5 Songs I'm loving right now

1. Laura Izibor "From my heart to Yours"
If you haven't heard from her yet, she's this old school Billie Holiday voice mixed with funky sounds. The result "happy music" that makes the soul smile!

2. Kelly Clarkson "I don't hookup"
Amen! Needs no more explanations than the title itself!

3. Ne-Yo "Part of the List"
Emotional, raw, and tender. Ne-yo at his best! Please check out the video. It definitely magnifies the song even further. The acting is totally on point plus I love the fact that it's shot in London.

4. Chrissete Michele "Epiphany"
Wise-up anthem realizing that she ain't putting up with that mess anymore! Love her voice and the treatment of the lyrics. Of course, it was written and produced by Ne-yo and his production company Stargate.

5. Kid Cudi "Day and Night"
The lyrics are melancholic; a poetic simplistic expression of someone's pain in the pursuit of peace. It just touches a deep level within you. Though the stoner seeks it in his white smoke..(sad face) it reminds you that everyone is just looking for peace. I found mine in forgiveness in Jesus not religion, and everyone has their journey to the point of peace. You just have the option of the choice.

Good Week

Good week you all! Hope you had a great Easter weekend! I had a fantastic time with old and new friends. To start the week off, I thought I'd share some inspiring quotes.

"Whatever you think you can have, claim it, believe it, pray to God for it. It's His Kingdom and you're His child." -Canton Jones

"To seek validation from others is no better than letting someone else invalidate you. Remember that what someone else thinks of you is really more about them and their issues, not you and yours." -Seltzer

I put these quotes up to encourage you to go after whatever your passion/vision is this week, and not let anyone deter you however convincing their arguments may be.

Cheers to a Great Week,

Christie

got questions, comments, need advice? email me @ roomtobreathe07@gmail.com

Creative ways to land a job!

This is for all of you who are looking for jobs through the traditional methods by going on Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com and other job boards. There are BETTER ways to land a job! Think about it, unemployment has jumped for 850k people to 12.5 million in the US. Most, if not all of these people are trying to get a job. The most advertised job boards tend to be the places they resort to. So, lots of competition for a "small" number of jobs. Then how do you separate yourself from the pack? -->GO VIRAL!!

My friends, if you don't have a Twitter account, GET ONE!! If you don't have Facebook, sign up!! And keep up with viral news!! Yes, it may be too much for some of you but bear with me. I get my news through Newser.com; which updates in a visual rolodex way with pictures and headlines. When you click on the pic you get a summary of the article plus the link to the full article. I highly recommend keeping up with the current headlines because that's how I landed on an article about tweeting (Twitter post) for jobs! From there, I clicked on hotlinks that brought me to rich sources of undiscovered jobs. So, follow these steps and get creative!!

Step 1: bookmark or just keep up with Newser.com for current headlines
Step 2: Open a Twitter account. Here's a link Twitter for Dummies if you want a more detailed breakdown. Register with Facebook if you don't have one!
Step 3: Start following people by asking your facebook friends if they have Twitter. Post your twitter link in your status and watch followers come to YOU!! Post your twitterlink on your blog, on your social network profiles, email signoff, on your business card, put in on your forehead. Hahahaha, ok too far. The more people you start getting, the bigger pool of potentials. You can use Twittersearch to find people according to a topic but I've found these following services to be the most useful.

• Wefollow.com : find people to follow according to your interest. You can even find Ellen Degeneres twitter page this way.

• Twibs.com : Browse 8,823 twitter businesses and connect with professionals that will refer you in the right way. I got SOO much useful information by following people in my profession which is marketing. So if you're in marketing, hit me up on the twitter.

• Small Business Search Marketing blog compiled a very long list of industry execs with twitter accounts. Find your industry, follow some execs and make some interesting comments back. Don't tweet them with..I need a job...please give me one..or I'm the best thing since sliced cheese. Dialogue over what they're talking about and contribute useful ideas. You never know what might happen! DEVELOP RELATIONSHIPS!! This is the key to this new job market landscape.
  

Step 4: Blog about what you're going through, write notes on facebook. People tend to read things that include interesting info with a sense of humor. So do that!

Step 5: LINKUP! One of the GEMS I found from Twibs.com for jobs is Linkup.com!! They are a fantastic online job board that keeps ONLY CURRENT job openings, no scam/fake jobs (yeah finance assistant my rear), and the great thing about them is that they collect jobs STRAIGHT from the source! Which means tons of unadvertised job openings!

Step 6: Apply, apply, apply! Keep your head up and know that you aren't alone. There's 12.5 million of us. For an encouraging read on being creative, read this Forbes article!

Godspeed yall!! Feel free to hit me up and let me know how things are going with you and the job market or with any other useful suggestions. http://twitter.com/ciqua

Turkey Penne

So I made some yummy Turkey Penne today and thought it a nice idea to share the recipe. I'm all about keeping things simple a.k.a recession-friendly so you won't need many ingredients or fancy spices to make this.

Turkey Penne Recipe

What you need for a pan-sized amount (feeds 3-4)

- 1/3 of packaged Ground Turkey
- 2 cups of Penne Pasta
- 1/4 minced garlic
- chopped onions
- 1 finely chopped celery stalk
- 1 cup of Sharp Cheddar Cheese (or whatever cheese you have)
- all-seasoning
- 1 tbsp of butter

optional

2 tablespoons of Teriyaki sauce
1 tbsp of Salsa con Queso (if you only have cheese dip you can substitute the cheese for cheese dip)

Preparations

Penne:
While you are preparing the ground turkey put a small pan of water with the penne to a boil for 3-5 minutes. Poke the penne and if you its moist then turn the burner off. Drain the pasta with cold water.

