Blush Leopard Sweater is from Ruthie Grace Boutique!  Tara (the owner) and I went to college together and she is still a very dear friend!  I highly suggest her business to any fashion enthusiast!

Hello everyone!  Sorry you haven’t heard from me on this blog in a few weeks.  Honestly I haven’t posted that many blogs in the past few months since I started working on creating the PowHer.fit fitness app.  Developing a fitness app has to be one of the most extensive projects I have ever taken on, especially at the timing of it.  I had just launched Randa Carrabba the Label a few weeks before I decided to create the fitness app, so overwhelmed and exhausted is a bit of an understatement.

I have a few new designs I’ve worked on (for Randa Carrabba the Label) that I can’t wait to share, but I don’t even have a date for that launch set. I would guesstimate sometime towards the end of February.  I love a good launch, but lately I have felt a little launched out.  Amidst everything that’s going on, I’m still trying to focus on my own rest, sanity, gym time and proper nutrition to keep me going!

To be honest, yesterday marks 2 weeks since the launch of the PowHer.fit app and I have needed to focus these past few weeks fully on that project.  The website was overloaded and crashed within 8 minutes of going LIVE and once the site was live we did find a few errors and kinks that needed to be worked out.  We hired a new developer team that is absolutely incredible and working diligently to make every detail that I want on the site and within the web app to be just right.  Having the site LIVE with people using the app while we were trying to increase storage space, speed up load times, make the videos function more seamlessly, etc. made it a bit more challenging and took more time than I would have liked, but such is with anything that you build.  I’m so grateful that 99.9% of my followers and customers have been beyond understanding and so kind while I launched a new venture, put my fashion designs on pause for a bit, and am working through learning a complete new system.  I received my first ever “progress report” from one of the PowHer.fit girls today and I was blown away.  I have to say I am possibly just as excited (if not more) about her results even than she may be.  I was running around all excited after I received it, so much that it was hard to focus on work.  I wasn’t overwhelmed or worried with all the technical side of building the business for a few hours as I truly felt her success myself.  I must say I would  have NEVER EXPECTED I would be a fitness influencer, much less create a fitness app, but it is one of the most fulfilling things I have ever done in my life.  I am so excited to see where the future takes us.

Speaking of influencing, this lifestyle blog is still a big part of my 2019 career aspect and I’m excited about the future content and collabs I will be creating for all of my readers.  I have to share a very exciting bit of news!  I was informed yesterday by one of my sweet instagram followers that I was nominated for Candy 95.1’s Morning Candy Faves as one of the Most Influential Local Influencers for the Brazos Valley!!!  I’m actually going to ask that you vote for one of my dear friends Kristi Schiller for the award rather than myself.  Kristi is a truly incredible pillar in our community, our state and even the country.  I love and adore her as a friend and am just honored to be included on the list with someone like her.  There were 8 total of us on the ballot and you can vote for Kristi HERE.  I couldn’t help but share this news as hopefully it will help me be able to expand the businesses I work with and influence for in Bryan/College Station.  A lot of businesses here are very “new” to understanding influencer marketing and I hope me making this list helps them to see that online influencing and blogging really is powerful!!!  Sometimes I wish there was a group of local bloggers that I could team up with like there are in bigger cities like Austin, Houston and Dallas to help make awareness of the blogging industry easier to explain in BCS!.  I do believe our town will start to see and believe in influencer marketing a little more, and I hope to help spread awareness about this form of advertising.  Plus any businesses that I do choose to work with, I truly like to build a relationship and try to help their business to grow.  I believe that’s a benefit of being BOTH a business owner and an influencer – I can see and understand both sides!

As for Southern Jewlz, I am in the final stages of bringing on another owner/business partner!  Yes, I will still be a part owner of the company and the transitional time of adjusting the ownership and management of the company is almost over!  I promise we will have new arrivals and be ready to service our extremely patient customers soon.  I am so excited about this switch because God really put one incredible person in front of me that I know is going to do wonderful things for the company!

I feel the past few months have flown by, but then I also feel that I’m still trying to wrap up projects that I started many months ago.  I know we live in an instant gratification world, but big changes TAKE TIME!  Rome wasn’t built in a day – and neither were you or I!

Grant has been such a wonderful help and support through all my transitions, evolutions and even with the new projects!  He has helped me to film workouts, answer emails, learn about the the billing and customer service side of PowHer.fit outside of his own work time.  I know he is tired and exhausted and in need of some R&R as well. Our 2 year anniversary is coming up next Monday.  I really think we are just going to take this weekend to SLEEP and get rejuvenated and maybe focus on celebrating the next weekend. We got a short little trip last weekend to Fort Worth to celebrate my older brother’s 40th birthday.  My SIL threw him a surprise party at one of his favorite jazz speak easy bars!  We even got to have lunch the next day with our nephew Alex.  Last Saturday was the first day off I had in months and I enjoyed it so much!

One company that I influence for is Vintage Boho Bags.  They recreate authenthic Louis Vuitton’s and their big sale is coming up on February 8.  Get ready to save big and use my code “Randa10” for extra savings!  I carry their voyager and cross body clutch!  Grant kept calling me MC hammer in my leopard joggers, but I loved them.  They are from my friend Kelsey’s boutique – The Lace Cactus.

We hopefully get Suddenlink internet this week!  We technically live in the county and our internet is literally SO. SLOW!!!  Like it makes my job really hard and long at times.  The internet we are about to get is going to be OVER 100 TIMES FASTER than what we currently have!  To say I am excited is an understatement.  That should definitely help us to not feel as tired and worn down in the future.  Putting all my fitness videos and voice over coaching commands together is so time consuming right now!

As far as Bucky and Barbie Love, they really are becoming great friends.  They play outside together, go on walks together and even play during the day in the house together.  Once Bucky is super tired in the evening and down for bed he doesn’t want a sibling messing with him.  He gets a little territorial in the evening over Grant, but he is used to seeing Barbie and I become girl BFF so he doesn’t try to get territorial over me.  Bucky has gained 5 pounds of healthy weight, is more energetic, has a better appetite and shows glimpses of his puppy spirit.  Getting Barbie Love really has been a huge blessing for our family.  She tugs at Grant’s heart, I am completely obsessed with her, and even Bucky is reaping benefits from her being around. Barbie now weights 20 pounds and is 6 months old.  @e expect her to be around 35 pounds when she is full grown!

It’s 8:22pm here on a Tuesday night and I still have one more work project that really needs to be completed tonight, so I’m gonna wrap this up.  I hope everyone enjoyed getting caught up to date on my life.  For a closer look inside my day-to-day life, be sure you’re following me on instagram and watching my insta stories!

Oh and how could I forget???  I got blush pink in my hair!  I only did it a little and only towards the bottom – but I feel it is a signature color for me so why not!?  I go to Catwalk Hair Studio in Bryan (for almost 10 years now) and Erica is my girl! How do y’all like it?

I’ll end with something that is very much a reflection of my current life:

Decide what kind of life you actually want. Figure out who and what makes you happy. Then say “NO” to EVERYTHING and EVERYONE that isn’t that!

xo,