Visit Catalina Island, California

It's been a while since I put up a travel post, hasn't it? The last time I posted anything travel-related was in January, from last year's Girls Trip to Las Vegas. Funny enough, that was my first real holiday/trip without Coco - same as this trip. I am an advocate for taking time off from parenting once in a while, and focusing on just having fun sans kids. It can be tricky as a single mother, but I thank God for a great support system at home. Coco was with my cousin and her kids for the most part, and her father had her for a little bit. This post is pretty photo-heavy as Catalina is absolutely beautiful, but I will share a little bit about the trip.

Girls Trip to Las Vegas - A Photo Story

Hey y'all,

This post is a long time coming! I originally planned to put up these photos from our girls trip to Las Vegas late last year. Unfortunately, I just got really tired and could not bring myself to blog at all. I was still active on social media (mostly Instagram), and putting a lot of efforts into my podcast (Mommy Oyoyo). Admittedly, I also toyed with the idea of shutting down the blog - I know you're rolling your eyes at me, because it's not the first, second or third time I've thought about it. Anyway, as you can tell, the blog has not been shut down, LOL.

I hope you enjoy the photos. Scroll down to the end for a little note on why I went to Las Vegas, and what we got up to while there.

Clever Girl Finance Book Event in Atlanta

I have been part of the Clever Girl Finance program for a few years now. Clever Girl Finance is a platform that aims to teach women how to be financially savvy and build personal wealth. Earlier this year, I was asked to be one of the Clever Girl Finance mentors - to be honest, I was quite surprised because, to be honest, I don't have a lot of money. At all. My savings account goes up and down and up and down, and sometimes, it seems like I'm living paycheck to paycheck. But the truth of the matter is, I have gained a lot of knowledge from Clever Girl Finance and have made strides in my finances over the years. Sometimes I slip up and make silly mistakes, but I always bounce back based on what I have learned and put into practice. This whole time, through my Clever Girl Finance journey, I had never met the founder, Bola Sokunbi until August 2019!!!

Autumn is Here

Hey you,

How are ya? I hope you had a nice weekend. I was going to continue my cruise vacation posts today, but last weekend, we went to a local pumpkin patch at Berry Farms, and the photos were too nice (in my opinion) that I could not wait to share them! Fall or Autumn is my second favorite season (after Spring). I enjoy seeing the leaves change color - the yellows, oranges, browns and reds of fall are so beautiful to behold. And it also helps that Sweater Weather, and Fall fashion, happens to be my favorite to see. Knee-length and thigh-high boots paired with dresses or jeans, oversize and chunky sweaters over leggings, and layering with crisp leather jackets... LOVE!

Discover Georgia - Wild Safari

Hi there!

I have another Discover Georgia post for you today - this is my travel series, highlighting different destinations and tourist attractions within Georgia (because Atlanta is NOT Georgia, only a city). We visited Wild Safari in Pine Mountain, Georgia. It's basically a park that offers the safari experience - most of the animals are free to roam the park grounds - and you can either drive through in your car, or hop on one of their buses, and quite a few of the animals will walk up to you looking for treats! To be honest, when people talk about traveling to Kenya to go on a safari tour, I'm one of the least interested. It could be due to my fear of animals... I guess they're nice to see? Anyways, since I know I'm not going to visit a real safari, I jumped at the chance to go on this mini one right in our backyard. It was a fun experience, and everyone enjoyed themselves.

I'll let you enjoy the photos now.

5 Baby Shower Tips| My Baby Shower Photos

Baby showers are one of the events most looked forward to during a woman's pregnancy. From having one or two or more parties thrown for her, to the baby shower gifts she'll receive, the baby shower is an important event. Typically they are planned and hosted by the mummy-to-be's family and/or friends. These days, baby shower themes run from Parisian to Hawaiian Luau to a Tea Party like mine. Check out the photos below and some helpful tips for hosting a baby shower.

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.

Ringling Brothers Circus

The first time I went to a circus was when I was about 7 years old. I can't actually remember what age I was but I was pretty young. I vividly remember one of the acts coming out looking like a lion, but it turned out to be two people. I asked my mum and she said it was a Russian circus that toured at the time, and we attended the showing in Port Harcourt. Just FYI, Port Harcourt used to be a very bubbling town with lots of cool and artsy events. If it wasn't for the security situation, I know PH would have been as good as, if not better than Lagos.

Brunch at The Public House

Brunches in Atlanta seem to the be THE THING to do on weekends. Titi, who I went to brunch with, has a list of some of her favorite brunch spots in Atlanta. I haven't been a big bruncher, but what I do like about going is the perfect combination of breakfast and lunch items. That and the boozy cocktails, which to be honest are perfect at any time of day(minus mimosas, which I don't like at all). Anyways, this time around I met up with another friend, who blogs here.

