Saturday, February 11, 2012

Skee Ba Doo Bop Bahhh

*That's me scatting, in case you ain't know*

I'm so disgusted with my music lists these days. I honestly think that has more to do with my general disgust and ennui for music in 2012. I mean, really, I'm just over most of it. Most of the music on my player is old and i really feel like I'm missing out on some great tunes by being lost in the past.

So what's the beef?

What are y'all listening to these days? I know there must be SUMTHIN that's gotcha head boppin at your cubicle.

Can I get a clue?

The hair I'm drooling over right now

Dear Sy Smith,

wherefore art thouest mane of glory so fabulous?? It doth dazzle me. *le sigh*

I found this over on Grown Folks Music and I can't stop thinking about it. 



























Everything about this photo is LIFE: The hair, the glasses, the jewelry, the perky tatas, that 'I Know I'm All The Shit' fierce ass attitude that the naked eye cant see but those of us who have that same eyebrow can see.

Yass GAHD!!!

I WILL find this hair. And I just may wear it all year. Bwahahaha! Who am I tryna fool?? I can barely keep a sew-in for two straight weeks!! But a girl can dream, can't she. Damn, stop hatin! But no, seriously, I do know that she's a natural goddess and that most, if not all, of this is her real hair. But I'm still gonna look for something as close to this as I can find; y'all know I got the Chinese Connection! Wish me luck!!


Friday, February 10, 2012

Themes or Templates anyone?

Alright folks, i need your help. I've been puttering around blogger lately and I'm seeing some pretty cool themes. I'm thinking about changing mine but I have yet to find anything that screams "BeautifulDae, this is YOU!!"

Where should I look for feminine girly themes? No hearts, no flowers, yet colorful and abstract. Y'all know I'm in search of inspiration so I'm open to any ideas at this point.

Also, once I find a theme, will it be okay to install it and not lose my posts? I think i read somewhere that changing your template erases all your posts which, actually, would suck big giant monkey balls.

Anyway, whatcha got?

Today I Wanted to Slap the Sh*t Outta My Mama

I know that a lot of y'all are foodies and have very diverse tastes so I'm sure I'll get a multitude of different answers to this question:

Have you ever, in your life, tasted a cake that was so unexpectedly decadent, so rich and moist, so heavenly that it seriously made you think 2 or 3 times about doing a seek-n-find mission to find yo' mama and slap the f*ck outta her for not making cake this good? Well, up until Wednesday, i hadn't either.


Anyway, so the other day I'm strolling through Regency Mall when I wander through the food court. Since I haven't lived in Richmond in forever, I had no idea how it had changed. There's a little shop right beside Baskin Robbins that had some cute little cupcakes on display. Now, initially, i won't lie: i was looking for ice cream and just happened to run up on this bake shop first. I was NOT looking for cupcakes that day. In fact, I think I'm the only person, especially in DC, who never really got on the cupcake bandwagon. I just never saw what the big deal was.

On top of the display case was a picture I'd seen before:

Poised on the cover of Life & Style magazine with Niecy Nash is one of my childhood classmates, Raina (Taylor) Washington, owner of Sweet Kakes & Co, a 5 star custom cake boutique. I hadn't seen Raina since high school so I had no idea she had a bakery. I knew she'd gotten into cake making and decorating but I had no idea she'd blown up as a baker! I had to try one. 

The display case at this darling little bake shop was filled with beautifully decorated cupcakes in all colors and flavors but what jumped out at me first was the Strawberry on Strawberry cakes:

They were so pretty in the case but the idea of all that strawberry was a bit intimidating, so I went for something a bit more simple: Vanilla with white butter cream frosting and candy sprinkles.





Yeah, it sounds plain and boring but HUNNNY! When I TELL YOU that I bit into that little pocket of confection divinity, I stumbled for about 2 steps, looked around wild-eyed like I'd just been hit in the back of the head with a flash light, and promptly took the first seat I could find. Before I bit into it, my plan had been to enjoy my cupcake while wandering through the mall aimlessly since i had time to kill. I won't lie: I wasn't expecting much. to me, it was just another cupcake. Uhhh, ACTUALLY, NO ma'am. I parked it right in front of Charlotte Russe and proceeded to devour the entire thing in about 3.7 seconds. Towards the end of it, it began to morph into an ooey gooey combination of moist deliciousness that melted in my hands and had me licking all down between my fingers, smearing frosting all up onto my cheek. *smh* It was a happy, happy mess in the middle of the damn mall. I think my eyes rolled back in my head, my nostrils flared, and I was breathing a lot heavier than I was supposed to.

Oh, it was absolutely that serious. 

I *think* I saw Raina's mom in the back, baking, while paying at the cash register so the first thought I had IMMEDIATELY after was "damn, this cupcake makes me wanna slap my mama!" was 'Man, now I wanna slap HER damn mama! Did she make this??!!" (Raina, if you're reading this, I'm TOTALLY kidding!!!! LOL! You know I luvvvv yo mama! *Don't tell her I said that though. No, really. I'm serious. Don't tell her.*) I don't even really know if it was her mom I saw, I just know it was someone who looks just like Raina...and this lady did.

