...because I'm fancy! Meet my friend, Lara :)

I have an important friend in my life that I need to take a moment and tell y'all about!! I'm really excited to share her with y'all :) Lara! Lara is my amazing lady friend's name! How did I meet Lara you ask? Well, I was working at a tanning bed a few years back, and she tanned there! I remember immediately liking her and her smile. I developed a relationship with a lot of our tanners, and I always looked forward to Lara coming in. There are some important things you need to know about good ol' Lara. First, she is NAIL POLISH OBSESSED. Second, she is dog obsessed....with her dachshund, Coco, I might add. Next, she is married to an awesome dude, and they are perfect for each other...and they love sushi! Lastly, Lara loves the Lord and she is just one of those well put together girls that has a super calming presence that is contagious to be around!

How cute is she?!

Crazy thing about Lara and I's friendship is that it really only stayed at the tanning bed, but we did hang out a few times outside of work. We have stayed in touch for the past 3 years via email and text, but decided to hang out a few weeks back after not seeing each other in roughly 2 years. We had a GREAT TIME. Like I said, she is just one of those girls that is awesome to be around.

Well, why am I telling you this? Other than the fact that I just want to take a second to honor a sweet girl, I want you to check out her blog!!! She just started one a few months ago, and she needs some love, y'all :) She posts the cutest stuff! What are some of the awesome topics you might find on her blog? Nails...duh! Her pup, on Valentine's Day! And let me tell ya, this girl gets DEEP sometimes. Like today, I love love loveeee what she wrote about...being content! Contentment is something that I really believe all women (and even men) struggle with from time to time...wanting more, being envious of others, etc. I think this can be super tough in the blogging world...yeah, I said it. You see someone's cute little outfit, or cute little body, or you read about how awesome their life is and how they have 3 kids, a full time job, an awesome relationship with their husband, they craft every night, clean for 10 minutes per day to have the perfect clean house, manage all of their relationships, and have all of this energy all the time. Yeah.....let's face it. We don't always have this ability, and contentment can be a struggle. Well, Lara shared today about being content where she's at! I have to admire a girl for that these days :) Anyhow, this post doesn't even fully touch on how awesome of a girl she is! She is always smiling, always perking others up. Please, please, please....go say hi and click her Follow button or subscribe so you can stay up to date with her ramblings :)

Have a great night! Oh, and check out a few things I'm selling here!

Mini Blog Sale: Gator Girl/Leopard Alert!

I've been going through my closet and cleaning out lately. I've got two items up for grabs:

This is an adorable Florida Gator Orange and Blue Dress I bought a year and a half ago. I only wore it to one football game. It was handmade from someone I found online. I bought it for around $55.00, I think. I am selling it for $30.00 (includes shipping if you are in the U.S). This dress is adorable! I'd consider it a Medium, although it was handmade and there is no tag with a "size." Here is a picture of me in the dress to show you how it looks on!

 I got A TONNNNN of compliments in this dress! Seriously! I know you will too :) Even the Bama girls were asking where I got it!


This is a cute, cropped, leather jacket by Cynthia Steffe. It's a medium. Worn once. Great condition. If you look closely, you can see where I ripped the tag, but the plastic little string is still attached. I think I wore this for a total of 2 hours! I'm selling this for $60.00 (includes shipping if you are in the U.S). Please email me at brookedowning@me.com if you are interested. I am willing to go down a bit in price if you throw me a decent offer.

 

Oh, How Pinteresting Wednesday's :)

I know some may call this a lazy post, but let me just say this is one of my favorite things to do! I LOVE pinterest...I love linking up! AND....usually, when I share something with y'all, it makes me actually get motivated to do it. Today, most of my pins are going to be organization tools for the home...mostly kitchen and office area. I am currently trying to organize a junk room at our house that has CRAP everywhere, and Josh said when it's finished he will help me get the office stuff going. I would like for us both to have desks and I'm thinking mine may be the cute little closet type one and then we will have a corner unit for him :)

Here are some of the things that I've pinned. Either I have pinned them because they are functional/organized or I just think they're cute!

Source: funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com via Brooke on Pinterest

I like this pin because of the simplicity/decor facor. This is also functional with the shelves and baskets. Probably too small of an area for us, but still....I like it!

Source: bhg.com via Brooke on Pinterest

I love this little desk because of the little holders for mail, books, etc. and I LOVE the wainscoting in the back. Again, a little small for me, but great ideas for built ins.

Source: cafecartolina.blogspot.com via Kelsey on Pinterest

I love this from top to bottom. The built ins, the little cushion seat, the desk area. SO CUTE!

