Moving my Blog!

Hi everyone, I wanted to quickly update you all on my decision to move on from blogger and the name Follow Me To Fashion. After marriage and children, my focus has shifted and I want to blog about more than just my love for fashion. I hope you'll enjoy my new blog. Please follow me over there for DIYs, mom style, recipes, Stay at Home mom duties, yoga and pictures of Maci :)

I'm now at DoneInADayMom.com

I wanted my new blog to reflect that my day to day responsibilities as a wife and mom are all over the place. I'd like to share with you all what fun and sometimes challenging things I do each day. Welcome to my new space!

Update: Mommy Weight Loss

Hi Everyone, long time no see. It's been a year since I last blogged and a lot has happened in a year. The first post in my update series will be about my weight loss after baby. I challenged myself with a bootcamp around the 4 month postpartum mark and had some success before a cruise when Maci was 5 months old. Maci is now 2 years old (I'll address that craziness in another birthday post) and I can say that I'm totally happy with my weight loss.

A little back story, I've always been a dancer and as a natural extension have dabbled in yoga over the years. A year ago, I decided to take yoga seriously as my best friend was beginning her yoga instructor training. It was a win win, she could practice on me and I got to have one on one yoga sessions! Fast forward to now a year later and I feel great and am back in shape thanks to my bff/yoga instructor Danielle Terrell. I'm so thankful to have gone through this journey with her and it has given us yet another thing to bond over. We hold each other accountable and call each other ugly names when we are slacking lol!

As for my diet, I changed my eating habits but not what I eat. I am not ok with restricting myself from eating the things I love. Instead, I eat whatever I want but a fraction of the portion size that I would normally eat. Although I've always been a semi-healthy eater, I would normally eat way too much in one sitting and end up stuffed, uncomfortable, gassy and bloated. Now, I start with less on my plate and if I want more, I wait 20 minutes and see if I'm still hungry. If I am, I go for it but most of the time, I'm not.

Here are some before and afters for comparison. If you'd like more info on yoga, meal plans, how to get started, workout gear, anything, leave a comment and I'll be sure to give you all my "secrets".

The picture on the left is from 2010. I've always had thick thighs and a small waist. I'm 5'3 and weighed about 145lbs.-150lbs. The top middle picture is 2013, the day I found out I was pregnant, the bottom was at 12 weeks pregnant. The right picture is March 2014, a few days before having Maci. I was about 175lbs at the end of my pregnancy.

 

This is my after baby body that I'm so proud of. I weigh about 135lbs now which I think is a good balance for my height and keeping some curves. The swimsuit left is July 2015, the right is December 2015. 

I have a lot of extra skin on my stomach and tons of stretch marks but I have accepted that I can't do anything to change that.  I have been posting a lot of yoga pictures lately on my Instagram, you can follow me for daily life and tons of pictures of Maci: MiaKennedyWalrus

Maci's First Birthday Party!

My sweet sweet baby had her first birthday a month ago on March 4th. I was conflicted initially on how I felt about it. I am so excited to watch her grow and as she gets older, she's so much fun because she can interact and laugh and play with me. OMG though, my baby...that tiny little thing that was in my stomach is getting bigger! It's the worst pull and tug ever to want to keep your baby tiny forever but hope for them to grow and thrive.  I am so grateful for her health, strength and progress and milestones but I miss her as a newborn. As I write this, (a month later) she's already doing more than what she was in these pictures and it's just a good reminder to stay in the moment, not take things for granted and spend every moment loving and kissing and hugging them.

My birthday girl had a party and I was debating for a while whether I wanted to just have family and cake or do a theme and invite friends too. I know she didn't know the difference but I ended up doing a party because you only turn 1 once (YOTOO?) and I thought it would be fun to plan and have pictures to look back on. I'm very much a party person so it was a good excuse for me to go on Pinterest and play!

I already knew I wanted to get Maci a teepee as her birthday gift so I decided on "Camping with Woodland Friends" as her theme. I know, long theme name but it was important to me to incorporate camping, outdoors and animals.

 Here are the invitation we sent to her friends and family. Each envelope was decorated with something different. 

This is the front of the invite and the back was her picture. I used picmonkey.com to create the invitation and edit the picture that I took in our neighborhood. 

Maci's dress from Old Navy and her sweater is from H&M (not available online anymore)

I made this floral 1 that hung over the gift table at the party

We did her cake smash on her actual birthday at home with just the 3 of us. Her dress is from Old Navy, her headband is from Target (unavailable online), shoes are Keds 

The entrance to the party was decorated with logs from our yard and a Welcome pennant that I made and strung across a stick from the grass :)

I made our camp signs from cardboard attached to a stick from the yard...stuck into a planter (that had a dead flower in it that is still in there)

Once inside, you enter Camp Eden! I loved our teepee so much and I embellished it with flowers and butterflies from the dollar store. Our forest was borrowed Christmas decorations from my mom. The grass carpet and my picnic blanket and fur rug are from Ikea. We also had these soft woodland animal toys out for the children to play with. 

