So you guys know then that I’m really trying hard to look my best I can for our upcoming swimsuit season.  There was a point several years ago when I was SO dialed in, worked out all the time, even had a personal trainer (not a requirement to do this, mind you!) , and had laser beam focus on my food choices.  So much so that I remember my daughter saying, “yeah… mom doesn’t eat pizza.”  Now, I’m thinking that probably wasn’t the BEST example, but trust me, she has seen me eat my share of pizza now!

So what to do?  I decided to print out a pic of myself when I looked “good” and put up in my kitchen as a reminder of what I’m striving for.

Here’s a pic I’m sharing with you….  not the same one of me I put up on my fridge, but you get the drift.  I will say, side note, some pros to being this weight, some cons.  The biggest con, I lose all my “female endowedness”.  I don’t necessarily want to be as thin as that, but the goal is there let’s just say.  That was also 8 years ago mind you.  I’ve aged since then {{my justy!}}

I used to be a Weight Watchers leader long ago, and boy it does feel like a lifetime ago.  But this was something I always taught my members.  Have some kind of reminder out where you can see what it is you are trying to achieve.  It doesn’t have to be a picture of yourself, especially if it doesn’t exist.  But having SOMETHING as a reminder will always keep you focused.  If it’s a picture of what you want to physically achieve, all the better.  In my case, that is what I’m going for.

I had this scheduled as my post for today, and it tickled me pink when one of my dear friends posted an older pic of herself on FB as a reminder for her.  {{great minds think alike I always say!}}  It’s about keeping our vision in FRONT of us.  We are moving toward what we consistently see.  So if I can see myself fit and in physical shape that I’m happy with, hopefully it will be a reminder of what I’m trying to achieve.  And it will have an effect on the choices I make in food, drink and exercise.

Add to that, I turned on the tv this morning and coincidentally, I hear Joel Osteen preaching a great thing.  He said, if you see it, you’re moving towards it. If you can’t see your vision, you’re not moving towards it.  Keep your vision in front of you.  And that’s what I’m doing.

1.  I recently became the owner of a new vehicle, and part of the deal is one year of free Sirius XM radio.  I never listen to any one set thing, let alone pay for a service when we have free radio OR I’m on the phone in the car.  This has been a real treat and lots of fun! So…  My new favorite station that I can’t get enough of?

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Featuring the ORIGINAL VJs from MTV when it all began!  Isn’t that freaking AWESOME???  So this dates me.  OK.  I’m OK with that.  My kids have NO idea what I’m jamming to when they hear me singing The Reflex or Promises Promises or Shout.  That’s ok.  They’ll get it someday.  {wink}

2.  This will be me soon…

Planning on making amazing memories there with my family.

3.  I’m a late bloomer, but at least I’m blooming.  I’ve just gotten turned on recently to this…

Follow me HERE to see what I capture and find interesting, funny, beautiful, intriguing, entertaining, lovely… and then some.

4.  Tonight was the end of a decade of this….

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I’m admitting to shedding some tears.  The ending was beautifully done.  In such a bittersweet way.  Reminds me when Friends and Seinfeld ended…  Do you remember?

5.  Andy Bernard from the office said this poignant line which REALLY brought tears to my eyes…  (After reading, please refer to #1)

Sending you smooches and hugs and wishes for an amaaaazing weekend!

Love you guys bunches!

and she had a revelation that it can be used on regular nail polish.  So I thought lemme give it a try!

Here’s what I used from the kit and NOT from the kit…  The Sally Hansen light, the Sally Hansen top coat.  The base coat and the nail polish were just regular nail items.  Nothing fancy about them.

I painted my nails first with base coat, then 2 coats of polish, and then topped it with this from the kit.

That was the TOP coat.  Once I did, I placed each finger under the light and turned it on, and went through doing that for each finger.

… didn’t that pic turn out funny??!!  That purple glow is from the light!  HA!

Finally, wipe each nail with a cotton ball or a wipe with alcohol on it.

And the final look….

Looks professional to me!  I’ll keep you updated on how long they last.  But for now, knowing how easy this was, how great they look, I’d say it’s a repeat!

