The Latest and Greatest + What’s to Come

So, clearly, Bottles and Bows had to get pushed to the wayside for a bit while I got things taken care of and handled the take off of my side business. A bunch has happened in the months I have been gone so here is just a short run down:

• Miss Dakota turned 3
• Chey had her first dentist appointment and Kota had her second
• Bought a house (first post about that is up! Plenty more coming in the next week or so!)
• My side business took off and we have rebranded to prepare for the future accomplishments
• Finished some renovations here at the rental house that I’ll share with you all
• Took in another smooshy boy (post coming tomorrow)
• Got laid off and called back
• Finished my first degree

Bottles and Bows has been my absolute dream to do consistently. I love writing and this is my happy outlet so stay tuned for all the things to come! However, I will take suggestions on what y’all want to see! I’d love to get into some product reviews and affiliates!

If you have a small business that you’d like to promote here, lets talk about advertising😉

Operation Dream House Loading: The Beginning

So I started casually house hunting earlier this year. I kept track of ones I liked on Zillow and even went and looked at a couple but I knew I wasn’t really in the prime financial state that I wanted to be in before buying a house. My wishlist was also a bit needy for someone wanting to stay under $100k. 

I had to be out in the country and wouldn’t settle for less than an acre of land. Obviously, due to having 3 children and a multitude of out of state family, I needed at least 3 bedroom but preferably 4. Barn was a huge plus. It definitely had to be within 15 minutes of work because I’m over the whole commuting life😅

There was one other property I heavily considered but the house itself would’ve had to have been leveled and rebuilt. Then I stumbled upon this one just by pure chance. 

Warren Straley (who I highly recommend working with because he was just fantastic) took J and I through it and I was sold. This was going to be my dream house. 1.25 acres with a barn and shed. Two story house with 3 huge bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms. Plus that PORCH😍

This is exactly what we started with:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything was basically stripped down to the subfloors and drywall. The downstairs bathroom had been gutted except for the tub. The only room that was still usable was the upstairs bathroom (until we found out there was no water😅). It was basically a clean slate. 

Some of the windows can be saved. The roof is newer and metal and basically everything outside was in good shape so with the help of my father, we bought a house😊

My New Adventure: Younique

So over the past couple years I've seen a lot of companies going to social media sales and having their reps do it. In my area, almost every woman has tried one or more than one type of sales job to make "easy money".

I kept seeing posts about this makeup company that was focuses on empowering women, helping them feel their best, and creating a support system for their customers and presenters. The more I heard and learned, the more I wanted to be a part of it.

But I don't wear makeup. I'm not really a sales person. I don't really have a lot of time. So why would I essentially take on a second job that I know nothing about? Well why not?

I talked to multiple people, I researched the products, and I made a leap.

I'm now a White Status Presenter for Younique Products.

I'm trying this out to try to build my own self confidence as well as maybe learn somethings that I can teach my daughter later in life. I really think this is going to better me and make a difference in my life and I'm embracing it.

So begins my adventure. I prolly won't mix too much of that life with this blog but occasionally I may post something for ya'll.

Interested? Check it out and let me hook you up!

Party going on now: https://www.youniqueproducts.com/CourtneyCierra/party/8892984/view?vh=1#.Wn4L51Q-fow

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Younique-with-Courtney-Cierra-161960227783891/

My page: https://www.youniqueproducts.com/courtneycierra#.Wn4MDFQ-fow

2018: New Year, Better Me

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First of all, HAPPY 2018! Obviously, I'm very late due to some technical difficulties and basic time constraints but I'M BACK. So be sure to tune in at least a couple times a week to keep up with the madness (or you can obviously follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest to see when the new stuff goes up.

Second of all, I don't get all the hate surrounding the "New year, New me" slogan. If people want to say it every year and use it as motivation/attention getter to spur support and motivation then just support them. Why be hateful? Will they fail and be the same person? Maybe. Or maybe they'll make big changes in their lives or attitudes and feel like a whole new person. Who knows. Who cares. Just support each other people. Geez.

Finally, I'm not gonna say "New year, new me" because I generally like myself and don't want to be a whole new person so I'm saying: New Year, Better Me. I'm using this new year to motivate me to better myself and make some changes. So here are my goals/resolutions/plans/whatever you wanna call it:

• Make a big career move- So I'm currently working in a factory thats starting to look like its not going to allow me to advance and therefore is just a dead end job (still a great paycheck and benefits, don't get me wrong) and I'm looking for something more. I'm looking for a career. So I'm ready for a change and am already pursuing some leads. Stay tuned for updates.
• Be More Positive- I'm naturally a negative person so time for a more positive mindset this year.
• Focus On My Health- I'm also really bad about living off of cigarettes, Monster, and no sleep so I'm going to focus on getting enough sleep, eating regularly (learning to cook maybe...), and obviously quitting smoking. I've already gave up Monster so I'm on the right track. I'm also determined to get back to my pre baby weight (I won't lie, I'm only about 10-15 pounds over. I got lucky but I definitely need to tone up)
• Less Time at Work, More Time With Family- I'm sure I've mentioned it but I'm a workaholic so I'm always working 12 hour days and every weekend. This year, I'm focusing less on the money and more on spending time with J and baby Kota. 
• Stop Procrastinating- I'm bad about putting things off til the last minute. By things, I mean EVERYTHING so I'm working on that. It'll help my stress level hopefully.
• Be Smarter With Money- Generally, I do pretty well with money  but I could be better so I'm making a goal to save $5000 by the end of the year to put towards buying a house when we decide to do so.
• Be The Best Mom- I'm going to do everything in my power to be the best mom to baby that I can possibly be in every way possible. 

