Katie Holmes Pregnant Again?

For the past week, Katie Holmes has been photographed, which isn’t new in her life; but what is new is the fact that every day she has been photographed, she has been wearing the exact same pair of baggy jeans.

“It’s the new look Katie is going for,” a source tells Us Magazine.

It has also been confirmed that not only is she wearing extremely baggy jeans every single day, but that their not even hers, they are Tom Cruise’s.

This of course makes you wonder what’s going on that the severely wealthy Katie Holmes is wearing her husband’s jeans and for an entire week, at that; it does seem like that awkward time in a pregnancy where you find your clothes getting a little tight but it’s way too soon to break out the maternity wear. Speaking of which, have we all noticed the bump that is in plain sight?

Leave the shirt untucked next time, Katie.

Book Review: Please Excuse My Daughter by Julie Klam

Allow me to preface this review by stating the fact that typically, I enjoy memoirs. Memoirs, in my opinion, mark the struggles, triumphs, courage and stamina of a person. They signify a life that has truly been lived and allow a person to share their lives with others who may benefit from reading their story.

Julie Klam was born and raised in a Jewish family where her mother and many other Jewish wives and women in general believed that women did not work. Instead, they married rich men, spent their husband’s money on luxuries that purely benefit the way they look and eat and nothing else and have a few children before they are expected to get a job and contribute to their families. Julie was not only raised in this lifestyle, she inhabited this lifestyle and truly made it her own.

Her mother frequently took her out of school so she could go shopping and wear the best clothes out of all of the girls she went to school with because she was raised thinking that that was the important part of life–The best clothes, the best hair, the best nails and so on. Because of her upbringing, Julie did not receive the education that she deserved as a young child growing up.

As every adult knows, there comes a time when you need to become an adult; to grow up and take responsibility for your life and eventually, for your family. Sadly, Julie Klam never did break away from the way she was raised and instead, formed a lifestyle around fear and laziness.

On the back cover of Julie Klam’s memoir, Please Excuse My Daughter, you will see a laundry list of pseudo-accomplishments. She had attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where it was a requirement of hers to watch a countless number of movies. She was an intern at Late Night with David Letterman, she landed her first “real” job at VH1 on the popular music video show, Pop Up Video, where she met and later married the show’s producer, Paul Leo. It was for Pop Up Video that she received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Special Class Writing; however, as good as “Emmy Nominated Writer” looks by your name, she simply received that nomination in conjunction with the rest of the writing staff of the show. Since then, she was also published in O: The Oprah Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour and Rolling Stone, although you learn in her book that her close friend works for Rolling Stone, so it is obvious to see how she landed that gig.

Julie Klam’s life has been a series of excuses. Excuses as to why she had never had a real job that she could stick with and not because she simply enjoys the life of freelancing, but because she is simply incapable of being an adult. Throughout her memoir, where at 257 pages, was 256 pages too long, Julie whines, complains and feels sorry for herself for not being able to highlight her hair or go to Saks; she is truly her mother’s daughter.

Julie Klam simply wrote an entire memoir based upon what most “mommy bloggers” are writing about now, yet most mommy bloggers are far more entertaining and don’t lose their reader after a few posts. As a matter of a fact, Heather Armstrong of Dooce did write a book and from what I have been hearing, it’s a hell of a lot more interesting to a broader range of people than what the reviews of Please Excuse My Daughter are receiving across the board.

While Please Excuse My Daughter is written very well and some of the times is absolutely hilarious, Julie Klam’s memoir is long, dry and sticks to your throat as you try to swallow it. In my (most humble) opinion, I believe that the next time Julie Klam finds herself in another slump and needs money desperately, instead of writing a memoir (because this one surely is not going to make her the millions she lies awake dreaming of at night) she should opt for children’s books. She has a wonderful sense of humor and a talent for writing humor and should apply her talents to something not so involved; something that will not let her drag out a story and pretend it is epic when it simply falls flat.

