WW = Jessica Simpson body???

Well I started Weight Watchers and hope to look like Jessica Simpson shorty ;)

I have several friends and co-workers who are doing it or have done it and been very successful. I need something to be held accountable to and their app makes it really easy. So, I signed up online yesterday and got my logon to the online features and my temporary in-person meeting card.

I logged all my food and I have to say I was surprised at how fast I ran out of points. Defiantly an eye opener as to how much have been eating and not realizing it.

I'm doing the full thing, online + meetings. I found a great deal via RetailMeNot, only $29.95 for your fist month. Basically, $10 off. Figured it was worth a shot for $30.

I stepped on the scale this morning and was at 161.4 lbs so we will call that my starting point. 

Here we go...

Where to even start? I took a break and didn't even tell you, sorry. I needed it.

So, the business is going well. I'm having a ton of fun with it and have some big things coming up. I'm doing a deal with LivingSocial later this month and am excited to see how that goes. Well I think I'm doing one. I got the contract today and a few things didn't sit well with me. SO I'm going to do some research before I go signing anything.

I've been selling quite a bit, but also keep BUYING more. I mean, I need new inventory! And I've been buying in larger quantities now that I'm selling out of things faster.

I am also back on the weightloss wagon as of the morning when I stepped on the scale and saw 164.2 starring me in the face. I went off the rails this weekend. I ate and ate and ate and washed it all down with leftover birthday cake.

I've got NINE weeks until we go on Cruisecation 2014. I want to loose 20 lbs. making it a 2-3 lb loss a week. That's doable AND healthy.

I toyed around with signing up for Weight Watchers but can't bring myself to pay the monthly fee. So, I'm falling back on a diet I did years ago and had much success. Success in loosing weight, success in staying on it and success in eating healthy. It's called Lean for Life and I really like it. Its a great mix of just eating healthy and also making sure you eat often to get/keep your metabolism going.

I'm on day one. Day one - three are protein days. I find comfort in this. I know that works for me and will get some of my recent binge eating weight gain back off so I'll feel comfortable in my work pants again.

So here we go, again.  

Frugal Friday - Organization

Ok so we all know I have a serious jewelry addiction, straight up junkie style. For real.

When I become obsessive about things and the collection gets out of control, I feel like I have to compensate by organizing it so it doesn't seem that bad.

I've been trying to find a solution for jewelry storage for years now. I have a monster jewelry box that I've out grown and honestly, when things are packed away in there, I don't remember I have them and don't wear them. Crying shame.

I used these craft containers for years and organized earrings by color and then used the monster jewelry box for necklaces and bracelets. It worked ok, but not ideal.

I now use these for my mobile Edith Marie Jewelry store :)

I had one of those hanging organizers that I kept my most frequently worn items in and also used it when I traveled. Each compartment zips so I like that they did fall out all over my suitcase.

After my last trip is when it hit me, why don't I put all my earring in these. I like them, they hang in the closet and easy to see all the goods at once.

I came across some on sale at Dress Barn around the holidays and got two. Well lets be honest, that wasn't enough. So I went to Amazon to look for some cheaper ones. I found these - they don't zip but I don't mind that too much because they are just to hang in the closet. But if you want some that zip, here's a version.

They also sell cute ones in fun patterns at places like TJ Maxx and Marshall's but they are generally $20ish.

And for necklaces, I use the hanger racks that are for belts. I found this hanger at TJ Maxx for $5. And here's a quick Amazon search for them will all different options and price points. 

Detoxing gone wrong

First - I was SO good all week. Followed it all to a t and felt great. GREAT. A little hungry, but my stomach has never been so flat. And then, then Friday rolled around and I decided to take a quick overnight trip to the beach to visit a friend while the hubs was out of town and the in-laws offered to watch Mr. Mister.

Beach bungalow for the night!

That's when the de just fell right of the tox. Tacos for dinner with all the cheese and sour cream a girl could want. Then breakfast was full on dinner style with an eggs, cheese, bacon and 4 cups of coffee with LOADS of cream and splenda.

Here's a photo dump/recap of the weekend. Because we all know it's way more fun to look a photos than read about it:

Bike ride after breakfast, yay for exercise! 

More coffee for the ride home. 

Toddler birthday party in the afternoon. 

Sunday chores ;)

Successful closet purging. 

