November 2015 | The Glam Mom

ShopSpring.com Grown Up Wish List

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Hi there,

Recently I was introduced to ShopSpring.com, a website that features more than 800 brands and offers free shipping.  I curated my own Grown Up Christmas List from the site, and it's been FUN!

I don't really NEED anything - I'm the luckiest girl in the world and I have everything I need and want, and then some.  But, it's always fun to shop around, right!?  There are so many things on the Shop Spring app I never knew I wanted!!!  So, here are just a few:






Christian Louboutin Victoria Kid Platform Pumps
I'm so cheap when it comes to shoes, so investing in Louboutin's is just not something I'm ready to do.  But, I love a simple black platform! They are sexy but still comfy.  I would love to have these in my collection.
I'm really into lip color these days.  It can make any basic makeup look just pop!  And matte finishes are really popular right now.  I've been using a lot of matte finish liquid lipsticks these days.  I'd love to splurge on one of this brand's colors.  Look at this packaging!  It's just divine! But...$90 is really out of my price range.
Basically, I'll wear anything with studs.  I LOVE this mini!  It's waaaay too expensive, but this is a WISH list, not a REALITY list :) LOL!
I love a nice handbag.  Zac Posen is a brand I've never given much thought, but when I saw this bag on the app, I fell in love! And the price is fairly reasonable.
Because...I just can't.
I love a menswear shoe for women.  These are FIRE! I would sleep in these.  There's only one pair left.  In a size 7.  I wear an 11.  I'm sad. :(
I love these keytags.  They offer so many that are super funny, like "Donut Care," "Yaaaaaaas," "Trophy Wife," "Bitch," and so on.  I want them all!
So, that's it! I wouldnt be sad if someone bought me these things for Christmas. (Can someone make sure my husband sees this, please? Thanks :) LOL! (Just Kidding. Kind of.)

Until next time,

xoxo






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Happy Thanksgiving from my new SHOPSTYLEit account and my yummy turkey!

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Hi there!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!!  I know we did!  We decided to do more of a potluck at our house this year.  Everyone made a thing or 2 and brought it over.  It made for a more relaxed holiday.  I tend to get really, really stressed about hosting events at our house - a lot of yelling occurs.  I just didn't want to be like that this time, so asking everyone to bring something made it a lot less stressful for me (and my husband because I wasn't constantly yelling at him on the verge of tears!).

My mom brought over her delish mac and cheese, a roast, a ham and some Jamaican Rice and Peas (one of my favorite things in the WORLD!) Husband's Aunt Bea brought over her yummy green bean casserole, a salad and 2 communist pies (this is an inside joke - if you weren't there, you just wouldn't understand lol!).  My sister in law brought over mashed potatoes, some AWESOME gluten and dairy free corn bread (sweet and delish - no one would EVER know!) and some cookies.  My father in law broughtt wine and his friend brought chocolate and we all ate until we couldn't eat anymore.

We all know I'm not domestic - I don't cook anything that's complicated.  So, I of course bought a pre-cooked turkey and all I had to do was warm it up.  But, I did doctor it up a bit, and let me tell you, it was SO. DAMN. GOOD.  Super simple (because that's all I can do!) - I chopped up 2 medium onions, 3 cloves of garlic and 2 celery stalks.  I stuffed half the mixture inside and the other half, I rubbed on top.  I poured half a box of chicken stock inside the turkey and the other half over the top.  I rubbed olive oil on the skin and sprinkled salt, pepper and rosemary on top and let it sit covered with foil in the refrigerator for a few hours before cooking.  It came out of the oven a super moist herby, garlicy flavor and I will definitely be doing the same thing again next year.  It was a hit!


But anyway, I wanted to tell you that I'm trying something new.  I joined the ShopStyle Collective! If you're not sure what ShopStyle is, you can read about it HERE.  Basically, it's a website that links major retailers into one site, so when you search for an item you're looking for, it will bring you results from all over the web.  That way you can do all of your shopping in one place instead of hitting up different sites.  And it's an awesome tool for bloggers like me who love to share all things beauty and fashion.

Since I've been doing so many outfit posts lately (which was never my intention, but it's been a natural progression of this blog), I thought I'd start using this site to share my fashions.  This way, I can give you direct links to everything I'm wearing, and if you want to buy something I post or something similar, you can find it much easier.  So, I'm going to start with my Thanksgiving outfit!

My dress is a simple denim dress that I picked up at Gap on the clearance rack a few weeks ago.  I paid only $16 for this dress and I love it!  It's not available on their site anymore, but I linked to one they offer now that is similar. 
And my shoes.  OMG.  They are freaking AMAZING and on sale RIGHT NOW at Lord and Taylor.  You NEED these Sam Edelman shoes in your life.  They are sexy and fun and I'm obsessed with them. 
  
So, here are the links to these items for you to shop more easily!  