Taken from Julie’s own blog, in a post written about Goodreads, a site where people are able to keep track of the books they want to read, have read and write reviews, you can tell what a self-assured woman Klam is when she responds to those who do not enjoy her book and agree with her that she is brilliant by saying, “…I’m thinking of leaving the Author Program, too, because I want to write nasty things to people who give my book low ratings and I don’t want them to know it’s me. (Like “Sorry, I didn’t write the book for half-wits.”) You know?”

Well Julie, who did you write this book for? If it was for yourself, then I suggest you stick to journaling your random thoughts and long monologues about why your life was so hard. If you wrote the book for well-read individuals looking for a book about someone’s life who has accomplished something and who actually has something to say, well I’m here to tell you that you’ve disappointed your ideal audience.

Rating:

This post can also be seen on The Pajama Mommy Community.

Never Lose Another Magazine Article Again

I used to be a big magazine junkie. I used to work at Borders Books & Music and would find myself constantly grabbing magazines, buying the ones that looked interesting through my extensive task of putting all the magazines people took off the racks and left wherever they felt like it at the end of the day and for the entire time I worked there, I just found more and more magazines that I had to read. The only problem with having so many magazines with so many fabulous articles that I just had to read was that I wound up with a stack of magazines and any time that I had thought back to the articles that I wanted to re-read or needed for research for an article, I had to sift through several different issues of several magazines. Another problem I had continuously ran into was the fact that my stack of magazines were starting to fall apart after a while and in some cases, the articles I had been cherishing in those magazines, were also starting to fall apart.

Apparently quite a few other people were running into these same problems when it came to the magazines they love and because of the flimsiness of magazines and the impossible task of keeping them all cataloged and in good shape, Scanalog was born.

Scanalog is a magazine cataloging system that runs on your computer. The process is extremely simple and if you are a magazine lover, you are going to wonder what you did without it. The program is beautiful, first of all, its interface is self-explanatory and so easy that someone who knows very little about computers to begin with will be able to use it hassle-free. By simply scanning your magazine articles and cataloging them using the Scanalog program, you will have every magazine article that you had been saving whole magazines for at your fingertips. You will never find yourself searching through the stack of magazines that are taking over your book shelf or desk or having to say in the middle of a conversation “I remember reading an article about that in a magazine, but I can’t show it to you because I completely forget where I put that magazine.”

The system comes with 11 master categories as well as stickers for each category that you can use to organize your magazine articles before you scan them. Scanalog also supports retrieving your articles from your hard drive or digital camera. At the present moment, Scanalog covers a wide range of women’s interests such as parenting, home decoration, gardening and traveling, but since Scanalog has been so widely accepted, they are currently working on other systems tailor made for those with different interests.

Scanalog is not only a lifesaver when it comes to all the magazines you may have laying around, but it’s a fun project finding all the articles you have saved, scanning and cataloging them. It would also make a great gift for anyone you know who buys and saves magazines or other media sources.

To order your own Scanalog, visit the website or call 1-866-849-SCAN for more information.

Go Green in Your Garden

I have noticed that there are quite a few more “go green” commercials airing on television. Not only that, but many companies have seen to pick up the same tactics in all consumer media–Television, online, magazines; you name it, and it’s going green.

Companies want you to buy organically–Food, bath and body products, laundry detergents and so on, but when I got down to thinking, one place where you should most definitely be letting your eco-friendliness shine is when you’re using your green thumb.

Don’t let your plants and flowers soak up all the green in your garden. Many gardeners don’t realize simply how ironic it is that you’re growing green but you’re not necessarily going green when it comes to most small gardens and one of the most controversial elements when it comes to your garden are the products you are using to help keep your garden beautiful. One of the biggest things that can keep your garden from looking it’s best are weeds and instead of spending an entire day pulling weeds out by hand when you can be tending to the other aspects of your garden, you must find yourself an excellent weed killer.

Weed killers aren’t environmentally friendly; in fact, weed killers use harsh chemicals to kill weeds, but while you may think that they are getting the job done in that department, they are also harming your other plants–And that goes triple if you have a vegetable garden! Luckily, there is now an organic herbicide that is safe to use for you, your pets and children and the environment.

