For all my natural and transitioning ladies out there getting discouraged on slow hair growth!  Healthy hair is beautiful hair, lets remember that first everyone

I might not have the fast growth as Ms. E Clark6, or Ms. Tammy from Instagram or Naptural85 & Neffyfrofro from YouTube (some of my favorite natural ladies btw so follow follow follow!!), but just when I started to whine about how short my hair was……. I checked out these above photos of my own ↑.

The first is from mother’s day morning 2012, and the second was just a couple days ago… mother’s day of this year.

My fro though!

Now I can just imagine how big it will be this time NEXT year.

Going to try to do more less stressful styles… that is, protective styling.  Keep my hands out of my head, and more deep conditioning.

Perhaps even try another castor oil challenge or two.  Anyways, this was just a little update and length check I was happy to share

Another comparison collage photo below:

What do you guys think?  How far along are you in your hair journey if your a returning natural??  Hit me up after the jump

So, I have a huge poison ivy problem in my backyard that I’ve just noticed recently… and I mean HUGE. This isn’t a few vines creeping along the ground here and there, but I have mature climbing ivy along 6 to 8 of my older oak trees that I have. During some spring cleaning earlier last week, I finally stopped to stare at the weeds that were all along my fence and around the trees, with the intentions of figuring out the easiest way to cut them down. That’s when I realized what they actually were.

I’ve been looking online for options on how to remove this newly found annoyance. Searching for something more pet-friendly than just the traditional concentration of “Round-Up” because I have pets that use the yard as well. God-forbid , but I hope and pray my dogs don’t come into contact with this mess and spread the urushiol oil that is so irritable – causing rashes, blisters and sharp pain – all around the inside of my house. I’m kind of lucky that they haven’t gotten into it earlier, if i may say so myself.

So how did I realize I had poison ivy in my yard? Exactly from these tall-tell signs:

1. Leaves of three
2. Glossy leaves
3. Vine that crawls along the ground and upward along trees, fences etc.

After getting some ideas from Facebook friends, reading up on a few websites, and poison ivy forums like THIS ONE, I’ve decided to take the below actions on my problem:

1. Cut off the vines by about a foot from the ground along all the trees, fences affected
2. Use initial round of round-up poison ivy & oak killer on roots along the ground
3. Treat secondly with a vinegar/dish soap/salt combination until vines appear to die

Even though many people do the hands on route, covering up as much as they can and start to simply pull the vines down, this can be very dangerous if your not immune to the plant, and can end up with huge blisters and rashes all over your face and body… and as Ms. Sweet Brown would say, “Ain’t nobody got time for that.” Check out this video of a guy named William Bartlett near NY doing just that here.

So, wish me luck on this first attempt to kill the poison ivy in my yard.

Have you ever had to deal with this crap? How much did you have and what did you do to remove it? What would you suggest that I do?? An update will be posted in a few weeks, and I’ll let you know what’s up!

More pics of the hot mess I have after the break…

Power ranger gets pulled over

I have to admit, I’ve probably watched this video 10 times by now… and it is STILL hilarious to me. I think this video of the black power ranger getting pulled over by a cop is slowly becoming viral, but I’m surprised it’s taking so long.

The ranger stands his ground… curses the officer out… breaks down in dance with his own version of gangnam style & even does the moonwalk. But, I was pretty sure that this was a faked video when he pulled out his lazer gun, because I’m pretty sure he would have actually been kissing the concrete at the end of a shoot out if law enforcement saw that coming.

Anyway, Check out the video for yourself and tell me how good of a laugh it gave you…After the jump

 Thought I’d post my Sunday’s dress for today since I enjoyed it so much! lol…  When this houndstooth dress from Michael Kors caught my eye at Macy’s the other day, I just had to have it.  This is one classic print that is definitely popular for 2013.  I don’t think anyone can go wrong by getting something with this print added to their wardrobe.  The polyester/spandex dress details a faux leather trim around the neck, with golden exposed zippers that have the logos printed on them.  This is by far one of my favorites and most comfortable for church.

I kept it simple with some Ralph Lauren tights & stretch suede Alex Marie boots with leather detail along the back, which are very very comfortable since they only have a little over a 2 inch heel on them.  If you grab these shoes, I would suggest getting them a half size larger only if you plan on wearing socks inside them.  Otherwise, they’re cool and you could dance the night away in’em without your feet barking at the end of the night.  Cute as heck, and I got them for a steal at Dillards for less than half of the suggested retail price.