I had all intentions of getting back on the wagon Monday and then today, BUT, all my playing this weekend left me unprepared. Fail to plan, plan to fail. Truth.

I also had dinner with some friends Saturday night and ate Mexican again (yikes!) and one of my friends has done Weight Watchers and lost about 25 lbs and is looking amazing. So of course in my head I'm all, I need to do that! Forget this detox, I'll just do that. What is wrong with me? Always chasing the next best diet. And I KNOW that's not what I need to do.

Yo-yo dieter for life!

Frugal Friday - Kardashian edition

Love them? Hate them? Either way you can't deny they are marketing geniuses.

I love them. Maybe its our love of all things leopard or maybe I just love to watch them. In all honestly, I don't think we could be friends in real life, well maybe me and Kourt. 

But anyway, this is about their clothing line at Sears. Um, they have some cute stuff and prices are reasonable. Here are some of my favorites:

The best part was coming across this skirt and thinking it was a strong second for the $85 Ann Taylor look-a-like.

Who pays that much for a skirt? 

I haven't actually put my hands on any of this and have no idea what quality or fit is like. But I'm hoping I can make it to Sears this weekend to check it out. 

You can link to the entire collection online here. And you know I wouldn't let you down and not have a coupon code for you. Looks like you get 15% off all of Feb with FEB15.

P.S. I just noticed they will have a clothing line at Babies R Us soon, oh I can only imagine! Leather and leopard for the little ones, yes please!

P.P.S. Jump over to fashion blogger Because Shanna Said So and enter to win one of my EMJ jewelry pieces. You can also see how she styled the Diana necklace, stunning! 

Detoxing

I thought it would be a good idea to start that Dr. Oz two week detox diet over the weekend. Being home all day yesterday was haaard. I wanted to eat everything in the pantry.  But I stayed strong and am excited to see my results.

I looked at Holly's before and after photos a few times for some motivation to stick with it. Well that and I spent a shit load at the grocery store on all this detox food. Speaking of, she made it easy with a grocery list that can be found here. I saved the images on my phone to make shopping super easy.

Way more veggies than I normally buy, sad, but true. 

So far, I'm already not a fan of the morning protein shake. I thought I would be because of all the fruit, but either the protein powder or the ground flaxseeds makes it not enjoyable for me.

I also got chocolate flavored protein powder so I'm thinking that may have been a bad decision and wish I got vanilla. They were out tough and I'm not paying another $20 for that stuff.

I weighed in before I started and was at 159. I'm hoping to get into the low 150s with this and break the 157 mark. 157 is the lowest I've gotten so far and it would feel amazing to get below that. And that, that is what is keeping me motivate.

Alright already, a Wednesday Weigh-in

I said I was going to get back on the wagon and talk about weight loss and fitness.

So to kick things off, Wednesday weigh-in <<< drumroll please >>> 157.6.

I've been low-carbing it since Monday and want to eat ALL the carbs right now, but seeing that number on the scale made it somewhat worth it and brought some motivation back.

My goal number for this cruise is 142. I have no idea why, but it's the number I picked and seems doable. I mean, really, that's less than 16 lbs in 16+ weeks.

But my real goal, is to tone this flabby ass body up. I'd even be happy with a firm and solid 150. I'm not 100% sure what my workout plan is right now. I'd love to be a member of the 5 a.m. club and hit the gym, but, well, I like to sleep.

For now, I'm going to be doing some at home workouts that I'll make up and try to remember some circuits from my gym bootcamp days. Man, those were the days.

Back at it

How in the world does the work week come so fast? I mean, it was JUST Friday.

Productive weekend of doing nothing. We finally had a gorgeous day Sunday and I took Mr. Mister for a walk with the pup. I must have been crazy, those two, by myself, yikes.

Wanna race?

I did some household cleaning, thought about going grocery shopping, but didn't. I've been considering doing the Dr. Oz's Two Week Rapid Weight Loss Challenge that Holly did. She had GREAT results.

But I haven't brought myself to going and buying groceries to prep for it. She even made it easy with a grocery list and I still haven't managed. I'm a little underwhelmed with the vegetable list. Truth be told, I'm not much of a veggie lover.

But, 10 lbs, in 2 weeks?! The yo-yo fad dieter in me is all over that. I'm curious to see how Holly does keeping it off. We are soul sisters in the loosing and gaining the same damn 10 lbs game of life.