Nature’s Avenger is an all-natural organic herbicide that is completely natural and designed to meet the needs and demands of gardeners, homeowners and Mother Nature.

It has been approved for use in organic production, is fast-acting with visible results in just two hours or even less and it is also highly biodegradable. It is made with natural citrus oil, which means you aren’t dealing with harsh chemicals with harsh chemical smells. With Nature’s Avenger, your sense of smell, braincells and health of pets and children are fully taken care of.

Nature’s Avenger is available is a 24oz pre-mixed, pre-measured, easy to use spray bottle and also in 32oz and 1 gallon concentrates and can be purchased through their website or on Amazon.

Cozy Blankets Wrapped in Inspiration

I work from home and one of the things that I never really paid much attention to before, such as motivational and inspirational quotes, have become a very big part of my life. I find a quote I like and I will make a desktop background with the quote on it or write it down on a piece of paper and keep it on my desk. It is very little things such as this that give me my little jolt for the day–Oh yeah, and coffee. They are what take me from “Ugh, I don’t want to do anything today.” to “I need to work, I need to make money to keep a roof over my head and food on the table. This is what is going to turn my life around. This is what I do and I am damn good at it!”

One of the best finds I have come across lately, as well as something that has completely transformed my work ethic are the Affirmagy wraps. The blankets come from an all-woman business, which of course makes them top notch in my book, being a woman entrepreneur as well as a soon-to-be woman business owner and they also have a poster of Rosie the Riveter in the office, which just makes my love for this company grow and grow. They have been featured on Family.com, Entrepreneur.com, as well as in publications of Pink magazine, Fit Yoga and The Boston Globe.

The affirmawraps are incredibly soft blankets that come in a variety of colors that have inspirational quotes covering them. They have helped my work ethic due to me being snuggled up in my computer chair in mine since I received it.

Affirmawraps come with several different quotes on them, including abundance, courage, gratitude, love, motherhood, serenity, strength and wholeness. They also have a limited edition series which come with quotes for compassion, peace, inspiration and joy.

Being a freelance writer, website designer and web administrator, I obviously needed the inspiration wrap, needing all the inspiration I can get on a daily basis. It reads:

I live an inspired life. As I follow my dreams, I inspire others to do the same. Inspiration radiates around me. I love finding inspiration in the little things. The compassion of others inspires me. I attract extraordinary people. I am inspired every day. Each day I awaken my intuition. I follow my inspired heart.

Affirmagy wraps are absolutely amazing, in my opinion. They are ultra soft, cozy as well as the pick me up that so many people could use in their lives; they also make incredible gifts for anyone in your family, circle of friends, coworkers and they even come for babies and pets, which I think are great; I just wish I got one for my cat–Yes, she is incredibly spoiled.

Head on over to their website and fall in love with Affirmagy wraps, there is one there for absolutely everyone; and also be sure to check out Affirmawords, the Affirmagy blog by Kristen, maker of the Affirmawraps.

Baby Furniture Makeover

For those of you who have old baby furniture stowed away in storage that you swore you would give away to charity, GoodWill, or to expecting parents but never got around to it, fear no more! There is now a way to not only keep furniture you spent good money on maybe years earlier, but actually reuse it and get a lot of use out of it now.

If you have an old baby changing table, Better Homes and Gardens has a wonderful idea to work it back into your everyday life without even hinting towards what it’s purpose used to be.

Take your ordinary baby changing table, get a little creative with it and apply your own, personal taste. The table’s waist-high height, size, and shelves makes it the perfect object to make over into a drink cart. The exterior can be polished, painted, and decorated and it’s shelves give perfect space for bottles, glasses, and snacks. Attach some wheels to the bottom and you’re good to go for your next entertaining event or relaxing night at home.

If you’re not the type to have a drinking cart or don’t have a need for one, your changing table can also be remade into a decoration piece or microwave stand for your kitchen. The possibilities are virtually endless.

Have fun!