wishes from family, friends, and site fans. So thank you very much all! I wanted to clarify one thing though, the Bake-sale was not a contest, I was actually mistaken myself because the previous years that I had participated it was a contest, however, this year the judges decided that instead of awarding the winning Baker with a monetary gift they would give it to charity and I’m all for that so I’m super excited that I had the opportunity to participate. Not only did I bake 2 desserts, I also volunteered 3 hours to help serve and talk with our patrons who came by to eat some yummy desserts. I really had a great time and had some great conversations too!
So, many of your have sent in inquiring emails and message about how the sale went so I decided to write a follow-up article to satisfy your hungry desires to know.  We had a bunch of volunteers and we all had a great time talking and laughing together, getting to know one another and sampling the tasty treats (since we were volunteers, we didn’t have to pay). For 2 hours we served sweets and warm coffee donated by Starbucks!
My desserts were a big hit. All the Pumpkin Cream Pies Cookies were sold and the Baby Banana Cream Cupcakes received rave reviews! I even had people come back and ask for the recipe, all but 5 of them were sold and the rest I quickly gave away to the volunteers and others who had been waiting to get their hands on them! When I was finally able to take a breath and check my email, I had 3 more recipe requests from people who had been to the by the bake sale wanting my recipes. Wow, it went better than I had imagined! For all of our efforts and hard work, we were able to earn, in just 3 short hours, $500.00 to donate to charity! That’s wonderful. 

Bake-off...

So tomorrow I will be entering a Bake-Off and I’m very excited about this! For that last week I have been researching, brain storming and inventing new recipe ideas to come up with the prefect dessert for this Bake-Off and there were 3 that stood out so I narrowed it down to 2 desserts!
Today I spent a total of about 4 hours shopping, blending and mixing, baking, burning, running back to the market, remixing and then baking again until the perfect mini desserts was created!

I'm sure your dying to know what I have baked up, so without further ado, (well I’m going to post the actual recipes in our Girls In The Kitchen section) but for now here’s what I've baked!

Mini Banana Split Cupcakes:
With Banana cream cheese filling.

Pumpkin Pies: (in sprite of Thanksgiving)
With pumpkin cream cheese filling

Want Women Want

We women love our families, our children, our men; husbands and boyfriends, and even our best friend but there’s one relationship that no one can touch! Yes, that’s right I’m talking about the relationship we share with shoes! Our intimate and passionate relationship with and for shoes developed long before we could even wobble around in them. As girls we were told stories of Cinderella and her glass slipper and that was the beginning of the end for us. We learned early on that the right shoe yields the right man and thus we are crowned the “Princess”, and what little girl doesn’t want to be a “Princess”?  We’d see our Mother and Grandmother’s dressing up for work, church or just to go out and what was the one thing that we loved the most? Their beautiful shoes, and granted the makeup and outfit came in second but it was the shoes that tugged at our hearts and we longed for the day when we owned a pair of our own.

Little girls all over the world snuck into their Mother’s closets and tried on her heels, prancing around even tripping a bit. But we’d always get right back up again, determined to learn how to perfect our walk, meticulously watching each foot move in front of the other while wearing shoes 3 times too big for us!

When I was a little girl, my Mother bought me a pair of plastic dress-up Barbie “high-heels” and I wore them until the heels broke off, and then cried for another pair, or maybe I stole my sister’s pair, but then again, it’s been so long, I don’t really recall (in case my sister is reading this)!

What is it about shoes that we love so much? I think it’s the fact that no matter what you look like, no matter what body shape you have, what your age or what color hair or skin is, when you slip into a great pair of heels you are instantly transformed into a sleek, elegant, sexy, powerful and trendy women (yes, shoes can ignite all those feelings)!

The shoe is like the topping on the cupcake, the cherry, if you will. You can wear a great outfit but with the wrong shoes, why even bother! I recently read one of my favorite blogs about a girl that starts her outfit with the shoes and from there, worked her way up to the skirt or pants and the then the top she feels best suite the shoes, and if the cloths don’t seem right, they are instantly replaced with a new set but the shoes always remain the same. Interesting concept, I thought, “Pick your shoes, and then build the perfect outfit around them!”  Why not!

I personally have a shoe collection ranging anywhere from 150 -175 pairs of shoes, some of which I don’t even remember buying and some which have never even been worn but I keep them regardless because parting with them would seem, well… wrong. Most women (not all, I don’t want to put us all in a “shoe” box) have two great loves: shoes and chocolate! 

For me, when I arrive home with a new pair of shoes, it s like opening the best Christmas present that I could have ever imagined giving myself and soon that joy is followed by the familiar sound of my husbands voice asking, “Don’t you already have some shoes like that?” And of course my response is always, “What?!  No these are a lighter shade of green,” or something to that effect, but you get my drift. How can we be expected to limit our choices when shoes come in so many different styles, colors, designs, shapes, sizes and patterns and while one pair of shoes might look just “okay” with an outfit, another pair might set the tone and completely change the outcome of your day and no, I’m not being dramatic here, believe me it has happened!

From Cinderella, to Top Model to movies like Sex and The City, a womens love for shoes is apparent and very difficult to come between.  So, too all my shoe lovers out there, “Strike a pose ladies, because I feel your passion!!”

Welcoming The Newbies!!!

Well, the staff is growing and I'm proud to welcome all of our staff writes (check out their bios under the Staff Writers Tab)! I think the site is doing great, I have an interview lined up for later this month and I'm getting a lot of positive feedback from people stopping by to check out the site and what not...
I received a random email today from an independent designer wondering if I'd do a piece in one of her items that she's currently promoting! Yeah, why not, we're all in this game for the same reason right! Oh and Abby posted a new column today so check that out in Ask Abby it’s pretty good! (You go girl!)

So, I think I might take a quick break from CG for an hour or so and catch up on some personal stuff...