girly fridays: getting dressed on a budget

You'd think I wasn't a girl the way I've been ignoring this topic. I just don't really think of myself as girly (a whole heap of ppl would disagree lol). Anyhoo, looking cute on a budget is the topic today. Why? Cause I'm broke and I have to be finding ingenious ways to look nice for work, and going out. Here are a few (5 is what I have today) ways I've been making my summer wardrobe stretch:

1. Accessories. Now, there is nothing that livens up an outfit or takes an outfit to diff places (casual, dressy, etc) like accessories. For church I love to add flowers, brooches, belts, and headbands. For work, a pair of cute earrings and a headband, or sandals.

2. Mix n match. When I buy items of clothing I usually think of them in a particular outfit and for a special type of occasion but I'm realizing some of my dressier outfits can be made casual with a few tweaks...adding flip flops, doing my hair in a messy ponytail, switching out a skirt for shorts...and some can be dressed up with heels, make up, accessories, or even adding a cardigan and belt.

3. Know how to buy cheap. I was born with a very high chest i.e., my eyes are waaay bigger than my wallet on most occasions. But you can add cheaper pieces to your ensemble without bringing the whole thing down if you shop wisely in discount stores. How do you shop wisely? First, don't get your entire outfit from there (exception: a cute dress/jumper)...if you happen to get a dress there, please use accessories that can take it up a notch. Second, don't get anything to store specific. I love Mandee for example but when I go there I get plain tees, and cute shorts (in the winter they have cute sweaters too). I even have a black dress from there (but u know I took the cheapo belt out and replaced it with a belt I got for like 3 times the price of the dress and a cute pin/brooch).

4. Borrow from your spouse/sibs/parent/bff. Oh I wish my mom, or Ren-L were closer. You can totally borrow from people whose style you like. I recommend borrowing small items (or non descript)...don't deprive the person of their own closet lol. For example things I borrow from mom - cardigans, scarves, belts, clutches. I also all out steal but that's a different thing. Anyhoo, my husband is a fashionable dude and he likes graphic tees. Surprise! So do I. So if I want to look casually cute, I dip into his stash which is bigger than mine (& we're practically the same size *sigh*). I also have my eye on my brother's Jamaica track team shirt. He better watch it!

5. Learn to sew. Ok, this is the one thing on my list I haven't even tried much less mastered but I've made plans. I don't want to sew boring every day stuff. Puhleeese, that's why there's the mall. But all the great stuff I admire that I will possibly never afford (look here as well, and here lol). I can totally make once I buy the patterns which, sigh, will be an investment. Now, I am assuming the talent is hereditary (cause my mom can really sew...shoot, she can make her own patterns too). She has promised to teach me the summer of 2011 and I am holding her to it.

girly fridays: relaxed or natural?

Does it matter?

There are a few theories out there but I'm gonna focus on the two that insult me the most:

1. Black women with relaxed or processed hair aren't proud of their heritage

2. Black women with natural hair look unkempt and ugly

First, all the sensible women out there know there's nothing to be done about changing your heritage. You can't walk into a salon, or your local beauty supply store and buy a new history/culture/heritage. You are who you are. If you look anything like me, you can't hide it lol.

Second, I love to see women embrace their natural texture. I think they look as beautiful and very well put together as any other woman who is careful about her appearance. I have friends who are natural who look fantastic (same for those who are relaxed) and the assumption that leaving our hair the way it grows out of our head as God intended is unattractive, is insulting to me.

I am black and my hair could be short, long, relaxed, natural, or I could be bald. That has absolutely nothing to do with the pride I have in my heritage. Yes, there are women who have issues with their hair and their identity as black people - that kind of insecurity stems from a number of places and is way more complicated than a relaxer. I understand that and I'm sorry for them. For me, hair is cosmetic. I want my hair to look good (I have a personal definition of that which is totally subjective and that's okay). Good looking hair is healthy, shiny, flattering to the wearer, and visually appealing to me. Bad looking hair comes in relaxed and natural. Trust me lol, I've seen it. & so does unkempt and unattractive. Matter of fact, all of that comes in various shapes, colors, and textures.

I have contemplated going natural before and truth is, in the good ole Jamaican slang, mi nasty and I can't bother. I honestly don't think I could comb it. The only possibility out there for me currently is locs and I don't like the commitment it requires. At all. But you never know. My mom just went natural...maybe she can teach me a few things. In any case, I will go natural eventually (the non locs type). My natural hair (which I miss - we haven't seen each other in almost 2 decades) is quite the demanding lady. She's very fussy. I plan to reacquaint myself with her one day.

