Are you McLovin Bloglovin?

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Follow my blog with Bloglovin and you are good to go..

Just call me Jennifer Hudson!

Now now... I won't be breaking out into random songs that I sang when I was younger and imposing my new self singing the same song right next to myself..

And NO! I am not on Weight Watchers anymore... BUT! I told you that I am tackling this resolution and I am serious.

And I told you HOW I am going to do it... through simple calorie counting.

By pushing this App Button my phone every day, I have lost a total of...

2 POUNDS THIS WEEK!

Now mind you, I am not the best at staying motivated, but I have to say, by surpassing my goal of a pound a week... this is definitely motivation to keep it going at least one more...

How are you doing with your New Years Resolutions?

The Love Series: Love is Eternal, so make a bracelet!

I came across one of my favorites in the blog world and saw this really nice tutorial of how to make a rope bracelet that reminded me of the eternity band that I am wearing on my ring finger/left hand.

And so I thought... hmm... why not share this with you as part of The Love Series.. afterall, I am a lover of all things crafty..

Due to packing of course, I can't bring you my own crafty ideas, however, in the spirit of spreading the sunshine, I am going to show you this tutorial on how you can make your own bracelet... and wear it by Valentine's Day.

This post brought to you by Made by Girl

DIY: Rope Bracelet

Hi everyone! It's Jenny Bevlin bringing you another DIY post. I love accessories, but I especially love jewelry! I've noticed lately that I have been buying a lot of bracelets and even making some myself. I find that making my own accessories is very rewarding. It's fun and you will love all the compliments you receive when you say you made it yourself! What you need to make this bracelet:

• Hot Glue Gun
• Flat Nose Pliers
• Scissors
• Rope trim
• Jewelry Jump Rings
• Jewelry Lobster Clasp
• Jewelry Ribbon Endings

Steps: 

Measure the rope around your wrist leaving about an extra inch longer than your wrist. Cut the rope. Make sure you add a dot of hot glue to the end of the rope you just cut to keep it from unraveling.

Cut 3 more strands the same length as the first strand. Make sure to add a dot of hot glue to ends of the rope each time you cut it.

Lay out the rope as shown in the photo above.

Overlap the rope as shown in the photo above.

Pull the end of the top rope under and up through the bottom rope.

Pull the ends of the rope tight.

Trim the ends so that they are all the same length. Make sure to add hot glue to the ends to keep them from unraveling.

Put the rope ends into the ribbon ending and close with the pliers.

Use the pliers to add the jump rings and lobster clasp.

- post and images by Jenny Bevlin

The Love Series: Marriage, It's Nothing to Play with

This post is brought to by my wonderful hubby! You can read more of his thoughts here.

So, ok... if you pay any attention to the media in the past 6-8months, you have probably seen or heard about several celebrity couples filing for divorce, smh...

C'mon!!! Is this a joke??? I mean, does anyone understand the true meaning of Marriage anymore??? Is Marriage the new "going steady???" LOL, smh.... It's not funny, but it's funny cause it's becoming so "blahhhh" nowadays... Some of these people who are influenced by these celebrities are now probably thinking that Marriage is like a "boyfriend/girlfriend" relationship and when it doesn't work, just file for Divorce....HUH?? WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TOO??? I could talk about this for days, but I'm not, LOL.



I got married a little less than 1 year and 1/2 ago...  It was one of the best decisions I could've made as an Adult Male. The reason is that, when you are a driven, goal-oriented, successful, well-groomed Man, it gets difficult to move forward in life alone... it's awesome to have someone to share it with.  You see, I have the ULTIMATE WIFE, she's my best friend, my confidant, my lover, my fighter (LOL), my beauty, my "rib", my focus... Without her, I'd probably be a quiet, cool, mean, shy, hermit, unapproachable big talented teddy-bear (don't ask me how all that works, LOL)...  We have our share of challenges, but we both didn't enter into this with the mindset that it was going to be easy... the more we communicate, fight, laugh, make love (hehehehehe we "grown-folk" LOL), PRAY, sleep and eat together, the more our Marriage develops and strengthens.


You know what I think?  Many people out here are driven by their emotions and hormones, LOL... When two people are attracted to each other, one of the main things that draws them to each other is "physical" attraction... Most men I know are "visual" so once we lock-in to a female and her "features" we become driven to connect and conquer... Once the connection is made and survives "first-base" (movie date, dinner, starbucks LOL) or sometimes "first-base" is bypassed and goes for a "grand-slam" (no pun intended, LOL)... Well, if the two don't just become FWBs or FBs (not talking about Facebook, LOL) they may fall into the "relationship" zone.

This zone (just like everything else in life) has a "honeymoon" season and if both parties are both thinking long-term then there's a strong chance that they'll make it "over the broom" (marriage)... But nowadays many couples are "comfortable" with being "life-partners" instead of being "married"... WHERE DID THAT COME FROM????

