Gardening in Stilettos
 
Smart and Trendy Moms
One of the most essential things we must own is confidence. When we don't have it we never achieve our true presence. Ever wonder why some people are said to have the 'IT Factor' that "je ne sais quio". It starts with your unique raw beauty and your ability to embrace it, your heighten sense of self awareness.

Your assigment if ou chose to take it is:
"Fall in love with you again"

Supplies needed:
Full length mirror
Good lighting-natural lighting if possible
You bare- that's right naked
Positive attitude

To Do:
Disrobe
Stand in front of the mirro
Take a good look at yourself from head to toe
Take  a moment to take you all in, bask in your unique beauty
Drag your hands over your body, starting at the top of your head, following all your curves, notice everything, end at your toes.

**Now in doing this exercise there may be some things that you like and some other things that you are not that happy about.  At this point...

Close your eyes take a few deep breaths by inhaling through your nose and exhaling out of your nose very slowly

Open your eyes continue to take deep  breaths but this time plae your index finger/pointer finger of your left hand under your nose and place your right hand over your heart.

Feel the breaths, the rise and fall of your chest, the air as it enters and exits your nose.

In this moment be thankful for the breaths that you are taking. Be grateful for  the breaths that are giving life to your body.

Smile you are alive!!

Now let's repeat a previous step...

Drag your hands over your body, starting at the top of your head, following all your curves, notice everything, end at your toes.  This time really take pleasure with every touch as you explore your body.

Embrace your raw breauty!! Begin instilling appreciation of your body in your thoughts.

Simply love yourself!!!

Now that you are given yourself permission to simply love yourself as you are.  Take note of anything that you would like to change and what you can do through a natural process to improve. If there are things taht you would like to change butt know that it is one of your unique qualities, remember just that...it is what make you unique and embrace it as that...one of your unique qualities and move on to  makeing steps to improve those things you can change.

We all have unique qualities and those things that we simply have not given enough attention to that allows us to be our best selves. In this moment forgive yourself for not giving your body the attention it needs
and take the necessary steps to do something daily to be your most fabulous self.

This exercise is suggested for you to take a moment to remember to love yourself by embracing all of you but taking step to create behaviors that will exude your best you daily.

During this exercise you took time to reconnect to your breath, that which  gives life to the whole you, not just the external but the internal.  Beginning to build your confidence one step at a time, developing your 'IT Factor'.

Stay tuned for the next Flirty Friday that will focus on your internal beauty.

Until time next time reconnect with yourself daily through your breaths and takes step each day to present your best you!!!
 
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Have you ever watched the snow fall and create a beautiful image naturally...

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Have you ever awakened to the warmth of the sun's rays...

 

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Have you ever had a picnic by moonlight...


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Have you ever shared a moment with your significant other in the rain....

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Have you ever let your body feel the music...

 

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Have you ever blown someone a kiss...

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Have you ever got lost in a book...

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Have you ever stopped to enjoy the beauty of life...

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Have you ever had your significant other wash your hair...

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Have you ever witnessed love...

Visit Mama Kat for more of her wonderful writing prompts!
 
Time is one of the most precious things we have and if we don’t do all that is possible in our time we lose it and it can not be regained. I always remind people to think of that when they put off spending time with family and friends. Or doing the simple things like enjoying the sunshine, the rain, the change of seasons, sharing hugs with a love one, exchanging a smile with a stranger, and the list goes on.

It was once said not to regret the things that you have done but live your life so that you will have no regrets of the things that you didn’t do as time goes on…

Simply put spend time with yourself to gain focus on your purpose…live in it…develop yourself continuously…never stop loving, learning and sharing your most fabulous you. And most importantly live intentionally…..

“Life isn’t about finding yourself, its about creating yourself”….George Bernard Shaw

And as you create yourself deposit blessing into others through your love, support, understanding, friendship and sometimes even guidance…

Enjoy this wonderful day!!!
 
M.I.L.K. Series
Moments of Intimacy Love & Kinship
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Take Action There are many ways you can take action in response to HIV/AIDS:
  • get tested for HIV
  • practice safer methods to prevent HIV
  • decide not to engage in high risk behaviors
  • talk about HIV prevention with family, friends, and colleagues
  • provide support to people living with HIV/AIDS
  • get involved with or host an event for HIV Vaccine Awareness Day in your community

    Follow the link to  learn more about HIV Vaccine Awareness Day
 
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Looking back at the age of 80, Ms. Horne said:
 
“My identity is very clear to me now. I am a black woman. I’m free. I no longer have to be a ‘credit.’ I don’t have to be a symbol to anybody; I don’t have to be a first to anybody. I don’t have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I’d become. I’m me, and I’m like nobody else.”