Run--DON'T WALK--to her website (www.sweetkakesandcompany.com) the next time you, yo' mama, yo' bestie's mama, my mama, or Jim Jones' mama needs a cake for anything. Wedding cakes, birthday cakes, cupcakes, cake pops, 'I just broke up with my raggedy boyfriend/girlfriend' cupcakes, 'I just got a new job in this recession' sheet cake...well, you get it. It's all sortsa fabulous deliciousness. She specializes in custom cakes a la The Cake Boss (no, really,  on her FB page there's a nurse's uniform cake) so I promise y'all, she's the real deal.



Congratulations Raina my dear, I wish you much continued success! I don't know what kinda crack cocaine you put into your cake, but I gotta stay away! It's gonna be a struggle, but I'ma have to. If I get addicted to your cupcakes, any remnants of this sexy voluptuousness I call my body is gonna pay the ultimate price! Cupcake belly is NOT a good look for my annual spring trip to Miami!


Tell EVVVVerybody you know!

Everything I Doooo...

*singing* I dooo it for youuuuu....

For the past few days, I've been really, well, uninspired. Usually whenever I'm feeling blah or unmotivated, it's because I'm really stressed out about something: work, money, Isayah, love, money, school, makeup, money....you know, the usuals. So yesterday when I found myself kinda drifting off into strange clouds, the first thing I thought was "Oooo, what's bothering me?? What's stressing me??" But there was...nothing. I just had a great birthday, school is TOUGH but I'm doing well (I'm really making an effort to stay on top of everything. 5 classes ONLINE--3 12-week, 1 8-week, and 1 16-week course--is A LOT), I've been drinking water a lot more so I'm dropping weight by the week, I'm feeling less and less lonely, not even really thinking about dating, and I'm really making peace with my parental situation (as much as can be expected).

So, what's missing?

I thought about it all day yesterday and today and I realized: I don't have anything that's just for me.
Everything I do has a bottom line. Makeup...is work. Editing...work. Writing....work. School...is for school right now, technically, but eventually, that'll be for work too. Even organizing when I'm at my parents' is for them, not me. There's almost nothing that I do for the simple pleasure of doing it, except eating. That is the one thing that I do constantly, just because of how good it makes me feel. Which, depending on who you ask, isn't exactly the move.

What do you have that's just for you?

Do you read? Write? Sing? Volunteer? Paint your nails? Play dress up and take pictures of yourself? *gasp!* Maybe you put flowers in your hair and sing into a hairbrush in the mirror like Anna Mae did in the bathroom scene of "What's love Got to Do With It"??! No? You sure?? Hmph.

Well don't feel bad, neither do I. I can't tell you the last time I read a book just because I felt like reading a good book. Most of the books I've made time to read have been textbooks or self-help books. Yeah. I know. *deep sigh* I always fantasize about dancing, but I never do it consistently. I'll take a few classes here and there but something always interferes and I don't go back. It seems so easy to just say "well, silly, go dance then!" But, uh, no. I think subconsciously I would feel too guilty for doing something enjoyable when I'm not even working full time. Its the idea of work hard first, play hard later but you shouldn't play if you're not working, right? IDK where that idea comes from but it's something I've always had.

Now that I'm a full time student and have less financial responsibilities (read that carefully: LESS, not NO), I'm freelancing part time and have a lot of free time some time on my hands. When I'm not doing school work--which I do for about 8-9 hours a day--I do actually have the option of doing something I'd enjoy. And I gotta tell y'all, I have NO IDEA what to do with myself. My girlfriend told me that this is my time to heal from the trauma of the past year, and to do some soul searching. She said it's clear that its just time for me to just...be. Be still. Be whatever it is that I am today. Do nothing more than I'm already doing. but that just seems so...lazy. Idle. Unambitious. I feel a self-imposed guilt trip right in my very near future.....

Last year was a doozy. School was tough, I lost my apartment to bed bugs, I lost two people whom I called friends, I found a great job and later lost that too. Losing Isayah (LOL) the way I did was extremely traumatic. I had my heart broken. A lot. By a man, by a woman, by some friends, by Isayah. At the end of last year/beginning of January this year, I felt (and looked) very much like Nala after Simba pushed her in the water on The Lion King; something along the lines of this:



Yep. That was me the first week of January. So much loss, so much pain, so clueless about how to repair everything that was broken.

Can I just say LE SIGH. Soul searching sounds so...quiet...and...like it's gonna hurt. Do i really have to do all this digging to find inspiration? To find my mojo? To find something that's just for me? Really?

Ugh.

Well FINE.

Hmph.

Now...about this soul searching business. Where to even start? What do you guys do when you search your soul? What EXACTLY are you looking for when you strap on your lighted hard hats, fashionable Chanel goggles, and pink polka dot all-weather boots?