I believe in detaching your self image and worth from physical appearance. I think long hair or short, relaxed or natural, women can have beautiful hair and be proud of it. An extension of that could be our obsession with whether we're busty or not, wide hips or no, nice shape or no, too tall, too short, too skinny, too fat, too dark, too light, nose too flat, lips too big....we can never be exactly what we desire on the outside (well, we can make a mockery of ourselves trying to pay for it) but we can work with what we got and make it happen!

In any case, we can always be exactly what we desire (& what God desires us to be) on the inside and at the end of the day, that is what matters the most.

this week in review

-- In the news--

Numero uno - Vancouver winter Olympics. I am an Olympic gal, winter or summer. So I've been loving it. The beginning was sad with the death of Luge athlete, Nodar Kumaritashvili. Is there a reason those walls are so low? So sad. However, there are inspirational stories a plenty. The one of the Chinese pair figure skating coach, Yan Bin, got my attention in particular. Can you imagine not recognizing your own child because you'd been away so long working to make gold medalist skaters for your country? I hope he can retire soon. Who knew speed skating, biathlons, alpine skiing, and figure skating could capture my attention so fully? I'm proud of all the winners :) Does anyone know how the lone Jamaican skier did?

Toyota blues - They're calling it the Great Recall. O boy o boy! To think, the Camry for the past 2 or 3 years has been my dream. I mean, since I have to drive something before I get my Mercedes, and I need something sensible, why not? I always thought they were the most cost effective choice (most ppl consider Toyota, Nissan, & Honda to be somewhat comparable). Some how I went with the Accord instead and now I'm glad I did. I cannot keep track of all the models being recalled, or all the reasons. But I do know the U.S. regulators were slack on their standards during testing, that Toyota has had to (temporarily) close plants, and that I won't be in one any time soon. Have you noticed how Hyundai advertisement has been crowding TV? lol, them, Mercedes, Audi, and US manufacturers are taking advantage big time. I just Googled, and I guess I'm not the only one who noticed - click here.

Tiger's back - Am I the only person who doesn't care? I don't want to see any pics of him or hear about his return to golf. I guess golf fans missed him, women were mad at him, and yes, he may have some issues. Truth be told, I never really liked his public persona. He's done nothing to endear himself to me recently so I still don't care. He has LOTS of issues but who doesn't? If his wife is as gangsta as she's been made up to be, I'm glad of it, and she should keep the golf club elevated over his head until all's clear.

Clearly there's someone madder than I was yesterday. It's Joe Stack. Now he is some hero. All I have to say is, I'm glad I wasn't in that building, I'm sorry for all who were victims of his attack, and I'm relieved there werer't more casualties (though even 2 is already too much). He can be no hero of mine, flying planes into buildings of people working hard to survive what he was too coward to deal with. Real life. The rest of us are still here.

Give me free! Circus zebra breaks free and causes traffic in Atlanta. He prolly needed to go "find" himself...I mean, he doesn't even know if he's white with black stripes or black with white stripes! Yes ppl, I love me some Madagascar.

-- Funnies --

Quote of the week "Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. Invaribly they are both disappointed." Albert Einstein. Sooooo funny :)

-- Shumpy --

Mi back mi back mi back mi %#@ back! (& no, I don't know much more of the song lol) Well, I decided to add another class to my gym routine and it knocked me out of the gym all week. It has nothing on kickboxing of course but I must say I did one of those funky jazz dance moves wrong and now my hip is all out of whack. Well I'm back on Monday cause I can practically hear the fat cells rejoicing...

Biostats - I literally don't want to talk about it. I'm hoping if I keep my head down and close my eyes, my professor will forget I'm in the class :(

For those of us with undiagnosed seasonal affective disorder we are supposedly gonna have sunshine this weekend so no complaining at the moment. But with last week's storm, and Tuesdays mess, I'd just about had it! Supposed to see more snow showers Mon eve. Goody goody gum drops *smirk*

Counting my blessings! They finally sent my updated transit card so now I can purchase my bus passes via my pretax dollars that have been chillin' in my account while I shelled out of my pay check to get into work all Jan and most of Feb. Also, March is on the way, which means April is on the way, which means warmth, more living space (I'm moving!), and hopefully other great things.

Bad hair days have been numerous. I needed a relaxer like 2 weeks ago. But instead here I am going 10 weeks without one. I watched Good Hair, Chris Rock's documentary on black women's hair. It kinda sucked. I looked forward to it sooo much but that whole hair show segment ruined it for me. I don't know much about southern hair culture but I'd have done well without that. The other parts weren't so bad. I loved the barber/beauty shop talk parts the best. I'm still keeping my creamy crack, thank you very much. When I choose to give it up, I'm doing locs.