Day 5 of the Appearance Challenge

You are a Powerful Creator!  I absolutely believe this and have seen and felt it in my own life.  I feel the Power of being a co-creator in my life with God.... but this challenge is all about being a creator in our appearance.  Do you dress with Intention?  I love to dress with Intention every day (but to be real, some days I am rushed and don't have much intention in what I put on), but I do try :-)

Fashion Notes- Red shirt was a FB Yard Sale page find and is oh so soft.  The leopard print pants were from Forever 21  I shared in another post how I was scared to wear them for the longest time.  Necklace and Earrings are both creations of my own.

Day 4 of the Appearance Challenge

When we notice other people's appearance, what is it that we notice first?  Is it the positive, or do we judge them?  Today's challenge is on noticing the positive about other people's appearance and then see if we can notice those same things within ourselves! 

Fashion Notes- Collared shirt with a tie on the waist is from Shades Clothing and I dyed it from khaki to this golden color.  Purple shirt is another basic long sleeved T from Gordmans (I have lots of these Ts... they are great staples).  The necklace was a creation that I made  and just had to keep it.  It felt so me and I couldn't let it go.

Day 3 of the Appearance Challenge

I think this topic is one of my favorites!  I love color and how it affects us.  It is a great way to bring our appearance into our emotional healing.

Here are some meanings to colors that we wear-

Red: Root Chakra, Passion, Grounding, Strong, Powerful, Action, Determination, Leadership, I am Here, Security, Movement, Desire, Courage.

Orange: Sacral Chakra, Sexuality, Imagination, Creativity, Warmth, Happiness, Optimistic, Uplifting, Positivity, Magnetism, Abundance, Support, Uninhibited, Stimulating, Free of Limitations, New Ideas, Respect, Adventure, Rejuvenation, Balanced.

Yellow:  Solar Plexus Chakra, Personal Power, Knowledge, Mental Agility, Fun, Optimism, Competence, Strong Will, Driving, Control, Self Esteem, Empowered, Self Confidence.

Green:  Heart Chakra, Balance, Harmony, Fresh, Clean, Balancing between the Head and the Heart, Nurturing, Love, Peacemaker, I Love and Am Loved, Compassion, Stability, Endurance, Forgiveness, Acceptance, Peace.

Blue:  Throat Chakra, Communication, Trust, Loyalty, Honesty, Reliable, Purification, I Speak and Am Heard, Expressive, Tranquility, Spirit, Contemplation, Caring, Calm, Wisdom.

Indigo:  Third Eye Chakra, Intuition, Higher Mind, Deep Concentration, Meditation, Perception, Awareness, Clear Sight, Visionary, Faithful, Selflessness, Structure, Order, Wisdom.

Purple:  Crown Chakra, Understanding, Oneness, Spirituality, Imagination, Higher Conscientiousness, Dreams, Sensitivity, Unity, Enlightenment, Royalty, Nobility, Luxury, Self Assured.

These are just some of the colors and some of what the colors can bring out in us or help us heal in us.

*Fashion Notes- I am wearing a Shades tie, collared shirt that was green already, but I died it a bit richer green. Mustard Yellow long sleeve shirt from Gordman's for maybe $6.  The necklace is one of my original creations and is probably my favorite necklace as I can wear it with so much.  The earrings were made by someone else and given to me for Christmas a year or so ago.

Day 2 of the Appearance Challenge

The second day of our 7 day challenges and this one is going inward!  I have seen this one show up for a lot of people and most people are guilty of this one and it is time to become aware of it.  What are your judgements toward yourself and toward other's.

Fashion notes- animal stripe burn out T is from the DYT store, chain necklace is a Lia Sophia that a friend found me at an amazing price and the earrings are Lindsi Jo originals.

Day 1 of the Appearance Challenge

If you listened to the call that I posted in the last post on here, Jennifer asked me to do a follow up challenge on Facebook and this is what I came up with.  I felt like I needed to do 7 videos of 7 separate challenges having to go with the call, so I will be posting all of those videos on here for everyone to see.  Here is the first video to open up the challenges with.

The Day 1 Challenge is, What do you love about your appearance and choose to emphasize that.  Watch the video to get the details.

