Common Fonts That Are SERIOUSLY Overused!

A lot of people nowadays are creating their own things that require font usage. Such as business cards, letterhead, note cards, fliers, and even their own invitations and postcards. Sure, I'd much rather you come to me and get professional designs :) BUT for those of you who are tryint to save every dollar, PLEASE take a look at the rest of what I have to say here regarding your usage of fonts.

It is CRITICAL that you are designing your own things to stand out among a crowd of many. Therefore, your fonts might be the most important part. I deal with fonts every day, and have most of them memorized to the point that I will be at a restaurant searching a menu, driving down the road looking at signs and billboards, and even looking through books and magazines, and I can easily say, "Oh that's Mona Lisa Bold font...I can't believe they used that, it's soooo overused!!!" To which my husband will say, "Ummm, ooook?" But to me, it's so obvious!

So, to help you out, I've decided to upload some of the most commonly overused fonts that I am tired of seeing. These are so overused that they are starting to become recognized in commercials and movies too. Please do not use these fonts for your logos, signs and publications! They are just so not original:

Now that you've learned what NOT to use, I am going to show you some cool new fonts to use that I am LOVING. Please keep in mind that most of these fonts are NOT, I repeat NOT good for entire lengths of information, such as paragraphs. But, they are great for logos, titles, and grabbing attention. These fonts have a lot of spunk and personality and I just LOVE them:

I hope that helped a little and was not useless! I know I have a lot of clients who will appreciate this :)

Thanks for reading!
Teshia

Social Drinking & Calories

I'm not much of a drinker (honestly) but I am somewhat of a social drinker. When I go out with friends, and sometimes just my husband and I, I really enjoy a good glass of wine or tequila. We diet, we exercise, and we go out for drinks. But, a lot of people don't think about the calories in their drinks. So, in leiu of my girls night next Saturday, I decided to do some research this morning to find out the calories in some of my favorite drinks. I am SHOCKED by the results...

First, I am finding that some of my drinks are relatively lower in calories than I was expecting. Good news? Hmm...not! But before I explain why, let me list some of the drinks I researched and their calories:

Margarita: 3.3 oz cocktail size = 153 calories
Sangria: 8.5 oz wine glass size = 150 calories
Rum and Coke: 8 oz glass size = 207 calories
Long Island Iced Tea 8.3 oz glass size = 276 calories
Blue Moon Beer: bottle size = 100 calories
Apple Martini: cocktail glass = 235 calories
Strawberry Daiquiri: 8 oz = 240 calories

Some of you might be thinking that's not too bad. That was my initial thought too. Then I started to think about the portion sizes I am finding. 8 oz is NOT a full glass like a lot of people think it is. It's the size of a small measuring cup, or half of a large one. Go look: 8 oz. is not that much. A can of soda is 12 oz. So the portion sizes that we are getting when we order, say a Sangria, out at a restaurant, is probably TRIPLE what I am seeing above, making the total drink 450 calories. Sometimes, I drink TWO of those.

And, it only gets worst...while researching the calories, I came across an article on google about why drinking alcohol is HORRIBLE for your diet, and there's a scientific explanation for it.

Without posting the entire article and getting into details, I'll sum it up for you. Basically, our bodies burn energy from a few different sources: our carbohydrate intake, our protein reserve, and our fat reserve. When dieting, we want to pull from that fat reserve. However, for up to 24 hours of drinking an alcoholic beverage, our liver turns the alcohol into acetate, which then converts a portion of the alcohol into fat, and the acetate is released into our bloodstream and replaces fat as a fuel source.

They even did a study where 8 men were given vodka drinks that were less than 90 calories each. For 8 hours after the drinking, the mens body lipid oxidation (a measure of how fat is being burned in the metabolism) was measured and it dropped by 73%...so, their bodies were actually turning the alcohol straight into fat. AWFUL!!!!!

Not to mention the rest of the article about how alcohol makes you have a major appetite too!

I was shocked by the news of the calories and the fat storing. But then again, do you ever have a night of drinking your favorite drinks and then wake up the next morning feeling like you've gained weight? It DOES make me feel that way, and now it makes perfect sense.

