October 31, 2014

One Lovely Blog Award - 7 Things About Me

Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen!

I trust you're having a good week so far, and looking forward to a better weekend?

I was notified by two lovely ladies that they'd both listed me to participate in the One Lovely Blog Award post. Ibbey blogs at My Blessing that is SCD (she's a fierce advocate for Sickle Cell Disease), and Titi blogs at Nuts About Health (she's an intelligent lady, wife and mother who lost 65lbs after giving birth to her son).We all go waaaay back, but I'm not sure I should write how we "met." Thanks ladies!

Anyways, the premise is this: 
  • Thank the person who nominated you and link to that blog
  • Share Seven things about yourself
  • Nominate 15 bloggers you admire (or as many as you can think of!)
  • Contact your bloggers to let them know that you’ve tagged them for the One Lovely Blog Award.

Before I start off with my 7 things, I'd like to say that I enjoy these kinda posts because they introduce you to new blogs, while helping your own blog with exposure. At the same time though, there are a lot of these posts going around (20 Random Facts, Being Me), and there's only so many random things you can share.

  1. I like listening to soundtracks when I'm bored. Most recently, it's been Sound of Music on repeat! But for now I'm enjoying The Lion King soundtrack :D
  2. I don't play any sports. Football, tennis, anything with flying balls - I just don't like because I'm sure I'll get hurt. Funny enough though, I ran 100M races during interhouse sports in secondary school. I may have stopped because of asthma.
  3. Another sports tidbit - the only sport I can watch from start to finish without complaining of boredom is American Football. 
  4. If I had to choose between spending money on Eating Out, Shopping (clothes), or Traveling, I'd most likely choose Travel first. Then food, and finally shopping.
  5. If I don't see the name of the car, along with the symbol, then I don't know what kind of car it is. I can't tell the difference between a Dodge Charger, Bentley, or Rolls Royce. In my head, they all look the same.
  6. I used to prefer heels to flats, and would strut around like the world was my personal runway. However, in the past few years, I've come to choose comfort over fashion. I don't know if it's me getting older, or me gaining weight... If I must wear heels now, they cannot be stilettos. No way, no how!
  7. I haven't bought perfume in years!!! First of all, it takes me about a year to go through a bottle of perfume. Every time my dad travels, he buys me perfume. So right now, I have about 3 years worth of perfume to go through. I have 2 or 3 bottles that I'm trying to finish and 3 new bottles I haven't opened. 
And there we have it!

Erm, blogs to nominate... I'll get back to this. 

October 29, 2014

Let Me Take A Selfie

Are you one of those people who misses out on their surroundings and experiences because they're too busy taking selfies?

Sooooooo, there I was on a Saturday evening. Cakes had gone to bed cos he woke up at 5am to head to the bakery. I was sitting there, watching TV and the episode of KUWTK where the Kardashians started their vacay in Thailand. In that episode, Kim was taking lots and lots of selfies while on vacay because she wanted to make a book of selfies for Kanye (well, it turns out it was also for the whole world too, because the book's on sale :p).

Anyways, Khloe points out that instead of paying attention to the experience, Kim is busy taking selfies and missing out on just enjoying everything that's happening. And that's why Khloe's usually my fave Kardashian - because she has sense (except for that whole French Montana thing).

October 27, 2014

What I Did This Weekend

Hiya!

How are you? How was your weekend? Did you get up to any fun?

Mine was kinda full. It actually felt like the weekend started last week Wednesday for me, cos I got to hang out with the Power Puff Girls after work (we watched they talked throughout, while I watched The Judge, starring the man I want to marry, Robert Downey Jr.); and then on Thursday, Cakes and I watched The Equalizer (blawdy violent movie, but Denzel is a total BAD A$$). On Friday, I was supposed to hang out with my girls, but it got canceled last minute... Boooooooooooooooo!

On Saturday morning, I headed over to Civic Center in VI for a Breast Cancer Awareness event. It was held by the Pink Pearl Foundation, which was founded 7 years ago. The founder, Orode Ryan-Okpu, is such an inspiration. She's 25 or so, and runs this foundation, is getting her Masters degree, has a husband, daughter and expecting one on the way! I mean, I feel like such an underachiever!!! Anyway, the point of the event was the launch of a support group for people with breast cancer. Apparently, there are no support groups out there, for women to join and meet regularly with healthcare professionals (nutritionists, fitness instructors, psychologists, etc). A major issue here is the shroud of secrecy Nigerians have when it comes to illness. I've witnessed it firsthand, but hopefully, there will be courageous women out there who will benefit from this program.


