Who made my clothes?

So I just finished watching a documentary on Netflix called, "The True Cost" and  so many things were revealed to me that I don't think I've really processed it all.
I was in a documentary watching type of mood and it was something that came up after I watched something else *which was also eyeopening and I'll probably write about later.
The description was, "the links between consumer pressure for low-cost high fashion and the meager existence of the sweatshop workers who produce those goods are explored"
now that may not sound very interesting, but I also got to see the little preview pics that scroll by when you are selecting something to watch on Netflix and I had just finished watching something else that made me have lots of feels, so I turned it on. 
My brain is spinning so much, I hope I get to write out everything I'm feeling. I don't want this to turn into a research paper, although it easily could. 

I recommend EVERYONE to watch this documentary. At the very least it will make you feel so blessed to live the lifestyle you do. I want to make sure I thank God every day that I live in America. Things are so hard on the rest of the world and we take almost everything for granted over here.
Something as simple as your clothes..... It's very important to you what you wear. You want to look nice, you want to be comfortable, and sometimes you want people to see how well you are doing in life by the brands you are wearing. It's all about how you will be perceived. 
Did you know next to oil, the making of clothing is the 2nd most contaminating thing on the planet? CRAZY, I had no idea!  You can see quite a bit of it in the documentary. 

It's so important to look at the big picture. From the seeds that are harvested to make the cotton, and the pesticides sprayed on the seeds, how the pesticide effects the ground and the community that lives around it, to the crazy prices that people pay and the war for the companies to get the products for the best bargain, then the countries and companies that major factories select to develop clothing, how the workers are treated and the environment they live in, the struggles in their life, and then at the end of it all how these companies feel like they HAVE to do better every season. Make more money than last time, every time. The documentary touches base on all of these things. It really puts into perspective, who made my clothes? Who actually made it, what was the journey it took into being developed and look at how many clothes you have. 

I'm just as guilty as the next person of buying something that I will only wear once or maybe never wear at all. In my defense and apart of my amazing frugality, I almost ALWAYS buy things on sale. I rarely every buy something that's full price. The first place I go in any store is to the clearance rack. But I have many things that I simply haven't worn before. It didn't fit right or look right. I rarely throw anything away. I like to give it family member or I drop clothes in a drop box once a year when I clean up my closet. But this film really brought to my attention a lot of things I just hadn't even thought of before. 

Of course we have special occasion events and I won't put that out of my life totally but I will not buy something that I don't think I'm going to wear 30 times ever again. You don't have to look like a homeless person to make sure you are buying and wearing your clothes to their value.

It all starts with the consumer, or the customer. I'm not someone who has to hit the sales every single week or buying the latest clothes but it is important wether you are one of those people or not. 

I'm not saying I think we should stop buying clothes, because the people do need jobs, but we need to be smarter about our buying. For the world and for the people in it. We don't need so much. Not something that's going to end up at a dump and just creating so much toxicity. 

The documentary showed a woman who was a factory worker and had a daughter who had to live far away from her and with her family, because the mother couldn't afford to have her and she was trying her best be able to pay for school for her child so she can have a better life than what her mother has. 

My heart aches for that woman. She's trying so hard for her child to have a good life but she rarely gets to see her. 

I'm over here freaking out about leaving Luke to go to the grocery store alone. I can't imagine being away from my child. I'm so blessed, and I'm so sad for her. And for all of the people who have to send their child somewhere else so they can make a living. It's very sad.

The working condition of people in other countries is just sad. The living conditions are sad. It's something we know. And if you don't know, travel or simply watch a documentary. *I saw some pretty sad living conditions when I went on a cruise to Jamaica and it's not nearly as bad there as it is in Bangladesh. But his woman gets paid $40 a week. Her salary is $160 a month, US dollars equivalent. She's barely making it. 

The major fashion companies don't hire these people, they talk about it in the documentary. But they do pay a certain amount to the business for the products and instead of haggling to get the cheapest business to make your clothing they should do something else. A change has to be made. 

