Show Us Your Life Friday~~Fashion Tips

Today is Show Us Your Life Friday at Kelly's Korner, this week's topic is, Fashion Tips. Being a plus-size girl in a skinny girl's world is challenging to say the least, seeing as there are literally hundreds of different items to chose from if you are "normal" sized and only ten if you are plus-size poses a problem in dressing fashionable.

photo from Talbots.com

I love Talbot's because they carry the same exact styles in their woman's sizes as they do in their misses, I have always wondered why the call the plus-size sizes women's and the regular sizes misses, aren't we all women? Anyway back to Talbot's, they have a fabulous outlet section on their website and if you call the local store and have them order your items for you from the red phone your shipping is FREE!!

Sometimes I buy things at Lane Bryant but I really don't like their clothes, they are too trendy for me and the quality isn't the greatest. However, I do like their lingerie, hosiery and they carry Spanx, a girl's gotta have her Spanx, LOL!

Dillard's is another great place to shop if you are plus-size, they carry the same style of Ralph Lauren and Jones New York as the misses department and the end of season sales are AWESOME!

I have problems finding pretty shoes and boats, I wear a size 10 and most stores only get one or two pair of this size in, I would love a pair of fashion black boots but can't seem to find any with a wider calf, if you know of any place please tell me where to buy them. I found these Anne Klein loafers on Macy's.com, the are really comfortable.

I have fallen in love with scarves this winter, I found a beautiful camel colored cashmere scarf at Marshall's for $20.00, it really dresses up a plain shirt & jeans and one size fits all! And I'm a purse fanatic, big ones, small ones it doesn't matter just as long its cute, I bought this Cole Hann purse from Neiman Marcus before Christmas it was on sale for a fraction of the retail price.

I suppose my fashion advice for the plus-size girl is to only own things that fit properly and that you feel 100% good in and add a fabulous pair of shoes and a great purse!! Oh and don't forget jewerly, but that's another post all in it's self.

Tidbits

First off we have decided not to buy the bigger home but to stay here and try to pay off a few loans before we tack on such a big mortgage. I'm okay with this but I desperately need organization ideas, we have simply run out of room! If you know of any good blogs please let me know.

More and more I feel like I'm less than a person because I stay home and take care of my husband and children, today at the bank I was paying an extra payment on the principal of one of Tom's old trucks he wanted me to get the pay off amount, the teller asked me for his social security number, the account number and the amount to go on the principal, I gave her all the information then she told me that he would have to call and get the pay off because they didn't release that information to spouses whose name wasn't on the account; hello, I'm not trying to take his money I'm trying to help him! This is just one of many examples of how stay-at-home moms are discriminated against! And the next person who says to me in a sarcastic voice, "it must be nice to stay home all day", I think I'm going to smack them! Am I being overly sensitive or do other moms feel this way?

I'm redoing an old sewing cabinet for my youngest son to use as a desk, so far it's going well I will post pictures of the redo.

The weather station is predicting that we could possibly get 18-20 inches of snow this weekend! I went to the store today to stock up before the crowds hit. My children have never seen a snow this big I hope that the weatherman knows what he's talking about!

Every Friday Kelly from Kelly's Korner blog host a link party, Show Us Your Life series, this week the topic is fashion tips, I can't wait I need help in this area. We have a sweetheart dinner through Tom's work coming up next month and it's been years since I've had to dress for dinner with people who actually work for a living (insert sarcasm, LOL) I don't have a clue what to wear, any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated!

Sorry to ramble on today but it's been kinda one of those days!!

Have a good evening everyone!!

Let The Games Begin....

The house hunting games that is, we are officially looking for a new house! We have lived in our current home just a little over four years and we have run out of space! I went back to have another look at a beautiful house in a great neighborhood today and I think we may make an offer, it has 3300 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, a huge kitchen, a large bonus room, and the best thing of all is there would be room for Tom to park all of his trucks, YEAH!!! That man has a serious problem when comes to buying old trucks, he has 3 and wants to buy another one, oh well he doesn't care what I buy! The housing market in our area is a seller's market, I know that our house will sell fast so I better be sure of before I list it, the last time we moved our house sold in five days and we didn't have anywhere to go, I don't want to relive that experience anytime soon! Wish us luck, we're going to need it, LOL!!

Have a great day!!!

Be My Valentine

Jen from Tatertots and Jello is one of the most creative women in blogland, I read her blog daily and I'm inspired by the many wonderful things she does for herself and her family.

When I saw that she had made this Valentines Day wreath from cupcake liners I couldn't wait to try my hand at one.

I really wanted a heart shaped wreath but I couldn't find a foam one so I used a wire heart wreath form from the wedding supply section at Hobby Lobby (it was $1.99) I wrapped it with wired ribbon, then I folded the cupcake liners like a flower and hot glued them onto the ribbon, it was that simple and I love the finished product.

You should really check out Tatertots and Jello, she's AWESOME!!!

Weight Loss Tips

LOL, I am not the to go to for weight loss tips! Kelly's Korner is hosting Show Us Your Life Friday so I thought I would join in on the fun.