October 25, 2014

Article by moi on Bella Naija

Yo yo,

Quick FYI - I sent an article to Bella Naija, which was posted on Thursday. I've gotten mostly good comments and a lot of my friends and family have been sharing it around. Just in case YOU haven't seen it, you can click here to read.

In case you're wondering, the title of the article is "3 Things You Miss After Getting Married."

Shouts out to Miss Single in Gidi for proofreading before submission.

Have a nice rest of the weekend.

October 23, 2014

Celebrating...

Just a quick one here!

Yesterday was my dad's birthday :) My dad is shy so I won't post a picture, even though my fingers have been itching to since Tuesday. Anyways, I love my dad so much and a lot of people say I look most like him, and share some of his character traits - one of which is refusing to go to events if I wasn't invited :p. My dad is such an inspiring man - people who know him go on and on about how straightforward and honest he is. Integrity and humility are words that are usually used when people talk about him too.

He can also be VERRRRY goofy! You walk into a room, he sees you clearly, you see him clearly, and then he pretends he's sleeping and snoring. Yup, I do the exact same thing to Cakes all the time :D

I don't want to go on and on, but here's to my dad and wishing him waaaaaaaay many more years and wisdom and blessings and much more!

Continuing in the celebratory mood, today's my grandparents' 64th wedding anniversary!!! Can you beat that?! I just love the 2 of them so much!!! Hugs from me to you guys and hope I see you soon :)

wedding annirversary

October 20, 2014

Weekend Shenanigans: Read the Details!

Hey everyone!

How was your weekend? Mine was pretty good, but uneventful. Why? Because I didn't read the details. Okay, see what had happened was...

For the past week and a half, I looked forward to attending the Locs Styling Competition (organized by Locitude and Kinky Apothecary). It was going to be the same weekend that capped the Felabration celebrations, and would be held at the same venue - Freedom Park. So in my head, I made my plans. On Friday, I would get my hair done (crochet braids), and on Saturday afternoon, I would head over to Freedom Park to watch the styling competition and stay on for the Felabration performances of the evening. I've never been to any Felabration thingy, and truthfully, I barely even know any Fela song, but I'm just curious.

Anyways, on Friday afternoon, an hour before leaving work and heading to my hair appointment, I decided to put up an 'Events this Weekend' post for you guys. While composing the post, I copied the Locitude photo, and pasted it in the blog post, and then BAM! It hit me!

October 17, 2014

RANT: Morning People

Hi friends!

This is kind of a rant, but not quite because while I don't consider myself to be a morning person, I'm not exactly a night owl either. Here's the thing, I'm not an As-Soon-As-I-Wake-Up person. There are people that wake up and it's all bright and cheery, and birds are singing, and they're all CHEERIO, LA-DI-DA, TOP-O-THE-MORNING-TO-YA-MATE! Somebody like Cakes.

I am NOT in any way, shape or form, that person. I like to take my time in waking up (unless I wake up late and have to rush to work or church or wherever). My alarm snoozes for 30 minutes - I wish I could make it an hour. I don't like to be spoken to as soon as I wake up - Cakes wants to share and care bright and early. Nope, no music, turn the music off NOW! Cakes wants to listen to Worship songs as soon as he wakes up. I'm not interested in any form of light as soon as I wake up. Cakes will have his BRIGHT AS THE SUN phone light on, the AC light switch is on, the fan light is on, errythang is just blawdy on! I need to get used to being awake before I put any food in my mouth. Cakes can cook for Africa as soon as he steps out of bed. Me? Not so much.

October 16, 2014

Random Alert: Abortion

Hey y'all.

How's your week going? I've been blogging everyday for about a week now! It feels kinda weird. Like am I giving you guys too much to read? Should I blog every other day instead? While you're thinking about that, lemme get on with the post... which might be a little controversial.



A month ago in the teenage church where Cakes is one of the workers, I followed him there (as opposed to going to my church or the head church). On this particular Sunday, there was a guest speaker (who I think will join as a regular). She gave the teenagers different scenarios, asking them to pick one choice or another, explain why they picked that choice, and back it up with a Bible passage... let me say that these teenagers know their Bibles! (But erm, the ones that tried to defend premarital sex with a Bible verse found it extreeeeeeeeemely difficult :p)

Anyways, one of the scenarios talked about a young woman who while walking, was attacked and raped by a mad man, resulting in pregnancy. The question posed was: Should she abort or not? Let's even take away the mad man aspect. If a woman is raped by whoever and gets pregnant, do you think it's right for her to abort or not?

