Thursday, March 27, 2014

Hails & Farewells

Being in the Army isn't all guns blazing like some people think. There are a lot of customs, courtesies and traditions that need to be upheld as well. Shawn and I both work in major units on Fort Hood and because of this, we both have to attend events that normally a Sergeant may not. Its okay though, I actually like it. Last night we attended a Hail & Farewell dinner. Its where your unit would welcome the new soldiers and say goodbyes to the ones who are leaving. We met up at Cassandra's Seafood and Soulfood here in Killeen. Shawn was being "hailed" to his unit.

I didn't want to over or under dress for this event, so I tried to find a happy medium with this outfit:


Ross top | Calvin Klein capris | Steve Madden heels [old] | Celeb Boutique belt





I have yet to venture further than my front yard! How do some of you ladies do it?! Taking your pictures in the middle of busy cities and public places?! I'd love to know! Til next time..
xo,

Glenesse

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Vintage America

top: Fly Nation | jeans: Naked Wardrobe | wedges: Christian Louboutin [old]





I'm in a better place right now, so I'm trying to enjoy it. Have a great weekend guys!
xo,

Glenesse

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Counting coins vs Counsel

What did you want to be growing up?! Most wide eyed children would answer police officer or fireman, nurse or ballerina. Some, even a rock star. Not me. I wanted to be a secret agent. I wanted to wear all black and sneak around doing covert ops and gathering Intel. Until that career day in the 4th grade at Church of God Holiness Academy when Mrs Williams told me that it would never work. Because I talked too much. And I was too active. And I couldn't sit still. This started a reaction with in me; one of self doubt.

For some reason that has always stuck with me. I don't know why, but to this day when I have to make an "important" life decision I always second guess myself. Most of the time, I do what I want anyway, but there is still always that self doubt. That voice inside me telling me that I couldn't reach whatever goal it was I had set for myself. This brings me to my current dilemma: What DO I want to be when I "grow up"?! Currently its a toss up between my current major, Accounting, or changing to Law. Now here's the thing. I like nice crap. & being a young home owner and single parent, I don't want to waste time making choices that don't pan out. I want to be able to afford my home, even after the military. I'd love to be able to maintain this life I've grown to love. & I don't want my son to ever be with out.

As I do a little research online (typing well worded questions into Google search) I've come up with these results: maybe I did make the right choice. Maybe accounting is a more lucrative field than law right now. In one google search I found lots of reasons not to attend law school. Reasons like: there's just NOT a major need for lawyers, & they usually end making $18/hr at Starbucks trying to make ends meet. I actually found more articles supporting Accounting than Law. That was shocking to me. Apparently, accounting is just a more practical degree field. Who knew?!

As I get older, and I learn life more I realize that it's all about making decisions for YOU and what matters most to you. Not to please your family, or friends or those people who's opinion you secretly value when you absolutely shouldn't. Guess what?! Someone out there will always love you. Whether you know it or not, there is usually always someone in your corner and right when you need it most, they'll present themselves. So I've stopped worrying. I'm going to let God do his thing. I usually try to keep my posts from being this lengthy but there was so many thoughts bouncing around in my head and I had to get them out. This post may say a lot or it may say nothing at all, but I feel better. If you read this, thanks lol. If you've ever had a similar situation, I'd love to hear about it. & if you've had any experiences with this please share it!

til next time,

Glenesse

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

But WHERE did it come from?!

As I make more decor themed posts some of you guys were wondering where I purchased this stuff. I thought this would be the perfect forum to address these questions. My major furniture pieces were purchased from the Rooms to Go here in Killeen, Texas. Furniture shopping can be a fun, yest stressful time. Starting out, I wanted to ensure while shopping that the personal touches brought into my home were mine. Family and friends are a great asset but who wants to be stuck with stuff that they really don't even like?! It does still benefit to get second opinions, however.

Although I love this sectional, if I knew what I know now at the time of purchase I would have a different piece of furniture in my home. This Cindy Crawford Home Dawson Sectional (seen here) as I said is a gorgeous piece, but the truth of the matter is it was just too big for my space! Not to be discouraged, I had to make it work, after all, it is a beautiful piece. To fix my problem, I just took out the corner piece and presto! A sectional that fits perfectly..
Because I have an open concept living space, my furniture had to be arranged in a way that would define what each space was. I knew I wanted a wooden table. With small children in the house I couldn't chance a glass top table. The cleaning would be horrendous and there's always a chance that it could break; plus, there's something about the look of a solid wood table that drew me in. I decided on the Merrydale Dining Room set (seen here). I swapped out my chair options and went with the slip arm chairs, upholstered back side chairs and had my leaf removed so that the table would hold 6 comfortably. I'm satisfied with this choice..



When I saw the picture below on Pinterest, I knew it was exactly what I needed for my entryway. The click thru link took me directly to the VITTSJÖ shelves product page on IKEA (found here) and although I was disappointed that delivery of 2 of these shelves would cost more than the items themselves I was happy to see that if I signed up for the IKEA Family (which is free, by the way) I'd receive an instant discount. Plus, IKEA is less than an hour away so we would just need to go to the store and purchase them in person. The IKEA Family discount does not apply to online purchases either, so that just added to the list of reasons why we'd need to pick them up in person. While walking threw the store, I also lucked up and found the exact storage bins from the picture so I was even more excited about my finished look.


So there you have it, all my big ticket purchases! Hope this was helpful and answered any questions you guys were having. If anything is still unanswered, feel free to comment below or email me (link in the sidebar). Stay fabulous, dolls!
xo,

Glenesse



Saturday, March 15, 2014

He loved the ducks..

