Page 152

Living

{My Black is Beautiful} No Apologies or Explanations Shall Be Given

I am a Niche Parent Network & Conference influencer and received compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

I hear my own drummer, my body is often in a room while my mind is on the other side of town, my picnics are often short a sandwich.

This is me, Mimi. Take it or leave it is what it shall be.

My mind is always in perpetual motion. While someone is talking to me my mind may be on what’s for dinner or my grocery list. I have found myself struggling with simple tasks trying to reason and go against my nature in completing things to make them acceptable to others. I’ve always been aware that I have my own way of doing things that perplexes others, and in failed gestures to make others more comfortable with MY actions I adjusted them.

Those days are gone. That ship has sailed, it has approached the horizon and is no longer visible. Squint if you must, it’s not there.

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DIY• Home

{Laundry Room Makeover} Wallpaper Lined Cabinet

It’s hard to believe that on July 31, we will have been in this house for a year. For those who have been reading for awhile, if you can recall the whole process really consumed me and I am again thankful for blogging as it provides the opportunity to go back and see areas of struggle and triumph. Oversharing has its privileges.

If you are new here, and want to be nosey feel free to go back and see what all of the drama was about. Click here.

Prior to moving in I had all of these grand ideas of changes I would be making immediately. People kept telling me live in the house a year before making any changes. Give yourself a chance to feel the house out, they said.

I brushed them off, nonsense. Clearly they weren’t looking at this

I had grand plans of coming in here and getting to work. Wouldn’t you know a whole year has passed and not a piece of bedroom furniture, nor a kitchen table have been purchased. My intentions were real good but the reality is the majority of my grand ideas are still hanging from “pins” on the virtual corkboard that is Pinterest.

Welp, looks like I in advertently took their advice and I’m glad I did, but it is time to get to work tackling some of the smaller projects….like finishing the laundry room.

When I started on the laundry room one of my favorite people handed down a bit of wallpaper that she had left over from when she had her dining room done. It wasn’t a lot but enough to line the back of of the cabinet shelves. At the time I hadn’t started refinishing the cabinets so I wasn’t sure if it would get used. After deciding to go with the wallpaper lined cabinet in place of returning two of the doors it only took me six months to get the paper up. I’m glad I decided to leave them off.

Here is another before during the painting process:

Here is the after.

After carefully measuring the space, and that wasn’t easy I applied Mod Podge to the back of the wall paper and applied to the cabinet making sure to wipe out any bubbles. That took a little effort but after I did the first one I was on a roll.

I am pleased. I still have to do a little more decorating to do to the shelves. I’ll be back with an update when I’m done.

I recently read something on a décor blog that stated in summary, our homes are ever evolving and the beauty comes in completing small projects and over time seeing the spaces become those that we love. I concur.

What do you think?

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Fashion• Mama Style

{Outfit of the Day} Showing a Lil’ Leg with Jean Shorts

My husband’s birthday was yesterday and we spent it doing what the children wanted to do. They truly believed he wanted to bowl on his birthday.

I kept it what I like to call “chic casual”. My tummy and love handles need a bit of… we’ll say attention, so I don’t care to just throw them out there with a fitted tee without a little camouflaging.

Jacket: Forever 21 Shorts: Kohl’s (Jennifer Lopez) Fashionista Tee: Gifted Shoes: Manolo Blahnik Clutch: Thrifted

Linking up with:

Monday Mingle

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Children• Health

{#FreshNaturally} Banishing Pre-Teen Underarm Funk with Tom’s of Maine

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CollectiveBias #FreshNaturally

The saying they grow so fast when referring to children is nothing but the pure unadulterated truth. A few months ago my son got in the car from school and it immediately smelled….let’s say not so fresh in the car. It didn’t dawn on me until we got home that at the young age of 7 it was time for him to start wearing a long-lasting deodorant, or anti-perspirant.

I wanted to cry from the fact that my sweet baby boy, my first born was moving on to a new stage in his life, and a few tears were also shed when I asked him to lift his arm so that I could make sure that it was his pits and not some onion stench left on my hand from chopping vegetables for dinner.

It was the prior.

Immediately I told his father to speak with him about his new daily task while my mind started to think of some of the bad things I heard were included in main stream deodorants.

Bad things like:

Aluminum: Absorption into the skin has been linked to various forms of cancer

Parabens: Found in a variety of the products we use has known to disrupt hormonal balances and trigger early puberty in both sexes.

Anything to not speed up the onset of puberty in pre-teens is a lifesaver ~~for both parties~~ in my book.

While I don’t consider myself “crunchy” by a long shot, the more I educate myself on the foods we eat and the products we put on our bodies I am certainly becoming more conscience about what I feed and put on my children. I figure if I teach them early they will consider these things the norm, instead of scrambling to change their lifestyles later on in life like we are having to do.

I live in an area where we don’t really have access to a ton of stores that carry natural beauty products. I grab what we need when I am in the city but often times it seems a little over priced so I am glad to see Amazon carrying Tom’s of Maine products so that I can easily order and have our new family essential item on our doorstep in a matter of days. The switch was not just for him but for all of us and I was able to order a multipack in Fresh Apricot.

Within a few days our package came

That was the easy part. Now the hard part is making sure he remembers to put it on daily.

What age did you start wearing deodorant? I feel like I didn’t start this early. Are you becoming more aware of what you are feeding and putting on yourself and your children?

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