DJ Cunningham

Canada Interrupted

Posted on April 28, 2012 by djc_adminSeptember 26, 2013

My trip to Canada with the boys is in the books. It was a once in a lifetime excursion off the coast of Vancouver.

: One Big Happy-yet slightly sick-Family

It was an amazing adventure that I would have never booked for myself. Luckily, someone else planned it and we decided to join in on the fun. That is usually not how I like to travel. I prefer doing my own thing and not sticking to a strict travel schedule. I like my itinerary to look something like this:

1. depart at a comfortable time after 11 a.m.

2. have some fun, relax, shop, eat, shop, explore, eat, shop, explore, eat and drink champagne.

3. remind myself not to eat so much and get my eating-drinking-fluffy-fied self to the gym for some yoga

4. depart after I’ve squeezed as much fun as possible out of my getaway

So the idea of flying from New York City to Vancouver and going on a bike ride in Stanley Park followed by a tour of a world famous aquarium did not ring my bell in the least. After some discussion, I explained to Mark that he and Corbin could enjoy the action packed travel day while I chilled out horizontally at the spa in our hotel. Life was good….until Corbin returned, stripped off his clothes and crawled into his bed with a fever. Not a good start for our once in a lifetime Canadian eagle, bear, whale, seal and surfing excursion.

: Corbin playing dead as to avoid smiling while dressed for our bear watching excursion.

My lifelong friend Tori says you haven’t been on a real vacation until you’ve visited a local pharmacy. When she first told me this, I thought she was crazy. After traveling with a child, I have elevated Tori to the status of traveling genius for passing along this little nugget of wisdom. Our first vacation purchase was children’s Tylenol, Advil, Kaopectate and a thermometer at the nearby London Drug which was across the street from our hotel.

I took Corbin’s temperature. 39 degrees! What? He should be dead. I quickly realized this was 39 degrees celsius and not Fahrenheit. We crunched the numbers (The iPad did all the work. Although I had flashbacks of math classes in Carlisle, Arkansas where I was being taught this very lesson on conversions. This would be the first time in my life I really needed that skill) and figured out he had a pretty high fever. Lovely. And then the diarrhea started. Fabulous.

Poor kid. This Once in a Lifetime bug stayed with him for the entire week.

Life teaches us lessons everyday…even on traveling days that you’ve anticipated for over a year! I was once again reminded to keep my expectations low and therefore not set myself up for disappointment when things don’t necessarily go as planned. However, I am sticking to my guns on leaving after 11 a.m. A morning person I am not!

We only missed one whale watching excursion. Instead, we visited a Canadian doctor who told me we just need to ride out the illness. Not the best of news when you’re little guy could use a quick fix for his stomach bug.

I’ll leave you with a few photos from the trip.

: We will be eating salmon for the forseeable future!

: Corbin finds the geocache with the help of the only person in the family who can find anything….ME!

The Southerner and the City Gets Makeup Tips from TLC’s Carmindy

Posted on March 16, 2012 by djc_adminSeptember 26, 2013

I’ve always been a fan of cosmetics. When I was a little girl, I was always pilfering through my Mom’s makeup drawer. I was captivated by the sleek tubes of lip stick and the pans of blush and powder. As I grew up, I became pretty good at make-up application, too. Between all of the baton twirling, pageants and later on, an on-camera television career, makeup became a big part of my daily routine.

Recently, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Carmindy. Many of you may know her from her time spent on TLC’s “What Not To Wear.” Each week, she helps transform a fashion victim with her expert advice on looking your best.

Over the two days I spent in her chair, she taught me some of her best tricks. My favorite tip and one I use almost daily is to highlight around the lip. Carmindy showed me by using a highlighting eye shadow, you can outline the lip. This technique works much better than a lip liner and gives you the appearance of a fuller lip. She also uses the same highlighting technique in the corner of each eye and right underneath the brow line. This really makes the eyes shine. And to finish off the look, she dusts a little highlighter right along the top of the cheek bone. It gives you a subtle shine with a huge impact.

I have been blessed with what I think are fairly long eye lashes, and with the correct mascara, I can usually create a full lash line. Carmindy showed me how to amp-up my lashes with the use of false eyelashes. She took a full lash and cut about a third of it off and placed it on the outer edge of my upper lash. It added some fullness without making me look like a Kardashian!