I found these little cards at Tuesday Morning and drew camp signs on them 

Make Your Own Trail Mix for the kids to snack on

The Campfire Cake tasted great, my mom made my favorite chocolate cake from my Grandma's recipe. I didn't like the way my "flames" turned out but I didn't have time to remake them. 

We got grocery store cupcakes for the kids and Maci's big sister drew forest animals on them.

Guests took home s'mores and treat bags with play-dough and bubbles.

We had such a great time celebrating Maci's birthday with all of her friends and family! 

YouTube Channel!

I'm super excited to say that I've finally started a youtube channel. I've wanted to start a channel for a long time but it was tough for me to hear my own voice. Is anyone else hyper critical of their own voice? After only a week now, I've gotten used to it so I'm ok with it now. What really made me jump in is having Maci. She's growing so fast and I want to remember everything about her and all of the fun and hard times we have together. I want to encourage anyone who is thinking of starting to just do it. I'm so happy that I have my memories in a place that I can go back and watch and eventually show Maci as she gets older. The beauty of YouTube is that you can make your videos private so nobody can see them if you like to keep your life private.

Please go on over and check out my videos, my channel name is Follow Me To Fashion. subscribe to my channel and leave comments so I know someone is watching! I'd love to chat with you guys. Thanks and seeya on the Tube :)

A Perfect Day For A Nature Museum

My family and I took a little drive to Reedy Creek Park on Friday and visited the Nature Center. We had a 6 month old, a 14 month old and a 3 year old and they all had a good time. With children of different ages, it can be hard to satisfy all of them and the nature center did just that. The nature center is free and it was overcast and about 70 degrees which was perfect for being at the park.

This way to enter ⬅️

My Mom and Dad are the best grandparents and really enjoy spending time with the kids. They help us a ton and I'm so grateful to be so close to them. My cousin Madison came with us too and she's awesome with kids! She's in grad school and works at our family's daycare University Child Development Center so she's the best in home nanny/cousin/friend a girl could ever ask for! 

This is at the entrance to a little sitting garden. It was really pretty and relaxing but had a lot of hornets and wasps...

Sweater is H&M, Pants are Madewell and shoes are Zara but they're all from years ago, so here are some similar things that are available now.  Sweater- H&M, Pants- Old Navy, Shoes- Enzo Angiolini 

There were giant ants and ladybugs.

And a Hawk who captured a snake.

Maci was excited to see all of the exhibits and really liked looking at everything, especially the things that made noise. We used our Joovy Groove Ultralight Stroller, it's really made for smooth surfaces so it wasn't easy to push in the mulch. My sister used my Baby Jogger City Mini GT (because she had her Baby Jogger City Mini Double but only needed to push her 14 month old) and it was a really really easy smooth ride on the rocks, grass, mulch, sticks and everything else on the trail. 

There's a little gift shop when you enter that has lots of educational toys and books, they sell bottled water too. Brody found a walking stick with a bear carved into the handle that he loved.

Grandaddy found a big butterfly.

Grandma found a looooong snake.

There was a huge bee hive hanging above our heads.

Dylan and I chilled at the fireside campsite and played with the puppets

Maci took a nap in the cozy rocking chairs

We went outside and had fun walking the trails and playing in the treehouse!

Vest-Baby Gap Shirt-Oshkosh Pants-Juicy Boots-Old Navy

One of our favorites was the seesaw!

After 2 hours of fun, everyone was tired and hungry. We got there at 2:45pm and left just before they closed at 5pm. It was great because there were only a few other people there. The kids were free to run and play and see without it being crowded.

Time to go home!

What a great day! (Ignore my pimple)

Pumpkin Spice Latte

I'm a true lover of fall so excuse me while I revel in highs of 60 degrees, falling leaves and pumpkin spice EVERYTHING! This morning I made my own pumpkin spice latte and I thought if share my recipe with you all. I am lactose intolerant so if you are too, this is a recipe for you! 

Supplies Needed:

Small pot

Espresso maker

Measuring cup

Wooden spoon 

Fall mugs

Ingredients:

Pumpkin Pie Ground Coffee-Marshall's 

4oz Lactose Free Milk

2oz Lactose free hazelnut creamer-trader joes

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

Few dashes Cinnamon

Few dashes Nutmeg

Few dashes Apple Pie Spice or All Spice

Whipped Cream

Brew your espresso (or very very strong brewed coffee) and while you wait, bring 2oz of creamer and 4oz of milk to a boil. Add spices and stir. When the milk boils, turn the heat to Lo, continue to stir occasionally for 5min. 

When your espresso is finished, pour 1/2 cup of espresso into your mug. Pour your 6oz mixture of milk and creamer into the mug. Top with whipped cream, sprinkle cinnamon on top so it looks pretty. Enjoy!

All of my ingredients are ready. *If you've never used Madagascar vanilla extract, get it next time you see it. It really does taste better than the regular kind. I got this one at target or Marshall's I think*

The espresso maker is from Bed Bath and Beyond. We also have a single serve tiny one that's perfect for just one. It takes about 3-5 minutes for perfect yummy espresso. I always cut my coffee bags, store the coffee in mason jars and tuck the lable in the inside of the jar so it stays fresh and I know what kind it is. The picture is just the label so you can find it in Marshall's ☺️

I like a lot of spices in mine so I used a few dashes of each!

