J. Rose Online

When going shopping, you can always find me in the clearance section. For the most part, I tend to always find something cute and usually pay between $5-$10 per item. When I started to gain weight, I really didn't want to spend too much money on clothes as I was hoping that one day I'd lose the weight. So most of the items I did buy were size Large and fit pretty tight.

Now that I've lost 31 pounds (as of today), a lot of the clothes I did purchase in the last couple of years are starting to fit a lot better. It's always fun shopping in your own closet and it definitely feels good when you look good in those clothes that used to fit so tightly. :)

Here are a few outfits that I shopped out of my closet of clearance items.

Top: blouse from Charlotte Russe, tank from Forever 21
Bottom: 2B Bebe skirt, clearanced at less than $10
Belt: Charlotte Russe
Necklace: Forever 21
Shoes: J.Lo boots from Kohl's, clearanced at $11

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Top: tank from Forever 21
Bottom: Skirt from Charlotte Russe, clearanced at $8
Necklace: Charlotte Russe
Shoes: Guess shoes from TJ Maxx, $30


Top: From Target, clearanced under $10
Bottom: size 5 skinny jeans from Charlotte Russe (went from sz3 to sz8 and now back to sz5)
Belt: from 2B Bebe, clearanced at $5


Top: tube top from Charlotte Russe, sz medium which once upon a time used to fit me, then didn't and now fits me again!
Bottom: 2B Bebe skirt, clearanced at less than $10
Tie: from Mr. Man's side of the closet


Top: Cardigan from Forever 21, tank from Forever 21
Bottom: actually a new item. skirt from Forever 21. these are size small, granted there's an elastic band in the back, but it's a size small and it fits me! *does a happy dance*
Necklace: from Forever 21


Top: tank from Charlotte Russe
Bottom: skirt from Charlotte Russe, clearanced at $8
Necklace: Forever 21

And these are some of the outfits I put together in the last week that I wore to work. Our dress code in the office is pretty casual so it allows me to dress as I please. I justify purchasing a lot of clothes in the past by making sure that most of the clothes I did buy were from the clearance section.

Most of the time, the clothes that are in the clearance section are out of season, but with the way California weather can be, it can be a good or bad thing. Right now, I'm anticipating the colder weather so I can start rocking my boots again. Boots I usually purchase from a small store at the Ontario Mills mall and I usually get them when they are clearanced at really low prices and just wait for the cooler weather.

But it's cold one week and we think that it's the start of the fall season, but weather changes again and it's in the mid 90s! With our weather, you just never know when to put away the summer clothes. It's like make up your mind already!

Do you shop clearance? If so, do you come out like me and find cute items?

Do you take supplements? If so, which ones are you taking? Along with taking my daily dose of my thyroid medication, my doctor recommended me to take vitamin D as my levels were also showing low on my quarterly lab results.

I also added in Biotin (1000mcg) into my daily routine. For those familiar with the thyroid disorder, hypothyroidism, know that hair loss, dry skin and brittle nails are some of the symptoms that is caused.

I suffer from all of the symptoms I listed above. So I decided to try out Biotin to see if it would help alleviate any of those issues.

I started taking Biotin in July and took a 1000mcg tablet a day along with 1 vitamin D 5000iu pill and my armour thyroid meds all at the same time in the morning 30 minutes before I consumed any food or drink.

Hair: With the onset of hypothyroidism, I started losing hair by the bunches. Every morning when I took a shower or brushed my hair, a lot of breakage would happen. Trust me, Mr. Man was not too happy to see all that hair in the shower drain. But I do have very thick hair and a lot of it so that any thinning was not even noticeable. Of course, if you saw my shower drain or my hair brush, you'd definitely know I suffer from hair loss.

Once I started taking Biotin, it was after I had gone blonde on my hair so any growth would be noticeable as my hair is naturally black.

I would say that it took about a month for me to start noticing any changes and the changes I was able to see because I can see my roots grow out!

I dyed my hair in June and haven't touched up since. So you can see how much growth has happened.

L to R: my hair in June prior to dying it blonde and taking biotin, dyed my hair in June, you can see the full length of my hair by August and just 6 weeks after dying my hair blonde you can see that my roots have grown out at least an inch.

Looking at my roots now, I'd have to say my hair has grown about 3 1/2 inches since I dyed my hair in June. 4 months at about just above 3/4 of an inch growth a month. That's pretty quick if you ask me!

Nails: I have to admit I am a nail biter, I always have been since I was a kid. It's a hard habit to kick so what I do is get a full set of acrylics whenever I can and that seems to help some. Also my nail bed is a bit on the short side so when I don't have acrylics on, you can definitely see the damage my nail biting habit does. When I do manage to not bite my nails enough for them to grow out, they are weak and break so easily. It worsened with the onset of hypothryoidism.

