My Makeover!

I was just checking out a blog I just found, Lovely Yellow Ribbons' Glam Gals, and I realized that I never posted about my Parenting Magazine makeover here! Allow me to first give you the back story. While my husband was deployed to Iraq last year I was taking a full load of classes online and our son had just turned one year old when my husband deployed. Between school and taking care of my son I didn't have much time for myself, so when I saw that Parenting Magazine was holding a makeover contest I jumped at the opportunity.

I had to submit a 60 second video stating why I deserved a Mom Squad Makeover. I made a list of all the thing I wanted to mention, then I made a mini script. I must have shot the video at least 30 times before I finally had it within the 60 second time limit. You can view the video here. There are a couple parts in the beginning where the sound gets all messed up, so make sure your volume isn't up too high. The video was submitted on February 17th.

On April 8th I received the following email:

Dear Allison,
Hello! I’m an editor at Parenting magazine, and I’m writing to tell you that the Mom Squad loved the video you sent in for our makeover contest. You’re one of our three finalists!

I’d love to talk to you on the phone in the next couple of days, if you can spare the time, to get to know you a little better and tell you more about the Mom Squad. Is there a good time I can give you a call? And, what’s your number? If you’d rather call me, my number’s below.

Thanks—I look forward to talking to you!

Sarah

OMG! She can't be serious! But she was! So, we chatted on the phone for about half an hour one day. We talked about my experience in the Navy, my life as a Navy wife and the joys of motherhood. Then, on April 18th I got the all too exciting news:

Hi Allison,
I’m so happy to say that our editor in chief agreed with us that you are the perfect person to win our Mom Squad makeover contest! I’ll be in touch with you next week about details. We decided to run the piece a month later than we were first planning (October instead of September), so we won’t need to rush and scramble so much. We’ll still want to visit there or have you come here in May, but probably late May, even the first week of June, instead of early May. Would that work for you, I hope? Let me know! We’ll work around your schedule.

Thanks, and I’ll talk to you soon! Have a great weekend!

Sarah

It was unbelievable. I have always thought a makeover would be so much fun, and now I was getting one that was going to be featured in a popular magazine, along with a free trip to NYC!

The timing ended up being perfect. My husband was scheduled to come home from Iraq on June 30th and they flew me out to New York for my makeover on June 21st. They put me up in the Thirty Thirty Hotel in Manhattan. I first met with Sarah, the editor, and Sharon, the fitness expert. They were both super nice. Sharon gave me a workout routine that is suitable for my schedule and the cold weather here in Illinois. It is something I can do at home and isn't too time consuming.

After my workout session Sarah took me to the salon, Bumble and Bumble, where I was having my hair colored. A very nice girl named Kitty colored my hair. Nikki was also there. She is the girl who was eventually going to cut my hair the day of the photo shoot. She is also super nice. She brought her 5 year old son with her. He was so adorable. He wrote me a little love letter! Haha! He handed me a folded up piece of paper and said, "This is for you" so I opened it and it said, "I (heart) you"! SO ADORABLE! He was also all about helping his mom out. He helped blow dry my hair.

So, I totally ended up loving my hair color. I had previously dyed it blonde, but Kitty made it closer to my natural brown color and left some blonde highlights in it. It turned out so great!

The next day I met with Janine, the organizer. We mainly talked about how I could better stay organized when school starts back up in the fall. I think the resources and ideas she gave me will be a great help! One of the best resources I received from her was a Whomi Planner. It helps keep all of the different aspects of my life organized.

The third day was the big photo shoot! The most exciting part of the whole adventure! It took place in Greenwich Village. The first thing they did was the worst part; the before picture! lol! I didn't blow dry my hair that morning or put any makeup on, so it's a pretty horrific picture! Then, it was time for makeup. A lovely lady named Sara did my makeup and it was great. She gave me lots of tips and made clear what I should do when I normally wear makeup and what she was just doing for the photo shoot. After that, Nikki cut and styled my hair. She cut off so much hair! It was really scary! I do have a lot of hair though, and it was pretty long. After it was cut and styled everyone told me how much they loved it. I wasn't really sure I liked it, and it took some getting used to, but I ended up loving it after a couple days.

After my hair was finished I had a bra fitting that was set up by the fashion stylist, Billie. It was a great idea. I got two great bras out of it, and it's so nice to finally have bras that fit! After nursing Ethan, it was impossible to find a bra that fit me well. Following that, we picked out some outfits for me to wear and proceeded on to the photo shoot.

The photo shoot was so fun! I could definitely handle being a model for a living! Haha! The first shirt I wore, for my close up shot, was a pretty teal blue. I loved it. I wasn't crazy about the second outfit that I wore for the full body shots though. The jeans were pretty sweet, but I wore a dress over them and I thought it looked like I was wearing a muumuu or something. However, once again everyone said they liked it, and the pictures turned out great, so whatever!

That night the editors, Sarah and Stephanie, took me out for dinner. It was a lot of fun hanging out with them and we are actually still in touch via facebook. They were so fun and so nice; totally not what I was expecting in the big city! :)

The makeover was featured in the October issue of Parenting Magazine, but you can still check it out online: My Makeover

I also did a little site seeing while I was there. A big chunk of my husband's family is from Syracuse and he had a cousin that lived there at the time, so her and her boyfriend showed me the sites. I had so much fun with them!

Here are my personal photos from the trip: