Here’s A Quick Way to Have a Purse You Can Be Proud Of – MILK it!

No I’m not talking about spending a fortune on the latest IT Bag.  Anyone who knows me knows I wouldn’t drop major coin on this beautiful Prada purse.  But yes, I love it!  I’m talking about the INSIDE organization of your purse.

I found it embarrasing after a while to open my purse and have to dig through everything to find my wallet or keys or my singing cell phone.  I also noticed that people will look inside your purse when you open it.  I guess we’re all just fascinated with what others carry around with them.

Have you weighed your purse lately?  I’ve had 2 shoulder surgeries now and wonder if my purse, and the weight of it didn’t aggravate the condition.  Let’s face it, if you’re a suburban lady running around in your car most of the day, shouldn’t you just store all that stuff in a nice place in your car?  I’ve learned to keep extra make-up – mascara and lipstick -hand sanitizer and tissues, gum, kids Legos, paperback novels, etc. in my car in their own little compartments.

I very often go back to this saying that a friend used many years ago, “Just don’t forget the MILK.”  Huh?  Yes M for Money (credit cards, what you pay with), I for Iphone and ID, L for Lipstick, K for Keys.  And really, if I have all that I should be fine.  If I switch purses to go out in the evening, once in a blue moon, this always runs through my head, M-I-L-K, “Don’t forget the MILK” , money, iphone, ID, lipstick, keys.

So maybe when shopping for my spring purse I can KISS – keep it simple sweetheart – and choose a smaller lighter bag to keep organized in.  Here are some fun shopping sites for purses,thefind.com,handbags.bz, zappos.com and like.com

Bring the magic of Bedtime Stories into your house

Bring the magic of the movie Bedtime Stories into your house with “The DreamStarter Book.”  I took my boys to see this movie and we laughed all the way through.  But what really struck me was that this was what the author of The DreamStarter book was trying to create.  With her book of 50 different story beginnings your child can weave their own magical world.  Jennifer Karin Sidford has written the beginning of fifty tales, each crafted to whet children’s interest and encourage creative thinking. Simply read a story starter to a child and watch the magic as he or she shapes a whole world of possibilities. Kids can either finish the story orally, or they can write their stories down.  Try this book to let your own magical journeys begin.  Psst, if you go to the website you can download a free DreamStarters game by clicking here.

1400 Calories a Day to Lose a Pound a Week

Weight loss season has officially begun. Have you tried to get parking at your local GYM lately?  Everyone has the same New Year’s Resolution it seems.  This year I decided I was going to jump on that bandwagon too. I might as well get rid of those extra pounds rather than get used to them!  I decided if I was going to have a resolution to lose weight I had to have a goal, a plan and a way to measure my progress.  Typically when watching my weight I stick to a formula that I learned ages ago.  Eat 300 calories for breakfast, 400 for lunch and 500 for dinner.  You can also have 3 snacks at 100 calories each.  This is a grand total of 1500 calories per day.  Well, I never realized that this is too many calories for a woman who weighs in at less than 140 pounds.  A 140 pound woman wanting to lose a pound a week should only consume 1400 calories per day!  So to measure and track my dieting progress, I decided to try my iPhone apps tools.  Yes! I found a great program called Lose It.  I’m able to set my weight loss goal and then track the calories of the food that I eat with the handy calorie counter.  This shows me at all times where I am on my daily calorie budget. Want to eat more than 1400 calories a day?  Exercise!  You can track calories burned with the exercise tracker, which includes everything from Snow Shoveling to Broomball, and add this into your budget too.  If you do a spin class for an hour and burn an additional 500 calories, you just bumped your calorie budget up to 1900 for the day.  I carry my phone on me at all times so there is no excuse for not entering those mints I ate at the doctor’s office or the handful of m&m’s I snagged from my kids.  If you don’t have an iPod touch or iPhone you can track yourself on your computer with a similar program called the Daily Plate on the livestrong.com website.  Don’t fall for all the latest fad diets.  What really matters is calories in and calories burned.  You need to count them and stick to your plan.  Good luck.  I know you can do it!