Newsroom Fashion: Stripes & White Popover

Dressing to work in a newsroom can be tricky, and it's something that isn't taught in J-school (or at least it wasn't when I was there). The expectations of how a news person should look and dress have evolved over the years and vary from station-to-station. Gone are the days when women were expected to wear pants/skirt suits. In this day and age, it's perfectly acceptable in some situations to wear jeans!

I work in a newsroom where many of us, including myself, pull double duty - working both on camera and behind the scenes. That can create a dressing conundrum, and that's why I decided to start a weekly newsroom fashion segment. In it I'll share a couple of my outfits from the week, why I chose them, where I bought each item and any tips I feel are pertinent.

My goal with this series is to help aspiring and fresh-out-of-school journalists build up their wardrobes with versatile, fun and appropriate pieces all without breaking the bank. Let's get started!

Dress (Old Navy - on sale & more colors)//Cardigan (old Charlotte Russe - similar, similar)//Shoes (old Target - similar)

I wore this red-and-white striped sheath dress on Tuesday of this week for a regular day of producing. It's sleeveless so to make it work appropriate, I paired it with this red cardigan I've had for ages. Then I pulled out my trusty go-with-everything nude heels. I really love the preppy vibe of this dress and like that it can be easily dressed up by throwing on a blazer instead of the cardigan, which I would have done had I been shooting a story that day. This dress is currently on sale at Old Navy and comes in several more options.

Shirt (Old Navy - no longer available but lots of other patterns here)//Jeans (The Limited)//Boots (Old Navy - no longer available but lots of options here)

I wore this outfit for a day spent holed up in an edit bay working on submissions for awards. These weekender jeans from The Limited are seriously the most comfortable pair of jeans I own. They're super soft, and the flared bottoms make them perfect to wear over boots. The slightly worn look give them just enough of a casual vibe that I feel comfortable wearing them anywhere. I almost opted for a full button-down white shirt but decided to go with this popover instead. I got it while I was pregnant so it's a little over-sized and easy to move in. The slight texture also means wrinkles don't show up as glaringly, which was perfect for a day spent hunched over a computer. And had something important happened that I needed to go out and represent the station, this outfit would still be appropriate.

What I'm Watching: The Librarians (SPOILERS)

I just finished the second season of The Librarians on TNT this past weekend. Yes, I know I'm a month behind! I rarely watch shows on the nights they come on, you know, for life reasons. OK, it's mostly because I'd rather sleep. Anyway - in two short seasons, this has become one of my favorite shows!

The Librarians is a spinoff of The Librarian films, also developed by TNT. You don't need to have seen the movies to understand the show, but having a a little background on the main character from the films, Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle), won't hurt. Flynn is the Librarian. His job is to procure and protect magical artifacts. Those artifacts are kept at, you guessed it, the Library.

In the pilot episode of The Librarians, we learn that the Serpent Brotherhood has been killing off others who were chosen to be Librarians. Flynn and his guardian, Col. Eve Baird (Rebecca Romijn), rescue three - world-renowned art expert Jack Stone (Christian Kane), mathematical genius Cassandra Cillan (Lindy Booth), and master thief extraordinaire Ezekiel Jones (John Harlan Kim). To sum up the first episode, the Serpent Brotherhood is on a quest to release magic back into the world; they grievously wound Flynn; and the Library ends up lost in space and time.

Season 1 centers around the search for the missing Library. As the Librarian, Flynn takes that quest on himself, leaving the three Librarians-in-training, or LITs, to form a team under the guardianship of Col. Baird and guidance of Jenkins the caretaker who also happens to be Sir Galahad (John Larroquette). In Flynn's absence, Stone, Cassandra and Ezekiel solve magical mysteries, recover powerful artifacts and protect the world against supernatural threats.

Probably the biggest reason why The Librarians is such an appealing show to me is that its inspiration draws so heavily on literature, most notably the stories surrounding Camelot, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table throughout both seasons. William Shakespeare plays a prominent role in season two, although you won't know it's really him until the finale. Instead, the Librarians will deal with Prospero, from Shakespeare's The Tempest. You'll also get to enjoy the company of Moriarty, from the Sherlock Holmes stories. Some other literary characters you'll encounter throughout the show include a Minotaur, Dorian Gray and Santa Claus. The Librarians also dabble with dragons, get sucked into a video game, and destroy the house that's behind the legend of all haunted houses.