Turkey:
Heat up the pan at medium heat and melt the butter. Fry the chopped celery, garlic and onions light brown. Bring the heat down a bit and add the ground turkey. Brown the turkey. Add a couple of dashes (be careful not to make it too salty) of all-seasoning and the teriyaki sauce. Stir the turkey mix well and break the bigger pieces of the turkey up (it likes to clump up).
Now add the penne in and mix well. Add another dash or two of all-seasoning to give the penne some flavor. Finally garnish the dish with the cheese and add in the cheese salsa if you decided to use it in the recipe. Mix well and let the cheese melt and SERVE! Yummy!

Happy eating!

Products I'm enjoying right now

1. Suave Peabody Shower Gel
Cheap and delicious smelling; this shower gel gives you an invigorating shower without drying out your skin like most shower gels.
2. Supercook.com
Fantastic resource to get your recession cook on! I'm a firm believer now that the products in the back of your cabinet/fridge can yield some of the most yummiest dishes. Supercook allows you to search for recipes according to the ingredients you have. Fabulous!
3. Onima Natural Beauty Lip Balm
Derived from Aloe plants on the small eco-friendly island of Bonaire. This lip balm is fantastic for moisturizing and reviving dry, cracked, chapped lips.
4. Dream Curls ™ Curl Perfecting Spray
Like the package states; it transforms wilted dry curls into sexy swerves. What I love about the spray is that it doesn't contain alcohol, isn't greasy, and leaves my hair smelling fresh and pretty. My curls loved it!
5. Arm and Hammer Natural Essentials Unscented Deodorant
I LOVE IT! Why my strong proclamation of love to this product? I've been looking for an affordable (stress on the affordable) all-natural deodorant. When I saw this in my local grocery store I was delighted to read that the deodorant is aluminum-free, paraben-free and provides natural protection against odor by combining its namesake Arm & Hammer baking soda plus Coriander, Rosemary oil and other natural derivitaves. The deodorant glides on nicely, doesn't leave any marks, and has a nice natural smell.

Stay posted for more Fav products. Have any recommendations? Send me an email at roomtobreathe07@gmail.com

Fit & Fab!

For all my asana loving babes, I have to introduce you to my au courant crush Doce Vida Fitness wear. The line is sexy and made out of quality material! Finally, you can have stylish workout wear. Doce Vida has been featured in numerous magazines such as Self, Fitness Magazine, and Prevention. I'm particularly in love with their Copacabana Capri retailing for $68. Price a bit too steep for ya? Get a budget-friendly version from Old Navy's new activewear line for only $16.50. Happy, fit and smart!


Doce Vida $68
Old Navy $16.50

SPRING AWAKE!

AAAh...the snow covers are off our windows, the air slightly warmer, and skirts coming out of the closet. It is time for SPRING!! It's such an exciting switch in the year when the cherry blossoms come out and the sun is out and it ACTUALLY feels warm. Makes me feel all warm and goeey inside walking outside...hahahah..I'm such a sucker for nature.

Anyway I have a bunch of discoveries that I want to share with all of you!! Excitement is in the air!

Music
First off, Sunday I went to one of the best live concerts ever! Estelle with Ryan Leslie! Now, if you don't know who Ryan Leslie is...you are about to KNOW! He's the producer behind Cassie and was an intern for the Diddyness...(no comment). He has a very great sound that is a fusion of contemporary hip hop with old school music. Good thing is that he's a Harvard grad doing his thing and climbing up in the music world. He seems to have to a bright and creative future ahead of him. Estelle, she was ...hahahha..fab..honest and FUN!! That concert was a party basically! I enjoyed myself a lot! If you are in the DC area--hit up the 9:30 club! They have great artists performing!! Next month--Jhud and Robin Thicke is in the area (not at the 9:30 club), so get your tickets EARLY!!

Fashion
Now that Spring is in the air, you're wardrobe may want to be refreshed but keeping it recessionista style! Now girl...if I didn't see the price on these pieces I'm about to showcase you'd think it be straight from the catwalk with those daggone CATWALK prices walking your hard earned dough right out of the bank. But NO WORRIES!! It's all H&M which did an incredible job this Spring to do the trends right at FANTASTIC Recessionista prices! I'm wanting to cop that white $12.90 top.


Press
Ok, I'd like to join with the millions of people mourning the death of the incredible Natasha Richardson. Such an unexpected and tragic loss and my deepest condolences to first and foremost her family and all the ones who knew her personally. You all are in my prayers. May God give grant you comfort during these very very hard times.

On a lighter note though, I burst with excitement at three magnificent strong beautiful successful black women who appear on the cover of April 09's cover. Venus, Iman and Taraji look magnificent!! Congrats ladies! Please cop that magazine off the newsstands quick! The content is even more fabulous as they cover relationship advice, SOUND financial advice and FABULOUS Fashion spreads!! ESSENCE is KILLING IT!! Worth every penny!

Well, that's it for right now!! Of course, I have TONS more to share but till next time ;-) which is soon! Thanks for reading!! I will try to keep posting more regurarly and doing a cover all the bases post every week!

Stay Fabulous,

Christie
Jesus saves!

I leave you with a sampling of Ryan Leslie's incredible talent

How It Was Supposed To Be (Military Version) from Ryan Leslie on Vimeo.