Cool Stuff, Guest Posts

Guest Post: Style Daily with Kathy Bochonko

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My friend Kathy has started her own style blog and I’m very excited for her!  To help spread the word, I asked her to guest post about her new venture.  She’s also giving some basic advice on what you can do to start finding you’re own personal style.  Kathy always looks great and I know many women who have benefitted from her advice.   So read all about Kathy and please be sure to like her Style Daily page on Facebook.

Without further preamble, here’s Kathy.

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Style Daily can help you find your everyday style.

We all have special days, but most of life is for Style Daily.

 

Have you ever watched the TV show “What Not to Wear?” on TLC and thought, I wish someone would nominate me?  moto grunge (2)Or perhaps that would be your worst nightmare!  You still want the help, but just not in such a public forum.  Stacy London, one of the co-hosts of WNTW, wrote a great book, the Truth about Style.  In it she writes,   “Our clothes, like it or not, give other people insight into who we are.  To take control of the message, you have to know yourself, and dress accordingly.  (Style is the quickest shorthand to who you are.)”   But what is style?  And how do you figure out yours?

Let me back up and tell you who I am and what I do.  My name is Kathy Bochonko and my passion is helping people master their personal style by building a wardrobe that truly represents who they are as a person. I do personal image/wardrobe consultations with the goal of helping people unlock their own unique style. I have spent three decades in the fashion industry and have developed a keen sense for what works for specific individuals in regards to both body type and personal style. I can help folks adapt trends to their comfort level and lifestyle. I offer a variety of personal services such as closet overhaul and wardrobe assessment. I can create a Pinterest board of outfit ideas with your image in mind.  I help people feel confident by giving them the knowledge of what works for them and what doesn’t.  I don’t tell them what to wear.  I listen to what makes them feel good and help them figure out what looks good.  So here are some of my best tips for managing your wardrobe and beginning to understand your own unique style.  More will follow, so stay tuned.  Continue reading Guest Post: Style Daily with Kathy Bochonko →

Cool Stuff

Wednesday Lunch With Jackie

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Wednesday Lunch with Jackie

Confession time.  I’m not big on cooking.  I can follow a recipe and I have hosted (and cooked for) a number of holidays and successful dinner parties, but I don’t consider it fun.  I’m not sure why, because as a child, I would gleefully whip up multi-course dinners for my family – I’m not kidding.  I grew up in a restaurant and couldn’t wait to go in on the weekends and help the prep cooks.  During the high school and college years, I was more obsessed with calories than food, so there wasn’t much cooking.   Post college, I was broke, which meant pasta, pasta and more pasta.  When I met “R” (who informed me that he does not wish to be named in the blog – oops) and we moved in together, we both were very busy with work and ate out a lot.  After the twins arrived, it was all I could do to get them fed.   Then there were my vegetarian years, when most of the meat preparation fell to “R”.  I can rock salads and vegetables, though!

Fast forward to present day and I have a house filled with six very different appetites and I find myself more of a short-order cook or stuck with the simple boring meals for which one menu fits all.  Taco night, spaghetti and meatballs, roasted chicken, repeat.  There is nothing worse than breaking out a new recipe, doing the time in the kitchen, and having your “patrons” turn their noses up, before they even take the first bite!  As a result, I don’t usually get creative.

Lucky for me, I have many friends who love to cook and are amazing at it.  That’s when momma gets to eat like a queen.  My friend Jackie cooks food that can rival any upscale restaurant that I’ve been to, and she does it which such casual ease, it fascinates me.  I’m easily ruffled in the kitchen and I hate when people watch!  Not Jackie.  It all comes naturally.

I love everything Jackie makes, but my mouth waters in anticipation of her salads, because she makes all her own dressings.  In an attempt to get the recipe for her secret dressing, I suggested we have lunch and I’d do a blog post of her making the special Jackie dressing.  Lucky for you, she was game.   My attempt at culinary espionage was thwarted when she decided to do her Caesar salad instead.   Damn.  That said, her homemade Caesar dressing is phenomenal and now I know how to make it!

 

Meet beautiful Jackie:

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These are the ingredients you need: Continue reading Wednesday Lunch With Jackie →
Autism, Parenting

Barrett Tales

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Barrett Tales

So I was telling my Aunt Ginny some Barrett stories from this week and we were both laughing.  Then another friend told me that her favorite posts on LKM are the ones about Barrett, so I had a mini-aha moment.  Perhaps I should periodically share some of the funny things that we experience living life with sweet Bear-Bear.  Plus, I haven’t quite finished the blog I’d planned for today.  So here are a couple Friday Funnies to start your weekend.

 

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Last week Barrett had a mishap and scraped his shin at school.  It wasn’t a major injury, but it did cause the Bear Siren to go off.

Side Bar:  Bear, when frustrated, mad or hurt, makes an ear piercing sound that comes from deep down inside.  If you’re standing close to him when it goes off, it will hurt your ears.  Believe me!  Interestingly, his mouth is often closed when he sounds off!  I wish I knew how to upload video with audio, so you can experience it.  Now Barrett does talk, but the siren fills the void when he can’t form or find the words he needs.

Anyway, he set the siren off and the teacher has been trying to train Bear to say “I’m hurt,” instead of the siren.   Even though the injury was minor, she wanted to take him to the nurse, just to make sure he was comfortable going to the nurse if he ever really needs to.  So off to the nurse’s office they went.  Continue reading Barrett Tales →