Christmas!

It's Christmas!  Above is a photo of my little tree (one day I'll get a huge ginormous one!).  I'm just noticing as I'm posting this that my dog totally photobombed this picture!  But it's a cute photobomb.  She's in the left hand corner sniffing the tree.  smh

Anyway, it's my favorite time of year.  I'm officially starting the countdown.  The truth is that Christmas day itself isn't such a huge deal, I usually don't do much considering I"m no longer a kid and I don't have kids yet.  I open a couple of presents and life goes on.  But it's everything leading up to it.  The festive spirit, music, food, people taking time out to get together.  It still makes me feel great.

Anyway, I hope you are all enjoying the days leading up to this day and don't let it go by in a whirlwind and you find looking back that it's just a blur in time.  Stop and look at the lights, wear one of those cheesy Christmas sweaters, drink too much egg nog (then plan to go on a diet cause that stuff is going straight to your hips), sing Christmas carols in the shower, take lots of pictures, and be merry!

Happy Birthday To Me!!! (Oh yeah and the world didn't end!)

Another Birthday!  Yay!  I thought I would give you guys a rundown of what I did but honestly it wasn't anything mind-blowing except I got to spend time with some of the people I enjoy the most, people who took the time to come and celebrate with me and thinking about how much I appreciate that I thought I would write about what I am most grateful for over the past year.  That's probably a better place to focus my attention right now.

I am grateful for:

1)  Friends: I don't have a ton of people I really call friends.  (I don't use the term very loosely).  I think when it comes to friendships, it's definitely quality over quantity and I have to say the ones I have are the best I could ever hope for!

2)  Unconditional love: Knowing I can be handful, I am thankful for being loved anyway.  I am thankful for the fact that I am a work in progress and for being accepted as such because that is everything.

3)  A job:  I complain about my job.  But at the end of the day, I have the means to do so many things that bring me so much joy.  My career path is also a work in progress.  But as of now, I have financial security which means freedom, and a sense of purpose, two things that are invaluable in the grand scheme of things.

4)  Inspiring people:  I mean that in two different ways: People who inspire me and those who I have managed to inspire.  I meet many of those people on a regular basis.  When I get to inspire or help people it gives me warm and fuzzy feelings inside (corny, I know but true).  Whether it's this blog, or all the hard work I put into other aspects of my life, I love when people feel inspired by me.  And when I meet people going through hardships (and I do often) who are able to find hope and joy anyway, they help me to put my own life into perspective and for that I'm grateful.

5)  All kinds of other random stuff:  good food, music, good hair days, Dunkin Donuts pumpkin flavored iced coffee, good weather, playing with my dog, playing with my boyfriend, laughing at silly things on the internet... just laughing at silly things, talking to  my mom on the phone,  cupcakes, photographs, awesome memories, pedicures, pretty dresses, blogging.... and the list goes on

6)  Oh yeah... THE WORLD DIDN'T END... I'm thankful for that :)

A couple of the wonderful people who helped me celebrate my birthday

Is it just me or do these pictures look like something out of the '70's?... Maybe it's just me

Letter to my Dog

Dear Chloe:

I am very happy to have you in my life.  Taking you into my home was a gamble.  I was taking a chance at a lifetime commitment to an animal I wasn’t sure if I would love or feel burdened by.  Maybe a little bit of the two.  But I did it anyway.
I fell in love with you the first time I saw you.  Something about your innocence touched me.  It was a cold day in March and as I held you in my hand, you were timid and afraid but also happy to be held by me.  You were trembling and your tail was wagging at the same time.  And with that, my decision was made. 
It was rough for us the first few weeks, months even.  But you stuck with me, pup.  Since I have had you, you have been the one constant in my life and believe me, I needed that.  We moved around so much.! People came and went.  At my lowest point, I had you there always happy to hear the key turn in the door and see me walk through it.  No one has ever been so excited to see me to this day!
Well, pupster, here we are.  We’ve crossed a few milestones together.  And, faithful as always, you have never questioned any of my decisions, never judged me or left my side…just trusted me to love you and take care of you the way you love and take care of me in your own little puppy way.  And for that, I say thank you!
Your best friend,
Lisa

Letter to my Dog

Get the book that inspired this letter for a dog-lover this Christmas if you're still doing your Christmas shopping.  It's a compilation of letters written by different celebrities.  Some are funny and some are touching, most of them are both.  I was reading it in Barnes and Noble and I kid you not it made me cry and laugh at the same time  which is quite embarrassing as you can imagine.
Anyway, it would make a great coffee table book and the letters are so heartwarming!  I'm thinking of buying it myself.