Help a Sista out.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Throwback post from my 30th year 2010

My favorite most favoritest most beloved season officially begins on Thursday! That's right ladies, Autumn is upon us and I, for one, could not be happier!!! *squeals of delight*

A crisp cool chill is in night air. Kids are back in school. There's jackets and boots and red lips everywhere!! I mean, seriously, how could anyone not love the loveliness of autumn. Pretty soon the leaves will begin to change, I'll begin ordering pumps, booties, and tall boots along with big hair and dark(er) makeup. *sighs dreamily*
it's truly paradise. So, of course I've been all over the Internet, scouring site after site in search of fall wardrobe pieces, and I'm practically drooling (literally) over this year's trends. As many of you know, i'm way more into hair, makeup, and accessories than I am clothes (and especially shoes because trying to find comfy yet sexy shoes for these Fred Flintstones feet is the hassle of my life) but I promised myself I would bust out of my comfort zone and find great clothes that fit well and look great on me. It's hard because I'm a tweenie (one whose body size/shape floats in that gray area between Misses and Women's...12/14/16 depending on the designer) which makes it almost impossible to shop online. I constantly go back and forth between "lose more weight/gain more weight/just forget it and shop". Either way, shopping is a hassle so previously, i avoided it. NOT THIS YEAR!! Autumn is my favorite fashion season and I WILL take advantage of it this year. Besides, it's my 30th year still and I'm determined to do 30 right, ya dig?

I haven't quite decided if I wanna go with a sexier more sophisticated dresses/heels/accessories a la Serena Van der Woodsen (can you tell I'm a GG addict??) look, an "I'm a chic unruffled Makeup Artist/Business Woman/MILF look, or a cool "i'm way too cool to be so pressed" casual look.  I think a combo of the first two mostly, maybe the latter when I'm out running errands in my free time during off days. The great thing about freelancing is that I can shop whenever I make time for it, and don't have to rush to squeeze it in after 6 before 9 or spend a whole Saturday trying to put together an outfit when i could use that time for photo shoots and fashion shows. This way, I can take my time, go to different stores/sites and put together a whole wardrobe at my leisure. I'm REALLY feelin' the SVDW look. Now, it IS possible that I've been watching entirely too much Gossip Girl; I freely admit that. HOWEVER, isn't that what good TV is for, for you to steal fashion ideas and tips and tricks for your own life? That's what I thought. :-)


Complete and Total Randomization

Just watched an episode of Braxton Family Values, the one where Trina and Gabe separate. Can I say I LOVED Trina's hair in this episode!!? Towanda is my favorite character, followed closely by Toni, but Trina is the one who, I think, has the best hair. Towanda's makeup is always EVERYTHING but her hair sometimes gives me the blues.

Speaking of giving me the damn blues, I made a bad choice when I decided to wear this straight/wavy hair in the dead of winter. My scalp is dry so it's itching like Jim Jones' ball sac the dickens but with straight hair, I have to do my braids much closer together than i do with curly hair so it will lie flat. And I can't get down into it to scratch it like I want, and before y'all ghetto asses say 'Girl, just get a pen and dig in it!" GOODBYE. I JUST finished this sew-in 7 days ago, but it's bout to come out this weekend and I'm trading it for big wild curls so I can do the braids looser and get to my scalp without looking like Damon Wayans in "Blankman".

I read an article about Viola Davis the other day and she made me think about Kevin Hart. I ABSOLUTELY adore Kevin Hart as a comedian, but more than that, i love his story. Just like Viola Davis, he's been around for a while. Been in the game for a long time, but he's just now starting to get his breaks to pay off. I can only imagine how much tenacity it takes to keep going at it day after day without the seemingly instant payoff that some celebrities seem to have. But they stuck to it, they put in their time, and they are finally getting the credit and recognition they deserve. Jeah!!!

I know this is completely unrelated and left field, even for me and my rambles, but can I just tell you how I'm laughing at my dad right now. A few weeks ago, he bought a new space heater and put it in the hallway. His bedroom is directly across from the heater. Every time I see him in the bedroom, he's bundled up so tight because it's STILL so cold. I swear he's swaddled like little 6lb 5oz Baby Jesus lying oh-so-sweetly in the manger. He's angry with the heater for not heating the whole house, particularly his bedroom. He truly doesn't understand why the SPACE HEATER isn't putting out enough heat in this wide open space to heat 2 large rooms. -__- One day, he got so angry, he yelled for me to pack it back up so he could send 'that piece of shit' back since it wasn't worth nothing. *snickering* Really Dad? Really? You mad at the space heater for not heating more than...the...space...in..front..of the...heater? Yeah. Aight. You go head with that, Dad. *smh*


Do you watch Ghost Whisperer? My best friend is OBSESSED with that show and has me hooked, even though it's gone off the air. We just watch the old episodes now. Because I'm a maniacal insomniac, and Ghost Whisperer comes on on repeat all night on WE, I watch it every night. I must confess to you: I drool over JLH. her makeup, her big hair, her fkn cleavage, that WARDROBE. I.WANT.IT.ALL!!! I'm headed over to google her and see what she's been up to.


Maybe this is part of my "soul searching"....?


later gators!



BD