Above is a picture taken today. I am in need of a fill, yes I know, but you can see how much my nails have grown. It's been 3 weeks and usually growth wouldn't be this much!

Skin: Another symptom I suffer from is dry skin. With the dry skin, came the itchiness, especially on my face. With the help of keeping myself hydrated by drinking 64+ ounces of water along with taking Biotin, I have definitely noticed that my skin is not as dry and doesn't itch as much. I hardly wear foundation on my face nowadays and for me that's ok because my skin isn't splotched with dry patches anymore.

I go to work with no makeup now without worrying about my skin looking dry. this pic is no makeup, no filters, taken with my iPhone 4

So for those suffering from hair growth, brittle nails or dry skin, I think Biotin may be of some help.

I will definitely keep this as part of my daily supplements!

J.Rose Online Disclaimer: The product reviewed/shown in this post was purchased by me. Above review is my honest opinion after using the product myself and was not influenced by the company in any way.

I have been in the market for a new straightener and curling rod to add to my makeup/hair kit for my clients. I figured it would cost me at least $80+ for a decent one so I kept that in mind when looking around.

Over a month or so ago, I came across a deal on Groupon and there was a HerStyler hair kit that included a hair straightener, much like the one I originally did a review on here: HerStyler Colorful Seasons 5, a mini hair straightener and curling rod. Retail cost (that it stated on Groupon) is $300+. It was a deal for $59.99 for the whole set.

I just knew I had to jump on it. I've used HerStyler before and was impressed with it. And, boy, am I glad I did! Ever since I received it, I've been using it on my clients and just recently started using the curling rod on myself as it was so easy to use!

This morning I decided that I wanted to curl my hair for work. I started with my hair straightened which I had done the day before. I didn't use any product while curling my hair, but I did spray a bit of hairspray on my curls after I was done. I didn't brush out the curls either, just curled them a small section at a time and scrunched it a bit after putting hairspray on. Overall, it took me about 30 minutes to fully curl my whole head of hair.

As you can see, the curls came out amazing, in my opinion. It lasted all day. I think the curling rod is so much easier to use than a traditional curling iron and definitely easier to use than curling with a hair straightener.

*excuse the makeup-less face as I had to choose either to do my hair or my makeup this morning due to time constraints.

The curling rod itself only has an on and off switch, but does not have a temperature control. It heats up fairly quickly and the heat is hot enough. I have thick hair and a lot of it so the hotter heat is best for my hair to keep the curl.

If you should happen to come across this deal on Groupon or other deal sites, I say jump on it! Even if the deal didn't happen, I'd still shell out $80 on a curling rod because I needed one anyways and that's how much I was planning on spending. I just got lucky to have this deal pop up at the right time.

And since above picture doesn't show my full outfit, I think it's time I do an Outfit of the Day post.

Full Tilt high low dress from Tilly's, belt from 2B Bebe and shoes from Charlotte Russe. I purchased the belt awhile back on clearance at the 2B Bebe outlet store for $5 and the shoes (which by the way, totally matches the belt) was also purchased on clearance for $10 from Charlotte Russe. It was a last pair clearance and lucky me, the last pair was a size 7, my size!

Hope you gals and guys didn't miss me too much! I really am going to try and post more often as I truly do miss blogging!

Asked Mr. Man to help me to take a picture of my outfit and he just kept snapping away! Ha, the above pics are the ones that he just kept on taking! I know it's been awhile, but can you tell that I've lost a little weight? 10 more pounds to go to complete Project: 40 Pound Meltdown!

J.Rose Online Disclaimer: The product reviewed/shown in this post was purchased by me. Above review is my honest opinion after using the product myself and was not influenced by the company in any way.

Site Update: It has been brought to my attention that some of my older entries do not have the pictures showing up.

I have moved over to a new webhost with the intentions of re-uploading my old pictures, but I haven't come around to it yet. As it turns out, my old webhost finally shut me down.

I will be re-uploading my old pictures some time in the next week so they should be all back up and running!

I do apologize for the inconvenience. Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone!

In the meanwhile, don't forget to check out my FB page :) http://facebook.com/jackiehartistrydotcom

Project: 40 Pound Meltdown Update #4

Left: 155lbs taken 4/2010 Middle: 144lbs taken 3/2012 Right: 139lbs taken 7/2012

Left picture was actually taken in 2010 when Mr. Man and I were about to start our Husband/Wife Weight Loss Challenge. That didn't pan out so well, but I still have the pics we took on Day 1. I wasn't quite at my heaviest yet. I didn't take pics when I first started out back in October. Embarrassing as I know it probably was, I wish I did though.

Left: 167.9lbs Right: 139.8lbs

In today's Project: 40 Pound Meltdown update #4, I am actually going to talk about how I have been able to lose weight successfully. I am not too far from reaching my ultimate goal, but I've been asked by quite a few people on what my diet and exercise regimen has been like. So I decided to let them know and all of you out there who are wondering also know.