They pay $0.30 for a dress that they sell for $40. These companies are billionaires. It won't make much of a difference to pay a little more for the product, then the sweatshops can be in better conditions, the workers can get paid a little better. It's baby steps but again it starts with the consumer. We don't need them cranking out as many clothes as they are as fast as they are when it all winds up in a landfill somewhere. We don't need to be treating our ground like its a factory. 

Simply, don't be wasteful and be mindful of the world. Don't take anything for granted. 

I don't want to try to educate anyone on the film or the problems at hand. Watching it and going to the films website will do that for me. 

I signed a petition on the website. It simply wanted first and last name, and email. We all have junk emails if you don't want to be bothered by it, I signed for my junk email and my primary email. I plan to follow this. 

They hope to see a change by 2020. 

I urge you to go watch the documentary if you haven't. 

I'll link the website as well. You can get a ton of information. If you don't do anymore research than going to the website I strongly suggest you do so. 

I doubt anyone could watch this and not want to make some kind of change.

http://truecostmovie.com

http://fashionrevolution.org

20 Facts about me

Let's see if I can do this. 20 sounds like a small number but I know it can be harder than you think.

1. I am a musician. And a pretty good one. I hate telling people who don't know, because I just don't like bragging. But I'm a really good trumpet player.

2. I went to school for it. I didn't finish school for it. It was a difficult time in my life and I wasn't as prepared as I needed to be when I started college. Ironically, today in fact, I was talking to a friend's nephew who just started playing trumpet.  And he is really passionate about it but lacks drive because he doesn't have a very good teacher. It's VERY important to have someone encouraging you when you start something new, like playing an instrument, and I was SO excited about it, I just had so many tips and ways that I thought I could help him. It would be nice in a way to be a band director to young children, but I don't think I'll ever go back to school for it.

3. I like to be the VERY best at almost everything I do. I procrastinate a lot, which hinders some things. But it's important to me to be the best wife I can. I try to make my husband happy. I like to cook, and try new foods, and plan. I'm very frugal with money. I always craft almost anything I can.
I like to give advice to my family, especially my sister, and be there for her always. I try to prepare her for anything I think will come her way. I had to be the very best musician when I was in school. I was always first chair in trumpet. And when I went to college, as a freshman I took second chair over quite a few upper class-man. I constantly do research and read blogs to be prepared and be the best wife and mother I can. I've ALWAYS climbed the ladder at whatever job I worked. I take a LOT of responsibilities, no matter where I work. I worked for Apple, as a technical advisor at a call center and I stayed number one on my teams, until I moved up to be a Senior tier 2 advisor and account and security specialist within 6 months, and I was working to being a supervisor when I left the job. I like to climb ladders with things I do. I don't want to just be a jack of all trades, I want to be a master-of-all-trades.

4. I sew. I've made quite a few costumes for my cosplays and my husband's cosplays. I've made pillows, blankets, clothes, repaired clothes and ripped seams, purses, hand warmers, children's play mats...just to name a few.  I hand sew and use a sewing machine. I hand sew for years before ever getting a sewing machine.

5. I also cross stitch. I'm currently working on a super cute cross stitch project that I'm going to frame, it has Luke's birth information and a cute baby green lantern cartoon. It's taking a lot longer than normal, because with a teething 3 month old, you don't get much done.

6. One of my goals for 2016 is to learn how to crochet. Its the only thing not in my arsenal with that department. I ordered an awesome crochet needle set off Amazon, back in November, but the seller decided to leave the platform and didn't go through with any of their orders and I just found this out 2 days ago....waited a REALLY long time to find that out. So now I have to order a set from someone else, and when it comes in I will get busy with that!

7. I've been with my husband for 11 years and 3 months. In a couple of weeks we will celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary, but who counts that when you had so many years under your belt before that came along. haha

8. We celebrate our dating anniversary AND our wedding anniversary. One is in February and the other in October, so there's plenty of time in between. I wanted to get married on our dating anniversary but it just wasn't coming around to being on a weekend day and so we got married on the date that he proposed to me on.....so, kinda still an anniversary. lol And I'm sure we will always celebrate both. Both dates mean a lot to us.