Moving onto kitchen organization:

Source: iheartorganizing.blogspot.com via Brooke on Pinterest

 Does anybody's fridge ACTUALLY look like this? If so, props to you.

Source: google.com via Brooke on Pinterest

 Love the idea of having all of my baking sheets and pyrexes being ORGANIZED and not all crammed in a drawer where you don't even remember what all you have. 

Source: bhg.com via Brooke on Pinterest

Source: kitchens.com via Brooke on Pinterest

 PULL OUT SHELVES!!!!
 

Source: kitchens.com via Brooke on Pinterest

 Great storage for pots and pans   Lastly, I leave you with MY FAVORITE Hollywood couple! :)

Source: google.com via Brooke on Pinterest

'

Source: khloekardashian.celebuzz.com via Rawan on Pinterest

I like to think of myself as Khloe and my honey boo boo as Lam :)So.......let's see if I get to organizing this weekend. My excuse during the week is that I work all day. I'm sure I'll find an excuse this weekend too!
Have a great week :) Don't forget to link up with Michelle! 

I got a donk...I got a donk....I got a donk.....

For a long time I have wanted to be healthier, skinnier, slimmer....not because I think I am a dog or because I am not self confident, but because I know what amount of weight feels good on me. Right now, my weight isn't feeling good. As I said the other day, doing lunges to fit in the jeans....just ain't pretty. Maybe it was when I was single getting dressed in my closet by myself....but um....not so fun when your husband is watching you get dressed and you creep into the bathroom and lock the door. HAHAHA. Sorry...bad visual.

I will never be a rail, nor do I want to. I got a donk....even if I lost 20 pounds, I'd still have a donk.
I got a donk....
I got a donk........
I got a donk, I got a donk, I got a donk, I got a donk.....
I think you get the picture.....

I have never been one of those people who is naturally thin...it just doesn't come really easy for me. Anyhow, the desire for GOOD food and HATRED of exercise always always always gets in the way of the desire to eat healthy and take care of myself. This is a BAD trait.

I'll always start some kind of plan and give up. I hate this quality about myself. You can call it lack of motivation, laziness, gluttony....the list goes on and on. What I've really come to realize is that unfortunately, my priority wasn't truly to be healthy....my priority was and still is sometimes to eat good. When I say good, I mean junk....eh.

Ok, so anyway....what is the point of the story? I'll get there soon enough. I am actually one of those people who ENJOYS healthy foods. While I love chocolate and sweets, I am the weirdo that loves brussel sprouts, asparagus, garlic, etc. So, why is this a constant battle for me? Sheesh. Heck...if...I...know....but this is genuinely one of my sin areas. God didn't intend for me to go cray cray like honey boo boo challl eating whatever I want all day long whenever I want. But...eating crap is convenient. I have never had a reason to literally be forced to eat better except that my pants get a little tight sometimes. Well, now that Lululemon is in my life....that doesn't really matter because everything has STRETCH.

STRETCH: I love you....and I hate you......
Lululemon,
Thank you for ruining my life....j/k.....LULULEMON FOREVER N EVER!!!!

Well, this past Thursday night, I had an allergic reaction. I talked about it here just a teeny bit. When I wrote that post, I had no clue what was coming up the pike.

Long story short, I attributed my little reaction to red bell pepper. I've never had a real problem with bell peppers before, but I'm not a huge fan of them so I don't eat them enough to know if I am allergic to them. This was the only food on Thursday night that I thought might have possibly caused the bad reaction. Then, Friday night, we went to dinner with some friends at a Thai restaurant. I wasn't thinking, but it probably wasn't a good idea to eat Thai that night. I had a steamed rice meal with coconut/peanut curry sauce that was divine, but it had a few little red peppers in it. After dinner, my friend fixed us some strawberry shortcake, which was also DIVINE...BUT, on the way home, I was itching miserably. I took an Aveeno bath that night the minute we got home which provided relief. Saturday all day I seemed to be fine, then that night....here we go again. I'm breaking out in hives and itching like crazy. I was miserable. This time I took a bath and didn't get relief. I took a Benadryl and passed out. Long story short, this viscious cycle continued, so yesterday I went to a holistic allergist! This was something different for me. It turned out to be a great experience. We came to the conclusion that I am allergic to salicylates. My first thought was, what the heck is salicsdlfkjsdfjjlates? After talking to the doctor and doing a whole bunch of research, salicylates are in A TON of food! They are in strawberries (which would explain my horrible reaction after strawberry shortcake) peanuts (curry), pineapple (I ate pineapple this weekend as well), apples, sodas, apricots...the list goes on and on. Salicylates are even in some products like toothpastes. Well, to make a long story short, I am going through some holistic treatments, but until I am cleared up, I am on a strict diet...I like to think of it as a lifestyle change.