So there's a quick look at my goals for the year. What do y'all want to accomplish this year? 

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If you need some help staying on track or want someone to bounce ideas off of/vent to/whatever, my inboxes are always open. Let's make this our year!

October Goals and Updates

Yes, I'm well aware that we're already a week into October, bear with me. But anyways, if you're a new reader and haven't seen these before, this is where I express my goals for the month because it kind of helps me stick to them if I've publicly voiced them. Plus maybe it'll give some of you some ideas or help y'all accomplish some goals too. So here goes:

• Cut back on cigarettes- I was so proud of myself when I quit smoking when I was pregnant and even after I went without for a month or so. As soon as I got back to work though I picked the habit back up. First of all, its stupid expensive these days. Second of all, I'd really like to see Kota graduate high school some day. Unfortunately, since I do breastfeed, that means Kota is getting the nicotine too so I can't just quit. It's gotta be a process.
• Schedule college classes for Spring- So because Kota came so early it messed my whole college schedule and financial aid up so now I'm looking at May or July graduation but I WILL FINISH. I think this is the month I can schedule for next semester... might be next month...
• Cut out Monster and cut back on pop- again I was completely away from caffeine until I went back to work and as much as it sucks working 12 hours a day and 7 days a week on next to no sleep I should be able to find a healthier source of energy.
• Pay off credit cards- there will be a fun post about these little bastards this weekend.

So yeah. That's just a few of my goals I really wanna focus on in the rest of the month. Stay tuned for Nivembers post to see how I did. Also, I have some updates slash information for y'all:

• For those of you who have been following for a while, you can obviously see the change in layout. Not positive I'm done messing with it but for now I'm happy. Be glad to take comments and suggestions.
• To clear things up: J is my fiancé. I'll probably do a big long sappy post about him tomorrow. I don't use his name because technically I'm not sure he knows about this blog and so therefore I don't really have his permission to include him but I'm doing it anyways in a slightly vague way.
• Also new, if you look up in the top left corner you'll see that the blog name has changed. I'm still not quite sure if this is what I'll stick with. I think I'm gonna post a poll tomorrow and let y'all vote on a name for the next week. Again, I'm open to suggestions! The web address will always stay the same so you can always find me.
• ANY topics you'd like me to post about, send me a message on social media or comment below or hit the contact page for other ways to reach me. Also, if you have a story, business, talent, whatever you'd like me to check out and review or just share on here, feel free to send that stuff my way too. I love to support other people's dreams and small businesses (though I may require free samples😉)

That's all for tonight folks. Love y'all and Kota does too (even if she's dead asleep and snoring currently). Look forward to hearing from you guys!

Here's to the Future

CLEARLY I have sucked recently with the upkeeping of this blog but it has been pure craziness in my world. Which is actually what drew me back to this blog because I love writing, its always been my go to thing because I suck at speaking my feelings and thoughts, and so by posting said thoughts and feelings here it gives me a sense of relief and takes a bit of stress away. With that being said, y'all obviously don't have to read this nonsense or even look at anymore of it but I do appreciate those of you that do and I absolutely love any feedback that comes out of my posts because I like to think this stuff is gonna be relatable.

 So HERES TO THE FUTURE!

Let me start with a little disclosure:

• The overall layout and look of the blog is gonna change and there is a very good chance it could take me a couple sittings and days to get it all fixed. I apologize in advance for any messiness.
• I do swear a lot in the real world and in some cases I'm going to swear here so this may not be suitable for everyone to read. 
• Also, I'm prolly gonna talk about some touchy subjects (I.e labor/delivery, breastfeeding, birth control, etc.) because its apart of my life and I feel like others can relate to it or even benefit from my experiences
• My grammar is not perfect, I use "prolly" and "y'all" quite frequently because I write how I talk. Sorry.
• Some of the posts are going to be a lot more of me just venting and using this as my virtual diary rather than really intellectual posts. Again, sorry.
• If anything on here you find offensive or would like to discuss: PLEASE go to the contact me section and get a hold of me.

Next order of business is what's coming up!:

• I'm obviously gonna tell y'all about my daughter Dakota and the whole nightmare I went through
• I'd like to talk about Breastfeeding Awareness month (even though it's now over) and my struggles with it personally. Anyone out there who had good or bad experiences: I would love to hear from you and be able to include you in this post. 
• Meet the fam! I'll introduce y'all to my fur babies since they are pretty awesome☺️
• The current debate on whether or not to baptize Dakota - I would LOVE some personal opinions and stories to put in this post if any of y'all wanna contribute.

Any other ideas y'all wanna throw my way, I'd love to hear them because I'm extremely excited to get up and running again. 

New Tattoo Ideas

So for those of you who don't know, I'm slightly addicted to tattoos and piercings. 

These are the two I have now:

I wanna get this on my ribs or down my right side:

On this one I want the top right corner put on my left shoulder for my grandma but without the date and the bottom right on my ankle:

and thats that. Just not in the budget right now.