9. I like to cook. I touched on this earlier but I'll elaborate, I really like meal prepping and when I have time I like taking a couple of hours to make delicious meals. I can seriously be the ultimate house wife. It's not all I want to do in life, but I really do pride myself in becoming and being an amazing mother and wife.

10. I hate HATE hate to not have nail polish on my toes. I don't really like not having it on my fingers either, but it's been like four months because I haven't had time to paint my finger nails AND let them dry since I had the baby. When Luke was born, I needed to do my toenails but didn't get a chance so I took off the polish I had on a few days after he was born and I didn't repaint them. It was AWFUL to me. I actually went a little over a month before I turbo painted them in the bathroom, but for that month I wore socks often. I don't think I have ugly feet, I just don't like how...plain it looks without the polish. It really enhances how beautiful my feet look. lol....might sound crazy and superficial but it's one of those things. When I go on vacation I ALWAYS take the polish with me, and usually I always have a dark color in my purse that I can use to cover any color, just in case it chips or something.

11. I LOVE to binge watch tv shows. I'm sure most people do, but I was doing it long before netflix and hulu became a thing. I will wait until series finish before I start watching them because I know I HATE waiting and cliff hangers are a must in television...it's how they get you back next week. I'm always scared I'm going to die in the middle of a series and never know how something finished....I know that's awful lol but it's a true thought.
I haven't watched any of The Walking Dead, because I know I will get hooked. I watched Sex and The City when the first movie came out. I bought a deluxe edition and enjoyed about a month of tv for MANY hours every day. I began True Blood the last season it had. So I had to start waiting weekly which sucked!

12. I do watch some tv shows weekly. I'm caught up in some reality series that you have to stick to weekly or seasonly (like, Dancing With The Stars)

13. I love to sleep. Lots of naps or even for like 12 hours at the time. I do nap a lot with the baby, which is nice...but also kinda required because he falls asleep by eating and if I try to sneak away he wakes up. Every. Single. Time.

14. I like to stay up through out the night. I'd rather be awake at night than during the day, most of the time. But Even with this and with sleeping a lot, I can sleep for only 4 hours or even forego sleep if I have to when I have to get something done.

15. I usually NEVER get any sleep the night before something big. It's a real problem. I've never had a "good nights rest" before an event. Tests, auditions, job interviews, doctors appointments, my wedding day, the birth of my son, moving, going on vacation, Christmas (duh)....things like this...I never get any sleep. I'm always too anxious.
I will try to stay up all night two days before or try to wear myself out and go to bed early, but it always just turns into a nap and then I'm up all night.
A slight headache in the morning, super sensitive to the sun, and a stomach full of butterflies.
It's tolerable though. I will just get good sleep the next night. It's something I've always known I do and I've come to terms with it the last few years so I'm never overly exhausted when it happens. I make it through just fine.

16. I read a lot. I'm always reading a book or series. There's never a time when I've finished a book and haven't started another. I always have a list of books to read.

17. I enjoy when books are made into movies. But not into tv shows.....Ain't nobody got time for that.
Of course I have lots of issues with things that are missing or left out, but I still like when you get to watch something you've had play out in your mind.

18. I HAVE to read before going to sleep. It's VERY rare that I don't read before sleeping. It's not always a novel, sometimes it's blogs or articles online, but it's the last thing I do before closing my eyes. I have a mental block. I can't push past it. Even when my eyes are super heavy...and sometimes it will just be a paragraph before I fall asleep, but I have to attempt it!

19. I've always lived in the future....looking forward to the things to come, until now. Now that I have Luke, I try to really live in the now and enjoy him. He changes SO much every single day and I don't want to miss it. In the past it was always...until I can move out and be on my own....and then until I get married or finish school or get a better job. I still look forward to the future, but I never really enjoyed life the way I should have because I was too focused on tomorrow. And like the old song goes, tomorrow never comes. There is only right now.



I made it! Whew....not that hard, I could probably come up with a few more. haha

20. I spent way too much time trying to thing of a 20th thing, it's like....hmm? What's the best thing for last or something super important I won't want to have forgotten? And I just don't know.

I have a light brownish eyes with a few blue spots and my father had blue eyes with brownish spots in the exact same places. I also have a small mole/freckle on my collar bone that my mother, grandmother, and great grandmother all have/had in the exact same place. It's pretty cool, I think.