If you are still reading, props to you. The point of this is to share that for the first time, something other then just me wanting to change my body is a motivating force. I genuinely believe that I was eating like crap and doing a huge disservice to my body. I also believe that I was dishonoring God by not taking care of my temple. Now I'm not saying that God cause this horrible allergic reaction and now He is punishing me by basically not being able to eat out and having to make/be very careful with all of my food intake, but what I am saying is that I think God might be preventing something deadly down the road. I am going to start taking way better care of my body and honoring God through that. He made our bodies to function and he made whole foods available to us so that we can keep our bodies strong to fight off illness/disease/cancer. I definitely don't want to come in contact with any of that stuff...and I'm not saying that just changing your diet will make you fight off all of the bad stuff....all I am saying is that I am going to do whatever is in my power to take care of my body and be healthy....especially before we have chillins. I want to get this all down pat, so that when we have kiddies, Josh and I train them up in the way they should go. Ok, I am all over the place right now, but consider this the start of my journey. As I learn, I will be sharing more info, because there aren't a whole lot of recipes and information that I have found out there. So, I will post what works for me and what I am doing to stay healthy and in shape!!! This is totally new for me and a HUGE challenge! I WILL mess up along the way, but I am here to help anyone else that is going through weird diet/body changes!!

Again, thanks for listening and here's a few shots of my messy kitchen tonight....I made potato pancakes (extremely low in salicylates) with tilapia filets :)
This is my new venture :)

First, I boiled and cut up some cabbage to pat in with the mashed potato patties :)

Sunflower Oil is one of the safe oils to use if going salicylic free....turns out I love this!!!

Boiling my potatoes

Frying up the patties with a little sunflower oil :)

Nice, golden brown, potato pancakes :) DELISH!

Romantic pics + Valentine Cards + KAYLEE LABOR!

So, tonight I thought I would share a few of my favorite pictures from our session with the lovely and amazing Kaylee Labor! People!!!! You need to check out Kaylee Labor's website! She is a legit photog with a artsy eye and spunky personality! I am going to try to find an excuse at least once or twice a year to have our photos done with her. What I think is so awesome about Kaylee is not just the fact that she is a great photographer. What I find important is feeling comfortable with the person behind the camera...not everyone has this ability. Seriously. I clam up with certain people. I know this might shock you, but seriously....I do. We were comfortable with Kaylee from start to finish!! She is such a joy to be around, so don't be a dork and only check out my cute pictures, but check out her website and her blog! PS-If you go all the way through this, you will see an example of holiday cards that she can have printed for you! We did Valentine's Cards this year :)

Kaylee even makes piggies look good....ok....

Valentine card designed by one of my good friends, Ashley! How awesome is the front of this card?!?!

I love what Ash did with the back. I absolutely love hearts, and Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday!

Now...quit fartin' around and CHECK out Kaylee and Ashley! Better yet, schedule a session!!!! You WON'T regret it!!!

Xoxo,
bnfunky <3

OOTN + Mini Blog Sale :)

Friday night we headed out to dinner with some of Josh's friends. I have put on some weight in the last month or so and felt really chunky. With that said, please spare me your kind comments of "no you haven't." Or "you look great, Brooke." etc. etc. Seriously....I've put on weight. I can feel it. I refuse to step on a scale. Most of my jeans are really tight to the point of doing lunges to get them on even when they aren't freshly washed/dryed, so those bad feelings are what inspired this outfit. We were going to dinner, and I'm usually a very casual dresser, but I felt so thick that I felt the need to wear some higher wasted (old lady) jeans and wedges to slim zee legs.

Here is my outfit :)

Grey sweater: Forever 21, Melon Tank: Old Navy, Jeans: Ann Taylor Loft (scored at 1/2 off)!

My husband fractured his 3rd metatarsal. I feel horrible for him, but all I ask is that you wear a sock and not be "that guy." This is what he sported that night for his OOTN....'cept he wore a sock. This is what he does around the house. LOL!

Home Depot OOTD: Shorts: Nike, Shoes: Reebok, Shoe Boot: Doctor!

Also, I am in the process of cleaning out a junk room in our house. I found some great things that I no longer have use for. Please email me for info: brookedowning@me.com

I am selling this adorable maxi MM Couture dress by Miss Me that I got ENGAGED in...Ladies, ya never know what could happen if you decide to wear this dress :) $55.00 if you are local and I don't have to ship. To ship, it will be somewhere around $60-$65.00 total.