Fashion notes- Cream colored, textured button up shirt is from DYT Store, as well as the burn-out maroon, long sleeved top.  The necklace is one of my originals from my Jewelry line at Peacocks and Leopards Custom Jewelry Designs by Lindsi Jo.

Fedora Hats

Can we talk hats?  This is an accessory that I know people are somewhat scared of.  When my husband and I were first married, he let me know that hats were not his favorite in general, but that they also weren't his favorite on me.  Me being the loving, supportive wife that I am, told him that I would wear them if I wanted to ;-) (I didn't say who I was supportive of.... a girl can be supportive of herself!)

 But when you don't like to wash your hair every day and you have to have a daughter at school at 8:30 am and it is almost 30 minutes away, hats quickly become your best friend!

I had been wanting to try out some new hats and decided to get on eBay to see what I could find for cheap before I committed lots of money to something I wasn't sure I would like..... I got on and found these for a whole whopping $3 each!  They were a steal and I couldn't decide on the color, so I bought 2.

Here is my first outfit with the darker hat.

 

 I paired it with a rust colored Mak cardigan that can be purchased here, a textured wheat colored wrap shirt that I bought in Mexico, dark skinny jeans from Forever 21 and my comfy slip on gold flats.

 I do like how it all works together with my hair being really full here.  The hats don't look quite as great when my hair is flatter as you will see in the next outfit.

In this outfit I am sporting the lighter tan hat.  I chose to pair it with my all brown leopard tank, long sleeve V-neck wheat shirt, my brown corduroy jacket, dark skinnies again that are from Forever 21 ( I seriously LOVE their skinny jeans, if you haven't bought any, I highly recommend them!  They are only approximately $10 and are stretchy and oh so comfy).  These boots are from Zulily and my boot cuffs once again.

 

 and can I just say how happy I am that I chose to keep this necklace!  I really do wish that I could get these beads to make it for other people because it is SUCH a staple for me, but they have not gotten anymore of them in any where, so I will continue the hunt.... but I do have a similar one for sale here that would make a great staple piece!

But you can see how my hair is more flat in these second pictures and the hat doesn't work quite as well, but I do still really love these hats and feel like they take me out of the box that much more... and I do love being outside of the box when it comes to fashion ;-)  So tell me, do you love hats?  Are you willing to try them out?  I think it is worth $3 to see if you could pull this look off.  I am sure glad that I tried it out and now I am hooked!

Happy Hat Fashion Everyone!

Lindsi Jo

I'm actually wearing a dress!

 This is just a quick post to show my outfit from this past Sunday and that I was actually wearing a DRESS!  I have been married for 12 1/2 years and my husband has always wanted me to wear dresses..... BUT, I am just not much of a dress person.  I am super picky with dresses and I am not a fan of my outfit not being broken up, so I just don't buy many.  I do own 3 long maxi dresses that I am sure I will share on here at some point, and then I own this fun giraffe print short dress that I got from my sister.  She bought it to wear over her swimsuit and just wasn't her style, so she gave it to me and I thought it was too nice to use as a swim cover.  I have only worn it 2 or 3 times, but this has definitely been my favorite combo thus far.

 Almost everything I am wearing was thrifted in some way.  Dress from my sister, brown jacket from the thrift store, off white shirt from my sister LONG ago.  The opaque brown tights were from a friend, the boots were purchased off of my local FB YardSale page for a few bucks, gold metal cuff bracelet was a Forever 21 clearance find and the necklace was a super cheap find from a local boutique years ago and earrings (not pictured) were ones I have worn before, and made.

I need to work on building up my own jewelry creations in my personal collection, but from years past, I do have a lot of jewelry from other stores.

It has been a busy week for us, we I am heading to the mountains with my family to relax and get prepped up for the holidays next week and for the Black Friday Sale we will be having in my Etsy Shop.  Happy Weekend to you all!

Lindsi Jo

Mustard Yellow Skinnies and Leopard Cardi OOTD

    One of the nice things about sharing my outfits with everyone, is that I get to have photo documentation of my outfits.  The truth is, I usually can't remember what I even put together!  Every time I go to use an item in my closet, I won't be able to remember how I wore it last, so I usually have to create a totally new outfit... not sure if that is sad or funny, but I do have a lot of clothes and I do love mixing things up, but it is nice to see the pictures and recreate something if I really liked it.

