Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Maternity Slacks that Suit Your Belly!

Finally, maternity suits that really do suit your belly!  This fabulous maternity wear from Suits your Belly is perfect for the professional mama-to-be.


You've often heard me warn every mommy-to-be to not purchase too many pieces of maternity wear too soon.  The reason: you never know if you'll carry the baby high or low, gain weight all over or be all belly.  I rushed to buy too many maternity outfits out of pure excitement and ended up only wearing half of them because I quickly discovered that a full belly panel was the only thing that was going to fit over this BIG belly :-)

Well, problem solved.  Suits Your Belly has created the perfect solution - pants with a patented Zip in Panel that gives you the versatility of dress pants that will take you from the beginning of your pregnancy to your first few weeks back after maternity leave.

What I love most about these pants is that they are perfect for everyone and every stage of your pregnancy.  

     From 14 weeks:

     To 34 weeks:

Save yourself a lot of money and the headache of growing out of your maternity clothes and pick of a few pair of Suits Your Belly maternity pants.  After all, the only thing worse feeling like a beached whale at 36 weeks is discovering that you can no longer even fit into your maternity slacks.

Enter to win a pair of these fabulous pants today!

Don't forget to check out all of the other fabulously professional maternity wear from Suits Your Belly:

Until next time,
aka Chick #1



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Howcast Traveling with Baby Filming

On Friday April 19, 2013 I hit another awesome milestone - filming how to videos (43 of them to be exact) for Howcast, the #1 YouTube channel!

I really cannot tell you what an honor it was to be cast as the Howcast.com expert on Traveling with Baby.  I also cannot tell you how much work this wonderful honor would entail.  Not only would I be filming 43 how to videos (yes FORTY-THREE) on topic they selected, I had to rough out the content for each segment, get my hands on the best props available and get my tail up to NYC!

It's no secret that I love being in front of the camera, in fact the past 5 months since my first appearance on My Carolina Today have been exhilarating to say the least.  But, I had not idea what I was in for signing up for 8 straight hours of filming - the pressure of bringing my A game for each and every segment, not forgetting to mention anything, all while under the hot lights of the studio in my oh so typically too high heels (which yes by the end of the day became flip flops).  But OMG was it fun!  Working with the team from Howcast.com, especially JR and Andy who were sooo patient with me, was such a pleasure.  I can't wait to do it again

Check out my crazy day:

All set and ready to go!  This was the main set for nearly 25 of the segments we taped.  I'm still bummed that you won't see my fabulous shoes in any of the videos ;-)

I was fortunate enough to have a number of fabulous, Clueless Chick approved, products to showcase in each segment.  A HUGE thank you to:



Here I am studying my notes between takes.  43 segments worth of material is a lot to memorize, even if I did write it myself. Luckily there were only a few times we had to rerun a segment.  Again my TypeA/OCD over researching personality comes in handy.

I love this Behind the scenes shot where you can see the whole set, and the camera man's view.  That's an awfully close shot so let's hope my make up looks good!
Jennifer and Jennifer :-)


Here I am demonstrating my favorite new toy, which has yet to hit the market - Pully Palz!


A few of the guys from FuseTV stopped by to watch the taping of a few segments.  I know they were there mainly to check out the equipment, but what an honor!  One of the guys even said "your voice is so soothing, you're really great at this".  Yes, I will be quoting my new best friend for years to come :-) I was so thrilled that they were happy to take a quick picture with me.
Jennifer and the guys from FuseTV


The amazing Howcast.com Camera Man and Director.  I would not have made it through 8 hours (yes EIGHT) of filming without Andy and JR.  I can't wait to see their fabulous work!  Oh yeah, that's Baby Falafel in JR's hand - we couldn't have done this without her.
Andy, Jennifer and JR (with Baby Falafel) 

A behind the scenes look at what I mess I made under the table during the second part of our taping :-)
Jennifer and her mess

Stay tuned for updates on the Howcast.com Traveling with Baby video release dates!

Until next time,
Jennifer
aka Chick #1

P.S.  all of these fabulous pictures are courtesy of Brandy, who you will likely never see in front of the camera no matter how much fun I tell her it is ;-)

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Instant Inspiration Jars

Yep, it's yet another Mason Jar craft!



Instant Inspiration Jars
For every time someone says “what should we do?”.  Grab whatever jars/containers you have and let’s get crafty:

Crafts you have around the house

Irresistible recipes you’ve been dying to try

Each of the fun places you can go for a change of scenery  


I love the idea of having a physical collection of all of my craft, cooking and outing to do ideas.  Like many of you, I’m a bit overwhelmed by the number of fabulous ideas on my countless Pinboards.  There is just something a bit paralyzing about the hundreds and hundreds of craft related pins I have.  Time and time again I spend 5 min trying to dig up a pin I KNOW I saw last week. In those 5 min I could have been setting up or even finishing my craft or have dinner on the table (or at least in the oven).  Problem solved!  I’ve now got these cute little jars filled only with ideas for which I already have everything on hand :-)  Now we’ll just have to see how good I am about adding new ideas....


Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Homemade Play-Doh
Cinnamon Monkey Bread Minis
All the Cheese you can Grill
Black Bean Chili

And don't forget to check out all of our fun Spring tips in Carolina Parent Magazine!

Until next time,
aka Chick #1