This brand is Bialetti and the small one is really cheap. They have more complicated ones but I like to keep it simple.

Hot spices milk and espresso measured and smelling delish.

The sprinkle of cinnamon on top makes it official! 

Happy Fall Y'all!

Mommy Weight Loss

I have no secrets, I don't know if there are any mommy weight loss secrets really. All of the moms I know lost weight by breastfeeding and eating sensibly and it was the same for me. When I got pregnant in June, I was around 150 lbs. I'm 5'3 and normally, my heavy, after Thanksgiving and Christmas weight can get as high as 155.

By the time I stopped checking, which was at 39 weeks pregnant, I weighed 180 lbs. I went 40 weeks and 6 days so I estimated that I was close to 185lbs when I delivered. 35 lbs. is not a lot to gain while pregnant in my opinion. Some gain more, some less, and as long as baby is healthy, whatever weight I gained was fine with me.

This is one of the last pictures I took before having Maci, so let's call it about 185lbs.

When I was in the hospital, after delivering via C-section, I was encouraged to walk (slowly) and wear and girdle to reduce swelling, get rid of gas etc., so I did. When I left the hospital 3 or 4 days after giving birth, I looked like this. We're toasting to a healthy delivery and heading home. (My friend Lola brought me wine in a Gatorade bottle, what a great friend!) I was wearing an adjustable hospital binder like this.

Once I got home, I was feeling pretty good, and eating normally (for a hungry, super thirsty, breastfeeding mom). I was drinking tons of water throughout the day and every time I woke up at night to feed Maci. I was trying to get the hang of things and I could feel my belly contracting, which means my uterus was shrinking and that's how your belly gets smaller. The day we got home from the hospital, my belly looked like this.

By day 6, I started swelling and retaining fluid and looked a hot mess. Like, I went from bad to worse. All of my friends and family pretended they didn't notice. They were so nice and didn't mention how bad I looked. I was tired, groggy and swollen but in new mommy bliss so I didn't even notice until I saw this picture of myself! Wtf happened! Bigger face than when I was pregnant and bigger than when I left the hospital.

 After seeing that picture, I was ready to start walking again but I wasn't supposed to exercise for another 5 weeks. Fast forward a few weeks into mommyhood and feeling good enough to drive, I was running errands and looked like this. Not as swollen and belly going down. By this time, my hospital band was too big and I bought a girdle like this. I bought a size medium but I couldn't pull it on until a month after delivering. 

From day to day, my belly would fluctuate size with gas or fluid. These 2 pictures were taken only a few days apart.

With the girdle on at Marshall's :)

 At 1 month exactly, I celebrated my birthday with friends at dinner and looked like this. I hadn't done any exercising other than the occasional walk. I decided that a peplum top would be my best bet for hiding my postpartum tummy. My flabby arms, however, couldn't be conceiled. No big deal I guess. My boobs were also gigantic and I had increased from a 34D to 36E.

After gettin the ok from my doctor to start exercising at around 6 weeks, I increased my walks by duration only. I still walked pretty leisurely, and it was only every few days on the greenway in my neighborhood. Here's my family taking a walk.

I looked like this.

My husband and I decided to take a vacation at the end of August with some friends and I really wanted to feel comfortable in a bathing suit. In the middle of June, we booked the trip. That meant I had 2 months to get into "shape"! I started walking more often but I knew that wouldn't be enough. I signed up for a bootcamp and this was me on day 1...sorta scared. 

I reluctantly woke up at 5am to pump before working out at 6am, then having a full day of mommy duties to do. It was really hard for me to get up early and devote that time to working out but it was only 45 minutes. The Burn Bootcamp classes were REALLY GOOD! I would go into detail about what we did but there was a lot. Basically, lots of squats, push-ups and jumping jacks...with weights. Very traditional workouts, no machines or crazy moves. The classes were full of people who just wanted to workout and not intimidating gym rats. The trainers were intense and motivating and were willing to help any time you needed a push. You can check out their website here to get specific class information. They also have a Groupon that makes it super affordable.I was really excited about my progress while in bootcamp and then I got sick and stopped after 1 month. I didn't go back to bootcamp but when the cruise came around, I looked like this. 

 

I felt comfortable enough to wear a baithing suit and I was back to 150lbs. My body is shaped totally different now but I'm really liking my new mommy body. I have loads of stretch marks on my tummy but I'm slowly starting to get used to them. I don't go to bootcamp anymore because after we came back from the cruise, Maci went through a rough time sleeping at night so I just didn't have the energy to get up and work out. I still walk with Maci in her stroller so that when I decide to workout again, I don't have to start from square one :) Today, a month after our cruise, I weigh 145lbs. I'm going to go back to bootcamp soon to tone up and just stay in good health. Hope this helps anyone who's looking to loose weight, especially after baby. Walk, walk, walk and when you're ready, try a bootcamp or group session because I really believe being in a group helped motivate and push me. 

**I'm not on any extra special diet, but if anyone is intersted in what I eat on a typical day, let me know in the comments and I'll do a seperate post on it**