Travel Tips for Large Groups

If you've been keeping up with my blog, you know that my family and I traveled together for the better part of a month. In all, there were 10 of us - 8 adults, 1 child and an infant. From road trips to long flights and train rides, we've had lots of fun (and also challenges). I thought I'd share some tips for traveling in large groups, based on our experiences.

HOW TO: Multiple Instagram Accounts

One of the best pieces of news I heard this week was that Instagram now allows you to add, switch and manage multiple accounts at once! For some of you, you might ask why anyone needs more than one Instagram account. Others, especially Bloggers, Business Owners, Social Media Marketers, may need to have separate personal and business Instagram accounts.

On my part, I manage the Instagram feeds for Berry Dakara, Cakesiena and African Naturalistas. I admit, I haven't done as well as I could have for some of the other accounts partly because I was too lazy to worry about logging on and off Instagram several times a day. So this is perfect for me, and I decided to share a quick guide on how to add and switch between multiple Instagram accounts.

How to Wear Clip Ins

Hi everyone,

As you know I've been wearing Nazuri Curls hair for a few weeks now. I got the Straight hair type in clips. There's currently a promo where you can get a 10% discount if you enter the coupon code: BERRYDAKARA (see right side bar for ad)

I have been asked several times to make a video of how I wear them but my apartment is a bit too dark (THE STRUGGLE!!!) and I haven't yet found a good spot to make videos. I don't want to keep delaying so here's the video that I used to learn how to wear clip-ins...

Natural Hairstyle Tutorial: The Faux Bun, 2 Ways

The weekend before this one that just passed, I was home waiting for Cakes so we could go on cake deliveries. While waiting, I decided to play with hair and makeup. I showed you the makeup up close in last week's Weekend post, but now I want to show you what I did with my hair. I decided to put it up in a faux bun for an easy but classic look.

The pictures are pretty self-explanatory, but if you just can't decipher it, it's as easy as putting your hair in a bun, pulling your extensions through a hair band midway, attaching it to the bun, and wrapping the extensions to your desired position. Pin down with bobby pins, and VOILA!

Piece o cake, innit? Looks like a week of DIY's innit? I'm sure you've nominated me for the Nigerian Blog Awards, innit? IT'S NOT?!?! What are you waiting for? Oya, han le le, go and nominate me before I loosen my hair!

Berry DIY Weekend and a Mini Review

Hello lovers and friends!

How are ya? How'd your weekend go? Mine was pretty restful, which was needed. As you know from my 2015 Goals post, I want to lose some weight, so I've been exercising and it really tuckers me out. I work out for at least 40 minutes a day, and I'm already seeing results on the scale, so YAY ME! Anyways, the point is that exercising throughout the week makes me really tired at night, so having a mostly quiet weekend was very necessary. And it gave me time to finally get my DIY on!

DIY Sneak peek

How to Perform a Closet Cleanse...

Another random post for ya...

I have come to the conclusion that I have WAY TOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MANY CLOTHES!!!

As it stands now, I can go for 2 months without needing to do laundry. Well, 1 month comfortably - without batting an eyelid. By the time I'm looking for a specific item and can't find it, then I know it's been too blawdy long!

So what's a girl to do? Mefinks it's time to simplify my life wardrobe and go through each and every item, deciding whether to Chuck It or Keep It. (I was really looking for a nice word to go with 'Chuck' but I can't really be bothered to think about it right now.

Here are my rules for the Closet Cleansing...

P.S. For my purpose only, shoes are not included in the cleansing. I don't have enough shoes, contrary to what my dad believes.

PLEASE NOTE: I came into my bedroom 2 hours ago, with the intention of actually performing the cleanse. [Un]fortunately, I got distracted with catching up on blog posts I've missed (via Bloglovin'), and decided instead to WRITE about the Closet Cleanse. When I actually get to it, I might post pictures... OR NOT. I'll decide whether I don't mind embarrassing myself, when the time comes.

Have a pretty week.

Follow @BerryChocoLatte

Random - How to Survive an Elevator Fall

Ok, I agree I can be completely random sometimes. Since yesterday afternoon, it's been on my mind to research how to survive an elevator crash. I work in a 17-story building in Lagos, and I'm on the 4th floor. The thought has occurred to me in the past: "What would happen if this elevator went into free-fall now?" I had the perfect solution - JUMP at the last minute! But yesterday, I decided that I must research it and know for sure. And then 5 minutes later, I changed my mind about researching it, because I didn't want to jinx myself.

And now I'm at work this morning, and this thing is still nagging at my brain. So research, I did! And NPR, as well as other sources, told me that jumping ain't the way to go.  See the graphics below...

Here I is, Just chilling in the elevator, Listening to some  muzak (muzak is elevator music, btw)

And then, the next thing, *snap snap snap* elevator begins to fall. What does someone do?