I absolutely CAN NOT believe these pictures never made it to the blog! Now, that I think about it, after having the worst summer of my life, I see how this was overlooked. I grew up in a household where there were tons of family pictures and I want to provide that same atmosphere for my son, so every so often I match our outifts and drag us out to someones photography studio to get portraits.

Because we were scheduled to leave Germany at the top of the summer, this was the perfect opportunity to get in front of the lense of the amazing Amanda of De Vos Photography! I originally met her through a mutual friend (hey Jaci hunny!) and once I saw her work, the film spoke for its self. She took the family out to Sewoog Lake in Germany and here's what resulted! Enjoy..

about a month after his 2nd birthday

My favorite guy ♥


Jeremy wanted to go into the lake and play with the ducks! We got him to give up eventually..





xo,

Glenesse

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

#transformationtuesday

A few post ago, I mentioned that I had purchased a new house. With that comes the responsibilities of making that house a home! I've been working really hard to transform these four walls to a place of comfort and solitude for everyone with in them. I've spent the last month or so consuming myself with pillows and patterns and all kinds of decor & although I feel like this is a never ending process, I wanna show you guys where I am so far..

If you follow me on instaGram you'll remember this picture, appropriately captioned #blankcanvas. After almost a solid year of being glued to HGTV I knew I needed a "pop of color".


I've been fawning over shades of blue lately, so that's where I went with it. I absolutely adore the current chevron and lattice trends, so I know I wanted to incorporate that into my design as well.

Assortment of pillows from Wayfair. The grey accent pillow came with our  sectional.

"Scribble" lattice pattern by West Elm [96"]

Remember that lamp?! I painted that to incorporate color as well!

After piecing all that together, I'm happy to say I have a space I am happy with. This process is far from over and ever revolving, but for right now I get that warm and fuzzy when I look around. Isnt that what your home is supposed to do?! I am absolutely in love every time I walk thru the door!

Voila!


And just so you can see the full transformation, here's a comparison picture:


Have you guys been doing any makeovers?! I'd love to see them! Please comments links below if you have!
xo,

Glenesse

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Seems like we've misplaced Spring..



Weather here in Central Texas has been up and down these past few weeks. One day, 34°, the next 78°! In all honestly, all you can do is take advantage of those nice days when you have them. The subject of my weight has been a bittersweet issue for me. When I was smaller, I wanted to be a little bigger in some areas. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR! So the weight came, but it came everywhere. And while I tell myself that I won't lose it all at once (because I didn't gain it all at once) finding the motivation to even work out is half the battle. I honestly think the only thing keeping me at bay is that the Army makes me work out for an hour 5 days a week. For some reason though, I feel like when I put something on my blog, it makes me feel that much more obligated to stick with it, because now you guys are watching.
So here it is: I WANT TO LOSE 10-15 pounds! Wish me luck..

H&M top || Zara pants || Nine West wedges


Covergirl Queen Foundation || MAC Stud Eyeybrows . Fever Blush . Rebel Lips


xo,

Glenesse

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Concealer to Camoflauge



Being in the military. Hard. Being a FEMALE in the military?! Harder. Being a WOMAN OF COLOR in the military?! Sometimes impossible. As I approach my 6th year in the greatest military force in the world I've dealt with numerous different types of personalities. Some are sympathetic to the struggles of a woman of color. Some cant see past the ways of yesterday, but as we evolve you have no choice. Issues ranging from curves/weight to hair and nails are almost a daily struggle for me! If you werent familiar, there are published regulations on what is allowed in uniform in terms of hair, makeup and nails. As the years go by, I've come to terms with what is expected of me as a member of this Armed Force and I've come up with these guidelines:

  • Read the rules. Dont allow anyone to interpret them for you. Look it up, understand it and then stick to it. Nothing like having someone try to correct you when you in fact have done nothing wrong.

  • Stick to your guns. If you know you've done nothing wrong, stand up for what you know is right. You may be the one to bring awareness to something that noone ever bothered to verify. Print out the regulation and carry it in your pocket if you have too.

  • Be respectful in your fight. You dont want to be dismissed because you went about something the wrong way. Stay professional and never let them see you sweat.

  • Remember, you are a representation of WOC (whether you want to be or not). Other females will look to you, see how you carry yourself and even compare what you've done right (or wrong) to prove their own case. Take this with a grain of salt.

I'm hoping that if you were on the fence, my post doesnt push you away from the military. This was truly the best decision I've made. I get a sense of pride being able to say that I serve and although sometimes I feel overwhelmed by it all, its never enough to make me want to quit. Quite simply, I love what I do. If you are thinking about it, however, I will say this: Do your research. Make sure the pros outweigh the cons for you, as they did for me, and once you decide that you will, dont let anyone tell you that you cant.

[ e d i t ] In the efforts to be thorough, I consulted with a fellow soldier to see if I had missed anything in this post. Turns out I did. As I said before, there are many personality types in the military. There are people that will hate you because you are pretty; because you are well kept; because you know your SHIT. Don't let those people deter you. When I became a Sergeant, no one wanted to admit that I had earned it. And as hard of a pill as that was to swallow I set out to show everyone that I wasn't just handed these stripes. I MADE THIS HAPPEN. Not just because I was pretty. It was because I knew enough to know that eventually you'd run out of crap to throw my way. And once you ran out, you'd have to acknowledge my efforts. With that being said, sometimes the biggest roadblock put in front of you is sometimes put there by counterparts who KNOW what we're going thru: other females. In my own experience, it's sad to say that I've come across only a small group of female soldiers who are willing to extend a hand to see us all grow. We shouldn't put barricades in front of each other. We are already in a male dominated environment and they do that to us enough. I'm a firm believer in the saying "If I win, we all win." So if you ever need a hand, remember that I am here. [ / e d i t ]

xo,

Glenesse

Monday, March 3, 2014