BERRY VLOG: Conversations With My Grandpa - Episode 1

Hey there,

I mentioned in my midweek post that my siblings and I chatted with my grandfather, and he told us the reasons and meanings behind our names. If you're already subscribed to my Youtube channel, then you got the notification already. If you're not subscribed, whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy not?!?!?!?!? Please subscribe, if not, I'll hide #BabyCocoa's photos from only you when I share them :p

Anyways, check out the first episode of my Conversations with my Grandpa below.

I hope you're having a great weekend so far! YAY, May is around the corner and you know what that means... my birthday is in exactly 1 MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Berry Lovely Links

Thank God April is almost over!!! And my favorite month in the whole year is upon us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a darling weekend everyone :D

What's In a Name?

I'm the kind of person that always wonders about people's names and the reasons behind those names. I'm also the person who notices names of companies or brands and tries to figure out why their brand names were chosen. For instance, driving around Nigeria, I would notice a store called Mex Solutions and deduce (correctly or not) that the owner of the business was named Emeka, and he provides solutions of some sort. Or I look at people's email addresses and wonder how they chose them. I have a former friend who gave herself a nickname along the lines of Psycho or Crazy. I eventually had to cut her off because she was in fact a little on the psycho side, and our friendship was more toxic towards to me.

Before Cakes and I met, he already knew how many children he wanted and had a name for his first child. When he told me the name, I was just like "NOPE. NOT HAPPENING TO MY CHILD. AIN'T NO WAY!" And let me tell you, I stood my ground, so much so that he even started wavering at a point and we decided to come up with different names for our future children. Fast forward to a few weeks before I even found out I was pregnant, and God spoke to me - long story short, He told me the name Cakes originally wanted came from HIM! I'll share the details eventually, but when I say God works in mysterious ways, I don't mean just because our friends hooked up and got married through us. God really works in the background and the revelation is all the more powerful!

When my siblings and I chatted with my grandfather, he told us how he came up with each of our names - according to the circumstances and situation at the time, he named all his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I really can't wait to hear his chosen name for #BabyCocoa

Have you guys asked your parents why they named you whatever your name is? And if you have children, what inspired the names you gave them?

P.S. I have 4 names on my birth certificate, plus one extra that my mum nicknamed me as a baby. If I'm in a place with my immediate family, grandparents, and friends, it's possible to hear 4 different names for just me! Well, my inlaws gave me a name, so if they're there, it could be 5 different names. And that doesn't include my Itsekiri name, Misan, which I LOVE!!!!!

Mummy Bloggers and Pregnancy Reveals

Announcing that Cakes and I were pregnant almost a month ago, was something we discussed for a little while. As Africans, and due to a lot of cultural superstitions, most women typically don't reveal their pregnancies... some even go as far as denying they're pregnant when you can clearly see their 8-months baby bump. Cakes told me one of his closest friends didn't tell him his wife was expecting until he invited him for his baby's dedication! Of course, it's such a personal journey and everyone is entitled to how they choose to handle pregnancy announcements (or not). 

In today's post, I've asked 4 bloggers who are mothers how they approached pregnancy announcements when they were pregnant. They're all African women, whose blogs (and vlogs) I'm subscribed to. I hope you enjoy the interviews below :)

Berry Lovely Links

Hiya!!!

As I type this now, I'm looking out my bedroom window and just thanking God for such a beautiful view. It always makes me feel refreshed and calm and I'm appreciative of the beauty that God made in flowers, trees, the beautiful blue sky. I hope you're able to sit still once in a while and recognize the beauty around you.

Let's get into the links!

Brunch at Henry's Louisiana

WARNING: If you are hungry, go and get something to eat BEFORE reading this post. If you don't, you can't blame me for whatever happens to your tummy :)

One of the things I planned for this year was to have a quarterly brunch outing with my sister and cousins. At this point in our lives, everyone's busy with families, growing families, careers and more, so it can get difficult to really catch up with one another. It's not as if we don't see or even chat regularly on Whatsapp. But I also wanted for us to be able to get away from the husbands and children and just be girls (or women). It's nice to "escape" for an hour or two, innit?