Jump at the last minute? 

Sit or squat or crouch down?

LIE DOWN!!! Make sure your booty's to the floor

Oh, and cover your head with your arms, in case of falling debris.


Now, from further research, it appears that the likelihood of an elevator free fall is VERY SMALL. Elevator accidents are more likely due to doors failing - opening before the elevator car's there and if you're not looking, you walk into open space and plunge to the bottom; or catching you halfway between floors, so you're stuck and then the elevator starts moving and crushes you.

YIKES!!! Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy am I looking up morbid stuff like this? I think I should go get a cuppa tea.

*And I'll be taking stairs for the the better part of the next week. Although I always worry I'll fall down a flight of stairs. I have a fear of falling, which is different from a fear of heights.*

:-| Sawry for the early morning randomness that is me. 

How-To Take a Great Selfie

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

It's a pretty day :) Okay, not really. I had a rude surprise at work today - but I'm over it. Why? Because Jesus loves me, YES HE DOES! Aaaaaaand, I feel pretty today. Do you ever have those days or periods where you just don't feel attractive at all? Where you just want to hide under a rock? I've felt like that for a little while now - not sure why. I actually had serious self-esteem issues a few years ago, so I guess it rears its ugly head every now and then...

Anyways, today I'd like to talk about SELFIES! What's a 'Selfie,' you ask? Well, a selfie is a photograph that you take of YOURSELF! You can use a camera, a phone, a tab, whatever. The point is YOU TAKING A PHOTOGRAPH OF YOURSELF. Okay, a lot of people (aka my FAMILY) might see it as vanity, BUT I don't agree. I simply like taking pictures of people. And the only person who's with me 24 hours of the day, is ME! So why can't I express my photography love and take pictures (of ME)? *runs to hide from the nagging voice in the back of my head that says I might be slightly narcissistic*

Enh heh! Back to the instructions...

Alrighty, have a pretty Tuesday!

Berry Dakara.

What I did this weekend - Cross Earrings...

Hello berryboos!

How'd your weekend go? Mine started off down, then ended up on a high note. Remember how I had the blahs on Friday? Well, it went well into Saturday and I refused to leave my house. Okay, it didn't help that my car died on Friday night - or so I thought. This lady came to do my hair, and when I wanted to drop her off, my car just stalled and refused to start. Since I was in a bad mood anyways, I just chucked the keys somewhere and said I'd deal with it later... Later came on Sunday, when my cakey friend came by and the silly car started in 5 seconds. *rolls eyes* How was I supposed to know the battery head was loose? When it comes to cars, all I need is for them to take me from Point A to Points 3, C, 8 and X, while cooling me down and playing music. I'm terrible with cars! I drive a Honda Accord and for the longest time, I thought it was a Civic :p

Anyways, here's the pair of earrings I made...

My beading tools. Decided to make cross earrings

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEADS!

 Finished product!

I love these earrings. Unfortunately, they got lost 5 minutes after I wore them because they were VERY light and I didn't have stoppers. I'll remake another pair this week.

And here's my hurr - which wasn't without drama.

I really like this hair. It's a little different from what I've done in the past year or so. And a lot of people are looking at me like I'm a completely different person, LOL. It's still lil' ol' me, your South-South Southern belle :)

Gotta rush off for a meeting!

KISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSES! I'm well now so I can kiss as much as I want :-*

I put a ring on it!

Yes, I did. I surely did!

You know how one of my goals is to make at least one beaded accessory a month? Well, I've been slacking a little bit. I knew I wanted to make a ring, but just the time and patience to sit down and get it done was being elusive. So this Saturday, I had some downtime and I was determined to sit in one place and JUST DO IT, like Nike! Here are the snaps :)

Red seed beads - from I-Can't-Remember-The-Name-Of-The-Shop in Surulere

Red seed beads and my handy dandy beading thread

Let's get started :)

My photog said he thinks my hands are pretty and I should be a hand model *Yeah right*

Almost there

Side note: A pack of beads I have, got dropped and scattered all over the ground outside! *angry face*

Thanks to my scooper-upper! Hugs for days on end to ya!

Finished product! I wore it 3 days in a row :)

Random thought of the day: How to shower properly

Yes yes yes, I'm back with a very random thought. Why would anyone wonder how to shower? Well, this comes from the realization that a lot of my family/friends seem to spend a much longer time showering than I do. If you ask me, I don't see why anyone needs to be in the shower for more than 5-10 minutes.

• First of all, Do you have that much body mass? 
• II., Are you showering in slow motion?
• 3. Ever heard of water conservation? Be kind to Planet Earth!
• D. Being here in Nigeria, in our house, the water's epileptic so you can't tell when the hot water'll go off, so just rush and jump out.
• Fifthly, that is all.

So I brought up the question to my best friend, Google.