BUT, onto the OOTD that I am sharing today.  I love this outfit and want to remember it to be able to wear it again in the future.

 These mustard skinny jeans are such a staple in my wardrobe!  If you remember, I wore them here in my business photo shoot.  They were a steal at Walmart for around $13.

  I have on a stretchy purple racer back tank underneath that was a cheap find at Ross for less than $5.  I have mentioned it before, but I think that every.single.wardrobe needs to have at least 1 good "white" button up shirt!  Since I don't wear stark white, I have a large variety of off white and wheat colored button up shirts and they get so much use.  I am actually thinking that I wouldn't mind getting even a few more.

 This leopard cardigan was also a steal at Gordman's early this year and was maybe $8.  The necklace is one that you will see a lot of (I have already shared it before and it will be shown many more times in the future I am sure), but it is such a staple in wardrobe already and gets worn a lot!  This was one of those pieces that when I finished making it, I couldn't put it down.  I knew that I had to keep it and I am so glad that I allowed myself that.  (I have the hardest time keeping items for myself because I love giving other people the opportunity to purchase my pieces, but this one I just HAD to keep.)

 The earrings were a very unique find at the Dressing Your Truth store back a year or 2 ago and are the perfect touch with certain outfits.

 My Tigers Eye bracelet that I wear a lot and love so much also.  I will be getting a similar one posted up in the Etsy Shop soon as this is a staple piece that all Rich wardrobes should have ;-)

 Something that I have heard a lot of is "where is your head in all of your pictures?".  I am fully aware that some people do not like seeing photos of headless people, but 1.) My mirror is not hanging up yet and I am too tall to get a good shot (especially when I wear my 5" heels) if I have to stand too far back and 2.) I feel really weird having my face floating around Pinterest land, but here is a photo of me crouched down to show that I do have a head ;-)

I was going out and wanted to have a scarf on hand in the FREEZING cold weather that has arrived this past week, so here is a purple scarf that I threw on when going out.  I will do a post on these scarves another day as I bought 3 in different colors and got them for DIRT cheap!

Something that I love about social media land is when people are REAL!  So here is my real.... this is usually what I am dealing with when I am trying to get some photos taken of the outfits... my 3 year old loves to come and hang on me.  She is SUCH a mama's girl and wants in my arms at all times, so I pretty much have to sneak to get these pictures taken.  THAT is my real life with my 3 little girls... it's a good thing they are so cute :-)

I hope that this outfit inspires you to try something new.

Leave your comments, I LOVE to hear from you!

Lindsi Jo

Photo Collage Featuring Red, Brown and Gold Necklace and Bracelet

        Here is another addition that I will be sharing on here, a photo collage that will feature jewelry pieces that I designed and created and that are for sale in my Etsy shop.  This particular collage was created with items from my closet and shows a way that I personally would wear this jewelry (which does make it hard because I want to keep all of the items when I see how fabulous they go with my wardrobe!)....But... I love giving my customers a chance to snatch items first before I decide if I need it or not.... at least for the most part :-)

The outfit consists of an off white button up crinkle shirt from Old Navy that I gave a tea bath to.  The cropped red cardigan was a find at Target on clearance for $6 back last year.  This brown belt was a find at a local boutique, but any brown chunky belt would do.  The dark green leather-looking stretchy pencil skirt was a find online at Jane.com & was one of there items for sale for a few days, it is fairly new and has only been worn once.... I look forward to showing it in future outfits.  Next to the jewelry pieces, the creme-de-la-creme of this outfit are these amazing shoes that I picked up on Zulily earlier this year, but I believe that you can purchase them here.


Here are some pictures of the jewelry up close.  I apologize for the quality of these pictures, between the lighting and reflectiveness of the gold on the jewelry, my phone was having issues getting a clear photo.

 The bracelet can be purchased here

 And the necklace can be purchased here.

As much as I would love to share the link for the earrings, they sold already and were definitely a harder one for me to send off as I loved them so much!  But there it all is.  I really hope that people benefit from these collages in both seeing what our jewelry pieces can be paired with, but also to give you some more inspiration in your own everyday wardrobe and to give you the confidence to try new things in your outfits!  Thanks for joining us today and we will see you next post.