For this outing, we stayed close to home and went to Henry's Louisiana Grill.

Berry and Cakes Conversations - Lost in Translation

I miss putting up these kinds of posts! Remember how I used to share some of the funny conversations Cakes and I used to have (Car, Kitchen, Foot Massages, Training)? I went down memory lane last week and read some posts from a couple of years ago, and they made me smile inwardly. Anyways, the main reasons why we were lost in translation in our early days was the whole UK versus US English. 

Easy Makeup with ZARON!

Finally back on Youtube! Because of you know, I stopped making videos until I was ready to announce you know. I'm still not on track to post on a weekly basis like I'd want to, but I'm reaching into my archives and putting up some old videos I made from before.

In this post, I played around with makeup (check out some of my beauty posts), and what's different about this is I used mostly Zaron Cosmestics products. If you're not aware of Zaron, it's a Nigerian beauty brand and I really like the products I've used from them so far. Y'all know I'm not a beauty guru o, so please don't be expecting some Dimma Umeh wonder here.

  

Sooooo, you like? Did I not try small? Oh btw, this was from the same day I did my Vixen Crochet Hairstyles.

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Happy Easter everyone!

I hope you've all had a good week. I know y'all in Nigeria have a looooooooong weekend this weekend - another thing I miss about Nigeria. Well, hopefully you have some time to check out the interesting round up of links I found this week.

Individual Crochet Locs Hair Styles

Do you ever get bored with your hair like I do? I'm the kind of person who will wish and hope and pray and cry about getting a particular hairstyle done (like my Vixen Crochet Braids), and then barely 2 weeks later I'm itching for something else. If I had the money, I'm very sure I'd be like those women who go to the salon on a weekly or biweekly basis to get their hair done! [Un]fortunately, I don't have that kind of money, or time actually. Plus, y'all know getting your hair done in America is expensive! If I had any sense I would learn how to do hair properly and use it earn an extra income. This is one of the things I miss about Nigeria too, even though I didn't include it in my list (maybe I should update it). I digress.

Individual Crochet Faux Locs

At the beginning of the year, my mind was set on wearing my natural hair out more often than not. I was getting a little tired of wearing wigs and hiding my own hair, so I made a mental decision to have my natural hair out as often as possible. Well, it was easy up until I saw a video on Individual Crochet Locs. While I like crochet braids, I haven't been the biggest fan of doing them with cornrows. I know it makes it easier and faster, but sometimes I want access to every part of my scalp. Anyways, I saw the video and was determined to replicate it. I didn't do the most awesome job, but I tried, right?

Berry Lovely Links

Yo yo!

How's your week been?! Mine has certainly been interesting, but in God I trust! Anyways, I hope you enjoy the links I've scooped up this week. Have a beautiful weekend!

WCW - Freky Andy

I mentioned about a month or so ago, that I would like to start putting up posts and interviews from women I find inspirational. It's actually something I thought of last year, but with my blogging break, I put the idea to wayside. Anyways, since I'm back to my blogging grind, and because I enjoy reading interviews on other blogs (like on Cassie and Kachi's blogs), I think it's a great time to kick-start mine. Hopefully, I get to put up one post a month, so let's see how it goes.

Today's feature is on an old friend of mine. We actually grew up together and her younger sister was my best friend in Primary School. Her name is Ndifreke, and she's an advocate for disability in Nigeria and beyond. I hope you enjoy her interview below.

Yellow Iro and Buba

If you missed my announcement on Saturday, kindly STOP, go back to that post, then come back here :)

BREAKING NEWS!!!

Okay I'll admit it, I haven't been on my best blogging game. Going from posting 4 to 5 times a week regularly, to just managing 2 or 3 a week. It's time for me to realize my shortcomings. I did mention while thinking about taking a blogging break that I considered shutting down the blog. The response I got made me realize that I would be doing you a disservice if I went silent forever. So I've decided to try a different tactic that will ensure that I'm posting constantly and keeping you entertained.