The show is smart and funny; the plot line is well-developed; and I must say I did not see the twist at the end of the season 2 finale AT ALL. If you're into literature, legend and myth, The Librarians is definitely the show for you. And the best part? It's been renewed for a third season!

Monday Motivation

There are a lot of things you can be in life, but what better things to be than bold, brave and you?

Happy Monday!

Baby's First Christmas & Update

You know you're a mom when January is almost over before you write a post about the baby's first Christmas...

It was a whirlwind, to say the least. We had four different Christmases, including our own.

At almost 9 months old, Alexis wasn't all that into everything. She liked the bows and balling up the wrapping paper.

Her favorite toys, if I had to guess, would be shape blocks, a spinning activity center, giraffe ball popper and a ball with a bell in it. Of course, she got lots more stuff that she also plays with. Those are just the ones she gravitates to the most right now.

Christmas Day was interesting. It was the warmest hottest Christmas I can remember, even for the South.

So the cute little outfit my dad got her to wear? Yeah, it didn't get worn other than for her professional pictures. Instead, we dressed her in the most un-Christmas-like outfit ever. AND she still ended up getting really bad heat rash!

The weekend after Christmas, we got to spend time with my husband's brother and his family, including our youngest nephew who is almost exactly two months older than Alexis. It's not the first time they've met, but it is the first time they really interacted with one another!

All in all, it was a good first Christmas and Alexis was happy through most of it.

Now, it's hard to believe that we're a little more than two months from her first birthday! My how this first year has flown! It's been an absolute joy watching Alexis grow and change. At 9 1/2 months old, she's crawling finally and has started pulling up on everything she can reach. She has four teeth - two on top and two on bottom - and is eating a lot of table food. She's gotten a lot more talkative over the past month and is really starting to make those 'd' and 'b' sounds. She loves to blow raspberries and bath time is still a winner in her book. She's really independent and always wants to be in the floor. I have no doubt that she's going to be running around soon! (Time slow down!)

As you guys have probably guessed, we're doing photo sessions throughout the first year of her life, but instead of following a strict 3-month schedule, we decided we would rather hit major events. So instead of waiting until she turned 9 months, we did Christmas pictures. I'm sharing a few of my favorites below. All courtesy of Cherokee Spivey Photography.

In the Works

On January 1st, this blog officially embraced the direction my life is taking now that I'm a mom (You can read more about that HERE). The most noticeable difference is right at the top of this page - part of refocusing meant rebranding things around here, hence changing my blog name from Journalistic Musings to Mommy, The Journalist.

Additionally, the type of content I'll be posting will be a little more varied and feature a lot more personal posts. I anticipate a lot of those posts to be motherly in nature, but I also plan to incorporate more of my interests, as well, with a goal of posting three times a week.

Some posts you guys can expect to see more of include Monday Motivation, (Not So) Basic Journalism Skills, behind the scenes and Sh*t Crazy Newsroom Callers Say.

Some other ideas I'm pursuing include a semi-regular series called "What I'm Watching" and potentially a weekly newsroom fashion segment (Did you know?: More than half of the blogs I follow are fashion blogs).

Some posts I currently have in the works include (in no particular order): the top stories I got tired of covering in 2015, ways to speed up writing, my favorite must-have baby products and stacking 101.

I'm interested in what types of posts you guys would like to see more of so be sure to let me know in the comments!

(Not So) Basic Journalism Skills: Social Media Do's & Don't's

When I graduated high school, the only website I was a member of was Xanga, an online journal.

When I went to college, I joined the newly created Facebook and then Myspace.

I started blogging my senior year of college, joined Pinterest only a few years ago, have had my Twitter account for less than three years and joined Instagram less than two years ago.