Also, if you are on Instagram, you can get these links sent straight to your email!  Do this - 
1 - Sign up at SHOPSTYLE.it
2 - Click "LIKE" on any photo with #shopstyleit in the description
3 - Check your email and shop away!

That's it!  Hope you'll start using the service!  I love this site! It makes things so easy - especially shopping on Instagram.  There are so many bloggers with amazing style using this service.  You'll never have to wonder again where they got their clothes!

Until next time,

xoxo

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Guest Blog - Easy DIY Natural Home Deodorisers By Edna Thomson

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Hi there!

This blog was written by Edna Thomson. Edna is a professional writer, DIY expert and neat freak. She loves to make her own cleaning products. She runs a cleaning company in the UK called End of Tenancy Cleaners Croydon.

I love that Edna sent me an email about posting for my blog.  These ideas she suggests for natural home deodorizers is great and I just might try some myself!  Hope you find these recommendations useful.  Let me know if you decide to try any of them!

Easy DIY Natural Home Deodorisers

Photo Credit - http://findingjoyinflorida.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/orange-pomander.jpg

"Walking into a fragrant and fresh-smelling home after a hectic day at work can help you wind down, recharge and de-stress. Unfortunately, most brands of home deodorisers (plug-ins and scented candles included), sold on the market are chemical-laden, hence harmful to your health. Air fresheners seem to have taken over your entire household and office – they're in your office building's lobby, in your bathroom, living room, bedroom, car... Here's a news flash for you – these don't actually improve the quality of air in rooms they are placed in but can lead to accelerated heart rate, chronic headaches, induce asthma symptoms - just to name a few ailments they might cause. When it comes to healthy lifestyle, it's advisable to go for the natural and safe. Here are a few easy DIY natural fixes for a fresher, yet chemical-free home.

Orange and Clove
These two seem to have been made for one another. Contrary to popular belief, cloves are not used in cuisine exclusively, in fact they've been adopted as deodorises for decades, even centuries. Orange and cloves can make an excellent fragrance pomander – Victorians even used those as gifts to indicate their warm feelings towards the receiver. For one pomander you'll need an orange and about twenty to thirty cloves (depending on the citrus' size). Then just insert the sharp ends of the cloves into the orange's peel. Place it next to a warm object, a lamp for example and you're good to go. The fragrance is simply intoxicating, figuratively speaking of coarse!

Eucalyptus Deodoriser
These tropical evergreens make the perfect deodoriser, thanks to their minty, piny and somehow sweet scent. Not to mention they will help you breath more easily. What makes them so great you wonder? Eucalyptus oils are anti-bacterial and help ward off fungi and mould which on the other hand makes them perfect for freshening musty and humid places like closets. A few branches of eucalyptus are all that's required for a fresher, mould-free closet. Just place them in your wardrobe but make sure you remember to replace them with fresh ones in about a week. The oil of this evergreen also makes a wonderful furniture polisher – add two to three tbsp of essential oil in a spray bottle, fill it water, shake it and you're done.

Cotton and Vanilla
Who doesn't love the yummy scent of vanilla? I know right, it kind of makes me hungry as it reminds me of my grandma's home-made cookies. This idea is perfect for smelly refrigerators especially. What's required for this freshener's preparation? Not much actually – a few cotton balls and a small bottle of vanilla extract, you know the kind they use in bakeries and pastry shops. Dip the balls of cotton into the liquid extract and place in on several shelves in your fridge. I guarantee you'd no longer have to hold your nose when you open the fridge's door.

Lemon Peels
Lemons smell exceptionally fresh and come in handy in neutralising all types of bad smells. For instance, those coming from your fireplace. Place some lemon peels on top of the burning wood and you no longer will have to breathe in all that unpleasant smoke. Also lemons are good in eliminating nasty cat-urine odours from your puss' litter box. Cut several lemons in halves and place them all around the bathroom (supposing that's where the litter box is).

Dust and Air Regularly
This is probably the best and most natural way to eradicate all smothering odours from your home. Remember you should dust your furniture, mattresses and upholstery on regular basis. No amount of deodoriser, natural or not, will be able to reverse the damage dander, dust and allergens will do to your lungs. Each room in your house (but especially the bedroom) should be aired at least once a day, even in winter time. In summer leave the windows wide open throughout the day – supposing you don't live near a thoroughfare.

Now, the only thing that's left for you to do is go and collect all those chemical-stuffed deodorisers of yours and throw them in the garbage bin. Mother Nature knows what she's doing, there are natural substitutes to all cleaning products and deodorisers on the market are saying from SuperCleaners Croydon. Why not do yourself a favour and give them a try?"

Until next time,

xoxo



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MY BIRTHDAY!!!

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HI there!