Lindsi Jo

The #1 Question I get asked!

So who can guess what the #1 question is that I get asked?  I literally get asked this question almost daily........... if you guessed "How do you do your hair?" you get a big cyber High Five!  I get messaged this question multiple times a week, so instead of typing it out over and over and over... I decided that a blog post was in order explaining it step by step so that I can just direct people to this page and say "I have a simple answer for you!"  No more typing it out and trying to explain it, this will be my last.

 

So here we go!

 

After I get out of the shower, I put my hair in a towel and get my make-up on. 

This picture shows the "I just took a towel off my head" look.  Now, I don't know if I am the only one, but because I have wavy hair and go multiple days without washing/brushing my hair, I can sometimes get a massive rats nest in my hair, especially right under where my neck is.

 so I take a brush and brush all of my hair out completely to make sure that there are no knots when I start the process.... Yes brushing takes the curls out, that is why I do this next step.

 I find that working with sopping wet hair is best, so I always soak it up by sticking it in the tub and getting it dripping wet.

 

 At this point, take a towel and hand dry it to where it isn't dripping so much or at all.

 

 All of these products here are what I use on my hair.  There may be better products out there, but these are what I use and they seem to do the job that I want done.  The order in which I put it in my hair is as follows:

 

1. Curling Mousse-  I get a handful of this and scrunch it all over my head.
2. Curl Shaping Spray Gel-  I just spray this all over my head making sure I get underneath also.
3. Hi-Rise Root Booster- this get pumped at the roots all around my crown in various spots and massaged into my roots just a bit.
4. Hair Spray- I do a quick layer of hair spray to help it hold while it dries and gets diffused.



 A diffuser is a must!  If you don't have one, get one!  My blow dryer literally burned up and smoked up my whole upstairs, so this is a brand new one and my first time using it was here.  I scrunch and dry and move around my head doing that.

 

 It is getting closer to being dried!

 

 This is what it looks like after being diffused and where most people stop thinking that this is what their hair is going to look like.  I wasn't ok with that, so I kept trying different things and this is what I found that I love the end result. (My hair here is pretty much entirely dry, but it is ever so slightly damp which helps in this next step.) 

 Take the hair that is on the crown of your head like shown above and....

 twist it very tight

 into a twisted bun and clip it with a claw like shown.  At this point, I will go and get my bed made, clean house, take care of whatever the girls are screaming about, etc. while it stays in this position a while and can take the shape on.... OR  I will do my hair first and during this step, get my makeup on and get dressed, but doing that here would have meant that you would all see me without my makeup and (gasp), I can't have my face plastered online looking like that ;-), so I waited to do my hair until after the makeup was on.

 After it has been in this bun for at least 30 minutes or longer, take your blow dryer and help the process along by getting it all dried up.  You can see here that I take the clip off to dry it.

 Here the bun is taken out and I will admit that I didn't wait long enough, but I was on a time crunch and needed to get it done.  so I mess my hair up like crazy and spray it..... but we still aren't done.

 Since I didn't get the bun completely dried, I had to use the blow dryer to get it all the way dry.  The downside of me rushing it and not getting it fully dry in the bun was the volume on the top of my head.  this is where I get so much volume from, so it is worth getting it dried in the bun as best as you can.  After it is fully dried, I use a 3/4-1" curling iron on it in sporadic spots around my whole head to blend with my own natural curl.

 The curl that I use is started at the root of the hair and wrapped around the barrel with my other hand.  In this picture, my other hand was taking the picture, so it isn't twisted all the way.  *Be cautious not to burn your fingers on this part.

 After it is all curled, I squirt some of this frizz control and run my hands over all of my hair to tame down the flyaways that us curly girls tend to get.

 

And here is the final result when everything is finished.  NOW, since I didn't wait the full time and didn't get the volume I usually do, here are some photos showing what it normally looks like after doing it properly.

 

The look can change depending on how much you use the curling iron.  The bottom picture has more curling iron curls on it where the top has just some with mostly my natural wave in it.

 

So there you go!  Hopefully I answered everyone's questions and that this whole process makes sense.  Let me know if you try it and if it worked for you.  I have very thick hair that is more on the courser side, so it may not work on all hair types.