Social media has changed so much over the last 10 years and continues to grow and expand at a huge rate. Frankly, I can't keep up with it all! But I must if I want to stay in this business. Social media is the future of news. And here's why:

There are 890 million people on Facebook any given day. Those people spend on average 40 minutes a day posting, liking and sharing content. Over on Twitter, users are tweeting 500 million times a day. Meanwhile, 70 million pictures are being posted on Instagram every 24 hours. (via LinkedIn)

But social media and journalism don't always mix nicely. And for those of you who've grown up with technology at your fingertips and social media connecting you to your friends 24/7/365, knowing where to draw the line between personal and professional online can be tough. So in this installment of (Not So) Basic Journalism Skills, I'll be offering some advice to help you establish a peaceful coexistence between your two worlds.

The first and probably most important piece of advice I can give you is this - keep your personal and your professional pages separate. You do this by creating an actual page on Facebook. Mine is Ashton Wright WTVY. This will allow you to interact with your viewers or readers without giving them a complete glimpse into your personal life. That doesn't mean they won't find your personal profiles, though, and you may end up doing what a majority of my coworkers have done - change your name. Many of them have replaced their last names with their middle names.

Now that you've created your professional page, you need to maintain it properly. At my station, our goal is for every reporter to post three times throughout the day on Facebook. (Twitter is a little different, and quite frankly not something we use abundantly because a majority of our viewers don't tweet.)

When posting, there are several things you should consider before hitting that send button. I like this checklist that Forbes put together. My top 3 favorite tips from there are:

• Does anyone care about this other than me?
• Will this offend anyone? If so, who? Does it matter?
• Spell check!

Just because you have two separate pages doesn't mean who can just post any and everything on your personal page. Employers don't just search for your professional pages, fyi. They also search for your personal accounts so they can see what type of person they may potentially hire. So here are two rules of thumb to follow on your personal accounts courtesy of Business Know How:

1. Don't put anything on the Internet that you don't want your future boss, current client or potential clients to read.
2. Never post when you're overly-tired, jet lagged, intoxicated, angry or upset.

You should also be conscientious of the types of pictures you're posting and content you're sharing, as well as the things you're being tagged in. It's one thing to be in a picture holding a glass of wine and a whole other thing to be tagged in a picture falling-down drunk.

For more insider tips on how to survive your first years in the news business, check out my other (Not So) Basic Journalism Skills posts.

Monday Motivation

On this Motivation Monday, I thought I would share some of my favorite inspirational quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. These quotes will hopefully spread a little inspiration and motivation to anyone out there who needs it this week.

I have a few friends out there that are struggling, each facing a different set of problems. I don't know that any of them will see these words but I do hope they know I'm thinking of them.

 

Sh*t Crazy Newsroom Callers Say

It's been a hot minute since I did one of these posts. That's because our new web master really likes to answer the phone! And he's so good at it, too. But even so, crazy calls still make it through to other people.

One day this past week I was in my news director's office when I heard what sounded like my desk phone ringing. So I transferred it to his phone. Big mistake.

Turns out, it wasn't my phone that had been ringing but one of my coworker's. And it wasn't a viewer calling. Instead, I had the pleasure of answering a telemarketer trying to sell some kind of male enhancement product.

Yes, you read that correctly.

A telemarketer called one of my coworkers trying to sell a male enhancement product.

And I answered it in my news director's office.

Awkward.

This isn't a phone call but in light of this post, I think it's worth sharing. We'll file this one under weird work experiences.

The day after the phone call, a coworker and I were looking up examples of some award entries when one of the links we clicked on opened and lo and behold there was an advertisement for porn at the top of the page. It was a video ad at that.

Two for two this week.

Happy weekend!

Remembering Alan Rickman

The world lost a legend today. Alan Rickman died in London at the age of 69 after a battle with cancer.

To say Alan Rickman was one of my favorite actors would be an understatement. To say Alan Rickman was one of the most talented actors in the universe would be an even bigger understatement.

Most people my age see Alan Rickman and immediately picture Professor Severus Snape. With good reason. When I read the Harry Potter books, I imagined all of the characters looking certain ways; when I saw the first movie, not all of the characters matched what I had imagined; and when I go back and re-read the books, I still see most of them as I imagined them all those years ago. Not Snape. Snape will forever be Alan Rickman. That is how good he was in the role.

But my love for Alan Rickman goes back much further than Harry Potter. He played the Sheriff of Nottingham in one of my all-time favorite movies, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

He was the voice of Marvin, the paranoid robot in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, a movie that played a pretty big part of my freshman year of college.