In Memory of Lena Horne
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 April is National Humor Month

National Humor Month was founded in 1976 by best-selling humorist Larry Wilde, Director of The Carmel Institute of Humor. It is designed to heighten public awareness on how the joy and therapeutic value of laughter can improve health, boost morale, increase communication skills and enrich the quality of one's life.

The idea of laughing and the use of humor as a tool to lift ailing spirits is growing. Scientific research now indicates that the curative power of laughter and its ability to relieve debilitating stress and burnout may indeed be one of the great medical discoveries of our times.

So……………SMILE EVERYONE!!

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I had the pleasure of participating in  another wonderful celebration this weekend...40th birthday party for a dear friend.

We danced, we laughed, we simply had fun and most importantly another year of life was celebrated for someone close to my heart!

When I spoke with him the day after I told him you know when you are becoming seasoned professionals in this thing called life when you are no longer celebrating with friends for 21st, 25th, and 30th birthdays...we just shared a laugh and gave thanks for being blessed with life in each passing day!

One of the greatest pleasures in life is sharing it with family/friends and celebrating all the things along the way.

Have a blessed day!!!
 
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In the many interest that I have and often continue to offer my services to wedding coordinating has always been on the sideline. I have always found great joy in assisting a new bride bring the love and beauty of her day to life through her wedding ceremony.

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of conducting a wedding rehearsal for Tara Jones and Graham Southerland in Baltimore. This lovely couple will be beginning their life as a union on Saturday, April 10 @ 4pm. One of the highlights of this rehearshal was the flower girl. She is simply adorable and so sweet. When explaining to her what she will need to do on Saturday, she stood there looking at me in pure innonence and disapproval of what I was asking her to do. She could not understand that it was okay for her to drop flowers on the floor and in the sanctuary at that. This simply made me smile. In her 5 years of life she has been taught the etiquette for the sanctuary as well as things that she should not do such as throwing things on the floor and leaving them there.  So as I demonstrated what she needed to do she was walking behind me picking up the flowers. As I continued to help her understand her duties, she would look over at her mom as if to say, you need to tell this lady she can not do this. So her mom came over and join in the conversation to give her the comfort that she needed to do what was being asked of her. Explaining that for this special occassion it was okay for her to throw the flowers on the floor in the sanctuary to honor her aunt and help her have a beautiful day. After this conversation she felt better about what she needed to do and practice with great enthusiam.

As rehearsl came to a close I stood back and smiled at those moments spent with the flower girl and how confusing her part of this process was to her. It also made me think about how sometimes the things we are asked to do makes no sense in our normal world but is often needed to be done as a part of a process for something we don't indulge in everyday. It also made me think what other things do we ask kids to do sometimes that confuses them but we ask them to do it without proper explaination to give them the comfort needed.

History of the Flower Girl
Throughtout the changing eras of fasion and even rols of the members of the traditional wedding party, the vision of the flower girl has remained even more consistent to humankind than that of the bride herself.

When brides were very young and stepping themselves from childhood to womanhood through the wedding ceremony, the flower girl leads her forward as a symbol of innocence "blooming" to become a wife and mother. In classical Roman and Greek times, the flower girl would scatter select herbs and grains to beckon fertility in a new union. Sheaths of wheat were carried in the wedding procession by medieval European flower girls.

For many genres, the only female attendants tot he bride were children. This tradition continues often with multiple flower girls in large society or royal weddings. In France, it is common that all attendants in the procession are children.

The flower girl that is now classic to the modern wedding world evolved through the Victorian beauty and sentiment nurtured through Queen Victoria herself. This is the bright young girl in white with perhaps a colored sash; carrying the decorated basket of petals and floral hoop.  The floral hoop, like it's circular relative, the wedding ring, symbolised eternal love.  With Victorian times, humanity begins to value the romantic aspects of marriage.  It is celebrated that marriage not only be econonic or even political union, but also a union of true love. And in love we all walked doe-eyed and innocent like the beautiful flower girl leading the wedding procession.

While fashion and tradition will forever evolve back and forth; the flower girl herself remains a consistent favorite with in the wedding party. She is the sentimental connection between childhood and womanhood; and the whimsical reminder to on-lookers of how magical and brief is innocence and childhood.

Our appreciation for the flower girl grows from pure sentiment: the beauty, innocence, whimsy, and of course how beautiful ist is to have both children and love within the family.
 
Water your dreams with worry/fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism/solutions and you will cultivate success! Be in the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success and nurture your dream"- Lao Tzu

Monday (Moon-day) has the energy of the ultimate nurturer. How will you nurture 3 dreams that need my love and attention?