Wow, what a great week I had last week.  At A Girly Girl Boutique, we were so busy after the fashion shows for the WIOG Family Fun Fest and then I received an email to be a guest of Kevin Christiana at the first ever Fashion In Detroit.  I must say, I was hesitant at first because I was so booked and I only had a few days notice.

For those of you who don’t know, Kevin Christiana was on season four of Project Runway and makes frequent appearances on the Rachel Ray show.  He is now designing his own line called MYNT 1792, a great lifestyle clothing line.  Well, you know….I had to go.  I even arranged for my husband, David,  to attend as a photographer and I would be interviewing Kevin for an article for the Fashion Plate for the Review Magazine.

Well, I had a blast and it was soooo great to be seated front row, watching the fashion shows instead of backstage producing the fashion shows!  Afterward, I did get to interview Kevin Christiana and also Barry Zinn who is also part of the MYNT 1792 team, which explained the name of the other line they are developing called Christiana-Zinn!  What great guys!  Seriously, two very down to earth, humble people and it was a great pleasure to speak with them.  Here is a great picture that my wonderful hubby took.

Barry Zinn, Debra Defoe (aka Girly Girl) and Kevin Christiana

Keep an eye out for this up and coming designer and I will let you know when the Review Magazine-Fashion Plate article comes out!

I am so pleased to tell you about my piece for this issue of the Fashion Plate for the Review Magazine.  It is titled Pigskin and Paper Roses and is a piece about Homecoming. 

The Fashion Plate

Thanks to our models Fawn and Drake for taking part in the photo shoot and my gifted and talented husband David for the magnificent photos.  We even made the front cover and they are saying that all of the photos from  the shoot may end up on their website!  Let me tell all you Girly Girls, that is exciting!  Also a big thanks to Robert for this incredible opportunity!  Check out the Review Magazine and the special insert of the Fashion Plate available at different locations in Saginaw and around Saginaw County.  Get them before they are gone!

A Girly Girl Boutique

Check out the new ad coming out in the Review Magazine tomorrow in their new special section, Fashion Plate.  The Fashion Plate will also feature a special editorial by Eric.  The model was Sarah K and the photos were shot in Bay City, Michigan.  She was wearing the dress Moore by BB Dakota, and her accessories; hair, makeup, jewelry and purse are also available at A Girly Girl Boutique.

Designer Fashion is everywhere you look.  Sure ladies want to wear awesome womens apparel from great designers and there are many that I like.  I carry BB Dakota at A Girly Girl Boutique for a couple of reasons.

The BB Dakota line is from a great designer, Gloria Brandes who brought sensibility and style to the fashion world.  If you access the BB Dakota website you will see that she states,”the BB Dakota girl has attitude and confidence.”  She continues, “Offering (its) customers “big fashion at small prices” is our mission.”  ““We try to make great fashion more accessible,” she continues.

This explains why since being introduced, or as the website explains it catapulted,  the line has been popular and continues to evolve.  I speak from experience when I say that I have never seen so many ooohs and awwws at designer fashion as when Girly Girls come into my store.  They go from rack to rack exclaiming their thrill at their new finds, BB Dakota and Jack!

So how can you pass up a spectacular sale on the great BB Dakota and Jack inventory on our website?  Well, you can’t if you have any Girly Girl genes in your body!!  Hurry to the online store to get 30% off these great fashions before it’s too late!

So it is that time of year when in the midst of all the hustle and bustle, we MUST attend certain Christmas parties.  Whether it is the office party or family, you know you want to look fabulous.  I love the holidays because we women look for reasons to get dressed up and this time of year you don’t have to look far!  The fashions this year are so inspired by Christmases past, I absolutely love them!  The fabrics are shimmery and the styling is simple but the statement is very feminine.  I love the floral and jacquard prints!

These dresses from BB Dakota are a case in point.    The Dayton                                                                                                                 And The Bloomington

God Bless Joe the Plumber from Holland Ohio who inadvertently became a national spokesman for all of us Girly Girls and all of America when he simply asked a question of Sinister Osama….oops, I mean Senator Obama.

Little did Joe, or Samuel J. Wurzelbacher (his given name), know that he would end up the victim of the media and their attempts to smear him.  They are sifting through his background, declaring he is not a real plumber and that he is some sort of bad person because he is divorced and owes taxes?!  WHAT?  That is what happens to many middle class Americans who get divorced….they go through rough times financially.  Who doesn’t know that?  Should he just have taken a page from Bill Ayers and bombed his ex into giving him everything so he could walk away financially set?!

Poor Joe, he just wanted the truth from a person who claims to have all of our best interests at heart and instead he has become a victim of those who are attempting to squash him in the name of Democracy.  Is this the “CHANGE HE NEEDS” from Obama and his Cronies?  I doubt it?