I fell in love with him as Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility.

Although I'm not a huge Die Hard fan, who could forget his performance as Hans Gruber? He truly set the stage for all movie villains with his performance. Not bad for someone who didn't start acting until they were 28.

In the real world, Alan Rickman was just as admirable. He met his wife, Rima Horton, in 1965. Although they didn't get married until 47 years into the relationship, he proved that true love does last if you put in the work.

He made the list of Empire Magzine's 100 Sexiest Stars in film history twice - first in 1995 and again in 2007.

Before starting his acting career, Rickman studied graphic design. He even started a successful graphic design company, Graphiti, with friends.

Daniel Radcliffe said it best: “Film sets and theatre stages are all far poorer for the loss of this great actor and man.

Monday Motivation

Happy Monday, everyone! It's going to be a bit of a different day for me with the College Football National Championship game tonight. Instead of doing a 5:00 show, we'll be taping a show previewing the game between Alabama and Clemson. This afternoon we'll also be meeting about our plan for the upcoming February ratings period.

And what about that $1 billion Powerball Jackpot? Good luck to everyone out there who's bought or planning to buy tickets! What would you do with all that money if you win? I think an easier question to answer would be what wouldn't I do if I won?

Oh, and before I get back to work -- is there something you've been putting off because you're afraid of the consequences if you don't succeed? Just remember, sometimes all it takes is a little nerve. That first step is always the hardest!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Behind the Scenes of My First Telethon

On Thursday, WTVY hosted a telethon with the East Alabama Chapter of the American Red Cross to raise money for victims of the Christmas 2015 floods. While we didn't set a specific goal, our end total blew everyone away. Between 12:00 and 6:30 p.m., people of the Wiregrass donated more than $32,000 - everyone from a 6-year-old little girl bringing in her piggy bank to local businesses pledging thousands.

Days like yesterday are what make this business worth all the hassle. And there was a lot of behind-the-scenes hassling going on to get this telethon on the air. By the time I left the station, I had produced and boothed five shows. Talk about exhausting!

This was a very different kind of producing than what I do on a daily basis. Instead of stories, I was arranging interviews and profile pieces, all while making sure we had plenty of time to update our totals throughout our coverage.

The process got a little confusing at times, and more than once I had to call down to my director to walk through what I had put together to make sure it would work.

Keeping track of the amount of people we had moving through our studios was enough to make me dizzy! We had mayors from four cities, EMA officials from multiple counties, and I lost track of all the Red Cross people. Add to that all of our station employees stepping up to answer phones and take donations. It was like Grand Central Station, only about five times smaller!

The generosity of the Wiregrass never ceases to amaze me. In times when you would expect people to be falling apart, the people who live here are coming together. It doesn't matter if you didn't lose anything or know anyone who did; people here just step up and offer their help, whether it be money, food, or time. I'm truly blessed to have lived in this place my entire life, and I'm so proud to be a part of this monumental effort put forth by WTVY.

Wiregrass Flood Relief Telethon

City of Elba - Christmas 2015

On Christmas Day 2015, the Wiregrass was inundated with rainfall. The three major rivers in our viewing area - the Pea, Choctawhatchee and Chattahoochee - all topped their banks. More than 100 homes were flooded, most belonging to families -- and this was just in our corner of the state.

All across the state of Alabama, as well as Georgia and northwest Florida, rivers reached and passed flood level. I've lived in this area my entire life and have never seen anything like it (I was too young to remember when the Flint River flooded in the early 1990s).

City of Elba - photo courtesy of WTVY's Mike Gurspan

We were lucky to only have two deaths in our area, but the system that triggered our flooding is responsible for dozens more in other parts of the country.

One of the most difficult things to cover in this business is destruction, but often while covering these tragedies we find the rare opportunity to do what I believe to be the most rewarding part of this business -- help.

Today (Thursday, January 7), WTVY is teaming up with the East Alabama Chapter of the American Red Cross to host a telethon to help Wiregrass flood victims. We'll be taking calls for donations from 12:00 until 6:30 p.m. CST. All of the money we raise will go directly to local flood victims, many of who did not have flood insurance.

Hwy 52 crossing the Chattahoochee River.