How do you guys like the look?  Let me know by posting a comment!  Item details and more pics after the jump

Dress:  Michael Kors – Longsleeved Houndstooth sheath dress: (deets below via macys.com)

• Polyester/spandex; lining: nylon
• Machine washable
• Imported
• High neckline with fake leather trim
• Exposed zipper with logo pull at back
• Long sleeves
• Logo zipper pockets at hips
• Houndstooth print throughout
• Sheath silhouette
• Lined
• Hits above knee

Stockings:  Ralph Lauren

Boots:  Alex Marie – Abigail Stretch Boots: (deets below via aol)

• buckle and strap detail
• outsole with Alex Marie logo imprint
• approx. 16.75″ shaft height; 14″ shaft circumference
• 3″ stacked heel

Last Night I decided to hem a pair of Michael Kors jeans that Ive had for almost a year and never worn.  The jeans were far too long for my 5’1 frame, so they hid in my closet, almost forgotten until I ran across Do It Yourself Divas Blog post, via Pinterest the other day.  They show a fab way of hemming your jeans and still keeping the original hem on the pants.

Well…. I just had to try this out because when I read this DIY post I automatically thought of those year old jeans in my closet… and even though I don’t see myself as any Martha Stewart when it comes to sewing, I felt comfortable enough to take on the task after geeking myself up for it, lol.

Check out exactly what I did after the jump

So, I started by trying on the jeans of course and cuffing the legs where I wanted them to eventually end and pinned them before taking them off.

Then, after getting my sewing machine together that Ive probably used twice in 3 years, lol… I proceeded to sew very close, next to the original bottom hem that was on the legs of the jeans.

When I flipped/rolled the sewed fabric inside the legs of the jeans, this is what it looked like:

At this point I could have chosen to iron the jeans very flat and keep that extra fabric on the inside, just as Just Something I Made’s tutorial does, who DoItYourselfDivas refers to for this idea.  But instead, I decided to follow DoItYourselfDivas tutorial to a T instead, and cut off that access fabric that probably would have irritated me anyway.

So here is the end result, which took me all but about 20 minutes to achieve – can’t really tell can you??  After a good ironing I love the result!

I’m definitely going to be going through the rest of my jeans (and I have a ton of them, lol) to see what I can hem up next!  I give this pinterest review a 10 outta 10!!!

In the past, it’s hard for me to stay positive – just being honest. I’ve been through a lot of ups and downs, health issues, drama, deaths and financial issues -and actually I’m still very far from where I want to be. But through it all by faith I’ve so far held myself together pretty well. I look around every day and think of my blessings and where I could be instead – homeless or even dead, and that’s a big difference.

When our circumstances look grim, just remember that God is with you. Even when it feels like he isn’t, he is actually on your side, guiding you through the hardest points of your life.

Never give up on yourself when you have even the Lord on your side. Ask for help when you feel you need it. Actively pray for strength to get past the hard times. With him you are willing to get through anything – just be patient and with time you will see that he always comes through.

OK ya’ll! Guess what I tried my hand at last night?!  Yep, I made some flax seed gel for the very first time, and I have to tell you, it was so easy and effortless to make, that I think I just found a new best friend for my hair.

Some people have complained (that I’ve read online) about the consistency of such stuff like flax seed gel.  when made properly, well…. it looks just like clear snot, or that gift from a special man in your life when your in bed baking cookies together lol.  Nuff said, the gel is just slippery, slimy, translucent and not the most appealing thing to look at.

BUT – down to the nitty gritty: how easy was it for me to make it???

Answer:  VERY.  It will only be messy for you if you didn’t take your time and get all of your ingredients and items together beforehand, therefore you will be rushing and then perhaps end up messing something up.  Just Read on to find out how I did it!!

Here’s the basics of what you need:

• 1/3 cup of flax-seeds
• 1 cup of water

Optional ingredients:

• 1/2 tsp honey
• your choice of essential oils (used for for scent- although I personally added a couple drops of vanilla extract)
• 1/4 tsp of preservative of your choice (could be vitamin e oil, grapefruit extract, or citric acid)
• jojoba oil, grape-seed oil ( I added a few drops of each of these as a moisturizer)

What other items you need:

• 1 wire mesh strainer
• 2 small pots
• a container to hold you finished gel

What to do:

Place your 1cup of water in an empty pot.  Turn your heat on High.  Add seeds at this time to the water.  Stir slowly while water warms up, else you will notice some seeds stick to the bottom of the pot.