Here’s what you need…

Pork baby back ribs

Olive Oil

Fresh Lemon

Jane’s Crazy Mixed Up Salt

Cavenders

Garlic Powder

I first season the underside, then flip it over and do the top, and stick it in the oven like this.  I do not use oregano as most Greeks do for this particular recipe just because the Cavenders has some oregano plus a blend of other great seasonings that gives it a wonderful flavor that isn’t so strong as the plain oregano is.

Throw it in the oven at 425 for about an hour… eyeball it.  I hate to say, that’s how I do most of my cooking… very little measuring, all eyeballing.

The finished product…

Seriously finger lickin good.  I had 2 slabs that I cut up to fit into my pan.

Let me know if you try it!  Your family will be lovin you!

Here’s a great little outfit for a luncheon, a shopping day, a shower… something that can be worn to lot’s of places…

Some might wear this little top without a belt as a dress, but I’m thinking it’s a bit short on me.  So I paired it with my knee-length leggings.

I paired it with a gold chain belt, nude shoes that are my fave and a colorful purse.

Having unique things is one of my traits, and even though I love nude shoes, I’m not crazy that everyone has virtually the same nude pump.  That’s why I fell in love with these patent nude booties.  What you can’t tell in this picture is that there is clear mesh in between all the zig zag cut outs.

I love my bag to stand out in color from the rest of my outfits.  Hence the pink.  Pick any color you want.  I picked pink for this one.  If you see me bee-boppin around town, chances are you’ll see me with some bright or off colored purse.  Very rarely will I wear a logo bag or a solid color black or brown “neutral” (unless it’s that black with gold zipper Love Moschino one that is one of my ultimate faves).

It was a bad hair day, so I did my pony that I talked about here.  Recognize it?

Top (similar) / Leggings (similar) / Shoes (similar) / Bag (another pink one) / Belt (similar)

and THAT RING that so many have asked me about…  I need to post on that… more to come later this week on that matter!

There is an amazing app called Lose It!  I know there are many weight loss/calorie counting apps out there, but I’ve been familiar with this one for at least 2 years.  I can basically select my goal weight, a date in which I want to have achieved my goal by, and it will calculate how many calories I’m allowed per day.  There I can journal my food and activity level, and it tells me how many more calories I can eat, how much I’m over, how many calories I’ve burned to count towards my daily intake.  I can add my own foods, select from a huge data base of restaurant items, store brand items, or even scan a bar code and it will add it into its data base.  LOVE that!  Seriously the easiest thing to use ever!  And it syncs with your computer so you can use it on your phone, tablet and computer.  I swear it is the most user friendly thing I’ve seen, and I tend to be a little OCD when it comes to this stuff, so I do my homework, and for me, this is SUPER easy to use.

I love it and I’ve used it in the past, and then stopped.  I’ve been yo-yoing up and down I’d say 5 – 8 lbs since last fall, and it has gotten me SO down.  As much as I try to stay focused, the environment in which I live isn’t so conducive to being on purpose on losing weight (or in my case, not GAINING weight).  So my life is extra challenging.  This I think has helped me lots!  I started mid last week and I feel great having this little tool and having it as my accountability partner.

I don’t know what it is about winter that we all seem to have this yo-yo thing going on and that’s when we tend to put on a few pounds.  Is it because we can hid in our FURS? or extra layers of clothing, sweaters, big loose blousy tops?  Yes, yes, yes, and YES!

Here is what I know for sure…. if I have to write it down, I’ll think twice before putting it in my mouth.  So it makes me think before I eat.  Smart huh?  Seriously, the biggest impact on dieting is a form of journaling.  And this is a great app to help with that.

Another thought to ponder…  if we allow ourselves to gain 3 lbs per year (and that is on the low side… considering holidays, vacations, celebrations), then in 10 years we will have gained 30 lbs.  Not a lovely site!

Yeah… I need to lose it!  I’ll keep you guys posted on my progress.  If there is anyone that wants to chime in on this and do this with me, let’s DO it!  Seriously!  We don’t have to lose the same amount of weight, have the same goals at all, but the fact that we are keeping some accountability with someone that we are keeping on focus, whether it’s being more OP on our food intake, and/or excersizing more, anyone want to do this with me?  Just to say HEY!  I DID MY APP TODAY!

Let me know… if anyone else wants to LOSE IT before summer is officially here!