Tomorrow, I'll take you behind-the-scenes of my first telethon, as well as update you on how much we were able to raise. The generosity of the people in our viewing area is astounding. Time and time again they've stepped up to the plate to help those in need, and I know they will not disappoint this time.

If you would like to participate in our telethon, call (334) 714-7472 between 12:00 and 6:30 p.m. CST. If you miss our telethon but would still like to help, you can do so through the American Red Cross or by visiting www.elbaflood.com.

Alexis and the Terrible Teething Tale

6 month photo session courtesy of Cherokee Spivey Photography

Many babies don't have any problem with teething. My poor baby is not one of them.

For Alexis, teething means my normally happy baby is transformed into a drooling, snotty, cranky child. From swollen gums to loss of appetite and even a teething cold (that I'm pretty sure she's passed on to me), if it's a symptom of teething she's got it.

This is our second round with teething, and this go 'round is so much worse than the first. My normally-independent baby is now clingy and cries when I put her down. And forget about sleeping through the night. In fact, getting her to go to sleep in the first place has been a 10-20 minute ordeal filled with lots of tears and crying - on both our parts (anyone who says they can just let their baby cry is lying).

We've tried every type of teether imaginable. She'll chew on a raspberry for a little while, and today (Monday) we had success with a Dr. Brown's giraffe teether, but the gel-filled ones you put in the refrigerator are big fat fail. We've tried wetting a wash cloth and putting it in the freezer; she just throws it to the side. Getting Orajel in her mouth is a battle, but one I got smart about tonight -- since Alexis likes having her teeth brushed, I put the Orajel on her toothbrush and success! Last night we broke down and gave her Tylenol; I couldn't tell that it worked.

I've read everything I can find on teething remedies - WebMD, Mayo Clinic, Baby Center, you name it. None of their suggestions have worked.

A coworker recommended freezing half a banana and letting her chomp on it. Another recommended an old wife's tale of putting a fresh egg in a man's dress sock and hanging it over the baby's bedroom door. She said she didn't know how it worked but it did. I'm not a big believe in things like that, but if we get desperate, maybe.

Things we haven't tried -- soaking a cloth in chamomile tea (since the other cloth idea didn't work, I'm not even considering this) or rubbing whiskey on her gums.

Calling all mommies! What teething remedies worked for your little ones? After three nights of not nearly enough sleep, this mommy needs to find some relief!

Monday Motivation

It's the first Monday of 2016. By now, many of you have made resolutions so let's start off the first work week of the year with a little motivation to help you on your way. May 2016 bring about the change you're looking for.

2016 Goals

2016 is finally here. As you guys could probably tell in my last post, the last few months have been tough for me, so I'm looking forward to turning things around this year. I'm not one to make resolutions. By definition, a resolution is a solution to a problem. I don't see myself as a problem so why resolve to fix me? Instead, I like to set goals for myself. In fact, I set goals on a daily basis it seems like. They're not always big and elaborate; sometimes they're as simple as crossing a specific item off of my to-do list for the day (it's a lot harder than you think when you have kids!).

My biggest goal for 2016 is to take more time for myself - whether it's to take more bubble baths, read more or set aside more time for blogging. The last few months I've done a lot of giving of myself, and that's not a bad thing, but it's left very little time for me, and that isn't good. What it all boils down to is this -- I can't be fully there for my daughter, my husband, my family, friends and coworkers if I'm not mentally okay, if I'm not happy with who I am when I'm by myself.

Obviously my other top goals for the year are to be the best mother and wife that I can be.

Also on my list of goals for 2016 - continuing to grow this blog. Starting today (Jan. 1), you'll see that I've rebranded things around here. Welcome to "Mommy, the Journalist." I'm excited to start incorporating more personal posts, mostly about my journey through motherhood. Of course I will continue posting about the journalism industry and sharing my thoughts/insight/behind-the-scenes experiences here, as well.

 Thank you all for sticking with me through 2015 and I hope you'll continue to follow along with my adventures in mommyhood and journalism in 2016.

And special thanks to my friend, Savannah, for custom designing my new header. Savannah is a very talented artist. You can check out more of her work here - http://captain-savvy.deviantart.com/.

Happy New Year!