BUT here's where the extra dose of motivation comes in, girls cruise in May! I know, can you believe it? My college BFF has planned a trip for 3 of us. I'm so freaking excited. Just a short 3-dayer for Memorial Day weekend to the Bahamas.

That's our ship, I'll be at the pool or bar if you need me!

We're going on Princess Cruises, anyone gone on them before? I'm excited to see what it's like and enjoy some fun in the sun! Feel free to pass along any tips, I love a good insider scoop :)

Frugal Friday

First of all, really? REALLY? No takers on the giveaway? I have stats on this thing and know I have readers, but no one wanted to enter? Oh well, just add it back to the inventory.

Second, a fashion blogger I follow, Lauren form Walking in Memphis in High Heals has a post up with some of her favorite pics from Newport News and Spiegel.

I had COMPLETELY forgotten about these two places, super cute stuff and reasonable prices. Go checkout her post and see the goodies she found.

Hope you all have a good weekend, we're still digging ourselves out of the snow. I sure hope it warms up and melts away on it own today.

Snow day round 2, he loves to fall down in it :)

 

Monday, Monday & a GIVEAWAY!

Weekend was super busy. We went out of town to attend my niece's SECOND birthday. Feels like yesterday I got the call that she had decided to make her entrance into the world.

I worked half a day on Friday and then headed off to get my stitches out and face Dr. Galzier for the first time since all my ridiculous emails and phone calls. 

He was totally cool about it and told me he was impressed with my photo skills. Um, thanks. I'm good at slefies, what can I say?!

Stitches came out and all looked good despite my worrying and thinking that it was all going wrong. 

I then drove to pick the hubs up from snowboarding. He left early Friday morning for a day trip with a buddy. Tough life he lives ;) 

I got lost and drove about an hour out of the way. But still got there before they were finished and got to soak in some of the VA beauty on the backboards as I was lost.

And then we drove the rest of the 3 hours together to Abingdon, VA. We got stuck in the parking lot of I-81 due to an accident. We made the best of it and played Heads Up. I'm pretty much awesome at giving clues, not so much guessing and he's just the opposite. Great team so long as we don't have to change roles. 

The great thing was that Mr. Mister went with my in-laws so at lest we didn't have a screaming toddler in the car with us on the drive out there. 

He did have a great time at the party on Saturday. Loved all the toys she got, but really LOVED the Mini Mouse shopping cart. He pushed that thing around for a solid hour. And then took a great nap, score! 

All the photos of him are blurry. He never stops moving.

The best part of making the trip out there is to see the two of them play together. Here they are 'resting' and trying to swindle their way out of nap time.

I also finished the shoe organization project in the closet. I picked up more supplies but got the wrong shelf. Can you spot the difference? I can, every time I walk in the closet. It bugs the heck out of me. Oh well, at least it's done.

I thought I'd be announcing the giveaway winner, but no one but me (I did one for a test) entered, what the heck? So lets try this again. Giveaway below, I'll keep it open all week until Thursday at midnight and announce the winner Friday!

I'm also changing the prize, the Two Broke Girls necklaces seem to the most popular so far, so I'll give one away!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Frugal Friday & a Giveaway

I'm cheating and using my store grand-opening I wrote about yesterday as my Frugal Friday post.

BUT not to disappoint you, I'm tossing in a GIVEAWAY!!!

So remember when I wrote this Frugal Friday post back in November and gave you some options to find look-a-likes of the Kendra Scott Harlow Statement Necklace???

Well it's your lucky day because I carry one and you can now win it! Use the Rafflecopter below to enter!

The Betty. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sparkle and Shine

I should wait and post this for Frugal Friday, but I can't keep a secret... I've got big news you guys! I FINALLY figured out what I want to do when I grow up.

People always say find your passion and then go for it. Well, unless they have started paying for shopping and watching smut reality TV, I'm not too sure how I'd make a living doing what I love. 

At least that's what I thought until it hit me. I love to shop. I love a good bargain. I love me some jewelry. And BAM - I'll open up an online jewelry store with amazing jewelry for the frugal and fabulous.

I've been working on this for months now, and am excited to show you guys my store: Edith Marie Jewelry

Basically I've tracked down some amazing deals from wholesalers and am passing along the good prices. Fabulous jewelry all! I have all the items in inventory and ship them out as soon as your order comes in. No waiting weeks for it! 

Here's a sampling of a few of my favorites:

$7.50!