As water starts to boil, stir more consistently and faster.

Watch water very carefully as you stir.  When the water begins to look frothy, turn the heat down quickly and continue to stir.  When you notice that the seeds are no longer floating towards the bottom of the pan, but instead looks as if they are floating on top, inside the pan, then its ready.

Don’t allow it to over cook although the gel may seem pretty thin.  If its over the heat much longer, you may not be able to strain the seeds.

Apply the strainer to your second pot and pour the contents into the strainer.  I took a large spoon at this time and pressed the seeds into the strainer, making sure to get as much gel as I can from the seeds. You will notice that they clump together pretty well at this point – as my photo below shows.  Strain the gel 1 or two times, depending on if seeds go through or not.  Then you can either throw the seeds away, or save them in a Ziploc bag because you could probably make a second batch of gel from the same seeds.

Now is the time to add your essential oils, and preservatives.  Take your whisk and mix all ingredients very well together and then you can add your newly made gel to its container and keep in the refrigerator to store.

That’s it!!!

Take a minute to place your dirty pots and spoon into some hot dish water and soak for 10 minutes or so, otherwise it may be more difficult to wash the gel off.

Right after I did this, which took 6-8 minutes total, I applied to my hair and did some two strand flat twists because I was too excited to find out how my hair would love the new product.

And I have to say, my curls POPPED….  I love it.

I hope you try out this easy and simple recipe and let me know how it worked out for you… And If you’ve used flax-seed gel before, let me know how you like it!

This is my true story… nothing more.  You can take what I have to say as a grain of salt and blow it right off, or you can choose to believe me… and, perhaps think twice when someone asks you to join them in a friendly game with this well known spirit channeling device.

Nowadays you can find the Ouija board in toy stores all across America, shelved next to the other well known boardgames that have been a staple in US households for decades.  But, it’s quite disconcerting to me that something that is far more than “just a game” is sold as a friendly novelty, some even designed “girlish” or “boyish” to attract young children.

Not a lot of people, Like I did in the past – knew well of the consequences and potential dangers of playing with medium devices such as this.  And since it is now Halloween season, I thought I’d blog about my own personal and real experience.

Read on to find out what happened.

I don’t even remember why I was attracted to the idea of trying out a Ouija board, but I was a teenager… 15 years, and I possibly had watched one too many ghost hunter shows at that time.  Anyway, something caught my curiosity and I wanted to see for myself if it was real.  I bought it myself from a well known toy store chain in NW Ohio, and when I brought it home, my best friend and a cousin who lived with me had no reservations about joining me to play around on the game.

We played together several times, probably more than 5, but less than ten in total – always in the basement of my grandparent’s home.  Those small events would add up to ultimately give me more trouble than I had ever bargained for.

When first getting on the Ouija board, the thing that speaks to you from the other side will always try to gain your trust.  If you ask it questions, it will answer almost honestly.  This surprised me quite a lot during my first few times of getting on it with the other girls, and whatever it was probably noticed my interest in that and was then attracted to me and fed into it even more.  For example – Once we had honestly lost the remote control – and we got on the Ouija just to ask it where it was.  We found it without problem, of course with it’s direction.

Soon after, I was learned how to play with it by myself if I wanted.  And I have done so in the past – 2 or 3 times – another huge no-no.  But as time goes on, the thing ( and I say thing because I’m not even sure if it was a demon or a spirit) will always try to test it’s limits on manipulating your mind.  It told me of how it knew me from another life, it gave me it’s initials, it would ask for me by name when the girls were playing but I was not, yet when I would then come and put my hands on the planchette, it would tell me to shut up and would not answer my own questions.  This is what disturbed me to the point that I said I didn’t want to play with the board anymore.  But I didn’t throw it away, I only stored it in the house.  And when we were on it, we never actually “closed” the Ouija board correctly as you can google and find out how to do today.  We knew nothing of what we had started.

Soon after we stopped playing, I started having nightmares.  But not just regular nightmares, and not exactly night terrors either. Some doctors call this sleep paralysis – but in my research, a lot of people who have dealt with demons have gone through the exact same thing. I swear that I was woke - but could not move in bed.  I could hear, smell, taste, and feel everything in my environment.  Something would visit me at night, and each time this happened, I had a feeling of impending doom first before anything else.  Then this thing would sometimes sit on the side of my bed, or pull on my legs, or lift the side of the mattress, anything to freak me out.  I couldn’t move and I couldn’t yell out no matter how hard I tried.  I was paralyzed.