Natural Hair Moments: 2

Over the past few months, I've had some new Natural Hair moments that I thought I would share with you guys in case you're having the same experiences.  You're not alone out there! 

1) When you find a great new hairstyle that is just so awesome and you're so excited because FINALLY you've got it all figured out, you will rock this style every day and never grow tired of it.  Weeks later, you run out of hairstyles again and remember that hairstyle you loved so much but realize you have no recollection of what the hairstyle looks like and how to do it... ARGH!

2)  When I do a new hairdo and my dog sits and stares at my hair and I imagine she's thinking, "wtf is that on your head?"

3)  When you hear a man make a reference to "running his fingers" through a woman's hair and you have to laugh inside of the thought of someone literally trying to "run" their fingers through your hair.  HA!

4)  When you put your hair in an updo and you get in the car and you can feel your hair grazing the ceiling of the car.  #Big hair!

5)  When you put your hair in a gorgeous out style.  I'm talking perfectly defined curls that fall just perfectly into place and you're so proud of yourself.  Later that day, you think you're still looking fly until you happen to be walking past a mirror or anything that shows a reflection and gasp in shock at what you see.  #Humid weather aka Florida

6)  Having a hairstyle planned way in advance and then on the day of, you go to execute said hairstyle that you've been literally dreaming about all week/month/year, your heart drops when you realize your hair just isn't having it.  But then in your efforts to wrangle your hair into this hairstyle anyway, you find another even cooler hairstyle!!... cue choir singing "Hallelujah"!

What's the Big Deal with Straight Hair Anyway???

  I've come to the realization, that it's the general consensus all over the world that straight hair is better than curly hair and it's not just among black women.  I can't help but wonder why this is.  There is nothing any more interesting in my opinion in straight hair versus curly hair.  I've noticed many celebs who start out with curly hair in their humble beginnings, then ditch the look for a straight sleek style somewhere along the road to stardom or super-stardom, never to look back.  It's like a rite of passage.  Here are just a few examples.

SJP before and after

Tia and Tamera before and after

Taylor Swift before and after

And there's much more where those came from.  I still think curly hair is beautiful and always have.  Has anyone else noticed this trend? 

Humidity!

I had gotten a little over-excited because the weather was changing from hot and humid to cool and dry.  I was wearing my hair out for days on end with no consequences.  But then I woke up from my dream and realized it's Florida and the humidity would soon return and return it did.  It's so frustrating.  Everytime I walk out of my house with my hair out, dry and perfectly coiffed only for it to turn damp, shrunken and frizzy within seconds (yes, seconds...I'm not exaggerating!), I threaten to move away.  It's THAT serious!

I decided Thursday to do something I don't normally do which is take my hair out of the twists and wear it out to work.  Little did I know it had rained the night before and it was wet, damp and humid outside.  If I'd known this I would have at least taken a before picture for you guys.  Needless to say, I had to grab a few hairpins on my way out the door and do an impromptu updo in an attempt to not to go work looking like a crazy lioness (and give my boss a heart attack).  Here is said updo:

A little crazy but not nearly as bad as it could have been.
Later than evening after work I took down my pin-up and this is the result

I salvaged some of the curls but now my hair refused to fall flat.  I was really feeling my bangs though!
 Then I started unpacking and came across my favorite headband

Anyway, I hope wherever you guys are, you are having good hair weather.  I'm gonna pin this baby back up and pray for dry weather again so I can wear my hair out instead of in boring twists :/

I'll keep you guys posted.

Back in Action

Hello Naturalistas!

It's been a few weeks since my last post.  There was the busy-ness of Thanksgiving and immediately after that, all hell broke loose as I tried to move my entire life from one place to another.  I wasn't moving far, but you never realize how much sh&t you have until you have to pack it all up and move it somewhere else.  Talk about exhausting. 
In the midst of all that, I had misplaced everything, including the USB cord to my phone where all my pictures are...hence why I haven't blogged in awhile.  That and being ridiculously busy... and that I still haven't switched over my internet connection.  I'm currently using some other person's internet and it's in and out very spotty connection.  That's my life the past few weeks.  Anyway, ideas for blog posts have been piling up in my head in addition to the guilt of keeping you guys hanging with nothing new on my page. 
Below are the pictures of my hair over Thanksgiving.  My hair was very happy because I unleashed it and just let it do what it do. I didn't try to tame it, force it into submission, I didn't do a damn thing to it.  Check out the pictures below. 

It's hard to tell in a lot of my pictures but this one and the one below are a good testament to just how dense and thick my hair is!  I don't even wanna re-live the nightmare of trying to de-tangle this a few days later!

And voila! 

Oh yeah, Thanksgiving weather was cool and dry... perfect hair weather!  Very rare for Florida...