Well hello my friend! Happy New Year to you and yours!I am so excited about going into 2019, because it’s a brand new year! How energizing! And as we look to the future, many of us would like to be healthier, do a little better in that department.

Well, for the ladies out there, I am part of a Facebook Group called The Sizzlers Challenge.

We have over 100 ladies from all over the world and all of us want to do a little better with exercise. It is a place where we post any exercise we have done, and cheer each other on. Some ladies post once in awhile. Some every day. We have ladies of all fitness levels (I’m a total rookie, hah!) Sometimes some of us fall off the wagon but this is always a welcome place where everybody knows your name (cue the “Cheers” theme song!) If you want to get back on track, come join us! It’s free! No pressure! Just a bunch of really nice ladies all on the journey together! Click Here: Sizzlers Challenge

Pinterest fans– When I met with my tech support team, Kaleigh and Alex Prokic a few weeks ago, they helped set the blog up with Pinterest so if you ever see an image you would like to save to a Pinterest board, now you should be able to hover over the picture and see the Pinterest logo and simply click it to pin to one of your boards. So if you see a fashion or a recipe you would like to save, you are all set to very simply “Pin it”! Yay! Progress!

Here are some Sales to get your Holiday Shopping Game on!

Ann Taylor – 40% off your purchase, use code REFRESH; 60% off sale styles!

Anthropologie – 40% off Sale!!  Yesss!

Banana Republic – 50%  off sale styles!

Bloomingdales – After Christmas Sale and Clearance. Save up to 75% on a large selection of items now through 1/6.

Chicos – Semi Annual Sale- Up to 70% off select styles.

Clarks  30% off almost everything, use code TAKE30

Dick’s Sporting Goods – End of season sale. Up to 75% off select apparel, outerwear and footwear. 

DSW – Huge Price Drop Clearance Event- up to 60% off. Now an additional 20% off. No code needed.

Gap – The Great Gap Sale- 40% off everything. Use code FORYOU. Up to 75% off markdowns.

Gap Factory – Up to 75% off almost everything! Extra 50% off clearance, use code GREAT

JC Penney – The Big Winter Wrap Up Sale; Extra 25% off orders $100+, and extra 20% off orders under $100; Use Code SALE4

JCrew – Extra 50% off final sale styles, use code BIGGERSALE

JJill – extra 40% off all sale styles

Kate Spade – Extra 40% off Sale styles, use code MOREEXTRA

Kohls – new markdowns taken, save up to 70%

Loft – 50% off new styles, use code LOVEIT thousands of new markdowns.

Lord & Taylor – Up to 60% off storewide, use code DECEMBER

Luckybrand – up to 75% off everything. Wow!

Macy’s – After Christmas Sale, extra 20% off, code JOY or $10 off purchase of $25 or more, use code JOY25 (excludes specials)

Nine West -extra 30% off sale for up to 70% off, use code EXTRA30

Old Navy – Epic Clearance Event, up to 75% off, no code needed.

Pier 1  – Clearance up to 60% off, no code needed.

Talbots – Red Hanger Sale- extra 40% off markdowns!

Target – Up to 25% off storage and organization essentials! I’ll get my purse! Let’s Go!

White House Black Market – 50% off Sale Styles! 

Wow! There are some seriously good deals out there!

A Few of My Favorite Things

Back soon! The last several weeks, I’ve been doing a component in my blog called “A Few of My Favorite Things” where I interview people who are influencers in all walks of life. Coming soon! Just took a little break for Christmas.

A moment to say thank you to my  photographer and my son, Jacob Kennedy. 

I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun it is to get to have my son Jake Kennedy as my photographer! He is learning photography and video in college, and he is graciously helping me as we navigate these waters together. But it does take time, thought and energy. Jake is a busy young man, working and going to school. And he also works very hard at staying in shape at a local gym. He enjoys several forms of martial arts training, running etc, every single day. So the fact that he continues to make time to help me is so incredibly selfless and kind. I can’t thank him enough. And we always have a blast when we go out, so that is just the cherry on top of the sundae! If you would like to see more of Jake’s work, you can find him on Instagram @jacob.kennedy21.

A Look Back at the fashion and happenings of 2018: 

I don’t know about you, but it seems like 2018 just flew by! For our family, we had all sorts of challenges and excitement. I thought it would be fun to take a look back and see some of the highlights here at Your Favorite Chapter.

January was a very strong month for the blog, and one of the posts I really enjoyed included a little information about a designer I admire, Tory Burch. One thing stood out to me more than all the fashion and success. It was something she said she learned from her parents. That when you are presented with negativity and naysayers while pursuing your dreams, that you should categorize it as “noise” and just close your mind to it. It’s just background noise. She had plenty of people telling her she didn’t have the fashion pedigree to break into that industry. But she didn’t listen. And we shouldn’t either when people try to talk us out of pursuing our dreams. You can read about that post here.