Yes or No?

Remember that this kind of situation happens everyday all over the world - to women and young teenage girls.

P.S. Don't ever Google "abortion" images! I think I'm scarred for life. :(

October 14, 2014

My problem with blogging

Hey guys,

I hope your week has gone off to a good start. Mine's been bleh because only God knows what I ate this weekend that's made my body go haywire :(

Anyways, as usual, I write on the fly and the topic of this post literally just came to me. I follow blogs using Bloglovin (it's a great tool for me to stay updated with my blog roll, and see all the latest posts from blogs that I follow - you can follow me and never miss a post via Bloglovin here). Anyways, here I am on a Monday evening and while I have Bloglovin open in one tab, I have 6 or 8 other blogs open in other tabs. I don't follow any of them on Bloglovin - not because I don't like them, but I feel like I'm already spending sooooooooo much time on blogging. I enjoy reading other blogs, because I get inspiration and learn from them. However, reading blog posts obviously takes more time than writing posts. I'm getting to the point now, that if I don't catch up with my Bloglovin every day, I have to read over 100 posts within a matter of 3 to 4 days.

nazuri curls america best glasses berry dakara
Berry Dakara Instagram - Who likes my new glasses?!

October 13, 2014

Wed Expo Weekend!

Guys, there are way too many pictures and I can't even begin to start writing about everything, so please check back later for updates, as I intend to post links to every company whose pictures are here. But for now, enjoy the photos :)



October 11, 2014

Sneak Peak: Wed Expo Lagos 2014

So I went to meet Cakes at TBS (Tafawa Balewa Square) yesterday after work, to see how Wed Expo was going. It's a little smaller this year, than the one Cakes and I visited last year, but there are still quite a number of vendors there. Some of them weren't done setting up, so I'm sure by today and tomorrow, it'll be very full.

BTW I'm happy to announce that Cakes has actually made some sales (WAY TO GOOOOO!!!), and some readers stopped by yesterday to say hi (You guys are too much!!!).

Anyways, just wanted to give you a sneak peek of what you can expect to see at Wed Expo - times 20!!!

CAKE FACTORYYYYYYYYYYYYY - Woot woot!!!


This is part of a traditional wedding cake

October 10, 2014

This Weekend: WED EXPO LAGOS!!!

Yoooooooooooooooooo,

Mehn, the LIB saga just took over this week sha :p But she's back, using her own domain now, with a lengthy post on what's gone down, so if you feel like reading - go right ahead and Google it. Speaking of Google, I hear they restored her old blog.

In the meantime, Wed Expo starts TODAY in 40 minutes, and guess who's exhibiting this time around :)

Hehe, no, not me. What can I exhibit there? Blog posts?

CAKES aka CAKESIENA aka CAKE FACTORY by K's CRAFT aka BERRY YUMMY HUBBY aka.. okay, I'll stop with the aka's.

Fashi, the cakes he made for exhibition are sooooooooooooo pretty! As in, even Little Miss Perfectionist Me said "Wowwww, I'm so proud of you." this morning! In Jesus' name, Cakes will only get better and bigger (as a vendor, not his rapidly increasing tummy)!!!

I wish I could post a picture of the cakes he's made here, but that would take the fun out of it, soooo, just come on over this weekend. I will most definitely be there tomorrow and Sunday, so bring your smiles on, because we shall be taking pictures (duh!). Not only does he have the pretty cakes to show, but there'll be cupcake bouquets ERRDAY, and also cakes for tasting :D

P.S. He said his booth is somewhere in the back :( so PLEASE take your time to look for him. Next time, we'll get a bigger booth.

sisi yemmie wedding
Source - Remember Sisi Yemmie won a N15million wedding courtesy of Wed Expo. The new competition starts today.
In addition, there are 2 other expos going on as well, and everything is at the same venue.

WINE EXPO
wine and spirits exhibition lagos
Source - I just hope there's enough Rubis there
BEAUTY EXPO
africa beauty expo
Source
On one hand, this is the worst time to be broke. On the other hand, it means
QUALITY spending vs QUANTITY spending.
The expos are being held at Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos Island, and the times are from 10am to 6pm everyday this weekend, starting today. 

Okay, I gotta go. LOVE YA!!!