You see I have struggled with my weight all of my life, there have only been about 4 years of my life that I was a "normal" size and that was still considered big by most people's standards ( I wore a size 12-14). Now I'm wearing 18W-20W depending on the brand of clothing, I'm 5feet 9inches tall so this helps with the distribution a little.

I wake up every morning of my life starting a diet and by 9:30-10:00am I've already broken the diet. Since my thyroidectomy in August I have lost about 8 pounds just by watching a little and getting a little exercise. I firmly believe in Weight Watchers and am a card carrying member, hopefully I will get back into the groove of things and get back into a size 14(one of these days), we also have joined a gym as a family, we try to go three evenings a week to walk and play with the boys.

I guess my motto is, "Never Give Up, One Day It Just My Happen"!

On a brighter note, today is my youngest son Jonah's 9th birthday, Happy Birthday Jonah

We love you!

Haiti Relief

If you have a giving heart please go to the Red Cross website and donate to the relief effort in Haiti, I can't get these poor people off my mind, on their website there is a number that you can text the word "Haiti" to and a $10.00 donation will be billed to your cell phone bill, every dollar will help.

Family

Johnson, Papaw, Jonah

Tom's grandfather is one of the bravest, strongest, kindest men that I've known. He has survived the loss of two children, he lost all his worldly possessions in a flood, worked harder than most his whole life, he has beaten melanoma, prostate cancer and just last year spindle cell carcinoma. Sadly, the spindle cell has returned and the prognosis is grim, I'm asking that the blogging community please pray for him, his wife of 60 years (soon to be 61 years on February 6th) and our entire family. He is one of the great men that still walk among us and I truly believe in the power prayer, please say a prayer that he doesn't suffer and that he has many more days with his family.

Way Back When

Hey everyone it's way back week on Facebook, change your profile picture to one of yourself as a kid. This was my favorite birthday cake ever!! I was four years old and thought that the world couldn't get any better.

Blog Hop

If you love scrapbooking as much as I do, head on over to One Scrappin' Mama's blog and follow the blog hop for My Scrapbook Nook's giveaway, it's amazing!!!!

New Years Goals

I'm not a huge New Years Resolution fan but a blog that I read everyday, Kelly's Korner, is hosting a link party about New Years Resolutions and I thought I would join in on the fun.

The only goals that I really want to accomplish this year are:

Cook more, eat out less.

Cook only one meal at dinner, you can read about that here. Mother's of young children please take my advice don't start making your toddler something different for dinner you'll never be able to stop!!

I want to learn to knit. I have already starting working on this goal and I have taught myself to cast on, yeah me, lol!!!

I come from a long line of quilters and I would love to make a quilt for each of my sons using their receiving blankets.

I think these are obtainable goals, if I will stick with it I hope to have two quilts, a boat load of scarfs and socks, and children who finally eat what I cook for dinner not just macaroni & cheese and chicken nuggets!

Good luck with all your goals and Happy New Year!!!!!!

And The Winner Is...

With a little help from my oldest son, Johnson, a winner has been chosen, and the winner is:

Shea!!!

Please email me with your information so I can mail out your package, have a great day!!!

Thank you to all who left comments and became followers of Somerset Cottage!

Pretty Paper

I love pretty paper, wrapping paper, stationary, notecards, notebooks, etc... for today's item in the giveaway I will be adding a box of thank you cards.

I really enjoy reading your comments and can't wait until Thursday to see who wins!

Cookbooks

I read cookbooks like most people read romance novels (I read those too) I love to look at the tantalizing photographs of well prepared meals and dream of making them for my family. I recently purchased The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook and I haven't been able to put it down, the recipes are amazing, the photos make you wish you lived on a cattle farm, this book gives me a warm fuzzy feeling of being in my mother's kitchen. This morning I made her biscuits, they were fabulous, tomorrow night I'm trying the comfort meatball recipe and one day this week I'm going to make marmalade muffins, so much for trying to lose weight, LOL!! It goes without saying, but I'll tell you anyway, today's item in the box is your very own copy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks, if you already own this book give it to a friend or young married woman, I'm sure that they will love it.

Have a great evening!!!

Product of the 80's

I love makeup, especially liquid eyeliner and waterproof mascara, I'm a product of the 80's what more do I need to say! I love all the good brands but when it comes to removing my eye makeup the only thing that I will use is Avon's eye makeup remover lotion, it is by far the best that I've ever used. I will be including a bottle of this fabulous product as today's item in the giveaway box! Remember to enter with each post to win!!

I love giveaways!!!!!!

New Year~~New Giveaway

In September I did a giveaway that included something from each of my hobbies, you can read about it here. For the New Year giveaway I thought I would give you a few of my favorite things, today's item is a gift card to Subway, I think that I could eat there everyday!

To enter leave a comment each day from now through January 6th and you will be entered to win, mention my giveaway on your blog for another chance to win, all followers will be automatically entered to win, so become a follower for an extra chance! I will announce the winner on Thursday January 7th. Remember to check back each day to see what the next item will be and to enter for a chance to win!

Good luck to all and Happy New Year!!!!