Until next time,
XXOOXO

Writing Prompts

So I was in Barnes & Noble a little over a week ago, and I saw a little journal that was full of writing prompts. It was rather small, but there was 30, I think, different topics at the top of each page, and I just thought it was a super neat idea.
They had creative topics and fantasy topics, there was even a journal for drawing. Which is awesome but I'm a doodler....not a drawer so...skip that.
I didn't want to buy the book because it was over priced for a small journal and I tend to just go on and on when I'm writing anyway. PLUS, why buy that, when I can look online for awesome writing prompts and do it on here for free??
Blogging is just online journaling anyway! With the hopes that online, it will never get lost...

I'm excited about it, I really like writing out my thoughts on here and I think it would be really fun.
So I went to my favorite website, Pinterest =) and pulled some "blogging" writing prompts.
I don't want to write creative stories. I think those are fun to think about sometimes, but all the small details that really make a story good, stress me out to come up with, and I'm just not interested in writing fantasy.
When I was young in school, they would give us writing prompts that were creative, I loved it. And I know the more you write the better you get at it but....meh, I just don't want to waste my time on it.

So, I'm not going to set a challenge to write one daily or anything. I saw plenty of pages with those, and that's awesome. But I have a teething *almost 4 month old and if I tried to set a goal like that, it would just stress me out and upset me that I didn't get it done on some days.
I mean...I don't even get to cook dinner every day or even wash my face daily so....yea. Not gonna set myself up for failure.

If they are short, I may post multiple at once. I'm excited to get started.

**Please don't judge how awful some of the writing is. I have a lack of sleep and dealing with teething has been SO exhausting. I only get "me time" at night time when he is sleeping so that's why I'm not sleeping, and I also post things in the middle of the night.

Teething Woes

Well night time blogging definitely seems to be my thing. 

To be honest, as a new mom it's the only free time I get. I look forward to bed time because the house is quiet and I can do all the things I want to online. 

I surf the web, plan grocery lists, read, surf Pinterest, social media, all that fun stuff without interruptions (well, maybe some if the baby wakes up) but for the most part I love it. I've always loved being up in the middle of the night. Ive always been a "night owl". And although I can't leave my bed, because the baby will wake up. I still like being up at night. 

We've been struggling with teething lately. It's so hard. I'm sure it is hard on everyone. It's one of those things you sigh about. It just sucks so much to have a young baby going through it. 

When people tell me their child didn't start until after 6 months, I roll my eyes at them. Lol. Luke started at about 2.5 months and it has been awful. 

We had one day where I noticed we hadn't had any melt downs and I treated it like you do when you have a really negative thought that you're ashamed of and you push it out of your head or try to forget about it, I kept thinking, "don't think about! Don't think about it, you'll jynx the situation and it will turn onto one of those hours and hours battles." 

At the end of the day, when I knew he was asleep for the night Andre and I both  mentioned it. But it's only happened once. 

That was a great day. Haha 

Recently, we left my grandmas on Christmas night, who lives over an hour away, and barely got off the road she lives on when it turned into one of the worst nights we had. We had to pull over at a truck stop and my husband had to walk around outside with him for about thirty minutes just to get him to stop crying. After I tried many many times to shh him and make him happy, and nurse him in the car. Nothing worked. He cried so hard that night. 

What happens with Luke is he starts fussing and chewing on things and then it turns into yelling crying. He gets hungry but won't eat because breastfeeding seems to hurt or he has no interest in latching on when the teething is happening. So for hours he will be upset and then he gets hungry but won't eat and that makes him even more upset, and when Luke cries he sweats, a lot! So it's a whole fiasco every time. 

As far as remedies go, we've tried everything. Some things work some times and sometimes nothing works. 

I will put orajel on his gums and if he needs to sleep, which usually he does. The teething happens around nap times and is awful at night, sometimes I will give him Hyland's teething tablets. He usually always wants to be walked around. He doesn't want you to sit and hold him or rock him. He wants to be up. And he will chew on his dad's shoulder as he walks him around the kitchen. 