Carmindy has teamed up with Sally Hansen and created a line of cosmetics. I’m not a huge fan of drug store, but I have to say, I’ve been wearing her blush, power and eye shadows and have been pleased. My favorite product thought is her lip gloss. It stays on really well and smells like a creamcicle!

You can keep up with D.J.’s adventures in the Big Apple at IamDJDuckworth.com follow her on twitter @mrsdjduckworth and on Facebook at DJ Cunningham Duckworth

Real Steel…the bedtime story with Hugh Jackman

Posted on October 7, 2011 by djc_adminMarch 19, 2013

This morning in midtown Hugh Jackman took some time to discuss his new film Real Steel and his family with the ladies of Moms and the City.

In the intimate discussion with a small room of bloggers he talked about his children, work and how he managed to finish reading the script for the film by turning it into a bed time story for his 10-year-old.

Hugh talking about his family

The once named Sexiest Man Alive talked openly about spending as much time with his kids as possible despite his and his wife’s busy schedules. They are both actors. But also admitted, as many parents know, it can be refreshing to have even one or two days away from the kids! I, for one, am a big advocate of that!

Corbin won’t be seeing the film due to the PG-13 rating. He’s only 6 and frankly, Finding Nemo still scares him a little. Hugh said this is actually the first film of his that his kids have watched. Hugh didn’t think it was a good idea for his kids to see their Dad cutting heads off in X-Men while at the same time trying to get them to stop fighting with each other! I agree with him on that one.

I hope to see the film soon. If you check it out, let me know what you think.

Om Shanti Mother F@#$%r

Posted on October 2, 2011 by djc_adminSeptember 26, 2013

Yoga is part of my life and has been for many years. One of my favorite aspects of the practice is the music. I like to listen to music that is more instrumental and without lyrics preferring Krishna Das over Katy Perry. If I start to sing along, my brain takes me back to where I was when I heard the song, who I was with, what we were doing, what I was wearing, what I was eating, how old I was, who my friends were, who I didn’t like, which boyfriend broke my heart, how much I weighed, what my hair looked like…you get my drift? I get lost in my thoughts and forget about the practice. Which is why I don’t like to hear anything remotely contemporary in a yoga class.

On Wednesday, I was half way through an intense yoga class with a teacher who plays a wide variety of music in his class. You can image my surprise when I heard the words mother fucker float or rather sear through the room! I was really into a groove with my practice, moving well, sweating like crazy and finally in my yoga zone. And all of a sudden, there they were. Mother fucker. Of course, it didn’t take long for me to snap out of my yoga zone.

Getting into my Yoga Zone

I looked at the other yogis in the room to see if they were as shocked as I was. Some were. The teacher didn’t appear to be too rattled that the song was playing as I assumed he wasn’t aware that it was in the playlist. Needless to say, my practice took a different turn at least mentally.

Here is a quick script of my thoughts. ”Did I here that right? Was that mother fucker? Yes, that’s what he said. Is he (the teacher) going to switch songs because this is totally not a yoga class song? How many times is this guy going to say mother fucker in one song? This is one mother fucking hard pose. If this mother fucker isn’t going to change the song, then he could change this mother fucking pose. My legs are fucking killing me! This is one crazy ass way to end my mother fucking yoga class. So much for om shanti, mother fucker…this is just fucked up!”

And then I started giggling. Really? Not only was I bombarded with mofo’s, but now I
was giggling like a school girl. The song finally ended – THANK GOD! And my giggles subsided and I managed to finish the class. Sivasana was as pleasant as it could be as Adele’s version of ”I Can’t Make You Love Me” played in the room. And there again, I was back in my head thinking about the first time I heard that song and how sad it makes me feel. I thought, well isn’t this just a mother fucking perfect way to end my mother fucking yoga class?

Namaste’ my friends. May all of your yoga experiences be free of all mother fuckers.

First Day of First Grade

Posted on September 11, 2011 by djc_adminMarch 18, 2013

We have officially said so long to summer. At approximately 8:30 am Thursday morning, Corbin started 1st grade. It is really hard for me to get my head wrapped around the fact that he is not in Kindergarten any longer. I would prefer to keep him sweet, young and innocent for as long as I possibly can!

He has already started using words like annoying with perfect placement in a sentence. ”Mom, you are so annoy-ying.” That is pronounced with two y sounds, too! I realized that part of his sweetness is being chipped away at when he uses these big words that he picks up from older kids!! Oh, well! What do you do? Put them in the closet until they turn 18? Think I’d get in trouble for that? Probably so. And besides, one of the many joys of being a parent is watching your child grow up, right? It’s what we have to do as parents. Let them grow, nurture them along the way to the best of our abilities and pray they don’t turn out like Marilyn Manson!