$8.99!

$4.50!

$8.99 and comes in 3 colors!

$8.50 and comes in 2 colors!

LOVE these! $4.99 and 6 colors!

Little more at $15.99 BUT its beautiful and worth it! 

$4.50 and 2 colors!

But who am I kidding, I love everything on the site so go check it all out. I'm also adding stuff almost daily so be sure to follow the store on Facebook and Instagram to keep an eye on new arrivals.

Wondering about the name? So I had lots of ideas. Most were super cheesy and involved the words like bobbles, sparkle, shine, jewelry box, etc. But then I thought about some of the most successful stores and brands and they are simply names.

So, it is named after the two women in my life that I've been told I get my love of gaudy jewelry from: my great grandmother and grandmother on my dad's side. Those ladies had some jewelry and knew how to wear it!

So come on all my jewelry addicts, go check it out. And, you know I love a good coupon code, so just for you all, use the code MILF for an extra 20% off!

Shoes for days and a RUN!

Three-day weekends are the best. The best. 

I took advantage of the extra day by not doing a single thing all weekend and then took on a big organizational project Monday. 

I have so many shoes. I didn't even realize how many I had until yesterday. They are tucked away all over the place an piles up in the floor in our bedroom, the living room and by the front door. 

I decided to try and get them organized and all in one place so we bought the Rubbermaid shoe racks to go in our closet. It's only half way done, but I love it and so far, 20 pairs are now up and organized.

These are mostly shoes I don't wear that often and will need a step stool when I want to get one down. 

Ta-da:

Also, I came out of my running retirement to run for Meg and I couldn't be more honored. It's one of those tragic stories that tugs at your heart strings. I tear up every time I see a new #megsmiles post. I just can't shake it.

Frugal Friday

I am a jewelry junkie like no other. No other. 

I love that it fits no matter what size you are or how many cupcakes you ate at the office luncheon. 

It can often be a conversation starter and a way to show your style. It quickly dresses up an outfit and makes it look like you have your shit together. 

I have so much jewelry. It's embarrassing. I'm even working on turning my love of all things sparkly and shinny into a business, more on that later. 

But for now, we are going to talk about one of my favorite places to buy jewelry. Burlington Coat Factory! 

I know, not the first place you'd think of but they carry some amazing stuff and it's all ridiculously cheap. Earrings are usually around $5 and necklaces are $8-10.

I went yesterday at lunch and took a few photos of what they have right now so here's some eye candy for you... 

They also cary a good bit online, but then you have to pay for shipping unless you spend more than $75, and that's a lot of jewelry! 

Hey, it's me again

So basically I've become the crazy high-maintenance patient all doctors hope they don't get. I have called and/or emailed my dentist no less than 6 times in 3-days. I bet someone is regretting, 'here's my contact info, call or email me if you need anything at all."

He's been totally cool about it, but I KNOW he's rolling his eyes when he sees my number or email come up.

Ya'll I send emails with photos attached of what the new problem is. Straight crazy. Do you know how hard it is to take a photo of a tooth in your mouth?! Hard, but thanks to all my inquiries, I'd say I have perfected it. 

I've tried to coat my craziness with humor, but I think it's lost on him. For example, I signed one email something like, "Your high-maintenance patient, Amber" and no reference back to it in his email. None at all. 

And my last email was, "Hi, me again. Few more questions, go figure. " To which he called me. He's probably all, "Oh gez, let me call this crazy so my email ding stops going off on my phone."

But whatever, I can be a little crazy. You pulled a tooth out of my mouth and some of my stitches came out. How am I suppose to not freak out!? 

In other news, I've decided to start talking about weight loss again. Yay. Here's the deal, real talk: I have not run in over a month. The last time I ran was the BCS Half Marathon. I took retirement seriously. A little too much. Now I feel like an out-of-shape-lethargic mess. 

So let's face it, I need to get this body moving agian and plan to run 2 miles a day, 5 days a week. I also want to add weight training. I'd like to do this 3 times a week. The big goal is to join the 5 a.m. club the days the Hubs is home in the mornings and hit the gym for a good hour-long workout. 

And most importantly, I'm giving the clean eating thing a try. I know myself, I wont be 100% clean, but I'm shooting for 80% 

So here are my stats as of this morning-

Weight - 160.2 

Pant size - A comfortable 10. Not too tight and def not loose. 

Here we go!