 

The other item that I am selling is my Nikon DX AF-S Nikkor 55-200 mm lens. My D60 was stolen a few months back. This lens was only used a few times and has no scratches. From what I have found online, these go for $150.00. I am selling this for $90.00 plus shipping, so right around $100.00 unless you are local :)

If you have any questions or would like to see a picture of me in the dress to see what it looks like on, just email me! Have a great Sunday!

The GOOD, the BAD, the ITCHY, and the UGLY

Why is it that Mon-Thurs, I feel like I have to go to bed early? Like I literally can't function in the mornings and if I go to bed after 11, I feel horrible the next day? Then, come Friday night.....I'm ready to crash, but instead, I spend time pinteresting it up and reading blogs until 1 or 2 in the morning??? Is it because I know I can sleep in and enjoy my own personal rebellion with no responsibility? Quite honestly....it's stupid. But....here it is, 12:53 and I'm blogging. Wow, I am so cool.

So, I'll fill y'all in with my most interesting life right now...NOT! Haha....basically, last night I fixed a really simple casserole "esque" meal which involved Uncle Ben's Wild Rice, chicken breasts, red pepper, mushrooms, salt, and pepper. Anyhow, a few hours after dinner, I started itching really bad all over my body. As far as I know, I am not allergic to anything I had for dinner. Then, I took a hot shower when I woke up before work and itched all day....kind of strange. Moving on, I had eggs and bacon for breakfast and nothing for lunch. I drank two water bottles today and then had thai food tonight. Nothing sketchy....just some rice and cut up chicken with coconut sauce and mashed peanuts. I am itching all over again. On our way home, we stopped to get me the Aveeno Oatmeal bath stuff. I took a bath in that and am feeling A LOT of relief. What the heck, though? I have never had an allergic reaction to ANY of the foods that I have eaten in the last 24 hours. Josh thought it would be a good idea to change the sheets from last night, so we changed those before I took the bath. I'll be curious to see how I feel tomorrow. It's just so strange to me. Anyone else have this problem or any clue as to what in the world happened to me? I'm sort of at a loss....and tired of itching. I'm trying not to scratch, but I'm scratching a little to get by. My friend Ashley said it could be that my skin is just dry from being in Vermont/Boston this past week since it was freezing cold....but....I have been in very cold situations before. I don't itch all over with little mini rashes. So strange.

Ok, enough about that. So, I participated in a cool blog swap this past month, but my partner and I were slammed with stuff to do, so we ended up gifting to each other a little later then the deadline. You can check out The Crowley Party Blog here where I got wind of the exchange!

So, I got paired with Dayna over at Pearls, Curls & All Things Southern...Tales of a Bama Belle!!! :)
Go check out Danya's blog before continuing to read! So anyhow, I received Dayna's SWEET SWEET gift in the mail when I got back from Vermont this week. It was an awesome gift to come home to. Come to think of it....I would like gifts waiting at my house whenever I come home from a trip from now on. Makes coming home not so bad :) Ha! Here are a few shots of the awesome goodies she got me! PS-The dinner I made last night came from this cookbook she sent! Dayna is so thoughtful, and what I thought was so cute was that she took into consideration that I am a working newlywed and got me some things that she thought I could really use/enjoy!

Dayna knows I'm a Gator and that Josh is all about the Tide. She got me this cute Tumblr in pink to try and convert me!

How sweet and thoughtful was this gift??? Seriously? It is awesome!!!

Have any of you ever participated in a blog gift swap? It's pretty fun! :)
With that said, I am trying to tackle a project tomorrow...........drumroll, please.........
I am going to attempt to clean our "junk" room. Don't worry....I will post pics. I am not going to be the blogger who makes you think I have this sick awesome life by only posting the good. I will post the ugly too.....which will be these nasty skank pictures of this room with clothes all over the floor, miscellaneous furniture, receipts, paperwork, jewelry trees, tupperwares and let's face it....CRAP EVERYWHERE! Everyone has one of these rooms.....right? ;)

Ok, and let me get to the REAL reason I am going to clean this room.......because I have a project I am going to be working on in the next few weeks that I'm really excited to share with you!!! Duh! Why else?! Woohoo :) Have a great weekend! Don't work too hard......or better yet.....do work too hard. Come to my house and CLEAN! I can make brownies as payment? Or I can give you a 20 minute backrub.....or I could even say that we could film a fun video? Ok, ok....I'll stop badgering! Xo!!!!!