I used to try to call out to my mother when this happened, probably the first month, and that did not help at all.  I didn’t get a lot of sleep and it started effecting my grades because I was always tired.  I would be visited by this thing that I could not see  for 5 or 6 nights out of the week.

Then one time this happened, and I for some reason was able to open my eyes during the event.  I saw a huge black figure in my room.  Can’t describe it, no more than to say it had the shape of an enormous reaper, but that image was probably feeding off of my fears.  It was at this time that I first called on the name of Jesus in my mind.  When I did this, it would instantly leave me alone and quickly disappear.  And so I relied on my faith and that holy name for protection for almost every night for my entire junior year of high school when it would come into my room.  Not only that, but I had also seen apparitions… One in particular that I will never forget was in the form of a little boy rolling around a ball on my bedroom floor – with light on and all.

After an entire year, with time, the thing realized that it’s hold of fear on me was not what it had used to be – and first the visits became less frequent, then I guess it just gave up.  I don’t know what it wanted, and I don’t want to know.  The point is, I know it never would have started if I had not bought that board.

Here’s the truth:  You can’t trust spirits, and you cant trust people who consult with spirits – like, mediums and pyschics.  How can you trust something to tell you the truth about your life, that you cannot see?  Popular mediums that you see on these TV shows will most times say that they have a “spirit guide” with them which is usually a spirit that they can trust and gain information from.  But, how do they not know that they are being manipulated to see certain things and being lied to too?  Not lied to all the time, but lied just enough to get that person to rely on them and nothing else.

Ouija Boards as a real device used for scences, open the doors to possession over the body by evil spirits.  You are putting yourself and your soul in harms way if you do decide to play with one of these “games.”  The bible says in Isaiah 8:19 When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? (NIV)  Is it worth the danger?  After learning about it firsthand, I think not.

So You might wonder, is the Ouija Board real, or all in people’s minds?? Ohh yes, they are very, very real.   But I believe that when a person uses these things or consults mediums, they are talking not to true dead spirits but something far different, and far worse.  I feel that these experiences are to be credited with deceiving, demonic forces and spirits instead.  And the bible supports my assumptions.

I figure something saw the weakness, good heart and innocence in me and went for it each time I would pull that board out of the closet to use it.  But I prayed and prayed on those mistakes and have asked my God for forgiveness for that.  I pray that me and my house and my loved ones are covered in the blood of Jesus and always protected from what I had done.  It could have been a lot worse for me but it wasn’t, and I thank the Lord and my faith for that.  And I live to move on.

So if you celebrate Halloween, and you are thinking of messing around with something like a Ouija board to possibly liven whatever party – I hope that you think twice about it.  Think about your wellbeing when you do.  If you have any thoughts, opinions or questions for me regarding my experiences, let me know… leave a comment, I’ll answer all.

Shrinkage is natural hair’s biggest deceiver… some people love it while others don’t really care for it, but I choose to embrace it and wear it well

It’s a great idea to do length checks and periodically take some photos of your hair if you start to think it isn’t growing as fast as it should be. Sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand words and you can tell how far you have came when you have some monthly comparisons in front of you.

My hair fools me as well quite often. I can easily put my hair into puff balls after stretching it out some with the hair dryer, but I don’t like to do that often because of potential heat damage.

Just look at the photo above that I just took yesterday for example… after washing and conditioning it looks like a TWA. Low and behold my hair is just coiled to perfection.

Shrinkage can be a beast but i’ll be forever loving my curls… What about you other naturals out there?  Do you love your shrinkage or not, and why?

Yay me!!  Yes, you all read the title correctly, I now have Google Adsense enabled again on one of my most popular websites. I’m so happy lol.

As I posted here not too long ago, my account was recently disabled because of what they said was non-compliance of their policies.  A major boo-boo.  Well I certainly didn’t understand it, but I fixed what I could and sent several Adsense Policy Violation Appeals afterward to let them know I was complying fully.

I admit I did not have much faith in Google to respond to me, nor change their mind about my blog after reading several depressing emails about how they never respond to appeals.

I soon after gave up and applied to several alternative monetization companies to try to make up for my loss.

I was pleasantly surprised to say the least when I recieved the email in my box that my account was again active.  I’m calling it my early Christmas present!

So, guess that’s it for me… Im back in the groove and will start to post more articles on that particular blog