So here he is in all of his first day of 1st grade splendor.

I love him dearly, mo-hawk and all.

Southerner and the City – Greetings From Abroad

Posted on June 9, 2011 by djc_adminMarch 19, 2013

What is your dream vacation? I have too many to list but at the top of the list is Italy. Technically it’s a dream come true because I’m sitting in a bath robe in my hotel in Positano writing this post! Don’t hate me. I am not one of those smug travelers who visit exotic places only to mention it and then tell you nothing about the trip! Has that ever happened to you? “We just returned from a month long African safari. Did you see that story about the congressman from New York and his inappropriate text messages to those girls?”. REALLY! You can’t mention a fantastic trip to me and not plan on me asking you a zillion questions! That’s the journalist in me. I’m going to ask whether you want me to or not!

To avoid sounding like that annoying relative who tells you in detail about every excursion and pulls out all of their photos and videos, I’ll keep it short and sweet. We started out in Tuscany at Castolle di Casole. It’s the perfect Tuscan setting. We were about an hour south of Florence. With the rental car, we day tripped around the area. The first stop was in San Gimignano — one of my favorite Italian villages. If you visit Italy, I highly recommend seeing this walled medieval city high on the hill. We also took in Volterra. All of you Twilight fans should be familiar with this city. At least that’s what I’ve been told. I’m not into the whole vampire genre and probably won’t be anytime soon. There was also trip to Montepulciano to visit a beautiful winery.

Having seen Florence on previous trips, I knew I’d go back again. Florence is just an amazing city full of life, art, and history. It’s a place I never get tired of seeing. From the Uffizi Palace to the Duomo there is an enormous amount of art in this city. Which is probably why there are about 30 different universities represented there. I decided I wanted to see Florence from a local perspective this time. Our tour guide put together a day that was full of artisan shops that included a 4th generation Florentine paper maker, Alberto Cozzi, and an alchemist/jeweler/pharmacist, Allesandro Dari, who makes some of the most amazing jewelry I’ve ever seen. There were many other stops and shops along the way, but again, I don’t want to bore you too much with details.

On Saturday, we took off for Capri. One word for Capri – UNREAL. The island is limestone and climbs straight up out of the ocean. As with any island, it’s most enjoyed from the sea. Capri is a geologist’s dream come true. There are so many different rocks, cliffs, formations and grottos to see. The most famous of the grottos is the blue grotto which we went in to see. I’ll explain this excursion in more detail on my blog at www.djduckworthyoga.com/blog We crashed at La Scalinatella and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Capri. After three days in Capri, we headed over to Positano – the vertical city. That’s what I’m calling it anyway because once you get off of the boat, the entire city is laid out or more accurately up from the beach. I’ve never seen anything like it before. We spent today touring along the Amalfi coast and visiting Amalfi and Ravello. Both are ancient and magical places to see. Just when I thought I’d seen the most amazing view, we’d make another hairpin curve and I’d see another one! The hotel San Pietro has one of the best views of the Mediterranean I’ve ever seen. The outdoor bar area rises high above the shore and extends out, well, to infinity and beyond! Our driver pointed out a massive yacht below which he said belonged to Rupert Murdoch.

I’ve enjoyed this trip immensely. It has really been like two vacations in one. The first week was completely different from the second week. Traveling has been a part of my life for the last 10 years and I’ve had some good trips and some fantastic trips. I’m out of adjective to describe Italy 2011. Guess I’ll use the long flight back to New York to come up the perfect word.

Italy, baby!!!

Posted on May 30, 2011 by djc_adminSeptember 26, 2013

Two years ago Mark said, “we are going back to Tuscany in 2011.” I looked at him and said, “sure, whatever.” He’s a big planner and I’ve gotten used to him saying things like this. I mean, who can even think that far in advance, right? So, it’s 2011 and I’m in Tuscancy. Glad I have a super-planner, travel agent in my life…even though it wears me out most days!

In Casole d’ Elsa with my favorite travelerThis photo was taken last night before the high intake of carbs started. If you look closely you can see that I’m not with the “pasta baby” just yet!!

There are so many things to see and do along with many great places to just chill…

The View to a Chill

Ciao, for now. We are off to San Gimignano!