Hmm...from now on I'm going to have to save my wallet AND my cellulite and SKIP the alcohol, or at least only have one drink. Yikes!!!

Calorie information: www.calorieking.com (my FAV website for finding calories)
Article: http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/research/alcohol.htm

Free Weight Loss Sheet - Keep track of your progress!!!

One of my BIGGEST tips for keeping track of your goals and staying healthy with your diet and exercise it to WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN!!!

I designed these sheets in Photoshop, and have been using them for 10 weeks now. I hand this on a cork board in my kitchen, but you can print them out and put them on your fridge, in the dining room...wherever is best for you.

I wanted to go ahead and share these with everyone, and get them online so that YOU can print them out and use them now too!!!

Ok, so here is the sheet. I'm going to post a link to it here too so you can see it larger and print it out on a full page: http://www.corporateavedesign.com/images/weekly-dietexercise.jpg

My week starts out on Sunday. I have my weigh-ins every Saturday morning. Each day has a check box, so you can check off your 2 servings of caffeine (I have one coffee and one can of pop each day), your eight 8oz servings of water, and your vitamin. Those are JUST as important as your food intake.

The green section at the top you can write your workouts in. Add up your weekly calories each day and write them in the pink section under "Weekly Calories" and there is also a place for writing notes there. You could write your weight loss in there or goals for the week!

I really hope this helps you out. It lets you see everything and keep it too for future reference. GOOD LUCK!!!

7 Days of Y-O-G-A!!!

Usually, I only do my yoga DVD 2-3 days a week. BUT this week, I'm going to attempt to do it every day! It's BRUTAL, it's HARDCORE, and it makes me SWEAT like a *insert something sweaty here, because I can't think of anything*

I NEED to lose a lot of weight this week, so I'm going to try this. I've already made up my mind - I'm doing it. Hopefully, I can motivate you, too!

So, please join me! I'm declaring this NATIONAL YOGA WEEK, because, well...just because!

Again, here is the Yoga DVD that I do. I HIGHLY recommend it, it's awesome! You will get an AMAZING workout and I swear, I even FEEL lighter when I get through with it. The whole tape is an hour long, I do the whole thing.

It's only 5 bucks, what are you waiting for?

I'm going RIGHT NOW to do this tape. Mamaw just took Braylon to a movie, so it's time for Mommy to go get in shape.

IS it time for YOU to get into shape too? I say: HECK YES

Even if you're already in shape, working out releases endorphins and makes you FEEL GOOD!

Active Moms: Always Tired? WORKOUT!! IT will give you energy to keep uo with those kids, and have a better time being able to play with them longer :)

Ladies: The PERFECT daily vitamin, and it might surprise you!

Alright, so as all of my friends and family know, I have been on a big health kick for a little over two years now. I diet and work out pretty hard (other than my Coldstone Creamery - All Lovin' No Oven indulgence last night - that we won't talk about: hey, a girl's gotta have some chocolate and cookie dough every now and then!) and my husband and I had also been trying to conceive our second child for the last two years. So naturally, I started taking prenatal vitamins after about a year of not conceiving.

Anywho - Man, I just realized how much I love to ramble...But no, seriously I started to notice a difference in my health after taking the vitamins for about a month. My hair, skin and nails were so much glowier and prettier! My face even started looking kinda cute without my concealer (can't believe I just said that - but it's true) and so I decided to do some research on WHY that is and share it with all of you:

First of all, make sure you're taking the prenatals that contain DHA and Fish Oil. Here's why:

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DHA is without a doubt the most important of the omega-3 fatty acids, because it has been shown to be effective in the prevention and treatment of so many physical ailments.  This fatty acid has shown results in the prevention of cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, and it also inhibits the growth of carcinoma cells in colon, prostate, and breast cancer.
It is also effective for the treatment of allergies, arthritis, asthma, type II diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, and help to build a strong immune system.  These are all things that anyone could benefit from, but the reason that it is suggested that your baby would benefit from the use of prenatal DHA rich fish oil supplements is DHA’s role in cognitive development and brain and visual function.

Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/supplements-and-vitamins-articles/the-benefits-of-taking-dha-prenatal-dietary-supplements-1317437.html#ixzz0wXsPAigt
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

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Ok, so obviously I googled all of that, but it's much better explained that way than me trying to give a second-hand account! 