October 8, 2014

So... this Linda Ikeji Drama and What You can Learn from it

Hey everyone,

If you have any connection whatsoever with Nigeria, chances are that you've heard of Linda Ikeji, and you need no introduction. To those who don't know who she is, Linda Ikeji is the most popular blogger in Nigeria, with daily site views in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions! I mean, I checked Alexa.com to see the websites most read in Nigeria, and Lindaikeji.blogspot.com was ranked #11. Yes, she is THAT popular, making millions of Naira MONTHLY just from banner ads. Some time last week, I went on her blog and counted all the ads on her site and assuming each company paid for 1 month, that was just under N11,000,000.00 (yup, 11 million naira - that's about $67,000 - IN ONE MONTH). I didn't even bother counting the number of sponsored posts, which at the last rates check, went to the tune of N50,000 per post (about $300). Consider that there are maybe 5 to 10, if not more, of those sponsored posts per day. And, because Linda Ikeji is an entertainment aka gossip blogger, word is that a lot of wealthy people pay her to NOT write about them. So, basically, this chick is raking in lots and lots of money.

October 6, 2014

Posers!

Yo yo!

Ciao miei amici! Come va?! Sta bene, grazie :)

So am I the only one who's wondered about photos posted on social media sharing apps and websites? I'm talking specifically about pictures posted on Instagram and the use of photo editing software. I don't mean using photo apps or even Instagram apps to apply filters to your photographs. I mean using software like Photoshop to edit your pictures before posting them to your Imstagram account.

I won't even talk about one or two people I've seen who used the fish-eye tool on their pictures to make it seem like their hips or butts are bigger than they are. Dear friends (And Beyonce), if you're going to do all that, please make sure that door frames, stairs, tables, walls, and all linear objects around you are STRAIGHT!!! It really makes me laugh when I see a picture on Instagram and the door frame or wall behind the person is curved.

There's this account that I don't really follow but check out from time to time. I'm not hating o (that's reserved for another account :p) but this chick's face is ALWAYS smooth. Not smooth due to makeup or gorgeous skin kind of smooth. I'm talking about 'other world' kind of smooth. Like you can almost see a halo radiating from her skin. And the thing about it is that she's very pretty and I think that she does actually have very good skin, BUT I'm 100% sure that she edits her pictures because her skin doesn't look real in her Instagram pictures!!!

*Confession time* I used to be like that some kind times like that, I can't even front :p

The picture on the left!!! But you people, let's also take a look at my waist/tummy. Chai

Lol, this was my Valentine's profile picture in 2012

This is from 2009.
Anyways I'm asking, why would anyone go to the trouble of taking a picture with their phone, moving the picture to a computer for editing purposes, and putting the edited picture back on their phone for posting? Isn't that a little too much? I think it screams insecurity (if I had known I would look like I look now, back then in 2009, I wouldn't have retouched ANY photo yo!).

Okay, I'm done wondering since I just answered my own question.

Carry on with what you were doing :)

October 4, 2014

Event This Weekend: MYOPIA

You guys know how I love theater and stage plays, so I thought to share one that's coming up this Sunday.

Cima Brawn Limited presents a Nigerian stage play MYOPIA by Chidinma Uzodike, which will be staged on the 5th of October 2014 at Swiss International, D’Palms Airport, Ajao Estate, Off International Airport road.




MYOPIA, is about a young girl’s determination to overcome family and societal discrimination against the female gender. We are so excited about presenting this exciting performance with a stern message, and we hope you will share in this experience by attending.

October 3, 2014

First Impression: Afro Riri Haircare

Hiya!!!

I mentioned that I had a couple of reviews to post, and to stay tuned, and today I'd like to introduce you to Afroriri Haircare products. Afroriri Haircare is a Nigerian company with locally made products - they are located in Calabar and deliver all over Nigeria and even to the Ukraine.

I noticed them on Instagram a couple of months ago, and when they contacted me via email about sending a few of their products, I happily agreed. I was sent their Honey Moisturizing Shampoo, Luxe Detangling Conditioner and Luxe Hair Butter.


October 2, 2014

Monthly Reminder: Self Breast Check

Welcome to the month of October! October is generally known as Breast Cancer Awareness Month around the world, and today I want to share some inspirational quotes from Healthline. These came from breast cancer survivors and I think some of the quotes can help anyone going through breast cancer to keep their chin up. Healthline emailed the link to me and asked me to share, so I'm putting my favorite quotes in this post. To see others, click here.








Don't forget to do your breast checks this month. You can use Dr. Craig's guidelines here.

Follow on Bloglovin