1.  I’m getting some laser beam focus.  And am SO happy I’m getting it back.  More to come on Monday {{wink}}!

2.  Do you remember my mud room?  If you haven’t seen it, you can view it HERE.  Well, I thought I’d carry on the look into the home, so I ordered THIS

to replace THIS

so the view is MUCH more sparkly and bright leading into my lovely pink palace of storage goodness.  The look will somewhat flow since it’s a smaller version of what I have in the mud room, and it was a GREAT price.  Lowe’s!  Plus with my ebates, it was a simple decision to make!   I’ll keep you posted on how it looks when it gets in.

4.  I’m sooooooooo happy and excited to announce that ONLINE SHOPPING is now UP AND RUNNING for this sweet new brand.

Honestly Margo Lip Balms.

The YUMMIEST ever lip balms you’ve EVER tried.  Seriously!  I’m not saying it because the creator of the company lived 12 years ago inside my belly!  If you want to try them, and you don’t live where they’re available in a retail location, you can NOW GET IT ONLINE (and she’s doing free shipping too!).   And if you want to see where you can find them in a store, you can find it on our new site.  Can I share a pic of the two of us?  Just because I’m a proud mama? {HUGE GRIN!}

3.  I have to pat myself on the back.  I feel like I’m going thru a period of “self discovery” and doing things I would have never thought I’d do.  I just created the Honestly Margo website, and I did it in a week.   It may not be as spectacular as it could have been had I hired someone professional or snazzy or creative as it could have been, but we are brand new, and I am trying to be smart about how we’re spending our money.  So for just being out, I thought this could work.  And when this little baby hits it big time, then we’ll spend the big big bucks on the site! HA!  But for now, I am kinda proud of the hard work I put into it.  That’s all!

4.  I’m tired.

5.  I’m REEEEAALLY tired!

muuuuuuuuuaaaaah! Sending you much love!  Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do this weekend!

I watched it over and over again and it was one of the most beautiful videos I had seen.  So when I recently made my way to Blake’s store for an appointment, my jaw dropped even more when I saw his very cool shop in person.  As interior designer and fashion lover, he created Rakota Remington to be a hidden gem in the Oklahoma City area everyone needs to hear about.

(notice the antlers??? … wink!!)

He thinks of his style as electric royal boho.  Isn’t that the coolest thing ever?  I think lines he carries and the feel of whole shop really is all very eclectic, with labels that you can’t find anywhere else in the city.  With looks that go from day to night, you know that no one else in the room will be wearing the same thing.  Some of the designers you’ll find in his shop are Nicole Ritchie’s line Winter Kate, Whitney Eve, ani lee, illesteva sunglasses, Dareen Hakim bags just to name a few.  If you check out his things, you’ll see that they have been worn by many of Hollywood’s A-listers.  Um…. HELLO????  Aren’t WE good enough for that?? YES!!!  So LET’s GO SHOPPING!

Take a look around…

The fitting room… isn’t it beautiful too???

This is the ani lee dress Selena Gomez wore for a Pre-Oscar party.

I love all the natural elements Blake uses for display.

Part of the decor that I LOVE…more antlers!

Loving this little short leather number I just held up to myself.

Of course, I had to pick up a few pieces to take home with me….  How could I resist?

Go tell Blake I sent you… you’ll thank me after you see his beautiful things!

So lately, I’ve been wearing my hair like this, although the whole  bang thing is a bugger…  and being that I have these Greek bushy eyebrows that must be maintained on a very strict basis by the wonderful Linda, the bangs mess with the brows.  Not a pretty sight to see the brows all ruffled by the bangs…. whew!  That was a tongue twister!…  So I tend to pin mine back…

(that’s a crop of my head of a pic you’ll see in an upcoming fashion post.  And ponytail shots are rarely great head on!)

Here are some other’s I spotted that looked pretty great I thought you’d like too.

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Two of our lovely Jennifer Aniston.

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Another thing I will say I love about this look is that it can be casual, perfect for a windy day out at a soccer game (which has been my story lately) or running around, OR great dressed up to show some fabby earrings.

And really, especially with summer around the corner, putting my hair back feels SO refreshing!

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I think antlers is next on my WANT list for my home.  I have no idea yet where I’ll place them, but we can manage to find a spot.  What do you think?

Also, on the same note…. hold this thought… there is a shop that has some amazing things I can’t wait to share with you, and one of the things is the pretty awesome decor… and guess what he has in there…. {wink!}!

Stay tuned!