DISCOVER GEORGIA - Ponce City Market

HEWU! I can't believe I didn't put up any posts last week! As in, the days were just going by and I didn't touch my laptop once! Ndo. Pele. Ma binu. Forgive me por favor and per favore! I promise I'm not becoming a lazy blogger. *hides face*

Okay, so y'all know I like to travel (see all my travel posts here), and part of traveling is exploring your own neighborhood and surrounding areas. There are lots of things and places to see in the Metro Atlanta area, and whenever I can, I like to go a-looking and exploring like Dora.

Snowy Day Photo Walk

If you follow me on Instagram and Snapchat (@Berrydakara), then you know that it snowed in Atlanta this weekend. Having lived in Boston for a long time, it always tickles me the way Atlantans react to snow. Just a few inches of snow causes a state of emergency, a frenzy everywhere, and basically everything shuts down. It's understandable because they're not used to snow, as it comes maybe once a year. Plus the biggest issue is black ice! When the snow starts to melt, if the temperature is below freezing, it turns into a layer of ice on the roads that can cause accidents. My brother actually got into a fender bender on Saturday night on a bridge over a major highway, but we thank God he got home safely.

The Nigerian Food Fusion Tour Weekend

I love food. I enjoy food. I'm very picky and don't eat a lot of things, but the things I do eat, I really enjoy. I like to joke that one of the reasons why I liked Cakes instantly is because he told me he was a baker. Even he will tell anyone that there's this joy and happiness that makes my whole body tingle when I'm eating something I really like.

Goofing Around With My Cousin Rexie

Hiya!

I hope you had a lovely weekend, as I did. I didn't do a lot, but attended a seminar in church that was quite eye-opening and powerful. It definitely cemented in my heart that God does know us BEFORE we're even conceived or born.

Anyway, you guys have met my cousin Rexie before. We went to this event together (the photos from today's post are actually from that day). We've talked about Aso Ebi drama on my Youtube channel. And she's appeared here and there on the blog.

Berry at a Table of 20

Hey there!

It's the start of another work week, and while there might be challenges, I pray we all overcome them and have beautiful and positive weeks! A few months ago, while browsing through blogs via Bloglovin (follow me please!), I came across an event on Titi's blog. You might remember Titi from this post. I got in touch with the hostess and determined to attend at some point, and that point was 2 weekends ago. Today I'm going to share a little bit about my time at Erica's Table of 20.

Berry and Cakes Statesboro Weekend

Road trips are always fun to embark on. As long as they can be, if you're with the right person or crew, you can have a car load of fun! Cakes and I have been on many road trips together (see here, here, here, and here). We've also gone with others on other trips, like when we visited Ibadan. While driving in Nigeria can be heart-pounding at times, driving across the US is a lot easier - mostly because of the good roads, and loads of places to rest if you need to.

Radisson Blu Lagos Weekend

AM I IN NIGERIA?!?!?!?!?!! And I didn't tell anybody?!?!?!?!?!? The answer is no. These are old photos from when I hung out with my friend Feyfey. I actually met her through blogging, and you might remember her from this post. Anyways, some time this year before this happened, we met up to have drinks, food and just talk about life in general. She's such a sweetheart, and I'm really thankful for her (and others) who I've met through blogging.

Candy Vault Nail Spa and Shoes Opening

Last weekend, I was invited by The B Firm PR to a salon/boutique opening in Atlanta. As you know, I frequently attended such events in Lagos, Nigeria and since moving back to the US, my events-hopping waned. So I was happy to be invited and I look forward to more great shindigs happening in Atlanta.

Way Too Much Weekend FUN!

Guys!!!

Have you ever had those weekends that were full of so much activity, that you wouldn't know where to start from if you had to describe it? For those of you in Nigeria, I know you're currently having that weekend because of Independence Day festivities and events - which I listed as one of the things I miss most about Nigeria. Well, I had a FULL weekend! From Friday evening up until early Sunday morning, it felt like nonstop activity. As in, on Sunday I completely refused to do anything apart from go to church. I still hadn't even fully recovered from our weekend in DC, and now I added some more. As usual, the people who follow me on Snapchat and Instagram @BerryDakara saw all the action as it happened :)

Visiting Washington DC Weekend - Part 1

Hey y'all,

How was your weekend? Mine was good but very very tiring. The fact that I have this post up means that I love you guys, and I wanted something for you to read - because all I want to do is SLEEP! If you saw my Snapchat story over the weekend, you know that we barely got any sleep between Friday night and Sunday morning. In fact, we slept for 3 hours on Saturday night after my friend's wedding as we had to be out of the hotel by 4:30am to catch our early flight back to Atlanta. I'm going to break up this post into 2 parts because I have too many photos... what else is new?

Berry Brunch Weekend

Hi there darlns!

How was your weekend? I hope you had a good one - hopefully got to rest and relax. I wish I had spent more time relaxing, but I had a good weekend. I ate waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much! I don't know what it is about weekends that make you feel like you can eat whatever you want. On Saturday, at my sister's BBQ I ate so much that I felt too full... and then had TWO helpings of cake and ice cream! I need to stop - somebody help me!