Teething toys are a distraction for ten minutes at the most. He likes if they are frozen compared to the ones that aren't but it doesn't help much. I think it hurts while he is chewing on them and he wants to keep chewing but it makes him cry. His dentist recommended the vibration teethers. He swears by them and everyone who worked in office agreed. They gave us one to take home and Luke does love that one the most. But still, it only last for a short time. 

Usually the pills kick in and he will eat to fall asleep. It's so rough though. 

I can't wait until teething is over. 

Teething is one of the only things that makes me want to not have another baby. 

Since he was born I knew I wanted to have more. Even though my labor was terrifying and the thought of ANY thing going wrong scares me, I still want more children. But this has been SUPER tough. 

I told a friend's mom recently that Luke has been teething and that's been difficult, and she just looked at me and said "I'm sorry" and she genuinely meant it, and then she followed with "that's all I can tell you. It's one of those things you have to go through and nothing helps really."  

Sigh

At least she was honest with me. Haha. 

People are always quick to tell you what to do instead of what you have been doing, and it never hurts to try different things, everyone is different so you have to try different things to find out what works for you. I just really appreciated her honesty, because that's how I've been feeling. We get him through the freak out spells. But they suck and I know they will come again, whenever he has finally calmed down, and all I can do it wait for those little buggers to pop through. And when they do I will have to start dealing with making sure he doesn't bite while breastfeeding so I'm trying to be patient about it. Lol. 

Thank God for Pinterest though, right? So many amazing tips without having the older generation who act all judgemental try to tell you what you "need" to do. 

Anyway, I guess I better go get those sweet snuggles from my little man. 

Until next one, XOXO

New Mom worry-woes

Happy New Year!!

I haven't been on since last year!!

I love those cheesy jokes, telling my mom I'll see her next year on December 31st and then the next time I see her I say "gosh, I haven't seen you since last year"

It's so cheesy but Idc, I love it. 

Anyway I wanted to make a quick post to say, do you ever stop checking their breathing? 

Luke is a little over three months old and I check his breathing a million times a day. Lol 

I definitely do it less than I use to but it's still a million in comparison to the 2 million times before. 

It's so funny because I'll stare at him sometimes instead of touching him to check, and his breaths are so shallow! You have to stare hard to see it. But I'll stare so hard and focus so hard on the chest that I'll see his finger twitch and it's like that isn't enough. Lol I still wait for the breath. Totally dumb. But I was watching for the breath and didn't think about the finger twitch. Haha 

It drives me crazy. As a new mom I'm scared constantly of some unknown random awful thing happening to him. It's comforting to have him close. 

My husband's birthday is coming soon and then immediately after we have our wedding anniversary and Valentine's Day. 

And we have never left Luke to go out. I've never been away from him at all. I've taken a shower or two and a nap for like an hour while he was with dad in the living room, but never left him with anyone. 

So I was thinking for our anniversary I would plan to go to dinner with Andre. Not be gone long because I'm sure I wouldn't be able to take it and Luke would be about 4 and a half months old. But it's still super terrifying to think about. 

He had a tongue tie and we got that clipped recently, it was causing some problems. Luke is exclusively breast fed. But when I've tried to pump and give him a bottle he can't suck on a bottle so this tongue tie business has been difficult but it should be better. 

I haven't tried a bottle yet but if he can take the bottle then I'll make sure he's good at it before I ever try to leave him with anyone. And if he isn't then I'll take him out with us. It doesn't bother me at all to have him go out with us. I just thought it might seem nice to go out alone. 

But it terrifies me to my core. 

Not only am I worried about something happening to him but what if whoever keeps him doesn't abide by my wishes or if something bad happens while he is with them. 

I'm sure these are what all moms think the first time they leave them and I know it's even harder for moms that work. I bow down to those ladies. I just can't imagine leaving him. 

I would definitely let him stay with one of our moms the first time. And they all have three to four kids but I still know that I do things with Luke that they don't and it makes me worry. He also never stays asleep for a nap when I'm not with him so that is just another thing that worries me about him staying with someone else. 

Anyway I guess I can stop talking about my worry woes. It's just the little things that keep rolling around in my head. 

We will see what happens.