We are no longer trying to conceive, but I'm not going to stop taking the vitamins. A month ago I ran out (I buy them in huge bottles of 300 and so I had my last bottle forEVVVER) and kept forgetting to get more when we went to the grocery. I didn't take them for like 3 weeks. I could notice! My nails actually got more fragile and brittle, hair wasn't as shiny, and I felt a little sluggish. Started taking them again and about a week later I felt and looked GREAT again! :)

So ladies, take your vitamins. Even if you don't take prenatals, I highly recommend taking a DHA pill and/or also the Fish Oil pills. 

Don't like the taste of them? DRINK THEM WITH LEMONADE!! It seriously works. Some ladies have reported being able to taste the fish oil pills and burp them up (so gross) for hours after taking them. Drink them with lemonade or suck on a lemon and that won't happen. PROMISE! Taking them at night helps too :)

I'm done rambling for the night. These are starting to get longer than I actually expect people to read. Goodnight!

Dinner's Ready!

Just got finished eating dinner. As you all know, I'm trying to count calories. With my height (5'1" - seriously, I'm VERY short) I'm trying to eat around 1,000 calories per day. Today, I only had 2 meals because of my husband's schedule. So, I woke up and made us a big "brunch" of ham omelets and french toast. So yummy!! A total of about 600 calories, though, which I RARELY do.

*TIP: It's the best idea to try to keep your meals to 300 calories or less, and eat more frequent meals throughout the day, or make sure to snack in-between meals.

For dinner, I char-broiled a flat-iron steak on the grill. Marinated in worcestershire sauce and Montreal steak seasoning (<---highly recommended!!!), I first like to turn the grill on high and blacken both sides for a few minutes. This starts the cooking process and also holds in all of the juices. Then, turn the grill down on low and cook it on each side for about 15-20 minutes with the lid CLOSED - and don't open it! Makes it cook better in the high heat.

As a side, I wrap whole mushrooms up in tenfoil, add some no fat, no calorie Parkay spray butter (<---highly recommended!!!!) and stick it right on the grill with the steak. Do this with onions and peppers too and the steamed, grilled taste carmelizes the veggies and they're simply sooo delish! Had a side salad as well.

Anyways, dinner total of 500 calories. That puts me at 1,100 for the day so far.

Now for my exercising, I've been changing up my workouts every evening, between treadmill one night, then yoga another, then eliptical and bike...but this week I'm starting to try something diff. I'm walking this whole week, just walking. Then next week, just eleptical, next week, just yoga. I just want to see how my body reacts to the different workouts. If I lose more weight my yoga week for instance, then I know it has the most impact! But for tonight, 5 mile walk it is! I do a starter lap at 3.0, then the rest of the first mile at 3.5, then I go as high as 3.7-3.8 to finish off the 20 laps.

*TIP: Here's another interesting tip that I came across. Did you know that it's not how FAST you walk the 5 miles, but how LONG you walk? Think about it - you burn the same amount of calories whether you walk it in 2 hours or run it in 1 hour. But getting your body working for 2 hours actually has been proven to have more of an impact on stimulating the muscles.

Also, below is the Yoga tape that I do all of the time and I absolutely LOOOOOOVE it!

Thanks for reading...

Teshia

New Logo Design

This afternoon, I had the pleasure of working on a logo design for a new business! This is a consignment shop clothing boutique, with a fabulous sense of style for design.

Below are the two logo designs that I designed for the start of the process:

What are your thoughts? Cute start? I think SO :) I will be designing their website too. Can't wait!

Welcome to my New Blog!

Hi everyone! Welcome to my new blog!

This is LONG overdue. I've been procrastinating starting a blog for over a year now. But then something just hit me, and I decided to give it a try :)

I have lots of plans for this blog! I want to talk about everything - weight loss and exercise, health and healthy cooking, art and design and things that inspire me...I've got LOTS of things I just can't wait to share with you!

Please check back daily as I plan to post as often as I can. I've got a few years worth of things to share with you and need some time to get everything gathered together.

I will be posting a link to my blog on my business website as well as facebook. Please follow me!

Thank for reading...

Teshia