We need to support Joe and the others like him who are putting the truth ahead of personal gain.  We need true heros in this day and age.  If I had the extra money right now, I would send it to him to help pay his taxes.  Keep up the good work, Joe.  Love ya, man!!

Poor old bloke!  Hugh Hefner is sad about loosing ONE of his girlfriends.  Some how I find it hard to feel sorry for him.  I have no doubt that he will bounce back quickly and somewhere deep inside I have to wonder if it is just a ploy to help with faltering ratings?  What is your thought?

Seems to me that he survives in an industry where I find it hard to believe that emotions play a bigger role than upward mobility; and I mean that both literally and as a pun!!  Although I would think the only upward mobility he sees without the help of Viagra is lining his bank accounts!!

So Holly Madison gets smart!!  National news?!!  Wow, they must be backing off of Sarah?!!

OK, all my Girly Girls.  I  must tell you all that happened today.  It is somewhat disheartening, but I know my God is in control so I must have faith and move forward in this arena.  Thank God for my husband who lifts me up!

I have been waiting for this day to come because I felt I was wronged so going to court was going to be a good step, I believed.  It all started last year when I rented my house in West Branch, Michigan to the E & D Davis family who was in great need.  They were not the only people who were interested in renting the house, but I rented it to them because they had four young children and were living in a very small travel trailer on someones property.  Sure there was a part of me that thought it an odd story, but another part of me had empathy, especially after hearing of all of the hardships they have been through.  I figured letting them rent my home would be a blessing to all of us, especially since the market was down and I was having trouble selling the house.  They did have a GLOWING reference when I checked them out.  That should have been my first clue but I admit I am new to the rental business (game)!

Well indeed, they wanted the house but then all of a sudden they wanted to move in immediately and didn’t have all the money for the rent and deposit.  They wanted me to negotiate a deal; if they helped me finish moving my stuff out of the house and took stuff to the dump for me, I could lower their security deposit for them so they would have more money to help them move up from Flint.  I also explained to them that I knew there were three things wrong with the house.  The toilet in the master bath needed some work and I was going to fix it before they moved in.  They agreed to fix it if I let them move in right away.  The other two things;  the central air did not work and the switch for the whirlpool tub needed to be replaced.  Neither of these I deemed important for a rental and told them I would not invest in having them fixed at this time.  I did agree, however to have a technician out to look at the central air system and recharge it if that was all it needed.  Done deal!  Everyone seemed happy with the arrangement and I felt good knowing their children finally had a good home.

Red flag number two!  She (D) didn’t want to sign the lease!!  Who in their right mind thinks they rent property without having to sign a lease?  D needed the lease papers to enroll her children in school, which was about to begin but she didn’t want to sign the lease.  When we moved the rest of our belongings out of the house, D came up to me and stated that she didn’t agree with the lease and didn’t want to sign it.  Her husband (E) had signed it and I told her it was a standard lease and if she didn’t sign it, she couldn’t live in the house.  She ended up signing it and at that point is when I think the “Fasten Your Seatbelt” sign should have dinged and lit up!!

Things went swimmingly until January of this year, when all of a sudden, NO RENT.  Mind you, the rent had not been paid on time yet (the first of the month), but it was usually paid 7 – 10 days late.  Now it was the 12th and no correspondence was received and no phone calls were returned.  When I finally got in touch with her, she appologized and told me all about her financial snags.  She told me they didn’t want to move and asked if we could work something out.  I agreed but only because she was going to be getting some government assistance to help pay the rent.  She agreed to write me an IOU for the rent not paid for January and I had to ask repeatedly for the IOU before she finally sent it to me!  I also asked my church to help them out and my church generously donated $100.00 to their family.    She stated they would make up the rent for January and sent the payment schedule for her government assistance checks so I knew when the rent would be coming.

Then came June.  I received a phone call from D stating that she wanted the air conditioning fixed.  Again I told her that it was not a simple fix and I was not investing that much money into the property.  Then she told me they were thinking of buying my house and wanted to know what I would to sell it for.  I told her I wasn’t sure and that is when she told me that E said to offer me $50,00.00.  I told her I am sure she would want to buy it for that because it is worth a lot more than $50,000.00!!  There was no way I would sell my house for that amount.  It was ridiculous.

Then the rent stopped!  July remained unpaid and I went to the house on the 14th to collect the rent and D wouldn’t answer the door.  She talked to me through the screen window.  I left the Notice to Quit on the front door along with a 24 hour notice to inspect.  When I spoke to my lawyer, she told me to go and attempt to inspect but not to enter the house if she doesn’t let me in.  When my husband and I returned to the house the next day to inspect, she never answered the door and called the police on us.   We ended up talking to the state trooper who responded and nothing was accomplished. 

Now off to court!!

CONTINUED:  see Evicting Tenants in Michigan