To me, that's crazy... what happened to wanted to spend the rest of your life with someone??? What happened to a women wanting to give up her "last-name"????  What happened to a man who wanted to be considered a "provider" and not just a "partner"... Now, don't jump on me, I am a believer in a woman also being a provider, but there are certain things I still hold on to that a women can do that a man can't do... the same vice-versa.  Maybe I'm too old-fashioned, smh

I want to go back to the days of my Parents, before my mom passed in 1999, my parents were married for 32yrs. THAT'S AWESOME!!!  I loved seeing my parents interact with each other... it was magical.  Nowadayz, it's rare to see Married Couples stay passed 10yrs... the other day I saw an article about a 99year old Italian Man divorcing his wife of 77years over 70 year-old affair... THAT LITERALLY BLEW MY MIND!!!

Well, although we see a lot of negative news on Marriage, I still believe that there are still great examples of beautiful marriage, like our President and First Lady :-)

I love what they represent, brings joy to my soul (sigh)

So, let's hope that the media will shift their focus off of the negative aspect of marriage and switch to the more positive (I strongly doubt they will, smh).  Until then, I'm going to hold on the examples I got from watching my parents when I was younger... If they made it, I know my wife and I will make it. 

Later :-)

Hubby

The Love Series: Life's Love Lessons for Valentine's Day

I'd love to show you a craft-a-day and show you how to create wonderful vignettes for decorating your house for the Valentine's Day season, something that my grandmother used to do with us when we were little, however, we are in the process of packing and moving. And so, instead I will be doing a Love Series or in other words a series on love-related-topics-to-make-me-reevaluate-my-relationships-with-people-my-significant-other-and-how-to-love-me-better series.

I get asked the most random questions about love and relationships. As well as, see displays of love every where that I wish everyone could see... it would give hope and hopefully allow people to give Love a chance when the realize its not like how the Disney Movies taught us. It takes work and you have to be intentional about maintaining your happy. And with that comes small sacrifices at times.

I ran across a wonderful post that made me crack up because it just goes to show that every couple has something they argue about. And if you were honest with yourselves, every couple truly has the same argument over and over again just in different forms. For my husband and I, we have named our perpetual argument, "the Spaghetti argument" ...

Laura at The Bloggess wrote about this argument she had with her husband: "The Puppies Aren't My Fault"

"Me calling my friend Laura after I had a fight with Victor about something stupid that was actually probably my fault to begin with.

Laura:  Hello?

me:  So, I’m sitting in the parking lot of the Dollar Store because I just had a big fight with Victor and I told him I needed to get out of the house, but now I feel all bitchy and I don’t want to see a movie or shop or eat and I just realized I don’t have any outside hobbies.  I AM TERRIBLE AT FIGHTING WITH VICTOR.

Laura: Huh.

me:  By the way, this is Jenny.

Laura:  I figured that one out.  You can come to my house and I’ll feed you ice cream.

me: I’m lactose intolerant.

Laura:  Then I will give you a puppy.

me:  That would be nice, actually.  And then when Victor was like “Why do you have a puppy?” I could say “Because you were mean to me.”

Laura:  And every time you have a fight you come home with a new puppy.  It’s like couple’s therapy but with puppies.

me:  OhmyGod, we are going to have SO. MANY. PUPPIES.

Laura:  The puppies are a metaphor, Jenny.  Don’t really buy a bunch of puppies when you’re mad.  Everyone always regrets angry revenge puppies.

me:  Oh, I’m getting puppies.   There’s gonna be puppies everywhere.  And then when Victor is all “WHERE ARE ALL THESE PUPPIES COMING FROM?” I’d just say “These puppies came from you.  You brought these puppies into our house.  With your wrongness.”  And then he’d complain that I was the one that kept sneaking puppies in and I’d have to explain that his actions brought the puppies in.  And then he’d realize just how crazy it is to fight about ridiculous shit for no reason at all.  Also, the puppies get shafted because we aren’t responsible enough to have that many puppies.  I mean, think about the puppies, Victor.

Laura:  So, it’s his fault you have all these puppies.

me:  Right?  NOW I DON’T EVEN LIKE PUPPIES BECAUSE I RESENT BEING SMOTHERED IN THEM.  YOU’VE RUINED PUPPIES FOR ME, VICTOR.

Laura:  You know what?  I don’t know the details but I can pretty much say without a doubt that you are right and he’s being irrational.  THESE PUPPIES ARE NOT HELPING ANYONE, VICTOR.

me:  *deep breath*  I feel better.

Laura:  Good.  Now stop being crazy, go home to your husband, and tell him to stop it with all the puppies.

And that’s exactly what I did.  And he just sort of looked at me oddly and made us lunch and we watch Pawn Stars together.  And that’s why I love Victor and also why we don’t have a puppy."

So Lesson #1: Just know that at the end of the day. Remember that just when you think that the other person has wronged you in some way, remember that they have to put up with your crazy rants from time to time as well... and it takes a very special person to deal with that side of you on a consistent basis.

I understand why my mother always congratulates my husband for "dealing" with me.. LOL. Hey we clearly all have our moments.