In February,  I participated in a special post with the Forever Fierce Revolution, sharing the stories of 5 midlife women, and what it means to them to be “fierce” in midlife. This was such a fun project to be a part of! I was able to share the stories of Carrie Childerston, Susan Lear, Martina, Trisha, and Christine Lammers. If you would like to see that post, you can click here.

March was another fun month, but my favorite post that month was when I shared the story of how I found a very beat up vintage radio, and my husband restored it for me. I see so many beautiful analogies to the precious value of people in this incredible restoration story. If you would like to see that post, please click here.

April was another fun month! I announced the introduction of the exercise group now known as the Sizzlers. Back then, it was known as “30 for 30”, and the goal was to try and commit to 30 minutes of exercise a day for 30 days. It was such fun! And just before it began, Jake and I participated in the Michigan Big House 5k, and I shared about it in this blog post here.

In May, Jake and I did another run, this time in Holland, Michigan, at the Tulip Festival. It really was a lovely run, with glorious tulips everywhere. I also shared a little about my mom and dad in this post as it was Mother’s Day and my father’s birthday. You can read about that event here.

June had another post that really impacted me. We were shooting on a river, and Jake went way up on an overpass and took this picture. Standing in front of that river was very humbling and writing the closing for that post was quite moving. You can read that post here.

July was a busy month with covering the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. And my sister Stacey and I did a photo shoot together. This was one of my most fun photo shoots ever.  You can read about it here.

August was another fun month! Jake took Stacey and I out on another photo shoot and he surprised us with some color sticks to use in the shoot. You can read about that one here.

September was beautiful! One shoot stood out as particularly fun because we brought our dog Kasey with us! Kasey was stepping out! Any photo shoot with Kasey is a good shoot! You can read about it here.

October is always lovely in Michigan, but I took a dream trip to go to the FierceCon 2018 Conference in Los Angeles. I was able to meet women I had been connecting with online for over a year at a fabulous conference, and you can read about it here.

In November, I shared an interview with an amazing blogger and very good friend of mine, Loretta Sayers Gavin. After the conference in Los Angeles ended, I drove up to Santa Barbara and spent some time with Loretta, and she gave me an incredible tour of Santa Barbara. This excursion was one of the most fun trips I have ever been on. You can read about it here.

And in December, probably my favorite post was the one I did a few weeks ago with Kasey again, wearing a black cape with leopard trim. It felt almost like something from the 50’s, and it almost felt like “dress-up”, really fun!  You can read about it here.

I am so grateful for you and this place to share things. I am grateful for your friendship and your support and kind words when you send me comments. For each and every friend in my life, some have been with me for decades and some I’ve just had the honor of meeting this past year. I am so very thankful for you all.

I’m thankful to Kaleigh and Alex Prokic for the tech help they provide with my blog. Friends, they are literally available at the drop of a hat. I simply text my question or issue and they are all over it in a heartbeat. And they have me over every couple of months to look at ways we can improve. They have been with me since the very beginning and I am truly so grateful for their help.

For my family, oh how you bless me. Sometimes it takes my breath away how kind and supportive my family has been. My sisters Susan and Stacey are my sounding board for all sorts of things for the blog. I text them all the time to get their input. They are a wealth of knowledge, ideas, and each has incredible style. I am so very grateful to them.

My parents, my sons Shane and Jake and my husband are like my built in fan club. The other day I took some food to my parent’s house for Christmas and my dad remembered some of the recipes from the blog. Many times I bounce things off my husband to get his opinion as I have such respect for him. He gives me such great advice. I am truly so grateful.

I am thankful for the new adventures I had this past year, for the travels. And during the stormy times, for those dear ones who were like a rock for me. I’m thankful for my faith. There is a verse that says “His mercies are new every morning.” I wake up to that truth every single day.

I know in our family, some folks had the highest of highs and some had the toughest of times. I’m sure that is true in your family as well. Life is like that, isn’t it? We can have such sweetness and such struggle and yet life is always a precious gift. I still can’t believe how blessed we are to be doing this stretch of the journey together. That God would see fit to put us here in the universe at this point in time and that we found each other! How cool is that?. 2018 has been an incredible year. We’ve learned, we’ve persevered, we’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve loved and we have prevailed. And now we look to a fresh new canvas together for 2019. Thank you so much for making this one of my favorite chapters, and I hope it’s one of your favorite chapters as well.

I’ll be back Tuesday for another Tasty Tuesday.

Love Always,

Amy

May love and laughter light your days, and warm your heart and home. May good and faithful friends be yours wherever you may roam. May peace and plenty bless your world with joy that long endures. May all life’s passing seasons bring the best to you and yours.   ~An Old Irish Blessing.

 

 

Places I link up:

Jo Lynne Shane My Life and Style 

Jodie’s Touch of Style / Ageless Style Link up

Sharing A Journey

Fashion Should Be Fun  

Not Dressed As A Lamb

Elegantly Dressed and Stylish

Glass of Glam

A Pocket Full of Polka Dots

Nifty Fifty Fabulous

The Blended Blog