I'm having the HARDEST time keeping up with posting in the way that I want to.  We've been SO BUSY and I have so many things I want to share, but I'm just so exhausted at the end of the day that I don't have the energy to stay up until 1am to work on this like I did when I started.  I was going to share the BUSIEST week we've had in a long time - MY BIRTHDAY WEEK!!! - in which we had something planned for every single day from Saturday through the following Sunday and how I got to dress up with full hair and makeup every day. But sharing it in that way just didn't work out.  So, I'm going to break it up and just share this for now.  
My 36th BIRTHDAY week was SO FUN!!!  We had so may things to do, from dinners to private school tours, to sporting events to parties and I loved getting to go out so much and get dressed up.  And really a few hours away form the kids is always appreciated :) 

On  Monday, November 2, quite honestly, I don't even remember what we did in the morning but I know we did SOMETHING! And this is what I wore:


I had a fashion challenge that day.  Totally Tassled.  I 
used an old Avon necklace that my 96 year old 
grandmother gave me a few years ago.  The hassle 
is molded - it doesn't actually move! 

And a photo of me with my baby boy, just because he's the awesomest. 

But in the evening, I had dinner with friends at a trendy steak house downtown called STK.  We call our little dinner crew "Jermaine and Josh".  It's a silly play on this meme -

I don't tend to be very sensitive to racial jokes and neither are my friends.  We think this is funny.  My husband is white.  My brother in law's girlfriend is black.  Our friends are everything in between and it's awesome to have such a diverse group of people to spend time with.  We decided on this name as a little joke after our first dinner.  2 Black girls, an Afro-Latina and a White girl.  It just fit and we think it's funny. (If you don't, sorry.)  

We had a lot of fun that night.  It's always fun to get dressed up and go out!  Now that the baby is over a year and drinking more milk, I feel like I can be away more often and not feel stressed about nursing him.  Thanks to my hubby for braving bedtime alone so I could go out! LOL!

My outfit that day was bomb!  I styled it very similarly to how Eloquii styled it.  (LINK)  It's a departure from how I usually dress.  I just loved the idea of the top buttoned all the way up and using the necklace as a collar.  I loved it so much I wore it almost exactly the same way just over a week later to another private school interview.  

Necklace is from Aldo
Top is from Target
Belt and Skirt are from Eloquii (link above)

PS - I have awesome friends.  











I didn't eat any of this. Ew. 




This was the dessert the restaurant gave for my birthday.  They poured hot chocolate over the solid chocolate ball and it melted to reveal strawberry ice-cream inside.  Very cool!

The food at STK was decent, but the service was a little rough.  We found out that our server was actually brand new - it was his first day after training.  That explained why our food took sooooooo long and Kelly's order of 2 sliders came out as 6 with some really expensive truffles on them, which annoyingly the manager gave to the table next to us. So rude. That table was ridic - like 6 REALLY old men with 4 or 5 younger girls, definitely in their 20's, drunkenly singing Piano Man. Ugh. Stop it.

On November 7th, I decided to throw myself a birthday party.  Just family and good friends at our house.  It almost got cancelled when, last second, #2 woke up from her nap with a freaking 101.7 fever. I didn't know what to do! Everyone we could have asked to watch her for us so the party could go on was already coming to our house! So husband drove her to the Walgreens clinic at 3 pm. The party started at 5! She ended up throwing up in the car on the way, but by the time the nurse practitioner checked her at the clinic, her temp was back to normal and she said she felt better.  She was just fine the rest of the night.  No more fever or vomit and ate just fine and had a great time, thankfully!!! The nurse practitioner said that she may have just eaten something bad. Husband gave her Coco Wheats for the first time that morning, so we assume that was what made her sick.  I would have been so sad to have to cancel the party, especially 1 hour before it was supposed to start! Thankfully, she's very good at telling us what is wrong and we could trust that she was good to party on.

I got to wear the most AWESOME cape blazer that night.  From Eloquii. I just HAD to have it!!!
I thought these pink suede heels from Nine West would be a 
fun pop of color. I've had these shoes since 2007.  
I just can't part with them.  I've also hardly worn them.  
This may be the 4th time in all those years I've actually 
worn them out of my bedroom.

Here are a few highlights from the nice evening we had.  Some friends I haven't seen in a long time were able to make it, and I was very happy to see them.  

I thought it'd be fun to have a Glam Mom cake :) 

My daughter's duck lips are ON. POINT.




This is my sister in law and my nephew.  I LOVE  
this photo!  Look at his smile!!!  He's so dang CUTE!!!

I love the look on my daughter's face as they 
helped me blow out my candles :)

My hubby is the best :)


I haven't seen these two in about 2 years, so 
I was SO GLAD they could make it! 
My niece is beautiful. 








I said I was Kim K and she was my North :)  

I was so glad to have a chance to celebrate my birthday this year.  36 is off to a good start.

Until next time!

xoxo,








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